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!
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Noah is 13 months!
He has grown up a lot in the past month. He has decided to be a walker the last couple weeks. He has been taking steps for at least a month before that, but one day he just decided to walk and so he did. He falls sometimes, but I think he's been pretty for awhile and was just waiting for it to be worth it. He doesn't really crawl at all anymore and just walks. It is still the cute baby toddling walk, but he can do it and carry a blanket and two toys at the same time, so he is pretty good.
He climbs around on everything. He loves to climb up on chairs or tables or step stools - whatever he can manage. He climbs up the stairs and is learning that he has to go down stairs on his tummy. He will even sometimes climb into the boys many many forts. He likes to swing and especially likes slides - especially climbing up them. He even could play on the entire play structure at Chick-Fil-A.
He also has become much more of a toddler in other ways. He is much more capable at showing what he wants. He points to whatever he wants. He is very good at answering questions. He will say yeah or nod his head if he wants it and will shake his head no or throw a fit if he doesn't. He also has started throwing fits ALL the time. If he doesn't get what he wants, he will throw himself on the floor, arched back and all, and cry and cry. For quite a while, too - he doesn't get distracted. Arg ... I didn't remember fits starting so soon.
Noah kind of had a rough month with teething and the last few days he has been sick. He has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth. His sleep was getting a little exhausted and Katsu woke up with him for a week and now he is sleeping through the night most nights (or was until he got this fever). It is much appreciated. I think we have switched mostly to one nap, but earlier than the afternoon, similar to how Seth was at this age. I am curious to see how it all plays out once preschool starts and we are in the car around lunch time.
Noah is still a good eater. He eats lots and well. He is in love with raisins, loves to pick strawberries from the garden, and even likes grapefruit.
Noah is starting to play much better with toys and is pretty good at entertaining himself. He likes to ride his horse, play with cars (and make their little noises), play with doctor and dress up toys, get into whatever toys his brothers have, destroy train tracks, and look through books. He finally enjoys being read to.
He is not very cuddly, but hates when we leave, but will generally calm down with a babysitter. We'll see how Mom's Day Out goes.
He LOVES music and loves to dance. He starts dancing immediately with music and will dance to anything - classical music, rock, etc. He likes to pound on the piano when anyone else is playing.
Noah is a fun little guy.
He climbs around on everything. He loves to climb up on chairs or tables or step stools - whatever he can manage. He climbs up the stairs and is learning that he has to go down stairs on his tummy. He will even sometimes climb into the boys many many forts. He likes to swing and especially likes slides - especially climbing up them. He even could play on the entire play structure at Chick-Fil-A.
He also has become much more of a toddler in other ways. He is much more capable at showing what he wants. He points to whatever he wants. He is very good at answering questions. He will say yeah or nod his head if he wants it and will shake his head no or throw a fit if he doesn't. He also has started throwing fits ALL the time. If he doesn't get what he wants, he will throw himself on the floor, arched back and all, and cry and cry. For quite a while, too - he doesn't get distracted. Arg ... I didn't remember fits starting so soon.
Noah kind of had a rough month with teething and the last few days he has been sick. He has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth. His sleep was getting a little exhausted and Katsu woke up with him for a week and now he is sleeping through the night most nights (or was until he got this fever). It is much appreciated. I think we have switched mostly to one nap, but earlier than the afternoon, similar to how Seth was at this age. I am curious to see how it all plays out once preschool starts and we are in the car around lunch time.
Noah is still a good eater. He eats lots and well. He is in love with raisins, loves to pick strawberries from the garden, and even likes grapefruit.
Noah is starting to play much better with toys and is pretty good at entertaining himself. He likes to ride his horse, play with cars (and make their little noises), play with doctor and dress up toys, get into whatever toys his brothers have, destroy train tracks, and look through books. He finally enjoys being read to.
He is not very cuddly, but hates when we leave, but will generally calm down with a babysitter. We'll see how Mom's Day Out goes.
He LOVES music and loves to dance. He starts dancing immediately with music and will dance to anything - classical music, rock, etc. He likes to pound on the piano when anyone else is playing.
