Bailey The Potty Mouth

I had an interesting afternoon of fact gathering after I found out that Bailey had been sent to the principal's office and I couldn't exactly understand why!

When I picked him up from school, the first thing he said was that he got in trouble and had to go to the office. What?!? He always tells on himself to me! I asked him what he did to deserve to go to the principal's office. He gave me some story about an older kid, a fire drill, going to his classroom, not following directions, yada, yada, yada. I couldn't put all the pieces together so I let it rest for a little while.

After we had been home for a little while I asked him again about it and what the principal had actually said to him. He said something to the effect of he asked me to say the "B word" and Bailey said his response was "Buh" like the sound a B makes. So I asked him if he had said a bad word and of course he denied it.

Wanting to get to the bottom of this, like any good over reactive parent of a kindergartener would do, I called the school to find out what had really happened. The principal wasn't there when I called, but his teacher was so I asked her what had happened. She didn't really know except that some older kid had told the principal that a boy dressed like Bailey had said some bad words on the playground...

pause...so my child's teacher is telling me that she has no idea why they called him out of class to come to the principal's office except that some older kid on the playground said he heard a boy dressed like Bailey say something bad and told the principal. Huh? ...unpause...

She was able to talk to the principal and the principal agreed to talk to me and let me know what happened. After talking to him, he told me the same thing. Some older kid told him that he heard Bailey (or a kid dressed like Bailey) say the "B word" on the playground so he called Bailey into his office to address it.

Here's where it just gets comical! The older boy and Bailey were called into the principal's office together. The principal said he asked Bailey to say his name for him and Bailey of course said Bailey. Then he asked him if he had said the "B word" and Bailey said no. The principal then asked Bailey to say the "B word" and Bailey said "Buh!" The principal said he told the older kid to go back to class and just kept Bailey there for a couple of minutes and sent him back to class.

There are a few concerns I have about this situation.

1) My son, a kindergartener, was sent to the principal's office and I received no notice or explanation except what Bailey told me!

2) Bailey obviously never understood why he was sent to the principal's office, who sent him there or who this older kid was.

3) Bailey has speech issues and can't even say the word itch with a ch sound on the end of it so how he said the "B word" and some other kid was able to understand it is beyond me.

4) I honestly don't think Bailey knows what the "B word" is. If he's heard it, it's only been at school! The only words we say here that are bad are crap and butt!

5) The principal, upon the tattle of an older student who didn't even know Bailey's name, called my son into his office over something he had absolutely no evidence of except for the word of this older kid - obviously way after the fact! Why was this kid not in his class and why did he have the ear of the principal?

Remember when I posted this about being a high maintenance parent. Apparently, I'm going to have to continue that trend to make sure I know what's going on with Bailey at school. I sure hope the school we go to in TX is much better at communicating than this one has been so far.

Soccer Monsters

This week the Wade boys became official soccer players. They're definitely not the stars of the team, but they have a good time for the most part.

I'm not sure how to really explain the game to Bailey or get him to understand how to be aggressive and get the ball from the other team. During the game today, you could see the disappointment on his face when he wasn't kicking the ball. I'm not sure if he thought they should give him the ball when it was his turn or if he had to share with everyone else. Taking turns has been an issue for him since a little sports camp he went to this summer. Playing soccer aggressively doesn't require taking turns so he's gotta have a change of attitude when he's on the field playing.




Maverick just doesn't get it and kind of stands around. Most of the pictures I have of him he's got one of his hands on his head or hip just standing still. The coach is very helpful and tries to make sure the kids that aren't involved are getting a chance in on the action.

Our team is definitely the underdog, not well organized or trained team. The team we played today were very aggressive and acted like they knew exactly what they were doing! For us, it's all about having a good first sports experience for the boys. Of course, a good experience requires good snacks and today's snack parents went over the top with theirs!

Next Generation Anglers

Since moving to Oklahoma, the boys and their father have set their sights on becoming professional anglers. Not quite, but there've been lots of trips to Walmart for worms! I've always said that I didn't like to fish and that's because I've always felt like fishing was the equivalent of watching paint dry! I guess I've never had good, exciting experiences where fish just jump on your hook one after another.

There's a little pond on the property where our apartment is so it's ultra convenient for the boys to get their fishing poles and go fish for a few minutes and then come back home. Their attention span is about like mine. Maverick is alot more patient than Bailey is when it comes to just holding his pole and waiting for the bobber to go under.

