Let's talk about the kids

Well, here it is, Summer break.  I was actually almost wanting heat because the cold was lasting so long.  Duncan is out of school now.  With that came a little meeting with a group of people from his school.
Duncan has been doing well at school, but he has seemed to have difficulty paying attention.  That isn't shocking to me since I deal with the kid everyday at home.  He would get really frustrated with reading if it took him too long.  I talked to his teacher and she said that she would find out if he would qualify for the summer reading program at the school.
I thought it was a good idea.  I didn't want him to get behind in his reading at all and I thought it might help him focus a little more so that he wouldn't get so frustrated when reading took longer than anticipated.  She said that they would test him to see if he would qualify.
A little while later I talked to his teacher and she said that they were done testing and that it looked like he would qualify.  I was pleased.  I just waited for further information.  Then one day one of the ladies from the school called me to set a up a meeting with her about Duncan's testing results.  Didn't seem like a big deal to me.
Well, it didn't seem like a big deal to me until I got a letter reminding me of the meeting.  It had a list of many people who would be included in this meeting.  The school psychologist, the principal, Duncan's teacher, the school's special education teacher, me, Duncan and "anyone else who had a special knowledge of Duncan's situation."  I was actually really irritated.  I knew Duncan was such a smart boy and didn't really have a learning disability.  I knew he probably had ADD, especially considering my mom, my brother and my husband all have it.  I was used to it, I could spot it pretty easily.
After the usual kindergarten assessment at the end of the year our meeting was scheduled.  I didn't want to jump the gun and lose my temper with them, so I sat and decided to hear them out.
They said that they were concerned about Duncan.  He had difficulty paying attention in class and staying focused(not a shocker, I could have told them that) and he seemed disinterested at times.  I knew that already too.  I came to find out that the school psychologist had been studying him and that she and his teacher had done some tests with him.  They said that they were actually really surprised at the results.
They gave him an IQ test.  They were shocked at the results.  He had an IQ of 123.  They had never seen a score that high before with anyone else they had tested.  They said that put him in the "high superior intelligence range."  They said he scored way above average in everything they tested him on except for reading comprehension.  He was below average on that.  After talking to me they thought that must be due to his attention issues.  What they have decided to do with him and for him is, instead of sticking him in the special education class(which he obviously doesn't need!!) they would take him out of his first grade class once a day for 30 minutes and work on his reading comprehension until he no longer struggled with it.
I could concede to that.  After all,  my son has high superior intelligence.
Now to Liam.  Last week Liam thought it would be a keen idea to stick Q-tips in his ears.  Not only did he think that was an excellent idea, but he thought running with them in his ears was also a bright idea.  Since Liam is accident-prone, you can guess what happened next.  That's right, he fell and hurt his ears.  He didn't want to tell me anything, so he just walked around covering his ears.  Duncan came and told me what had happened.  I talked to Liam and he told me what he did and that only one of his ears was hurting still.  I made an appointment with the Dr. and Mark took him as soon as he came home.
He hurt his ear canal a bit, there was some blood, but no serious damage.  I was glad to hear it, especially since Liam is loud enough with 100% hearing.  I can only imagine how loud he would be if he couldn't hear as well.  The Dr. also told him that he was quite big for a 4 year old.  I was not surprised as he has been wearing size 5 clothes since before he turned 4.  He felt special about that.  He is 42lbs., only 2 lbs. less than Duncan and Duncan is still about 3 inches or so taller than Liam.
Gwenie has been growing up so fast.  She is now in size 4 clothes and is a little chatter box.  I love the way she talks, "This is quite heavy, Mommy." or "My baby is especially cute."  She has an imaginary prince named Willoughbob.  She loves her sister and they love playing and giggling together.  Whenever she sees Rosaline asleep in her bed she comes up to her and says, "She a cute baby girl.  Look, she's sleeping.  She's just my sweet baby daughter.  I need to give her a kiss."  She even does this when it's in the middle of the night and she is half awake to go potty.  She is just so sweet to her.
Rozzy, she is a funny chubby girl.  She loves to physically take down her brothers and chase her siblings around the house.  She is good at making us all laugh.  She loves her flip-flops, aka "she-bops."  She is learning to say all sorts of things.  She gives me her feet all the time and says, "kickle Mommy" so that I will tickle her feet.  She has a very large belly which she feels the need to lift up and push in during the day.  Her haircut is starting to grow and I have found a hairstyle that hides all the short pieces quite nicely.  She is our little brown baby.  She tans so easily, just like I used to before my fear of becoming all wrinkled came.  She loves to play outside with her siblings.  She has also found a new love, Daddy.