AUSTIN
Austin's creativity has fairly exploded recently. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I really think kindergarten has a lot to do with it. He does art every day (or nearly so), practices his letters every day, and has some sort of "special" activity (music, art, P.E.) every day. His brain is just bursting with creativity. In just the last few weeks he's begun to draw at home almost every day. Detailed, complex drawings too, like cats and trees and clouds and people. There is amazing attention to detail. He also loves to build things whether with blocks, tinkertoys, legos, or what have you. He can look at a schematic and build it. (He still needs help with lego instructions, but is improving.) His imagination is incredible, and he thinks in 3-D. This is something I've always had trouble with, which is ironic because lefties are supposed to be spatially-oriented. I am, and very much so, in my head; but I can't usually translate it to a physical object. Austin can, though (and he's a leftie too). My youngest brother Travis (also a leftie) has this gift too, it's something I've always envied. When I play with legos or tinkertoys, everything I build from scratch comes out very flat and two-dimensional.
Austin is also learning to recognize and write sight words. He wrote "like", "my", and "the" last night with absolutely no prompting or assistance from anyone...shocked the heck out of me. He's also getting better at sounding out words.
Truly, Austin is blossoming. It is so rewarding to watch it happen. This really is what I've been waiting for, this awakening of his mind and talents. It fills me with immense joy. Kindergarten is really helping to move him forward and I am so thankful. I think he's going to be a really good student.
Austin also has his first loose tooth and the adult tooth coming in behind it. Should only be a few weeks before it really starts to get wiggly. Exciting!
JONAS
Jonas....*sigh* Jonas is brilliant, but he uses his intelligence for evil. :) He is full of life and energy. His spirit burns brightly, I like to say. But he's also full on into the Terrible Twos and boy, are they terrible. He has quite a temper and a hair trigger on it. He will scream for an hour if he doesn't get his way. He has learned how to defeat much of the childproofing in the house--only the locks that are physically too strong for him to unlock are still working. He knows how to reach things in high places (he moves a chair) so nothing is safe. He resists punishment and doesn't really understand it yet, so timeouts and other diversionary discipline are largely ineffective. He doesn't like to eat dinner most days, so if it's something he doesn't immediately recognize/like he will pick at it at best, maybe eating 2 bites if we're lucky. Going to restaurants with him is pure misery...he wants to stand up, play under the table, wander, scream, switch seats, etc. Oh, it's awful. We don't go out nearly as much as we used to.
He still gets up around 5:30 to 6:00 every morning, and now he doesn't even come to get one of us. The other morning Amy found him awake at 5:45, chair pulled up to the counter in front of the coffeemaker, calmly mixing together coffee grinds and sugar from the sugar bowl. With the biggest smile on his face.
And he's Mr. Destructo. He will knock over, color, step on, vandalize, shred, bite, or rip apart anything in his path. Ripping up books seems to be a favorite lately, as does coloring over pictures Austin's already drawn (Cory used to do this to me--drove me crazy).
And (yes, there's more) he likes to hit, and occasionally he'll bite. He hits Austin for the tiniest perceived infratction...he'll also try to hit Amy and me. He'll hurt Devon if you give him half a chance. I don't think he's intentionally trying to hurt the baby--he just plays really, really rough. But we can't convince him what he's doing is harmful. Yesterday he slammed the door while Devon was bouncing from a bouncy seat hanging in the opening, and almost smashed Devon's face.
Jonas knows how to push our limits and push our buttons, and does so with reckless abandon. He is learning independence and his place in the family, though, so we try not to lose it with him. There are times, though, when I want to smack the everloving mess out of him.
Despite all that, he is still such a sweet boy. He's very outgoing, loves to flirt, loves to play games. He has a great sense of humor and loves to cuddle. His emotions are turbocharged, basically....like I said, his spirit burns brightly. I'm just hoping once he starts to talk more that he starts to *understand* more too, and all this misbehavior starts to mellow.
