Seth is 3 years 10 months

This month seemed to be a little smoother, although Seth has gotten really whiny lately and seems to be melting down more often – I think he either is coming down with a cold (I have one) or he is not getting enough sleep.  I know he would get a lot more sleep with his own room.  Andrew and Seth’s schedules just don’t seem very in sync at the moment.  But, on the other hand, I think they would be lonely with their own rooms.

This month has been full of whining.  I know it’s the age, but I feel like Seth’s default talking is whining.  By the end of the day, I feel like I am going to lose my mind if I hear one more whine.  Seth is quite thoughtful and very diligent, on the one hand.  On the other, if he feels like he might fail, he refuses to even try.  He is very much a perfectionist.  Sometimes, I am amazed when I ask Seth to do something and then I turn around and he has already done it.  On the other hand, when he thinks something is hard in play or work, that’s it.  When he runs a race with someone else, he runs all out.  But, if he is not close (like they started way earlier, or whatever, because Seth actually runs pretty fast), he just gives up, does this wimpy run and then kind of flops around and then whines and starts half crying.

Seth has started wearing underwear at night and does well, but he is still not confident.  He wants to wear a diaper sometimes and will explain that it needs to be a pattern “underwear diaper underwear diaper”.  I think it’s pretty cute. 

Seth started doing reading lessons from the book this month.  He loves it and is catching on to sounding out very quickly.  He wants to do 2 lessons every day.  He is always excited to show Katsu all the stories he is reading “See me read” “See me eat”.  He loves to look ahead in the book and see which sounds he is learning next.  He is having a hard time blending beginning sounds but gets it after trying to read it a few times.

Seth had the stomach flu this month for a couple days.  That was not fun.  He also got punched in the face by Andrew and got quite a bloody nose.  He was scared to death.  Poor thing, but it turned out fine.

I am conflicted on what to do about preschool next year.  Seth had another parent teacher conference and he is doing really well.  Basically a model student.  His teachers said they would write letters to preschools in NC if they needed to, to get him off the waiting list.  They said he is just great and sharp.  But Seth hates going to preschool.  He is the ultimate home-body and really doesn’t want to go anywhere ever.  When I picked him up on Tuesday, he said “I can’t wait for tomorrow because it is not a preschool day”.  And the thing is – he seems to enjoy preschool while he is there.  But getting him there (or church, or story time or anything with a forced social component) is very difficult.  He usually pretended to be sick, but I finally told him how annoying that was.  I told him I could never tell when he was actually sick because he is always saying that he is sick.  And so, he usually tells me the truth now.  So … I am really leaning towards no preschool next year.  We’ll see if we have time to drop by the preschools and visit when we’re there next month.  Maybe Seth will change his tune.  They are cheap and in the budget, but I just don’t have energy to force the kid to go 4 days a week.  I wish they had 3 days options, but I don’t see any.  At least it’s not 5 days a week.  Too.  Much.  Driving.

Seth is very interested and “ready” to play sports.  He has started asking me when he can play.  In our town, everything for his age is in kind of like an intro-to-sports thing on Sunday afternoons.  Which doesn’t work, obviously, but I do plan on enrolling him in soccer after we move.  He tells me all the things he knows about sports and how much he wants to play baseball practice right now.  Soon enough, buddy.  Today, I have a cold, so I was watching a movie, and at one point, cricket came on the screen and both Seth and Logan were fascinated.  I think they will definitely be my sport boys.

We started new chore routines.  Seth got chore sheets from our neighbor for Easter and was very eager to use them.  He has been super diligent in doing his chores.  He always want to know how many chores he has completed and what extra chore he can do.  And he gets quite upset if someone else has done his chore.  Each week, we’ve tweaked the chores, but basically, he is in charge of feeding Joe, setting the kitchen table, and doing an extra chore, as well as a reading lesson, cleaning his room by 7:00 and following the rules.  For his extra chore, he especially likes helping clean the toilet.  Yay!

Seth is finally starting to play more with Logan and be more of a friend.  He would still rather spend time playing on his own in his room without Logan messing up his things.  (Well, he would most prefer if I would play with him alone, but that almost never happens unless it’s nap time).  But sometimes they play cars or ball together and it makes me happy.  He still much prefers Andrew as a friend, but Logan is starting to be a friend, too.

Seth is really sweet and I love our time together (esp. when he isn’t whining).

Fun Things This Month

• We had a big snow storm the first Sunday of spring break – a whole foot of snow! The boys built a snow fort and a huge snowman. It was really really wet snow. Thankfully, it didn’t stay around too many days.
• During Spring Break, we also
• went to the zoo.
• went to Magic House.
• went to Purina Farms. We saw all the baby animals. And Andrew and Seth loved running through the tunnels in the barn.
• went to the CHildren’s Garden at the Botanical Gardens on opening day. They had music performers and the boys also got free plants.
• Spring Break was also the week before Easter.
• Seth enjoyed waving the homemade palm branches while we sang Hosanna and acting out Palm Sunday.
• We had a passover dinner with lamb, homemade unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and grape juice. Seth was so excited to buy the food for Easter.  He helped me buy things and then he put it all in a special cabinet.  He would show it to everyone.  And he was finally thrilled when it was Thursday night and we could start eating all the food.
• Friday, we had a Jesus dinner with foods he might of eaten, plus some symbolic food to remember the events of that day. We also made hot cross buns. We also dyed Easter Eggs. Seth had a lot of fun with that.
• Saturday we had our traditional ham dinner.
• Sunday we had a traditional ham dinner with friends. Seth was excited to go to his friend’s Miles house and do an egg hunt there.  I don’t think he ate a blessed thing the entire meal, but he had fun.
• Sunday morning we had our Easter egg hunt in the house. Seth had tons of fun finding eggs and eating the treats inside.
• General Conference – the boys listened to the prophet, but otherwise, they mostly just played. They did enjoy doing bingo with chocolate chips one day and eating chocolate chip cookies the other day.
• Opening Day for the Cardinals.  Seth was a little under the weather.  I think he was already coming down with the stomach flu, but he really really wanted to go anyways so he did.  He really had a great time and especially enjoyed the snacks that Katsu brought.
• Swim lesson continuing.  Seth is getting a little tired of them, but he works hard and he just has one more.
• 2 Planetarium shows.  It was the 50th anniversary of the Planetarium and while we go thru their often on the way to the science center, but we’ve never seen a show.  The shows were all 50 cents, so we went Seth, logan and I to see a show during the week.  It was the Little Star that could.  Seth LOVED it and spent the next few days telling me all about stars.  We went to a second show as a family on Saturday telling us about the sky tonight and what you can see, but Seth didn’t enjoy it that much. 
• We went out to eat as a family at Maggiano’s to celebrate getting a job.  It was fine.