They've caught quite a few fish in their time as fishermen. They're mostly small fish just looking for a snack and accidentally biting too far up on the hook when snagging the worms. It's enough to keep the children excited for a few minutes.

Here are a few photos from their first fishing experience.

This is the average size fish they catch off the bank of the pond. Supposedly there are bigger fish in there, but they're not coming near us.This is what Jenna Beth thinks of fishing! I think this was before one of the bored fishermen came and knocked the stoller over and almost sent her down the hill into the pond, causing her mother to go into an extreme panic. That little fisherman apologized for 2 days about pushing over the stroller. Truth be told, I've actually enjoyed a couple of the fishing excursions. I have even put a few worms on hooks to throw out and give a snack to the little fish. I will not, however, remove the little fish from the hook. I touched one once and its wiggling, slimy body and sharp fin gave me the willies so I just hold onto them until the man of the house can take it off for me.

Bailey's 1st Day of Kindergarten

I am officially the mother of a kindergartener! I cried myself to sleep the night before as I worried about whether or not I had prepared him well enough to go off to school. I just knew I would get a phone call telling me to come pick him up because he was pitching an uncontrollable fit over something silly. I know him very well!

It turns out he didn't have a great first day and there were things that he didn't really want to comply with. The first words out of his mouth as we were walking home from the school was "my teacher was mad at me - - don't tell daddy my teacher was mad at me."

From what I can gather, he didn't want to draw a picture of his family and he didn't want to eat in the cafeteria so he was in trouble. This is all his perspective, of course. I'm not sure how he really responded or how his teacher responded to him, but his interpretation was that she was mad at him.

He had a much better day today and even brought home his first completed assignment. He wrote his own name on the bottom of the paper and everything. I know it will take him a week or more to get in the groove and be compliant. Deep down he is a people pleaser and needs lots of praise to keep him motivated. I do hope his teacher sees that he's a bright kid, but has some little quirks! Don't we all?

Here are the obligatory first day of school photo shoot pictures.

Daddy came home between PT and class to walk with us to school for the first day. Maverick has probably had the biggest struggle so far with seeing Bailey go to school and him getting left behind so we tried to include Maverick in the process and festivities as much as possible.

Here I am with the boys. Being beside the blondie makes me look like I have a great tan!This was our parting shot! They have the children sit with their classes in the gym before class starts for an assembly. He was on his way to crossing his arms and putting on his pouty face. Exactly how I imagined it would be.

Black Listed

After my first encounter with the office staff of Bailey's elementary school, I'm positive that I've been black listed or that there are huge skull and crossbones drawn on the top of his enrollment forms.

You see, I'm administratively gifted. That's not a brag on myself. It's how God made me. I can see right through processes that don't work or are inefficient. Enrolling Bailey in kindergarten has been one of those processes that has some glaring flaws and could be so much more efficient!

I'm not sure how other school districts do this whole process, but in Lawton I had to go to Central Registration to get the enrollment process started. I actually went there twice because the first time I was told that Bailey needed a couple of shots that apparently aren't required in Texas for kids his age. I had to wait about 10 minutes standing at the counter that a lady had called me to as her next person while she walked around helping others with their forms that arrived much later than I did to get that little bit of bad news! So after we completed the shots, which was a surprisingly easy process, I had to go back to Central Registration to actually get him enrolled. I had to have proof of residency and shot records there. Once I completed all their paperwork, which was different than the paperwork you can print off on their website, they gave me a copy of one of the forms and a little half sheet form to take to the school for the actual registration day at Bailey's school.

Fast forward to 8am this morning! I was determined to be one of the first people at the school because I wasn't sure what kind of line would form and I had all 3 children in tow. I was about the 5th person there, but was the 1st person finished!

As we sat waiting for our turn, I noticed one particular registration lady sent 2 people home because they didn't have proof of residency or their shot records. When it was my turn, I mentioned to her that I noticed she sent them home and told her that I didn't have any of that either. She told me that I needed to get all of that information. I proceeded to tell her that this was a dumb process for us to need to do the exact same thing in 2 different places. What was the point of going to their Central Registration if I'm going to have to fill out the exact same stuff at the school. I guess I said everything loud enough that another of the registration ladies heard me and said that I didn't need all of that because they had copies from Central Registration.

I had to verify the information on the forms someone had input into their system from my original enrollment forms. They were a mess! CMC's name never showed up on their form and my friend, who should've been the emergency contact was listed as the 2nd parent/guardian. Another lady who was registering her 2 kids had to completely refill out that form because there were so many entry errors on hers. They must've hired the incoming kindergarteners for data entry.

