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!