Andrew is 5 years 11 months old!

I feel like nothing has changed for Andrew really in the last month.  He is busy with school, though with spring break there wasn’t too much school in there.  I think he is kind of bummed that we get to have fun while he’s at school, but I know he enjoys school, too.  He is running out of ideas at his Writer’s Workshop, but his teacher is trying hard to make him think he has good ideas.  I think if they could write imaginary stories that would probably help, too.  His reading is continually improving.  He doesn’t like reading to me too much (not surprising, since reading is so much work), but I try to get him to almost every day.  His fluency is improving.  I am always impressed with the amount of math he is learning.  He is really seeming to get a good grasp on numbers.  He understands negatives pretty well and can add and subtract within twenty really well.  The boys think it is great fun to give me whole strings of numbers to add together. 

I went to a parent teacher conference again this last month.  Andrew is doing well.  His teacher thinks he would probably enjoy school more if it was more focused – he thinks the other kids and their wiggles is a little bit much.  We mostly talked about Andrew’s reading and how he depends on sounding it out too much and he needs to think about context and whether it looks or sounds right, too.

Andrew had his first trip away from us this month.  We went to Greenville, NC to visit.  Andrew seemed excited and seemed to do really well.  We left him at a neighbors house and he worked really hard to make sure that Seth wasn’t too scared.  He went to school and bought school lunch both days, which was a new and fun experience for him.  The third day, he didn’t have school for a holiday and so he went to the zoo with our friends and then had an Easter egg hunt at their house.  Overall, I think he had a really fun time.  He didn’t sleep as much as he should have (poor our friends), but otherwise, I think it went really well.  I think he is a little excited about the thought of us moving, though he would love to stay with his elementary school friends, forever.

Andrew is still doing his swim lessons and is working really hard on them.  Level 2 is a little harder and he is shorter than the other kids, so he can’t just stand in the pool like they can, but it makes me happy that he works so hard at it.

Fun Things This Month

• First time without Mom and Dad.  Did great and even had a super fun trip to the zoo, bought school lunch for the first time, and got picked up in the car line.
• St Patricks’ Day – we had green breakfast, which Andrew liked.  We also went to the St. Patrick’s Day parade.   It was cold and, of course, Andrew wanted to see the whole thing.  He was way up at the front so he could collect candy and swag, but there wasn’t space for us, so we stood back on the sidewalk.  After some people cleared out, we wanted to go up and stand by him.  There was this really nasty guy standing in the way who’d obviously had too much to drink or was just a real jerk anyways.  Anyways, he wouldn’t let us walk past him, even though our kid was there.  And the City Garden people wouldn’t let anyone walk on their plants.  So, we just had to wait until the stupid guy left and we could finally stand over there.  Andrew had fun anyways.
• Lots of playing at the park on the days when it was warm.
• Fish fry.
• 2 easter egg hunts back to back.  We were planning on skipping the first one since we had swim lessons.  But someone apparently had an accident in the swimming pool after Seth’s lesson, so Andrew’s was cancelled and we ran and barely made the first hunt, one we have always enjoyed in Richmond Heights.  Then, we went to a new-to-us hunt in Forest Park.  It was cold, but the boys had fun.  It was in the huge field (where the Balloons for the Balloon race start) and we got to see booths, the Bunny arrive by Helicopter and each of the boys had their own egg hunt.  There was TONS of eggs (55,000) so the boys got lots.  And some even had good candy.  We had a lot of fun. 
• We had a big snow storm the first Sunday of spring break – a whole foot of snow!  The boys built a snow fort and a huge snowman.  It was really really wet snow.  Thankfully, it didn’t stay around too many days.
• During Spring Break, we also
  • went to the zoo.
  • went to Magic House.
  • went to Purina Farms.  We saw all the baby animals.  Andrew was super grumpy and yelling that it wasn’t the real Purina Farms because the dog show outside wasn’t going on (it was indoors instead because of the big snow storm).  He said it was really Burina Farms.  I think he enjoyed it, though.  The dog show and the hay ride were nice.  And Andrew and Seth loved running through the tunnels in the barn.
  • went to the CHildren’s Garden at the Botanical Gardens on opening day.  They had music performers and the boys also got free plants.
  • Of course, what did Andrew tell his class he did over Spring break – went to Tilles Park.  Which we did, but it was clearly the least exciting of all.  It’s just what we did the first day.
• Spring Break was also the week before Easter.
• Andrew enjoyed waving the homemade palm branches while we sang Hosanna and acting out Palm Sunday.
• We had a passover dinner with lamb, homemade unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and grape juice.   Andrew liked the lamb.
• Friday, we had a Jesus dinner with foods he might of eaten, plus some symbolic food to remember the events of that day.  We also made hot cross buns, which Andrew refused to eat.  We also dyed Easter Eggs.  Andrew loved that of course and worked hard on decorating his eggs.
• Saturday we had our traditional ham dinner.
• Sunday we had a traditional ham dinner with friends.  Andrew was so excited because he finally got to go to their house.  It was probably the highlight of the week for him.
• Sunday morning we had our Easter egg hunt in the house.  Andrew had tons of fun finding eggs and eating the treats inside.
• General Conference – the boys listened to the prophet, but otherwise, they mostly just played.  They did enjoy doing bingo with chocolate chips one day and eating chocolate chip cookies the other day.

