Family - We have been reading Secret Garden ... which none of us like that much except maybe Logan ... but we are going to see the play so we read it intermittently. We read some of the Giver, which Andrew liked somewhat. Once it got good, he finished the rest on his own and Seth didn't seem to like it all, so ... again, another one we are going for a play. I think it is a little over Seth's head. We have switched bedtime so Katsu puts Noah to bed and I read to the rest of the boys most nights. We do scriptures, history (reading about the Vikings right now), science (reading about earth science), fairy tales, and a chapter book. Maybe it's too much, but it's my favorite time of the day ... at least when the boys are quiet and listening.
We went on a day trip yesterday to Rocky Mount - about an hour away. They had a science / children's museum that was free on our pass. Small, but they had a brand new exhibit on the first floor which was really nice and the museum was empty. Like maybe 5 other kids there at a time. The kids enjoyed the new exhibit - it was using math to do things like video games, making laser patterns, racing balls down a track, roller coasters, drum patterns, etc. They also had a planetarium. We were the only person at our show - it was about telescopes. The dome wasn't huge, but not bad, and the show seemed good. Noah only lasted about 5 minutes and then we went and looked at the animal exhibits together - some stuffed plus some live water animals, an alligator, and a huge python. Noah was kind of scared of some of the animals - the stuffed cougar was pretty menacing looking. The kids did a science demonstration (milk, soap, food coloring) that Andrew and Seth enjoyed and all the boys liked the children's play area. The boys built a huge Lego fort. Afterwards, we went on a short walk in the park by the Tar River and saw a little waterfall (though the water was very turbulent because we have had a lot of rain and the river is flooding right now (in Greenville, anyways). We couldn't walk to the overlook because they were doing a frisbee golf tournament and said they would hit us. We had some hot dogs and drove home. Katsu ended up having a horrible migraine, so I finished driving. It was pretty unfortunate since we had a lab party that evening scheduled and Katsu was supposed to cook Japanese food. Instead, I hosted on my own and made some pretty good mabo dofu on my own looking up a recipe online with only about a half hour before the party.
Andrew - he is still doing well in school, though he is starting to not get perfect scores on his reading. I am with him - I always hated reading passages and having to select the right multiple choice answer. He did well on his reading assessments - he is around a 5th grade reading level, but all the books he is reading now is on a 6th grade level. Andrew is very stubborn and does things his own way, even a bit at school. They are supposed to check out two books from the library - one fiction and non-fiction. Then, they take an AR (Advanced reading) test on both and then they can check out new ones. Well, he prefers to take tests on his own books - especially ones that are long and give lots of points. So, he refuses to take his books back to the library since he doesn't want to take tests on them. He has had the same two books out since September! Andrew has been working hard doing computer games to practice for Math Masters - looks a little too fun to me, but I guess it's good. He was on the Honor Roll again and all his grades for the 2nd nine weeks were 97-100. So, he is doing well.
Andrew still reads all the time. He read a few Artemis Fowl books and also a few other random books. But his new favorite book series is the Warrior Cat series which he is reading compulsively now. Its a long series, plus there are a lot with other animals as well, so it should keep him busy for awhile.
Andrew is pretty creative, but it drives me crazy most of the time. He is always making up games for them to play and is making big elaborate forts and setups. He is also not very flexible - if people don't do things exactly his way or if he can't get the fort to work exactly so, he gets very upset. He also tends to get violent and throw huge fits, though that is gradually getting better as he gets older. But Andrew also tries really hard to be good. He will cry and tell me how much he tries to be a good kid and worries that he isn't. Underneath the craziness, he has a soft soul.
Andrew is still plodding along in piano and tennis. He doesn't love tennis, but he goes and seems to do fine. Piano - he loves to memorize songs, especially ones he really likes. He loved learning a Star Wars song this month. He will practice, but trying to get him to do it on your schedule is an impossible battle. He prefers playing first - Trio, forts, with friends, reading ... and then trying to cram in homework and piano before dinner so he can eat.
The biggest talk at school is the school dance. I think Andrew has decided not to go. I can't believe that everyone is asking girls!!! I told him that was forbidden until he was 16. Why I should have to bring this up at 8 ... He is not interested in girls yet anyways, so fine by me.
Andrew has been working on his pine wood derby car with Katsu and it will be later this month. He seems to like Cub Scouts. He has done everything he needs to do for his Wolf badge, but there are a few things that the den needs to do. They are kind of disorganized, so we'll have to see if they get it done.
Seth - Seth did his science project this month on crystals - how fast salt, sugar, and Borax crystals grow. He ended up putting together a very nice board. It didn't place, but I think it is because it looked too nice. I was kind of shocked about how basic the projects are compared to projects in other areas I have seen (i.e., how big of a bubble can I blow with the gum or whether Lightning McQueen is faster than my other race cars). It was really anticlimatic at school - they brought them in at 8:30 to cafeteria. They were judged. Parents saw them from 9:30-10 and then the kids took them home. That was it. They announced the winners on the announcements and the kids will all get a certificate, but that is it. None of the other kids even saw them! No wonder science isn't big here!