I did/do feel badly that I had to be a butt this morning. It really wasn't the lady's fault that she didn't know what I needed, but someone should've sat down with them beforehand and trained them on what to expect and what to do when parents come to register. I'm not sure why one of those first people she sent home didn't cause a stink. I guess I'm no longer the pushover that I used to be!

Oh and did I mention that registration started at 8am, but they weren't ready until about 8:15am?

I'm sure the next time I walk into the school I'll see the office staff whispering warnings of Psycho Mom's presence in the building to each other.

Officially a Kindergartener

A lot of my friends are very emotional about sending their kids to kindergarten and the reality that our babies are growing up. I told CMC the other day that I must not love Bailey as much because I'm very ready and excited for him to go to kindergarten!

He is officially enrolled as a kindergartener in Lawton Public Schools as of about noon today. He had to have 4 shots this morning or else he would've been enrolled yesterday.

He keeps saying that he can't go to kindergarten because he's not 6 yet! We've thought about faking a birthday so he'll think he's 6, but that would backfire on us in March when we really celebrate his birthday and he thinks he's 7. I'm probably just going to refer to it as school and not kindergarten to keep him from being so adamant that he's not 6 yet! He's a silly little kid.

I think once he gets over the newness of going to a different school, he's going to enjoy it! I've not been a good parent about preparing him and making him an overachiever as a preschooler, but academically he's more than ready to go to kindergarten. His biggest struggle is going to be cooperating with his teachers and learning to do what they want him to do, when they want him to do it!

It's about to be a whole new world at our house, but a world that is going to be good for all of us!

Final Auburn Photo Shoot

I made the boys wear their Auburn Windsuits on Friday since Auburn was playing their final game of the season. After I put theirs on, I remembered I had one in Jenna Beth's size, too. Here are some of the shots I took. None are great since it's impossible to get these 3 to all look the same direction, let alone actually smile at the same time!

1st we have 3 smiles and only 2 lookers.2nd we have only 1 real smile and that one isn't even looking at the camera. Finally if we can't all cooperate, at least Jenna Beth will still give a good smile for the camera!

Little Tarheels

I ordered new Carolina shirts for the kids a few weeks ago and so it was an obvious photo op! This really was as good as it got. Just getting them all to look at the camera was a feat in itself.

The funny thing about ordering these shirts is I ordered a new shirt for everyone in the family, LT included, but me! How did that happen? I guess next time I'll get 2!

Cuddle Up

For some reason my bed has become the favorite hangout for the whole family lately. Bailey loves for Jenna Beth to lay on the pillow beside him. She enjoys it too because her brothers are very entertaining! Of course Maverick can't let Bailey have all the quality time with their sister.

(In case you haven't noticed, I've posted every day this week. My goal is every day for July, but that may not be attainable. I'm trying to make up for lost time.)

Brotherly Love

The boys have both become very affectionate to their little sister. Many unprompted I love you Jenna Beth's have floated out of their mouths along with some monster hugs!

This was even a willing moment for both of them. (you can also see that their hair is much shorter than it's been lately).

I think Jenna Beth is looking at Bailey and wondering who is this monster and why does he keep attacking me?Mr Mav is my little helper. One afternoon I was trying to do something and Jenna Beth was hungry so I put him to work for a few minutes. He does a good job, but some times he can shove the bottle a little hard in her mouth. I don't do this often, just when I'm desperate!And here she is - - Miss Irresistable! Some friends from church gave us this little denim mini skirt and the top. She was super cute in the ensemble so I had to take a picture.Here's the happy little girl again. She has this little sly grin and she knows exactly when to pull it out. I could just sit and look at her all day to see her smile back at me. She is really the perfect baby for our crazy lives.

An Attempt to do Better

I said last week that I was going to try to do better about keeping up with Wade's World. So here's my first attempt. To make it easy on myself, you're just getting pictures!

I'm sure Jenna Beth is getting tired of me sticking the camera in her face. This picture is a couple weeks old, I think. She's just such a cutie with her eyes open and she has lots of cute clothes that I want to make sure I get a picture of her in. We've had meals delivered to us on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the past few weeks. They've been delicious - everything from roasts to chicken spaghetti to greek pork chops that were out of this world! Yum! One of the deliverers was thoughtful enough to bring the boys these huge things of bubbles so we've spent a ton of time blowing bubbles outside and in the bathtub. Maverick dumped his out the first day so I've already had to refill it. And as a disclaimer, I think Bailey put his shorts on himself so they're a little twisted.
One day Maverick came out of my room with this necklace on - it's all of Jenna Beth's elastic headband bows. He was super proud of himself. He really put some effort into getting them on because some of them were hard to get off of his watermelon head. Silly little boy!
Every now and then, I'll find Snoopy in the crib with Jenna Beth. Bailey's into sharing him. Poor Snoopy is about to fall completely apart and is absolutely disgusting from being chewed on, but Bailey is still in love with him.