Logan is 17 months old!

And he seems even older to me.  He is just growing up so fast.  He is definitely all toddler right now.  His tantrums aren’t too often, but boy – he is in a hitting and throwing stage.  He throws EVERYTHING.  Monday, he threw a step stool at my foot.  It hurt so bad; I was limping for hours.  It’s hard because he is too little to really discipline, so I either try to take away what he is throwing.  Or if he is just getting throw-happy, I put him in his room by himself for a little bit.  I feel like he’s too little for this, but it works pretty well.  He calms down and looks at his books.  I think it is so cute to walk in and see him with a pile of books around.

Logan is finally getting his molars, so he has been cranky and wanting to nurse all the time and not sleeping/napping as well.  Poor kid.  I think the top two are in so hopefully the others follow quickly as well.  I hate teething!  He has also been spitting out / throwing up his food a lot lately as well.  I hope it is a phase related to teething, because it is gross and he isn’t eating as much as he used to anymore.

Logan has really taken off in his playing.  He loves to play trucks and cars.  He likes the bigger cars and he will crawl around and push them all over the floor.  They don’t make too many noises yet.  He usually finds a little person or even an animal to put in the drivers seat.  He likes the big trucks, so he can try to push as many little cars or people in as possible.

He also loves to play ball.  He throws really well and is working on his kicking, too.  He also runs really well now.  He does a good job with stairs and can sometimes do them one foot per step, but he is still working on that.  He always wants to go up and down our stairs using the handrail or holding our hand, but when he is playing at someone else’s house he will go down the stairs on his bum or tummy because it is faster.

Logan is talking a lot more.  Most of his “talking” is pointing and grunting, but it seems like he has a lot more words.  They are just hard to understand.  Words I know he has:  Mom, Dad, Andrew, Seth, Joe, Jesus, cat, woof (dog), whoa, hey, hi, hat, hot, car.  His favorite is car.  Words he might have:  go, bye, gone, there, this, that, truck.  Anything with wheels that moves is a car – trucks, planes, trains, etc.

Logan is FASCINATED with anything that moves.  He likes to look out the window and watch the cars go by.  It is one of his favorite activities.  He also is fascinated by them in books.  And playing with them, of course.

Logan is generally good natured and a good sport.  He did so well on our trip to Greenville and put up well with seeing house after house.  The only time he really melted down was when he saw a ball or a basketball and then he wanted it!  He didn’t understand why we wouldn’t let him play with it.  He did well with the plane rides, too, though it is challenging to entertain a toddler for that long.  He slept on 2/4 flights and was well-behaved for all but one of them. 

Logan has a good memory and sense of direction.  He points out the way he thinks we should go to pick up Andrew if we go a different way.  And last time I drove him to a friends’ house (the one who usually watches him while I volunteer at Andrew’s school), he started crying as soon as we drove down their street.  He knew!

Logan has a thing with things around his neck.  He loves to put on necklaces, but he also tends to get things wrapped around his neck – it makes me very nervous.  You have to really watch that kid.

He likes to put on different hats and dress up.  He thinks it is funny.  He also loves to play hide and seek.  He will put his hands in front of his face to show that he wants to play.  He can hide, but lately he likes to watch where his brothers are hiding and then show me.

He loves to wave goodbye to Katsu and Andrew when they leave in the morning.  But he gets very upset when he has to say goodbye to them at the wrong time.  Katsu was out of town for a couple days this week and Logan kept asking for him.  Then, he came back yesterday.  Katsu was going to go outside to make a call, but Logan started crying hysterically when Katsu left.  He just didn’t want him to go yet – Katsu had to make his call from the boys’ bedroom instead.  He also waits in the window each evening and watches for Katsu to come home (at least, if he’s not too cranky).

Logan plays pretty independently, but he loves to play with his brothers, too.  He also loves to terrorize the cat (I think he thinks he playing most of the time) – poor Joe.

Fun Things This Month:

• St Patricks’ Day – we had green breakfast, which Logan thought was fun.  We also went to the St. Patrick’s Day parade.  Logan was cold and got bored part way through, so we ended up holding him most of the time.  He did like the big balloons, though, and the weird Shriner cars. 
• Lots of playing at the park on the days when it was warm.
• Visiting Greenville, NC.  4 flights in total.  A trip with just Mom and Dad.  Staying at a hotel.  Eating hotel breakfast.  Playing at the realtor’s office.  He just walked around like he owned the place – they said it was fun … but at one point, he came back with a soda drink he stole from someone’s office!  He walked around many houses, drove around town, and basically had a good time.
• Fish fry.
• 2 easter egg hunts back to back.  We were planning on skipping the first one since we had swim lessons.  But someone apparently had an accident in the swimming pool after Seth’s lesson, so Andrew’s was cancelled and we ran and barely made the first hunt, one we have always enjoyed in Richmond Heights.  Then, we went to a new-to-us hunt in Forest Park.  It was cold, but the boys had fun.  It was in the huge field (where the Balloons for the Balloon race start) and we got to see booths, the Bunny arrive by Helicopter (Logan thought that was pretty cool) and each of the boys had their own egg hunt.  There was TONS of eggs (55,000) so the boys got lots.  And some even had good candy.  We had a lot of fun.  By the second egg hunt, Logan really got into it and he hunted at each of the three hunts – we just couldn’t keep him away from the eggs.
• We had a big snow storm the first Sunday of spring break – a whole foot of snow!  Logan had fun throwing snow ball and walking around in the snow.  It was really really wet snow.  Thankfully, it didn’t stay around too many days.
• During Spring Break, we also
• went to the zoo.
• went to Magic House (Logan is really starting to love everything here!)
• went to Purina Farms.  We saw all the baby animals and Logan LOVED it.  He stood on his tippy toes and kept running back to see other animals.  He even petted the baby bunny and maybe the chicks, too.  He really enjoyed the dog show, though he got a bit restless by the end.
• went to the CHildren’s Garden at the Botanical Gardens on opening day.  They had music performers – Logan was interested, but a little skeptical.  He also got his own spinach plant, but ended up watering his pants instead of the plant.
• Spring Break was also the week before Easter.
• Logan LOVED waving the homemade palm branches while we sang Hosanna.  Surprise surprise, he also loved pretending to ride in as we acted it out.  One of his current favorite games is horsey ride.
• We had a passover dinner with lamb, homemade unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and grape juice.  Logan loved throwing it, surprise, surprise.  We also did some reading about Thursday’s events with food afterwards.  Logan keeps thinking he loves olives and always wants to eat them – but then he spits it out.
• Friday, we had a Jesus dinner with foods he might of eaten, plus some symbolic food to remember the events of that day.  We also made hot cross buns – Logan liked helping with that.  We also dyed Easter Eggs.  He wanted to help with that, too – he almost dropped all the dye on the floor when he pulled the newspaper on the floor.
• Saturday we had our traditional ham dinner.
• Sunday we had a traditional ham dinner with friends.
• Sunday morning we had our Easter egg hunt in the house.  Logan was very excited and by now he knows how to squeeze and open the eggs, so he mostly ate M&Ms and wasn’t too eager to search for even more.

