4/22 - Kyler knows his alphabet now, except for N. He always skips that one. He's been able to do it for about 3 weeks.

Kyler loves to make things and then show them to you. He took all his blocks, and made a rough Y shape. It was roads to our house and Coscto. He put cars on the ends, and then got all of Ilea's little houses to decorate it also.

4/22 - Kyler knows his alphabet now, except for N. He always skips that one. He's been able to do it for about 3 weeks.

Kyler loves to make things and then show them to you. He took all his blocks, and made a rough Y shape. It was roads to our house and Coscto. He put cars on the ends, and then got all of Ilea's little houses to decorate it also.

4//20/04 The children's coordinator for MOPS told me some things about Kyler. She was so impressed with him last time. She said that he told her all about the cross centerpieces we were making as a craft, which had 3 crosses, with some purple fabric and a grapevine wreath on the largest, center cross. He knew what they were for and told her. Then later, the class was going to another room for music, and she told everyone to get a partner and hold hands. Kyler came up to her and said, "I will be your partner for you". She thought that was so sweet!

We went to dinner on a Tues to a Chinese Resteraunt. It was great food, but we were the only ones in the dining room most of the time. After we were eating, 2 of the helpers sat at a booth across the room for us pulling the strings off of snow peas. Ilea was staring, and they noticed. She finished eating, so I told her to go over and see what they were doing. The girl gave Ilea one of the peas, and showed her what to do. Ilea was hopping up and down she was so excited! She came back to us, ate one of the cookies, then ran back to help. She started talking to the lady, and was very serious about helping, although I think they probably had to throw away the ones she did because they were so bruised. They were very nice about letting her help. At the end, the lady gave Ilea a box with about 7 cookies in it for her "pay". It was cute. Ilea shared her cookies with the other kids and workers at bible study that night.

4/16 I, praying: Sings about loving God, so I took the opportunity to talk about God. I asked her what sin was. She said she didn't know, so I explained and we went through some examples of making God happy or sad. I asked her if she sinned. She said, Hmmm, I used to. I asked her if she did any more, and she said no. So I thought we better leave the big talk for a little later.

Then Kyler told me he couldn't dream tonight because he didn't have any air in his body. I told him I'd check later tonight to see if there was any airn in his body still.

4/15 Kyler, playing colorform dress up game, "I'll go first, then I'll go again, then you can go!"

Later that day....
Kyler: Mom, do you know why I love you?
Mom: No
Kyler: Becuase I do.

Later that day...
we were driving from 18 onto Iss-Hobart road, and Kyler pointed and said
K: Over there is my church!
Mom: No, we are far away from church.
K: Right, over there far away is my church!

Later that day, in a park. We were the only ones there, and then an older, well dressed lady came in and sat at a picnic bench. Kyler ran over to me, and said "I'll give her a rock!!!". I said no, she probably didn't want a rock. So he tried again with a pinecone. He was so excited I said OK. So he found a perfect one, and ran over to her and said, "here you go!" and gave it to her. She said thank you, and laughed.

4/13 Family in car, driving
K: Mom, I saw a truck!
Mom: Great.
K: I saw a big truck!
Mom: Good, dear.
K: I really saw a big truck! You can't beleive it!
Mom. Ok, Kyler. Please don't tell me anymore.
K: Dad, I saw a truck!

4/1 - I went to help in Ilea's class today because my parents were here and stayed with Kyler. It was great! this calss is amazing. When we first got in, Ilea went to her hook that had her name on it and hung up her bag. Then she went to her chair for her group, and did some "journaling" They have been studying rain forest, and were supposed to draw an animal from there and the teachers wrote the names. Then she gave me a tour of the whole class, along with a friend, Kendra. They have an art station, a drama play station, blocks, reading area, and some drawing boards. If the station is full, a child can write their name on a sheet and start a timer and then they will get the next turn. After that, they cleaned up and went to sit in circle time, sitting on pieces of tape in front of the teacher. She first passed around the Talking Stick, and each child could say whatever they wanted. Then they had a set of index cards with names on them held together by a ring. The first child whose name was called picked up a popcicle stick with thier name on it, and put it into a pocket that went with a job. Then that child read the next name, and they continued until all the jobs were filled. The jobs were things like calender, pledge of allegience, feed fish, help clean, snack, weather person, line leader, book organizer. They go over the day, month and year, and the weather, signing words and counting.

So good at groups, and sign up for next turns, sign goodbye song, fill each bag themselves, talking stick.

3/28 - I think I have great kids. They are often polite, and helpful. Kyler had stomach flu yesterday, and Ilea was so kind. She said, "I'm sorry you don't feel well, Kyler. I hope you feel better soon".


3/15 Today Kyler was playing with Playdough.
K "here's some playdough for dinner!"
Mom: "no, no, I don't want playdough for dinner! Kyler, you're so funny!
K, a minute later: "here's some playdough for dinner!"
Mom: "no, no, I don't want playdough for dinner!
K: "I'm still so funny!"

This morning we were driving in the car and Kyler said, "I still have a frog in my throat!" So I tried to explain to him that it was just an expression, there wasn't really a frog. He insisted, yes, there was, and it was blue. I asked him how it got there, and he said it hopped in (of course!). I said maybe if he slept with his mouth open tonight it would hop out. He said "No, it can't. It's dead."

3/17
Ilea: At school today, my chair and Victoria's chair, the leprechuns pushed down our chairs and the whole class' chairs! One of the good leprechauns left a note with a golden coin that we got to eat in the car and a sticker! One of our friends certainly gave us another chocolate coin and we ate them up. Those silly leprechauns poured green paint in the toilet!!! And they put some footprints in the sink! but I washed them all off. AND there's one more thing. They left some marks in the puppets at school.

Last weekend I was working on the computer with Ilea doing some coloring right next to me on the kids small table. She started singing Here I Am by Bryan Adam from the Spirit sound track. Jenny asked me to play the same song from our computer so Ilea could sing along. So I did. When Ilea heard it playing she turned to me with a big smile on her face to look at me. The she smiled even more to show that she was so happy to hear the song. When I saw that second smile, I almost started to cry. That was the first time a look from her has affected me so much. It is a memory that I will never forget. Thanks Ilea.