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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Seth is 6 years old!

Seth turned 6 years old while we were in Texas, but we haven't had time to update the blog.  We had a big party for Seth with his friends before we went to Texas.  It was a soccer party.  We used spray paint (red) to make a soccer field in the backyard.  The boys (also a couple girls) all played soccer for awhile and we also had soccer themed games - a soccer-ball spoon race, a water balloon toss where you tried to hit a goal in the net, trying to hit headers into the other goalie net, a bowling game with water bottles and soccer balls, and our soccer themed foosball.  It was touch and go with rain, so we had to be flexible and fit presents and cake around when it was raining.  Otherwise, there were hot dogs (although honestly, no one was much interested), and Gatorade and chips.  The cake was a half sphere soccer ball and cupcakes.  Seth had a lot of fun and most of the kids did, too.  One neighbor kid came with his older brother and kept leaving and running across the street by himself and I had to keep running after him.  It gave me a little bit of a heart attack.  But otherwise, it was fun.  Seth got some fun presents - a rocket shooter, a bank, a water gun, a gift card to toys r us, a gift card to a frozen yogurt place, and some cash.  It was fun!

We also had a small celebration in Texas on Seth's actual birthday.  We went to Legoland Adventure Center.  It was pretty fun.  They had a little shooting ride and then a ride where you were on bikes that circled around and the faster you pedaled the higher you went up and also a driving ride.  Seth was terrified of the shooting game - he thought it looked too scary, but we eventually convinced him to go on it and then decided it was his favorite game.  They also had a 4D theater show, which had real snow and water, which the boys thought was really cool.  There was a cool playground and also places to make cars and race them.  Also a large LEGO display of Dallas.  And then, outside there was a splash area with large lego blocks and stuff.  Seth had a lot of fun.  Then, we got some lunch  at Chic fil a and headed home.  Grandma had made him a bright blue cake (white cake with partially dyed blue and bring blue frosting) as he requested.  Michael and Meghan and Finlay came over to eat the cake with us and then we had some homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner (delicious, though the boys still think mine is better ... ha ha).  Later, Grandpa took Seth to Chuck E. Cheese two times to use all their tokens and get himself a birthday present.  A fun birthday all around.

Seth finished kindergarten.  His reading level didn't go up much and his teacher was really upset about it - she didn't think the teacher who graded him did it fairly.  But I know he can read really well and I can tell he made a lot of progress this year.  He was reading a pretty hard book to me today.  He is still in the phase where it is work to read, but I can't wait until he gets to the phase where he can read for pleasure.  Hoping it's around the corner.  He had a great graduation ceremony - really cute and all the classes sang different songs that were really fun.  He is excited to be home for the summer, but is really diligent about doing the summer work I have planned for him. He has two math books - addition and subtraction - that are grade 2 because they seemed to be more on level for him.  But I think they are pretty hard - lots of carrying and borrowing.  He is doing great and loves to teach himself multiplication.  He is also working on his print handwriting some more and we are reading about the earth and space for science and starting the medieval ages for history.

Seth also finished up the season of baseball.  He enjoyed it.  He is still working on batting - I think he needed to use the T each time, but he is pretty good at throwing and running and spent a lot of time in the pitcher position (just for fielding - they don't pitch yet).  There were quite a lot of rained out games, but they were rescheduled for when we

Otherwise, we spent the last month in Texas and that will be a separate post all to itself.  Seth got sick on the way home and has been sick most of the last week and is pretty miserable.  I think he is getting better now, though.  He has his well child visit on Monday.  I am curious to see how his height and weight have changed (during the school year, he grew 1 inch and 2 lbs, I think) and also to see about his vision.

Overall, Seth has spent most of the past month seeing things around the country (science museums, zoos, children museums, etc. etc.) and the rest of the time honing his skills on the Wii at grandma's house.  He even decided to use his allowance for Wii games instead of Legos.  But, I think he especially is happy to be home as he is my true home body.  He is looking forward to soccer camp in a couple weeks, but mostly being at home.

