During winter break, Jon went on a series of field trips with the day care. On one of them, he went skating for the first time. There were several teachers there who took turns taking Jon for a spin around the rink. I wasn't there, by the way. I sent my little camera with a co-worker that I knew would take good car of it. This was his favorite field trip! All of the kids loved the fog machine!
One of the other kids Jon's age tried to help Jon. Luckily, Jon was a bit too nervous about that.

This is Ms. Laurie. She is the after-school teacher for Jon & his friends. She is also the Pre-K teacher in the morning. There is no one quite like Laurie! She's the best!

Okay, I am finally getting a post done! I haven't even been able to look at other people's blogs lately!
The first set of pictures are from the holiday party at Jon's school. Each class had their own party, and the parents were invited. Jon has many very sweet classmates who love him.
These are Jon's kindergarten teachers. Mrs. Race and Ms. Smith.
On Christmas Eve, we went to Bear Creek Park.

Jon talked me into going down this slide. It was fun, until I realised that my elbows had rubbed the entire way down. Ouch! They both had friction burns for the next couple of days.

Jon woke up early Christmas morning to look for his train from Santa.
A Playmobil house from Auntie Daria & Cousins Summer & Baxter.


The kitchen is a perfect place to play with a huge airplane! Thanks Grandma & Papa!

I came outside, to find Jon trying to tie a rope to his car. After getting a little help from Mommy, he was ready to roll!

Just a few catch-up photos. I just haven't been able to get to the blog as often as I'd like.

Charlie took Jon to a car show the weekend before leaving for California. They had Lighting McQueen there, but you had to pay to get a picture taken with it. Charlie realized that they weren't preventing pictures of the back of the car, so he took one. Once in a while, we decide to reward Jon with some Daddy drawn underwear. (Sounds silly, but Jon loves it!) We let Jon decide what should be on the undies. These are what has been done so far.

Jon's soccer season finally ended. We had a party at Chick-Fil-A after the last game. The team manager brought this cake for the team.

Jon & I were messing around with the frosting. We both ended up with it on the face!


This was the first time that I had ever seen Jon draw a person this way. He loves to write & draw while on the computer. In fact, we have to be careful about what pieces of paper are on the desk. He will use anything handy!

Ta-ta for now!

I went to Jon's school last Monday for their Thankgiving Feast. Parents were invited to come have lunch with their kids. Charlie tried really hard to make it, but couldn't.
The school has a beautiful new cafeteria that makes it much easier for everyone. Jon was able to easily pick what he wants, then he goes to the register & punches in his 5 digit PIN number. It was so cool to see! I also got to find out what he likes to eat there. He has 3 favorite items. Hamburger, hot dogs, and nachos. The hamburger & hotdogs are alternated as the everyday hot sandwich that kids can get instead of the main item. Nachos are (I think) every Thursday. He also likes to get the fresh fruit with a salad. I decided to go back to letting him eat school lunches because it's more important for him to eat, than to worry about ingredients right now. (Besides, this is some pretty good stuff!) And, the hamburgers are actually soy!
I got to meet Jon's school buddies. This is Kiera. She absolutely adores Jon! There's another girl, Clara, that used to be in Jon's PPCD class last year. They love playing together as well. Then there's a couple of boys that he hangs with. They all insisted on informing me that Jon used to say bad words, but now he doesn't! You have to look closely to see why I took this picture. If you look at the front of his car, you will see a flashlight jammed in there. This is his headlight! He came up with this yesterday, & I just thought it was too cute & creative! Oh yeah, and my Christmas tree got put up yesterday! That has Jon sooo excited about Christmas! He went to turn on the lights as soon as he woke up this morning.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a yummy meal, as we thought about all the things we are thankful for. The thing is, we talk about what we're thankful for all the time. We don't need a holiday for that. We do, however, need the holiday, so we'll accept it! It's always nice to get a couple of days off.

We love all of you, and think of everyone often!

I just had to get this picture up today! Jon had noticed recently that his car didn't have a license plate. We mentioned that we'd keep an eye out for one, thinking that we'd get to a store that has those small plates for kids with their names on them. Well, yesterday, we were out running errands, when we saw a license plate on the ground. Charlie decided to put it on Jon's car! It's even better at the stores, because it's the real thing, complete with an "airplane"!

Okay, it's been a while since I've posted anything on the blog. I am super behind on my pictures. I'll try to get as much done this weekend as I can.

This is from a company picnic at the beginning of October. When Jon wasn't playing, he was eating! It was an all day thing, with us leaving the park at around 4pm. We had just gotten a few blocks, when Jon fell asleep! He was one tuckered out little guy!


These wooden trucks were fun! Very few kids even knew they were there, so it was wasn't a busy spot at all! Jon knew where to go, because he remembered them from last year's picnic.
There were dragon flies everywhere! I wish I had gotten a picture of Jon chasing them!
There was a dark game room for the kids. Jon loved this fire truck. He spent a long time hula hooping, but the pictures didn't come out.
Jon loved his pony ride.
Who's that strange woman?

Jon found a playground with this space shuttle toy. He calls it an airplane, and it was his favorite ride of the day!
He insisted that Mommy get on it with him. You can see how tired he is in those droopy eyes!
This was Jon's first time having a snow cone. They had been offered in the past, but he had never wanted to try them before. He likes snow cones!

