Family Fuller

Colin’s last day of preschool was last Friday and they had a little graduation ceremony.  Of course Colin got to go first, somehow he is always going first.  Holden thought he was part of the show so he walked right up and stood with Colin.  Holden pretty much thinks Colin’s school is also his school.  Here is the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xv7ybbsoAo in case you can’t see it below):

Holden took Colin’s graduation cap, however he didn’t put it on exactly right:

Afterwards they had a little party and cupcakes:

And a picture of the whole class:

Then the next day, his actual last day of school, they had a big picnic in a park near here called Carkeek Park.  It was a beautiful day (we have had a week of perfect days, sunny 70s).  There was entertainment, face painting, magician, parachutes, butterfly release, pinatas - not to mention it was also on the beach.  We were there for 5 hours, Holden missed his nap and everything, but it was so much fun.

Colin did graduate, however he still has one more year of preschool before Kindergarten. He is starting Jumpstart in the fall and he is looking forward to that!

For the past few weeks we have had Holden’s new bed in his room, but he still slept in his crib.  Then on a Wed a couple weeks ago, when his nanny watches him while I work at Colin’s school, she asked where he wanted to sleep and he said the bed.  Climbed in - slept - nothing to it.  When I asked him the next day he said his crib, it went on like this for a couple weeks.  All of a sudden one day he said he wanted to take his nap in his bed and he did - no problem.  Then last night he was in his crib but called me in there to tell me he wanted to get in his bed (he had already thrown his pillow and blanket out).  I put him in and he got up one time, but then he went to sleep and slept there the whole night!  Yeah!

This morning he got up around 6 and I stayed in bed to see what he would do.  I think he wandered around the living room for awhile and then he decided to come and get me.  He was super cute about it.  So we will see how it goes from now on.  I am not a fool enough to think it will be that easy, but I can hope

Yesterday Colin told me that snails like “Al Juice” = algae.  Pretty much every day he makes me laugh.   

It has been pretty nice around here recently and Colin requests that we eat outside every possible night.  He has finally figured out the ice cream truck song, however the ice cream trucks drive so fast around here that you basically have to throw yourself in the road to get them to stop.  Actually that is a good thing, we pretty much always have the excuse that we can’t catch it.

Colin only has 4 weeks left of preschool - I can’t believe it.  We have decided he is not going to kindergarten next year though.  It was just way to much of a hassle and in the end it most likely wouldn’t have worked out anyway.  He will start at Jumpstart in the fall and go to kindergarten next year.  I also don’t feel that bad about it because if he ends up going to our local elementary school, which we really like, they have multi-age classrooms so he could start right off in a K-1st class.

Holden is one cute little bugger.  He is definitely becoming more of a person now.  He makes little faces just to make us laugh and teases Colin.  He tries very hard to talk, and has lots of words but they are pretty hard to understand.  He adores Colin.  We went to the beach on Friday and Holden was Colin’s little shadow.  Colin would go get a scoop of sand to make a dam and Holden would go to the exact same spot, get a scoop and put it right where Colin put his.  It was very sweet.

Here are a couple funny things Colin said recently:

• We saw a FedEx truck a couple months ago and Colin said “Hey Mom there’s the Fuh-Dee-X truck”  As you can tell he can read but it doesn’t always come out quite right
• Last week Colin saw this plain white truck that looked like a small delivery truck but it had “Boeing” written on the side and Colin said “Hey that truck says Boeing on it, but I can’t imagine they should be able to fit an airplane in there.”
• At dinner a few days ago Colin started talking about our old house in Ann Arbor, in particular the mural I had painted on his wall and then he paused and said “Mom, that painting was really lovely.” - How sweet is that?  And where did he learn the word “lovely?”

I just have to blog briefly about Holden and his love of letters.  We were at the garden store yesterday and he said “Mama…..B!!”  then “S” then “U” then…”umm” then “two…B”.  The letter he didn’t know, or more likely didn’t know how to say was “L” - so what does that spell?  “BULBS.”  He was very excited.  His favorite letter is O, followed by B and then S I would say.  His pronunciation leaves much to be desired still but he knows his stuff.  He is trying very hard to say words, they just all tend to start with an “N” sound no matter what they are. 

