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
No comments:
Post a Comment