Just wanted to let everyone know how Jon is doing in Kindergarten. I went to his school's open house Monday night. I got to meet his teacher, Mrs. Smith and the inclusion teacher, Ms. Race. Jon showed me where some of his other classes are as well. He loves PE and music.



He is doing wonderfully with academics. Jon is right where he should be. He loves to listen to books on tape, and follows them word for word. (As long as it's just him, and not the whole class.) There is a computer game that he plays that helps with letters, and letter sounds. Apparently, he does this game better than many first & second graders!

Jon is making new friends, and is having tons of fun! He will give feedback on stories read in class, and participates in all aspects of the class! They say his comprehension in amazing. This isn't really new news, but it's great to hear from a kindergarten teacher!



Having said that, he won't sit still! (Big shock, I know!) He has his own desk, and won't stay in it. The teachers have already figured out that he learns best while wandering the room, but also know that he has to learn to sit. They try to give him some freedom to roam, and will be working on it throughout the year.

We constantly remind him to behave at school, listen to the teachers, and stay at his desk. However, we all know that he's not exactly thinking about what Mommy told him that morning when he runs around the room! He's not going to stop, & think "oh yeah, I promised Mommy to behave today. I'd better go sit down." Yeah right! He does, by the way, know what it means to behave. In case anyone starts wondering. I ask him everyday what it means. He will list it out for me: listen to the teacher, no bad words, stay at my desk, no running around the classroom, do what the teacher says. The list was slightly different during summer, and I never told him about changing the wording. He figured out the "new" meaning on his own.

Jon's interests have also started expanding. He still loves cars, of course. Now, however, he loves airplanes, trains, computer games, and anything outside. He keeps telling us that he wants a train set. Luckily, I still have my old Brio set (I was told that I should have it tested for lead, it being so old.) Plus, I had found a cool set right after his birthday that was on clearance at Toy R' Us. It's a train that goes around a zoo, complete with animals. And, it looks like it will connect to Brio!

Jon being Jon, he starts saying he wants a train set every time he sees anything that reminds him. I keep telling him that he needs to tell Santa, and that if he doesn't run around the classroom too much, Santa might get him one! (When did I become one of THOSE moms?!?) Sometimes, I will come into the office, and find Jon telling his Lowrider Santa all the things he wants for Christmas! I can just see him wanting to go from mall to mall, making sure he constantly reminds Santa of his wishes!

Anyway, I didn't mean for this little update to go on forever! I tend to do that, when it comes to Jon. (Just ask my co-workers!) I'm liable to bore the snot out everyone, so I had better go eat my lunch. I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week! I love you guys!

On Sept. 15, we took a drive to Dallas to visit with Charlie's former boss from Sara Lee. They were in town for their son's soccer match. While there, we went to the Sixth Floor Museum. It was a museum to chronicle Pres. Kennedy's assasination, and events leading up to it. Jon liked looking at the pictures of the cars and airplanes.
One of the strangest things was to see people outside taking pictures. There are X's in the street in the 2 locations where Kennedy was shot. During breaks in traffic, people would stand on the X's to have pictures taken. That just seems a wee bit strange to me.
I thought this picture was cool, in that it looks like Kennedy is looking at Jon. He was in a bit of a mood, and kept saying "Mommy doesn't want to take my picture." Oh, and according to Jon, President Kennedy is riding in a low rider! Imagine that!

We stayed the night in Arlington. The next morning, we drove to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose. It is far better than the place we had been going to in San Antonio. The scenery is prettier, the animals are more spead out, and they have giraffes roaming around. It was cool to see giraffes so close up, without a fence to block the view. There was one picture I didn't post, of a giraffe eating from a guys hand in front of us.

Jon was bouncing from one side to the other, not wanting to miss anything!

When there were no animals, things got pretty silly!
He's taller than a cheetah, but not quite as tall as a zebra.

At the petting area, they don't allow food. Instead, they provide brushes. The animals love it, and they don't over eat.

I know I've posted pictures like this before, but it still makes me laugh to have a zebra stick it's head all the way into the van!

What a beautiful animal!

This young giraffe was cute! It was very curius about the cars.

We just had to have a zebra try to eat the van! This time, it went for the mirror. If you look closely, you can see it's teeth reflected in the mirror! Of course, Jon cracks up when he sees this picture!

This shot might seem shocking. However, we were going about 5 mph, and Charlie had a super firm grip on Jon. He didn't even try to go out any farther than this. That doesn't mean I wasn't nervous, though!

Fossil Rim is part of a Cheetah conservation program. They have quite a few of them, spread out amongst several enclosures.

The rhinos have a huge area to roam. They have 2 separate enclosures for them, as well.

Fossil Rim was a great place to take Jon. It's a 9.5 mile drive through the park, with a cafe & gift shop in the middle. While there, you can almost forget that you are still in icky-yucky Texas, it's so pretty!

After getting back home, Jon & I were working on a puzzle we got at the gift shop. Jon coughed, and started crying and screaming. We could not figure out what was going on, and Jon was too upset to say anything. Everytime he'd cough, he'd cry more. We were about to take him to the emergency room. We got Jon into the van, and started driving. Jon calmed down enought at that point to let me know his ear hurt. I was afraid he may have burst an eardrum. I took him to his doctor Monday, and discovered that there was a lot of fluid putting major pressure on the eardrum. That's what was causing the pain when he coughed. Anyway, we're almost through with this round of anti-biotics, and his ear feels much better. He'll being seeing his ENT next month, and we'll find out if the right ear needs a tube. (The left ear had one put back in last Feb.)