Green for Birdie

While Birdie LOVES school and is learning so much, she still struggles behaviorally with the discipline in class.  Her teacher is a very strict disciplinarian who expects a lot from her Kindergators.  Birdie stays on "Green", at the top of the behavior color chart, most days, but rarely can make it through a whole week without a "warning" or a move down the chart to "yellow."  Since Christmas break, we've been a bit shocked for Birdie to receive the first "Red" marks of the family and quite a few of them in a short period of time.  For the most part, her disciplinary troubles have been minor - difficulty following directions and getting a little excited at times.

Despite her difficulty, we've been pleased with her progress through out the year. With the strict discipline, Birdie's teacher is lovingly preparing them for a successful future in school.  It worked for Ashley in this class and we don't doubt it will work equally well for Ms. Birdie Boo.

In March, things started to turn around for our little trouble-maker.  We noticed she made it through a week on all "Green," and then another week!  By Spring Break, Birdie's behavior calendar had only smiley faces (which means "Green").  After Spring Break, we challenged her to stay on "Green" for the whole month. Day by day she inched closer to the goal.

At the end of the month, Birdie's chart looked like this!!

Yay Birdie!!!!!  Great job!!!

She earned herself quite a treat and was able to take pride in the fact she could follow the classroom rules when she tried really hard.  

A New Hamster

Daddy surprised the kids with his offer to buy a second hamster as a friend for Isabella.  While Daniel was off at a birthday party, the girls and Brian went off to Petco to select their new pet.  They chose another small dwarf female hamster, the same as Izzie B, but with slightly different colors and markings. Before they even walked in the door at home, they had christened her - Chelsea Caroline Jones

Chelsea Caroline Jones

Chelsea was immediately at home in the two cage set up.  Izzie was asleep for the most part when we put Chelsea in the cage and ignored her the few moments they came nose to nose.  We thought everything was fine... until later....

After several hours, Izzie B woke up and sought out Chelsea in the cage.  Next thing we know, the two hamsters were fighting.  Fighting!  Izzie B was chasing Chelsea, confronting her, and then pawing at her head.  You could hear the two girls "barking" and "hissing" at each other while they went paw to paw.  Thankfully, they didn't bite at each other. Our big problem was they were confronting each other in the tight confines of the tubes, so we couldn't get them out.  After several minutes holding our breath while attempting to separate them, we finally got them in different cages.  

Since it was late and the kids were in bed, Brian and I had the task of reconfiguring the cages so they were no longer connected.  The hamsters were both on edge and difficult to handle.  Brian and I laughed at how the hamster stuff took us all night to sort out.  But, we were happy they decided to fight after the kids were asleep and while we were still awake.

The 2 now separate cages

As of now, they are still separated but in cages next to each other.  We aren't sure when or if we will try to put them together again.

Ready for Battle

This is Daniel ready for a Nerf gun battle with his friends.  If you're counting, that's 5 visible guns, 2 ammo clips and pockets with more bullets. I'm not sure who won, but he said, "It was an AWESOME time!!"