Seth is 3 years old!

Today was Seth’s 3rd birthday.  I can not believe he is so old.  And I can’t believe he’s lived in St. Louis all his life (it still doesn’t really feel like home to me).  So crazy!

Seth is definitely more of an introvert.  He likes to sit and spend time by himself, looking through books, singing songs, playing, and talking to himself.  He is becoming louder, though, but I think it is mostly to compete with Andrew and all the commotion that is going on in our house.

Seth’s favorite activities:

• Reading books – he likes to look through himself and also loves being read to.  His favorites right now are superhero ones (like Superman), Fly Guy, Berenstein Bears, Arnold, Dora.
• Playing starfall on the computer.  He is very interested in all things electronic – playing on the computer, watching TV, pretending to play video games.  He doesn’t watch much TV, but really loves Dinosaur Train and Sesame Street.
• Coloring and writing.  He can write some of his letters and his pictures are starting to resemble something – not usually scribbles anymore.
• Playing with cars.  He is always asking me “which one do you like” and then they run races.
• Playing games.  He could play games all day.  He especially loves dominos (doesn’t quite follow the rules), Hi Ho Cherry-o, Go Fish (though he shows all his cards), and Memory.
• Helping – he likes to do chores (putting away the dishes), dusting (mostly when I use dusting spray), feeding Joe, and helping cook.  He also likes to play in the sink.
• Running around – he has started to do his flip shows and dancing and jumping off the furniture continuously.  He does crazy things, like somersaults from running and starts them while in the air.
• Building – he likes to play with his Trio and train tracks.  Often, he will find a picture he wants to replicate and wants me to help, but gets mad when I actually try to make it and just ends up doing whatever he wanted to do in the first place.

Seth is starting to be in a trantrum-y phase again.  Of course, Andrew is always teasing him, too, which is hard.  But, he tends to just kind of fall apart when things don’t go well – kind of all of a sudden.

Seth is still an adventurous, athletic kid.  He loves to run around and do what the big kids do.  He was broken-hearted when he couldn’t do gymnastic class yet because he wasn’t old enough.  He is also so sad when he can’t do things quite as well as Andrew because he isn’t too big yet.  He is pretty fearless when it comes to physical things and is always willing to jump into things (literally) and try it out and see what his body can do.  He was all over the place at City Museum, going way up high and doing all the slides and ladders that even adults were scared of.

He still wants to do everything that Andrew does.  He wants to do reading lessons, too, so we have done a few and he can sound out some of the letters.  I think he is too young, but it is too hard to tell him no, so I guess it won’t hurt him.  He also tried so hard to do workbooks, but doesn’t quite get it yet.

Seth is still not a big eater, but boy, he loves sugar.  He loves to eat icing off the cookies from our neighbor and leaving crumbs all over the table.  He still disappears halfway through dinner whenever he decides he is done.  He is not a fan of bread, but likes rice and meat and a few vegetables.  He likes most fruit and also cereal, but begs and begs for all the sugar cereals.  He doesn’t have a huge appetite, but it is much bigger in the morning than in the evening. 

He is still pretty small.  We’ll see how big on Friday.  He also drools all the time, which drives me crazy.  He also has a new weird pigmentation “rash” on his arm – we’ll have to see what that is.  His body is always covered in scratches, scabs, etc.  He usually hates band-aids and won’t let you put it on and runs away and won’t even let you look at it.

Seth is a sweet boy – he loves to sit in my lap for stories (when Logan doesn’t get insanely jealous) and seem to be in a “I love my mommy” phase, which is nice.

Fun Things This Month:

