Bein’ Franklin

Posted by DaddyFranklin at December 28th, 2007

Posted by mommyfranklin at December 14th, 2007

Just some more pictures of Zachary with his birthday presents.

Here’s Zachary in a new outfit he got from his great-grandparents.

And, here he is enjoying the Diego nap pad that I made for him from fleece. When I took him to pick out the fabric, the only thing he would even look at was the Diego fleece. I had hoped to make him a bedspread like I did for the other kids, but there was not enough. I ordered some more, so he’ll get his bedspread eventually. There was enough for a nappad though, which he needed anyway for school. His teacher tells me that he just loves it.

And, then Emily and Timothy wanted me to get a picture of them pretending to nap too.

Posted by mommyfranklin at December 14th, 2007

I have meant to upload this for a week now, but I’ve been preoccupied. If you’ve read Scott’s blog this week, then you know why.

Despite what Zachary may say, my babies are no longer babies. We’ve recently celebrated Zachary’s third birthday. This was his first real birthday celebration. We had a nice party when he turned 1, but that was really more for us than him. In lieu of a party last year, we attended the Veggietales live event. This is the first time he’s attended a Parent’s Day Out, so he actually had some friends to invite.

We had the party at TEGA Kids Superplex, a local preschool / gymnastics school. Zachary had chosen to have a Diego / Dora party. He had six friends come and had a wonderful time. Here are the pictures:

Time flies.

Posted by DaddyFranklin at December 12th, 2007

Three days ago, we left church early because Timothy was feeling ill and lethargic and complaining of pain in his ear.  By the end of the day, we was crying in pain.  Ibuprofen and Tylenol were keeping him from being completely miserable all the time, but each time the meds wore off, he would begin to cry again. 

On Monday morning, Lori took him to the doctor to find out that he had a sever inner ear infection.  Fortunately, even though it was bad, it had not perforated the ear drum.

He’s now on antibiotics and doing much, much better.  He was back at school today (Tuesday). I can’t think of anything more upsetting then knowing your child is in pain and you can’t just make it stop.

Posted by mommyfranklin at November 11th, 2007

We went to get our annual family pictures taken last night. When preparing to go, Scott commented that this would likely be our easiest portrait session to date. He had several reasons for this claim, with the biggest one being that our kids are no longer babies. There was also the notion that we would not have to travel an hour to get the studio as we have in the past, and we had decided against having the kids change clothes during the session. We were optomistic that things would go so smoothly that we may even get to go see a movie after we were done.

We arrived at Sears a few minutes early to our 6:00 appointment. The portrait studio is upstairs at this particular Sears, so the first obstacle we had to overcome was the escalator. Poor Zachary fell over trying to get on to go up, and we couldn’t get to him because Emily and Timothy were standing right in front of us waiting to get on. Once we made it to the top of escalator, we found ourselves surrounded by beds and appliances. These are two items that kids just can’t keep from touching. By the time we got to the portrait studio, it was 6:00.

So, we got checked in and waited while they prepared for our session. I had told them that I wanted a picture of the family, a picture of all three kids, and a picture of each boy next to the number of their age. Emily brought home a great picture from school, so we were not planning on getting a individual picture of her.

Finally, the photographer called us back. We started with three poses of the whole family. This went fairly smoothly, and we were fairly confident this would continue.

Next, the photographer decided to get a picture of Zachary with the number 3. He stood next to the number and indicated that he had to go to the bathroom right away. So, he and Scott headed to the bathroom and the photographer got out the number 4 for Timothy’s picture. Timothy was a little disappointed that there was no “1/2″ to get his picture taken with, but enjoyed getting to hold up the number for his pictures.

After taking Timothy’s picture, Zachary and Scott had still not returned, so the photographer decided to take Emily’s picture. Emily was more than happy to strike a pose.

Then, Scott and Zachary returned so the photographer set up the number 3 again. Timothy announced that he needed to go to the bathroom, so he and Scott left. Zachary stood by the number 3, furrowed his brow and announced that his tummy hurt. It seemed he hadn’t finished his business the first time, so I ran him to the bathroom and returned to the studio with Timothy. Emily got another picture taken during the exchange.

Finally, Zachary and Scott got back and Zachary headed to his place next to the number 3. For a while, he just refused to smile. The photographer seemed a bit inexperienced, so it was left to Scott and I to get him to smile. Finally, he did and we were lucky that the photographer snapped the picture at just the right second.

Next, it was time to get a picture of all three kids. This is where the inexperience of the photographer really showed. Despite me asking that we not use Christmas backgrounds, out came the Christmas panel and props. The kids were excited about the stuffed animals and books, and I was too tired to fight about it. The picture she got was cute, but we figure we can do a better job with our own camera. And, we will.