Noah is a fun little guy.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Trip to Texas Part 2
We did a lot of things in Texas. If I tried to order them, I would invariably put them in the wrong order, but I will make a list of some of things we did and little stories. For the first part of the trip, it was just me and the boys. My sister Sarah came after about a week and then my grandparents and Aunt Karen came in. Then, my sister's husband Danny came in. The grandparents left. A week later, Katsu came. Then a day later, Sarah and Danny left. My brother Michael and his wife Meghan and kid Finlay live down the street so they were in and out of the adventures the whole time.
- Zoo - there were two trips to the zoo. The first trip was the day we got back - a nice, cool day. He took Andrew, Seth, and Logan. They saw almost all the animals (Andrew is very particular about seeing all the animals and planning out a specific order in which to see them). They had special dinosaur exhibits - you could take a little train around and they had a puppet show - except these are like life-sized puppets that are actually kind of scary and look like are actually eating people. Logan got scared and my dad was filming while talking to him about the puppets. Meanwhile, Seth volunteered and went up on the stage to help out and a dinosaur puppet kissed him. By that time, my Dad noticed that he was gone and saw him on the stage. Ha ha. The boys had lots of fun. We went to the zoo with Sarah and Danny and all 4 boys on another day. Andrew and Seth fought over the map half the time, but there was fun, too. The boys got to feed the giraffes, which was fun, and enjoy the train again and see the rest of the animals.
- Dallas Arboretum - there were two trips here as well. First, we went in the morning to the Children's Gardens. It was very nice and the kids had tons of fun - I just wish I knew how much water things there were and I would have put on their suits. It is kind of like an outdoor science center. They went on a tree house, they learned all about alternative energy (they really liked the ones that showed water power where you shot water at sculptures enough until the sculptures would shoot water everywhere ... of course, somehow they figured out how to shoot each other, too!). They played in a maze, they tried to grab tadpoles out of a little pond, they used sand/pebble like stuff to build up land and then turned on the water to see how the water changed the land, they looked at some different plants. It was really a lot of fun and was a cloudy day and not too crowded. Last, we went to a little kid section. Noah found this stream and basically crawled through the stream for a long time getting completely soaking wet while his brothers made little sticks go down the stream. Afterwards, we went over to an old friend from Boston's house and had some lunch and played in the pool. It was really a great day! Our second trip to the Arboretum was with my grandparents and aunt. This time, we walked around and saw the gardens, but not the children's part. The kids were not thrilled about it at all. I did get them a couple scavenger hunts from the front desk. Seth's was the statues and he found them pretty quickly, but Andrew's was trees and he was upset they weren't all together with Seth's, so it didn't work out very well. It was also VERY hot. We finally found our way over to an area where they had children's activities. They had a story hour that the kids were not at all interested in and face painting and a petting zoo. Seth got some pretty cool face painting - I think he was supposed to be a skeleton - and Logan got a little something, too. But mostly, the adults just sat down and talked while the boys chased each other and the stroller around before we finally decided it was too hot and went home. It was pretty, but the boys were not interested to say the least. The Children's Gardens were really nice, though. One more funny story - we were driving there with Sarah and got lost. Sort of. We took the HOV lane and then couldn't figure out how to switch highways. So, we ended up having to do a couple different exits to try to find the right way. At one point, I stopped on the road to make sure we were going the right way. There were no cars in my lane for as far as you could see. One car went by in the other lane and honked at me. It scared the kids and they were quiet for the whole rest of the ride. I think it scared them a bit.
- Heard Museum - this is a nature center in McKinney. I think we went 2 or 3 times. My Dad took the kids once without me. They had fun, but I think they were getting away from my dad a little too much. Logan just ran off and was completely ahead. He did the same with me, but we eventually got him to understand he couldn't ran away. They had some fun hiking trails through a tall grass prairie that they are trying to restore and then around some wetlands that were pretty wet due to all the rain that Texas has had. There is also some outdoor animal exhibits and a little Western town that the kids played in. The nature center was nice and a lot bigger than I expected. The boys had fun digging around in the dinosaur exhibit. Then, we went to the snake exhibit where they had all kinds of poisonous snakes. They had just put a mouse into one of the cages. I called all the boys over so we could watch, but the snake must not have been hungry. We watched for like 30 minutes while the mouse ran all over the cage and even onto the snake and on top of it's head. Finally, we decided that it was time to go. One more funny story - when we first went out on the trail when we were all there, we go outside the nature center door and I look over, and my Dad ran over and picked up a live snake. He held it for awhile while the boys watched transfixed until the snake understandably got pretty irritated and he put it down.