Seth is 3 years 9 months old!

I think things that have been better this month and Seth has been having an easier time.  And this has been a tough month for Seth, too.  We went away for the first time and left Andrew and Seth with a neighbor/friend from the ward for three days.  Katsu and I needed to go visit North Carolina and see if we liked it.  I was very apprehensive about leaving Seth.  He was very nervous and anytime we mentioned it, he would cry and cry and cry.  He said that I wasn’t allowed to choose and that he got to choose who got on the trip (because he’s the oldest, but I’ll go into that later).  He said that he would go on the plane with me.  But ultimately, it seemed to turn out fine.  I talked to Seth on the phone every day, but it was mostly one word “Yes” or “No” in his high little voice.  He played with his friend Miles the first two days.  The neighbor who was watching him doesn’t have any small children anymore, so that way he would have more fun.  The third day, they all went to the zoo, also along with Miles and a few more friends from church.  He seemed to have a really good time!  He didn’t even seem too excited to see me when I came back.  I think he thought we were moving to North Carolina right then and was very upset on the way home that we weren’t driving to our new house!

Seth even went to the Magic House (the children’s museum) with a friend and his mother without me and seemed to have a fabulous time.  It’s good to see him opening up and enjoying himself.

Seth is deep into his fantasy world.  He is a superhero who is infinity years old, so he is the oldest one around.  He can be a superhero because he is a half age.  At night, while we are sleeping, Seth goes on adventures all over the world by himself and can fly.  He has all kinds of super powers.  It is so cute to hear him talk about them.  He really has a vivid imagination.

His imagination gets him into trouble, though.  I thought it was just Santa Claus he was afraid of, but we have to add leprechauns and the Easter Bunny to the list.  His school had leprechauns “break in” to their preschool room.  He got into their pudding the first day and made it green and Seth came home somewhat perturbed.  By the morning, he was hysterical that leprechauns were real, that they were going to get into his room at school and maybe his house and cause all kind of trouble.  I told him they are pretend, but he doesn’t believe me.  He was crying and crying and I practically had to drag him to preschool and then had to walk him in to alert the teachers that he was scared.  His teachers and classmates were all in the hall waiting because the leprechaun had locked them out!  Amazingly, Seth took it mostly in stride and let me leave.  And when I picked him up, he was happy because the leprechauns are actually real and good and they had left him gifts (some trinkets and a leprechaun hat).  I think these good feelings are dissipating though and he refused to wear the leprechaun hat to the St. Patrick’s day parade. 

He seems to show similar fear of the Easter Bunny and is very skeptical about him coming into our house.  He told me he hates the Easter Bunny.  He was a little scared (but maybe a little excited) when we saw the bunny arrive via helicopter this morning at an Easter Egg hunt.  Ignoring the Easter bunny, though, he loves Easter.  Today he told me, “I love Easter and Halloween best because you get candy.  I don’t like Christmas”.  It’s true, though – Seth asks about when Easter and Halloween are all the time, even when Christmas is just a day or two away.  Silly boys.  He has been helping me buy things at the store for our upcoming Easter celebration and is very excited.  He hid all the Easter things in the cabinet and keeps showing them to everyone.  He can’t wait to drink the grape juice and eat marshmallows especially.

Seth seems to really be into hiding and secrets.  He and Logan and I play hide and seek a lot every day.  He is playing better with Logan, too, on a side note.  He also is always telling me “Don’t tell that to ____ – it’s a secret” about everything.

Seth has finally gotten much better about obedience and picking things up.  He listens the first time and goes and does it.  And then I look over and it is already done and I am shocked because it is so different than it was even a few months ago.  I am so proud of him.

Seth is excited about moving and loves to talk about what he wants in a house – a driveway, an upstairs.  He is very keen on the driveway and mentions it often.

Seth is quite good about playing with himself.  When I put Logan down for a nap, Seth will go and play by himself in his room and is pretty good about it.  He has made it his job to close the curtains in Logan’s room and always rushes to do it and is mad if I do it first.  He mostly plays good and bad with his cars and army people.  It bores me to tears, especially since my team is always about 1/10 the size of his and has no super powers while his is basically immortal – so I am not sure what I am even supposed to be doing!

Seth is VERY interested in super heros.  He loves reading almost anything, but he especially loves reading super hero books.  I think we have every Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Green Lantern, Incredible Hulk, etc. etc. book out from the library.  And we read them over and over.  He really wants to live in “the real Gotham City” and asks to go there all the time.  His new thing is that he wants to live in a city with lots of bad guys.  I try to tell him that there are lots of bad guys in St. Louis, but he is not interested.

