Taylor very rarely gets his own post. So, this is devoted to Taylor news. = )

Taylor is enjoying school. He's learning SO SO much. So much more than I learned my first three years of school! He can count to infinity, sound out and read simple words, recognize many sight words (frequently used words like I, my, the, etc ), count syllables in words, add (even double digits although he makes mistakes with larger numbers sometimes), subtract small numbers he can use his fingers to figure out, he knows all his colors, shapes, days of the week, months of the year, he can write the date, he knows our address and phone number, he can cut and paste, color in the lines(most of the time), he's starting to draw things he sees, he can summarize a story read to him, and so so much more. When I sit and think about all that he knows and all that he's learned I'm simply blown away. And this isn't just Taylor, these are things that all first month kindergartners can do nowadays, it's absolutely amazing! Taylor has a wonderful teacher that keeps us informed and she really seems to have complete control of all 18 kiddos; it's awesome to see the organization and schedule she has. The only downside to Taylor's knowledge: he has acquired quite a sassy little mouth and he will argue emphatically no matter the consequences. Don't know where he could have gotten that from... Don't say a word mom.
On that note, they have a behavior monitoring system at Lakewood. Green light = good. Yellow and Red = not good, red being worse.
Taylor brought home his first yellow light today. Now, I'm not shocked. I knew this was coming. Boys are going to be boys and that often involves mischief, it's in his DNA. He's had a sub for 3 days, I'm sure this contributed to the boyish impulse to rebel and push the limits. On his calendar with his yellow light, it said "hitting." Now, when I ask Taylor about the situation, he 'can't remember.' This from the child who remembers to call you out on every bad word that may slip out in his presence, he remembers the names of toys and their features from commercials and then recalls them in the store - you'd swear he was reading the box to hear him rattle this stuff off - yet, he hit someone in school and can't recall a thing about it, to include the child's name whom he hit. Since he was having memory trouble, I decided the best way for him to 'remember' not to hit his friends in school would be to write the following sentence 20 times: "I will not hit my friends." I think this worked pretty well. He certainly didn't like it. It took him 2 hours (with about a 30 minute nap included in that total) to write the sentences. He cried and complained, then wrote. He told me how much he didn't like it and how he NEVER wanted to do it again, then wrote some more. He went on strike and fell asleep, and then awoke to write some more. Hopefully this will work... for at least another month or so...

He's counting to see how many more he has to write

He's on strike!

After school each day he gets a snack. I let him get his own today. Here's evidence:

Fall is here and we're painting spring bird houses! You can look at this one of four ways. 1. We're confused. 2. We're really late. 3. We're really early. 4. We're methodically planning ahead.

Really, we just wanted to paint birdhouses. No rhyme or reason. This was the first time Taylor has painted with non-washable paint. I did make him change out of his Bama jersey and put on an old t-shirt. I thought that would be enough. He never gets the washable paint on himself anyhow. Of course not, it's washable! That wouldn't be any fun. But acrylic paint, now that stuff is fun to wear! Yes indeed. We got it on the floor, the chair, his shorts, his shirt, and then to top it off - down the side of the wall as he went to the bathroom to wash up. GREAT! Luckily I got most of it quick enough I was able to get it cleaned up. It didn't come out of his shorts though. I'm going to try fingernail polish remover or something... Oh well. The bigger the mess, the more fun I guess! He did manage to get some on the birdhouses too:

Last Friday we sent Taylor to school with a dollar. He could choose to buy a pickle, a water, an ice cream, or a tatoo. Can you believe he chose a Bama tatoo over ice cream!?! Roll Tide!

He's been taking special care of that cheek to keep it all week!