Christmas 2010

Christmas was a ton of fun! I got to have Oskar for a couple of days before xmas and then the Sunday following at our house til Tuesday, then to Jenn's with him thru Thursday while they had moved and were in transitioning into their daycare schedule. We had so much fun..I miss him already..but my back doesn't! lol

Derek and Oskar were so darn cute on xmas morning..they both hauled in a load of presents. We got some of the best pics of them both in their (not planned) matching jammies. Derek has been pretty good except for when he was home alone with Steve for those two days I was gone..naptime didn't go well...after Steve put him down, Derek hollared at him for a long time and then he said to Steve "get your ass in here"..well..Steve did...ya...didn't go over well at all. Derek is busy today playing (his favorite thing of course)..no attitudes yet..but the day is young! lol

Happy New Year everyone!

Some stuff from the last few months!

Well, reminded by Jenny Fields I haven't posted anything on Derek's blog in a long time..man, she was so right!! Lots of different things to say I suppose for sure.
Derek is one of the smartest in his kindergarten class, although he has a huge problem stayin on task with his desk work. We finally finished the second round of ADHD evaluations and started him on a low dose of meds the day before Thanksgiving. He seems mellower..still the Derek we know thank goodness though. We are using an insentive with these 2 cool remote control cars, so that if he finishes his desk work at school, he gets to play with them.

Some great days, some not so great days...as to be expected. We love his teacher Mrs. Miller..she is so dedicated to these kids in her class. We try to help her with supplies for her and the class and then we are all working together to keep Derek focused and motivated!
Derek's handwriting has so improved since six months ago too and he has started reading. So excited about both of those. He has also been staying overnight at Stephen and Brittany's a couple of times without issues...whew! It is good for him to go other places and be with his aunty and uncle :) He was at their house last night and got to go to the Clackamas Aquatice Center..how fun!
We had a nice Thanksgiving with family and are looking forward to Xmas with the baby and the older kids. Derek is getting a couple of cool gifts this year, guitar and a snow slider.

Halloween 2010

Derek had a fun Halloween this 2010. He LOVED his costume....went trick or treating for a bit, party at the Fields and out for the day with Uncle Stephen and Aunt Brit, then to see Pfaus family...whew!

Happy November!

Ick

So yesterday Derek wasn't feeling well at school and Steve picked him up. Later that day, Derek pooped his undies with the icky kind of upset tummy stuff...Steve said "you shit your drawers", then Derek says "yes, I shit um good"...omg...lol

Derek also turned 6 on Sept. 29th...we had his bday party at the park on Oct. 2..great turnout of family and friends for this very special day. Can't believe he is six and in kindergarten...man..its been quite the ride let me tell you...and many years ahead..hope they aren't to insane huh?

Da Bus

Here is a pic of Derek on the bus for school in the morning...can ya tell he is a bit excited? So far, so good for the first week of school..thank goodness...no school for his a.m. on Fridays until February...he has "homework" a couple of days a week..picture day on Monday...so weird to have another child in school!

1st Day of Kindergarten

Well..first day of school went OK for Derek..other than....ya...just as I figured...
The teacher gave them shaving cream to wipe around on their desks and make pictures etc..guess who decided to slap it between his hand and splatter it all over?
And guess who has been told that climbing is for outside play, but decided to climb on and lie on the desks? I don't know much else of what went on that day...lol..I am sure we will find out soon though.

Derek was soooooooooo excited to go to "big boy school". We walked him over (two houses away) to the school. All the kinder kids were linging up in the cafeteria..many parents had tears in their eyes, including us. He did pretty well in line..althouh he was one of few kids who was spazing out a bit. Then they walked them in a line to their classrooms...man, I would love to have been a fly on the wall that day. Full week coming up next week and they have Friday's off until February. He seems to love it..and it is great that he is with kids his own age finally full-time. He also, gets to ride the bus due to our work schedules. We went over 100 rules in the days before school about so many things. He will learn. His teacher is seasoned...lol

Four more days

Wow..only four more days until Derek starts kindergarten! He has a new backpack with supplies and lots of clothes, shoes and coats. We are pretty excited and a bit nervious. Exited because he is so excited and he is so darn smart. Nervious because he is so hyper and has "selective listening"...lol

Jenny Fields has done so much for him in her daycare home. She has had her preschool with him for three years. She has taught him things we didn't have lots of time to teach due to our work schedules. I am forever thankful for her patience and love. He will have morning kindergarten and Miss Jenny will walk up to greet him as he comes off the bus.