Seth has been busy doing multiplication and division when his teacher can fit it in. She sent him home his own harder homework last week which is great! He did well - all S's and is reading on a level J, but still needs to work on his handwriting (surprise, surprise). He reads well and will read, but it not as much a book worm or series devourer as Andrew. He really enjoyed reading Jedi Academy series (3 books), Stink books (he didn't love them as I got him more of them), and some Magic Tree House books. He loves anything that is kind of comic book, kind of regular book.
Seth has added learning Japanese to his chores and is always begging to have Memrise time on the computer - the app he is using to learn his letters. He tends to rush and prefers to check out his score and how it compares to the rest of the world, but hopefully he is learning some Japanese too.
I went one day to eat lunch with Andrew and Seth. Seth had lunch first and I sat with him for a few minutes until they said we had to go to another table because there wasn't enough room for me. But Seth wouldn't come with me! Even when I brought Chick-fil-A. Silly boy.
Seth enjoys tennis, but is eagerly waiting for soccer season to start. He LOVES soccer and still talks and things about it all the time. If Andrew can get him to play something engaging or there are neighbors to play outside with, ,Seth is happy, but otherwise he is bored bored bored. He loves to play games, but playing games is difficult all the time - especially when he loves long long games. And all the games he loves are long, I feel. He has started to play scrabble with Katsu. We really need to figure out how to get game night to work.
Seth also likes to draw and write little messages. He made a lot of snowflakes this month, but if you look closely, you can see he wrote how bored he is all over them. Most of the notes are messages to us about how we need to do certain things or else or they are stories. I loved his perfect day story. He talked about school going well, getting home and doing his homework right away and then he got to play Plants Versus Zombies (he gets 15 minutes a day after piano, Japanese, homework, and chores) and how Andrew was mean to him and then how we got to read stories together at night and it ended well so it was a perfect day. Or something like that.
Logan - Logan has been slowly growing up. He really likes to be taken care of. But we are trying to work on doing things on his own. After being potty trained for a year, I am sometimes trying to make him wipe himself. Because he will really just sit on the potty and wait forever. Like 20 minutes if I don't realize that he is calling for me! He is pretty good about getting mostly dressed if I press him and he can put on socks and shoes most of the time and will buckle sometimes. We are working on all of these.
He also is finally starting to play by himself or with Noah for stretches of time. He prefers to just hang out with me on my lap. Like, we spend most days with him and Noah fighting over my lap. So this is big news! He still likes my lap and story time and me entertaining him, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Logan likes to play with cars or his pirate toys. He loves to play in the bath. He likes to race cars.
Logan does whatever he can to avoid doing chores or things I ask him. He also in that awful four stage with the big fits sometimes over random things. He is the most mellow of the four, though, so they aren't too bad. But seriously, we have one of those stick things to clean out the dryer coils and he and Noah were fighting over it - all out screaming kicking fit. He also has started to get a lot more rough. He is on top of the other boys all the time rough housing and sometimes I will look over and he has just slapped the other kid for apparently no reason. Usually its just roughhousing and not violence, though.
Logan went to the dermatologist this month - it was crazy because I had all four boys in a huge waiting room where you could hear a pin drop for an hour. For a one minute meeting with the Dr. - its just a growth, rare in children, very unlikely to be cancer which is extremely rare, he is too little to sit still cutting it off, but if we want to when he is older that is fine. Done. Take a picture. Which is exactly what I expected and told Logan to expect. Logan had been kind of scared, so he was glad when it was just like what I said.
Logan always tells me that he doesn't like preschool that much, but when I probe that's not quite true. He told me he really likes singing time with Ms. Brenda, he likes playing inside, he likes playing outside, he likes reading books - he just doesn't like morning meeting. And in fact, they sing at morning meeting and sometimes he likes that. And he likes show-and-tell (so far he has brought in his camera, an Octonauts toy, and a triangle). So, pretty much he likes preschool except the learning part and maybe the craft. I'll take it. He is making friends and talks about them some (yay!). He also is telling me about what he learns. Last month, they spent a lot of time on shapes and then had a shape party where everyone brought a snack that was a shape. He loved that because he loves to eat!
He has struggled to retain knowledge of any letter. So, we are working on them at home (they don't learn them at preschool yet). He knows S,X,O and sometimes L. We spent a couple weeks working on F. He can recognize it but has a hard time remembering the name unless he remembers the words we learned (fish, fire engine) and then he can remember the f sound and then he can remember the word "F". On the other hand, he knows all his numbers and can count well and recognizes numerals and shapes. On the other hand, he recognizes colors but can never remember the label for each color. So interesting ...
