The month of March

March was a busy month for us. It started out with beautiful warm, sunny weather that beckoned us to the beach. Now is the perfect time of year to go to the beach. The water is still pretty frigid, which means the boys hang out near the water's edge, just dipping their feet in and playing in the crashing waves....little worries for me about them drowning or being eaten. It's warm but not HOT, so you aren't sweltering. We spent a afternoon hanging out in the low tide pools, looking for sharks teeth (we have become quite the experts finding shark teeth these days :), and just hanging out.

Early in the month, we took a day off from schoolwork and drove up to Fort Caroline, which is about 30 minutes from us, on the other side of Jacksonville. We met some other homeschooling friends, ate a picnic lunch, and went on a self-guided tour of Fort Caroline. Apparently, the French were one of the first European inhabitants of Jacksonville, at least until the Spanish down in St. Augustine heard about them and quickly wiped them out. The actual location of the French fort has not been located (they actually think it is on the bottom of the St. Johns River, as the path of the river has changed since those times), so a replica has been built. It was interesting, but definately NOTHING like the fort in St. Augustine....ya can kind of see why the French were so easy to defeat! Then we went on a one-mile nature hike through out the Fort grounds, which is actually a Federal park. I was suprised my boys made it to the end without complaining. Cooper was distracted with his buddies, so I don't think he realized how much he was walking. Chandler decided he would carry our backpack for extra weight, and he headed down the trail at a fast speed, trying to get in a "workout"...he said he read that NFL players do that in training. Max decided about 10 feet into the trail that his legs wouldn't work, (his exact words), so I needed to carry him. I had thought ahead and brought the sling (a baby-carrier), although I haven't used it for some while as he is a bit too heavy. Nevertheless, the sling was a ton easier than my arms, so I hauled his heavy rear-end. Guess I got my work-out too. Guess it was relaxing for Max, cuz he could barely keeps his eyes open. We learned that all of the Federal parks participate in a Junior Ranger program, where you can earn badges for participation. So Cooper and Max, (with my help) filled out a little worksheet at the end of our hike and earned themselves their first Junior Ranger badge. They were quite excited about this, and Cooper has determined his new goal is to collect as many badges as possible.

Cooper participated in his first Belt Test for Karate. This is a quarterly test that the children participate in to earn their next belt. They have to break a board (he did on his first attempt!!), know their forms (body positions) and do well in sparring. I was very nervous for him. I took him to Karate five days a week, the two weeks before testing (we normally go three days a week). These aren't things we can do at home, either he gets it in class or he doesn't. Sitting and watching as a parent, I can't really tell. So we went as much as possible, because I just wanted him to be prepared, and what happens after that, is what happens. So we went to testing, there were lots of children and their families. Cooper got up there, did his thing wonderfully, and earned his first colored belt, a yellow and white stripe. It is called a Deputy Yellow belt. He was so proud of himself, as we all were.

March 16th was my baby's 3rd birthday. He's not such a baby anymore. I really think he grew up faster than the other boys, just from trying to be with his brothers. Max loves his brothers. He and Cooper play together quite alot. He has turned out to be a perfect playmate for Cooper, going right along with Cooper's imaginary dramas with the Star Wars and Batmans. He usually goes with whatever plan Cooper has thought up but once in a while, he decides he wants to have his own rules, and lets Cooper know it. Max really looks up to Chandler, who has turned into the big brother who really helps Max with whatever he needs. If Max needs something, Chandler is usually right there to offer some big-brother help. For Max's birthday, we took him to the zoo. He loved that, and was at a great age to really appreciate and interact with the animals. After a long day at the zoo, we went to Grandma's house for dinner. That is when Max got the one thing he had asked for: A Batman cake! He was pretty excited to eat cake. He enjoyed his gifts as well. Poor guy, he could barely get the wrapper off before one of his big brothers was taking it out of his hands so they "could look at it". But Max, being the sweet guy he is, had no problems sharing his new toys with his brothers. I think he had a great birthday.

The next day we woke up early, and both Cooper and Max went to the Dr. for their annual well-checks. Both boys are doing perfect. Cooper's eye vision is 20/16, which is better than perfect, according to the Dr. (not sure how that works!?!?).....but I thought that was one more testimony to Cooper being such a fighter. Preemies often have vision problems, and many start wearing glasses at very young age, as the oxygen they need to survive their first few months, given through facial masks, or nasal tubes, often can causing scarring in the eyes, leading to vision problems later. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember taking Cooper to one of his special Preemie check-ups in South Carolina that was especially to check his eyes, at about six months old. The Dr. pulled Cooper's eyelids back and practically pulled the whole eyeball out. Apparently that was standard, but it was pretty horrifying to watch. Cooper weighed 47.8 lbs, and is 47.6 inches tall. Max weighed 32.4 lbs, and is 28 inches tall.

