my baby viking

When we first started sitting Miles in his high chair and feeding him pureed veggies, i noticed quickly how voracious his appetite was. i was not prepared for the "eating style" that would follow when he started self feeding. a few weeks ago i started giving him canned green beans to feed to himself, he had green beans before but i fed them to him. he showed his true viking nature right off the bat by squealing , grabbing a fistful of food and SHOVING it toward his mouth, allowing green bean shrapnel to fall where it may.
in addition Miles will not tolerate cheerios when the rest of the family is enjoying chicken, or waffles, or chili or anything really, he would love to dive in and feed himself but unfortunately for him i learned my lesson when he crammed a half of a yeast roll in his mouth and therefore couldnt breathe, facilitating the prompt removal of said yeast roll. theres nothing like a wet soggy, chewed up yeast roll to rouse my appetite. my dinner was over at that point as i spent the rest of "dinner time" feeding my baby viking bits of food from my plate, which has become a running theme, he eats at least half of my dinner on any given night. i tell people that this is how i got back into my pre baby jeans.

Dominic's new school adventure

this picture is by now about 3 weeks old but the last month has gone SUPER fast.
this was Dominic's last week at EO Muncie. during his parent teacher conference it became VERY clear to us that despite his teacher's best efforts,  dominic was not doing well in the area of classroom behavior  so after much deliberation we decided that an on line charter school recomended by his former principal would be a good alternative to the traditional class room.

i have to say that in the last 3 weeks i have learned SO much about why Dominic was not doing well in school behavior wise.

i learned that he hates review, he gets it, he wants to move on.
i learned that he gets hungry at about 10 am, lunch isnt until 11:15.
i learned that the reason he refused for three months to willingly make a journal entry is because he is not good at handwriting.

three key things that directly contributed to his less than stellar behavior.

my goal is to teach him to better discipline himself and control his impulses.
become more comfortable asking for help and communicating.
and of course help him become more comfortable with his handwriting, because school is going to be rough if he refuses to do his work due to bad handwriting.

i know that there are those who disagree with our decision to remove him from a traditional class room for a year and who subtly criticize by asking us about his social development but at this time we believe that this is the best option available to maintain a love of learning and avoid ending up with a kid who hates going to school.