His vocabulary and speaking has improved so much in the last three years, you wouldn't even know he came to us speaking only two work sentences at age 3 1/2. This is why I called this blog "Me Done". Even now, when he talks up a storm (which is ALL THE TIME LOL), we look at each other and say "Me Done". It's insane how creative he is and so good at problem solving. He is a wiz at mazes. He is finally liking to draw (quite good for his delay) and we are so hoping he does well in school and that his teacher can see how smart he is.

Derek loves his cousin Oskar and made him laugh this weekend...It is so flipping funny to watch Oskar's face as Derek laughs etc...heart warming.

Casually spoken

We had a very full day yesterday...got up early, cleaned house, made tons of eggs for the Pfaus BBQ....fun at Jenn n Chris's. Derek was still ready to swim when we got home, but I was sooooooo tired and it was so hot out still. He watched some TV with Steve and I had told Derek that it was such a long day and we weren't going to go in the pool...later, I got a second wind and it had cooled down just enough (for me) to have him go outside and be in the pool. He was so happy about that! Then I had to pump up the outer ring of that damn pool again...not quite sure what happened, but when I was pumping it up, I told Derek that he gets to go swimming cause I love him so much and he said "yes, so damn hard"...lol. He said it like it was just such a casual, everyday thing to say...I had to laugh..but did tell him to please not use curse words like that. God, so funny...

"It wasn't me"

Well of course Derek didn't do it...he says Cora got into the goodie drawer and left the wrapper under the dining table...lol

Tonight..he was in timeout and EJ saw and heard him playing with the spray bottle of water....but "he didn't do it"...I think he honestly thinks we are going to believe what he says about such things...he tries to be so convincing I swear...lol

I have missed this

Derek has had bunk beds for quite awhile now. When he didn't, most night, especially since he starting living with us, I would lay with him and sing songs...and we would tell stories together. I would start a made up story and then it would be his turn to continue it etc...same with songs, or I would sing our/my favorites. Last night, he was bathing and I was in his bottom bunk (after shoving to the side, dozens of cars to make room for me). He was doing his usual singing and noises in the tub..then he let me know he was washing his penis..lol...and then bath time ended and I let him/taught him how to dry himself off..then he went and got dressed. He knew I had been on his bed and he was excited to join me. He went to the top bunk..got his pillow..then went up again and got his blanket. For about 20 minutes, we sang and shared our long lost bedtime routine.

So busy and getting so smart

So Derek will be starting kindergarten this fall and turning 6 at the end of September. He has caught up so well with everything since being 2 1/2. He still lacks some socialization often though. We just have to stay structured with defined expectations and bounderies. Our daycare is still awesome and exposed him to so many fun adventures like OMSI, the zoo, parks, cheese factory and fun crafts at their home. Daycare mom Jenny has preschool for the kids and this will have given him such a headstart for school. We can tell he soaks up a variety of things from movies and TV as well..mostly good things..lol!

His mouth gets him in trouble mostly and his selective hearing/listening..pretty typical for a five year old...except his mouth runs on bossy mode too often and he ALWAYS has to comment after being given directions or told "no". This gets very exhausting all the time. His will is strong and I hope it serves him well as an adult..honestly though, it scares me at times as to what he will be like as a teenager and adult. If all of us adults can stay on the same page, he should be fine. He is generally happy and silly...he is healthy and has a great appetite thank goodness....play is the most important thing to him....lol...he is loving and very funny. He loves all animals, people..but hates spiders..that is my fault..we have those huge Hobo spiders at our house and they are horrible..

What?

So Derek and Steve were talking about the girl Maddie next door and Derek marrying her and so on and so on..funny things of course from Derek..and how Derek likes living here and Steve says "Yep, you can live here until your 18 and then we're slamming the door on your butt" and Derek says "What", then he says "You're joking right"?

My God, the table conversation tonight is soooooooooooooooo dang funny. I have to buy a recorder. Oh, now I hear a meltdown cause he has been messing around with dinner the last 10 minutes and Steve took his plate...and Derek meltsdown. Well, so much for that huh? lol...its bedtime...7:14pm...bath..bed...books.

Just so you know

Steve was going to make waffles and Derek said "I'm 5 and five year olds don't like waffles"..then we decided to make some tonight with whipped cream and berries to see what he said and he says "Well, I like those kind of waffles, but not the ones like I used to have with butter" lol!

Of course it worked

So in the mornings we give Derek a 10 minute time to wake up..yesterday I did that and went back upstairs. I told Steve that I bet if you got all excited and told Derek there was a deer in the yard he would get up quickly! Later, Steve was downstairs and hollared upstairs.."It worked"...lol...he told Derek there was a deer in they yard..but when they looked "the deer had already ran away"...then Derek say "I saw a zebra"...lol

OH, you are funny Derek

Today Derek had gone out in the backyard and I was going in and I saw his envelope of notes from Grandma Titus on the floor and I said for him to pick it up and that I wasn't his maid and he says "You're my woman"..then he laughed....so did I...

