Seth is 3 years 2 months old!

Seth is loving all the attention he gets now that Andrew is gone at Kindergarten all day.  I keep asking him if he is missing Andrew, and he says no.  I think he does miss playing with him a little, but mostly I think he really does love having me more to himself.  He loves reading, playing games, playing cars with me.  He always wants just me to come in (because Logan destroys everything if I lay up on my guard for like 1 second), but that’s not really possible, so naps are the really best time.  The first day we were home all day while Andrew was at school, Seth and I read for hours!  I think Seth would love to just read and read and read and read and read.  He pulls a huge stack of books of the shelf and half the library books and just wants me to have at it.  His new favorite books are ones about superheros like Batman and Superman (not my favorite).  He also is in love with Rhyming Dust Bunnies.  He thinks it is so funny and has almost the entire book memorized (he is a great rhymer as well).

Seth is getting excited about preschool.  He really wants to be just like Andrew – he asked if he could go to all day preschool every day.  I think he will enjoy the 2 day, though.  And someone in our ward will be in his class so that will be fun.  I hope he isn’t disappointed that he won’t have a backpack and that he won’t eat lunch there.  I think he will be super excited about being with other 3 year olds.  He hasn’t gotten tons of time with boys his age specifically, but now he always request 3 year olds to play with.  I have restarted a mom’s group for our ward, and it is like paradise for Seth because there are usually about 4 or 5 other 3 year old boys.  It is going to be a big and busy sunbeam class.  Today, the boys were playing at the park with big sticks running around and “killing” each other and the trees. 

Seth can keep up with all the older boys, and usually spends some time after school playing with Andrew’s kindergarten friends.  In the all events leading up to kindergarten, the parents couldn’t believe how well Seth can keep up with and play with all the big boys.  He really just wishes he was a big boy himself.  He also loved playing with the other younger brothers.  I can see his social side start to blossom.  I always thought of him as more shy, but he would go up to other kids his age and say, “Will you play with me” or take their hand and off they go.  It makes me happy.

Seth’s pictures continue to get more and more creative.  He really loves coloring.  He also writes letters and his name (Though the letters usually aren’t in order).  He keeps trying to sound out words like Andrew, too.  He can count and recognize his numbers up to 10 (he can count higher) and also counts up to 10 in Spanish (all those Dora books).

Seth still whines, but I have seen a big improvement, even in the last week.  He tries hard not to whine when we remind him.  He loves to help me cook and be helpful around the house.  He likes to use the new mini-vacuum I got.  He also sweeps the floor and loves to dust.  He still has his fear of the vacuum. 

Seth seems to be getting a little more stubborn/picky about food.  Sometimes he won’t eat any dinner – sometimes just a slice of bread if he is hungry.  He definitely prefers to eat in the morning and will eat several breakfasts.  He loves eggs and bananas and string cheese and chicken noddle soup and cereal and tofu best.

Seth has loved playing in splash parks this summer.  Now that Andrew is in kindergarten, I can put both the boys in the double stroller and we can walk everyone in Clayton again.  It is nice.  I try to walk to the library at least once a week and we can go to the park several times.  Seth loves it!  He really loves playing at the splash park there with buckets and then spilling the water everywhere and making trails and getting various parts of his body wet and making prints.  He calls it “leaving clues”.  It is pretty darn cute.

Fun Things This Month

• Magic House visit with Daddy from the Library reading program.  They had a blast and went down their favorite slide 34 times!!!!
• Visit with the Lyles
• Zoo – Seth enjoyed the train – it was our first time, plus the carousel, Children’s Zoo, and petting the sting rays.  It was a long hot day.  But it was fun having a friend along just his age.  Seth got lost 3 times, once pretty badly.  He left the Penguin exhibit and I couldn’t find him – someone said they saw him with a Zoo employee, so I knew he was safe, but I was running around the zoo for a little bit before I found him.  It gave me a heart attack.  He tends to follow and wander a bit in a big group and with 6 boys, it was hard to keep track.
• Magic House - we did everything!  Seth got lost once and a Magic House employee was looking around for us, but it wasn’t too bad.  Seth especially loved climbing around in the leaf.
• Chocolate Store – the best place within walking distance of our house, bar none.
• Botanical Gardens – we saw all the Chinese lanterns again (kids not thrilled), saw some of the Japanese gardens (kids not thrilled), and played a lot in the Children’s Garden, which the kids loved.
• Mom’s groups at lots of parks and lots of splash parks.
• Winning Blues tickets from the library summer reading program.

