It really is hard being an almost 3 1/2 year old. Wow – I must have forgotten from Andrew. Thankfully, probably.
Anyways, Seth is just having a hard time of things. Adding to the whining (which actually might be slightly better than last month), the clinging is in overdrive. An example, Seth, Logan, and I went to parent teacher conferences for Seth this week. I casually mentioned to Seth that when we went in, he would go play in another room while I met his teachers. I figured, no big deal because Seth has been 100% happy and loving preschool. Well, it was a big deal. He starts crying and clinging on the way walking in that he won’t leave me. By the time we are walking to the room, he is in tears. His teacher tries to take him over to the next room (his teacher who he loves, by the way) and his fingers have turned into talons clawing into me and he is sobbing. His teachers are shocked because he has had 0 separation anxiety or anything.
Anyways, the conference went well and Seth is “perfect” as they said over and over (which I thought was hilarious). He is low maintenance and a good kid … but perfect. Anyways, he participates in everything well and pretty much does everything he is supposed to, plays well with everyone. They said he seems on top of academic things and is pretty smart, but they weren’t really evaluating that this time around.
His only small issue is he is a huge rule follower. He is good about being flexible when needed, but once a rule is set, you better not break it. He apparently got very upset in preschool about yellow lights. A girl in his class said it meant “Slow” and Seth was adamant that me (his mother) said it meant the light was about to turn red. He was almost in tears about it until his teacher reconciled the two viewpoints. I can definitely see that at home. He takes everything that other people say very seriously. We have to say the prayers just look they do at preschool (he is specific – we must not close our eyes, we must fold our hands, we must only say that prayer) – “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food” – so we have to say that prayer each dinner as well.
Another funny anecdote that his teachers shared is that he is always listening. They told him they were going to the storyteller’s that day and he said “I know. I heard you talking about it.” Which probably means we should be a bit more careful about what we say.
Seth is still loving dressing up. Oftentimes, he is the last one to wake up in the morning (usually it’s me or me) and he will sneak out of his room quietly all dressed up –usually in his tiger Halloween costume, but sometimes other costumes as well. One night, the boys were being naughty and not going to sleep and he had gotten into his tiger costume and slept that way the entire night. At least it was warm!
Seth had so much fun with Halloween. I feel bad that he was kind of sick on Halloween and had to come home a bit early from Trick or Treating because he was so worn out. He just loves holidays. He has made all kinds of decorations for Thanksgiving and we have read countless Thanksgiving stories over and over. He will tell you all the details about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags. He also loves to wear the Indian costume they made and even wore it to the Thanksgiving parade. He insisted on having food that the Pilgrims and Indians ate, so today for second thanksgiving (i.e., cooking our turkey since we went over to someone else’s on the real day), we made Indian pudding – a lot of work, but pretty good. He has already started to look for Christmas decorations and loves to say “Christmas. Christmas” whenever he sees some.
Fun Things This Month:
- Halloween
- Trick of treating in CWE.
- Trunk or treat at church.
- Performance at school.
- Trick of treating at the library
- Watching Andrew’s school parade on his tricycle.
- Trick or treating in neighborhood on Halloween.
- Voting at home – we held an election where we decided what we were going to eat for dinner for all the courses. It was quite a bit of fun and Seth really enjoyed it – we loved our tortellini and lemonade and edamame.
- Hiking at Route 66 state park – We had a lot of fun. The boys enjoyed the visitor center where we saw all kinds of route 66 memorabilia. They even got to see real pictures of the real Mater. They liked hiking, but Seth got pretty tired and wanted to go in the stroller for awhile.
- Hiking at Elephant Rocks and Johnson’s Shut Ins – It was a long drive (almost 2 hours), but boy was it worth it. The rocks were so fun! The boys couldn’t wait to climb all over them and were so excited to see names chiseled into the rocks. They kept wanting to go off the trail and crawl all over the rocks and sometimes we obliged. It was a lot of fun. Seth fell asleep in the car on the way to Johnson’s Shut Ins, but I finally woke him up so we get the rest of the family from the visitor center. We walked down the boardwalk to the Shut In’s. It was pretty and peaceful, though I think I would be nervous about the boys swimming there. Thankfully, the water is much too cold for that this time of year.
- Pictures – we went and got Seth’s pictures taken. He was not very cooperative and it took quite a bit to get him to smile. I was enticing him by reading him Froggy book. But they ended up turning out really cute. He was wearing his Halloween necklace in some, because we came straight from his preschool Halloween party.
- Grandparent’s Day – Seth brought our neighbor, Martha, who loved it! We drove her there and back because she doesn’t drive anymore. They got to see the classroom and take pictures and then went into the gym for the big presentation. The kids sang and had made some special crafts for their grandparent. Martha was so pleased she brought a Snickers bar for Seth. Seth loved it.
- Meeting Santa – we walked to the Galleria mall when Santa came. He came up in a carriage with horses which was pretty exciting. Seth would watch, but didn’t want to get any closer to Santa to say hi or anything. Then, we had lots of fun inside decorating cookies and making ornaments (for free!).
- 3/5/7 Shichigosan Holiday – This is a very big Japanese holiday you celebrate when boys are 3 and 5 and when girls are 5 and 7 (it is on Nov. 15). So, both Andrew and Seth got to celebrate this year. We had a busy morning – Andrew had swim lessons and then Katsu, Andrew, and Seth went to a local church to help make sandwiches for the homeless as part of an elementary school project. Then, we went to the temple and took pictures of the boys in yokata (we only had one, so they took pictures separately). The boys were not too thrilled, but after about 5 minutes, we left and went to the favorite and fancier Chinese buffet a couple cities away. They were having live entertainment for some reason, so it seemed especially celebratory. They had a dancer in a big costume that changed masks mid-dance, then a women playing a Chinese harp, and then a guy doing a dance with this watering can that almost looked like a sword. It was pretty crazy. The boys had a lot of fun and we got to reflect on how happy we are that they have gotten this far happy, healthy, and alive.
- Thanksgiving – we went to the parade in the morning. Seth got bored after about the first hour (St. Louis parades are no joke). But we stayed for the whole thing and even got some candy in the end. Then, we finished our baking and went over to our friend’s, the Shumways, for dinner. It was a really yummy dinner with tons of food and the sister missionaries were there as well. The boys ate lots and enjoyed the little cornucopias full of candy. They enjoyed playing downstairs with Elias and also watching the Snowman movie.
- Ice skating – we went to a party the day after Thanksgiving and Seth got to try ice skating for the first time. The skates (the smallest they had) were a bit too big and the first couple times were rough going. He went out in shoes only after that and loved it. That plus tons of Krispy Kreme donuts (they said they order 1400 but maybe that was a joke) made it a great morning! We put up the Christmas tree in the boys room after that, which Seth is loving!