Logan always surprises me with what he remembers. I told him when they went to the dentist at the beginning of the month that his balloon was filled with helium and because it is lighter than air, it floats. Then, two weeks later, talking to Seth - he says "The balloon is not filled with air - it's filled with helium which is lighter than air and that is why it floats". Crazy memory. He remembered the word helium!
Logan is always my sweetheart and tells me he loves me and wants to marry me.
Noah - Noah, noah, noah ... this kid needs to learn to sleep again! Between illnesses and teething, it feels like he has been waking up all the time at night for 6 months!!! He is getting his incisors in right now so I am hopefully that once all 4 are in, we will be sleeping again. He slept somewhat better last night, so there is hope. Katsu has started putting him to sleep so he is less reliant on nursing, but he still demands it at night when his teeth hurts and he will scratch, pull hair, etc. I watched a documentary on monkeys and the baby monkey was throwing a similar fit when his mother tried to wean him, so I guess it's not just humans that struggle with this.
Noah got a cold again and was sounding really wheezy and Katsu was out of town, so I took him to the doctor. Thankfully, it was just upper respiratory though. So, I am hopeful that he won't be like Andrew where every single thing goes straight to asthma - maybe just sometimes. Maybe it will be a two-time thing. He has an appt this month so we will see how it goes.
Noah started nursery. The first couple weeks Katsu stayed with him. Katsu only stayed 5 minutes last time and he did fine. He looked sad when Katsu left, but seemed to be happy enough. He even colors (he likes to color more than any of the other kids and is always trying to color on whatever paper he can find at home). So, yay! It is very similar to the Mom's Day Out he goes to, so I expected that he would be fine. He is not always super happy about going to that either, but he usually does fine. He is the most flexible in terms of accepting babysitters which is nice. This month has been rough because we had two new babysitters (we get one for 2 hours on Thursday afternoon while I have office hours). I don't know if he loves the newest one, but hopefully they will be used to each other, anyways. The boys say he doesn't cry while I'm good, so I guess it's going okay.
Noah really is pretty independent. He likes to hang out with me, especially if I've been gone for any reason recently, but he will also go and play or watch TV with his brothers. He really likes TV apparently, which I am not a huge fan of, but oh, well. He will play independently, too. He likes to drive his cars and make cute sounds or race them.
Noah is starting to talk more. He says more words and I can sense that more are coming. Sometimes it feels like he is making 2 word phrases, but hard to say. He can say "No", "Yes", "Mom", "Dad", "up", "blow" (like bubbles), "more", "hi", "bye", maybe milk, "uh oh", maybe Andrew, "Moo" (like a cow), "boo" (like a ghost), "ruff" for a dog ... that's all I can think of now. It has sounded like he said "love you" before, but that's hard to say.
Noah has a new cheesy grin. He also likes to perform. He tasted some lemon juice and made a face today at dinner. We all laughed, so he did it three more times with his cheesy grin in the middle.
Noah is all over the place and into everything. He loves to push things around - laundry baskets, step stools, anything large that moves. He moves the stool around the room by the couch and then flies over the top of the couch. He will climb onto counters and try to get himself water or wash his own hands. He loves to get in the fridge and pantry and pick out what he wants to eat (cuties, cheese sticks, fruit, other random stuff). He especially loves to be outside. He likes to help cook, but likes to spill things everywhere. He loves to work things with buttons - the food processor, the dishwasher. He is obsessed with dough and will pick off pieces when you aren't watching. I have to hide dough while it rises so it isn't all eaten.
He has become an expert hider. His beloved blanket, of all things, he hid in the house in the middle of a stack of futons. It took us days to find! When we finally found it, he hid it two more places that day - between my footboard and mattress and in a food storage box between the cans. He likes to hid himself, too.
He mostly just loves to laugh, play, and spend time with his brothers.
FUN THINGS THIS MONTH:
- Tennis
- Birthday party at a bouncy house
- lunch with the kids at school
- Dentist appts - no cavities
- 1 day off of school for ice - Katsu was out of town, so they went over to a friend's house all morning while I worked.
- I had a book club at our house while Katsu was gone and Noah wouldn't go to sleep, so he enjoyed the whole thing with me. At one point he broke a glass and was just so shocked that he stood there with a huge 'o' face on.
- Lots of nice days and lots of cold days. One or the other. A dusting of snow - enough to make our snowball cookies the first week back to school. Lots of rain. Lots of hot days - our daffodils are already coming out and lots of playing outside.
- Volunteering with the homeless and then a party for the volunteers at our house.
- Andrew party at Laser Dome
- Groundhog day - we made some fancy cookies.
- Setsubun - we threw jelly beans. Noah was crying and terrified at the beginning, but by the end, he was excited to try and throw the jelly beans, too.
- Science fair.
- Awards day at school - to the school for Andrew and honor roll and then back to the school for Seth and his all S's and then back to school to pick up the boys in the pouring rain.
- the infamous lab party at our house that Katsu slept through
- Super Bowl. The boys fell asleep (well, Andrew is still going strong), but they all cheered on the Panthers.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the update. Miss you all.
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