Andrew starts Kindergarten!

Today was Andrew’s first day of Kindergarten.  It feels like a whirlwind – with a playdate on Monday evening and then meeting the teacher & dropping off supplies on Tuesday evening.  But today was the real thing.  We all walked to the school together.  It is very close (.3 miles away actually, just a few blocks) and we saw lots of kids from Andrew’s class along the way.  We took pictures outside our apartment and outside his school.  He walked in all by himself!  On the way there, he was looking at his shadow, and said that he looked like a real kindergarten boy.  It was so cute.

He is in full-day kindergarten and his teacher is Mrs. Kay.  There are either 15 or 16 kids in his class, plus one aide that all the 3 classes share.  His room is right on the corner, so it has 3 sides of windows and is just super cute.  You can probably even see Katsu’s train station from the windows.  His teacher is so nice and Andrew already loves her.  It was so kind of her to call us and visit us before the school year started.  Because they had so many events, I feel like I already know some of the other kids and their parents pretty well.

Andrew had a good day.  He enjoyed PE, but was kind of bummed that he has to sit in an orange chair in art class – which is not his favorite.  Besides, PE, he also had two recesses on the playground.  We pick him up in the afternoon right next to the playground, so Seth can play there with other little kids until Andrew gets out. 

Andrew is 5 years 3 months old!

The biggest thing in these here parts is … kindergarten!  It starts in less than a week and we are gearing up for it.  We bought the school supplies, picked up a lunch box and practiced using the thermos, had the teacher visit, met with the principal and saw the classroom, and had a Popsicles at the Park to meet all the kindergarteners for the second time.  Andrew has been telling everyone that he is excited, but scared.  We have been reading lots of books about starting kindergarten, and I think that has been helping.  He also really enjoyed playing with new classmates at the park and is excited when he sees them around town, now.  I think he will do really well, though will probably be tired out and a little anxious for the first week.

Andrew has really been into his craft projects lately.  For a few weeks, all he wanted to make was Monarch butterflies – he would draw all the black outlines and then color them orange and then do their bodies and tape everything together.  Today, he was into snakes.  He made a ton of snakes (coloring and cutting) and then made a den of them on some pillows in a corner of the dining “room” and used the bike pump to make hissing sounds for them.  He even gave them a toy mouse to eat.

Andrew and Seth have been playing pretty well together and have spent happy hours putting together pretty elaborate train tracks and block and Trio towns and towers.  They spend a lot of time playing cars and army with setups spanning what seems like the whole house.

I have noticed that Andrew is getting more responsible lately.  Today, he asked where to put away his plates (whether the dishwasher was dirty or not) – and that is really something I haven’t asked them to do regularly yet.  He is very good at picking up and is usually good about self-care (putting things away, throwing away trash, washing hands, brushing teeth, dressing self, taking care of dirty clothes, etc).  I think we will be starting an allowance soon and working on teaching more chores.

Andrew had a lot of fun on our trip to Utah.  I think trying to figure out who all the relatives were was a little difficult for him, but he mostly got it right.  He had a lot of fun at Lagoon, enjoyed the rodeo, had fun at the family reunion type events, really loved Dinosaur Park and especially finding all the dinosaurs in his book.  I think his favorite parts were spending time with grandparents and great grandparents and Aunt Karen (whose house we were staying at), playing with his cousin Takuto, and playing with Lincoln Logs with whichever kids were available (Seth, neighbor kids, cousin, second cousin, family friends, etc.).  And there were tons of adults there to listen to everything he had to say – which is a ton!  After this trip, I realized we really needed to work on waiting to speak to adults when they are talking to other people.

Our friends, the Lyles, came to visit this week.  My friend Sarah, her mother, and her three boys who are the exact same age as our boys all stayed in our little apartment for 3 days.  It was total chaos – well, at least very loud!  I think Andrew had tons of fun having built in playmates.  Plus, we had really fun trips to the zoo (finally rode the train!), the Magic House (first time we went at a non-free time), and the Botanical Gardens (probably our last time to see the Chinese Lanterns).  Andrew also talked poor Sarah’s mom’s ear off.  But it was a super fun trip!

Andrew has really enjoyed watching some of the Olympics and has taken to drawing pictures of flags all the time – American and Japanese.  He also likes to do races and pretend to do other competitions at the park now.

