Well, it's been a minute. Or more like 2 years. And a million things later. So, I want to start this up again. In the mean time, we've gotten a tenure professor, lived through an earthquake and pandemic, and added another baby boy (!).
What's happened in the last month:
Andrew - mostly been really bored. Sleeping in the basement where it's nice and cool and sleeping in each morning. He spends most of the day focused on two things - eating and getting to play video games. This means he starts the process a few hours early to make sure he gets in outside time, exercise, reading, playing the piano, cleaning, etc. He's just a little obsessed with Fortnite. He has really being enjoying the Wii Fit that I recently acquired through our local Buy nothing group. I am glad he is breaking a sweat. He will be starting middle school virtually and got his schedule. Sadly, no "fun" electives - just Chinese and something called "Technology in Tough Times". Gotta love a pandemic - who knows what that is?!? He will meet his teachers in a week and a half at orientation before being at home for school. He is doing M/Th period 1-4 synchronous and then asynchronous on his other periods those days. T/Fr 5-7 are synchronous and others are asynchronous. We'll see what Friday looks like. He has a friend who lives by Liberty Park and after a failed first endeavor (due to road construction and a flat tire), he finally biked over there with Seth (it's about 2 miles away). They seemed to have a great time despite the extreme heat (will it ever be below 95?). He even finally used his debit card for the first time to buy food at Seven Eleven. Needs school to start so he has things to do!!!
Seth - busy, busy, busy, at least for a pandemic. He wakes up and is ready to go out with his friends. They ride bikes, swim at a friends' pool, get snacks at local stores, and who knows what else, but he is gone for several hours a day. He has his core group of about 7 boys and they have a great time. They have had several birthday parties (all outdoors of course, because pandemic) this month, so that has been fun as well. He has even gone on a couple adventures with friends this summer (to the Aviary and to a lake (?) at a ski resort, I think). This last week, they had a sleepover outside on the trampoline despite the heat and sadly a whole bunch of smoke from California fires that came through (but he seems to have had no major damage). He has a very dark tan from spending so much time outside. He is also obsessed with Fortnite and playing with his friends and has a new headset. He thinks it is unfair how much more spoiled his friends are and how they get to spend so many hours a day playing video games. Seth is on a competitive soccer team. He just started practicing this summer. His coach keeps cancelling practices due to his schedule or the hot weather, which is driving every one crazy. They participated in the Murray Max tournament this month. They played 5 games and creamed every other team. Seth enjoyed playing and had a few goals, I think. Katsu took him to most of the games, but Jack and I went to the last one. He felt unfairly punished by having to go with us to Costco afterwards. Seth has been playing prodigy this summer to work on his math skills and has been doing pretty advanced math - lots of scientific notation and exponents. He was also playing a lot of typing games, but screen time was getting a little out of control. He has been reading some books this summer, but mainly repeats. We just got the Spy school series from the library for him to reread.
Logan - has been bored, bored, bored. He has spent a lot of time playing with Noah and also a lot of time reading. He has really gotten into reading lately. He is almost done with the Michael Vey series, which is probably his first set of big books. He also has been reading spy school, diary of a wimpy kid, dog man, junie b. jones, and my weird school. Without my knowledge, he got on my library account and put around 50 books on hold! We just picked up books on Friday and we already have 21 more on hold. I am glad that he has finally caught the reading bug. He also has been working hard on typing. He has been learning the correct fingers and his wpm has gone way up - I think it is low 20s now. He also has been learning cursive and multiplication facts. He has had a couple play dates with his best friend, but other than that, he has been a real homebody since the coronavirus started. He did play with a neighbor boy on Friday and seemed to have a lot of fun. It has been a challenge to get Logan to go outside, but he will if he has to to get video game time. He also has finally started making some progress on piano and is working on the 1B set of books. Still has a hard time figuring out which hand position and gets frustrated when it changes hand positions during the song (which most of his songs do all the time). He bought himself a Gravitrax this summer and has spent a lot of time playing with that as well as other building things.