On the health front one of his tubes in his ears fell out about 5 or 6 weeks ago and we have already had about 3 ear infections and almost constant fluid in there.  For the most part he seems pretty happy, aside from some rough nights, and the doctors want to wait it out since it is nearing the end of cold season.  Plus we don’t want to have to get another surgery.

I have taken to the Naturopath again and she did some cranial sacral therapy on him so we will see what that does.   It is basically a kind of head massage/energy work which helped me so I thought I would try it on him.  If you can believe it he laid down for about 15 or 20 minutes while she did it.  He was very calm and relaxed - it was cool.

I also just have to note how much I love these little guys right now, well always.  They are the coolest little people.  Driving around, talking, going to the store - they are my little buddies.  We went to Lowes to get some things today and they were just following me around, looking at stuff, behaving and happy - they are just to cute and I am so lucky I have them

I think I mentioned that Holden likes to draw little circles right?  Well here is a picture of his latest work:

It’s funny but even though they are totally random scribbles, I really like them. They are really appealing to me. Here is another one, a painting that he did, actually the first painting he ever did:

Pretty cool I think.

The boys have both been fighting colds lately. Holden is particularly snotty right now and I bet you anything he is going to get another ear infection. I may have mentioned already that his tubes were put in a year ago, one fell out a couple weeks ago and he immediately got an ear infection in that ear. Poor little guy - he is happy and playing but little things going wrong set him off.

Plus the weather has been awful, raining and snowing (yes, it snowed here yesterday) and it is spring break so no school for Colin. We have been trying to get out but it has been hard. At least Colin went over to some friend’s houses a few times. I hear it is supposed to be nice this weekend though - let’s hope.

We had a pretty good weekend.  We had planned on doing some spring cleaning but after working out, watching basketball, the sunny weather yesterday and Chuck’s baseball draft we didn’t get much done.  We only got our room cleaned up and then decided we deserved to go out to dinner (again).

We are really the worst about going out on the weekends.  We keep saying we are going to only go out once to save money and eat better but inevitably come Friday we are ready for a treat.  Then Saturday just feels like a night you should go out, so we succumb and it is fun.  The boys are always so great when we go out to dinner it is hard not to want to go.

We have been good about working out though so hopefully that will offset it a bit.  I joined LA Fitness, yes I am a sell out to the big chain, because they have great childcare.  I can drop them off any time for one monthly fee.  Plus they love it.  I have been working out about 5 times a week, bring the boys about 3 times a week.  I feel much better since I started about a month ago.  Chuck has also been getting up early in the morning to go to the gym or go running.

Boys update:  Colin was really into playing baseball over the weekend.  He has a great swing.  We were in the backyard yesterday using 4 real softballs and a wiffle ball.  He would connect with the softballs but they wouldn’t go far, however when I pitched him a wiffle ball and he hit it, it would fly.  He almost knocked me over and did knock my glasses off one time.  Holden also has a great stance but has a little more trouble hitting the ball, but he sure is cute when he tries.

Holden has been trying to speak a lot more now and is getting better I think.  He uses tone and inflection all the time.  He is starting to get really mad at me when I don’t understand him.  He is so cute when you aren’t watching because he plays with his little animals and makes them talk to each other.  I found him in his room the other day with his puppy who was tucked in with a blanket and pillow and Holden was reading him a story.  Adorable.

Both Colin and Holden love to tell jokes at dinner.  Virtually all of them knock-knock jokes and none of them make any sense.  Especially Holdens - but he laughs so hard afterwords it his hilarious.  I took a video of it:

Telling Jokes

BTW..Holden tried to crawl out of his crib for the first time and also decided (for the first time) he wasn’t going to take a nap today.  It figures because just yesterday we said how easy he was to put down for his nap…always happens that way.