DEVON
Devon's still pretty immobile...but not for long. The floor is one of his favorite places to be. He can roll himself pretty much anywhere, and is starting to figure out he can propel himself forward. It's not quite crawling, more like a one-shot lunge. But he's getting the mechanics down. He gets up on all fours and rocks quite frequently. He's also sitting up more and more...sometimes he'll go a couple minutes. He grabs at *everything* and is insatiably curious. He's starting to make babbly noises and is very interested in watching your mouth when you make sounds at him.
Devon has one tooth already through the gum (lower right) and another one is just days, if not less, from rupturing too. It makes him a little bit miserable sometimes, but overall he's dealing exceptionally well with teething. He might even be a better teether than Austin...I didn't even know his first tooth was coming through, he was so nonchalant about it.
He still spits up a lot, but it's just something we have to deal with. It doesn't seem to bother him (just us, because he always seems to miss the burp cloth...and it smells terrible). He is eating "people food" more now and likes it a lot, especially fruits.
He still sleeps great--normally goes down between 5 and 6:30, sleeps till Amy wakes him up the next morning (or 7:30, whichever comes first). Almost never wakes up at night and when he does, usually some pats on the back is all he needs. Usually takes one nap a day, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for three.
Overall Devon is a VERY happy baby and is almost always in a good mood. He loves both his brothers tremendously, especially Austin. He likes Jonas better and better each day, especially when Jonas lies down next to him, and puts up with Jonas's wrestling with great patience. Usually he just waits patiently for Mommy or Daddy to rescue him. :) Austin can make him laugh at any time, and Jonas is getting better at it.
I think that's it for this time! The kids are excited about Halloween coming up...will be sure to post pictures. Hope everyone's having a great October.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
September 2009 photos up
New photos for September 2009 are up! Strangely, Austin's in hardly any of them. Part of that's because he takes some of the photos, and part of it is because he won't pose anymore - he's always got to make obnoxious faces or move around so much that none of the photos come out well. It's annoying, but hopefully it'll pass. Anyway...some favorites:
Friday, September 4, 2009
September kids update
What's been happening recently...
AUSTIN
Austin's struggled with behavior issues in the past couple weeks, pushing both Amy and me past our limits more than a few times. He uses a variety of tactics...ignoring, arguing, defiance, sneakiness, even intimidation. He has this "mean face" that he puts on and gets right up on us like he's trying to bully us into changing our minds. It's gotten to the point that we immediately put him in time-out anytime he gives us the mean face.
I'm not saying he's always bad, he just acts out more than I'd normally expect--especially when Jonas is in the room. He's constantly testing and pushing buttons.
However, it seems like he's been improving slowly over the last week. And he's been on best behavior the past couple days, not least because of our impending football weekend. I think his kindergarten teacher's discipline methods are helping him too (especially when I try to mimic them). He's so much more pleasant when he's behaving. It's amazing to see how creative, loving, affectionate, and funny he can be when we're not constantly struggling with him to control his behavior and temperament. He's taken to randomly hugging me and saying things like "I love you, Dad", "you're the best dad", and last night he broke out "you're wonderful". It's so sweet.
In the last 2-3 days he's even started being markedly nicer to Jonas, which is eye-popping in its contrast to the usual dynamic there. There've been times when Jonas has pinched, grabbed, or hit Austin with little or no provocation, and Austin's just looked at me and said "I didn't hit back and I still love him even when he's mean." *boggle* WHO IS THIS ALIEN AND WHAT HAS HE DONE WITH AUSTIN?!!
I'm leaving in about half an hour to pick up Austin from school and take him to Clemson for the weekend. He is so excited he can barely stand it. I am too! But I'm excited about football...he's more excited about "special time with daddy", eating in restaurants, and staying in the hotel. But hey, whatever works. :)
JONAS
Jonas is talking more and more these days--he has a rapidly growing vocabulary and is putting together fairly sophisticated sentences too. He's still pretty hard to understand unless you're used to him, and even then it's not easy, but he seems to improve daily.
