"Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be"

" Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be".. (lyrics to Yesterday). Yes...it's true, Boots lost his manliness today. We learned (once again) that you have to be careful about how you word things around kids. Ted and I were discussing Boots 'getting his balls cut off' and sure enough first thing this morning Audrey said very loudly..."Boots is getting his balls cut off today." Good grief, I could just see her announcing that to her preschool class!!!! Anyways, there will now be no little Bootzies running around town. Hopefully he will stop trying to get so fresh with my mom's dog.

Boots has each and every one of us wrapped around his little paw. Even Ted!!! Ted wasn't really crazy about the idea of getting a dog but they are the best of friends now. Ted has even changed his name to "Big Bob." Ted claimed that Boots told him that his name was too girly and he wanted a cool name like Big Bob. I told him he could call him Big Bob but he will always be my Bootzie-Wootzie. We used to make fun of my mom for claiming that her dog talked to her...now we're doing the same thing. We are such Schnauzer-loving fools!!

Everything else around here is busy as normal. Paul's birthday is in less than a week and Rita's big birthday bash is just right around the corner. We are making Rita's 8th birthday extra-special since this will be her first birthday ever!! Natalie thought of a great name for the party "Rita's BIG birthday party~~~ 8 times the fun!!" So we'll have 8 games, 8 cakes and big 8's all over the family center.......all drenched in pink. Rita will be dressed in pink from head to toe.....she is sooooooo excited for her party!!!!!

I had our 2nd to last IAT meeting at school for Rita today. Her team has a great game plan for her next year. Most of you know that we started her in 1st grade but since our school doesn't have and ESL program, very early in the year the school highly recommended her moving to kindergarten. She is 2 years older than all of her classmates but that hasn't really bothered her. She has learned so much, I believe that this was the best thing that our school system could do for her. But, I made it clear early on that I wanted her to get back with her age group, because I didn't want a 16 yr. old 8th grader or a 20yr. old Senior!!!! So the plan is for her to be considered a 2nd grader next fall with her going to 1st grade language arts. As she progress through the year the goal is to have her in the 2nd grade language arts before the end of that school year. We all know that she will probably need extra help for a few years no matter what grade she is in. I really like this plan. The principal has already picked the 2 teachers and I know with these two gals she'll be in great hands!! Finishing out Kindergarten they plan to start pulling her from class and to start going with 1st graders who are getting pulled for help with math. Plus she is already ready at an early 1st grade level so they will continue to 'push' her reading skills. She will go to summer school 1 day a week plus be tutored (still working on those details) on 1st grade science/social studies/ math skills. We don't plan to let her brain turn to mush this summer.

One quick note about Andrew. While I was at school for Rita's meeting I ran into Andrew's homeroom teacher. He once again told me what a great year Andrew was having. His exact words were "Andrew has STELLAR classroom behavior"........stellar.......geeze, I've never had anybody say I was stellar about anything. I just thank God and the staff at F.R. for helping Andrew become the great kid we knew he could be.