• 2 Visits to the Botanical Gardens – once just me and the boys and once with the grandparents.  Poor Seth just can’t stop running and he got in trouble for running in the Children’s Gardens (he really has only 2 speeds – run or not run).  He started crying and said “But where can I run” – poor kid.
• Trip to the Art Museum – we were making Van Gogh paintings and we wanted to see them.  Seth seemed to enjoy the museum and is really enjoying doing his own paintings at home.  He loves paint.  He also is loving coloring all over the walls with crayons … ergh.
• Trip to the Zoo – he tried so hard to touch the sting rays – it was hard because I was holding Logan and couldn’t hold him much, but he was pretty excited to try.  He really wanted to pet the sharks, but they never came close enough.
• Lots of park and splash park visits, especially since Andrew started swim lessons.  He is a good sport during the lesson and then we all play at the park afterwards.
• Two summer reading programs.
• Dentist visit – oh, how Seth cried, but he did fine in the end, and no cavities yet (thank heavens).
• Magic House with Andrew’s preschool.  Seth loved running around with all of Andrew’s friends and was having the time of his life.  Katsu told him to say that he was “3” so he could ride the slide and then Seth was confused for a couple weeks about how old he really was.  There has been quite a bit of drama about that.
• Lots of babysitting lately – Seth loves having a babysitter.  It is a new adventure.
• Memorial Day picnic – Seth really enjoyed swimming at a friends’ house afterwards, but got pulled into the pool by a friend.  Katsu jumped in to rescue him, but it all gave us a scare.
• Bowling – Seth won the second game.  He really had fun – he rolled the ball down a ramp thing.
• Grandma and Grandpa visit – Seth was SOOOO excited and talked about it for a long time beforehand (I think the fact that his birthday coincided with his birthday made it all the more exciting).  He had so much fun with them and was so excited for them to come over from the hotel each morning.  We also did lots of fun and exciting things with them.
• St. Louis Basilica – this place was gorgeous.  Seth had a fun time trying to find stories that he recognized in the mosaics.
• City Museum – Seth had the time of his life.  He and Katsu climbed where all the rest of us were scared to.  He went so high.  Once, he jumped down and Grandma didn’t know where he was jumping and it scared her half to death.  He did climb across a wire where we didn’t think he was tall enough.  When I finally let him do it, the whole time across he said “I knew I was tall enough”.
• His birthday – we made cupcakes and had chips and soda.  We also went out to Blueberry Hill for lunch.  Seth really loved the Pac Man room and did not want to leave, but me and him had to leave the restaurant a little prematurely.  Hopefully, we will be able to scrounge up enough of his friends sometime to do a friend party.  It’s tricky because they are all in and out of town.

Andrew is 5 years 1 month!

This feels like a long month for me.  Andrew has been completely and totally exasperating to me when he isn’t being sweet, of course.

Andrew is done with preschool now and home all day and I find that a little overwhelming.  The kid is intense.  We (meaning me) are still working on ways to get Andrew to calm down when he starts going crazy.  He has been really bad with beating up on the littler boys (even Logan!) and throwing things.  It just drives me up the wall.  He will be super sweet and then super naughty, all in the same day or hour.  Like today, Katsu is out of town.  So, Andrew is very helpful at dinner, setting the table, asking everyone what they want to drink and getting it for them (as long as it was water), and making sure we had what we needed.  But then while I was nursing Logan and trying to put him to sleep, Andrew got into his “kill mommy” mode and was throwing balls at me and playing musical instruments.  And when you are in a sub900 ft. sq apt that is just unacceptable.  And I think he made Seth bleed twice yesterday.  I think my new solution (as of yesterday) is working better.  If he can’t get along and hurts someone or is throwing (or usually both), he has to be by himself in the bedroom for 1/2 – 1 hr and he also loses Army toys.  That is a huge punishment for him.  I hope it works.  Or at least, he will get out of this phase or get a change of heart or start behaving or something.

I am super excited for Andrew to go to kindergarten.  He visited this week with a small group of kids – I think mostly to gauge what the kids are like and how best to mix them.  Then, on Thursday, he went for popsicles at the playground to meet his classmates and teacher.  They have 3 kindergarten classes and currently his class has 14 kids enrolled.  Andrew seemed to hit it off with a couple of the boys, which seems promising.  I have met his teacher a few times and she seems really nice.  I am really excited – I think the schools seems amazingly good.  And I think Andrew is really ready.  Funny story – so he goes up to meet his teacher and is a little nervous.  She asks him about his preschool and he says his favorite part was painting or something like that and starts talking about Van Gogh and how we painted like him and visited the art museum.  His teacher said she really liked the sunflowers and Andrew agreed and said his favorite was Starry Night.  So, who knows what kind of impression she has of Andrew now!  Ha ha ha.

Andrew started a gymnastics class.  He has gone twice.  It is pretty cute – it is for 3-5 year old boys but they are doing all the real gymnastics events – parallel bars, rings, floor, pommel horse, etc.  I don’t think Andrew really has the arm strength (or most of the kids) to do most of the things, but it’s cute to see them try.  I think Andrew is kind of like me and has a hard time telling his body to do what the teacher is saying, but he is trying hard and is also definitely the best at following directions and staying on track.  He tells everyone he is taking this class.  This week, though, for some reason he did not want to go to gymnastics.  He was crying/whining about it off and on all Wednesday (his class is around dinner time), but I told him, we paid and you are going until the session is over (like 6 or 7 classes).  Once we got there, he kept being like – can I go out there now and then I think he was pretty excited about it and seemed to enjoy it.  I think he was just nervous.

