Seth in November 2014

Seth is still a little nutty and hysterical.  He is doing well in Kindergarten; probably a little bored, but his teacher is working hard to keep him learning.  He does well reading.  He doesn't want to sit down and read with me ... I keep hoping he will want to try reading an easy chapter book together, but he's not much interested.  But when he does read things - offhandedly on signs or things or when he reads me a book, I can tell that his reading is improving very quickly.  He is getting much more fluent.  Over break, I want to be more consistent about reading to and with him.  Andrew apparently reads to him and tells him stories at night and before he went to see Charlotte's web, I read the book to him and Logan.

Seth's little brain is always working away.  He has croup the last few days and slept with me part of the night a couple days.  And you can hear him just whispering away math problems or spelling words.  I think he is like me and just can't shut it off.  He loves to play with numbers.  He does his doubles really high and can add any 2 or 3 digit number as long as there is no carrying.  He writes the cutest little stories for homework.  The first time he had to write a story, he freaked out and said he couldn't do it.  But now he pretty much wants no input from me and does his homework without help.  His two favorite topics are soccer (writing about scoring goals and winning) and the jungle.

Seth is quite an exaggerator and likes to "lie" about things.  I think he has a hard time telling the difference between what he wishes was true and what is actually true.  He told me that he was a character kid when Andrew actually got it.  (Of course, he was a character kid in November, because he has good behavior, too).  He also way exaggerates numbers - he will get 100 goals or get 150 dojo points during the day (the points he gets at school for good behavior).

Seth is enjoying basketball.  On basketball days, he wakes up and changes into athletic shorts and a sleeveless shirt, regardless of the weather.  He was having a tough time dribbling but has gotten a lot better.  He concentrates so hard on whatever the coach is saying and you can tell he is good at figuring out positions, but it is a little hard just because he is quite small.  I think he will really enjoy it, though.

Seth has been sick quite a bit lately.  He had the stomach flu after Thanksgiving and now he has croup - I am pretty sure it is his first time.  Yesterday, he stayed home from church and Katsu told him he could watch TV the whole time.  I offered to read to him or let him do something else - but no, he just wanted to watch TV.  He loves the new Odd Squad show and also loves Wild Kratts, still.

Seth is doing piano lessons again.  He is doing pretty well and gets counting - his hands are still pretty small.

Seth's favorite thing to do is play with friends and he is very motivated to get piano practice and homework done so he can go play.  He wants to play with whoever he can find in the neighborhood.  As long as he goes with Andrew, he is allowed to go through a lot of the neighborhood, as long as I know where he is going.

Fun Things
- Logan's birthday party
- Lightning Thief musical
- Charlotte's Web
- trip to the Aquarium and to the historical museum in Beaufort.
- Shichigosan - we got family pictures taken in the morning and the boys went to a baptism and in the evening, we all went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant which the boys loved.
- Stake Conference - the boys sang in the Primary choir for prelude and got a little treat afterwards.  Too bad it was raining or we would have spent more time in New Bern.  It still took 6 hours total for the whole day!
- Thanksgiving Day was a bust.  Logan ended up sick, so we stayed at home but still took over food to the party we were supposed to go to.  Boys enjoyed watching the parade and the food, more or less.
- Day after Thanksgiving - Andrew went to Raleigh with Seth and Katsu.  They went to Pullen Park and enjoyed the train and playing.  Then, they were shortly at the Natural History Museum before Seth starting puking.  Andrew still insisted they go to Trader Joes to get fried rice; amazing Katsu agreed and we have a freezer full of fried rice and dumplings.
- Church Christmas party - they ate treats, watched part of the Polar Express, and took a little Polar Express ride (really a hay ride on a trailer) to go meet Santa Claus.  Boys seemed to enjoy it.
- ECU football game.  They had lots of fun, even though it was cold and super late (Game started at 7:30 on a weeknight!).  They stayed for about half of it.  ECU has been doing really well this year, so it was fun.
- enjoying lots of treats in December.
- loving Advent, Christmas Countdown, and our first year with Elf on the Shelf after much begging.  Andrew gets to blow out the first candle for Advent which he thinks is pretty cool.  They love trying to explain each of the names of Jesus that we are doing for Christmas countdown.  They write letters to the Elf asking him to hide certain places.
- Andrew has been sick most of the week and missed several days of school.
- Lots of work parties for Katsu.  Andrew really enjoyed the one last night where he was busy playing some hide and seek tag game with the other kids.
- Barnes and Noble night - Seth repeated a sweet little Thanksgiving poem.