Sibling Time

Many mornings lately, the boys have come downstairs to find Jenna Beth lying in the boppy on my bed. This particular morning, Maverick decided he would join her. I'm sure he's watching Handy Manny or something and she's just curious.A few mornings later or maybe even the next morning, Bailey decided he would join their little party. The boys are very attached to their blankets and Thomas pillows. I just thought these were cute pictures. Someday they may not all 3 fit on my bed or want to lay this close to each other. I'll treasure these peaceful, sweet times as long as I can!

Riding the Range

I know these aren't the pictures you were expecting, but I'm trying to get caught up!

The other night we were watching Backyardigans. It was an episode where they're all cowboys. Within minutes of the episode coming on, suddenly 2 horses appeared in the living room. Maverick was the copy cat in the whole scheme. He saw Bailey with his horse and hat and a few seconds later, Maverick had a horse and hat in the living room. It was too cute to pass up the photo opp.

Boys, Boys and More Boys

Here is the boys' Easter Portrait. It was a real challenge getting the two of them in one place at the same time before we left for church while their clothes were still clean. It truly is a miracle that I was persistent enough to keep at it until they both appeared on the steps!
Bailey was intense hunting Easter eggs at our friends', the Preece's, house. One of Mav's first finds was a huge rock! I think Bailey was looking for the big kids' egg at this point.

An unusual moment - brothers playing peaceably together for a few minutes. Another picture taking feat almost gone bad. It didn't last long and obviously both didn't look at the camera, but I wanted to get a picture of them in their Auburn windsuits before it got too warm for them wear them again.
Then this happened! I'm not sure what provoked this. It doesn't take much, but it's probably the most honest picture we have!

4 Years Ago Today

We welcomed Bailey Houston into our family. It's not an experience I'll ever forget, nor will I ever want to. He's a handful for sure and I haven't quite figured out what makes him tick or what's going to get him ticked, but I'm working on it.

The day he was born and life changed forever!

Celebrating his 1st birthday. He was such a cute kid at 1!

This was right around his 2nd birthday and was our first photo session from the pits of Hell. Read about it here.

Three years old and a stud! I can't believe he let me take this picture of him and he actually smiled.

4 years old and an occasional ham for the camera! He was very excited to get his Cars Tractor Tippin set today! I'll post the video of the reveal tomorrow, hopefully!

Daddy, Mommy and Maverick love you and I'm sure Jenna Beth will too! Hope you had a Happy Birthday! We love watching you grow up right more and more every day.

400th Post

For the record, this is my 400th post and I missed my 2 year blogaversary somewhere in the past month or so. I'm not sure I remember exactly when I started this venture.

The past few days have been enjoyable for the most part around here. Yesterday, LT got off work around lunch time so we loaded the van and headed east to Chick Fil A for lunch. A #1 with Diet Dr. Pepper never gets old! The boys both enjoy going there and Bailey always leaves with a new friend or two. The last time we were there on a Friday night, he actually knew his new friend's name before we left.

While we were waiting for LT to come home, I attempted a photo session of the boys in their new Tarheel shirts courtesy of GG. This is about the best I got! Something on the tv was obviously more interesting than I was. But do notice Maverick's shaggy hair because the next picture it's not the same.

This evening we had to go to our Plan B because the CDC apparently doesn't work Saturdays of a 4 day holiday weekend. This is the 2nd 4 day that I've had a brilliant plan that didn't come to be because the CDC was closed, therefore no childcare for the precious angels. Plan A included the Outback Special and a Steakhouse Salad. Plan B ended up being Mall Food Court hodgepodge! Plus Maverick got his hair cut. He looks so grown up with his hair freshly cut. He even sat in the booster seat all by himself. He never made a peep or acted like he wasn't into the haircut. He just sat there and looked around like he was a seasoned hair cut pro. I was a proud mommy.

Bailey took a break from playing on Noggin.com to get in on the photo taking action. He just likes to see himself on the camera screen after the picture has snapped. At least I can get him to smile now. If only I could get both of them to smile at the same time in the same picture. I've considered trying to get their pictures done before LT goes on his vacation, but I haven't gotten my nerves that prepared yet. I'll keep you posted.

