Seth is 3 years 3 months old!

The big news this month, of course, was Seth starting preschool.  He has really really loved it.  I think having something of his very own is really special to him.  As I said, he is doing 2 day and has 8 boys and girls in his class with Mrs. Sant and Mrs. Bacon.  I almost wish I had put him in the 3 day class since he loves it SO much.  His teachers say he has made a seamless transition.  He really was so ready.  He is cheerful and ready to go in the morning and gets his bag all ready.  He jumps right out of the car at drop off and is excited to see me and tell me about his day when he gets home.  He likes playing on the playground and with the other kids.  I don’t think he is a huge fan of playdough or craft time, though.   He seems to scarcely notice the girls, but enjoys playing with the boys and the pictures I have of him at preschool he seems to be having a grand old time.  He asks every day if it is a preschool day.  On Tuesday when I picked him up, he told me that he “forgot all about me”.  I think he heard when Andrew told me that.  Ha ha ha.  Seth had Red and Blue week already at preschool.  He took red week seriously.  He had to wear red shirts and red pants!

Seth still loves reading books and wants to do it for hours a day.  He is also completely absorbed in building train tracks for a long time each day, too.  I had a Relief Society meeting this week and he just sat at the house quietly playing trains for 2 hours by himself.  He really has a pretty impressive attention span. 

On the other hand, Seth has so much pent up energy sometimes.  Trying to get him to hold still in Sacrament Meeting is almost impossible.  He just is so wiggly.  He is like spaghetti in my lap – floppy and all over the place.  He is always all over the furniture and jumping and running off of everything.  He is either really focused on reading or playing or all over everything.

Seth is really into counting and numbers lately.  He loves to hold up his fingers and make me count how many there are.  He wants to do reading lessons like Andrew, so sometimes I let him and he is starting to read very simple words like “sat” and “am”.  He can write the name Seth more or less.  He is starting to get the letters in order, but he writes from right to left, at least this week, for some reason.

Seth loves to help around the house – especially cooking, spraying dust spray and vacuuming with the little mini vacuum.  He hates picking up and complains of being sick every day.  I think he partially does it to get out of picking up, partially to get out of whatever he doesn’t want to do.

Seth is really a homebody and except for preschool or the zoo would prefer to stay at home all the time.  I am trying to get used to the new vibe in our house now.

We love Seth!

Fun Stuff This Month:

Boy September was fun!

• Swimming at the hotel on my birthday.  The boys had a party while I got a night off.  Seth really wants to go back to a hotel and has been begging to – we’ll have to wait till we are a little less busy, I think.
• Cardinals game for Labor Day.  We took the train, which Seth always finds so exciting and had tons of snacks when we were there.  Seth was looking forward to the game so much, but I think he gets a bit bored when we are there.  He really wanted to go to the playground so we tromped all over the stadium till we found it, but then he couldn’t play because he wasn’t wearing any socks – just sandals.  Poor kid.  The game was fun, the Cardinals won, and it was a nice holiday.
• Starting preschool!
• St. Louis Art Fair – Seth made a ton of crafts, especially a portfolio which he has been busy filling with artwork ever since.
• Playdates with the Mom’s group and also with a friend from nursery/preschool.
• Father/Son Campout – Katsu, Andrew and Seth went for the night.  Seth loved the campfire and eating.  He wasn’t so sure about the bathroom, poor kid.  But they were excited to have a tent close by to friends from church.
• Forest Park Balloon Race is always a favorite, but this year it was fabulous!  We got there early to get parking and then parked ourselves on Art Hill and the boys chased and wrestled and kicked around a soccer ball.  We were so excited when the Energizer Bunny went right behind the Art Museum and we waited around till we saw at least 40 balloons chasing it.  Because of all the wind, they went far away and we could see them going over our home in Clayton when we got home.  Seth now associates the Art Museum with the balloons whenever we pass by.
• Zoo with friends.  Always fun.
• Disney on Ice – Katsu’s dream, but the boys got to come along, too (ha ha ha).  Seth was pretty quiet, but was completely mesmerized.  He really liked Peter Pan flying and told me a lot about it.  It was pretty fun, and they got to take the train home!

Seth starts preschool

Today was Seth’s first day of preschool.  He had visiting day last Tuesday and started today.  He has Mrs. Sant and Mrs. Bacon and is one of 8 kids in the B class – we already know the teachers pretty well from when Andrew had them and we love them.  Seth is lucky that one of the boys in the class is in our ward and they have already had play dates.  Another boy from the ward is also in the other 2 day class which is nice.  I signed up to the be the room mother since I know the drill and no one else was volunteering.

Seth seemed nervous to go until the visiting day, but then he was ready.  He was excited to go and told me he wasn’t nervous (though maybe he looked a bit).  He had a great first day.  We took pictures outside and then both Katsu and I dropped him off in the drop off lane at school.  When I picked him up, he was excited to tell me little bits about his day – they had fruit snacks, circle time, learned “criss-cross applesauce”, played with blue playdough and outside on the playground, he didn’t pee in his underwear (I think he was eager to tell me this because on the first day you send extra clothes, just in case, for the year) and he could find his name.  Good job Seth!

I can’t believe he is old enough to be in preschool, but I am excited for him.

Andrew is 5 years 4 months old!