He is OBSESSED with books. If he can get away with it, he'll make us read him 10 books before bedtime...some nights we literally have to pick him up and carry him away from the bookshelf to go to bed. He's even starting to memorize some of the books because he's read them so many times. It's pretty awesome. He watches TV, but not a whole lot of it--he'll watch Blue's Clues till the sun goes down, and likes Phineas and Ferb because Austin watches that one a lot. But other than that, he doesn't really pay a whole lot of attention to TV (as far as i can tell, anyway).
He's got all his colors down pretty well now. It's funny to hear him say them...."duh-wed" ("red", actually we think it's "the red"), "bwoo" or "duh-woo", "wee-whoa", "geen" or "duh-geen", "or-nange" (this is cute enough to melt steel), "buh-wack", "duh-wyee" ("the white"), "duh-peenk", "purple" (oddly, he says this one almost perfectly). Guess what his favorite color is? ORNANGE! I'm raising him right. :)
Much like Austin, Jonas has distinct and developing musical tastes. He tends to like high-energy music like dance, electronica, and old-school hip-hop (while Austin prefers electronica, heavy metal, and speed metal). He loves to ride in my car because it's a "special occasion", and we always listen to energetic music. He laughs and bobs his head and "dances" in the car seat.
Jonas still an incredibly sweet boy with an incredibly big mischevious streak. I really love being around him when he's not driving me crazy getting into trouble. :) He is a specialist at getting into trouble, though. He'll grab anything that he can reach, even if he knows he's not supposed to. He knows how to use chairs and toys to climb on and reach higher spots. He can be a real terror at the table, pushing the table and his chair around, tipping backwards, etc. He really loves to step on and/or destroy things Austin has built (lego buildings and cars, forts, etc). And lately he's developed an interest in the computer too, which leads to fights over whose turn it is to be in the computer chair.
On the sweet side, though, he always comes sprinting to the door when I come home, laughing and shrieking "DADDY!". He likes to sit on my lap and watch TV or read. He can sit still for much longer than Austin can, so it's nice to chill with him on the couch. He loves to share with everyone in the house--his new thing is to say "here!" and share whatever's in his hand. He's really good about going down to bed, FAR better than Austin ever was--it almost never takes more than 15 minutes to get him down for a nap or for nighttime. He has a great sense of humor and sometimes he flat-out cracks me up, especially when I'm singing lullabyes or holding him. He loves being a comedian. He is also getting much better with Devon, backing off on the intentional startling and the random smacking. We still can't leave them alone in the same room because Jonas will still try something every now and again, but at least now we don't have to be right next to the baby every second.
DEVON
Devon'sbeen off Zantac for the past several days and seems to be responding well. He's started to eat oatmeal and pureed fruit. He really loves applesauce. We think he might have an allergy to rice cereal, as he developed a really nasty rash a few weekends ago that we couldn't get rid of. When he stopped with the rice at his doctor's suggestion, though, it was gone within a day. Weird.
He's also holding his head up very well and turning over with ease. He loves to be on the floor. He's figured out how to push himself military-crawl style across the floor in small intervals, so he's becoming somewhat mobile--at the very least, he can turn himself in a circle to see everything around him. He's constantly trying to get his knees underneath him so he can start crawling (and keeping up with his brothers). We introduced him to an exersaucer a couple weeks ago and he seems to like that pretty well...won't stay in it for a long time, but often will go long enough for us to eat dinner.
Devon's personality is also very sweet, he loves to laugh with Daddy and Mommy and his brothers. He doesn't seem to mind strangers too much and is usually in a good mood when he wakes up--even when Amy has to get him up at 6:15am to get Austin to school in time. He's starting to "watch" TV and will sometimes even pay attention when we're reading books. He's really good about going down to bed; by 6:30 or 7 he's ready for his final nursing of the night and then he'll typically stay asleep until the next morning, sometimes sleeping till 8 or 8:30. Hardly ever wakes up in the middle of the night anymore; if anything, he'll wake up around 9-10pm because of gas bubbles, but he doesn't like being awake that late. Sometimes if he's up past 7, Amy will put him down in the crib (so she can take care of some errands) and eventually he'll put himself to sleep. That's something neither Austin or Jonas would ever do as a baby, so it's REALLY nice (almost heavenly) that Devon will do it once in a while.