Bailey's Version of Happy Birthday

As you can see, Bailey very much was in charge of the show at Maverick's little birthday celebration. I was just glad to hear him sing and not scream telling everyone to stop singing as he's done to us in the past. Not sure he'll ever make the cut for American Idol!

Everybody's Mad at Bailey

While we were in Waco for Thanksgiving, we opened Christmas presents, which provided for many funny moments and of course some fights between the little boys. The video below was from one of the funniest moments we had provided by Bailey's honesty.

For some reason LT must've gotten onto Bailey so he came to tell me about it. Then in the process he started asking about Maverick's wherabouts. Maverick had left the living room because he was upset that he didn't end up on the winning end of a power struggle for a bat and ball, I think. So everyone was mad at Bailey!

Most Eligible Bachelors

I took these pictures the other day and figured I better post them before the week begins and I don't have time to do it. I bought some Boy Scout Caramel Corn from one of the kids at FBC and shared some with the boys when we got home from Mother's Day Out. I think Percy, the train, may have gotten a taste, too!Mavvy needs to grow another 3 or 4 inches before he'll be able to fully maximize sitting on the stool at the counter. He's really getting to be a big boy and the lift to the top of the stool is about 6 inches shorter than the lift to his seat! I think it's super cute when he just sits on the stool.
Finally, the front shot of one of the matching shirts I got them at GAP for about $1.99 several months ago. They have another that says "Playground Casanova." For $1.99, I'll put just about anything on them! Isn't he a handsome little fellow?

The Insignificant Things

I was talking to someone today and made a statement about how sometimes the decisions we make that seem so insignificant at the time are really very significant in God's overall scheme of things. I was specifically talking about how I made the decision to drop out of college for a year or 2 and travel with Life Action. I had no idea when I said, "Sure, I'll travel for a year," just how much that would change my life. Without saying yes to that, there would've been no Boitnotts in my life. There would've been no North Greenville College (Go Mounties!). There would be no year of single life in the suburbs of DC. There would be no Jake and there certainly probably wouldn't be me here in El Paso doing what I do every day. God had a very specific plan in all of that and I believe it started long before I said Yes to my 2 years in Life Action.

I get so frustrated with Bailey because he seems to throw a fit over things that to me seem so insignificant. I've been driving the "$20,000 Swingset" aka LT's truck for a few days because the van was getting some work done on the brakes. I've had a huge struggle taking the boys in and out of church because I normally load them into the double stroller and off we go. Today, there was no double stroller so I decided to take the umbrella stroller because I could at least push Maverick since he's normally my problem walker/wanderer on our way to his class.

When we got to the church and I put Maverick in the stroller, Bailey threw a fit! He wanted to ride in the stroller. I almost turned around and put everyone back in the truck and came home. I was very close and this wouldn't be the first time we've been somewhere and loaded back up to come home! Instead, I left Bailey sitting in the parking lot while Maverick and I went to the door. The closer I got to the door, Bailey realized he was about to be left so he came running, yelling "Mommy, Mommy!" all the way. Then there's the security doors! I got Maverick inside and left him and then went back and picked up Bailey and set him on the floor inside the door. I pushed Maverick all the way to his class. Along the way people were asking me where Bailey was. My response was "Can't you hear him screaming? He's sitting on the floor in the great hall."

By the time I got back to get Bailey, one of our preschool workers had retrieved him. He refused to go to his class so we stopped in the first bathroom and had a little talk. I threatened to take away all his trains so he decided he should at least walk up the hall. When we turned the corner to his class, he refused to go inside, so we went into the next closest bathroom. Anyone familiar with FBCEP knows exactly where I'm at! We had another little heart to heart. He used the potty, washed his hands and suddenly he was all ready to go to his class. As far as I know, he had a good time in his class. I didn't get any reports of him turning into Kung Fu Bailey!

I share all this to say that the things that to me seem so insignificant are very significant in his little mind. It is not an excuse for his selfish, non compliant behavior! I've heard our children referred to us as mirrors and often we can see spiritual things so much more clearly through them. Today I've seen that those things that seem so insignificant to me are much more significant to God! It's the little things like being genuinely grateful, doing the things the Spirit prompts us to do, offering a word of encouragement to a friend in need, responding properly to our kids and spouses the first time - the list could go on and on. I got a much needed reminder that the insignificant things aren't all that insignificant - they are very significant!