- Perot Museum - this is a science center. Again, we went with Sarah and Danny. They had a lot of fun exhibits, especially for Andrew and Seth. Logan and Noah got bored after a while, until we discovered the children's museum area at the bottom floor. Logan loved it and could have stayed for ever, but the kids got really hungry so we had to leave. So, the very top floor of the museum is where you start - you get there by this giant escalator. The top floor has a part where you pretend to be a bird and control it by your arm movement with some sort of motion camera, I presume. The kids liked the next floor. It had a dinosaur exhibit - they liked the one where you picked animals and watched them battle and see which had the best adaptations. The solar system exhibits were moderately interesting, the gems were pretty cool to look at, though the boys were somewhat non-plussed. The energy exhibits were horrible - I can't even figure out what the point of them was. The body part was pretty cool, though geared toward older kids, and the engineering part was super fun for Andrew and Seth, but Logan couldn't really do anything, so we took him down to the children's part. The Life and Dynamic Earth exhibits were moderately interesting. The boys liked getting on the earthquake part. Andrew and Seth really enjoyed the sports hall - you could test running against a dinosaur and also try doing an athletic feat and seeing how you compared to professionals. Seth really enjoyed it. It's interesting seeing so many science museums and I think the same exhibits get done over and over. Like I thought the dinosaur running part was really cool - we saw the same exhibit more or less in Birmingham. So interesting. The Perot was really nicely done - a little too much technology for my liking, but I guess museums are having to figure that out now. Also way too crowded!
- Legoland - we went here for Seth's birthday, which I talked about before. They had a few rides, a big play area, a big water play area, a movie, and lots of Legos. The boys had a good time and it was a nice way to celebrate a birthday.
- Frisco Rough Riders baseball game - my parents took Andrew and Seth to a minor league game. I think they really enjoyed it, even though it was super late.
- Chuck E. Cheese - my dad took Seth here two times to use up tokens and get himself a present for his birthday. He came home with lots of candy and shared it.
- Park - the boys went to several parks with my dad, we took them to the park sometimes, and we went and saw a Monday night concert. The boys wanted to sit right by the booth were my mom was working. Dad and Seth and Logan waited in line and got free burgers. I brought various snack foods from home and Noah was chomping done on a whole hunk of pork which cracked the people up next to us. During the music portion, the boys went and played in the front with the other kids. They were playing soccer, but the boy who owned the ball decided he wasn't getting enough play time, and so they stopped that. Noah crawled everywhere. It was a fun night.
- Parade - we went to a parade in Plano on the 4th. It was kind of a bummer. The floats were not too exciting (though the cowboy church one was interesting ... how in the world do they have a cowboy church in Plano?). There were about 4 pieces of candy and toothbrushes and flags. The boys were not impressed. I guess all those parades in St. Louis ruined them.
- Swimming at my grandparent's hotel pool - it was a lot of fun and a nice salt water pool. One side of the pool was only 6 inches, so Noah could just crawl around in it. He LOVED it. Of course, he kept crawling into the other part. Freaked me out when he fell in once, but I got him out immediately and I don't think he even swallowed any water, but still scary.
- Library - the boys went several times and even completed the summer reading program and got lots of free food things. We spent several days going to all the free food places and collecting said food. Which the boys enjoyed, but boy - I was ready to be done with fast food.
- Natatorium - indoor water park in Allen. My dad and the four boys went with me. They had a big water playground, spraying water part, zero depth entry, a lazy river, and a big slide. The boys loved it all. Andrew was the only one tall enough to do the big slide and didn't want to do it - he was pretty nervous. But I convinced him to give it a try and when he did, he loved it. He did it about 10 times before we went home. The boys loved to go in the lazy river, but when I went with Noah, I ended up squatting while walking and boy did my thighs burn the next day. It was a lot of fun and we stayed for a few hours.
- Movies - my dad took Andrew, Seth, and Logan to go see Penguins of Madagascar at the cheap movies and they seemed to have a lot of fun! I wish we could see more movies this summer, but not with Mr. Noah.