And lastly he still likes Austin more than anybody except maybe Mommy, but is warming up rapidly to Jonas too. Jonas isn't as mean to him as he used to be, which helps, so often I'll catch Devon grinning and giggling at Jonas like he's never done before. It's really heartwarming to see them interacting better.
I think that's it! "See" you in about a month.
AUSTIN
Austin's struggled with behavior issues in the past couple weeks, pushing both Amy and me past our limits more than a few times. He uses a variety of tactics...ignoring, arguing, defiance, sneakiness, even intimidation. He has this "mean face" that he puts on and gets right up on us like he's trying to bully us into changing our minds. It's gotten to the point that we immediately put him in time-out anytime he gives us the mean face.
I'm not saying he's always bad, he just acts out more than I'd normally expect--especially when Jonas is in the room. He's constantly testing and pushing buttons.
However, it seems like he's been improving slowly over the last week. And he's been on best behavior the past couple days, not least because of our impending football weekend. I think his kindergarten teacher's discipline methods are helping him too (especially when I try to mimic them). He's so much more pleasant when he's behaving. It's amazing to see how creative, loving, affectionate, and funny he can be when we're not constantly struggling with him to control his behavior and temperament. He's taken to randomly hugging me and saying things like "I love you, Dad", "you're the best dad", and last night he broke out "you're wonderful". It's so sweet.
In the last 2-3 days he's even started being markedly nicer to Jonas, which is eye-popping in its contrast to the usual dynamic there. There've been times when Jonas has pinched, grabbed, or hit Austin with little or no provocation, and Austin's just looked at me and said "I didn't hit back and I still love him even when he's mean." *boggle* WHO IS THIS ALIEN AND WHAT HAS HE DONE WITH AUSTIN?!!
I'm leaving in about half an hour to pick up Austin from school and take him to Clemson for the weekend. He is so excited he can barely stand it. I am too! But I'm excited about football...he's more excited about "special time with daddy", eating in restaurants, and staying in the hotel. But hey, whatever works. :)
JONAS
Jonas is talking more and more these days--he has a rapidly growing vocabulary and is putting together fairly sophisticated sentences too. He's still pretty hard to understand unless you're used to him, and even then it's not easy, but he seems to improve daily.
He is OBSESSED with books. If he can get away with it, he'll make us read him 10 books before bedtime...some nights we literally have to pick him up and carry him away from the bookshelf to go to bed. He's even starting to memorize some of the books because he's read them so many times. It's pretty awesome. He watches TV, but not a whole lot of it--he'll watch Blue's Clues till the sun goes down, and likes Phineas and Ferb because Austin watches that one a lot. But other than that, he doesn't really pay a whole lot of attention to TV (as far as i can tell, anyway).
He's got all his colors down pretty well now. It's funny to hear him say them...."duh-wed" ("red", actually we think it's "the red"), "bwoo" or "duh-woo", "wee-whoa", "geen" or "duh-geen", "or-nange" (this is cute enough to melt steel), "buh-wack", "duh-wyee" ("the white"), "duh-peenk", "purple" (oddly, he says this one almost perfectly). Guess what his favorite color is? ORNANGE! I'm raising him right. :)
Much like Austin, Jonas has distinct and developing musical tastes. He tends to like high-energy music like dance, electronica, and old-school hip-hop (while Austin prefers electronica, heavy metal, and speed metal). He loves to ride in my car because it's a "special occasion", and we always listen to energetic music. He laughs and bobs his head and "dances" in the car seat.
