The Goings On...

Here at TeamBabetz sickness has arrived. Not unexpectedly as every virus known to man is going around the kids school.


We've had a two day virus thing that the kids are enjoying giving to one another.


{We did teach them to share after all.}


And as a result of that we got an ear infection.


Then around the 4th day of the medication my son decided to be helpful and open the bottle of pink stuff by himself and with such force that the bottle slipped from his hand and onto the floor...


Right side up without a cap which produced a volcano of thick pink goo all over both of us.


I really wish I had taken a picture... oh well.


Then the littlest team member got the croup...

Now God, in His wisdom, choose to give us the gift of good sleepers here on TeamBabetz. So when those nights come where there is little sleep...


Well, I don't think I have to spell it out...


It's just not pretty.


But it's what we do. And I'm praying for a better night tonight...for her sake more than mine. She's really pitiful...

But during all this germiness we had the privilege of meeting with our kids teachers for conferences.


It was a great time of chatting, getting to know them better and getting to see how the kids are doing.


Our 1st grader has had a good 1 quarter.

In some early testing they slated her for a special class for children who are struggling with reading. In my humble opinion those tests are not an accurate measure of a child's reading ability. The marked her low because she sounded out words like cat "c - at" rather than "c - a - t". ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? So we, with our God given parental authority, pulled her from that class and she is doing great. We bumped up her reading at home, more because she struggles with confidence in her own ability more than anything, and she is reading fine and comprehending what she is reading. Which is more important than "c - a - t"... whatever...


{Jumping down off the soap box...}


Our 3rd grader is doing great as well. No big issues and we are grateful!!!


Team Babetz is not only the name of our blog...it's what we call ourselves here at home. We know our positions, and that in order to get things done we have to work together as a team...


Well apparently our little girl told her teacher all about it. Explaining who plays what position and what their jobs are...


So at our conference the teacher said, "I want to be on Team Babetz"...


We're thinking of getting t-shirts made and giving her one...


And last but not least our 4th grader...

Our oldest...


Our guinea pig...


Poor guy...


We've been so hard on him this year...


He's in a program called Challenge that takes him out of class over 3 hours a week for some "creative learning". Right now they are studying bridges across America and in a few months will be in a county wide contest to build a bridge with only craft sticks and glue. It's a really fun program and he loves it. But we were having trouble getting him to tell us what he was missing from his regular class. We thought it was because he was missing assignments and such...


But rather than push really hard we decided to wait and talk to his teachers (they have 2 in 4th grade) to see what we could find out before we followed through with pulling him out of Challenge.


Well, as it turns out he wasn't bringing it home because he was finishing it in class...


Feeling all of 2 inches tall right about now...


His teachers laughed with us and said they were the same way with their oldest children too...


Both his teachers are believers and understand our expectations and the reasons behind them. They were very kind.


Another issue that we've been dealing with in our 4th graders class is the little boy that sits next to our son. He's constantly getting in trouble. And then when he does get in trouble, he gets very upset and causes a huge scene...


Well we (my son and I) talked about what we should do and decided that our coarse of action would be to pray for this little boy, for our son to be kind to him and encourage him to make good choices.


After our initial discussion I would ask occasionally how things were going and we prayed for him every night.


In our conference, his teachers told us that he has really reached out to this little boy. Been encouraging and kind. Helping him with work he doesn't understand and when the little boy is removed from class making sure he gets the work he missed so he doesn't fall behind. And even just talking to him about things he likes and stuff 9 year old boys talk about during free time in class.


We tell our kids often...OFTEN...


"Be a part of the solution...not a part of the problem."


I got that from a great book I read a few years ago called "Going Public" you can read more about it and the ministry of David and Kelli Prichard here.


I don't write that to praise us as parents or our children...


We have many, many faults. We choose this road for our kids and God is seeing fit to use them and us within this little school and we are humbled and count it a privilege to serve Him there. Matt 5:16


And back to the sleeping thing...


My 4 year old...

Who will be 5 this week...


Has taken to waking up between 1 and 5 every night and getting into bed with us...


Not a huge deal, except that we have a double bed...


There's not enough room for the two adults who sleep there, let alone an additional 4 year old...


So I get up and take him back to bed...


Sometimes...


Sometimes I just cuddle up with him, because I know how fast these years go.


So those are 'the goings on' here at TeamBabetz...


And I hope all is well with you!