I feel like it’s always something with kids and medical stuff.  For each kid, there is almost always something that I want to bring up with the doctor.  Or maybe it’s just my kids.  Right now with Andrew, it is these allergic (possibly?) reactions he gets around his mouth.  Like regularly.  And I have no idea what to – all around his mouth just goes red and looks like welts or a rash for quite a while – from 3-12 hours probably.  And then, it goes away.  Anyways, of course, I forgot to bring this up with the doctor at Andrew’s well visit.  He has had this going on occasionally since we visited Japan last time (so two years ago I guess), but it has gotten to where it happens sometimes multiple times a week.  I called the doctor’s office once and they said it was fine, just ignore it.  But it does concern me a bit – I feel like we should probably visit an allergist, but was totally not thrilled when we took Seth in to see one, so I am not sure.

What else – we have been doing learning time most days.  For Andrew, I am teaching him to read with the book Teach Your Kid to read in 100 lessons (or something like that).  He is up to about lesson 30 now and is doing really well.  He has no patience for some of the exercises, but loves to read the letters and words and stories.  He tends to guess what the words are, but I can tell that the book is geared so kids can’t do that.  I tell his to sound it out instead of guess and then he usually gets it right.  He also gets a bit of computer time on starfall and is starting to get excited that he can read some of the words on his own and also is starting to try to read some of the words in other books, too.  We also have been doing some art for learning time and also I would like to do science.  We’ll see if I ever get there.  For art, we like the book Great Artists and also the books about artists by Anholt.  The boys even wanted to go to the art museum this week and enjoyed it!

I can tell Andrew’s vocabulary is really growing.  He is using all kinds of new words that I didn’t even know that he knew (like fragile, for instance).  He is also asking me what words me all the time.  It’s funny how you think most about kids vocabularies growing when they are just starting to talk, but they actually acquire words faster now.

Andrew has really gotten into coloring books.  Never had any interest before, but now he will often spend a good deal of time just coloring.  He always wants the colors to be “right” and spends a good deal of time consulting the front cover or any other models he has to make sure that he colors their skin and hair the right colors.  He is doing really well to color in the lines.  What a difference a year makes, eh?

Andrew is afraid of everything lately.  Specifically, I am not really sure what he is afraid of – more a generalized fear.  He will use the bathroom and then run to me that he is afraid and can I come with him to the bathroom so he can wash his hands.  He hates being in his room by himself for long because he is afraid.  I am not quite sure where these new fears came from.  I think he might be waking up more often at night, but Katsu usually deals with that end.  Surprisingly, Andrew didn’t wake up at all last night and then played quietly outside my door this morning until I came out.  Yay!

Andrew works hard on riding his bike and will now ride uphill.  It’s hard because we live at the bottom of quite a hill and it is quite an effort to get up.  I dread riding bikes because it involves carrying them each down the stairs, carrying Logan in the carrier, and then, more often than not, carrying the tricycle to the park as well because Seth won’t push it.  And then doing the same thing in reverse when we are done.  Anyways,  Andrew gets nervous going too fast down the hill.  I taught him to use his brakes, but he often forgets.  Anyways, last time, I was in front with Seth trying to keep him from going too fast and going straight into the busy street in front of our house (a somewhat major thoroughfare with 2 lanes each way, with a 35 mph speed limit and no shoulder and lots of traffic).  Andrew was scared to go fast and was going very slowly behind us.  Well, he finally marches up to me, yelling that he is mad at me and hates me (I hear this many many many times a day) and then tells me his car is the street.  I think he got scared and jumped off and it ran into the street.  Poor kid.

Andrew is really in a threatening sort of stage lately.  I remember him being like this when he was Seth’s age, as well.  He always tells me what he will do if I don’t let him have his way (which never works, because I tell him you don’t get to threaten your mother).  But, of course, he still tries his threats anyways.  Today, at the zoo, he threatened that if I didn’t buy him the treat he wanted, he would stop walking.  To which I responded that if he threatened me, he wouldn’t get any … by the time he got there, his threat had changed to, he would eat animal crackers and like it, but he wouldn’t be happy.  The funny thing about his threats is that they very often hurt no one but himself.  I think he feels a lot of power in threating even if it accomplishes nothing.  Usually, he threatens lots of destruction, hatred, and non-compliance.