Earlier he was eating an apple and pointing out areas on the apple and naming them, like "this is Oregon" and then "this is where the bad guys are" and other stuff..and he was munching on the planet...and after all his labeling of things on his apple, I say "oh, are you eating the earth"? He says "no, I'm eatin' and apple"...funny.

We went out on the boat today for a test spin...nice to be out in the sunshine, but the boat had a few issues yet before it works well..nice though to go nice and slow. Derek was good and enjoyed it. I almost forgot...Derek and I were walking back from parking the boat and trailer and this guys passes us. Derek asks "Whats your name". The guys says "Hi, its Steve". Derek says "I'm Derek and this is Liz". My father is on the boat and his name is Steve too. About died laughing...

Random Randy strikes again

During preschool at Miss Jenny's they were saying the alphabet and Derek starting singing it like a beat box or rapper style. She says "what are you doing Derek?", and he says "I just came to Miss Jennys and kicked Derek out" And Jenny says "well, that's not very nice, where is Derek now"? He says "at his house now, he is fine". Jenny asks "well, who are you", Derek says " I'm the song maker Sportstene.

Derek n Oskar

Well, Derek has a new cousin..baby Oskar. Born 2-20-2010.
Derek loves babies...he is great with them and there are a couple
at daycare. I think he and Oskar will have fun in a couple of years.
How funny is that to think Jenn and us will be taking our kids
to different places to play? It's awesome actually.

Noodle for noodle

So Steve had put some ketchup in his mac and cheese and asks Derek to taste it. Derek made this "face", like ewwwww...then with some persuasion from Steve he did try it. He took ONE plain mac noodle from his own bowl and ONE ketchupy noodle from Steves bowl...lol...getting a visual aren't ya? Well, he couldn't have gotten much of a ketchup taste, but decided he didn't care for it..lol

Oh.....my.........God

We have been watching Jenn and Chris's dog Oden for the last week, which has been lots of fun. He is a goof and very sweet. I think he is about 10 months old..not sure. Derek and Oden were playing in the house, Derek was laughing and then he says "Oden, you're a pretty swell dog". Funny..then later...uhhhhhharghhhhhh..I see Oden humping Derek and say "Oden, get down, Derek don't let him do that OK?" And Derek says "OK", then he says "Oden was doing the Cha Cha"..OMG...hilarious!

Mantra's for Derek

So, over the weekend, Derek stayed the night at Jenny and Nathans. We find out yesterday..and them too..that Derek had gotten up in the middle of the night..got into their drawer and got their iron out. He plugged it in and burnt their carpet real bad. Then he covered it up with a bag and put the iron back. Needless to say..he was in deep shit. He broke these rules:
1. If it's not yours, don't touch it.
2. DO NOT touch electricity.
3. Don't be sneaky.
4. Stay in bed, unless it's potty..then go back to bed.
He was in restriction for a couple of days and ALL toys are in bins. We explained that he wouldn't have toys if they got burnt up in a house fire and that anything hot can start a fire.
This morning I had him upstairs saying the above outloud over and over and over. We get in the car this morning and we ask Derek to tell us what he was to remember. He did a couple of the statements and then I started with "I will not be.." and he was supposed to say "sneaky" and he says "a jerk"!!! Funny as usual. I had never used the word jerk in his "mantra's"...lol
The pic of Derek is him "working to pay for the new carpet". He is picking up pine cones...lol

TMI (too much information) lol

Derek says his ravioli was trying to come out of his butt.
And then he was a bit constipated and I said to relax a bit and then try to push again. He say when he relaxes, the poop goes back up inside..I have to buy a recorder, because for the 15 minutes he was trying to poop, he said so many many funny things.

Not funny? Yes...it was

Steve was in the garage today with Kenny working on Kenny's car and had Derek out there sitting in his wagon..well, true to form, Derek started making this noise over and over and over..Steve gets all excited and says "Derek, come here quick"...like it was going to be something cool..he leads him to the door that goes into the house..then he keeps up the excitement and says "Come here and look"!!! He pushes Derek into the house and shuts the door!!! Derek yells "That wasn't funny Steve"!!!
God, so funny.

About died laughing at this one

Derek had cut a banana in half to share with Kenny. Steve says he had cut it in half and held one half up and said "this is Kennys, and this is mine", then Derek's half dropped on the floor that he had designated as his own, and Derek says casual like "oh, Kenny's dropped on the floor"!!! OMG...Steve and I were dying laughing..wasn't gonna be Derek's half was it?!!!!