- eating out a lot
I probably missed things, but that is all I can think of. The boys had a lot of fun on all the excursions with my dad. When we were at home, we were a lot more constrained. Mostly, the boys played the Wii or watching movies or TV or read or occasionally played with some of the toys. The boys enjoyed their cousin Finlay and were always exciting when he came over or it was a Finlay day. They spent a lot of time on Wii Fitness Resort and tried to get everything on this plane game. Andrew read a lot of books and Logan wanted to be read to all the time. Noah liked to pick up random toys and hold them all the time and get into everything - just to warn my parents of all the danger to come once Finlay is more adventurous.
It was an adventure.
Our Trip to Texas ... probably Part 1
Wow - what a trip! We were gone for a long long time. We left June 15th and we got back on July 9th and it was sure an adventure.
We took three days to drive to Texas. Andrew and Seth went in Grandpa's car and Logan and Noah drove with me (Amanda) and Grandma. Grandpa had made fun books for the three older boys, and Andrew and Seth spent most of the trip trying to find all the license plates from all the states. It turned into quite an adventure - stopping at all the rest stops and anytime we were in a parking lot trying to find each of the states. They found almost all of them, except Rhode Island, South Dakota, Alaska, and Delaware - I think. They also got to watch some movies on Grandma's phone. Now, I didn't observe them, but they seemed to have fun and stay out of trouble, though that is hard to tell. Our car went pretty well. Logan watched movie after movie on the portable DVD player and Noah slept most of the time and was generally a pretty good sport when he was awake. Grandma tried to keep the two happy with snacks and encouragement.
Day one of the drive was to Knoxville Tennessee. We stopped after a while for some food and to get out for a bit. We took our big stop in Asheville at the Western North Carolina Nature Center. I had bought a membership pass there that would be good at the zoos, aquariums, and science centers. It was hot, but we had fun walking around and seeing some of the animals. Andrew and Seth had fun sketching some of the animals. Logan had fun in the petting zoo and then we were off to the car to finish the rest of our drive. Thankfully, driving through the mountains wasn't too bad. In Knoxville, the hotel had free appetizers, which was quite substantial - popcorn, nuts, cheese, and crackers, sandwiches, chips and dips, all kinds of drinks. We basically made that dinner, though my parents went to Kroger and picked up some fruit to supplement a bit. Logan and I and Noah slept in one room, Andrew and Seth slept on the sofa bed and my parents were in the last room. They enjoyed watching TV, but honestly, there is not much on cable for boys on during the evening. Noah did not want to sleep in the pack and play, so I finally just laid him on the bed next to me. I was paranoid he would fall off, so I didn't sleep well. When I finally fell really asleep, he did fall off the bed, so I spent most of the trip sleeping on the floor next to him. We did later figure out that he was getting a new tooth on the drive there which explained a lot of his grumpiness.
The second day, we drove across Tennessee the whole day. We decided to go to the science museum in Nashville, the Adventure Science Center. We didn't have exact directions there, so we stopped off a rest stop to figure it out. Dad and the older boys got there just fine, but we got a little lost - we missed the turn and then got stuck on a one-way street behind the slowest train ever. But we eventually found it. This museum had a tower in the middle that had all kind of interactive exhibits, but a little too hard to take Noah along all the climbing. But the older boys loved while I sat and read a Nano exhibit. The exhibits were a little bit for older kids, so Logan was a little bored some of the time, but Andrew and Seth loved it. Logan liked this one room that was almost completely black and you would hold onto a handrail and walk through the stars. He wanted to do it over and over. We all had Subway for lunch and as we were eating, I looked over and realized the Logan had a tick, presumably from the previous day. After we finished another exhibit, we found some tweezers and spent quite a lot of time trying to get the tick off right behind his ear. We finally did, and drove the rest of the way to our hotel.