Andrew is also going through a non-church liking phase.  Actually, Andrew has never much enjoyed church.  On the other hand, he loves religious things – reading scriptures, saying very long prayers, having family home evening.  He talks about religious things very often and is very serious about it.  Today, on the way home from the zoo, he was talking about how you will only go to heaven if you keep the commandments and postulating on whether he or Seth would get to go.  Anyways, last week, he refused to go to Primary.  Of course, Logan was home sick with Katsu and we got to church late (because both boys were kicking and screaming as I carried them to the car) and then Seth feel asleep on my lap.  I had to go because I was teaching the Young Women’s lesson.  Andrew was either scared or hated it or both.  Anyways, I had a sleeping Seth with me and Andrew both for Sunday School after which Seth finally woke up and I dropped him off at nursery.  I hope this is a phase, but I have an inkling a very similar thing will happen tomorrow …

Andrew also threw a fit both at the doctor’s and the dentist’s this month.  We had to hold him down to get his shots, and he was clinging and crying for a good several minutes at the dentist before I could finally get him to sit in his chair.  Thankfully, he had no cavities or I think I would have just sat there and cried.

Anyways, hoping for a better month next month.

Fun Things This Month:

• Hiking a mountain (Taum Sauk) with Dad!  This was a huge adventure and a right of passage.  Andrew did a really great job hiking the highest point of Missouri (though you really mostly hike down from the highest point to a waterfall).  The big thrill was seeing a huge snake right next to Andrew.  He was pretty freaked out and still likes to talk about it.
• A soccer party at a friend’s house.
• Botanical Garden’s visit – we saw all the Chinese lanterns and were pretty impressed with them.  Andrew had a fun time running around, but kept getting in trouble for running because apparently that is against the rules in a playground!
• Trip to the Art Museum.  Andrew could identify Van Gogh and also Monet paintings and was also super excited to see Egyptian art, for some reason, after we wandered the whole museum to find it.  Also very impressed with their weapons collection.
• Trip to the Zoo.  Very very interested in looking at the sharks and sting rays (he is very curious with sharks lately) but refused to touch them.
• Playing at the parks and splash parks.
• Signed up for two summer reading programs.
• Dentist visit.
• Visiting kindergarten twice.
• Magic House with the preschool.  Andrew had SO much fun being with his friends.
• Lots of babysitting lately and Andrew really really loves our babysitter.
• Memorial Day picnic – Andrew had fun doing the kids activities and also eating lots of food.  He also liked swimming at a friend’s house afterwards, although his face got completely broken out with the rash.
• Bowling – Andrew was really upset after he lost the second game to Seth (among the boys), but he really did have a lot of fun.  We’ll have to go back soon.

Logan is 7 months old!

Logan is seven months old now.  He is getting so old and big and just like a little boy.  I asked Katsu what to say, “He is just so cute!”.  Katsu has been spending a lot of time with his this weekend to relieve me, which is nice.  Logan loves Katsu so much and gets so excited when he gets home and starts bouncing in my arms and trying to propel himself into Katsu’s arms so that he can hold him immediately.

He has a cold right now and has been waking up coughing and with a runny noise and it’s just so sad.  One night he was up almost every hour.  So tiring.  He also wants to be held a lot more than usual and is just fussing all the time which is very hard.  I just hope he doesn’t get another ear infection.  His last ear infections cleared up, but he ended up with an allergic reaction to Augmentin with tons of hives.  They switched his medicine, but he was still having hives.  So, he is probably allergic to penicillin and who knows what else.  And he is still having problems with lumps on his bum.  I don’t know if that will ever go away, poor thing.

He is big, but I think that his rate of growth has slowed way down.  I think he hardly gained any weight the last month which is good because he is SO heavy.  I hurt my wrist this week from carrying him all the time.  I do so much better with his in a carrier so he spends a lot of time in there.  He doesn’t mind a stroller too much as long as we are on the move, but once we stop at a park or something he wants to be held.

Logan does love to be outside.  He calms down pretty quickly outside.  He is okay with sitting on the grass – not a huge fan, but he does like picking up anything in front of him and trying to eat it.

