Family Fuller

We will put some Christmas pictures up soon, but I just had to post that Colin is now doing word problems. As in math word problems.

For a few months now he has been asking about how much is this plus this, so Santa got him a math book for Christmas. He has been working on it and done about 20 pages, when he got to the word problems page. He could read the whole thing, create the equation and then get the answer – for example:

“Kevin has 7 marbles. His dad gives him 5 more. How many marbles does Kevin have now?”

It is great. The book is a first grade math book. The boy is constantly impressing and surprising me and he just turned 5 a few months ago.

Sorry, I don’t mean to be one of those moms, but in some cases I just can help it…and it is our blog

We have done a lot of Christmas decorating but each day the boys like to add a little more. Colin did a very nice Christmas tree at school complete with sequins. Then Holden made a bunch of drawings. He likes to “wrap” his which means rolling the paper up. Then he put his “wrapped” decorations up next to Colin’s on our front door:

This afternoon I attempted to build a Gingerbread house with the boys. It was from a kit but wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. The boys restrained themselves from eating candy for awhile but suddenly the house started to colapse and as I was strugging to hold the roof on they took advantage of the situation. The next thing I know, they are picking the pieces off the roof as it’s sliding and licking and eating everything. Turned into a madhouse and a pretty ugly gingerbread house – well, really it wasn’t very attractive from the get go, but that’s what I expected

Holden and I also made some cookies this afternoon:

P.S. I swear Holden wears something other than that orange stripped shirt…just glanced through the last few posts and he is wearing it in every picture.

I came out of the shower this morning to find Holden gluing his bare feet together with a glue stick – thank god he didn’t find the crazy glue on the counter

He is currently making lunch in the kitchen. He requested to use the real stove but I nixed that right away and made him his own set up:

The boys requested haircuts. Holden said “I be very happy if you cut my hair” specifically because now he looks like Dad. I didn’t want to do it but was overruled by the boys. Holden has never had his hair buzzed. He is still super cute but I think I prefer his hair longer .

Just Now after Holden hit Colin:
Me to Holden: “Colin uses words to solve problems, not hitting”
Colin: “Yeah, sometimes I am right but sometimes I am really right”

Yesterday:
Colin: “When I grow up I am going to work like you Dad”
Chuck: “Oh, yeah, what are you going to do?”
Colin: “I’m going to eat lunch then do nothing. Oh wait. I am going to eat lunch, do nothing and then take a nap”

Sometimes I don’t really know how much Colin can read. He seems to know how, but I think he does it by remembering words, not by sounding them out. Then today he read me two trivia questions from his string cheese:

1. How long does it take to make a Jellybean? A: A Week
2. Before the National Park Service began in 1916, who administered America’s park system? A: The US Army

The only words he didn’t get were “1916″ and “administered.” He still resists me trying to get him to read things but clearly he can read quite a bit more than I think he can. We have his first parent-teacher conference on Tuesday at his preschool. Should be interested in hearing how he is doing, I don’t anticipate any issues

Colin saw a black Honda CR-V just like ours the other day and said “Hey that car is exactly like ours, but I bet it is clean inside”

Just now while watching Sesame Street on Sprout (they have some commericals) there was a commercial about insurance and Colin said to me “Mom, did you hear that – they can save you some money – you should get it” and two seconds later when this commerical came on for an automatic toothpaste dispenser (as if anyone needs that) Colin said “See mom, that is why we need the Touch N Brush, it keeps your bathroom clean and is fun for the whole family” Last year he was obsessed with the pancake puff pan.

It is currently Sunday morning and the boys are eating cold pizza and watching TV…am I am bad mom? We went out for my birthday last night and I am tired this morning so I feel OK about the cold pizza

Colin has been very into the world series this year and was rewarded with the victory last night. I myself was raised to be a Tiger fan, but I feel myself getting sucked in to the Yankees. I don’t see how I can help it when Chuck loves them and now so does Colin.

He watched the last three games and was really into it even though he doesn’t totally understand the game. I would be in the kitchen and hear him say “Oh man, mom you aren’t going to believe it the Phillies just got a home run.” Then later I would say, whose up? he would reply “I don’t know but the Phillies have two outs” – which could mean anything because he doesn’t really understand what outs are.

His lack of understanding was evident last night because he would get all upset and into the game, nervous when the Yankees were up, etc, but then in the top of the 9th he said “What is a strike?”

He started out being a Melky fan but by game 4 was loving Johnny Damon for stealing 2nd and 3rd (still talks about it.) About Game 4 he also started being a big Matsui fan and said he though he was the best hitter on the Yankees. I said I didn’t think so, but I guess Colin was right all along

Both boys wanted to be sharks for Halloween, specifically a bonnethead hammerhead for Colin, and you can’t buy those so I had to make them. Holden is a “ate ite ark – swimming in the ater” (Great White Shark, swiming in the water)  They turned out pretty well:

Side view

Back view

Sitting at Colin’s preschool:

Showing off their costumes at school:

Yesterday after school I brought Colin’s bike so he could ride with the other kids. His training wheels are off but he hasn’t really ridden yet. He was very upset that I had brought the bike without the training wheels but eventually agreed to try it.

A few minutes later I look over and he is riding it. He was so excited and so proud of himself. All the other moms thought it was great that he had just learned right there after school. He said it was all because there was a little hill where he could get started. Very fun.

He had also learned to zip his zipper for the first time all by himself at school that day, so it was a big day all around.  In fact when I got in the car I said “Wow, you have learned a lot of things today, you sure are growing up”  and Colin stood up and said “really, how much taller am I?”