Seth has been wandering over to our bed almost every night.  It’s been driving me crazy.  He says he has bad dreams if he sleeps in his bed, but none if he sleeps out here.  I never wake up when he comes in bed, he’s so quiet, so I usually don’t notice until I wake up with Logan crying and realize I have feet in my face.  Otherwise, he really is a good sleeper and I can’t complain.  He goes to sleep easily most nights, although some nights for some reason, he can’t sleep until we finally let him lay on the couch, and then he like instantly falls asleep.  Silly boy.

Seth is a little sweetheart.  Sometimes he is a little whiny and he seems to be in a very loud age.  But overall, he is a very good little boy, just a little anxious.

FUN THINGS THIS MONTH:

• Reading night at Seth’s school.  It was so fun to go to an event at Seth’s school and focus on him.  But Andrew was so excited to see his old teachers and Seth introduced himself (as if they didn’t already know him!) as “Andrew’s brother”.  Poor kid.  He showed us his teacher, picked out some books at the bookfair and really seemed to enjoy himself.
• A new set of swim lessons has begun.  Seth is in a different class with a different teacher (the right level this time) and misses his old teacher.  He is very enthusiastic and tries very hard, but seems to not want to try to breathe – he always thinks his abilities are far greater than they really are.
• History museum for the Lorax movie.  Seth loves to book so we thought he would enjoy the movie, but he really loves the snacks.
• Seth finished his Dr. Seuss unit and loved the Green eggs and ham especially.  He ate it all!
• Seth celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at school and was mostly terrified.  At home, we had green eggs, green milk and green pancakes for breakfast, which he loved.  The Corned beef at dinner he didn’t love quite so much.  The St. Patrick’s day parade was quite long and after awhile, he was too tired to be at the front getting candy with Andrew and came back with us.  True to form, the parade was about 2.5 hours, but it’s probably our last St. Louis one and we couldn’t let it go to waste.
• Seth is on Spring Break and loves to tell everyone that he gets more than 2 weeks off.  He was lucky and went to Magic House this week with a friend.  We also have played at the park a lot.
• Staying at a neighbor’s house.  He did so well and Andrew really helped to take care of him and do things so he wouldn’t be scared.  I am so glad that we kept them together.
• Fish fry.
• 2 easter egg hunts back to back.  We were planning on skipping the first one since we had swim lessons.  But someone apparently had an accident in the swimming pool after Seth’s lesson, so Andrew’s was cancelled and we ran and barely made the first hunt, one we have always enjoyed in Richmond Heights.  Then, we went to a new-to-us hunt in Forest Park.  It was cold, but the boys had fun.  It was in the huge field (where the Balloons for the Balloon race start) and we got to see booths, the Bunny arrive by Helicopter and each of the boys had their own egg hunt.  There was TONS of eggs (55,000) so the boys got lots.  And some even had good candy.  We had a lot of fun.  At the first hunt, the boys even shared eggs with a boy who got there late and missed the whole thing.  I was proud.

Andrew is 5 years 10 months old!

Andrew seems to be getting taller and skinnier.  I couldn’t believe how skinny his arms were when I saw him the other day.  He weighed himself today and he weighed about 41 lbs.  We definitely should switch him into a booster seat; I think he has outgrown his 5 pt harness.  He is definitely starting to look more like an elementary schooler now, so much older.

Andrew loves kindergarten.  He seems to really enjoy everything.  I was able to volunteer in his class this month and stayed for recess and lunch, which Andrew was excited about.  In his Writer’s Workshop, he has started to really crank out books.  Instead of being very detailed and perfectionistic, he is starting to “write to get out his ideas” as his teacher put it.  He is doing a series of “How to” books – How to make paper airplanes, how to make paper snowflakes, How to play soccer, etc.  They are pretty cute.  His last book that I was looking at ended like this “Can you do it?  Will you do it?”  I thought it was hilarious.  They are starting to learn about punctuation right now.

Andrew seems to be his own man at recess.  He followed the teacher around telling her where to get all the balls that went behind fences, played with the girls for awhile, and then played soccer for awhile.  I think putting him in soccer in the fall would good, if only to make him more confident in playing with the other boys.  Soccer is huge – I swear, every single birthday party is at Vetta Sports, playing soccer and in bounce house things.  I was happy to see that he played a little soccer at a birthday party yesterday.  He doesn’t previously.

Lunch was pretty short – they have 20 minutes total, but Andrew has really “focused on eating” as he told me, so he is actually starting to finish most of his food now.  Andrew’s favorite food for lunches are:  Gyoza (pot stickers), fried rice, chicken noodle soup, ramen, anything Asian.  He usually won’t eat sandwiches if I send them.  As he told me, he doesn’t like anything dough.  He is pretty good about eating fruit and vegetables and loves to eat pudding.

Andrew is learning about animals in Science class.  They go to Science Lab to learn lots of the lessons.  It’s called animals 2x2 and they study two animals at a time that are similar.  They have learned about worms, pill bugs, guppies, goldfish, etc. 

They have been studying games in Math class.  He is always bringing home different game boards that he has been working on.  They practice counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s.

Andrew’s favorite thing is centers.  Sometimes, he is so excited about his writing that he works on it extra then (according to his teacher), or he does crafts.  He often brings home snowflakes or paper airplanes.  He also loves computer time – he figured out how to get PBS kids and watch his favorite shows (Kraut brothers or something like that … it’s about animals).  Great – I am sending him to school to watch TV!

Andrew’s class read Mr. Popper’s Penguins out loud this month.  Andrew loved it.  He would come home and ask me questions like, “I know you read this a long time ago, but you can tell me what happens at the end of Chapter 18?”.  They celebrated the end by eating ice cream sandwiches.

