Barry’s Daily Web News

An Interesting Day

I worked from home again today. I felt terrible when I woke up this morning, then felt better as the day went on, if a bit tired. Ethan only goes to school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday, so he was home for the day. Sean is still excited about kindergarten.

This afternoon, Cortney took the kids out to a splash park nearby, while I was interviewed over the phone this afternoon. This was an internal interview, and phone interviews are not uncommon, so the fact that I was at home was not a big deal.

I took Sean and Ethan to the library this evening. For story time, they brought in an assistance dog. This dog was used to help a boy who could not communicate well with others. I learned that you are only allowed to pet an assistance dog if they are lying down or sitting. It seemed to me that Sean and Ethan just saw a normal dog, although they were happy to pet the dog at the end of storytime.

I think a full day like we had today is just a bit too much for Sean. He is starting to misbehave around dinner time. I think this is just because he is tired and hungry. Sean did behaved well at the library. Maybe when kindergarten is a bit more routine, Sean will not have this problem.

First Day of School

Both Sean and Ethan enjoyed their first day of school. I did not enjoy today so much. I felt bad enough to go see the doctor, and the doctor put my on antibiotics. I hope that does the trick, because I was fairly miserable today.

Our First School Night

Well, the summer is finally over. Sean starts kindergarten tomorrow, and Ethan will go to preschool for the first time. Cortney already had their outfits laid out by mid-afternoon. I showered them after a dip in the pool following dinner. Sean and Ethan stayed up later than usual, since I took on some emergency babysitting duty, but I still expect them to get a full night of sleep.

Sick Again

Somehow, I managed to get sick again. Two weeks ago, I had some type of virus that made me really tired, but with no real symptoms. This time, I feel terrible, with a sore throat and headache, but I seem to have plenty of energy.

I tried to spend some time with Sean and Ethan, but I did not feel like doing much. I did go out and wash the pool filter. The green water has gone away, but the pool water is extremely cloudy. I hope to take Sean and Ethan swimming tomorrow.

Nothing New

Today was a typical Friday. I took Sean and Ethan to Burger King, they had lots of fun, then they went to bed, and then Cortney and I watched some DVDs. The weather has been mild but humid, and I guess the biggest news is that our pool turned green over the week. I put in some chemicals to kill the algae, so hopefully the pool will be swimmable by tomorrow night.

Meet the Teacher

Tonight was meet the teacher night at Sean’s school. We missed curriculum night last night, but we were able to pick up the materials as well as get the details on Sean’s bus schedule. Our neighborhood has the afternoon class, but Sean will be going in the mornings (he is more alert in the morning), so Sean will be riding the bus with the older kids and Cortney will pick him up to take him home.

Business Networking

The work day consisted of a team recognition event at a local hotel. I was not on one of the teams, but I did help prepare for the event. The event ran from lunch until 9:00 PM, so I stayed home in the morning to spend time with the kids, since I would not see them in the evening.

This morning, Sean and Ethan played by themselves for the the most part, so I did not spend that much time with them; I just kept an eye on them to give Cortney a break. The team recognition event was fun, and I did meet at least a few new people. Actually, it will be good to get back on a normal schedule tomorrow.

The Sugar Glider

For story time at the library this evening, an animal handler brought in a sugar glider. A sugar glider is an Australian marsupial, and looks almost like a flying squirrel. The sugar glider we saw was named “Boo”, and she was actually a mom, with a baby in her pouch. Sean seemed to enjoy the animal demonstration. He, along with the other kids, was allowed to pet the sugar glider.

Ethan had to stay home. When I came home from work, he was sleeping. I woke him up for dinner, but he never did eat, and was too cranky to go to the library, so he stayed home.

A Rainy, Humid Day

Today was the second day in the last week where we had early morning rain and the temperatures failed to reach 100 degrees. I think this is the first time in five years we have experienced weather like this. We have experienced humid weather, but we typically get sunny days and perhaps a late afternoon or evening storm.

Sean and Ethan were both up in the middle in the night last night, so it was difficult to deal with them this evening. We did the divide and conquer act. Cortney took Ethan to the store while I took Sean to gym class. This was a good thing, since Cortney and I needed to do much work to straighten the house for the cleaners tomorrow.

Pool Fun

Cortney received her new camera this week, which was an early birthday gift from my parents. We were looking for an easy to use camera that was fairly fast, and we settled on a Fuji Finepix F10. Here’s an a picture that Cortney took today, which shows a good “action” shot (click on image to see full-sized picture):

Challenger Space Center

Today, we went to see the Challenger Space Center, which is just a few miles from our house. We debated whether to take Sean and Ethan on the tour, but we decided to go ahead with the tour. Ethan was a bit restless for part of it, but Sean enjoyed it, particularly the simulated space shuttle mission.

Afterwards, we stopped at the nearby by McDonald’s, which had a space theme, which was neat. Sean and Ethan played in a rocket themed play area before we returned home.

Ethan Has Recovered

Ethan appears to be over his illness, and his conjunctivitis has cleared up as well. Apparently, Ethan had enough energy to give Cortney a hard time today. At least both Sean and Ethan were able to burn off some energy in the Burger King play area this evening.

A Night Off

Since I took Sean and Ethan to the gym last night, we had no planned activities for the evening. So, I just relaxed and took it easy. I did help Sean and Ethan build a big train track layout with the wooden trains. The new wood floor makes a nice stable base for the train tracks.

Ethan Doesn’t Like the Gym

I took both Sean and Ethan to they gym again this evening. This time, it was so Ethan could try the Mom and Me class. I guess since we were the only ones in the class, it was Dad and Me. It turns out Ethan did not care much for the tumbling class. My theory was that Ethan was thinking he could do the same things as Sean, then found out he could not. At any rate, we quit half way through the class. I may try bringing Ethan again in a few months, but Ethan is done with the gym for now.

Sean’s School Evaluation

I forgot to mention that I took Sean for his kindergarten evaluation yesterday. This was done by the two kindergarten teachers at Sean’s school, as well as the nurse who did vision and hearing screening.

As it happened, Sean’s teacher for the screening will not be his regular teacher, so I did not get a chance to meet his actual teacher. Sean was first asked to write his name, which I knew he could not do well. Sean actually wrote all of the letters, with the A coming out as an H. The only problem was the letters were in the wrong order, with Sean’s name written from right to left rather than left to right.

Sean passed all of the other tests with flying colors. He had no problem counting to thirty, and recognizing letters, numbers, colors and shapes. The teacher was impressed with the emphasis Sean gave when giving answers to her questions, demonstrating confidence in his answers. The teacher said the Sean will have no problem academically in kindergarten.