Andrew - has been super busy reading all the new battle of the books books. I think he has read about 8 already. He likes to have his head in a book at all times. Or eat. Most of our fights with him are over eating. He loves to eat and eat almost anything. He wants a full meal when he gets home from school - either a bowl of soup, a burrito, cooked pasta, rice dish, or Japanese noodles. The kid is already going to eat me out of house and home. Andrew goes through phases of what he wants to play. He'll be really into his pokemon cards for a while (like now) and watch to spend all his money buying more cards. Or he'll work obsessively on his circuits for awhile. He is great at building things on his own, but will sometimes look things up in the books, too. Or he will spend a couple days building some elaborate setup with all the army men, all the cars, all the blocks, and all the Trio blocks and then cry bitter tears if anyone messes it up and say how it will take him days to rebuild. Andrew exaggerates everything about 200% at least and has absolutely no humility or modesty. He loves to talk about whatever he does is so special or unusual to everyone he can see. He loves talking to adults and when he is around is impossible to get a word in edgewise. He loves to talk. He really enjoys playing with his friend Robert in the neighborhood but otherwise will play with Seth's friends as there aren't a ton of boys his age in the neighborhood. He loves to play huge wars with Nerf guns and is always breaking our "no shooting Nerf guns before 7 am" rule. He procrastinates everything until the last minute but always does end up getting everything done. He genuinely enjoys everything he does but is difficult to actually get it completed. He is very questioning and will always tell us that he doesn't believe in church or Jesus, but we'll see. Andrew spends a lot of time teasing his brothers (esp. Logan who doesn't like for who knows why reasons), arguing about why he is always right, and getting out of work. He still wants someone to sleep with him every night and usually Seth will appease him.
Seth - is super high energy, high anxiety, high everything. Everything is a high pitched emergency with him. He hates attention or embarrassment. He refuses to wear anything unconventional (i.e. pajamas to school) or do anything in any way different than any one else. His tooth was loose this week and he was embarrassed and wanted to make sure that no one knew, even Katsu, but then he told Katsu as soon as he got home from work. His tooth feel out at church and he was so embarrassed, he made sure that we wouldn't tell anyone. Seth is constantly bored unless he is reading a book or playing with screens. He doesn't and never has really played much with toys. He loves screens and unless you are really careful to lock everything up, you will find him on a computer or a phone playing his favorite game Slitherio and chewing his shirt up to smithereens. He is very diligent to get everything done and freaks out if he can't, except piano. He is still diligent, but he hates practicing new songs (every week, it is "I can't do this, it's too hard, etc. etc.", a big crying fit for at least an hour until he finally sits down and then does it well). He can't wait to be a cub scout. He has been riding straight over to a friend's after school - which he enjoys, though I think it is partially because he can play screens a bit of the time there. One day, he friends went out to play and he was still on the computer another 20 or 30 minutes just playing by himself. He is terrified of animals, esp. dogs and will just run home if he is playing with a friend who has dogs. But there were some loose dogs this week, and he just ran his bike around the blocks over and over until they were put back without freaking out too much which surprised me. Seth thinks in math language, I think, and seems to always be doing arithmetic. His school agenda has little math problems written all over the edges of it. He loves playing outside and being active.
Logan - is going through a super annoying stage, but he's forgiven since he is usually so easy going. He has been sleeping with Noah every day, but he wakes up about 6 am every day and then starts talking and I'm worried he'll wake up Noah (who needs more sleep than Logan does). He has been good this week about going to the playroom and playing quietly by himself. Not only has this been great with Noah sleeping longer, but he has also started playing better. Logan has always been more attatched to my hip and not really wanting to play unless he is practically physically touching me. But he has been making these super elaborate train tracks and then working on them and playing off and on all day, which has been fabulous! I can see him getting more creative. Logan loves to be read to, but has really enjoyed doing his reading lessons and usually asks so he can do more. He is excited to find all the sight words he has learned at preschool in the books that we read and wants to start to read easy books. It was a slow process getting Logan to learn all his letters, but he must be ready now because he is learning all their sounds quickly. He has a hard time with sounding out a lot of words - he'll sound out correctly but then guess when it is time to figure out the word, but he is getting there, especially with the stories in his reading lesson that have easier words. He loves to play outside and will do so for hours and hours. He is a pro at riding his bike - he has been riding without training wheels for almost a year now, but then didn't ride much after his birthday because he got a Ziggle. But I have been letting him ride to the elementary school when we pick the boys up and it's been a godsend - he fusses much less about going and has been enjoying riding a lot more, too. Logan is amenable to playing with friends, but doesn't seem to actively want any sort of play date. He is lethargic at soccer practice and seems to lack any drive, but does well at games and even made at least one goal this week. So, yay! He spend a lot of time whining and being helpless which drives me crazy. He still won't wipe his own butt most of the time (!), but will at least do it sometimes. He used to sit for an hour just waiting for me to come! He whines and whines and whines and is a lot of trouble lately, but again, par for the age.