Jonas still an incredibly sweet boy with an incredibly big mischevious streak. I really love being around him when he's not driving me crazy getting into trouble. :) He is a specialist at getting into trouble, though. He'll grab anything that he can reach, even if he knows he's not supposed to. He knows how to use chairs and toys to climb on and reach higher spots. He can be a real terror at the table, pushing the table and his chair around, tipping backwards, etc. He really loves to step on and/or destroy things Austin has built (lego buildings and cars, forts, etc). And lately he's developed an interest in the computer too, which leads to fights over whose turn it is to be in the computer chair.
On the sweet side, though, he always comes sprinting to the door when I come home, laughing and shrieking "DADDY!". He likes to sit on my lap and watch TV or read. He can sit still for much longer than Austin can, so it's nice to chill with him on the couch. He loves to share with everyone in the house--his new thing is to say "here!" and share whatever's in his hand. He's really good about going down to bed, FAR better than Austin ever was--it almost never takes more than 15 minutes to get him down for a nap or for nighttime. He has a great sense of humor and sometimes he flat-out cracks me up, especially when I'm singing lullabyes or holding him. He loves being a comedian. He is also getting much better with Devon, backing off on the intentional startling and the random smacking. We still can't leave them alone in the same room because Jonas will still try something every now and again, but at least now we don't have to be right next to the baby every second.
DEVON
Devon's
He's also holding his head up very well and turning over with ease. He loves to be on the floor. He's figured out how to push himself military-crawl style across the floor in small intervals, so he's becoming somewhat mobile--at the very least, he can turn himself in a circle to see everything around him. He's constantly trying to get his knees underneath him so he can start crawling (and keeping up with his brothers). We introduced him to an exersaucer a couple weeks ago and he seems to like that pretty well...won't stay in it for a long time, but often will go long enough for us to eat dinner.
Devon's personality is also very sweet, he loves to laugh with Daddy and Mommy and his brothers. He doesn't seem to mind strangers too much and is usually in a good mood when he wakes up--even when Amy has to get him up at 6:15am to get Austin to school in time. He's starting to "watch" TV and will sometimes even pay attention when we're reading books. He's really good about going down to bed; by 6:30 or 7 he's ready for his final nursing of the night and then he'll typically stay asleep until the next morning, sometimes sleeping till 8 or 8:30. Hardly ever wakes up in the middle of the night anymore; if anything, he'll wake up around 9-10pm because of gas bubbles, but he doesn't like being awake that late. Sometimes if he's up past 7, Amy will put him down in the crib (so she can take care of some errands) and eventually he'll put himself to sleep. That's something neither Austin or Jonas would ever do as a baby, so it's REALLY nice (almost heavenly) that Devon will do it once in a while.
And lastly he still likes Austin more than anybody except maybe Mommy, but is warming up rapidly to Jonas too. Jonas isn't as mean to him as he used to be, which helps, so often I'll catch Devon grinning and giggling at Jonas like he's never done before. It's really heartwarming to see them interacting better.
I think that's it! "See" you in about a month.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
New photos for August; Austin's first day of kindergarten
New photos are up!
August 2009 - includes photos of Austin wearing his new glasses
Austin's First day of Kindergarten
Here's some of the 1st day of school photos:
This is what I wrote somewhere else about his first day of school:
That was 2 weeks ago on August 17 or 18. Since then, a lot has happened:
+ Austin went through about 2 weeks of difficult transition. He was crying every morning in class, saying he missed us, telling us he didn't like school, crying at night about going back, etc. I think it was due to a couple things: longer days, a tighter schedule (especially IRT lunch), the bus not being as cool as he originally thought, and so many new faces. A couple days ago he stopped the daily crying and went so far this weekend as to say he was excited about school. Hopefully that'll stick.
+ He also decided that he didn't care for the bus. Despite the bus driver's graciousness and flexibility with routes--she was willing to pick him up and drop him off in our cul-de-sac, if not literally at our driveway--he just couldn't get used to the loud noise, the windows being down all the time, and the bigger kids. He also didn't like not having a seatbelt, as his feet didn't touch the floor so he slid around a lot. That made it seem like the bus was "going too fast" and it really bothered him. After a few more trial days, we went back to car riding. We might try the bus again later this semester or year, but for now we're sticking with the car (as much of a PITA that is for Amy).