Fun Things This Month

• Trip to Texas - starring in a future post
• Sesame Street Live - the ticket was originally for Logan, but he was throwing a fit and wouldn't go, so Seth went with Katsu instead.  He really loved it and was dancing and having a grand time.  It was here in Greenville and was a lot of fun.
• Lots of baseball games - about 2 a week.
• Special events at school.  Seth wouldn't do pajama day, but he did crazy hair day.  It was just a little bit crazy - too much crazy or out of the ordinary is too much for him.  
• Korean cultural fest - mostly a dud, but the boys enjoyed watching the martial arts.
• Swim lessons - Seth had 5 swim lessons before we went to Texas and made a lot of progress on his stroke development.
• Seth had lunch with both mom and dad this month.  So fun!
• Kindergarten graduation.
• Walking school bus party - Seth wanted to leave early to watch the soccer game on TV
• Birthday party
• End of school - we celebrated with Oreos and a water balloon fight!
• Grandma and Grandpa in town - they got to see Seth's baseball game and we went to Andrew's baptism and church and then it was on to Texas.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Logan in the last month

Logan is in that terrible year of age 3.  Good thing that child has a winning smile because he is enough to make you want to pull your hair out ... except when he smiles.  Thank heavens he is potty trained, though we know spend a huge chunk of the day getting him to wear underwear and keep it in his pants.  Like seriously, just keep it in your pants.  You don't need to pull it out in sacrament meeting every single week.  Or off and on throughout the day.  I will seriously never understand boys.  But he is really great about telling us and then running off to the bathroom.  I haven't taught him to wipe, yet, but otherwise, he is all great.  Hallelujah!  He even wakes up some mornings dry in his diaper, but I don't feel like tackling that one yet.

Logan is missing preschool and has started asking for play dates with friends.  I need to get to know more of the kids around here that are his age in the neighborhood.  He really likes his friend Luke and Lucy and wants to go over to their houses all the time to ride bikes with them.  He doesn't actually seem to play a ton with Lucy and is just getting into playing with his friends, but it is still cute.

Logan got Seth's old bike and we put the training wheels on and he is both obsessed and fast!  He wants to ride it all day long.  And he is pretty tricky.  He is pretty good about staying on the driveway when we are riding it around the house.  But when we ride to friends or to the pool, he is off.  He crosses streets without us and without looking and then gets grounded from his bike.  I guess this whole thing will be a learning process for him.  He is in love with it though.

Logan is still enjoying tball.  He gets the idea of playing and listening to his coach.  His first impulse when he is on base is to try to catch the ball instead of riding to the next base.  After a game, he will spend the next few days wearing his glove and continually ask me if it is on the right hand.  I am glad we signed him up even though Tball itself is completely ridiculous and only vaguely resembles baseball.

Logan is loving the pool.  He can go all over the pool in his puddlejumper.  He is a little sad that I didn't sign him up for swim lessons, but I think he will be good next year.  I can't really take him out of the puddlejumper and let him practice unless Katsu is there anyways.  He loves to play with toys in the pool, especially anything that will shoot water.  He also loves to ride his bike there.

His appetite is waning some.  He would live off cheese sticks, berries, and snacks and is kind of fussy towards dinner.  He will eat too much a lot and then complain of a stomach ache.

Logan spends most of his days willfully disobeying our every command and then saying "I am" when we tell him what to do (even though he is decidedly not doing what we asked).  He usually devolves into fits once a day.  He is feisty, most especially at church, and will try to drive us crazy and push our buttons.  He loves to climb on top of the cars, build forts, hide from us, go outside without permission, read books, play with race cars and Legos, play games, try to cheat at games, etc. etc.  But he has the best smile, will tell you all day how much he loves you (though it often seems to involve teasing and hurting), and we love him.

Fun Things This Month

• Children's day dinner at a Japanese restaurant with Katsu and the older boys
• Sick and missing muffins with Mom - he was so disappointed!
• Celebrating at Andrew's Lego star wars birthday party and Seth's soccer birthday party.  Logan just wanted to be in on all the action and keeps asking when his birthday is.  He is having a hard time waiting.
• Going to lots of baseball games for Seth.
• Pajama party at the book fair at the elementary school - he even got his own book for free.
• Pool opened - they had free slushes and free hot dogs from a local restaurant and it was a lot of fun.  The boys had a blast!
• Bubble party for the last day of preschool.  I came and Logan seemed to have a lot of fun.  I didn't think he would miss preschool much, but he seems to miss the playing with kids every day.  He loved it more than he realized!
• Cookout at the park for Memorial Day.  Logan had fun eating, playing at the park, and trying out all the games - frisbee games, trying to pull out all the tissues from a box of tissues.  
• Busch Gardens on Memorial Day - Logan and Andrew and Seth went with Katsu for a day trip there.  Logan did well and had a lot of fun.  He didn't want to ride a roller coaster, but they had lots of fun on the other rides and seeing the shows.
• Logan was going to go to Sesame Street live, but threw a huge fit and so he stayed at home instead.  I think he was secretly scared what Elmo would look like big.
• Korean Cultural Fair - pretty boring, but Logan loved watching videos of martial arts.