Cheese

Derek asks for some cheese a minute ago...then he says " I like cheese like rats" lol

Nose

Derek woke up with a bit of a bloody nose. He say "my nose was moving too much, so it got bloody". Funny
New nickname: Random Randy...when he says stuff that is totally off the subject we are discussing.

Captain Sneaky VS The Warden

Sunday morning: 6:24am and I get up in anticipation of Derek waking. Steve is sleeping on the couch and I want to let him sleep in. I know Derek will be up soon. I go back to bed after turning the baby monitor on so I can hear Derek in the downstairs area. About 7am, I hear him. I go to the middle step and sit..and there I see Capt. Sneaky over by the crafts bag in the dining room. I say "What are you doing Derek"? He says "Going over to Cora". I say "What are you really doing"? He says "Going over to see Grandpa". I say "I know what you are doing, so now tell me what you are really doing". He says "Getting the Glitter Lava". I knew that was what he was doing of course. Last night we broke out an xmas gift of this gooey Lava Glitter and he was told not to touch it without adults...but, by God, he WANTED it. I am realizing, and always actually knew, that children at young ages want want want and know many times it is wrong to get things without permission, but they have no self-control at all. This will change with age..but it is hard waiting!

We went upstairs and had a talk about wanting things and breaking rules and being sneaky. The plan was to have him upstairs watching TV until Grandpa woke up..and that is what we are doing.
Another sneaky story: Steve caught him some months ago in the goodie drawer. Steve approached him and asked Derek "Are you being sneaky"? Derek had replied "No, you are being sneaky, sneaking up on me doing something inappropriate". Nice vocabulary...and it is always growing. Also, this morning Derek says he is going to Disneyland tomorrow....lol

Gift of Fields

"Bring him and they will come". Our Field of Dreams came in the form of our daycare family with the last name of Fields. In early 2008, Derek started living with us and I had to find daycare. For four months he was at a very populated daycare in town. It was just too much stimulation for him. I thought, what am I going to do now? How am I going to find the perfect in-home daycare for Derek that will meet his needs. I called a few homes offering daycare. The first two were awful, like Robin Williams pranking his wife on Mrs. Doubtfire. They sounded stupid on the phone and one of them DHS said "no"...prior issues with them. And then it happened. I called the home of Mrs. Fields. The first sentence out of her mouth I knew instantly...this is the one. She sounded loving, caring and experienced with all types of kids. Steve and I visited and were sold. This was a home with just a handful of daycare kids and they had two teenagers of their own. Derek was in the best home we could have hoped for.

Mrs. Fields took wonderful care of Derek for a few months and then I heard they were moving to Hillsboro...thought I was going to crawl in a closet and curl up. Then she tells me her son and soon to be daughter-in-law were moving in and taking over the daycare business. After meeting the next family of Fields, I was at ease. The transition was over about a month where the first Mrs. Fields left and the new took over. Perfect. Derek stayed in the same house, had the same rules etc. He was fine and I love my Jenny and Nathan so much. They are like our kids and we would do anything for them. Jenny does preschool for the wonderful small group of kids and they take the kids to all sorts of places: OMSI, parks, Cheese Factory, ZOO. I love my text and video messages from Nathan while I'm at work. So funny. They also have two sweet children of their own, Sammy who is about 15 mnths and Adrianna who is 3mths. How could we have been so lucky. I am positive that any other daycare couldn't have given Derek what he needed. We love our Fields.

You Weren't Listening

So Derek had to go to bed around 7pm...no nap day...and he did the major meltdown....he was super overtired..and it didn't help we had a houseful of older boys playing the Wii loudly. He finally finished the meltdown...we read a couple of books...he was happy and hugged and loved before I put him to bed. Steve had been in his office and I was upstairs watching TV..kids on the Wii. It's been about an hour..Steve comes upstairs and tells me as he was in his office Derek kept calling "Grandpa, Grandpa" for a few minutes from his bed...he had heard some messing around noises too..Steve ignored the calling. Then he hears the voice coming from under the door "Hey Steve I need a drink"..OMG!! Funny shit...he did get a drink....from "Steve"...and then Steve tells him "my name is Grandpa" and Derek say "Well, you weren't listening". He is clever huh?

Just a little something funny

So at breakfast this morning Derek wasn't listening to Steve about getting in his chair..jokingly, Steve says "Get in your chair or I will knock your lights out"! Derek says "No, the lights are going to stay in my body".

This morning Steve went into Derek's room and slept on the bottom bunk. Derek wakes up and whispers to the lower bunk "Hey, Kenny, Kenny". Steve says "No, its me Grandpa" then Derek says "No, only Kenny is sleeping on the bottom bunk".