Andrew is a KINDERGARTENER, so of course, that is the big news around here.  Life is a whole lot different for him.  Here is how his day goes.  He wakes up usually anywhere from 6:30-7:30.  He spends some time chatting with us and playing with Logan and then eats breakfast.  He likes a few kinds of cereal or else it’s eggs or maybe some rice or whatever leftovers we have.  His favorite is probably ramen or soba or some kind of Asian noodle.  He sometimes has some time to play in the morning, building train tracks or reading books.  He gets dressed, does his breathing medicine, and brushes his teeth.  Usually we try to get in some scriptures and prayer before he gives me hugs and kisses and grabs his backpack and lunch.  Katsu and Andrew leave the house around 8:15 and walk to his elementary school, which is .3 miles away and actually abutting Katsu’s train station (though he has to walk the long way around).  Katsu drops him off at the front door around 8:25 and school starts at 8:40.

Andrew’s kindergarten teacher is wonderful.  She has been teaching kindergarten for 29 years!  And she is just the quintessential kindergarten teacher, kind, loving, guiding the students along the way.  Full day kindergarten feels long and I miss Andrew a lot, but I know they have a very well planned day.

Andrew’s schedule:

8:20-8:40 Arrival Task

8:40-8:55 Pledge/Announcements/Morning Meeting

8:55-9:55 Reading Workshop

10:00-10:30 Recess/Restroom/Snack

10:30-11:30 Writing Workshop

11:30-12:10 Recess/Lunch

12:10-12:30 Cozy-In (Read Aloud/Rest)

12:30-1:20 Math Workshop

1:20-2:20 Special Classes(PE/Art/Music/Library)

2:20-3:10 Workshop (Social Studies/Science/Centers)

3:10-3:25 Friendship Circle/End-of-Day Meeting

3:25-3:35 Dismissal

So, Andrew has 2 recesses a day as well as PE everyday.  They have one long Art time and one short Art class each week as well as weekly (or more often) music and library time.  They have lots of centers they can meet at, but Andrew almost always goes to one – the craft center.  He is very busy making books; his books right now are about volcanoes.  He is also making books about volcanoes at home.

Andrew brings his lunch from home.  He brings the same things almost every day – water, pizza pockets (sausage, cheese, and mushrooms) or fried rice (ham, carrots, onions, green onions, peas), chocolate pudding, fruit, baby carrots.  There is usually a little note in there from Mom, too.

Andrew seems to really enjoy school.  He is making lots of friends and seems genuinely happy to be there – but I know he looks forward to having lots of play time on the weekends, though he does tell me more often that he “doesn’t play with toys anymore”, but he is way too little for that, in my book.

We pick Andrew up everyday at 3:30 at the blacktop in the back.  About half the time, he and Seth play with other friends at the playground before we walk home.  He has already had a play date with one friend and hopefully we will have more, though it seems like the time is so precious now since he is gone so much.

We are still working on his reading lessons, albeit much slower than before.  He enjoys reading and is starting to read in other situations – signs, books he sees.  It is still work to sound out, but I can tell that he is getting much better.

Andrew still loves to do crafts at home and has already gone through a couple of the markers I bought for him in July.  His favorites this month were volcanoes and flags.  We checked out almanacs and atlases from the library for him to copy the flag pictures from.  He told me today that the United States is the best country ever – I asked why he thought so and he said because we did so well in the Olympics.  Hard to argue on that point, though I did say there are lots of nice nations.

Andrew and Seth have seemed to play well since school started.  After a grouchy first week, Andrew often comes home and him and Seth just play for an hour with their army, train tracks, cars, and blocks and Lincoln Logs and sometimes Trio.  It makes me happy that they play so well together.  He also loves to hear chapter books at night when he goes to bed.  He is really into the ABC Mysteries series and I like that the chapters are so short!

Andrew started soccer.  He wasn’t really into the idea, but we thought it would be good for him to give it a try.  We didn’t sign him up for the rec league because half their games are on Sunday, but instead for the Preschool Soccer (for 4 and 5 year olds) because it is just 20 mins instruction/20 mins gametime each Saturday for 6 weeks.  He went for the first time on Saturday and seemed to have a lot of fun and was excited to tell me all about how soccer works.

Andrew is a joy – I miss him, but he is loving school and growing up.

Fun Things This Month:

• School
• Snow Cone day – the first Friday of school, all the kids got to pick their own snow cone in the afternoon and ate outside.  How fun.
• First day off – he spent most of the day at a friend’s house who isn’t in Kindergarten yet.  It was fun to see them again.
• Play date – he even got to go home from school with his new friend from kindergarten.  They played at his house and the park.  How fun!
• Picture day.
• Swimming at the hotel on my birthday.  A “party” with Dad when I stayed the night at the hotel – just the boys.
• Cardinal’s game on Labor Day.  We took the train – which the boys loved – had tons of snacks, and watched the game.  The Cardinals won, the game had some action, and it was a lot of fun.
• Starting soccer
• St. Louis Art Fair – the boys made lots of crafts, but I was most excited about the portfolio they made so Andrew can corral all his artwork into that.  Much less mess.

Kids Artwork

I love looking at the boys’ artwork.  It makes me smile.  Andrew went through a big butterfly stage.  Now, we are doing flags – both the boys, especially American and Japanese ones.  I bet you can tell who did what.

 

		Andrew and Seth Artwork VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL