Saturday, November 14, 2015
Funai Family in October and beginning of November
I just can't get anything done during the semester anymore, but here is a little update since I'm awake early.
Andrew - school is going. He seems to be doing really well in the 3rd grade. Again, the curriculum is too easy, but I am happy about the pull-out programs. They are having a presentation today for their Genius Hour projects. Andrew did his project on extinct animals. He still needs to develop a lot of planning skills, but he did get it completed. He is choosing to present it as a virtual museum exhibit and I think it looks pretty cool. I wish they worked more on their writing and research skills, but I do have to say that Andrew is learning a lot of computer skills. He is always wanting to get on his gmail account to check his email or to look at documents in his drive. He has learned to give Powerpoint presentations and do some research online. Not bad for 3rd grade. I am really going to have work on typing with him over the summer. His other pull out program has just done a ton of smaller projects. Right now, they are doing a reader's theater and then acted it out on a green screen. They have made machines and studied circuits and done a lot of fun things. I am so glad they decided to do this; it has really made the school day a lot more fun for Andrew. Andrew had an awards day at school and got the Terrific Kid award for the 9 weeks (one per class) as well as the Honor Roll for getting all A's.
He applied for and is in the leadership team at school. He is assigned to PE. He takes his responsibilities very seriously. He tries to get to school early and then he drops his stuff off at class and then goes to PE to help them set up for the day. He is so proud of his work and it is really sweet to see. He was excited, because at the end of October, the leadership team got to set up the haunted house that PE makes for the Fall Festival. He got to go in and turn on the lights there each day and loved to tell everyone about his work. Andrew ran for class student government (it sounds like basically the entire class did), but didn't win, but enjoyed the experience.
Andrew is always busy reading. He read most of the 39 Clues series this past month and probably finished the new Rick Riordan book last night. He also reads other random books as well as almost any book I bring home from the library for Seth or Logan, plus rereading all his other favorites. For our read alouds, we finally finished reading Who Stole Halloween. I don't know if we were just busy or if it was just a long book, but I swear, it took a whole month! We are reading the Capitol Mysteries now - short fast reads and we've read some before - but we are getting ready for our trip to DC this Christmas.
Andrew is loving Cub Scouts. He gets into a kick and tries to pass off as many badges as he can. We camped out in the backyard to pass off his camping badge. Now, we just need to schedule some hiking this month so he can get the hiking badges. He got his bobcat badge and several different adventures last month at the Pack meeting.
He is still not super excited about the play, but he has gone to all the rehearsals. This is the last week of rehearsals - he has it every day until 9:30!!!, so we will see how that goes. The play is this weekend and I am excited to see it.
Seth - Seth is doing great at school - his teacher's only complaint is his handwriting, but if you remind me, he writes neatly. He still writes some of his letters and numbers backward, but I am not worried about that - I am sure it will take care of itself. He complains about being bored. But I think his teacher is trying to keep him busy. (Seth does not agree with that statement). He is starting to read more and usually has his nose stuck in a comic book at home. He has really been enjoying reading Calvin and Hobbes and, of course, loves to "read" Japanese comics. I also bring home whatever graphic novels I can find from the library and he tends to really love them. He also reads a lot of picture books. I know he reads chapter books at school (he reads Magic Tree House to his class), but he doesn't seem very interested in the chapter books I bring home. He likes me to read him books like Space Taxi (we did those for read alouds before Who Stole Halloween) and he loves to read easy chapter books like Ricky Ricotta. He just told me he is reading Harry Potter ... hmmm ... He is super ahead in math and I might talk to his teacher about doing more acceleration. He does extra math problems called Math Stars, but he would love to be doing harder math. He loves to do multiplication, division, and fractions and knows quite an impressive amount about them. For this 9 weeks, he won the high achievement in Math award. But overall, I think school is good. A new person just moved into his class that is also a member of the church, which is nice. Before that, Andrew and Seth were the only members in their school.
Of course, the real love of Seth's life is soccer. He lives and breathes soccer and is very good. He tells me he has only lost one game. He had a lot of fun this season. Katsu was one of the co-coaches, so I feel like I missed a lot of the season because Katsu always took him, but I really enjoy watching him play. He is pretty intense and always good at watching the other places and being right where he needs to be. He got lots of goals. This was also his first time playing positions and he enjoyed that. He is pretty depressed that the season is over - like seriously, he cried a few times over it. Between rained out games, the season ending early, and us going to the Outer Banks for a weekend, the season seemed really short. We have been trying to find something else for him to do to keep him happy, so I signed him and Andrew up for tennis. So far, they haven't played because it was rained out on Monday and Wed. is Veteran's Day, but next week he'll get a chance to see how he likes tennis.
Seth spends a lot of time playing with the neighbors and is so sad when it rains because he can't play outside with his neighbors. I am so glad that we live in this neighborhood. He loves everything physical, but also loves to sit and read. He plays a lot of kick ball and soccer and basketball. He rides his bike and scooter, but prefers it mostly for transportation purposes. He wanted to do Tiger cub scouts, but we just couldn't manage two different packs, and since church doesn't do Tigers, he will just have to wait two more years ... so frustrating. He is progressing well on the piano. He is so diligent about everything, he just runs over and does his homework or practicing so fast. He won't read his stories to me, just does everything himself. He still is somewhat obsessed with Chore Monster and rushes to do his chores.
Seth is also really into playing games. He is obsessed with Ticket to Ride and for awhile, there were cards everywhere. If he couldn't convince someone to play with him, he would just play with himself. He calls it playing the computer. Now, we just taught him to play Settlers of Catan and he is already crying all the time trying to get me to play. I coded up Connect Four on my computer for the class I am teaching and he was in love playing with it. He also loves any screen time. He plays Reading Express - a game for school - and competes against the world and was so happy when he was the top player.
Our cat ran away sometime in the last month and Seth has been pretty distraught about it. Granted, none of the kids even noticed for like a week (!), but he will bring it up every now and then about how made he is about it. Then, he will make various threats. On the other hand, he is now very terrified of dogs. Not sure where that came from. Once, he was playing at a friends and the neighbor's dog scared him, and he rode his bike home without telling the neighbor. He does things like that ...
Logan - what to say about Logan. Logan is so much less intense than Andrew and Seth. He would seriously be content to just sit in my lap and look at books every day all day long. He is so easily content. He is also so loving. He loves telling me how I am beautiful or a princess or he wants to marry me. So sweet. He also is obsessed with sitting on my lap, which makes sacrament meeting especially, but really any time Noah also needs my attention very difficult.
He is slowly starting to play more on his own. He likes to play Play Doh and was excited to get some new play doh sets for his birthday. He also has started to start enjoy building with Trio blocks and Lincoln Logs and Legos. It is nice to see him make little creations because until recently he hasn't been very big on playing, especially if I am not right next to him.
Logan's favorite activity is still reading stories. Katsu usually puts Logan to bed and they read the same story night after night - lately The Hungry Caterpillar and before that Counting Crocodiles. Katsu is always impressed that Logan knows both books entirely by heart. But honestly, I think he probably knows most of hundreds of books by heart. He seems the slowest on academic things of all my kids - he only knows a couple letters, he still doesn't know his colors - but then, he will pick up on things that really surprises me. I think he has good logic and also an excellent memory. And I've noticed, he doesn't know his letters, but he knows quite a few of his numerals and he can count things just by looking (without having to point and count) if they are small enough in number.
Logan likes preschool okay. I think he is just as happy to go to preschool as to stay at home, but he likes both. He doesn't love his teachers or his classmates, but he likes them fine. He had a field trip at the pumpkin patch in October and I was able to go. It was pretty fun. There were a lot of classes from his school there and we got the last start, so we went and did everything else before the hay ride - feeding the fish, playing in the hay and on little tractors, seeing the animals, going down the slide, eating snacks, going through a little hay maze. Finally, (and thank heavens I didn't have to pick anyone up at preschool) we got to do the hay ride to the pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins. By this point, Noah had fallen asleep and both boys slept for a while in the car afterwards. But Logan really had a fun time - sticking to me like glue, but a fun time.
Logan turned 4 a week ago. He didn't really believe me, even though we had a Krispy Kreme donut cake (pile them into a rough cake shape on a plate) and sang to him with candles and presents on his birthday (play doh and marble run from us, a Jake game from Grandma and Grandpa). He had a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Party. We invited kids from his Sunbeams and his preschool class. We invited a lot more kids than last year, which is good, because almost none of the church friends could come. There were about 7 little boys here and it was a little bit of chaos. We tried playing a couple of games - finding Jake items, finding some coins, had cake/cupcakes and snacks, opened presents, did the pinata, and then gave up on more games and just played upstairs. Logan got some really fun toys - a couple remote control cars - one which they broke almost instantly and still keeps losing pieces. Also, play doh, some Paw Patrol cars, some Octonauts, some pirate things, a Pirate lego set ... so much fun. And so much fun now that it's done!
Okay ... got to speed this up since it's taking me a week to finish ....
Noah is just growing up so fast. He is such a little toddler now and not a baby anymore. Noah is really a fun loving, loving little boy. Let's see - his nighttime sleep is pretty bad right now because all four of his molars are coming in. He wakes up off and on all night. He is definitely in a great one nap schedule. He takes long naps (which are awesome), but we are using some trial and error to figure out when to take it, because if he wakes up too late, he doesn't want to sleep at night till 9 or later. He will sleep for 3-4+ hours for his nap most days which is so great! But, it is really best if he is asleep at like 11. Definitely by 12. It works out great because we have started carpooling. Katsu picks up another little boy in the ward and takes them all to preschool and then his mom picks up Logan (and Noah on Fridays) and brings them home. It's awesome. I can put Noah down for his nap and not worry about him falling asleep in the car and Friday isn't a problem anymore. I work until 11:50, so I can't really get to preschool by 12 to pick the boys up so Katsu was doing it, but now he doesn't have to anymore. Of course, anytime Noah fall asleep in the car, he doesn't nap for the day. So, Fridays are often a no nap day. And often, Noah will fall asleep sometime during church on Sunday, so Sunday is also a no nap day - the day where I really wish he would take a nap! Oh, well.
Noah is doing fine at his Mom's Day out program. He goes on Friday from 9-12. I think it's mostly good - he has less separation anxiety than the other boys - and the tradeoff in terms of my job is definitely worth it. He doesn't cry anymore - just walks right in and starts playing. Maybe it will make the transition to nursery better - but maybe not since nursery will be when we have afternoon church and that is going to be super hard for Noah. He even is fine with our neighbor picking him up at preschool. We also have a babysitter for an hour or two every week while I have office hours. He is fine with it, which was great because we got to go on a date last week ... I was nervous about going out at night time since we haven't done that with Noah yet and I figured he wouldn't be keen on someone else putting him to bed, but he eventually fell asleep in her arms and she just put him in the crib. Yay - we got to see the Chinese National Circus and it was great fun.
Noah is just so darn cute. Thank heavens. He is all over the place and into everything. He is starting to run now and he also climbs into everyone and gets into every cupboard all the time. He is always throwing things away in the trash (often his sippy cup) and getting the recycling out of the cupboard and putting it in other random cupboards. He climbs on the kids desks and it is impossible to ever find any school supplies. He will climb up to the white board, take the markers, take their caps off, and scribble all over the white board. He loves to draw - thankfully, he's mostly done it on paper so far. He seems to be pretty smart that way. Our counter in our bathroom is full because he opens up all the cupboards and drawers and takes everything out. If you aren't watching, he will play in the toilet and throw whole rolls of toilet paper in there. You have to shut the fridge door quickly or he will stick his head in there and won't leave till he gets something interesting to eat. Same with the pantry. If you don't shut Andrew and Seth's door, he will climb up the bunk bed and then cry until someone comes and gets him down. Basically, a menace.
He is pretty independent and will play by himself or with one of his brothers, while checking in regularly. He likes to play with shape sorter, blocks, train tracks, cars, marble run, race tracks, etc.. He loves to bring over books to read - his favorites right now are Sesame Street ones, Biscuit, flap books, Boynton books, feel books, and Peek a Who. He likes to scribble. He likes to try to use remotes or phones and already mimes playing video games or swiping on phones (I hate it!). He likes to play on the piano and is so sweet because he will use one finger at a time very gently. He is generally very observant on how we do things and will do likewise. He is good at picking things up and will help usually without prompting. He used to go get a diaper when he needed a diaper change, but now he prefers to run away. He loves to be outside and throw balls in the street though I am working with him on learning how far down the driveway he is allowed. He likes to climb up things, throw and play in the sand, go down the slide, be pushed in his cozy coupe, try to ride the boys trikes and scooters and bikes, and kick balls. He is SO cute with soccer - he will kick the ball and dribble and when he gets to some boundary (wall, edge of the grass) will cheer and clap because he got a "goal". Someone has been watching too much soccer!
Noah loves to eat, mostly fruit and cheese sticks. He loves pears and will eat everything but the stem. He is obsessed with grapes and strawberries and has to eat them every time we go to the grocery store. He likes beans and rice and crackers and cereal and oatmeal and meat and fish. Most things. He likes to drink milk the most of any of our kids. He still nurses at bedtime and naptime and at night (at least when he is teething). He has 8 teeth plus 4 molars coming in.
Noah is great at expressing what he wants through pointing and grunting and talking. Noah can say: Mommy, Daddy, uh-oh, hot, hat, Andrew, maybe Seth and Logan, ball, that, woof (like a dog), yay, vroom (like a car).
He loves to give full-on mouth kisses. He loves music and loves to dance. He will dance all the time. He also love to clap and cheer.
Fun Things in Oct/Nov
- Birthday parties
- Potluck party for newcomers in the ward (part II)
- General Conference - watched at home
- Soccer ... lots of games for Seth and Logan and Katsu coaching
- Helping feed the homeless and a party at our house for the volunteers
- Flu shots - we all went to a clinic at Katsu's work and all the kids, but especially Seth, freaked out and was screaming so loud it was scaring all the kids who were there.
- Missing school due to flooding and a bomb threat and fall break and teacher conferences ... it has felt like a lot of missed school
- Trip to the Outer Banks ... we were a little nervous because there had been so much flooding the previous week, but it turned out to be great. We left on Saturday morning and drove to Kill Devils Hill. We went a little bit of the wrong way, but turned around and went to the Fort Raleigh Historic Site. The boys were annoyed because they wanted to go to the beach first, but liked watching the movie and running around where some of the fort structure was. Then, we went to the Aquarium - Andrew was upset and didn't want to go for some reason ... he was mostly just cranky most of the trip ... but we ended up having fun. It was similar to the one we usually go to. Noah really liked looking at all the fish. Next, we went to Jockey Ridge State Park. This is the largest sand dune along the East Coast. When you climb up in there, it really looks like the Sahara. It was a little tough to climb up the dunes while holding Noah, but it was a lot of fun. And SO windy. I really enjoyed the park. Then, we went and checked in to our hotel. It was right on the beach, but there had been some beach erosion and damage from the tropical storm and all the flooding. The stairs down to the beach were broken and all along, there was hardly any beach, mostly just sand bags. The hotel was old and run down, but had a kitchen, so Katsu got food and the boys were super excited to watch cable. We spent some of the evening at the beach and then just relaxed at the hotel. On Sunday, we got ready and then enjoyed watching the waves and then went to the Wright Brother's Historic Site. We went in and got the Junior Ranger booklets and looked at where the first flights were. Then, we ran out of time and went to church for sacrament meeting, which was right next to the sand dunes. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, changed, and drove over to Cape Hatteras National Seashore. We went to the lighthouse first. Noah feel asleep so Katsu and the boys went and looked around the base, but we decided not to climb up this time. We also got the Junior Ranger booklets for the Seashore. Then, we went over to the beach there. In the National Seashore, it is very secluded and very very windy. It was a little cold, but the boys still wanted to go into the water and waves, but mostly we played in the sand. But we didn't last too long because of the wind. Unbelievably windy. Then, we decided to drive a little further south and see more of the seashore. We went to the second island, but then, there was water and such on the land and it made me a little nervous, so we turned around. We went back to hotel and worked on finishing up the junior ranger booklets and walked along the beach some more. Monday morning, we went back to the Wright Brothers site and walked around the hill and monument and then watched a presentation so the boys could get their Junior Ranger badges. Then, we drove back to the Lighthouse and got those Junior Ranger badges and then we drove home. It was a nice relaxing trip. A little cooler than we had hoped, but a nice way to spend Columbus Day weekend.
- Katsu and the boys had a campout in the backyard (well, not Noah) to work on Andrew's cub scout requirements. He is super into it. We also did marshmallows and smores. It was fun!
- Seth and Logan came with me to go see the Velveteen Rabbit play at ECU. At first, it was a bit slow and I was worried that the kids were bored, but it picked up and the boys really enjoyed all the parts where the boy and the bunny are playing together.
- Primary Program - all the boys did well on their parts. Andrew only could go to the practice while the other boys were at soccer, and is was a bit of a mess. I ended up playing the piano during the practice and Noah was really well behaved when I played, though he did climb under the piano and hit his head pretty bad. We tried to sit with Katsu during the program, but Noah did not want to sit still and we went to the back and waited.
- Lots and lots and lots of play practices.
- Fall Festival at school. Andrew and Seth dressed up in costume and we got some tickets and they all played a lot of games and ate candy. Andrew and Logan and Katsu did the hay ride and said it was really fun and Logan did some of the bounce house. Always a little crazy the week of Halloween, but the boys always love it.
- Trunk or Treat at church. The boys helped me make tootsie pop ghosts (Noah even helped by pulling tissue out of the box) and someone else passed them out so we could walk with the kids. Noah was interested for about 3 cars and then was interested at looking but not getting candy. It was all a little overwhelming for him, I think. The boys got tons of candy in about 10 minutes and then we went home and ate.
- Halloween - we went and had an early dinner with a family in the ward, then we got on costumes and went to our neighbors for another party and then as soon as the boys spied other kids trick or treating, we were off. We left candy on the porch and all went out. Noah went to a few of the houses, but navigating all the steps and trying to keep up with the older boys was impossible, so he mostly hung out in the stroller. Logan did his best to keep up with Andrew and Seth but he got pretty tired in the end. We stayed out for what felt like forever ... I figured it was past 9 when we got home, only to look at the clock and it was 7:45! Ha ha. The boys got tons of candy and enjoyed the haunted house. Andrew was someone from the Percy Jackson series (he wore a Camp Jupiter shirt), Seth was a soccer player wearing a way too large jersey from Katsu (and at least at trunk or treat, carrying around a soccer ball), Logan was a dragon (he wore a tiger costume to his preschool party). Noah was a little red dragon and loved wearing his costume.
- Amanda and Katsu saw the Chinese Circus.
- Logan's birthday
- Logan's birthday party
- Award ceremonies
- Andrew's play
Andrew - school is going. He seems to be doing really well in the 3rd grade. Again, the curriculum is too easy, but I am happy about the pull-out programs. They are having a presentation today for their Genius Hour projects. Andrew did his project on extinct animals. He still needs to develop a lot of planning skills, but he did get it completed. He is choosing to present it as a virtual museum exhibit and I think it looks pretty cool. I wish they worked more on their writing and research skills, but I do have to say that Andrew is learning a lot of computer skills. He is always wanting to get on his gmail account to check his email or to look at documents in his drive. He has learned to give Powerpoint presentations and do some research online. Not bad for 3rd grade. I am really going to have work on typing with him over the summer. His other pull out program has just done a ton of smaller projects. Right now, they are doing a reader's theater and then acted it out on a green screen. They have made machines and studied circuits and done a lot of fun things. I am so glad they decided to do this; it has really made the school day a lot more fun for Andrew. Andrew had an awards day at school and got the Terrific Kid award for the 9 weeks (one per class) as well as the Honor Roll for getting all A's.
He applied for and is in the leadership team at school. He is assigned to PE. He takes his responsibilities very seriously. He tries to get to school early and then he drops his stuff off at class and then goes to PE to help them set up for the day. He is so proud of his work and it is really sweet to see. He was excited, because at the end of October, the leadership team got to set up the haunted house that PE makes for the Fall Festival. He got to go in and turn on the lights there each day and loved to tell everyone about his work. Andrew ran for class student government (it sounds like basically the entire class did), but didn't win, but enjoyed the experience.
Andrew is always busy reading. He read most of the 39 Clues series this past month and probably finished the new Rick Riordan book last night. He also reads other random books as well as almost any book I bring home from the library for Seth or Logan, plus rereading all his other favorites. For our read alouds, we finally finished reading Who Stole Halloween. I don't know if we were just busy or if it was just a long book, but I swear, it took a whole month! We are reading the Capitol Mysteries now - short fast reads and we've read some before - but we are getting ready for our trip to DC this Christmas.
Andrew is loving Cub Scouts. He gets into a kick and tries to pass off as many badges as he can. We camped out in the backyard to pass off his camping badge. Now, we just need to schedule some hiking this month so he can get the hiking badges. He got his bobcat badge and several different adventures last month at the Pack meeting.
He is still not super excited about the play, but he has gone to all the rehearsals. This is the last week of rehearsals - he has it every day until 9:30!!!, so we will see how that goes. The play is this weekend and I am excited to see it.
Seth - Seth is doing great at school - his teacher's only complaint is his handwriting, but if you remind me, he writes neatly. He still writes some of his letters and numbers backward, but I am not worried about that - I am sure it will take care of itself. He complains about being bored. But I think his teacher is trying to keep him busy. (Seth does not agree with that statement). He is starting to read more and usually has his nose stuck in a comic book at home. He has really been enjoying reading Calvin and Hobbes and, of course, loves to "read" Japanese comics. I also bring home whatever graphic novels I can find from the library and he tends to really love them. He also reads a lot of picture books. I know he reads chapter books at school (he reads Magic Tree House to his class), but he doesn't seem very interested in the chapter books I bring home. He likes me to read him books like Space Taxi (we did those for read alouds before Who Stole Halloween) and he loves to read easy chapter books like Ricky Ricotta. He just told me he is reading Harry Potter ... hmmm ... He is super ahead in math and I might talk to his teacher about doing more acceleration. He does extra math problems called Math Stars, but he would love to be doing harder math. He loves to do multiplication, division, and fractions and knows quite an impressive amount about them. For this 9 weeks, he won the high achievement in Math award. But overall, I think school is good. A new person just moved into his class that is also a member of the church, which is nice. Before that, Andrew and Seth were the only members in their school.
Of course, the real love of Seth's life is soccer. He lives and breathes soccer and is very good. He tells me he has only lost one game. He had a lot of fun this season. Katsu was one of the co-coaches, so I feel like I missed a lot of the season because Katsu always took him, but I really enjoy watching him play. He is pretty intense and always good at watching the other places and being right where he needs to be. He got lots of goals. This was also his first time playing positions and he enjoyed that. He is pretty depressed that the season is over - like seriously, he cried a few times over it. Between rained out games, the season ending early, and us going to the Outer Banks for a weekend, the season seemed really short. We have been trying to find something else for him to do to keep him happy, so I signed him and Andrew up for tennis. So far, they haven't played because it was rained out on Monday and Wed. is Veteran's Day, but next week he'll get a chance to see how he likes tennis.
Seth spends a lot of time playing with the neighbors and is so sad when it rains because he can't play outside with his neighbors. I am so glad that we live in this neighborhood. He loves everything physical, but also loves to sit and read. He plays a lot of kick ball and soccer and basketball. He rides his bike and scooter, but prefers it mostly for transportation purposes. He wanted to do Tiger cub scouts, but we just couldn't manage two different packs, and since church doesn't do Tigers, he will just have to wait two more years ... so frustrating. He is progressing well on the piano. He is so diligent about everything, he just runs over and does his homework or practicing so fast. He won't read his stories to me, just does everything himself. He still is somewhat obsessed with Chore Monster and rushes to do his chores.
Seth is also really into playing games. He is obsessed with Ticket to Ride and for awhile, there were cards everywhere. If he couldn't convince someone to play with him, he would just play with himself. He calls it playing the computer. Now, we just taught him to play Settlers of Catan and he is already crying all the time trying to get me to play. I coded up Connect Four on my computer for the class I am teaching and he was in love playing with it. He also loves any screen time. He plays Reading Express - a game for school - and competes against the world and was so happy when he was the top player.
Our cat ran away sometime in the last month and Seth has been pretty distraught about it. Granted, none of the kids even noticed for like a week (!), but he will bring it up every now and then about how made he is about it. Then, he will make various threats. On the other hand, he is now very terrified of dogs. Not sure where that came from. Once, he was playing at a friends and the neighbor's dog scared him, and he rode his bike home without telling the neighbor. He does things like that ...
Logan - what to say about Logan. Logan is so much less intense than Andrew and Seth. He would seriously be content to just sit in my lap and look at books every day all day long. He is so easily content. He is also so loving. He loves telling me how I am beautiful or a princess or he wants to marry me. So sweet. He also is obsessed with sitting on my lap, which makes sacrament meeting especially, but really any time Noah also needs my attention very difficult.
He is slowly starting to play more on his own. He likes to play Play Doh and was excited to get some new play doh sets for his birthday. He also has started to start enjoy building with Trio blocks and Lincoln Logs and Legos. It is nice to see him make little creations because until recently he hasn't been very big on playing, especially if I am not right next to him.
Logan's favorite activity is still reading stories. Katsu usually puts Logan to bed and they read the same story night after night - lately The Hungry Caterpillar and before that Counting Crocodiles. Katsu is always impressed that Logan knows both books entirely by heart. But honestly, I think he probably knows most of hundreds of books by heart. He seems the slowest on academic things of all my kids - he only knows a couple letters, he still doesn't know his colors - but then, he will pick up on things that really surprises me. I think he has good logic and also an excellent memory. And I've noticed, he doesn't know his letters, but he knows quite a few of his numerals and he can count things just by looking (without having to point and count) if they are small enough in number.
Logan likes preschool okay. I think he is just as happy to go to preschool as to stay at home, but he likes both. He doesn't love his teachers or his classmates, but he likes them fine. He had a field trip at the pumpkin patch in October and I was able to go. It was pretty fun. There were a lot of classes from his school there and we got the last start, so we went and did everything else before the hay ride - feeding the fish, playing in the hay and on little tractors, seeing the animals, going down the slide, eating snacks, going through a little hay maze. Finally, (and thank heavens I didn't have to pick anyone up at preschool) we got to do the hay ride to the pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins. By this point, Noah had fallen asleep and both boys slept for a while in the car afterwards. But Logan really had a fun time - sticking to me like glue, but a fun time.
Logan turned 4 a week ago. He didn't really believe me, even though we had a Krispy Kreme donut cake (pile them into a rough cake shape on a plate) and sang to him with candles and presents on his birthday (play doh and marble run from us, a Jake game from Grandma and Grandpa). He had a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Party. We invited kids from his Sunbeams and his preschool class. We invited a lot more kids than last year, which is good, because almost none of the church friends could come. There were about 7 little boys here and it was a little bit of chaos. We tried playing a couple of games - finding Jake items, finding some coins, had cake/cupcakes and snacks, opened presents, did the pinata, and then gave up on more games and just played upstairs. Logan got some really fun toys - a couple remote control cars - one which they broke almost instantly and still keeps losing pieces. Also, play doh, some Paw Patrol cars, some Octonauts, some pirate things, a Pirate lego set ... so much fun. And so much fun now that it's done!
Okay ... got to speed this up since it's taking me a week to finish ....
Noah is just growing up so fast. He is such a little toddler now and not a baby anymore. Noah is really a fun loving, loving little boy. Let's see - his nighttime sleep is pretty bad right now because all four of his molars are coming in. He wakes up off and on all night. He is definitely in a great one nap schedule. He takes long naps (which are awesome), but we are using some trial and error to figure out when to take it, because if he wakes up too late, he doesn't want to sleep at night till 9 or later. He will sleep for 3-4+ hours for his nap most days which is so great! But, it is really best if he is asleep at like 11. Definitely by 12. It works out great because we have started carpooling. Katsu picks up another little boy in the ward and takes them all to preschool and then his mom picks up Logan (and Noah on Fridays) and brings them home. It's awesome. I can put Noah down for his nap and not worry about him falling asleep in the car and Friday isn't a problem anymore. I work until 11:50, so I can't really get to preschool by 12 to pick the boys up so Katsu was doing it, but now he doesn't have to anymore. Of course, anytime Noah fall asleep in the car, he doesn't nap for the day. So, Fridays are often a no nap day. And often, Noah will fall asleep sometime during church on Sunday, so Sunday is also a no nap day - the day where I really wish he would take a nap! Oh, well.
Noah is doing fine at his Mom's Day out program. He goes on Friday from 9-12. I think it's mostly good - he has less separation anxiety than the other boys - and the tradeoff in terms of my job is definitely worth it. He doesn't cry anymore - just walks right in and starts playing. Maybe it will make the transition to nursery better - but maybe not since nursery will be when we have afternoon church and that is going to be super hard for Noah. He even is fine with our neighbor picking him up at preschool. We also have a babysitter for an hour or two every week while I have office hours. He is fine with it, which was great because we got to go on a date last week ... I was nervous about going out at night time since we haven't done that with Noah yet and I figured he wouldn't be keen on someone else putting him to bed, but he eventually fell asleep in her arms and she just put him in the crib. Yay - we got to see the Chinese National Circus and it was great fun.
Noah is just so darn cute. Thank heavens. He is all over the place and into everything. He is starting to run now and he also climbs into everyone and gets into every cupboard all the time. He is always throwing things away in the trash (often his sippy cup) and getting the recycling out of the cupboard and putting it in other random cupboards. He climbs on the kids desks and it is impossible to ever find any school supplies. He will climb up to the white board, take the markers, take their caps off, and scribble all over the white board. He loves to draw - thankfully, he's mostly done it on paper so far. He seems to be pretty smart that way. Our counter in our bathroom is full because he opens up all the cupboards and drawers and takes everything out. If you aren't watching, he will play in the toilet and throw whole rolls of toilet paper in there. You have to shut the fridge door quickly or he will stick his head in there and won't leave till he gets something interesting to eat. Same with the pantry. If you don't shut Andrew and Seth's door, he will climb up the bunk bed and then cry until someone comes and gets him down. Basically, a menace.
He is pretty independent and will play by himself or with one of his brothers, while checking in regularly. He likes to play with shape sorter, blocks, train tracks, cars, marble run, race tracks, etc.. He loves to bring over books to read - his favorites right now are Sesame Street ones, Biscuit, flap books, Boynton books, feel books, and Peek a Who. He likes to scribble. He likes to try to use remotes or phones and already mimes playing video games or swiping on phones (I hate it!). He likes to play on the piano and is so sweet because he will use one finger at a time very gently. He is generally very observant on how we do things and will do likewise. He is good at picking things up and will help usually without prompting. He used to go get a diaper when he needed a diaper change, but now he prefers to run away. He loves to be outside and throw balls in the street though I am working with him on learning how far down the driveway he is allowed. He likes to climb up things, throw and play in the sand, go down the slide, be pushed in his cozy coupe, try to ride the boys trikes and scooters and bikes, and kick balls. He is SO cute with soccer - he will kick the ball and dribble and when he gets to some boundary (wall, edge of the grass) will cheer and clap because he got a "goal". Someone has been watching too much soccer!
Noah loves to eat, mostly fruit and cheese sticks. He loves pears and will eat everything but the stem. He is obsessed with grapes and strawberries and has to eat them every time we go to the grocery store. He likes beans and rice and crackers and cereal and oatmeal and meat and fish. Most things. He likes to drink milk the most of any of our kids. He still nurses at bedtime and naptime and at night (at least when he is teething). He has 8 teeth plus 4 molars coming in.
Noah is great at expressing what he wants through pointing and grunting and talking. Noah can say: Mommy, Daddy, uh-oh, hot, hat, Andrew, maybe Seth and Logan, ball, that, woof (like a dog), yay, vroom (like a car).
He loves to give full-on mouth kisses. He loves music and loves to dance. He will dance all the time. He also love to clap and cheer.
Fun Things in Oct/Nov
- Birthday parties
- Potluck party for newcomers in the ward (part II)
- General Conference - watched at home
- Soccer ... lots of games for Seth and Logan and Katsu coaching
- Helping feed the homeless and a party at our house for the volunteers
- Flu shots - we all went to a clinic at Katsu's work and all the kids, but especially Seth, freaked out and was screaming so loud it was scaring all the kids who were there.
- Missing school due to flooding and a bomb threat and fall break and teacher conferences ... it has felt like a lot of missed school
- Trip to the Outer Banks ... we were a little nervous because there had been so much flooding the previous week, but it turned out to be great. We left on Saturday morning and drove to Kill Devils Hill. We went a little bit of the wrong way, but turned around and went to the Fort Raleigh Historic Site. The boys were annoyed because they wanted to go to the beach first, but liked watching the movie and running around where some of the fort structure was. Then, we went to the Aquarium - Andrew was upset and didn't want to go for some reason ... he was mostly just cranky most of the trip ... but we ended up having fun. It was similar to the one we usually go to. Noah really liked looking at all the fish. Next, we went to Jockey Ridge State Park. This is the largest sand dune along the East Coast. When you climb up in there, it really looks like the Sahara. It was a little tough to climb up the dunes while holding Noah, but it was a lot of fun. And SO windy. I really enjoyed the park. Then, we went and checked in to our hotel. It was right on the beach, but there had been some beach erosion and damage from the tropical storm and all the flooding. The stairs down to the beach were broken and all along, there was hardly any beach, mostly just sand bags. The hotel was old and run down, but had a kitchen, so Katsu got food and the boys were super excited to watch cable. We spent some of the evening at the beach and then just relaxed at the hotel. On Sunday, we got ready and then enjoyed watching the waves and then went to the Wright Brother's Historic Site. We went in and got the Junior Ranger booklets and looked at where the first flights were. Then, we ran out of time and went to church for sacrament meeting, which was right next to the sand dunes. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, changed, and drove over to Cape Hatteras National Seashore. We went to the lighthouse first. Noah feel asleep so Katsu and the boys went and looked around the base, but we decided not to climb up this time. We also got the Junior Ranger booklets for the Seashore. Then, we went over to the beach there. In the National Seashore, it is very secluded and very very windy. It was a little cold, but the boys still wanted to go into the water and waves, but mostly we played in the sand. But we didn't last too long because of the wind. Unbelievably windy. Then, we decided to drive a little further south and see more of the seashore. We went to the second island, but then, there was water and such on the land and it made me a little nervous, so we turned around. We went back to hotel and worked on finishing up the junior ranger booklets and walked along the beach some more. Monday morning, we went back to the Wright Brothers site and walked around the hill and monument and then watched a presentation so the boys could get their Junior Ranger badges. Then, we drove back to the Lighthouse and got those Junior Ranger badges and then we drove home. It was a nice relaxing trip. A little cooler than we had hoped, but a nice way to spend Columbus Day weekend.
- Katsu and the boys had a campout in the backyard (well, not Noah) to work on Andrew's cub scout requirements. He is super into it. We also did marshmallows and smores. It was fun!
- Seth and Logan came with me to go see the Velveteen Rabbit play at ECU. At first, it was a bit slow and I was worried that the kids were bored, but it picked up and the boys really enjoyed all the parts where the boy and the bunny are playing together.
- Primary Program - all the boys did well on their parts. Andrew only could go to the practice while the other boys were at soccer, and is was a bit of a mess. I ended up playing the piano during the practice and Noah was really well behaved when I played, though he did climb under the piano and hit his head pretty bad. We tried to sit with Katsu during the program, but Noah did not want to sit still and we went to the back and waited.