Facebook has ruined me a bit for blogging and I apologize.  I even missed Holden’s second birthday which was Feb 22.  We celebrated with the fam when we were in Arizona.  In fact, we couldn’t decided on the type of cake so we ended up making two:

;

Holden has been doing pretty well.  He loves to draw and write, and can spend a lot of time at the coffee table with pens and paper.  He can draw circles, he says they are “Os”.  He always makes the smallest shapes.  Leans over right by the pencil doing super fine work - it is funny.  The crayons are always out but lately he has gotten a little out of control.  I am constantly reminding him “crayons go on paper” - he has already written all over my built in cabinet, the train table, the pack and play, the chairs, etc…  Whenever I see him wandering with a crayon I get nervous.

He still isn’t speaking very well although he tries.  He thinks he is saying lots of things but he just doesn’t have the annunciation down.  I know it isn’t a mental or hearing issue because he clearly understands everything I say and he already knows lots of letters, games, etc.  It is really frustrating for him and for me.  I know he wants to tell me more than he can and I really want to understand what he is saying and thinking.  The doctor said to just be patient for now and to come back in 6 months if he doesn’t improve, so we will see.

He is definitely a two year old though because he is starting to act just like Colin did.  He has to do everything himself - which is usually a huge mess.  He gets so mad and throws tantrums for no reason (well that I can tell).  He pretty much has one every morning while trying to get his breakfast.  He stands there with the frig door open for like 5 minutes looking through everything.  I finally have to get him out of it and then it is like I have wronged him in some unforgivable way.  It escalates from there for about 20 minutes until he calms down and eats.

He is a little sweetie though too.  Just about a week ago he told me “luv ooh” - the first time he said he loved me unprompted.  Of course I gushed and hugged him so he just kept saying it, which is fine by me. 

He is still in his crib and hasn’t tried to climb out of it so we haven’t gotten him a bed yet.  We don’t want to change things if they are working.

Holden is much bigger than Colin was at this age so Holden is growing out of things that just got handed down to him by Colin 6 months ago.  He is a little bruiser - actually he is a the 50% for both height and weight, but I guess he just seems big compared to skinny Colin. 

He and Colin are becoming good friends and they really love to play together.  Although Colin has the bad habit of encouraging Holden to do things he knows he’s not supposed to do.  You really have to watch those two

Everytime I drop Colin off at school he says he wants “X” hugs and kisses. It started with 4, then 6, then 10 and now we are getting a little out of control with 12. It goes hug, kiss, “1″, hug, kiss, “2″, hug, kiss, “3″ and so on - you get the idea. It is his little routine, but now that it is up to 12 it takes quite a bit of time. All the parents see it and laugh that I am going to have to tell his girlfriends when he gets older to which I replied “Let’s just hope he doesn’t want 20 hugs and kisses before he goes out on a date.”

Now that Holden has seen him do it so many times, he also thinks he needs a whole bunch. He does the exact same thing, counting along, but his numbers go more like “ma, mo, da, ba.” You can imagine how long it takes when I have to leave them both with a babysitter or something. Actually though, I think it is pretty cute - and I am not opposed to giving them as many hugs and kisses as they want.

Holden’s talking is coming along. He tries really hard, but it is still difficult to understand him. He tries to repeat all of our words, they just don’t come out right. He understands everything we talk about though. Today I asked Colin to go turn on the light and Holden heard me first so he ran over and did it.

One thing that is super cute is that Holden says “Me” all the time. If I am making lunch or something he will walk into the kitchen, point to one of the plates and say “Me?” in the cutest little voice. It is so sweet.

I just had to post this today because Colin continues to blow me away sometimes. I got him Mad Libs Junior about a month ago and he just thinks it is the best thing. Mad Libs Junior is a little different because it provides a list of words for you. He calls it his “joke calendar” - who knows why. Anyway, as you can imagine with a 4 year old sense of humor (actually I guess every one’s sense of humor while using mad libs) he wants every adjective to be “stupid” and every noun to be “toilet.”

This became a problem when I brought Mad Libs to his preschool to be my “small group” lesson for the day. I told him before hand that stupid, toilet, pee, barf and fart were not appropriate for school. While I was reading the kids the word choices I would just skip the “bad” words, however Colin can read most of them so he starts pointing out all the bad words and everyone just erupted in to laughter. They got totally out of control and Colin, giggling like a manic, just kept saying “I just can’t stop, I just can’t stop laughing” if you know how Colin giggles you would know how incredibly funny the whole thing was.

