How's first grade going? Well let me tell you...

Things were almost in their grove at the house as Fall is here and school has started. Homework for three kids, church stuff, my band stuff, and Ed's school stuff had all found their groove...so I thought. This post was supposed to be all about the cool new things that we have had happen here, and I'll talk about those first because I really like to start on positive notes if at all possible.

This Fall really have been full of some new experiences for Eden and some big kid milestones. Eden's first tooth fell out about a month ago. It was quite an event! Eden had a really tough time when it started to bleed but a cold wash cloth to chew on helped a lot. She kind of went on a crying screaming rampage for a few minutes as she was running around the house. Once she calmed down we put the tooth under her pillow and the next morning the Tooth Fairy came! How exciting was that! She left Eden two dollars and she was more than happy to spend it on matching lizards at the store.

She had two wiggly teeth at that time and since the first one was so traumatic for her she refuses to even wiggle the other one for the most part and won't let us even near it. I even caught her pushing the tooth back in the gum because she's afraid for it to bleed. She now has a serious case of "shark teeth" in her mouth. Thank goodness she's going to the dentist in a couple of weeks to get some small fillings because they give her lots of stuff to relax her and they will take it out then.

Eden's birthday has come and gone. We had a beautiful party at Douglas Hill Apple Orchard. She had a few people there and even her best friend from school come to the party for the very first time ever! We all enjoyed making our own ice cream, apple picking, and a hay ride around the orchard. She loves having family and friends around her to make her day special and the view from the top of the orchard is gorgeous! Did I mention before how much I love Maine in the Fall?

School has started in full swing and with the start of first grade the kids get their first homework assignments. It's been an interesting addition to our afternoon routine at the house. She gets a book everyday at school to bring home and share her reading with someone. I'm always ready to volunteer for that job because she shows so much pride in reading. We do some Math work everyday as well and depending on the day is how that works out for us.

Things have changed a lot at school this year. If you don't know by now Eden had one of the best years last year that she had ever had (she was in preschool for 2 1/2 years and is in first grade now). If you look at last year's posts most of the time I was pleasantly surprised on how well the transition from pre-school to kindergarten went. This year Eden has had some behavioral regression. We've been through behavioral regression before while she was in preschool but because we had a great year last year I thought she had outgrown those behaviors.

We've had calls home from school from her Special Ed teacher to report aggressive behaviors. Her aide has written notes home asking for help with ideas for certain behaviors because we(her school and I) are all about consistency and communication. A meeting making a plan for these behaviors and brainstorming ideas to help make everyone's life easier when these behaviors occur. It's kind of sad that I'm less worried about her academic progress (which I have seen some great gains in her working independently on school work) than I am worried about her behaviors.

These kind of behavioral changes can mean a lot of things so it's kind of a detective job for us at home and her teachers at school to figure out why these things are happening and how to fix them. There can be many answers to both of those questions. Until then, we are pretty much holding on to the good moments as long as we can and getting through the tough times as quick as possible. Once or even if we get things figured out I'll update here but bear with us because things may be going a little haywire for a while.