- Lots and lots and lots of play practices.
- Fall Festival at school. Andrew and Seth dressed up in costume and we got some tickets and they all played a lot of games and ate candy. Andrew and Logan and Katsu did the hay ride and said it was really fun and Logan did some of the bounce house. Always a little crazy the week of Halloween, but the boys always love it.
- Trunk or Treat at church. The boys helped me make tootsie pop ghosts (Noah even helped by pulling tissue out of the box) and someone else passed them out so we could walk with the kids. Noah was interested for about 3 cars and then was interested at looking but not getting candy. It was all a little overwhelming for him, I think. The boys got tons of candy in about 10 minutes and then we went home and ate.
- Halloween - we went and had an early dinner with a family in the ward, then we got on costumes and went to our neighbors for another party and then as soon as the boys spied other kids trick or treating, we were off. We left candy on the porch and all went out. Noah went to a few of the houses, but navigating all the steps and trying to keep up with the older boys was impossible, so he mostly hung out in the stroller. Logan did his best to keep up with Andrew and Seth but he got pretty tired in the end. We stayed out for what felt like forever ... I figured it was past 9 when we got home, only to look at the clock and it was 7:45! Ha ha. The boys got tons of candy and enjoyed the haunted house. Andrew was someone from the Percy Jackson series (he wore a Camp Jupiter shirt), Seth was a soccer player wearing a way too large jersey from Katsu (and at least at trunk or treat, carrying around a soccer ball), Logan was a dragon (he wore a tiger costume to his preschool party). Noah was a little red dragon and loved wearing his costume.
- Amanda and Katsu saw the Chinese Circus.
- Logan's birthday
- Logan's birthday party
- Award ceremonies
- Andrew's play
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Funai Monthly Post
Well, individual kids posts are just not going to happen. We are too busy and they take too long. So a monthly post will have to do.
Andrew - started 3rd grade. He is in Ms. Gorka's class. We were excited when we went to Open House because there are so many of his friends in his class. There are also several kids from the neighborhood. She seems like a great match for Andrew - she is strict, but totally on the ball. She told me she thought the other kids were relying too much on Andrew to help and this year she wanted to focus on making sure he was getting the enrichment that he needed. So, yay! The third grade is taking the top students in math and reading and pulling them out - Mondays for high readers and Friday for high math-ers. Or something like that. Andrew gets pulled out twice a week. They have done things like Circuits and puzzles and are starting to work on a "genius project" like Google where they will research a topic of interest to them. I am glad since the gifted program doesn't start till next year. The 3rd grade curriculum seems too easy to me, but oh, well. They spend a lot of time doing AR (advanced reading - where they read books and then take tests and get points for it) and AM (advanced math - they take bubble sheet tests on math until they can pass off various skills they are learning in class). I am not sure it is that worthwhile, but oh, well. Andrew passed of his goal for AR in the first week because he is obsessed with the Rick Riordian books and he took tests on several. So, he has been spending a lot of time working on his AM goal and has almost met that for the nine weeks. He is excited to move on to multiplication, which we worked on this summer. I am somewhat dismayed to learn that they don't do much writing this year, so we have added that to our chores.
Otherwise, Andrew is still loving reading, playing with neighborhood friends, building continual forts and playing up a storm with armies, legos, etc. We got him to reluctantly agree to audition for a play. And now he is reluctantly going to rehearsal. He either loves it or hates it. He got a part in the baby angel choir for the Best Christmas Pageant ever. He is so dramatic and such a handful, I was hoping that he would love it. That remains to be seen. Andrew also started Cub Scouts - also a hit or miss sort of thing. He really was refusing to do it and honestly, it's a hot disorganized mess in our ward and they didn't have hardly anything in the summer anyways. He won't out-right commit to it - he wants to mostly work on it at home, but we can usually get him to go to the meetings. We'll see how it goes.
Andrew got glasses right before school started back. He was pretty upset about it at first, but was anxious for them to come (which took forever - we went in for him to get fitted for the first pair before the eye tech decided they were a bad pair for kids and ordered a different pair of frames for him free of charge). He seems to really like them and is very fastidious about cleaning them.
Andrew seems like he has really grown up and is a "big" kid now. He just seems so much older looking.
Seth - started 1st grade. He is in Mrs. Brinson's class, which is the teacher he wanted since Andrew had her. But I haven't heard much about school, he is so quiet about everything. I think things are going well. He keeps complaining that he isn't learning anything, but I know that isn't true. Mrs. Brinson has him doing some extra hard math problems with the assistant a couple times a week. His reading level doesn't match how well he can read because he writing is still not quite up to par, but with his nightly writing homework, I am sure it will get better soon. He also spends some time every day reading a Magic Tree House book aloud to his class. When he finishes his work, he gets to read books and has been reading through all the Magic Tree House books.
Seth is super ambitious as always. I started using an app called Chore Monster and now he is running around trying to accomplish all the chores so he can get lots of points to redeem for fun things (video game time, Chinese buffet, laser tag, etc.). He begs for more chores. I added writing to Andrew's chores and so we added it to Seth's too. So, instead of the writing prompts I gave him, he decided to start writing his own Magic Tree House book. It is pretty cute.
Seth started soccer up again. Katsu is coaching his team along with another coach and I think Seth likes that. They had their first and second game on Saturday (two games in one day for some reason) and in the rain! Seth made 3 goals and seemed to have lots of fun. He is still obsessed with soccer and tells me that when he grows up he wants to be a player - he doesn't care what kind - soccer, baseball, but he wants to be a player.
Seth is obsessed with media. We only play video games or watch TV on Saturdays except for special occasions during the school year, but he keeps sneaking the video games systems out of the closet and trying to play them covertly. Sneaky Seth.
Logan started 3 year old preschool class. He is in Ms. Gina and Ms. Christie's class. I still haven't quite gotten a vibe from her, so I don't know. She seems nice and good with the kids, but doesn't seem very personable to the adults. But it's hard to tell because I just pick him up since Katsu drops him off and I feel like I don't see a whole lot of her. Logan seems to enjoy it moderately, although I think he really would prefer to just spend his entire life sitting on my lap and reading stories with short breaks to ride his bike very fast and eat and watch TV. He really loves me. Like people will say - oh, little boys really love their moms. I don't know about the other 3, but Logan really does. He loves to tell me that he loves me and how pretty I am and how he wants to marry me. So cute. He wants to sit and cuddle in my lap all the time - which causes all our Sunday angst as I try to corral all the 4 boys during sacrament meeting.
We have been trying to teach Logan his letters, but it is not really going anywhere still. He has gotten much better with numbers and can more or less count to 30 without too much trouble. When I can get him to sit, he will sometimes work on cutting or tracing. But it's probably for the best that he still won't start kindergarten next year even though it feels like he will be impossibly big and old by the time he starts. On the other hand, he seems to have a great memory (I swear, he has 100s of books more or less memorized), great comprehension, and a good vocabulary.
Logan still loves to eat all the time and anything. I won't be surprised if he gets bigger than Seth in not too long. He loves to ride his bike and scooter - he keeps riding his bike with training wheels so fast that the chain falls off. He also loves swinging and playing in the sand box. He likes to play with his brothers, but honestly is not a big fan of toys and seems completely incapable of playing by himself, though I have been trying to force that a little bit.
