Big catch-up post

It's been too long since I've posted, let me see where do I begin.

Brendan is a first grader now!! It just amazes me that I have this 6 year old grown up boy. He made a seamless transition to first grade. He loves his teacher and hoping I don't jinx myself here, behavior has not been an issue at all. His class uses a green-yellow-red behavior system and he's been on green since the beginning of the year. I'm so hoping it stays that way. He's still far more advanced in reading, math, etc. than the rest of the class, but he seems very happy despite the work being below his capabilities. He has to read 15 minutes every weeknight and 30 minutes on the weekends which I'm very happy about. Despite reading since he was 2, he's not a big reader. He'll read his maps and books like Go Go America about the 50 States (a current favorite) if he's interested in a subject. But he's not a lose himself in a good story reader. We're actually reading together "The Day My Butt Went Psycho" which is just as awful as it sounds. But it's a chapter book with no pictures, the first he's really expressed an interest in reading. The first two nights I read to him and last night we alternated reading pages. In a few more days I want to see if I can get him reading it on his own. And he's learnig to touch type which really excites him. And he's doing great. There was a little incident at school the Friday before last that I wasn't very happy how the school handled it (nothing Brendan did) but I'm going to reserve judgment on that for now.

Right before Brendan went back to school, we had returned from our TOAL, i.e. trip of a lifetime. This was our 15 day Disney cruise through the Panama canal. It was just so amazing. We started at the Port of Los Angeles, stopped in Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, went through the canal, then stopped in Cartagena, Aruba and Castaway Cay, Disney's island in the Bahamas. Despite my being horribly sick with the worst cold I've had in years and then a throat infection, I enjoyed every minute of it, and so did Brendan. I'd say the highlights were our dolphin encounter in Puerto Vallarta, going through the canal, our semi-submersible ride in Aruba, and playing on the beach at Castaway Cay. Mostly though it was just so relaxing. Brendan is a fabulous traveller and he knew every detail of that ship within a few days. He enjoyed the kids club alot and just loved hanging out. And it was nice to be able to have all that time together. I was so sorry when we had to come home.
If you want to see pictures from the cruise, I made a slideshow below (yes it's alot of pictures).



Let's see, what else. I had couple of more weeks of illness when I got home, but finally feel better. Oh, I will most likely be able to work from home 1 day a pay period starting in the next several weeks and I'm really looking forward to that. Brendan started basketball practice again this past weekend. It was very chaotic but he enjoyed it. We're settling into fall nicely and already the holidays are starting to beckon us. The year just flies by.