The third day of driving was the worst. We went to Little Rock for our excursion, but it was pretty early into the day because there is nothing to do after Little Rock all the way to Allen. In Little Rock, we went to another science center, the Museum of Discovery. This one was a lot of fun. We started downstairs where the boys spent tons of time with one of those blowing chutes where you put in scarves and they blow different ways depending on which buttons you have pushed. There was one like this in the Magic House, and the boys loved it. We went and watched the tornado exhibit, but that one was apparently too scary for the boys. It simulated what it would be like to experience a tornado from your cellar - just with sounds and looking out the window, but the boys were scared for days! The upstairs had a fun little kid area. Andrew kept trying to put on a play and recruiting others to his efforts while Noah had lots of fun on the slide. They also had a cool exhibit area where you had to solve brain teasers and things that the boys loved. We went and looked at more types of engineering exhibits, but finally had to drag the boys away. The second hotel was fun with lots of food, too. They had burgers (I think) and drinks and it was a lot of fun. When we drove to the hotel, we had to move the car to a different parking lot. Noah knew that we were going to get out and he threw an enormous fit when we had to drive back to the other parking lot. He was so sad! He really was a very good sport when we were driving and did much better than I expected.
The drive after that was a big mess. The rain was really bad. At times, we could not see at all - even with our flashers and everyone else's flashers on and there was no place to turn off. It was really stressful, the whole drive through Texas. So hard to see, the boys were unhappy, especially Noah, and then we couldn't find a bathroom for Logan. There was a wreck or something so we got stuck in traffic and then we couldn't find the right road to get to Allen and had to turn around a few times. When we finally got to somewhere to use the bathroom, it was a gross port a potty so my Mom wanted to go somewhere else, so we did, but then poor Logan had peed in his Pull-up, so much so that it leaked everywhere, and Noah had a poopy diaper and we had to change it while the rain was still pouring. It was a mess and then there was nothing to eat when we got there! But, we finally made it to Texas. Finally. Next post will be about our actual trip there.
We took three days to drive to Texas. Andrew and Seth went in Grandpa's car and Logan and Noah drove with me (Amanda) and Grandma. Grandpa had made fun books for the three older boys, and Andrew and Seth spent most of the trip trying to find all the license plates from all the states. It turned into quite an adventure - stopping at all the rest stops and anytime we were in a parking lot trying to find each of the states. They found almost all of them, except Rhode Island, South Dakota, Alaska, and Delaware - I think. They also got to watch some movies on Grandma's phone. Now, I didn't observe them, but they seemed to have fun and stay out of trouble, though that is hard to tell. Our car went pretty well. Logan watched movie after movie on the portable DVD player and Noah slept most of the time and was generally a pretty good sport when he was awake. Grandma tried to keep the two happy with snacks and encouragement.
Day one of the drive was to Knoxville Tennessee. We stopped after a while for some food and to get out for a bit. We took our big stop in Asheville at the Western North Carolina Nature Center. I had bought a membership pass there that would be good at the zoos, aquariums, and science centers. It was hot, but we had fun walking around and seeing some of the animals. Andrew and Seth had fun sketching some of the animals. Logan had fun in the petting zoo and then we were off to the car to finish the rest of our drive. Thankfully, driving through the mountains wasn't too bad. In Knoxville, the hotel had free appetizers, which was quite substantial - popcorn, nuts, cheese, and crackers, sandwiches, chips and dips, all kinds of drinks. We basically made that dinner, though my parents went to Kroger and picked up some fruit to supplement a bit. Logan and I and Noah slept in one room, Andrew and Seth slept on the sofa bed and my parents were in the last room. They enjoyed watching TV, but honestly, there is not much on cable for boys on during the evening. Noah did not want to sleep in the pack and play, so I finally just laid him on the bed next to me. I was paranoid he would fall off, so I didn't sleep well. When I finally fell really asleep, he did fall off the bed, so I spent most of the trip sleeping on the floor next to him. We did later figure out that he was getting a new tooth on the drive there which explained a lot of his grumpiness.
The second day, we drove across Tennessee the whole day. We decided to go to the science museum in Nashville, the Adventure Science Center. We didn't have exact directions there, so we stopped off a rest stop to figure it out. Dad and the older boys got there just fine, but we got a little lost - we missed the turn and then got stuck on a one-way street behind the slowest train ever. But we eventually found it. This museum had a tower in the middle that had all kind of interactive exhibits, but a little too hard to take Noah along all the climbing. But the older boys loved while I sat and read a Nano exhibit. The exhibits were a little bit for older kids, so Logan was a little bored some of the time, but Andrew and Seth loved it. Logan liked this one room that was almost completely black and you would hold onto a handrail and walk through the stars. He wanted to do it over and over. We all had Subway for lunch and as we were eating, I looked over and realized the Logan had a tick, presumably from the previous day. After we finished another exhibit, we found some tweezers and spent quite a lot of time trying to get the tick off right behind his ear. We finally did, and drove the rest of the way to our hotel.
