Here is Puck, I am learning that he is WICKEDLY smart!


Isn't he a cutie!


Okay I think we need to upgrade to a King, what do you think? LOL


Here he's nibbling on the blanket that I made for him to keep with his litter so he wouldn't be so sad without them. I think he has a wistful look as the STENCH of this blanket reminds him of them.



And his first full day with us has come to an end.

Introducing...

Our new baby, Puck! 

He came home at dinner time and he has explored and played hard with the boys.  Damon cried the whole way to the breeder's because he was feeling sorry for Becca, the puppy's mom because we were taking her baby.  I told him not to worry, that the breeder would be keeping 1 or 2 of Becca's daughters, but that was little consolation. Then we picked him up and the whole way home, Damon cried because he felt sorry for Puck because he will miss his family.  LOL  Campbell was funny because as soon as the puppy got in the door, he hauled out everything we had got for the dog.  Toys, blankets, food, biscuits, leashes, a large sized sweater. After dinner, he got a chance to romp with Puck and pretend he was a littermate.  Kira isn't sure if she likes him yet. Poor Patrick had to go to hockey and couldn't pick him up with us and then his coach gave him a curfew because he wants the team well rested for tomorrow's game, the first of the playoffs. He will have to wait a bit to bond with Puck.

I know that I like him and can't wait for a chance to snuggle with him tonight.

Almost puppy time

one more sleep!

The school went skating today and I went along. I'm glad I did, because otherwise none of the boys in Patrick's class would have had their skates tied on properly! Another mom who has 6 boys in hockey (EEEK) was there with her niece (who is one of 8 kids) tying all of the girls laces in record time!

Poor Damon though. He was having a good time, skating around, showing off his great skating skills to his teacher and fellow classmates. Then his "best friend" and another friend who was his teammate from last year began to chase him and then push him down on ice. He came and told me and wanted to come off the ice. I told him to tell his teacher, but she wasn't skating, and he couldn't get her attention through the glass. I watched them do it to him again (of course not in front of where the teacher was watching). He couldn't even skate fast and get away because they had gotten another older child to help them round him up. I walked around the arena and told her and she watched them do it to him again at the other end of the ice before calling them over and giving them one last warning before they would be pulled from the ice.

I think we are going to have to convince Damon to go through a change of guard when it comes to his "friends". I am getting irritated by the way his "best friend" treats him and his brothers. They have known each other since they were 3 and they have a lot in common (2nd son, love the outdoors and extreme sports). BUT he is argumentative with me, mean and spiteful to Campbell and Patrick, and is a bad influence on Damon. (I want my kids to make their own friends. I wonder if his mom is thinking the same thing about Damon.) And now he is bullying him. That is not a friend. I haven't tried to intervene before because I really like his parents and his brother and sister, and I don't understand why he is such a playground bully. He is the biggest suck around his mom too. *rolling eyes* I don't have him over very often because I have to supervise them very closely. When he has been here, he and Damon have destroyed property, picked on Campbell and he has said some pretty inappropriate things in an attempt to look tough. Once I even took him home early because he was threatening Campbell with a baseball bat (well he did it twice, the first time I told him that if I saw that again he was leaving).

Damon has a sensitive soul inside of his tough exterior. I have been encouraging that with his art classes and signing him up for the junior humane club, but at the same time letting him "get it out" with things like lacrosse, hockey and doing physical things with his buddies.

Only 95 school days until summer vacation!