Fun Things We Did This Month:

• Surviving the heat wave, part 2.  It has been exceptionally hot – hottest year ever in St. Louis with 11 days over 105!  We haven’t been to the park as much as I would like, but we have done a lot of suffering outside.  As Andrew said “I am tired of putting on sunscreen every day”.  Me, too, buster.
• Visiting Utah 
• Friday we visited Lagoon.  Andrew was characteristically a little hesitant about any of the big rides, but loved doing all the little ones – he especially liked the bumper cars.  He even was convinced to ride the little roller coaster with Aunt Sarah, but was somewhat scared.  He even really wanted to go to the Haunted house – we didn’t think it was a terrific idea, but he seemed to enjoy it.  Andrew ate probably the most of anyone at the picnic afterwards – that kid can eat SO much it’s unbelievable. 
• We went to the Rodeo. I am not sure how much Andrew enjoyed it, but he seemed to have fun, and liked standing up next to the railing (we were in the front row) to see more closely.  It was so fun of Great Grandpa to get us tickets.
• We finally saw fireworks on Pioneer Day at Karen’s house. We were trying to get the boys to sleep, but gave up. Andrew loved it and it must have made up for the 4th of July.
• Temple Square with Katsu. 
• Dinosaur Park with Grandpa and Grandma.  Andrew got a little explorers book and was very determined to find all the dinosaurs and fill out the info.  He really had a lot of fun.
• Andrew really enjoyed playing with Lincoln Logs at Karen’s house, learning to play Shark, playing with water balloons, playing in Great Grandpa and Great Grandma’s fountain, picking berries, eating candy at their house, and having so many adults to play with.  He also loved playing with new friends at McDonald’s and their trip with Katsu to the Chinese Buffet, of course.
• Magic House – free visit thanks to the Library summer reading program.  The boys did the big slide 34 times.  Need I say more?!
• Another visit to the Science Center.  Loved the new Dinosaur Dig.
• Visit with the Lyles
• Zoo – Andrew really was persistent that we needed to ride the train, and loved it.  He also loved the show at the Children’s Zoo and did not want to leave – it took much coaxing.  He was upset at the end because we didn’t see the Bird Garden, but that’ll have to be for next time.
• Magic House -  we did everything and Andrew had tons of fun showing it all to the Lyles.
• Chocolate Store – the best place within walking distance of our house, bar none.  Andrew will show anyone.
• Botanical Gardens

Logan’s 9 month stats

Guess who shrunk?  Well, just got leaner, because he is taller.  Or, as our doctor said, has weight more in line with the rest of him.

Weight:  23 lbs 6 oz (95%)

Length:  29 3/4 in (95%)

Head Circumference:  46 1/2 cm (95%)

Logan is 9 months old!

Well, the biggest difference is that Logan is on the move!  I can’t believe what a change that makes, even the third time around.  Logan is crawling and cruising everywhere.  He still seems to prefer cruising and will pull up on everything – of course, this means that he is often pulling things off on top of himself, like stools and boxes and tables – I have to watch him all the time.  Or at least I should be watching him all the time.  He is crawling a lot faster, too.  Usually towards the boys room – because he loves to play with their toys and only their toys.  He has no interest in his toys anymore.  He also likes to go toward the bathroom to unroll the toilet paper (how do they innately know how to do that?) and to the kitchen to eat cat food and throw water on the floor.  Ahh – the utter craziness for the next year or so now officially begins.

Logan is just such a joy.  He is happy and smiley most of the time.  He just has the most affectionate smile.  And I can’t get over how he has to come and give me a big kiss, even when I just leave for a few minutes.  He loves Katsu – we watch out the window for him many days and he is SO excited when he sees him, then he looks toward the door until he gets in, and then he claps his feet together (what he always does when he is excited and is SO cute) until Katsu holds him.  He also loves the boys, watches them incessantly, tries to play with them, and is starting to give them big kisses, too.

Logan visited his surgeon again this week.  She said he is healing fine and hopefully we won’t see her again.  If the abscesses come back, then he has fistulas and she will want to see him in the OR a.s.a.p.  But I don’t think that is really necessary, but I’ll talk it over with out pediatrician tomorrow and see what she thinks.  Hopefully it won’t come to that.

Otherwise, Logan is healthy.  He got two teeth in this month and I feel like he is still teething, but I don’t see any other teeth coming in yet.

Sleep, well, isn’t too great.  He wakes up some (though it’s been getting better since we’ve been home from Utah) at night and ends up sleeping with us part of the time.  He takes two naps a day usually, one nap longer (like 1.5 hours) and one or two naps shorter (like 45 minutes) and roughly 11-12 hours at night.

