Gary Paulsen came to our school today to speak and sign autographs. It was really cool to see him in person. He is 70 now, if you can believe that, and wore a flannel shirt, a hat, overalls, hiking boots and sported a beard. He lives in Alaska and runs/trains about 50 dogs. I've read many of his YA books like Hatchet, Harris and Me, NightJohn, etc. I just love his work. I would totally recommend his reads for BOYS especially all of his Brian/Hatchet series, How Angel Peterson Got his Name, etc. I happened to be up in the office when he arrived and was able to meet him and shake his hand. He was very calm and nonchalant when introducing himself like it was no big deal who he was. Crazy. Anyway, he gave a great speech and it was so cool to have him sign my books. I had him sign NightJohn, one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE historical fiction books for YA's and Harris and ME, which is just a hysterical read.
GP rarely comes out for speaking engagements anymore, so it was a REAL treat to have him come to our school. The kids were FANTASTIC at the assembly and afterwards, ever student received a free copy of Hatchet at the end of his presentation. Over 200 kids wanted to get his autograph. The kids were supposed to sign up in the library to get an autograph, and only about 50 had originally signed up, but after he spoke, 150 more wanted to get up close and personal with him. He gladly signed their books and mentioned that quite a few years ago after he spoke, that he signed over 7,000 autographs in ONE DAY until 3 a.m. The kids were really excited and some who never read were opening a book. It was so cool to witness.
**I'll post some pics of GP soon!!!
In other news: it's hotter than shizzo here! no lie! It was 90 today and all week it's been in the 80's. It is SO hot!!! I love the warmer weather and sun, but the kids are going nuts at school, making all these excuses why they can't work b/c they are too hot. Maybe if they took off their freaking sweatshirts and wore cooler clothes, it would not be such an issue. Middle school kids are so funny b/c they wear North Face fleece and sweatshirts in 80 degree weather and shorts and t-shirts in 30 degree weather. So backwards!!! (I swear, anything to defy authority, ya know?!)
Baylen has been having fun at school b/c they have been "swimming" in the little sand box turtles they fill with water. His buddies and him are having blast! I received a note today on Brynn's paper to bring a swimsuit for her so they can get wet too! A friend from school invited the kids and I over to her pool on Friday, so that should be fun.
Brynn has had a bit of potty regression lately. It started last week. Friday she had FOUR, yes FOUR accidents. I don't know if it's because she has noticed that teachers Sandy and Maria are gone from daycare, or if it has to do with her being outside so much and not wanting to miss anything. Sometimes at home, she freaks if she has to leave her toys and go to the BR b/c she's afraid Baylen is going to TAKE HER STUFF and then the world would end. I read online that 80% of kids who get the hang of PT regress. One interesting take on it was from an expert who said to think of it like this: whey they were a baby, they learned how to roll over, crawl, etc. and mastered that skill. Then, with some of those skills, once they learned something else, they stopped doing it as much or even not at all. Potty training is the same way. Once they master it, and at this age they are taking so much in and their learning curve is HUGE, they tend to forget the little things like remembering to go potty. She is doing better today and on Monday I told her if she did well and had no accidents that I would paint her toenails and that really motivated her. She LOVED getting her toes painted Mon. night after her bath and she was showing everyone the next day at school. Some of her friends were very puzzled when she tried showing them her painted toes...I think for her 3rd bday I'll take her to get a pedi. I'm probably creating a monster, but I know she'll love it.
We're getting tough on bedtimes around here with Mister. He drinks his milk and then into bed he goes. No more cuddling and waiting for him to fall asleep in our laps. (bad, we know) We have tried this so many times in his young life (trying to just lay him down to learn how to self-soothe) and he would spend a half hour crying his eyes out. It was so painful to listen to, and between that and dealing with all of his ear issues pre-tubes, it was just hard and not your normal child who goes to bed routine. When we'd go to pick him up, he'd be out of breath and his face was all broken out with a rash...so sad!!!! So far, it's going pretty good. Last night he cried for about 20 minutes. Tonight: 5 minutes. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I don't want to battle with him all summer. It's time to show some tough love even though when I hear him cry all i want to do is run up there and pick him up. Tough Love, Tough Love ,Tough Love I keep telling myself. (he's my boyyyy)
I'm loving all the baby news from everyone back home! SO exciting!
3 comments:
So cool that you got to meet Gary Paulsen!
We're going through the same thing here with Miss Olive at bedtime. Since taking her pacifier away she has not gone to sleep as quickly. She cried on Monday night, pretty hard too. But last night there were no tears but she still took like 45 minutes to stop babbling and fall asleep. We'll get there eventually!
We have had some bedtime regression at our house but we think it's because Henry is getting to the point of wanting to stay up later. Lately, he crys when we put him to bed but only for a few minutes where he never cried before. He goes to bed at 7:00, crys for a few minutes and then we don't hear from him until 7:15am the next day. I am thinking we are going to be extending bedtime to 7:15 to see how that goes. He is generally so cranky by 7 so I hope to have patience for the last 15 minutes! I also like the idea of a later bedtime because then we can actually go places in the evening!!!! Good luck with Baylen, you can do it!
That's so cute that painting Brynn's toenails motivated her. I'm sure she will looove going to get a pedicure with you! I can't wait till I can take Lydia with me! About the potty training though, I just talked to Jackie and she said that the twins are still having accidents from time to time as well.
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