Well, Miss New Teacher went to bat for us. I need to give her credit. She went back to Ms. Resource Teacher and explained that Patrick had already had a full medical work up because of my concerns about his repeated illnesses, and has in the past had lots of tests done to monitor his kidney condition. Ms. Resource Teacher's response was, "well that's the best we can do". So Miss New Teacher tells me there is nothing to worry about. I thanked her, but let her know that I was insulted that Ms. Resource Teacher's attitude towards me. I said that I understand that her concern would be warranted if she didn't know the parents and was worried that the child may be slipping through the cracks medically, but *I* am insulted that she didn't trust that I would get my children proper medical attention. I also let her know that I have done my homework on how many hours of french instruction time he needs and that there is no policy on legitimate absences during that time. I thanked her for her time and effort in clearing this up for us. I'm sure Miss New Teacher is not going to say anything to Ms. Resource Teacher about that, but hopefully this will help her in the future when Ms. Resource Teacher tries to bulldoze her again. Miss New Teacher is new, and doesn't know when to trust her own judgement yet. *sigh* So I'm going to walk away from this, but I've already spread my seed. heee hee I got to go for tea with a bunch of mothers from the school, one of them even works at the school as a lunchtime superviser. When I told my story, I heard another horror story about Ms. Resource Teacher (AKA the ice queen) from her. And they all had negative things to say about the teacher and the games she plays. So I feel supported by my fellow parents anyway. Thanks for all the words of encouragement from you ladies. Only 96 school days until summer vacation.

Ohhh, Game ON!

I am just livid. Patrick's teacher called me, but she's not the one I am angry with. After discussing the fact that Patrick is already caught up from an entire week's worth of absences, she was calling me to warn me about another teacher. There is this "resource" teacher at the school, who is in charge of way to much in my mind. She is the one who assesses children for giftedness, or LDs. She edits the school newsletter (which never congratulates children for their sport successes under the school name), she reads the announcements. Anyway, she decided that Patrick should continue to be in a reading group with her, despite the fact that he is doing really well in reading now. So after he has been sick so often, and his teacher expressed her concerns about how much classtime he has missed, I questioned the need for him to be in the reading group, since they miss classtime for that. The teacher said she would bring it up with Ms. Resource Teacher, who in turn said that Patrick needs to be in it but it is ultimately my decision. I said, fine, let's let him do it, but if I find that he is missing too much, I will ask that he doesn't go with her anymore. Well I'm guessing she didn't like that. Last week when he was sick (as in sick with asthma and a high fever), Ms. Resource Teacher noticed and asked Miss New Teacher how much school he has missed already this year. She told her 24 days so Ms. Resource Teacher said, well then you need to bring him up to "team". "Team" is when the teachers, the principal and Ms. Resource Teacher sit and discuss individual students and their progress or their struggles. She told Miss New Teacher that Patrick would probably be recommended for a pediatric evaluation. I was floored and said, that it absolutely unnecessary. I said, you realize that he has asthma, and a kidney condition which have both required extensive testing. I also told her that last fall when he had the flu 3 times in a row that the doctor and I were concerned and had him go for bloodtests to rule out frigging leukemia. She is going to bring this up. I don't really have anything to fear if he has an assessment, it is basically just a checkup, but it infuriates me that Ms. Resource Teacher is taking it to this point, just to piss me off because I questioned the necessity of her group. She claims that the concern is that he is missing too much french instruction time that is required for French Immersion. She said that he has missed 25% of it. So, I did my homework and found out that is bogus, there is no such requirement, and if they want to get technical, their program doesn't even meet the minimum percentage of daily french instruction to be considered and get funding as french immersion. Does she really want to go there with me? LOL Based on the school year, he has actually missed 14% of his french instruction time. While that is a lot, my point is that he was SICK. You know, fever, headache, lethargy, cough, wheezing and oh yeah, ASTHMA ATTACKS.

I called another mom who is an executive on Parent council and she was furious too. She has an older child at the school, so she knows full well what Ms. Resource Teacher is like and she HATES her. She said to go take her on. ;-)

I understand that this process would be good for some child who was missing a lot of school, because he or she wasn't getting adequate medical treatment, or if they had concerns that there may be signs of child abuse that is causing the absences. But neither of those is the case. He isn't missing days because of untreated illnesses, nor is it because of questionable injuries. He has missed it because he has had 5 viruses since September, not to mention the relapses that he had because after pressure from the teacher, we sent him back too early.

Okay, I can breathe now...