Logan doesn’t do baby food, but is eating table food like a champ.  He is starting to eat somewhat regular meals since we’ve gotten back from our trip and maybe nursing less (maybe).  He eats cheese, chicken, yogurt, meat, bread, tortillas, stew veggies, grapes, banana, apples, cereal, whatever we eat at dinner and think he can manage.  He chokes a bit sometimes but he chews and mashes well.  He also drinks really well from his straw cup, but he also really likes to try to drink from a cup.  He doesn’t fall asleep while nursing anymore and as soon as he is done, he rolls right off the couch.  When he’s done, he’s DONE.

He is still pretty quiet.  But he makes some babbles every now and then.

Wow – our trip.  Logan seemed to enjoy family when he wasn’t getting overwhelmed.  For some reason, he HATED our rental car and cried and cried whenever he even saw it.  I have no idea why.  He did really well on his first plane ride, slept some and was otherwise wiggly or flirting with whoever he could get eyes on.

Fun Things This Month:

• Surviving the heat!  This has been the hottest month EVER in St. Louis, the hottest year EVER.  11 days over 105!!  Average high of over 98 for July.  Ugh.  And poor Logan seems to get overheated easily, so we spend more time inside then I would like.  That’s easier for Logan, though, so he can crawl anywhere.  He really prefers to crawl on carpet.
• Science museum again – I think the dinosaurs still scare him and generally he gets a little overwhelmed with all the people.  I set him down so I could help the kids build an arch and he freaked out and came crawling at full speed crying to me.  Finding the nursing room helped, so we have a room to decompress.
• Visiting Utah
• Lagoon – I carried him around in the carrier the whole time.  We did do the train, which he seemed nominally interested in.  He liked eating grapes at the picnic.
• Rodeo – he kind of freaked out at the beginning because of all the noise, so I stood up most of the time with him in the carrier.  He did take a little nap and then did better.  He watched the events some.
• Dinosaur Park – Logan seemed a little hesitant of the dinosaurs, but enjoyed checking them out.
• Playing with family was really the rest of the trip.  He enjoyed Great Grandpa and Great Grandma’s house and especially the block tiles they had.  He also really enjoyed trying to steal away the Lincoln Logs at Aunt Karen’s house.

Our Trip to Utah: Day One

Day One – we are cheap.  Well, we pretty much have to be until Katsu gets a non-post-doc job.  Anyways, we decided we were too cheap to leave our car at the airport and since we don’t have anyone who can take us to the airport, we had to take the train.  So, we were quite the picture.  I had Logan in a frontpack, and a large ebags backpack on and was holding both Andrew and Seth’s hand.  Katsu also had a ebags backpack on and then was pushing the stroller which was loaded with 2 car seats and a booster seat with a diaper bag on back.  Yes, we travel light (excepting the car seats).  We were a sight!  And then, as soon as we stepped out, it started to rain.  Of course.  Thankflly, it only rained for a few minutes and then we were able to get on our way.  After walking to the train station, riding a few stations, waiting 20 minutes while the kids chatted up some odd Native American man, we finally got on the train, got our tickets, double checked that our bags did fit as carry-ons, went through security with EVERYTHING, got to our gate, ate donuts for lunch (I should have specified to Katsu that we could spend a bit more for more nutrition), missed the 10 second window they gave us to preboard before everyone else, finally got on near the end, thankfully were able to gate-check everything but the diaper bag since it was a small flight, and were off!  Flying with kids (and car seats!) is exhausting!  The flight was mostly uneventful.  Katsu had to call the day before to ensure our seats were together because they had swapped them, so we had the last row.  The flight attendant sat right between us (it was a 2-2 setup, pretty small plane) and gave the kids TONS of snacks and talked up Andrew a lot which was great.  All the kids slept some.  Logan was pretty wiggly at the end, but that’s to be expected. 

We deplaned, found all our gate-checked luggage and took off for the car rental counter.  I supervised the boys, who appeared to be trying to kill each other (greatly amusing the Asian family next to us) and Katsu tried to get the rental car company to take off all unnecessary charges but of course, they still managed to put a few on the bill.  The rental place outside was a mess, but we finally found our car – of course, the one time they don’t upgrade us, and manage to barely fit all three car seats in the back. 

We finally were on our way out – the kids adoring the mountains, and Logan did well till we got close to Ogden and then we was screaming.  We headed to my grandparents first and chilled for a bit – they weren’t expecting us, but we finally made it over to my Aunt Karen’s house and then had some mac n cheese for dinner.  The travel is done!