Logan is loving to play with toys.  He likes to be held up (or hold on himself) to his toy box (a huge Rubbermaid container) and look at them all.  His absolute favorite is the Fisher Price telephone which he really loves.  He also loves to play ball.  He will roll us back and forth to us.  He gets so excited when we saw “Good job” when he rolls it to us.  He especially likes anything that makes noise or with mirrors.  He likes a push toy, but doesn’t really know how to push it and ends up pulling it towards himself and falling over.  He is not a huge fan of being read to, but really loves this Fisher Price Peek-a-boo book and gets excited when he sees it.

Logan rolls almost immediately off his tummy though if there is something very exciting, he will inspect it for a little bit first.  He sits pretty well as long as he isn’t too tired or sick.  He can grab super far when he’s sitting.  He also tends to get really excited and do this bouncing thing on his bum.  He can eventually move a few feet doing that too if he is really excited.  He loves to stand up when we are holding him and will occasionally hold on to other things to stand up.  Logan is a pretty wiggly baby and does not want to sit still – I pretty much never make it to Sunday School because we can’t just sit still without his whining and the room is small.

Solids … well, he reminds me of Andrew, though a bit better.  He really doesn’t want anything to do with baby food.  He will eat a bit of applesauce – like 2 or 3 bites, but it’s not really worth it.  He loves crackers and gnaws on them.  He really wants to eat whatever we are eating – whole fruit, our plates, whatever.  He gets so frustrated in his high chair because he knows that we are not giving him what we are eating.  But he still chokes on things sometimes likes puffs or cheerios or whatever.

Logan has some separation anxiety, but had a babysitter a couple times this month.  He was asleep when they came over, but the second time he woke up and was awake most of the couple hours we were gone.  Poor babysitters – they were SO worn out from holding him!  But he seemed to do really well, so hopefully it will work out okay this week, too.

Logan’s head is pretty flat, but the pediatrician says it is symmetrical, so it is okay.  The hair is starting to grow back in the back so it looks a bit better this month.  Katsu is pretty obsessed with cutting it and cuts it quite often.  Otherwise, he is just about the chubbiest baby I have ever seen with enormous thighs and rolls in his arms I didn’t even know you could have.  I can’t believe the number of people who comment about it or think he is one.   Still no teeth, but he is starting to drool a lot, so maybe … I still can’t feel anything.

He was pretty quiet there, but I think he is starting to make a lot more noises the last week or so.  Almost babbling … maybe.  He seems a bit behind, but I guess there is so much to listen and watch in our house it is good enough.  He has just started to shake his head “no” which he does quite often.  Occasionally, I think he actually means no.

He is nursing a little less frequently, sometimes going every 4 hours and he is getting more distracted and a shorter nurser, too.  He sleeps okay when he isn’t sick – usually waking once at night and sleeping roughly 6:30-5:30.  He is a super early riser, which I hate.  I feed him and then kind of position him with toys or books which I occasionally rotate while I lay comatose on the floor until I deem it late enough to wake up Katsu (6:30 or later) so I can go back to sleep for a little bit.  Andrew did this for a long time, too, so I guess it’s just the way it is.

Logan seems like a pretty happy kid.  His whole face lights up whenever he seems someone he loves:  me, Katsu, Seth, Andrew, Joe, Martha, etc.  He also loves to smile and flirt with other people as long as one of us is holding him tightly.

It’s been a fun month with our sweet boy.

Fun Things This Month:

• Transportation day at Richmond Heights.  Logan seemed non-plussed by the whole thing.
• Babysitting several times (3, I think!).  He had a hard time the first time because he was tired and cried a lot, but he did well the other two times.
• Magic House – Logan played in the baby area for a little while and was completely enthralled with the mirror area.  He was so fascinated with the little boy in the mirror, he hopped himself all the way there.
• Soccer party at a friends – he even slept in their crib, but was pretty upset when I didn’t hear him crying immediately.
• Bowling – did pretty well, but was pretty uninterested in anything except for the ceilin lights.
• Memorial Day picnic – enjoyed playing ball and trying to eat our food and having different women hold him.
• Swimming on Memorial Day.  He seemed to like it while Katsu held him.
• Splash parks – Logan always looks longingly.  I’m too lazy to take him over.  Plus, I don’t want to hold a wet baby.
• Botanical Garden.
• Art Museum – Logan was very fascinated with the art and did really well in the carrier.