Anyway, on to the amazing part. Today we were doing a mad lib and I asked him how many of the words he knew from the list of nouns, he proceed to read this list all by himself:

starfish
pancake
octopus
marshmallow
banana
jellyfish
yo-yo
butterfly
cupcake
sunflower
scarecrow (this is the only one he even hesitated with)
dolphin

He just read them straight down the line, totally out of context. Plus he isn’t sounding them out, he just knows them. Therefore I wouldn’t really say he is reading, because he doesn’t sound them out (he can, but never wants to spend the time doing it) but really, when you grow up you don’t sound things out - you just know. It is crazy to me.

Which brings me to the next topic: Kindergarten. Up until Monday we had thought we would just wait another year because he misses the cut off date this fall. Then I met with Colin’s preschool teacher. She said she thinks he is really ready to go, as much as any other kid in his class, all of whom are already 5 or turning 5 shortly. He is very bright, totally ready in that department. He is social and confident, has lots of friends, plays and shares well. He sits during circle time and is always the first to raise his hand to contribute to the conversation. The only issue is that he is a little small physically. That is my one worry, although he doesn’t seem to have any clue or care in the slightest. Most people who know him at school have said they think his personality is strong enough for that to not be an issue. So now we are at a loss about what to do, plus our options may be limited.

Colin’s birthday is Sept 14 so that means he misses the August 31st deadline (you have to be 5 by then) to go to school. You can get your child tested and then apply to go early, however the Seattle public schools are so messed up there are all these choices and you don’t necessarily go to the school in your area. Also if you want your child to go early you are the last to be placed which means there is almost no chance of getting to go to the school you want to go to, especially because where we live is very crowded right now.

I really don’t know what is the best thing to do. I honestly can’t imagine him going to preschool for another year - they are just starting to identify letters now. Plus he gets along so well with all the kids he is currently with who will all be going to Kindergarten next year. In addition to deciding, then there is all this pressure to pick the right school - why can’t we just live in a one school town and that is where you go…? I think we are going to try to get him in, but have a back up preschool like Jump Start to send him too if he doesn’t get the school we want.

Thoughts on this anyone?

We haven’t blogged in awhile and I promise to put up some Christmas pics but I have to give Holden his blog.

Holdie Boldie (as we like to call him) will be two at the end of Febuary and just recently he seems to be making big leaps with his vocab. Up until recently he didn’t have much interest in working on words. I would try to get him to say something and he would get mad and turn away. That has all changed and now he will attempt to repeat the words. They don’t always come out the right way but he is getting there. Some of his favorites are:

“Cu-Me” = Excuse me
“Mah” = Thank you - although now it is more like “Mah Ku”
“Ba-Ball” = football
“Nee” = cheese
“Ca” = Colin

and my personal favorite “Me” = Me. Whenever I say “Who….” anything, Holden raises his hand and says “Me, me, me, Me!” For example “Who wants to go out to breakfast?” or as they said on Reading Rainbow “Who would want to eat that spiky shell?” to which Holden raised his hand and said “Me, me, me!”

Here is a little video of him (this is already over a month old) but it’s cute.

He has really been into football and always wants to play, which mostly involves tackling. He is a crazy couch jumper to the point at which it is really freaking me out. He gets up on the arms of the couch and throws himself off doing a flip in the air and landing on his back on the cushions. I am trying hard to put a stop to that.

He has learned how to go up and downstairs with no hands but it still makes me nervous. On our front steps today, he went down all by himself but at every step he nearly lost it and almost fell forward. It took all my will not to just run over there and grab his hand - but he did it.

Of course he loves Colin and does everything Colin does, good and bad. He is starting to use the potty. Not on a regular basis but he is getting the idea. Both he and Colin started swimming lessons and will go every week. The first ones did not go well but I am sure it will improve. I also signed Holden up for preschool starting next year. Just two days a week but I am sure he is going to love it, he never wants to leave the school when we drop Colin off.

Anyway, he is a real cutie right now - I just don’t want him to grow up too fast