Both Chandler and Cooper started golf lessons. There is a national program called The First Tee, which offers golf lessons to children at a economical price. Along with the golf, they also emphasize life lessons, ie respect, courtesy, courage, etc etc. Chandler takes his lessons on Tuesday mornings for a homeschool-only class. Cooper was too young for this class, so he goes on Saturday mornings for a class that is for 5-6 year olds. Both boys love it. I knew Chandler would, anything about hitting a ball and he is good to go. Cooper is a little more finnicky, so ya just never know. But he looks forward to Saturday mornings. I am realizing more and more that it isn't that Cooper doesn't enjoy sports, he just isn't that into the sports that are competitive, like "you have to race me to the base, or I am trying to kick the ball away from you"....he is more about having fun. If you want to kick the ball from him, well, just go ahead and take the ball, he would rather hang with his buddies on the bench than fight about the ball.

Here is a funny story highlighting the difference between Chandler and Cooper. So Chris is taking Chandler to his golf lessons, since Chris has Tuesdays off. I know it is a class just for homeschoolers, so I am thinking Chandler might know some of them (it's a relatively small Homeschool world in Jacksonville). The first couple of weeks, I ask him how it goes, does he know anyone. Chandler replies "Uh, no, don't think I know any of those kids".....Chris tells me Chandler is the regular Chandler, kind of hanging in the back, quiet, etc. So I see a Mom I know at the grocery store, also a homeschooling family, and she says "Yeah, I see your husband and Chandler at golf on Tuesdays.".......she tells me about 12 of the 15 children in the class are from our homeschool co-op, which we go to every Friday for the past three years. 12 of the 15...meanwhile Chandler says he doesn't think he knows any of them......ugh. He sees these kids every week, he knows them. They all know him.

So I take Cooper to golf on Saturday mornings. His class is not specifically for homeschoolers, just any children 5-6. The first day, Cooper goes off with the children, with barely a wave good-bye to me. A mom walks up to me and says "Morgan (her daughter) was SO happy to see Cooper, she talks about him all the time and really looks forward to seeing him every week"....I am thinking..umm, do I know her...um, okay. The mom says "Yeah, they are in class together on Friday, this was our first year in co-op, and Cooper just made Morgan feel so welcome!" So they were Homeschoolers too, and also go to our co-op (we have 60 families, 200 children, so I don't know all of the families myself). So I watch Cooper for the rest of class, and sure enough, he is definately having fun with the little girl, but he is also playing with the other children. At the end of class, ya hear a bunch of " Bye Cooper" "See ya next time Cooper" from the children.

Just some interesting personality comparisions to make ya think. Sometimes you are just born that way.

Baseball started back up for Chandler. This league splits up the nine and ten year olds onto their own teams. I guess the though process is to give the nine year olds a chance to develop without the 10 years old hogging up the limelight. The team that selected Chandler is a little "light" on the competitive side for our tastes, ie the coach doesn't seem to know what he is doing all the time. That sounds kind of snippy, but Chandler is very competitive, and we want him to have a little bit of "push" from his coach, not just this easy-peasy "hope we win" attitude. We want fun, but we also want advancement. Somehow Chris wormed his way into being a assistant coach, so he is able to get in different drills and practice forms that the Coach doesn't seem to know about. So far, Chandler has had some great hits and amazing fielding. He rotates between pitcher, first base, and catcher. He received "Player of the Game" the 2nd game of the season for an beautiful unassisted double play.

Chandler also asked to play Flag Football again. Normally, our policy is only one sport a season, otherwise life is just too hectic. But we didn't factor golf into that equation, since that is during a weekday. Once we got the baseball schedule, we realized that we only had three games on Saturdays, two of which would be over by the time Flag Football starts, which only plays on Saturday. So we decided to go ahead and let Chandler play Flag Football also. Chandler and I signed Chris up to be the coach. Chris LOVES coaching, but if you ask him if he wants to, he'll say no. So we just did it without asking, plus it works out better for us cuz Chris can plan practices when it suits us. Chandler helps him put plays together, and they are having a great time, and Chris IS loving it. They have been practicing on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Games start Easter weekend, so we shall see how it goes.

The last week of March Chandler went on a field trip to the Whitney Marine BioScience Center in Flagler Beach. Since Chandler is studying Marine Biology for Science this year, it fit right up his alley. Another mom offered to give Chandler and a couple of other boys a ride in her van, and I was more than happy to take her up on the offer, so I didn't have to drag the little boys down there with me. So I packed his lunch, dropped him off at his friends house and off they went. He said it was a great field trip. They used microscopes to study plankton, did a experiment about feeding snails, touched all kinds of different sea creatures. When I picked him up at his friends house later that day, the mom who drove them told me that overall the group was a pretty quiet group. When the docents at the Center were asking questions, Chandler answered the first six or so out of about 10 questions, and really seemed to know what he was talking about, while most of the other children were just kind of quiet. I just gotta beam here!! He's so stinking smart!

So that was our month in a nutshell. Factor in a couple of park days with friends, alot of rainy days at the end of the month, lots of schoolwork, and you can see that I am just tired! ps. Got lots of movies of all of our activities, but yucky software for editing, and troubling putting on the blog....so will just have to leave you in suspense for the time being.