Noah is always good at keeping himself busy, but even he has started to get bored. I ran into the parents of a kid who lives on our street that was in Noah's class and soccer team and they have started to play together this week. Noah has been great about even going down there by himself. They have a big sand box that it seems they mostly dump a lot of water in and get filthy, but I love it as long as they are keeping themselves busy. Noah is always busy playing. This summer he has started to write and draw a ton. He will draw a picture, add something new every 3 minutes, and then come and grab my face to ell me about it. They have elaborate stories. He also likes to do word games and things. He is also really loving to read. I have been putting fun easy readers to read. His new favorite is the Jack series. Noah is always pretty good natured and never ever wants to leave the house. Trying to get him to go outside is a challenge. We tried piano this summer, but he seemed too young. We have a handwriting book, but trying to get him to do that is also a challenge. Virtual 1st grade should be interesting. When we talked about it, Noah said that he knew the one things he would do - zooms! Good luck with that - he is scheduled for like 6 a day!
Jack is a baby. The boys are all in love with him. He likes to smile and coo when he is awake, but he is half sleeping or eating or trying to nap or napping while being held almost all of the time. He has a pretty good routine for night time. He starts crying to go to sleep between 6:30 and 7:00 and then has his vitamin, gets changed, and nurses, and then goes to bed. Lately, he's been waking up around 12 and 4, but was waking up a lot more during his last growth spurt. He wakes up around 6, but usually goes back to sleep for a while. He takes a pacifier sometimes to help him go to sleep. He's had a bottle a couple of times and ate a little bit, but much prefers breastfeeding. We should be more consistent about that. He's usually pretty good natured about tummy time and will do that for a while. He likes to kick a lot. He gets pretty fussy during the day when he's tired, but will only nap for about 20 minutes in his bed. Sometimes he'll nap longer in a swing, but he really only naps for any long period of time if you are holding him. Thankfully he sleeps in his crib at night. He seems to really love his brothers and his dad and is constantly being held, touched, and talked to whether he is awake or asleep! He is really adored. He loves to listen to classical music on his swing (likes it better than the swing itself actually) and likes to look at bright pictures. Noah's pictures are on his wall and he likes those as well as books by Jennifer Adams that she gave him. Jack is fussy in his stroller usually and prefers to be in a ring sling. He is okay in the car, but is fussy after visiting new places.
Amanda - busy and stressed with trying to get my class together and take care of everyone. I don't have a desk, so I have been working on my bed, while holding the baby or nursing or in the 20 minutes Jack will sleep not being held. I just hope the occasional baby grunt or coo is not too loud when I am recording my lectures. I have the first 8 weeks of lectures online, so hopefully the semester will go somewhat smoothly. I think it will be very crazy once the kids start school. I do feel like I've spent a lot of time either working or taking care of Jack this month, so the kids are somewhat bored. Oh, well. I had my postpartum checkup and also got tested for diabetes, so I was glad to get that out of the way. I also had to get a filling re-done. I figure it's quite a week of adulting when you have a pap smear, a filling, and an oral glucose tolerance test all in one week! I have really been prioritizing my sleep and have been sleeping in to roughly 8:30am each day (!) to try to make up for fragmented sleep. I want to start trying to get my steps in and getting workout in, too, but it is very hard to fit everything in this season of life. Andrew did seem interested in working out with me, so that'll be a nice step - at least until he starts PE. I have been reading some books, but nothing too exciting.
Fun things this month - Not a lot, but Katsu has taken the boys out a few times. They went to the Cottonwood Heights rec center this week for swimming. The boys have gone hiking with Katsu a couple times and we all went hiking together with Jack, but that was a little stressful. Once it's a little cooler, I think it will be a little easier. Katsu has been really great about taking the boys out on a little date on the day of their birthday each month. The boys have mostly gone to get fast food, but have really loved it. Katsu also took the boys to This is the Place for pioneer day. We also all went up to see Grandma and Jack and I went up to see them yesterday.