+ I went and visited his school last Friday to eat lunch with Austin, to observe, and to talk to the teacher a little bit. I got to do way more than that--she put me to work! I got to read to the class and run a learning center, then had about 15 minutes to talk one-on-one with the teacher during recess. I'm very happy I went--I feel really good about his teacher, how she operates, how she runs the class, and so forth. I also got to see Austin "in action" and was happy to see that he's a good, quiet student who pays attention almost all the time. He isn't particularly outgoing, but has made some friends and plays well at recess either alone or in groups. He keeps telling us he doesn't remember anyone's name but since I've been to his class, I can help him remember. I hope to go back once a month or so, or perhaps alternate visits with Amy. Austin LOVED having me at lunch so I'd like to do that again; I also tremendously enjoyed being in the classroom helping out, and the teacher was eager to have me help as often as I could.
+ His class is 26 kids--not ideal, but less than the 28-30 we were told to expect. There were 2 kids absent the day I went but when I was there, it was 10 boys and 14 girls. The class was about 1/3 minority children.
I think that's all I have to say!
August 2009 - includes photos of Austin wearing his new glasses
Austin's First day of Kindergarten
Here's some of the 1st day of school photos:
This is what I wrote somewhere else about his first day of school:
First day of kindergarten went relatively smoothly. I helped with the morning yesterday, but other than Amy's alarm clock not going off it went off without any hitches. Austin was so excited that he was pretty cooperative, and Jonas and Devon both are already used to going out the door every morning--just not quite so early. While we were driving out of the neighborhood we noticed the bus makes a stop at the end of our street, and a TON of kids get on there every day, so we started thinking maybe we'd put him on the bus after all. We got to the school without a problem, got him to class fine. We actually had to chase him down to say bye, so separation anxiety was (as expected) not a problem. :) We stayed a bit longer for a PTA-sponsored breakfast then headed home.
The afternoon was a bit rougher--Amy said she sat in the car pickup line for almost an hour, which is pretty ridiculous even given it was the first day. That was exacerbated by Devon's screaming (he hates stopped cars) and both kids needed diaper changes. Then when Austin got in the car he whined all the way home that he was starving because he had only gotten salad for lunch. What?! For about 4 hours we both thought he'd only been *given* a salad for lunch so we were both pretty concerned, but slowly we teased the bigger story out of Austin and it turns out he got a full lunch, but only had time to eat the salad. They only get 20 minutes for lunch and he's a notoriously dawdling eater, so I think the end of lunch caught him by surprise (despite me warning him several times that that would happen). He got several reminders between last night and this morning to eat first, then play.
Austin being in preschool last year has helped in countless ways, even so much as to make it a routine for Jonas to head out the door every morning. All 3 kids seem to be adjusting to the earlier time pretty well--it's not too much earlier as far as waking up, but they have to hustle more to get out the door.
All in all we're happy with the way everything is turning out; there have been no major hang-ups or irritations (other than the hour-long sit in the car rider lane). I feel better about the school now that I've been there a few times and have talked to some other people around town about its quality, too. The worst part for me is that I have to get up at 4:40am now to avoid interfering with Amy's new morning routine. Ugh! But it gets me to work by 6am if not before, which means I can leave before 3pm and have half the afternoon to be at home, run errands, etc. It's not too bad.
That was 2 weeks ago on August 17 or 18. Since then, a lot has happened:
+ Austin went through about 2 weeks of difficult transition. He was crying every morning in class, saying he missed us, telling us he didn't like school, crying at night about going back, etc. I think it was due to a couple things: longer days, a tighter schedule (especially IRT lunch), the bus not being as cool as he originally thought, and so many new faces. A couple days ago he stopped the daily crying and went so far this weekend as to say he was excited about school. Hopefully that'll stick.