He is on soccer this year and just had his first game on Saturday in the rain. He looked a little concerned, but played really well. He got three goals right off the bat, but was also good at not trying to take the ball away from his teammates to make his own goal. He could even get the ball from the other team and turn it around to the other side. I think he really had fun.
Noah is getting older every day - obviously, but he just seems so much older than before. He is not a baby anymore. He has had a bit of rough week with a cold and the omni-present teething. He almost has 7 teeth in, but I think one of them is already chipped ... sigh.
Noah is walking everywhere and is in everything. It is basically impossible to get anything done nowadays. I try to switch the laundry to the dryer and every time I look over, he is climbing in the dryer. He pulls everything out of drawers and cabinets and is always walking around with something gripped in his hand.
Noah is pretty good at communicating what he wants or doesn't. He says "yeah" and will say it vehemently when you finally figure out what he wants. He also does a very clear head shake (actually more of a whole body shake) when it is something he doesn't want. So, that at least partially helps with the communication. But he still throws lots of fits at the drop of a hat when he doesn't get what he wants. He says a few words - mom, dad, andrew, maybe seth, hot, hat, ball, ruff (for a dog), maybe a couple others. But mostly nonverbal communication.
Noah learned to walk backward this week. He is great at going backwards to go down stairs or get off of something. He is starting to have better balance and had a blast at a party at a gymnastics place. He loves to play outside and is always wanting to put his shoes on. He likes to sit in his cozy coupe for about 5 minutes, and then spends the rest of his time pushing it and kicking or throwing balls (he can already dribble) - but heaven help us if someone tries to get into the cozy coupe. He is very possessive of all his toys and you are not allowed to steal them. He prefers playing outside to inside. He likes to slide and be swung and pick strawberries and throw sand and dig. Inside, he loves to play with anything that makes music. He really likes a leapfrog alphabet toy where you put a letter in and it sings the name and sound. He also likes to tear apart train tracks, drive cars, and race cars on his race track. He likes to hug stuffed animals. He even used them to decorate his room after we switched his dresser for a 3x3 shelving unit instead. So cute. Noah LOVES music - to play to it, to dance to it, whatever. He also loves to color - on paper, on the walls, on the desks.
He goes to preschool on Friday mornings and seems not to mind it. Yay!
THE WHOLE FAMILY - we have been busy between two jobs, two soccer teams, cub scouts, play practices and school. The boys have a babysitter once a week while I have office hours for a couple hours. When a teenager from the ward comes over with her brother, they think it is the best (except maybe Noah) and build forts. So, we usually spend Friday trying to clean up the forts and get ready for pizza and movie night. This week, we all watched the premiere of Amazing Race together which the boys loved (Noah and Logan fell asleep in the middle). Now the boys want to go to Rio! Saturdays are busy with soccer and birthday parties. Yesterday we had a party for the other volunteers with the group we help feed the homeless one Saturday a week. Sundays, we spend time together as a family. One week we took cookies to lonely people in the ward, which the boys loved. When we have time, we do Scripture Fun Time - lots of play activities related to a scripture story - acting out stories, building towers of babel, etc. We try to take walks in the evening when the weather is good and the boys love to ride their bikes around the neighborhood and then ride like maniacs all over the school parking lot. Sunday is Salmon Sunday - which everyone eats (yay!) and Katsu cooks (double yay!). Sometimes we go for little walks in the woods. We try to have board game, too, which Seth especially loves. Monday night we try to have Family Home Evening, though occasionally very tired boys get in the way. Tuesday night is cub scouts and Taco Tuesday. And Wednesday night is Katsu's bishopric night and Seth's soccer practice.
Fun Things This Month
- Last Busch Garden trip in August
- Birthday parties galore - I think we've had on average one a week the last two months. Pool parties, parties at home with boucy houses, parties at gymnastic places, parties at bouncy house places, it just never ends!
- Back to college cook-outs and parties
- A couple baptisms for other 8 year olds
- Starting school
- Book fairs
- Curriculum night (we missed Logan's because we had it scheduled the wrong day!)
- Little trip to Goldsboro on Labor Day. We went hiking at the Falls of Neuse State Park - the springs there were really really pretty and all the hikes were just the right length for the kids. Then, we went to Chuck E. Cheese and let the kids play games till our $20 of tokens was gone. Then, we went to Asian grocery stores and picked up food (our real reason for the trip - the closest place to get Asian food). The boys had a blast!
- Talk like a pirate day - we got 2 free boxes of donuts at Krispy Kreme's. Logan especially begs for donuts every time we drive past (like every week), so it was great!
Andrew - started 3rd grade. He is in Ms. Gorka's class. We were excited when we went to Open House because there are so many of his friends in his class. There are also several kids from the neighborhood. She seems like a great match for Andrew - she is strict, but totally on the ball. She told me she thought the other kids were relying too much on Andrew to help and this year she wanted to focus on making sure he was getting the enrichment that he needed. So, yay! The third grade is taking the top students in math and reading and pulling them out - Mondays for high readers and Friday for high math-ers. Or something like that. Andrew gets pulled out twice a week. They have done things like Circuits and puzzles and are starting to work on a "genius project" like Google where they will research a topic of interest to them. I am glad since the gifted program doesn't start till next year. The 3rd grade curriculum seems too easy to me, but oh, well. They spend a lot of time doing AR (advanced reading - where they read books and then take tests and get points for it) and AM (advanced math - they take bubble sheet tests on math until they can pass off various skills they are learning in class). I am not sure it is that worthwhile, but oh, well. Andrew passed of his goal for AR in the first week because he is obsessed with the Rick Riordian books and he took tests on several. So, he has been spending a lot of time working on his AM goal and has almost met that for the nine weeks. He is excited to move on to multiplication, which we worked on this summer. I am somewhat dismayed to learn that they don't do much writing this year, so we have added that to our chores.
Otherwise, Andrew is still loving reading, playing with neighborhood friends, building continual forts and playing up a storm with armies, legos, etc. We got him to reluctantly agree to audition for a play. And now he is reluctantly going to rehearsal. He either loves it or hates it. He got a part in the baby angel choir for the Best Christmas Pageant ever. He is so dramatic and such a handful, I was hoping that he would love it. That remains to be seen. Andrew also started Cub Scouts - also a hit or miss sort of thing. He really was refusing to do it and honestly, it's a hot disorganized mess in our ward and they didn't have hardly anything in the summer anyways. He won't out-right commit to it - he wants to mostly work on it at home, but we can usually get him to go to the meetings. We'll see how it goes.
Andrew got glasses right before school started back. He was pretty upset about it at first, but was anxious for them to come (which took forever - we went in for him to get fitted for the first pair before the eye tech decided they were a bad pair for kids and ordered a different pair of frames for him free of charge). He seems to really like them and is very fastidious about cleaning them.
Andrew seems like he has really grown up and is a "big" kid now. He just seems so much older looking.
Seth - started 1st grade. He is in Mrs. Brinson's class, which is the teacher he wanted since Andrew had her. But I haven't heard much about school, he is so quiet about everything. I think things are going well. He keeps complaining that he isn't learning anything, but I know that isn't true. Mrs. Brinson has him doing some extra hard math problems with the assistant a couple times a week. His reading level doesn't match how well he can read because he writing is still not quite up to par, but with his nightly writing homework, I am sure it will get better soon. He also spends some time every day reading a Magic Tree House book aloud to his class. When he finishes his work, he gets to read books and has been reading through all the Magic Tree House books.