Noah - is a challenge lately. Boy, those ugly twos have finally reared his head. He throws massive fits. More akin to Andrew, I think. He will scream and cry his head off for 30 minutes a time and always about ridiculous things. Of course, sleep is an issue, too. He won't take naps, but then will want to slip off to sleep at like 3:30 which is much too late for a nap. But then he wants to stay up like the bigger boys if we are having movie night or something. Noah is fascinated with burping and farting and will pretend to do both all the time. He is still super obsessed with super heros and wants to wear spiderman all the time - he will say he wants to be like Peter Parker (that means wearing it underneath regular clothes). He talks a lot and has a lot to say. He loves to play, but he also loves to be outside, read stories, and play with friends. He likes to play pretend with his characters and cars and spends lot of time with his action figures. He likes to dress up and play doctor with me (though he uses as many power tools as he uses doctor toys). He likes to do puzzles and he loves to watch TV and is always asking for more shows (that and food constitute most of his fits). He loves to sing, especially the ABC song. He likes preschool, but the last week or so has been throwing fits when I go to work. He wants me to do everything for him and avoids Katsu doing anything for him. He loves potty talk and just told me he is going to "poop in your face and in your hair and on your computer". He threw a massive fit one day this week when I went to work and then told his preschool teachers that he loves me so much but he is mad at his Daddy. He likes to tell us when he is mad at us. He is loud and busy all the time. He fights and wrestles and roughhouses with his brothers constantly. On the other hand, he is our only kid who likes to have his hands clean and wants to wash them all the time.
This week:
Noah says we read Superman books and Batman books and superhero books. But let's get a little more detail than that ...
Sunday - general conference. Boys were happy to watch more or less but were pretty loud. They also spend a lot of time playing outside while we listened. They loved listening and marking their bingo cards with M&Ms and eating all the food storage food. Not sure if they are getting anything out of it, but they are getting the ritual of it anyways.
Monday - The week of 5 soccer games. Seth had a game on Monday but Katsu took him and the rest of stayed at home. Seth's coach has been driving me crazy - she is a hot mess with not supervising her own kids, not coaching the kids too much and being horrible at communicating, but Seth is just happy to play soccer. I had to deal with a student who skipped the midterm because he was "sick" and another student who cheated, so, basically a great Monday.
Tuesday - Logan had a soccer game that me and the kids went to. Logan played well but the other boys were driving me insane, fighting, getting up and down from their chairs constantly, etc. etc. Then, we drove to church and stayed for the cub scout committee meeting and the kids did better even though they were dead tired. I figured out giving them chalk and then letting them watch a show on my phone on silent worked wonders. Now, we just got to get Andrew to get his bear badge before his birthday. I got to go running in the morning but only for 2 miles, but I still managed to get 20,000 steps this day. Crazy. We also tried something new this week for chores - I put the list up on the pantry door since my kids basically live in their. One main chore every day, two helping out in the kitchen every day, plus some dailies. So far it has worked well and we got trash / laundry / bathrooms / bedrooms / laundry / playroom done this week.
Wednesday - no soccer games, but I was working hard to read Katsu's grant so he could submit it. I swear, I have never head at least 50% of the words he uses (science gobbledygook), so it takes a lot of work to figure out grammar ... all that diagramming from 7th grade is finally paying off. The primary presidency also came over and we filled easter eggs for the primary egg hunt on Saturday.
Thursday - Noah and I went to see the last puppet lady show and also went shopping a lot. We also spend a lot of time filling eggs this week - both Logan and Noah needed a dozen filled for preschool and Seth needed 20 filled eggs for school plus I filled up some for us to take on our trip. Katsu got home early and we had a ton of pine straw and dirt delivered so we could fix up our garden beds. It got here late after Katsu complained and he and the boys put some out while I had to go teach an evening lab packed full of people needing help on their projects. Busy evening.
Friday - Seth had a soccer game - they had to play 3 on 4 for half of it because the coach's kid forgot shin pads and the coach wasn't even sure which field it was on (!) but Seth's team still won with 14 goals to like 1 goal. Crazy. Noah picked a LEGO batman movie for movie night and was so excited it was his turn. I went to bed exhausted before 10!
Saturday - We finished cleaning the inside of the house and then Logan went to his soccer game, which Katsu coached, while me and the rest of the kids went and helped hide the rest of the Easter eggs at the church and then had the egg hunt and some milk and cookies. Then, we went to pirate fest and found all the free things to eat and do. We met up with Katsu in the town common and then I took Logan and Katsu took Seth to a soccer game. We ran into some friends and watched the BMX bike show, which is always fun. The boys really had to use the bathroom, so we made a pitstop at the library and ended up with like 30 books. Of course. We came home and got some lunch and then the boys helped with weeding, planting flowers, watering and pine straw. They did such a good job with chores that I got them the movie Secret Life of Pets at Redbox so they could watch it. Katsu and I got take out for a home date night and had some yummy Japanese food. A fun busy day. I ran 4 miles in the morning (was really trying to push myself) and had another day with 20,000 steps! My daily goal is now up to 12500 which is crazy to me.
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