+ He also decided that he didn't care for the bus. Despite the bus driver's graciousness and flexibility with routes--she was willing to pick him up and drop him off in our cul-de-sac, if not literally at our driveway--he just couldn't get used to the loud noise, the windows being down all the time, and the bigger kids. He also didn't like not having a seatbelt, as his feet didn't touch the floor so he slid around a lot. That made it seem like the bus was "going too fast" and it really bothered him. After a few more trial days, we went back to car riding. We might try the bus again later this semester or year, but for now we're sticking with the car (as much of a PITA that is for Amy).
+ I went and visited his school last Friday to eat lunch with Austin, to observe, and to talk to the teacher a little bit. I got to do way more than that--she put me to work! I got to read to the class and run a learning center, then had about 15 minutes to talk one-on-one with the teacher during recess. I'm very happy I went--I feel really good about his teacher, how she operates, how she runs the class, and so forth. I also got to see Austin "in action" and was happy to see that he's a good, quiet student who pays attention almost all the time. He isn't particularly outgoing, but has made some friends and plays well at recess either alone or in groups. He keeps telling us he doesn't remember anyone's name but since I've been to his class, I can help him remember. I hope to go back once a month or so, or perhaps alternate visits with Amy. Austin LOVED having me at lunch so I'd like to do that again; I also tremendously enjoyed being in the classroom helping out, and the teacher was eager to have me help as often as I could.
+ His class is 26 kids--not ideal, but less than the 28-30 we were told to expect. There were 2 kids absent the day I went but when I was there, it was 10 boys and 14 girls. The class was about 1/3 minority children.
I think that's all I have to say!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
non-photo kid update
Was writing an e-mail today about all the kids and it sounded more and more like a blog post, so I figured I'd mirror the content here. Enjoy.
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Devon has found his voice in the last 10-14 days and likes to "talk" ("aahs" and "ohhs" and "oohs") with impressive volume, but even more he likes to squeak. He sounds like a creaky door that's constantly opening and closing. We originally thought he was trying to convey displeasure, but it turns out that most of the time he's just squeaking. It's not particularly cute or endearing, but at least he's getting verbal (and it's much less annoying once we figured out he wasn't fussing). I'm starting to wonder if he's teething, as he's a bit crankier than usual; but we haven't seen any evidence of that yet. He still sleeps through the night, at least, except for last night when he was up at midnight. First time that's happened in at least a month, though.
Jonas has 2 molars coming in, continuing his miserable tradition of having multiple teeth appear simultaneously. He doesn't seem to be having *too* much trouble with them, but it might be making him crankier, I dunno. He has more of a hair trigger these days but it's hard to tell if it's teeth or just the fact that he's 2. He's definitely full-swing into the terrible 2's, that's for sure. He's still climbing out of the crib, which began a couple weeks ago--we just leave the drop rail down, as he's figured out how to climb out that way w/o hurting himself.
We had a disastrous experiment Saturday removing the drop rail--he thought it gave him free license to just up and get out of bed whenever he felt like it. So his nap was half as long as usual, getting him to bed was a nightmare (never stayed in bed more than 5 seconds, kept coming out into the living room, then bolting as soon as I spotted him...a fun little "game" that almost got his neck wrung), and Sunday morning he woke up at 5am and never went back to sleep. So the rail went back on that day. It's a nice psychological deterrent, if anything. Jonas also got into the Mother's Morning Out program so every Thursday, he'll be spending 3 hours with kids his age. I think he'll like that a lot, though we're a bit concerned how he'll do the first few times. The last time he was in a room without parents he only lasted about an hour before getting upset, but he was also the only 2-year old in the room. We'll see how he does with a roomful of peers and directed activities. It'll be a nice morning off for Amy, as once school kicks in she'll be down to just 1 kid once a week.
Austin had his kindergarten placement test yesterday and impressed the test-giver; he got 62 out of a possible 64 points on a test that's designed to measure what kids should know by the *end* of kindergarten. He recognized a couple "sight words", which I didn't know he could do, and even tried to write a couple of words (no success there...he got as far as "C" for "cat" but that's it). Pre-K was worth every penny! So he should get pretty good placement; in addition to class sorting they have reading groups sorted according to ability, and kids will move up or down if they improve at different rates (I think). So that's cool.
