Roger's Birthday & the Week

By Kate Davenport on Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:38:42 GMT

Natalie is off to her second week of school and I don't think the first week could have been much better. She is starting to remember the names of the little friends she plays with at school, and I met several of the parents at a birthday party that she was invited to on Saturday.

Nat was so cute when Roger and I picked her up from school on Friday. On Fridays, Camden Elementary lets the kids buy snacks, but we figured we would not mess with it this first week. Natalie's classmate gave her some money to buy a snack so she bought a fudgesicle. As she told Roger and I about this, she added, "But I wasn't hungry so I saved it for later." Roger and I looked at each other with a big uh-oh expression. "You saved your popsicle?" I asked, and Nat nodded, "Yes, it's in my lunchbox." We broke the news to her that is was probably melted, and she said it was not. I told her to open her lunchbox and check, and she got so upset! It was really sweet.

Nat's teacher has quite a reputation of being very strict. You should see people's faces when I tell them who my daughter has in school. I told Nat that as long as she does what is expected of her that she should cruise through the first grade.

Anthony is doing well. He is walking with me in the morning, and sometimes he walks 2/3 of a mile before needing to be carried. He is very proud of his new back-to-school spiderman bookbag and he is somewhat excited about going to school tomorrow. It depends on when you ask him. I took him to meet his teacher last Thursday and he was so social- he took off right away and played train tracks with another little boy. In that sense, our children are completely different, but Nat is starting to grow out of her painful shyness. At Bethesda, Ant will have music class, chapel, spanish, basic preschool, and lots of social interaction, which is most important at this age. It is hard to believe that a year ago we were concerned about his speech delay and up until this May he was visited bi-monthly by a speech pathologist. Now, if anything, he is 6 months ahead of where he should be. I actually caught myself thinking that he was talking too much on Friday!

Roger had a nice birthday on Friday, and he got the day off. We got him Netflix and a few other miscellaneous items. I made him enchilladas for dinner and the Wynn Boone ice cream cake mom used to make. I added some peanut butter cups to customize it for Roger.

On Saturday we went canoeing at Goodale State Park. This is the only place we have explored so far and we have been twice. We all love it. It is a swamp, supposedly with alligators, but it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. I love the noises and the smells in middle of it, along the canoe trail. It is so peaceful! The cypress swamp reminds me a little of the swampy area I used to explore as a kid with the Fisher boys around the Corolla Lighthouse and Whalehead Club. Check out the photos- they are some of the best I have ever taken!