Hay Happens and Hay's Happen

Shrimp Kabob storm that is. Look at this delight!

They are a dynamic duo!
I should add DELICIOUS too. I love you two to PIECES!

3.3 means 3rd grade, 3rd month. This is where she is right now in Februrary of 1st grade. The next highest AR reader in the class, Sebastian, is a 3.2. The rest are in the 2’s or mostly 1’s still. I love watching her embrace this new chapter, literally. We have been reading Magic Treehouse books, and they are so fun.

They are like non-fiction with many historical facts, but they are magical as well. She reads about 3 chapters a day so then she can take an AR test after 3 days. I don’t want her to get burned out on reading; therefore, we do about this much at this point in her reading journey. I still like to read to her. Our latest fav is DogMan comics. So funny and ridiculous actually. But nice levity to balance the other readings. We need ALL genres to show her reading is not just READ>take test. READ>take test…and so on. It should be a joyful experience.

So, we make it fun. Chocolate can be involved with doesn’t hurt.

I’m so proud of how far you are coming in reading, honey. XXOO

Tatum and I read a DEVOTION and Bible Verse daily.

The beginning of February reminded me that it’s a true learning curve that I find myself going on with her. Nobody is immune to growth. We all need it and we all need to be humbled by our puffed up knowledge at times.

Anyway, we spend time discussing the Bible verse and what it means for our lives. The devotion is an extra dose of fodder for discussion and application for our lives.

Just the other day, I thought it was especially good.

This verse in James can be completely misunderstood, but put in the context of beauty coming from ashes, makes it truly welcoming. Not that we welcome pain and suffering: NO! However, as Tatum grows, she will experience challenges. WE ALL DO. It’s how you handle it that separates you from the world. HOW can you embrace your hardships and turn them into good? God will, and knowing that with your whole heart will allow you to trust that this too shall pass, and it will grow my relationship with HIM. It will also sanctify me into becoming more like Christ. Now that I’ll welcome. I continue to teach this to Tatum, and seeing it in the devotion gave Tatum more realization of how she need not fear.

I love praying with her in the morning. Today, she read to me and wanted to do the praying. OK! I’ll take it my sweet girl. I love being on the Learning Curve with you.

You are a delight to my soul.

I fessed up to Tatum today. I don’t have the neatest handwriting. HOWEVER, if I am writing FOR someone like a teacher or a greeting card, I do my absolute neatest work (usually) *wince.* Why she may ask? I answered this for her in the car. What you do on paper represents a bit of who you are. If you turn in a sloppy paper, you are basically saying, “I don’t care about myself, you, or my work.” Ouch. That hit home for her.

You see, she has her moments of sloppiness and she has moments where she is truly as neat as a pin with her printing. Her BFF, Charlotte, writes nearly perfectly, and this drives her to do better. I love that she picks friends that make her rise up.

Well, I thought….I need a challenge for her. Some type of incentive and practice plan. She loves to do these, and it can be fun if we make it fun.

We got out her cute little unicorn journal from Cynthia, and decided that she would write two sentences each day about her day. If she gets two smiley faces, she gets to color in a dot. She can earn only two a day. If she only earns one, she can try again to earn another.

First, how she holds the pencil has been a never-ending problem. It’s also become a bad habit. I had her demonstrate the pencil hug. We laughed a bit after we practiced the correct way. This now felt a bit funny!

And sloppy!

Let’s try the pinch with the three fingers. Make them kiss!

OK, now we are getting somewhere. She told me she couldn’t do it and needed those pencil grips. I told her she is ready to do this! C’mon, Tot. You are in 1st grade. Let’s DO THiS! After a bit of frustration, she didn’t give up. I love that about her.

She earned her smileys today.

I am all about creating good habits. If she can get the pencil kiss down, I think she’ll have no problem. She agreed and marked her dot.

As her mommy, my goal is to be her coach, her encourager, and her supporter. I want her to feel supported and in turn successful. She needs to feel like she’s capable. I can also make it fun because if we feel like we are having fun, we are more likely to retain what we learn. I’m proud of your efforts, Bumby. I love you!

Daddy got to go see her at her Lobster class on Monday. I had a colonoscopy so he had the honors of watching her kicking, stroking, and gliding through the water. She is truly our little fish.

They sent me her an update on how she is doing in the class.

She only has a few skills left, and then she is on a TEAM! I can’t believe how much she is growing and still loving it. I’m proud of her efforts and drive. Go TOT-Lobster!

This was Tatum the minute we got home from Flagstaff.

103.5 degree temperature. YOIKEEEE!!! We decided to wait picking up Cooper until tomorrow. Luckily Monday is MLK Jr. Day, so it’s a day off school.

The whole day, she only ate apple sauce and crackers.

On Sunday evening, we talked about our trip and all the wonders of being together for our 4th HAA. Yes, I pulled out the whiteboard since you can’t take the teacher out of the girl.

These are our “Plays Of The Weekend (POW’s)” or our highlights!

A bit closer for the rest of the POW’s

Daddy and I also noticed some definite differences in Tatum.

I’m so incredibly grateful that we got to go to Flag. Sharon and Andy are so special to us and they allowed this to happen. We love you guys!

More importantly, we all got to be together. Thank you, Hay Family. I love you so very much and would do anything for you.

We woke up Saturday morning NOT bright and early…and there was much rejoicing. The plan was to go on a little nature walk outside with all of our warm clothes on. Playing outside now was much more enjoyable (perhaps?) because she was CLOTHED in waterproof clothing.

Daddy got his gear on as did I, and we headed out. (his jacket is quite exciting!)

Now, it was only about 25 degrees out, and to us that was freezing, but the sun was out so it wasn’t terribly unbearable.

We noticed that the names on the streets had some girl’s names. Note, Tatum Isabella Hay.

Aren’t they cute?

We also spied many icicles. The ones on this house were quite intriguing because they were going sideways.

Tatum was getting pretty winded on our walk. She was having a harder time than usual. (HMMMMMM…Little did we know….)

We got home and then headed out again for our surprise. We were going to go to a tubing park to play and ride tubes in the snow. We arrived, and guess what!??? They were all sold out. FOR THE WHOLE DAY. Ugh.
So, plan B. We figured we’d find our own hill and sled (PRAISE GOD that Doug brought a sled). Oh, and it was free!

First a little snow play.

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and then the WEEEEEEEE!! Tatum went first and then we went down together. My steering was a bit off.

Back up and down again and again. Daddy had to go park the car so he only joined us for a few runs, but honestly, we were tired out! The longer “DOWN” you go the more “UP” you have to go. Yes, that’s the dirty little secret of sledding.

Again, Tatum seemed kind of off at lunch. She slowed down a bit faster than usual. We weren’t sure what was up. About two hours after lunch, she said she felt terrible. I felt her forehead and it was burning up. I didn’t need a thermometer to tell me how sick she was. We searched the house for some aspirin. Luckily they had 500mg tabs, so we cut it in 1/2 and had her chew it. Not ideal, but it worked until we’d go out and buy some Motrin. Meanwhile, we’d watch some Bugs Bunny, Tasmanian devil, Sylvester, Roadrunner, and Jetsons cartoons. That was pretty fun in itself!

The rest of the night was pretty mellow. We had a quiet dinner with, of course, Exploding Kittens. The Motrin kicked in, allowing her to play for a bit. Then, she went right to sleep.

We would head home early the next morning.

A SUPER fun day, despite this hiccup. Oh, Tot. I’m so sorry you feel yucky.