Andrew worked so hard at his swim class and passed Level 1!  I can see so much improvement over this session.  We were so excited we took him out for donuts.  He really persevered to make it through that class.  It doesn’t come super naturally to him.

At home, Andrew and Seth spend a lot of time playing army and doing crafts.  They also enjoy looking at books and reading.  Andrew always wants me to read him chapter books off my Kindle.  He was trying to read to himself on the Kindle, but then he accidentally bought a book – they make that way too easy.  Andrew also likes to make guns out of the Lincoln Logs or build things with Trio.  He still refuses to play with his Legos.  Oh, well.

Andrew’s personality seems to be getting more difficult again.  Trying to get him to go to sleep tonight with the time change was a nightmare.  He screamed and threw fits and woke Logan up twice!  And he has been waking up at night again sometimes.  Seriously – the fun never ends.

He is really sweet, though.  He loves Logan and Seth and shares and tries to do good things for each of them.  He is a really good brother and a sensitive soul.  Boy, is that kid stubborn, though?

Fun Things This Month

• Valentine’s Day – Andrew had a really fun day while he was sick writing all the names and picking out the valentines.  He really had a lot of fun getting the valentines at school and bringing them home (not as much fun as Seth, though, I think) and sharing the candy he got – not as much as when he was in preschool thankfully.  He made a bird feeder at the valentine’s party (cheerios on pipe cleaners made into hearts) and that has been a pretty big deal around our house.
• Magic House – with just me and the boys.  Andrew really knows his way around the place and loves it.  He especially wanted to check out the new Magic School Bus exhibit that kids at school had been talking about.
• Zoo – we went on one of Andrew’s days’ off of school.  Andrew’s favorite part was riding the carousel, the Children’s Zoo and the gift shop.  He spent like 40 minutes looking at every toy and figuring which ones he could afford with his allowance (not many).  He finally picked out a little bird whistle for a dollar.  You fill it with water and when you blow, it kind of warbles.  I thought it would be a play and then throw away kind of toy, but the boys LOVE it.
• Chinese New Year Party – we went to our friends party again and it was fun.  Andrew LOVED the food, of course.  He ate an unbelievable amount.  I think that kid could live on rice and shrimp.  He enjoyed the fireworks, but got a little scared I think.  He also loved running around with the other kids, but they always seem to gravitate to video games and movies.
• Snow – Andrew has loved it.  He loves making snow balls and snow forts and snow men and sledding.  He was very sad we didn’t make a snowman the last snowfall, but it was just too icy.  2 snow days from school and missing a school field trip!  
• Passport – Andrew renewed his passport.
• Reading night at Seth’s school.
• Movie at the History Museum.
• Black History Month at Andrew’s school – Andrew loved it. There was some performances by the 5th grade and then a play based off The Three Little Pigs. They even brought home little pumpkin pies.  Andrew was very upset about this because he was sure they would have cake and he does not like pie.  Oh, the agony!
• Chinese buffet – to celebrate for Katsu.  Andrew loved it, of course.
• Birthday party.

Logan is 16 months old!

And the temper tantrums have hit.  I don’t know why I thought they should hit more like 18 months, but we are well into them.  Logan just throws a fit whenever something doesn’t go quite his way.  Or when you don’t understand what he wants.  They aren’t too long and sometimes he can be distracted, but boy, by the end of the day I am worn out! 

Logan has a pretty strong opinion about things.  He especially wants to be able to do everything that Andrew and Seth can do.  He pays a lot of attention to everyone else and tries to mimic everything they do.  He also likes to help do chores and things like that, too.  Whenever we brush our teeth, he rushes to the bathroom, climbs on top of the toilet, turns on the water and cries for his toothbrush.  When we start getting ready to go out, he runs and gets shoes out and starts handing them to the right people.  When he decides its time to make bread, he gets out the bread machine pan or the bread pan.  So cute!

Logan is pretty athletic.  He can throw and kick really well for his age.  He loves to throw.  His favorite game the last few days is throwing baskets in a basketball hoop.  He has his own little one, but now he loves the big boy one.  He wants me to lift him up over and over so he can dunk it.  He also loves to play soccer.  He usually wants to throw the ball rather than kick it, though.

Logan is starting to really enjoy story time.  He loves to bring me books and read to him.  It is also usually the first thing he does if he wakes up in a good mood.  His favorites are “1 2 3 in the sea” and “Freight Train” and “Little duck”.  He tries to mimic the choo choo sound I make when we read Freight Train and he said “truck” this week when he brought over a truck book.

Logan seems like he’s really expanding his speech.  He is jargoning a lot – making lots of noises that sound like speech but aren’t.  He also is saying more words.  Consistently, he will say hug, hat, hot, Mom, Dad, hi, and hey.  I think he has also said Andrew, kitty, and truck.

Logan LOVES to eat.  He eats so much it is unbelievable sometimes.  I guess that is why he is so big.  He loves eggs for breakfast, but will also eat cereal.  He loves berries to the point where he screams until he gets some and his fair share.  He also likes bananas, apples, oranges, pears.  He LOVES raisins and canned oranges and will constantly bring them out of the pantry (when’s he not hungry, he’s mostly content to build towers of cans in the pantry).  He loves all things dough – especially when I am cooking them.  But he likes muffins and bagels and bread and crackers.  He is my first kid that likes to dip – he LOVES hummus and salad dressing and loves to dip in them.  He likes vegetables, especially corn, peans, mushrooms, edamame, beans, green beans, asparagus, roasted peppers.  He will try pretty much anything.  He loves string cheese and yogurt.  He still is very skeptical of ice cream – too cold and he does not like that.  He instantly recognizes anything snacky or sweet and wants it.  Basically, he loves food.

