After my last (non-review) whiny post about our lack of a summer, I decided to do something about it. Tornado Dad was headed out to California for a conference, so Tornado Boy and I got a fabulous deal on a timeshare room and we spent 5 days at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. While we were there we also visited Water Country – the companion water park and also the Virginia Living Museum. It was still really hot, but we just dealt with it and had a wonderful time seeing and learning lots of new things.

After we got back from Williamsburg, we went to visit my in-laws and also Tornado Boy’s great grandmother, whom we call Big Mammaw. She is 92 and is at an assisted living facility. She has been having an increasing number of health issues of late, so we’re trying to see her as much as possible. Tornado Boy also got to see his two cousins while we were visiting. They are some of his favorite people in the whole world. He had a blast playing with them. They worked on showing him more about baseball since he was about to start playing t-ball.

Next up was a trip to New York to see a college friend of mine and her two boys for a few days. We all had a wonderful time together. Tornado Boy really enjoyed having a constant companion for a few days. It was nice to kick back and relax. The highlight for the boys was visiting a space museum. I’m hoping that my friend will share some of her pictures when she gets them loaded from her computer.

On the way back, we visited Tornado Dad who had another work conference going on. We ended up sleeping in six cities over the course of two weeks. Needless to say, we are exhausted! We are thankful to be back home and sleeping in our own beds.

So… right before this two weeks of insanity, I started a medical weight-loss program. Great timing, right? A friend had joined the week before and I opted to do it with her. Well, that produced a major surprise in my life. The program includes a complete physical, blood tests, urinalysis and EKG. When the lab results came back, they revealed that I had a major problem with my thyroid. I visited my regular doctor and have been put on medication for life. I got very little information, so I spent all of my spare time since then reading about hypothyroidism and trying to figure out what it’s going to mean to me. The doctor said that it’s been likely bothering me for a very long time. I had tons of symptoms, but really had no idea that there was something significant going on. I had just chalked them up to the fact that I was getting older and I’m heavy. I’m hoping that the diet plan – which happens to be a good match for my thyroid issues, along with the thyroid medication will help to alleviate a lot of the problems that I was having. Scary news, but hopefully good results.

That, in a nutshell, is what has been going on for the past two weeks. School and t-ball start this week, so hopefully we’ll be able to get back in a routine that includes regular blog posts. I’ve missed it, but I definitely needed the time to do some heavy-duty reading.

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I’m really finding it hard to believe that summer is nearly over and that we’ll be starting our first official homeschool year in less than two weeks. I feel like we never really got to have a summer this year. We didn’t go to the beach, we didn’t travel with Tornado Dad to any of his conferences, we didn’t visit any amusement parks. In early July, I was really ill and it pretty much took me out of commission for a little over a week. Up until the last week or so, our weather was ridiculously hot with stifling humidity. Nearly every day it was 90+ degrees, and we had 11 days where it was over 100. Tornado Boy and I both have incredibly fair skin, so being outdoors was really not much of an option except for early in the morning for most of the summer.

Tornado Dad works at a small office. About three weeks ago, the other top level employee suffered a massive stroke in the office. He is recovering, but his absence has taken a toll at work, so we haven’t seen all that much of Tornado Dad of late. One major change that this has caused is that I haven’t been doing the bedtime routine with Tornado Boy. This is the little bit of time that they get to share each day, so instead of alternating, my husband does the read/rock/lights out routine most nights.

It feels very strange to say that I haven’t been reading to my son much at all. We are working on independent reading during the day, and Tornado Dad is doing the reading at night. I haven’t been participating in Natalie’s reading meme because I really can’t do much of a review on books that I haven’t read or heard. Tornado Boy has been enjoying a lot of book and CD combos from the library on his own each day. He’s also just starting to read some chapter books on his own. He’s had the capability for quite a while, but he has been somewhat resistant to it. We know that he’s having some visual tracking issues, but the crux of the problem really seemed to lie more his being unwilling to tackle a longer book with fewer pictures. He did read Arthur and the Crunch Cereal Contest on his own and we’ve picked up Nate the Great for him to read next.

One good thing about the change in nightly duties is that Tornado Dad tends to be a bit more creative than I am at times and tonight he had TB acting out the story while he read Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct. I wouldn’t have thought to do that, so the change there was quite positive.