The third day of driving was the worst. We went to Little Rock for our excursion, but it was pretty early into the day because there is nothing to do after Little Rock all the way to Allen. In Little Rock, we went to another science center, the Museum of Discovery. This one was a lot of fun. We started downstairs where the boys spent tons of time with one of those blowing chutes where you put in scarves and they blow different ways depending on which buttons you have pushed. There was one like this in the Magic House, and the boys loved it. We went and watched the tornado exhibit, but that one was apparently too scary for the boys. It simulated what it would be like to experience a tornado from your cellar - just with sounds and looking out the window, but the boys were scared for days! The upstairs had a fun little kid area. Andrew kept trying to put on a play and recruiting others to his efforts while Noah had lots of fun on the slide. They also had a cool exhibit area where you had to solve brain teasers and things that the boys loved. We went and looked at more types of engineering exhibits, but finally had to drag the boys away. The second hotel was fun with lots of food, too. They had burgers (I think) and drinks and it was a lot of fun. When we drove to the hotel, we had to move the car to a different parking lot. Noah knew that we were going to get out and he threw an enormous fit when we had to drive back to the other parking lot. He was so sad! He really was a very good sport when we were driving and did much better than I expected.
The drive after that was a big mess. The rain was really bad. At times, we could not see at all - even with our flashers and everyone else's flashers on and there was no place to turn off. It was really stressful, the whole drive through Texas. So hard to see, the boys were unhappy, especially Noah, and then we couldn't find a bathroom for Logan. There was a wreck or something so we got stuck in traffic and then we couldn't find the right road to get to Allen and had to turn around a few times. When we finally got to somewhere to use the bathroom, it was a gross port a potty so my Mom wanted to go somewhere else, so we did, but then poor Logan had peed in his Pull-up, so much so that it leaked everywhere, and Noah had a poopy diaper and we had to change it while the rain was still pouring. It was a mess and then there was nothing to eat when we got there! But, we finally made it to Texas. Finally. Next post will be about our actual trip there.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Noah is 1!
Noah had his first birthday yesterday. We celebrated on Saturday and Monday. Katsu bought him an ice cream cake. Noah was not sure about this at all. First, he was scared about the matches. Then, the flame was scaring him. Then, he touched the cake and that scared him. He had to be comforted multiple times throughout, but eventually tried the cake on my spoon and decided that he liked it. Silly boy. We tried again on Monday, and he wanted to eat it when I spoon fed him but wanted nothing to do with touching it. He got a Cozy Coupe for his birthday from his grandparents. We couldn't think of anything else to get him, so we didn't. He loves the Cozy Coupe. Every time he sees it when we go into the garage, he tries to break free and ride in it. He can ride in it while we push him (or, if I am brave, Logan pushes him) for a very long time. It was a good birthday.
Noah is growing up. He still nurses before going down to bed and naps and when he wakes at night. I thought about weaning him, but will probably wait awhile like with the other boys. He LOVES to eat real food. He is a huge eater. He loves almost everything and eats a lot. His favorite food right now is watermelon. He can eat slice after slice after slice. I bought a watermelon for his birthday and he probably ate 1/3 of it. He starts dancing when he sees it, he gets so excited. He also loves meat - chicken, hot dogs, turkey burgers. He likes beans. He loves fruit, especially strawberries and peaches, but will eat pretty much any fruit. Not as huge a fan of veggies. He likes crackers and cheese a lot, too.
Noah is on the move. He switched from the army crawl to a regular crawl, mostly because the army crawl hurt too much on pavement outside, but now he is super fast. Probably our fastest crawler. It is amazing how fast he can crawl. He is getting a lot braver at walking and is probably really close to walking. He will let go from a table and stand and then walk for a few steps, maybe 4 or 5. He can go pretty far. He is getting a lot sturdier and will just randomly take steps off things all the time. I think he will be walking in the next week or two, but only time will tell. He is also amazing at stairs and very fast. He can crawl all the way up the stairs in like 1 minute and then will make a straight beeline to Andrew and Seth's room to the Lego table.