We were also told that class size should be about 24 students, which is awesome. At pre-registration they told me 28 students, so 24 is a great improvement. I'm most worried that since he's so well prepared, he'll get bored and into trouble! Hopefully the teacher's prepared for that, though. I'm looking forward to meeting his teacher and developing a good relationship to make sure Austin's consistently engaged and challenged. I'm next-most worried about the long days--7:25 to 2:30 or something like that. Wow. Amy and I are both going to have to get up at least half an hour earlier, I think...considering I already get up at 5:15 or so this will not be fun.
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Devon has found his voice in the last 10-14 days and likes to "talk" ("aahs" and "ohhs" and "oohs") with impressive volume, but even more he likes to squeak. He sounds like a creaky door that's constantly opening and closing. We originally thought he was trying to convey displeasure, but it turns out that most of the time he's just squeaking. It's not particularly cute or endearing, but at least he's getting verbal (and it's much less annoying once we figured out he wasn't fussing). I'm starting to wonder if he's teething, as he's a bit crankier than usual; but we haven't seen any evidence of that yet. He still sleeps through the night, at least, except for last night when he was up at midnight. First time that's happened in at least a month, though.
Jonas has 2 molars coming in, continuing his miserable tradition of having multiple teeth appear simultaneously. He doesn't seem to be having *too* much trouble with them, but it might be making him crankier, I dunno. He has more of a hair trigger these days but it's hard to tell if it's teeth or just the fact that he's 2. He's definitely full-swing into the terrible 2's, that's for sure. He's still climbing out of the crib, which began a couple weeks ago--we just leave the drop rail down, as he's figured out how to climb out that way w/o hurting himself.
We had a disastrous experiment Saturday removing the drop rail--he thought it gave him free license to just up and get out of bed whenever he felt like it. So his nap was half as long as usual, getting him to bed was a nightmare (never stayed in bed more than 5 seconds, kept coming out into the living room, then bolting as soon as I spotted him...a fun little "game" that almost got his neck wrung), and Sunday morning he woke up at 5am and never went back to sleep. So the rail went back on that day. It's a nice psychological deterrent, if anything. Jonas also got into the Mother's Morning Out program so every Thursday, he'll be spending 3 hours with kids his age. I think he'll like that a lot, though we're a bit concerned how he'll do the first few times. The last time he was in a room without parents he only lasted about an hour before getting upset, but he was also the only 2-year old in the room. We'll see how he does with a roomful of peers and directed activities. It'll be a nice morning off for Amy, as once school kicks in she'll be down to just 1 kid once a week.
Austin had his kindergarten placement test yesterday and impressed the test-giver; he got 62 out of a possible 64 points on a test that's designed to measure what kids should know by the *end* of kindergarten. He recognized a couple "sight words", which I didn't know he could do, and even tried to write a couple of words (no success there...he got as far as "C" for "cat" but that's it). Pre-K was worth every penny! So he should get pretty good placement; in addition to class sorting they have reading groups sorted according to ability, and kids will move up or down if they improve at different rates (I think). So that's cool.
We were also told that class size should be about 24 students, which is awesome. At pre-registration they told me 28 students, so 24 is a great improvement. I'm most worried that since he's so well prepared, he'll get bored and into trouble! Hopefully the teacher's prepared for that, though. I'm looking forward to meeting his teacher and developing a good relationship to make sure Austin's consistently engaged and challenged. I'm next-most worried about the long days--7:25 to 2:30 or something like that. Wow. Amy and I are both going to have to get up at least half an hour earlier, I think...considering I already get up at 5:15 or so this will not be fun.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Also, recent photos up!
I forgot to mention yesterday that photos through June 2009 have been uploaded and include Austin's 4K "May Day", 4K graduation, and birthday; Jonas's birthday; and Devon's entrance into the world and his first few months. Enjoy!
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