He still is loving his shape sorter.  He can get any shape in, but usually needs help figuring out the right hole.  He can stack three blocks and loves to do it.  He has been enjoying playing race track and Trio with the boys.  He loves to play cars and even tries to play army.  He likes to make noises with his Little People toys.  He likes to make music and especially to dance with me.  He is always game to try the drums, piano, or harmonica.  He mostly just likes to climb on everything and spends 50% of the time, climbing onto the kitchen table or screaming to get down from the kitchen table.  He loves playing chase, tag, or hide and seek.  He loves being outside, playing at parks, throwing snowballs.  He is pretty good at keeping himself occupied if the room has enough things to distract him.  He is not so keen on the stroller, because he would rather walk himself and wants to do everything himself – especially stairs and pushing buttons in the elevator.

Logan’s sleep has been pretty poor this last week or two.  He is still struggling between 1 and 2 naps and trying to get on a good nap routine.  I think he is just so busy having fun in life, he doesn’t want to sleep.

Logan does the cutest little things.  He raises both arms up high when he is excited.  He also loves to laugh and laughs a lot.  He gets very excited when he sees Katsu walking home out the window and then gives him a long hug when he gets home.  He always gives me a fond greeting when I’ve been gone – even if it is just a short stop at the bathroom.

Logan is just growing up so fast I can’t believe it.  He is our little toddler now.

Fun Things This Month

• Valentine’s Day – Pretty low key for Logan.  He got a chocolate bear which he loved and otherwise just tried to get into the boys’ valentines.
• Magic House – with just me and the boys.  Logan had a lot of fun.
• Zoo – two or three times.  Logan is starting to really love the zoo.  He gets so excited when he sees all the animals.  He is a little scared when we go on the carousel, but he loves the Children’s Zoo and likes being up close to all the animals.
• Chinese New Year Party – we went to our friends party again and it was fun.  Logan was wandering around and getting into everything.  He didn’t eat much food and he was scared of the fireworks, but seemed to have fun otherwise. 
• Snow – Logan hasn’t got to play in it as much as the other boys, but he LOVES to throw snowballs and just walk around in it.  He thinks it is so exciting when it is snowing outside and loves to stand at the window and watch.
• Passport – Logan applied for his first passport.  He was teary-eyed in the pictures.  It is so hard to get those!
• Reading night at Seth’s school.  Logan loved playing around in the preschool room during story time and also LOVED the beanbag toss.  He worked so hard to throw his bean bags in … granted, he was pretty close.
• Movie at the History Museum – Logan enjoyed the snacks, flirting with all the people there, and running around, but we spent most of the movie time running around the museum.  He really enjoyed the historical exhibits.

Seth is 3 years 8 months old!

Oh, boy – another tough month for our boy.  Not just tantrums and unreasonableness, but such anxiety.  The poor thing.  He has started having accidents almost every day this week and I’m not even sure why.  He is also falling all over himself.  And I keep trying to find him around 3 or 4 because it has suddenly gotten too quiet to find him underneath tons of blankets and usually with cushions over his face.  I don’t see how he can breathe, but I think I usually find him quickly after he falls asleep.  He also is terrified to sleep at night and will only sleep on the couch.  He sometimes refuses to go preschool, but I can usually con/trick him into the car and he will go in the door once we get there.  Last week he wouldn’t go to Sunbeams and stayed with at church the whole time.  He would just sit at home and play cars with me and read stories all day every day if he could.  He never wants to eat his meals and only wants snacks – I don’t think he ate even one bite of dinner last night.  Poor kiddo.  What a time!

Seth is the ultimate rule follower.  If there is a defined rule, you better follow it and so had better everyone else.  He is surprisingly good at being quiet when I am putting Logan down for a nap – all I have to say is “Quiet play time” and he will go and play quietly in his room.  Yay!

Otherwise, not much seems new this month.  Seth had the flu, but not too bad.  But with sickness, colds, and Katsu being out of town a lot, we mostly were homebodies this month.

Fun Things This Month

• International Night at the school – families sponsored booths and had snacks from their home countries. Andrew and Seth went with Katsu and tried all the different foods. They loved it!
• Setsubun – we threw jelly beans at a bemasked Daddy.  Seth is still not so sure about this holiday.  For a week or two, Seth would still tell me that he does not like “that holiday where you throw jelly beans”.  I think the Goblin kind of freeks him out.
• Super Bowl – we ended up being home the whole day because everyone was sick, so we made a party of it with lots of snacks.
• Donuts with Dad – Seth really looked forward to this event with Katsu.  I think he thought that Katsu would be bringing donuts and Seth kept putting in requests.  And then that morning, true to form, he was “sick” and didn’t want to go.  But he had a great time!
• Valentine’s Day – Seth was excited about writing his name on all the valentine’s (he’s getting better) and picked out Batman ones.  He seemed to have fun at his party and was super excited to bring home his valentines and candies and share them with Andrew and Logan.  He still likes to pick out his favorite ones and show them.  We had a some chocolate at home for the boys on Valentine’s Day as well.
• Magic House – with just me and the boys.  Seth had lots of fun – I should take them every month.
• Zoo – two or three times.  Seth likes going on the carousel and seeing a few of the exhibits, but then he gets bored.
• Chinese New Year Party – we went to our friends party again and it was fun.  Seth was pretty hesitant to go and play with the other kids at first, but he finally got over his fears and had fun.  They loved the food, of course!  I think they enjoyed the fireworks, too, but one got a little close to the boys and so they got scared and came in.
• Black History Month at Andrew’s school – Seth got a little bit bored, but enjoyed it.  There was some performances by the 5th grade and then a play based off The Three Little Pigs.  They even brought home little pumpkin pies.
• Snow – it was a bit too icy for snowmen, but the boys built a snow fort with Katsu and also walked to the park and went sledding.  And you can never have too many snow ball fights!  Seth keeps wandering off whenever we go outside to run through the snow and is in love with Andrew’s old boots.

Andrew is 5 years 9 months!