He loves Legos. He sticks them in his mouth, but will spit it out and give it to you as soon as you ask what is in his mouth. He is pretty good at following simple directions, like coming to us or giving us something. He also has learned to do the circle shapes very quickly on the shape sorter and can probably do the other shapes with some guidance. Otherwise, he mostly likes to get into things or play with the other boys toys. He likes cars and can make some car noises. But mostly, he can find any Lego that is left anywhere.
Noah loves music. He starts bobbing to the beat as soon as he hears it. He likes to play music instruments, like bells and drums. He likes dancing along to music as well.
Noah loves going to the pool, though he hates that I hold him the whole time and gets bored after about 45 minutes. I can't wait until I can put him in a Puddlejumper and let him go.
He weighs about 25 lbs and has lots of fat rolls. They are so funny because he is so tan, but it is white in his fat rolls. Ha ha. He spends a lot of time outside. He loves to be outside. He likes to swing, to watch Joe. If we are in the garden or in the yard, he automatically starts pulling at plants - he likes to garden and weed like me! He loves to try to get on the boys bikes and his Cozy Coupe.
Noah loves to get into everything. He pulls recycling out of the cupboards, throws cans off the pantry shelf, pulls cords out of outlets, unrolls the toilet paper, flushes the toilet, pushes over the trash cans, and wrecks all kinds of havoc. Reminds me a little bit of Andrew.
We got pictures taken for his birthday. They look pretty cute, but cost an arm and a leg. Good thing he is a cutie.
Noah is growing up. He still nurses before going down to bed and naps and when he wakes at night. I thought about weaning him, but will probably wait awhile like with the other boys. He LOVES to eat real food. He is a huge eater. He loves almost everything and eats a lot. His favorite food right now is watermelon. He can eat slice after slice after slice. I bought a watermelon for his birthday and he probably ate 1/3 of it. He starts dancing when he sees it, he gets so excited. He also loves meat - chicken, hot dogs, turkey burgers. He likes beans. He loves fruit, especially strawberries and peaches, but will eat pretty much any fruit. Not as huge a fan of veggies. He likes crackers and cheese a lot, too.
Noah is on the move. He switched from the army crawl to a regular crawl, mostly because the army crawl hurt too much on pavement outside, but now he is super fast. Probably our fastest crawler. It is amazing how fast he can crawl. He is getting a lot braver at walking and is probably really close to walking. He will let go from a table and stand and then walk for a few steps, maybe 4 or 5. He can go pretty far. He is getting a lot sturdier and will just randomly take steps off things all the time. I think he will be walking in the next week or two, but only time will tell. He is also amazing at stairs and very fast. He can crawl all the way up the stairs in like 1 minute and then will make a straight beeline to Andrew and Seth's room to the Lego table.
He loves Legos. He sticks them in his mouth, but will spit it out and give it to you as soon as you ask what is in his mouth. He is pretty good at following simple directions, like coming to us or giving us something. He also has learned to do the circle shapes very quickly on the shape sorter and can probably do the other shapes with some guidance. Otherwise, he mostly likes to get into things or play with the other boys toys. He likes cars and can make some car noises. But mostly, he can find any Lego that is left anywhere.
Noah loves music. He starts bobbing to the beat as soon as he hears it. He likes to play music instruments, like bells and drums. He likes dancing along to music as well.
Noah loves going to the pool, though he hates that I hold him the whole time and gets bored after about 45 minutes. I can't wait until I can put him in a Puddlejumper and let him go.
He weighs about 25 lbs and has lots of fat rolls. They are so funny because he is so tan, but it is white in his fat rolls. Ha ha. He spends a lot of time outside. He loves to be outside. He likes to swing, to watch Joe. If we are in the garden or in the yard, he automatically starts pulling at plants - he likes to garden and weed like me! He loves to try to get on the boys bikes and his Cozy Coupe.
Noah loves to get into everything. He pulls recycling out of the cupboards, throws cans off the pantry shelf, pulls cords out of outlets, unrolls the toilet paper, flushes the toilet, pushes over the trash cans, and wrecks all kinds of havoc. Reminds me a little bit of Andrew.
