Denny Survived:

We are back home from our weekend of Denny sitting and I am happy to report he survived the weekend with the loud Taylor kids and their parents! My parents had a wonderful time in Tennesee at the wedding of their niece, Katie. They took some fun photos of their tripclick here for the blog post of the trip. I suggest you check out my step father's photo of his mother with her 3 sisters. 3 out of the 4 look almost identical. The title to the photo is "Irish Mount Rushmore". We also call them the Keebler Elves. They are so cute.

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Update on the teacher conference with Rachel. It appears that Rachel is holding her emotions in until she gets home, so she exhibits only happy behavior at school. She sees the reminders given for not following directions as a personal issue. Rachel thinks the teacher doesn't like her and feels like everything she does never measures up, so she dwells on these feelings of inadequacy rather than saying, "oh, I shouldn't have done that, I'll just not do that again", and move on with her day. I was not an overly emotional child. I was rather independent and a latch key kid, so I had to be organized and I didn't put much emphasis on the teacher liking me, or not. I do remember liking my teacher. I worry that she pins her emotions on how others persive her, which can be such shaky stuff. I'm really not sure how to deal with her emotions and obviously, neither is she.

I was impressed with the teacher's handling of the situation. She was direct and caring with Rachel's feelings. She let Rachel know why the rules were in place and why reminders were given, but that her having to "pull" these reminders in know way reflected on Rachel as being bad or causing the teacher to dislike her. Rachel wanted to be a bit silly and evasive because she was nervous and the teacher and I would reassure her that we were serious about calming her fears and feelings of not being perfect. The teacher reiterated that everyone makes mistakes, but we learn from them and move on and do the best we can.

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Noah is thrilled that one of the boys in his class just moved in across the street. He can't wait to play after school on Monday. I need to bake some brownies to welcome them to the neighborhood.

This year we are probably going to have a slew of young kids for Halloween. Should be fun!