Finally, she took a picture of Scott and I together. This proved challenging because the boys decided to crawl around behind the curtains. As we were smiling to get our picture taken, Timothy was crying because he had once again been told to sit down.

Fun times. I am glad we just do it once a year. If you would like to see the rest of the pictures, just click here.

Posted by mommyfranklin at November 2nd, 2007

Zachary is still afraid of bugs. Not as bad as he once was, but they still make him uncomfortable. However, this did not stop him from dressing up as Spider Man for Halloween this year. He got to wear the costume on three different occasions and has now decided that the costume makes pretty good pajamas.

Since we have Friday mornings off, Zachary and I have joined the local Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) program. Last week, we had a play date at a local pumpkin patch. I had gone with Timothy on a field trip earlier in the week, so I was glad that Zachary had the opportunity to go on Friday. He even got to wear his costume, which he just thought was so much fun.

I discovered the benefit of having costumes with a mask that covers their whole face. It sure makes picture taking easy!

Posted by mommyfranklin at November 2nd, 2007

As a kid, one of my favorite scenes / songs from the movie, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” (the old one) was when Charlie got the golden ticket. You know the part I mean. Charlie had just found the ticket in a Wonka bar and had run home quickly to tell his family. He grandparents had been bedridden for 20 years, but “Grandpa Joe” was suddenly able to get out of bed to sing and dance about the golden ticket that ensured that he and Charlie would get to tour the chocolate factory that would eventually belong to Charlie. Sorry to ruin it for those of you that somehow missed seeing that movie.

Anyway, I have found myself humming that song a few times in the last couple days. It began when Emily came running up to me after to school to announce that she had received a golden prize ticket that day. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but figured it was a good thing, especially when some of the other students from her grade made a show of being quite impressed and a little jealous that Emily had received such a prize. The goal of parenting is to make the other kids jealous, right? I congratulated her for her accomplishment.

Upon arriving at home after picking her up, there was a message from her Principal that shed a little light on the subject. Her teacher had chosen her to be in the Principal’s 200 club because of her “awesome leadership.” She got to put her name in a special book and on the Golden Tiger Paw Wall of Fame. To decide where to put her name on the wall, she had drawn the number 40 out of a bucket. There will be a drawing at the end of the year in which she will be eligible to win a prize.

After hearing the message from the Principal, I asked Emily for more detail. It turns out that her teacher had called her to her desk while they were doing class work and presented her with the golden ticket. Emily said that her teacher had told her the ticket was given to her for following directions and being a good leader.

Way to go Emily!

Posted by mommyfranklin at November 2nd, 2007

I really like my job right now. I have grown to look forward to seeing the fifteen 2-year-olds that pass through my classroom on various days. My co-workers make up a caring group of ladies who I have really started to enjoy visiting with when I get the chance. As much as I like it, I would walk away from it all in a second if the boys were in a less than desirable situation. Fortunately, they both have great teachers.

Timothy is having such a great year. He amazes me and those around him with how quickly he is learning. He has mastered writing his name using capital and lower case letters, which apparently is a hard concept for 4 year olds. He has learned the months of the year, sign language for many words and the letters up to H, to count to 100 with very little assistance, several bible verses with sign language, and tons of new songs.

The pre-K teachers use so many great methods to teach letters. One of the teachers told me yesterday that many of their students have late Spring / Summer birthdays, so they are really working on hard on teaching the letters. It’s been particularly fun the last few weeks with the letters F, G, & H. For F, they had Funky Feet Day. Lots of the kids came in mis-matched socks. Timothy, however, opted to wear his Curious George slippers that day. For G, they had Grown Up Day. Scott blogged on this one already (he should be adding a picture to the post soon). This week, he had Horrible Hair Day. We’ve put off getting his hair cut, so we could slick it up into a curly mohawk. He loved it. When we took Timothy to school this morning (no school today for me or Zachary), Zachary was pretty unsure of the teachers and kids with their funny hair. He usually goes around giving hugs to the kids and teachers, but today he stuck close to me. He was more sociable when we picked Timothy up at noon and most of the wigs had come off.

Posted by DaddyFranklin at November 2nd, 2007

Here are the long awaited photos of Timo on “Grown-up” Day:

Posted by mommyfranklin at August 31st, 2007

I know the title of this post and the picture don’t really go together. I just really liked the picture. Ninety-nine percent of the time, Zachary is a mama’s boy. Emily and Timothy both went through a phase when they chose mama over daddy, but Zachary’s phase has lasted a little longer than theirs did. I really think he’s starting to come around. The two of them are starting to joke around a little, which is definitely how to reach Zachary’s heart. He just loves to laugh.