Boy – what a month.  I feel like I forgot most of it because the last week has been awful.  Andrew caught the flu – Influenza B, to be exact.  So much for his flu shot this year.  Generally, he seemed to have lots of cold/cough going on in January and then last Friday, he was sent home from school with a fever.  We thought he was having issues with his asthma before, but I guess it was the flu.  By Saturday, his fever was up to almost 104 and it stayed there for the next week.  Only this Friday did his fever finally go away.  Saturday was AWFUL – he was hot hot hot and throwing up all the time and it just got worse and worse.  By dinner time, he was throwing up and coughing and sitting by the toilet and just screaming and crying that he couldn’t breathe.  We called the nurse's helpline and they told us to give him three albuterol treatments in an hour but they didn’t seem to be helping at all.  We were giving him medicine for the fever and it wasn’t lowering the fever at all.  So, the nurse told us to take him to the ER.  Katsu carried him to the car because he said he couldn’t walk.  By the time I got down there to take him to the ER, he seemed a bit better and was talking by the time we got to the ER.  I think the meds had finally kicked in, but I took him in anyways.  He threw up some while we there, but gradually got better, especially after they gave him some ibuprofen.  I think they were somewhat unimpressed and kept telling me he had a virus (and two ear infections).  But if they had only seen him at home … anyways, they did a chest x-ray because his chest sounded not quite right, but thankfully no pneumonia.  So, we spent the next week with him and Katsu and Seth at home.  We all took Sunday off from church and enjoyed celebrating Setsubun and the Super Bowl, but mostly were all in bed (except me, I got sick only at the very end of the week).  Basically everyone got sick.  And poor Andrew had his fever for a week!  We took him back to the doctor on Wed. to check him out because he still had a fever.  That’s when they tested him for the flu.  Anyways, the poor boy.

Plus, he missed two other days of school in January with his coughing/asthma.  Of course, both days I totally regretted it because then he and Seth were at each other’s throats the whole day.  I told him he was not staying home again, but then he was home a whole week.  No wonder I have been going crazy this month.  Andrew hasn’t been in school!

Andrew was SO sad to miss school.  By the end of the week, he was crying because he missed his class so much.  And he missed their Chinese New Year celebration, which I felt really bad about.  So, we promised him that when they were better, we would take them to the Chinese Buffet to celebrate the New Year.  We went to a new place just down the round on Saturday and the boys loved it.  They were skeptical at first (they always are of new buffets), but it was even better than the other one and they loved it.

Otherwise, Andrew is learning to read at school.  He is starting to bring home books to read – he brought home one and it seemed really easy to me.  Andrew loves to read easy reader books at home.  He has taken home the King School Series books from the library and loves them.  He picks out like 10 at a time and then orders them in order of level and wants to read them all.  He does pretty well, but the highest levels 12-14 are hard for him.  I think he is about a level 8 or 9, which is mid 1st grade, they say.  I can tell that he is getting a lot more fluent.

Andrew has been loving hearing chapter books.  He was reading My Father’s Dragon at school and has been telling us all about it.  I wasn’t familiar with the books, so I didn’t know what he was talking about and Andrew couldn’t remember the title.  But it turns out Katsu loved them when he was little and we even have a Japanese board game based on the books.  So, the boys have loved playing it with Katsu.  We read the 2nd and 3rd books this week off my Kindle.  We have also found a much better selection of books for the Kindle at the library, so we have started reading some more chapter books for Andrew – a series about a boy named Andrew and also the Junie B. Jones series, which Andrew has seemed to enjoy so far.

Andrew has been learning a lot about China in school this year.  For social studies, they learn about the holidays, so they have been getting ready for Chinese New Year.  It is fun to hear all the things that Andrew has learned.  They also did the 100th day of school.  Andrew insisted on writing the numbers out from 1 to 100 and bringing that.  I didn’t think that was exactly what they wanted, but he insisted, so he brought it in.  He was excited because the principal got everyone a cookie with the number 100 on it.

Andrew’s new favorite hobby is Sudoku.  I guess his uncle must have taught him the basics when he was here, because he saw one in the newspaper and wanted to do it.  He has finished a couple now and seems to really enjoy it, though he needs some couching and which number to work on next – he can do it all himself, though.

Andrew also LOVES to be on the computer and would spend all his days away at abcya.com.  I can not entice him to build Legos at all, which I was hoping he would get into.  Besides the computer, he mostly like crafts, reading, and making forts, and playing with the car racetrack.

Fun Things This Month

• A couple beautiful days at the park, but otherwise, the month has been really cold.
• A new session of swim lessons.  Andrew is doing really well.
• Incredibles movie at the History museum.  It was going to be a me and Seth date, but he wanted the whole family to come.  Andrew enjoyed the snacks and the movie, but was pretty non-plussed by the underwear exhibit we saw afterwards.
• Seeing lots of planes at the airport from taking Katsu to and from the airport.
• Loop Ice Carnival – the kids LOVE this.  Businesses in the Loop have coolers full of ice with either dollar coins or chocolate coins inside.  You throw them on the ground to get the treasure inside.  It was a gorgeous day and the Loop was packed and most of the coolers were already empty, but the boys got a few.  We also checked out the ice sculptures that were in front of the businesses, ate out for lunch on Katsu’s treat and Andrew and Seth both went down the ice slide a couple times.  It was a super fun day and gorgeous.
• International Night at the school – families sponsored booths and had snacks from their home countries.  Andrew and Seth went with Katsu and tried all the different foods.  They loved it!  Andrew eats so slow, so of course he couldn’t finish it all.  It is so funny watching him at school where he has to say hi to every single person he knows.  And I love his little facts about school.  Like Ms. Jackson-Terry is the principal because she has the longest name.  Love it.
• Setsubun – we threw jelly beans at a bemasked Daddy.  Andrew, of course, has it all figured out that the goblin is really Daddy, but still enjoyed doing the holiday and throwing jelly beans and eating them.  He kept saying Chinese phrases instead of the Japanese ones.  He was excited to tell his friends at school about the holiday.
• Super Bowl – we ended up being home the whole day because everyone was sick, so we made a party of it with lots of snacks.