Since my last post...

Thursday I went to parent/teacher conference.  Brenden's reading is off the chart.  His teacher tests in different areas and one of them was "Nonsense words."  They are words that technically fit together following the rules of creating a word (like kiv), but are not actually words.  He scored 106.5 words in a minute - she said the standard is in the teens and she has never seen a score that high.  (I didn't think of my response until tonight, but I should have told her that it was because we have been reading the nonsense of Dr. Seuss to him since he was born.)  She basically told me that his scores were not applicable on some of the other tests because things like "letter sounds" mean nothing to him anymore because he can simply read and he doesn't need to think about letter sounds like the standard kindergartner.  His classmates are currently learning about the letter "k."  He has trouble reading aloud in class because his brain doesn't want to slow down long enough for his mouth to say the words, so he slurs everything together.  We are working on pronunciation and enunciation.  He is not applying himself in math and has chosen to simply X out the problems he would rather not do.  

Speaking of Brenden: we recently went through a trying period where he claimed (outloud!) that he knows EVERYTHING!  He would come home from school and I would start to tell him about our day and he would yell, "I know, I know!  I know everything!"  After a few days of that, I strictly forbade the phrase from home or school.

Friday Doug took Brenden to a hockey game.  The hockey team came to Brenden's school last week and gave all the kids free tickets, so they sat in a section full of kids at the game.  Brenden got all the kids chanting: Go...Go...Go! while pounding their fists.  He enjoyed the game and claims to be the reason the team got 2 points.

Saturday Doug worked, but I took the kids to a book carnival.  We received 4 tickets (one for each of us) and 3 of them won, so we got free books.  Brenden played a game and won a book (of which he read 6 chapters while he was supposed to be in bed) and the kids won other fun prizes.  There was a blow-up bounce thing, so the boys both really liked that.  They had a teenager running the thing and I thought he was kind of dumb because he constantly stopped the line of kids entering the thing right between siblings when it was completely obvious that they were together.

Sunday Doug took Nolan and Brenden out sledding on the lake - well, he pulled them on a sled behind the snowmobile - although I have been reminded several times that in Alaska they are not called snowmobiles, they are snowMACHINES.  Brenden and Nolan were both very concerned they were going to fall through the ice, which is over 16 inches thick for the most part.  Nolan complained that he was cold and was going to walk home, so Doug brought him home and went back out with Brenden.  He caught some cute shots of them.

Nolan, Fugde (our ever-constant shadow), and Brenden

Brenden's snow alien - he later added antenna.

Brenden and Doug wrote "We (heart) Mom" in the snow, but they couldn't get a high enough picture to see it well.  What mom wouldn't appreciate that?  I love my boys - the big one included.