We got pictures taken for his birthday. They look pretty cute, but cost an arm and a leg. Good thing he is a cutie.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Andrew in the last couple of months
We spent most of the last month in Texas which will be a blog post unto itself, but lots of other exciting things have been happening for Andrew like ...
His baptism. Andrew got baptized on June 13th at 2 pm. The ward didn't help us at all, which was a source of contention for me, and I was a little worried that no one would come, but thankfully, people did show up a little late. The bishop was able to come, so thankfully he was able to conduct. Leslie McCarlie played the piano. I (Amanda Funai) gave the talk on baptism and Grandma (Rebecca Crookston) gave a talk about the Holy Ghost. The talk about baptism was a Kit Kat talk and Andrew got one to help him remember the covenants he made (Keep the commandments, Always remember him, and Take his name upon you). Seth Funai and Logan Funai gave the opening and closing prayers. Katsu baptized him and Grandpa (Richard Crookston) was a witness along with Wally McCarlie. Our friends the McCarlies and also the Arrigadas were there and Andrew's primary teacher Brittany Edwards also came. It was a little crazy at times with all the little kids all around (a stack of chairs fell over at one point) and Noah was crawling everywhere. Between the baptism and confirmation, Andrew wanted everyone to write their testimonies, so I think that will be great for him to read as he grows older. The songs were "A Child's Prayer", "I Stand all Amazed" and the 3 boys did a musical number "I Am A Child of God" which was sweet (Seth thought that Logan was singing too loud and covered his ears the whole time ... but at least the idea of it was sweet). It was a very special time for our family. Afterwards, we had rice krispy treats with M&Ms and brownies. Originally Andrew wanted to have rice, but we thought that treats would be easier.
Andrew successfully finished up the 2nd grade and did wonderfully. They had a 2nd grade awards assembly. First, in the classroom, Andrew got the smarties award, along with a bag of smarties. In the whole grade assembly, Andrew got awards for - Spelling Bee participation (he got to be in the grade level one this year), Outstanding Math, and Outstanding Reading. He was glad to be done and getting a little burnt out in the end.
Andrew is still a reading machine. They tested their reading levels and started the AR program the end of the year. They had a reading level they could read in - he could read from a 2.7 to 6.3, which is a 6th grade reading level. After they read a book, they had to take a test on it. At first, he just read the books he brought home from school, but they tended to be boring, and not very long so they wouldn't get many points. Then, he started to take tests on the books he read at home and then the points really started piling up. He was supposed to get 19.5 points, but he ended up with 50.2 and that didn't include most of the books he read at home even, because he didn't take tests on everything and sometimes he read the books more than once before taking the test.
Books he's loved recently: he finished two series by Rick Riordan - the Heros of Olympus and the Kane Chronicles. That is 8 very long books. He also read like 20 little books at Grandma's house - the Bailey School Kids.
Andrew still loves mainly the same things - playing with friends, reading, postponing doing anything he needs to do, making elaborate games and setups for playing toys and then going crazy if anyone touches them. He finished writing his book - Henry and Mary - just before school got out so he could give a copy of it to his teacher. He has a grand plan to sell his story and lemonade this summer from a stand. We will see.
Fun Things This Month and last:
- Ridgewood book fair and pajama party - he wanted to see his 1st grade teacher read a book, still his favorite I think.
- Memorial Day ward cookout
- Busch Gardens Williamsburg - Katsu and the boys (minus Noah) went to Busch Gardens again on Memorial Day because we heard it wasn't too crowded. It wasn't, and the boys seemed to have a lot of fun on the day down there. They rode rides (not roller coasters because Logan didn't want to) and spent a lot of time playing at the playground. They got to eat McDonalds' for dinner while Katsu fought off a migraine headache. What a trip!
- Swim lessons - Andrew had 5 swim lessons and is getting a lot better at breathing while swimming.
- Korean Cultural Fest - pretty much a bust. Andrew was much more interested in going to the library.
- Andrew's well check - everything looked all good. Needs to go to eye doctor, which Andrew is not excited about ...
- Walking school bus party
- Seth's birthday party
- Last day of school - celebrated with oreos and a water balloon fight!
- Trip to Texas
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