Seth is super ambitious as always. I started using an app called Chore Monster and now he is running around trying to accomplish all the chores so he can get lots of points to redeem for fun things (video game time, Chinese buffet, laser tag, etc.). He begs for more chores. I added writing to Andrew's chores and so we added it to Seth's too. So, instead of the writing prompts I gave him, he decided to start writing his own Magic Tree House book. It is pretty cute.
Seth started soccer up again. Katsu is coaching his team along with another coach and I think Seth likes that. They had their first and second game on Saturday (two games in one day for some reason) and in the rain! Seth made 3 goals and seemed to have lots of fun. He is still obsessed with soccer and tells me that when he grows up he wants to be a player - he doesn't care what kind - soccer, baseball, but he wants to be a player.
Seth is obsessed with media. We only play video games or watch TV on Saturdays except for special occasions during the school year, but he keeps sneaking the video games systems out of the closet and trying to play them covertly. Sneaky Seth.
Logan started 3 year old preschool class. He is in Ms. Gina and Ms. Christie's class. I still haven't quite gotten a vibe from her, so I don't know. She seems nice and good with the kids, but doesn't seem very personable to the adults. But it's hard to tell because I just pick him up since Katsu drops him off and I feel like I don't see a whole lot of her. Logan seems to enjoy it moderately, although I think he really would prefer to just spend his entire life sitting on my lap and reading stories with short breaks to ride his bike very fast and eat and watch TV. He really loves me. Like people will say - oh, little boys really love their moms. I don't know about the other 3, but Logan really does. He loves to tell me that he loves me and how pretty I am and how he wants to marry me. So cute. He wants to sit and cuddle in my lap all the time - which causes all our Sunday angst as I try to corral all the 4 boys during sacrament meeting.
We have been trying to teach Logan his letters, but it is not really going anywhere still. He has gotten much better with numbers and can more or less count to 30 without too much trouble. When I can get him to sit, he will sometimes work on cutting or tracing. But it's probably for the best that he still won't start kindergarten next year even though it feels like he will be impossibly big and old by the time he starts. On the other hand, he seems to have a great memory (I swear, he has 100s of books more or less memorized), great comprehension, and a good vocabulary.
Logan still loves to eat all the time and anything. I won't be surprised if he gets bigger than Seth in not too long. He loves to ride his bike and scooter - he keeps riding his bike with training wheels so fast that the chain falls off. He also loves swinging and playing in the sand box. He likes to play with his brothers, but honestly is not a big fan of toys and seems completely incapable of playing by himself, though I have been trying to force that a little bit.
He is on soccer this year and just had his first game on Saturday in the rain. He looked a little concerned, but played really well. He got three goals right off the bat, but was also good at not trying to take the ball away from his teammates to make his own goal. He could even get the ball from the other team and turn it around to the other side. I think he really had fun.
Noah is getting older every day - obviously, but he just seems so much older than before. He is not a baby anymore. He has had a bit of rough week with a cold and the omni-present teething. He almost has 7 teeth in, but I think one of them is already chipped ... sigh.
Noah is walking everywhere and is in everything. It is basically impossible to get anything done nowadays. I try to switch the laundry to the dryer and every time I look over, he is climbing in the dryer. He pulls everything out of drawers and cabinets and is always walking around with something gripped in his hand.
Noah is pretty good at communicating what he wants or doesn't. He says "yeah" and will say it vehemently when you finally figure out what he wants. He also does a very clear head shake (actually more of a whole body shake) when it is something he doesn't want. So, that at least partially helps with the communication. But he still throws lots of fits at the drop of a hat when he doesn't get what he wants. He says a few words - mom, dad, andrew, maybe seth, hot, hat, ball, ruff (for a dog), maybe a couple others. But mostly nonverbal communication.
Noah learned to walk backward this week. He is great at going backwards to go down stairs or get off of something. He is starting to have better balance and had a blast at a party at a gymnastics place. He loves to play outside and is always wanting to put his shoes on. He likes to sit in his cozy coupe for about 5 minutes, and then spends the rest of his time pushing it and kicking or throwing balls (he can already dribble) - but heaven help us if someone tries to get into the cozy coupe. He is very possessive of all his toys and you are not allowed to steal them. He prefers playing outside to inside. He likes to slide and be swung and pick strawberries and throw sand and dig. Inside, he loves to play with anything that makes music. He really likes a leapfrog alphabet toy where you put a letter in and it sings the name and sound. He also likes to tear apart train tracks, drive cars, and race cars on his race track. He likes to hug stuffed animals. He even used them to decorate his room after we switched his dresser for a 3x3 shelving unit instead. So cute. Noah LOVES music - to play to it, to dance to it, whatever. He also loves to color - on paper, on the walls, on the desks.
He goes to preschool on Friday mornings and seems not to mind it. Yay!
THE WHOLE FAMILY - we have been busy between two jobs, two soccer teams, cub scouts, play practices and school. The boys have a babysitter once a week while I have office hours for a couple hours. When a teenager from the ward comes over with her brother, they think it is the best (except maybe Noah) and build forts. So, we usually spend Friday trying to clean up the forts and get ready for pizza and movie night. This week, we all watched the premiere of Amazing Race together which the boys loved (Noah and Logan fell asleep in the middle). Now the boys want to go to Rio! Saturdays are busy with soccer and birthday parties. Yesterday we had a party for the other volunteers with the group we help feed the homeless one Saturday a week. Sundays, we spend time together as a family. One week we took cookies to lonely people in the ward, which the boys loved. When we have time, we do Scripture Fun Time - lots of play activities related to a scripture story - acting out stories, building towers of babel, etc. We try to take walks in the evening when the weather is good and the boys love to ride their bikes around the neighborhood and then ride like maniacs all over the school parking lot. Sunday is Salmon Sunday - which everyone eats (yay!) and Katsu cooks (double yay!). Sometimes we go for little walks in the woods. We try to have board game, too, which Seth especially loves. Monday night we try to have Family Home Evening, though occasionally very tired boys get in the way. Tuesday night is cub scouts and Taco Tuesday. And Wednesday night is Katsu's bishopric night and Seth's soccer practice.
Fun Things This Month
- Last Busch Garden trip in August
- Birthday parties galore - I think we've had on average one a week the last two months. Pool parties, parties at home with boucy houses, parties at gymnastic places, parties at bouncy house places, it just never ends!
- Back to college cook-outs and parties
- A couple baptisms for other 8 year olds
- Starting school
- Book fairs
- Curriculum night (we missed Logan's because we had it scheduled the wrong day!)
- Little trip to Goldsboro on Labor Day. We went hiking at the Falls of Neuse State Park - the springs there were really really pretty and all the hikes were just the right length for the kids. Then, we went to Chuck E. Cheese and let the kids play games till our $20 of tokens was gone. Then, we went to Asian grocery stores and picked up food (our real reason for the trip - the closest place to get Asian food). The boys had a blast!
- Talk like a pirate day - we got 2 free boxes of donuts at Krispy Kreme's. Logan especially begs for donuts every time we drive past (like every week), so it was great!
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