I also had some technology struggles this summer. In the past month I’ve gotten a new computer and a new phone. Both came with some pretty substantial learning curves. I love them both, but transferring and adjusting has taken some serious time. I now have 12 years worth of photographs on my computer. I’m thinking that perhaps it’s time to do some archiving! I also upgraded some software in the transition, so that’s taken some time to get used to as well. The phone is incredible. LOVE it. Tornado Boy is having fun with it, too. The educational applications for the Droid phones seem to be pretty limited, but we’ve found a few fun ones and are looking forward to finding more in the future.

Tornado Boy still seemed to enjoy himself this summer. He spent a lot of weeks attending partial day camp sessions at several different places. This was the first time that we had been able to do that (his previous preschool was year round), so I wanted him to be able to sample several themes. The sports camp that he did the first week and the science camp the last seemed to be the favorites. We did some play dates and hung out a lot at the park. We attended a couple of weddings. We learned a lot together. I can look back through the blog and see that we did things, but I feel somewhat guilty that we didn’t spend mass amounts of time being lazy and swimming. I’m really looking forward to a temperate, productive and fun fall!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

Overheard this weekend:

Tornado Boy to Daddy: Let’s Play! You’ll be the tickler, and I’ll be the run awayer!

Find out what other kids are saying, or link up and post your own story at Tiny Talk Tuesday at Not Before 7.

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

Five years ago today, I gave birth to a brown-haired blue-eyed baby boy. He was exactly 28 days early. He was sitting bolt upright inside me and I think that he used his razor-sharp nails to claw his way out. Even at birth, he did things his way. He hated to be swaddled and was like Houdini, he’d have his arms out of the blanket in seconds, no matter who wrapped him or how tight. All of those things make so much sense knowing his personality now.

Some things have changed. The blue eyes turned dark brown after about six months. The brown hair fell out and blond peach fuzz replaced it. The personality is still intact. He’s so curious, and so ready to take on the world. Happy Birthday, my big boy! Mommy loves you!

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

We were very heavy on the Amy Krouse Rosenthal books in our household this week. Tornado Boy loved two of them, but I really didn’t care for the third – It’s Not Fair. The book was far too whiny and had a lot of sibling rivalry, so it really didn’t apply in our household.

As a precursor to my review, I really want to share this old video of a 17-month old Tornado Boy. He has the most precious belly laugh and we so rarely get to hear it any more.

I was very thankful that “The Wonder Book” brought back the belly laugh. Tornado Boy thought some of the poems were absolutely hysterical. For some reason the one based on the jump rope rhyme “Miss Mary Mack” really sent him into gales of laughter. I read it like you sing the chant and he seemed to really appreciate that. The book has many different poems and is such a fun read. It does have some mild potty humor like “Tinkle, Tinkle, In the Sea, Don’t look under, While I pee…..” so if that bothers you, you may want to skip it. My little boy absolutely loved this book. I think we may have to purchase this one.

Yes Day was also a big hit. It’s pretty much every little kid’s biggest fantasy come true. One day per year, the little boy’s parents say yes to everything – pizza for breakfast, staying up late, etc. Tornado Boy requested this book several nights this week. I do feel bad because Tornado Boy hears no more often than the average kid. Between being insanely curious and having several food sensitivities, we have to say no more than I’d like. I’m really working to make sure that I try to say yes more often.

We found Bilby Moon on the One More Story website. It’s about a bilby – an Australian marsupial who resembles a large-eared rat. He becomes concerned when he notices that the moon is disappearing. The story is well done and features a lot of Australian animals that we needed to look up afterwards. I found it interesting that Tornado Boy has forgotten a lot of the things that we learned about the moon during a unit study that we did last August. It’s time to dig out the lapbook again and do a refresher.

You can find out what other preschoolers are reading this week over at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

©2012 One Little Room.... All Rights Reserved.

This was also a good opportunity for Tornado Boy to be spoiled rotten by his Dad. They did a bunch of activities together including an art class, a Fourth of July celebration and a picnic at our friends’ house. I was glad that they got to get out and enjoy themselves. I asked Tornado Dad to take some pictures at our town’s festivities for the Fourth. They put on a really nice free event each year and we really enjoy it, despite the blazing heat that always seem to accompany it. Here are some of the pictures:

A huge thank you to my hubby for stepping up. I can’t remember when I’ve felt this bad. If this is what Tornado Boy had last week, he’s a lot tougher than I’ve given him credit for. I’m sad that I missed a fun holiday weekend, but very grateful for my family.

Here’s a shot from our wedding 7 years ago. I’m so glad that we didn’t let a little thing like a hurricane stand in the way of our plans, even if we did have to change just about every one of them! Love that man!

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