School Days

This is the time of the year that I love. When I was young I was always so excited to go back to school. I was excited to reconnect with friends, buy new school supplies, and get my locker decorated and organized. (nerd)

I have so many memories of getting my children off to school as well. On Amanda's first day of school, I watched her get on the bus and began to cry as it took it off. My first child off to school. I will never forget little Jake watching the bus pull away, and then looking up at me and seeing me cry. He came over to me, put his hand on my leg, looked up at me, and said, "Don't worry Mom, we will find  her again." I picked him up and held him tight, it was just what I needed to hear.

On the first day of school in 1999 Coby was very upset. You can see him in the photo above, not looking real happy. He was not at all pleased with the idea that big brother and sister were off on a great adventure, while leaving him behind. He kept following them saying, "No go."

In the hectic morning, I hadn't even had time to change Coby out of his PJ's. He was in a pair of PJ bottoms and a onesie. When it was time to go out and wait at the bus stop, we opened the door to walk out, and couldn't find Coby.  I yelled for him and told him to come quickly because the bus was coming. I left the door to our house open and started taking pictures of Amanda and Jake getting on the bus.

I only have one picture of them starting to board, because as they got to the bus, a little bolt of lightening shot out of our house, ran past them, and climbed aboard. He had been in the house getting ready.

His outfit included newly added winter boots, and a Barney backpack that was packed full of snacks!!! I managed to get on the bus and grab him as he screamed and kicked. I waved goodbye while trying not to drop Coby! What a day! Later he let me take a picture of him after he calmed down.

The Waffle House

One morning around 7:00 am when Coby was around 2 1/2 years old, I woke up to the sound of my neighbors voice calling me from our downstairs, "Janet, are you here? Janet?"

I flew out of bed and went down the stairs and the neighbor who lived behind us was in our kitchen holding Coby. (First thought to myself... this can't be good)

I greeted her and said, "Oh dear what happened?"

She proceeded to tell me that when she and her daughter (she was a little girl Coby played with) had gone to their kitchen to start breakfast they found Coby in his footie jammies sitting at their kitchen counter on a stool. Literally, he was sitting in their kitchen on their stool.

She told me she said, "Coby, what are you doing here?" She said his reply was, "Waffles."

Apparently he had woken up and gone out our back sliding door and had found their backdoor open and had walked right in and made himself at home.

I was SO embarassed. I tried to make some stupid jokes, and neighbor lady didn't even crack a smile. She left in a bit of a huff...

I immediately called our Social Worker (Coby wasn't offically adopted yet). I had this horrible thought that perhaps neighbor lady would call the police or something... I explained what happened to our worker and she laughed! She told me, "Janet, I come there and visit with you for a half hour and try to keep up with Coby and need to go back and take a nap."

Needless to say, Hubby installed a sliding door safeguard, and you won't believe this - I did NOT win the "1999 Foster Parent of the Year Award!"

Outta Pocket

A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets may also be attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag or pouch.[1] - Wikipedia

Found these lovely items in our laundry room in a pile by the sink. Coby was doing his laundry and emptied the contents of his pockets and this is what they contained. Can you imagine if it had all gone through the wash???

I would also like to share that this amount came out of 4 pairs of jeans. (I did caution him about the amount of mechanical pencils he is carrying around with him... that is just an accident waiting to happen)

This is why all these young men are walking around with saggy pants people! Look at what is weighing them down!

S.W.A.T.

 

This morning as I emerged from my bedroom I was greeted by Coby and his new RIOT SHIELD. He had been up since 6 a.m. feverishly working in the garage to make this new item of necessity.

When asked why he felt it necessary to create a riot shield, Coby replied, "You can never be too prepared."

P.S. As you can see it is not quite finished yet... Coby desires to spray paint it black. (He asked me to add that to the blog as he didn't wany anyone to think he would just leave it like that.)

Subconscious

Coby has always been early riser. We never had to wake him up. He was up with the birds - literally. But lately something has changed... it is harder to wake him up. Could it be the fact that he is a teenager and that is what they are supposed to do? I wasn't sure so I asked Coby about it.

"Coby, I think maybe you need to start going to bed earlier because I am having a really hard time waking you up in the morning." Coby, "No Mom, that wouldn't help at all." Me, "I think it would help a lot, you would be better rested and more pleasant. :)" Coby, "You don't understand the problem Mom." Me, "Why don't you explain it to me?"

Coby, "The problem is that when you wake me up you only wake me up to my subconscious level and you need to be waking me up to my mentally conscious level so that I can be aware of my surroundings."

Pause.... (Mom is thinking of what to say next) "Coby, I am pretty sure you just need to go to bed earlier."

I started thinking about how I would wake him up in the morning to be sure that he was fully aware of his surroundings. I could say, "Coby, honey - sweetheart. This is Mom. Tell me if you understand. Are you mentally conscious? Can you tell me if you are aware of your surroundings?"

Instead, I am pretty sure I will stick with my, "I said GET UP!" method. It gets the job done.

Cramster

Prologue: In the past trying to get Coby to do homework has not been pleasant. Usually it consists of, "Coby, do you have homework?" "No Mom I did it all at school." While exploring the backpack and skyward account we would learn that he did indeed have homework... he just seemed to have magically forgotten about it. It has never been an easy process and yesterday I received a little gift from heaven...

Yesterday was the second day of school. When I got home from work and asked Coby how his day was, he said it was really good. He told me that he needed to find our calculator because he had a homework assignment. Now to many people this may not seem like a big deal, but for me this was HUGE! It is so exciting that I will repeat what I just wrote: Coby said, "I need to find the calculator because I have a homework assignment." My first reaction was, "Praise Jesus."

We found him a calculator and he went into his room with his homework and he sat quietly in his room for 40 minutes. I managed to peek (Mom's word for spy) on him several times because I was certain he had fallen asleep or had taken up a new activity. Everytime I looked he was working hard.

When he finally exited his room he came and found me and said, "That was unbelievable Mom, I finally know what that feeling is like when you finish your homework and get something done on time." He got a big hug from Mom!

Moving Day

We are in the midst of moving and I just found this written on one of the boxes Coby packed. I think I am going to take the message seriously.