Andrew is 6 years 5 months old!

Andrew finally "lost" two teeth.  He has been very anxious for the last year about when he would lose a tooth.  Basically, every single kid has lost more teeth than him, even children much younger than him and he would often complain about it.  And he still did not even have a wiggly tooth.  Well, last month, Andrew says to me, "Guess what?  My adult teeth are coming in."  I asked where and he showed me, right behind his front bottom teeth.  And sure enough, when I looked, there they were.  Kind of crazy!  We told Andrew to wiggle the baby teeth every day, but honestly, they were in tight.  More proactively, we found a pediatric dentist and made an appointment, even though they boys just went a few months ago.  We went in and the dentist took some xrays and said the baby teeth needed to come out.  Some laughing gas and numbing later, the dentist very gently took them out.  Andrew was a really great sport and did great.  I was sitting right next to him, but of course, with the little boys, it was a little crazy.  I LOVED the dentist - he even did it for free (well, they charged our insurance, but didn't charge us beyond that, even though we should have paid 50%).   I had been planning on taking him back to school, but since they extracted the teeth, he didn't really feel up for it, so we picked up lots of yogurt and ice cream and went home and watched movies.  The tooth fairy came and left a note and $2.50 since it was so traumatic.  The extracted teeth only had half of each root dissolved, so the teeth looked pretty crazy.  They definitely were not coming out on their own - at least not for a long time.  So, now, we have a cute little half toothless smile (the adult teeth are already coming in, so it's not quite toothless on the bottom).  And hopefully all the rest of the teeth come out on their own or this will be one expensive child!

The other big event around here is soccer.  Andrew is really loving it.  He has practice once a week on a weeknight and then has a game each Saturday.  Starting this week, he will have a game during the weeknight instead of the practice.  Last week, the game and practice were cancelled because it poured rain all week long.  Andrew was so disappointed.  The boys love to practice on our backyard soccer field every day with Dad and with me and with friends.  Andrew is not the fastest or the most skilled, but he puts a lot into it and plays pretty well.  He mostly needs to kick harder and run a little faster - he is good at passing and being a teammate.  He also enjoys playing goalie.

Andrew is starting to get faster and more proficient at writing, so homework time is going faster.  He/me/we is somewhat sporadic on piano, but he is gradually learning how to play.  It's hard to get piano practice and homework time in there and chores and play every night.  Wow.  Andrew is very diligent about his homework, though, and always makes sure it is done.  He is doing well, I think.  He has gotten a 100 on each spelling test and is pretty proud.  His teacher gives them "Dojo points" when they behave or turn in homework or do well on spelling tests.  They also get negative points if they misbehave.  Andrew has like 70 or 80 points.  Some of the kids in his class have negative cumulative points which kind of cracks me up.  How does that happen?  Anyways, he seems to be doing well.

At the beginning of the year, Andrew was really having trouble getting ready for school on time.  It doesn't matter what time he wakes up, he is just pretty slow, so he is always running late and the walking school bus is just getting to the bus stop or waiting for him when he gets there.  But, we have been doing some point systems with him (somewhat sporadically - I am just so bad at being consistent at some things) and he has been getting better.  He really seems to enjoy the walking school bus.  And I've been realizing how nice it really is - the school bus was cancelled almost every day this week because of the rain, so we have been having to go to school each day to pick him up and waking up Logan and boy is it nice when we can just stay home.

Andrew is really starting to feel more like an elementary school kid and less like a little kid.  He is getting more independent and is thinking more logically.  It's an exciting time.

Fun Things This Month

• Soccer, soccer, soccer
• Lots of people over for dinner - playing with friends at our house.
• School pictures ... wish I had a digital copy.  They turned out cute.
• Teeth extraction
• General Conference - the boys really really look forward to this

Honestly, we haven't been doing as many "fun" things lately, because it is so fun to just be at our house!

Logan is 23 months old!

Almost 2.  And wow - so exhausting.  Logan is in an intense Mommy Mommy Mommy phase.  I am slowly losing my mind ... just kidding ... almost.  He only wants me to put him to bed, wakes up screaming for me at night, comes and find me first thing in the morning (if I'm not already sleeping with him) and basically wants to be held or climb on me or play with me or cook with me or clean with me or otherwise be with me ... all day long!  I am seriously the apple of his eye.  It's like intense love.

Otherwise, Logan is doing well.  He loves sports.  He really enjoys going to the boys soccer games and playing soccer with them.  He loves to play basketball and baseball.  He loves throwing balls.  Alright, let's be honest - he loves to throw anything.  He loves the sandbox.  He loves to dig.  He loves to garden and help with gardening things.

Logan likes to build trains.  He likes to take "guns" the boys made and shoot me with them.  He's got that sounds down pat.  He likes to play monsters.  He likes to play with the toy kitchen.  He loves to look at books, most especially anything Thomas and I think he is starting to love Dora.  He LOVES Pete the Cat intensely and now that he knows they are on the computer, he likes to listen to the songs or watch the little videos on the publisher's website.

Logan loves to help.  He likes to put things back where they go.  He is the most consistent child at taking his dishes to the sink (or more likely, to me) when he is done eating.  He likes to spray things, to clean, to vacuum, to dust.  He likes to help with laundry, especially when it means taking away the laundry balls and throwing them behind the laundry machine or hiding them from me.

He likes to hide in the pantry.  He loves to pick out all the food he likes to eat and rearrange the cans.  He loves to eat canned oranges and macaroni and cheese and can eat massive quantities of both.  He loves blueberries, strawberries, apples, grapes, bananas, cheese.  Cheese.  Cookies.  Chips.

He is talking more.  He is learning all kinds of interesting words.  Like skull.  Or acorn.  He loves Halloween.  He gets excited about each new decoration he sees and loves to point them all out and play with them.  He is excited about trick or treating and can say treat.  He still probably is not on track for speaking for his age, but we'll see what they say at his well visit next month.

Logan loves to play outside.  He loves to pick Andrew up from the walking school bus.  He loves to go to bed at night and often tells us when he's ready to go to bed, although he's often restless and hard to put down at night.

Logan is going happily to Play Date and to nursery.  Last couple weeks, he has walked in holding Seth's hand and is pretty happy.  He has a lot of fun at both.  I'm happy to see that he is starting to willingly separate from me ... if only for an hour or two.

Fun Things This Month

• Lots of soccer practices and games.
• Being sick ... stomach flu which lasted FOREVER.
• Getting donuts at Krispy Kreme for talk like a pirate day.
• Dinner parties.
• New climbing structure and trees for the back yard.