Seth in May 2015

Seth is almost done with kindergarten!  I think he had his final reading test today, but I haven't heard how he did.  I know his teacher has been working so hard with him and was really hoping that he would move up a level.  I have seen major improvements in his reading and fluency this year, though.  He enjoys to read, mostly to me but sometimes to himself, too.  He likes to read the easy readers that are chapter books.  His favorites right now are Mr. Putter and Tabby.  He has been doing great in math with word problems and hard carrying math problems.  He has been teaching himself multiplication and division and likes to talk about which ones he knows all the time.

Seth seems to enjoy baseball, though he was so conflicted when he had to go to baseball practice and miss Andrew's tournament games.  He would rather watch soccer than play baseball, ha ha.  He is doing well in baseball, of course, and always runs straight in the house from school and changes into his baseball uniform.  He is pretty good at catching, throwing, and running and is working on hitting the ball.

Seth has been a little emotional lately and seems to get upset easily.  He whines almost constantly and has been fighting with his brothers more often.  He also has been complaining about his legs hurting a lot at night sometimes.  Hopefully he is growing.  He brought home a sheet from school that showed that he grew 1 inch and gained 4 pounds this year (he weighs 41 pounds now).

Seth is obsessed with a new card game that Andrew got for his birthday - Sleeping queens.  He carries the cards around all the time and tries to get you to play with him.  He is doing the same thing right now.

We started back to the pool.  Seth looks like he is drowning half the time.  I really wish he would keep his head more about the water.  Katsu jumped in the pool after him on the day the pool opened because he thought he was drowning.

Fun Things This Month

• Children's day - going to the Chinese buffet with Dad
• lots of baseball games and baseball practices
• Seth missed his first baseball game after coming down with a stomach flu.  He slept almost an entire day, the poor kid.
• Andrew's birthday party - had too much fun, even though a little sick.
• getting to watch Star Wars movies 1 - 3 for Andrew's birthday
• Ridgewood book fair - Seth was super excited to pick out a book from his allowance and bought a Star Wars science experiment book.  Should be interesting.  We got to listen to Mrs. Brinson read a book.
• Pool opening - we've gone most days since.  The day it opened they had free hot dogs and snow cones, so it was pretty fun.
• Cookout for Memorial Day at the park for church.  Seth had a ton of fun and won the game where you had balloons tied to your leg and are trying to be the last one with a balloon.  Seth was good at hiding and was also incredibly fast at running away from everyone else.
• The last month of kindergarten, they have a letter of the day and do something fun.  Seth has gotten to wear a hat to school, have ice pops, bring a game, and all kinds of fun things.
• 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!
  
  
  
  
  

Noah is 10 months old!

Noah is 10 months old today.  He finally made it to his 9 month check up last week and is huge, as expected.  He weighed 23 lbs and 7 oz (he is 75-90 percentile) and his height and head circumference are more in the 50-75 percentile.  Otherwise, everything looked good and healthy and no shots, so it was a pretty uneventful doctor visit.

Noah is a HUGE eater, but is not very big on nursing.  He will only nurse when it is time for him to go down for night or a nap and we are in his dark room.  Otherwise, he just cries and fusses and refuses to nurse.  He will eat almost anything though and is really proficient, especially considering he has only two teeth.  He will grab a hot dog and just eat the whole thing.  He eats pretty much everything - fish, chicken, meat, crackers, pasta, cheese, almost all vegetables and fruit.  He will even get himself food.  When we are harvesting things from the garden, he will pull leaves off the plants and start eating them.  He gets excited whenever we pick strawberries because he loves strawberries.  He also really likes grapes and mangoes.

Noah has been a really crummy sleeper lately.  He still goes to sleep more or less on his own, but he seems to think it is party time at night.  I don't know if it is because he is getting teeth (he seems to be drooling a lot right now which is unusual) or just because he is more on the move, or what, but the second half of the night, it is on and off again on whether he will be asleep at all.  I hope this doesn't last very long.

Noah has finally got really proficient at his army crawl and can get around pretty well.  But he really likes standing and cruising.  He is great at going from cruising or crawling back to sitting.  If you turn around for a second, he usually has lifted himself up and is standing holding on to something.  If you hold his hands (or sometimes one hand), he will walk for you.  I think he will be walking by the time he is 1, but I guess we will see.

Noah really just likes to crawl and explore things.  Especially to find anything little small he can find and put it in his mouth.  He is starting to like cars and balls.  He will push the cars around and is even maybe trying to make car sounds.  He also likes to throw things and push buttons.

Noah can say mom and dad and maybe Andrew and bye and hi.  He will clap hands, play "So big", peek a boo, and can wave goodbye.

We took him to the pool for the first time yesterday - I was worried it would be too cold, but it wasn't too bad and he LOVED it.  He likes to sit on the steps and splash and for him to carry him around and to float on his back.  Good, since we go every day in the summer.