Isaac - 68 months

Isaac turned 68 months a few days ago.

Lately he's really been into making things.  Whether with Legos or paper or whatever; the medium doesn't really matter.  He still does lots of Legos and spends several hours a day with them.

He is feeling "medium" about going to kindergarten.  He's excited to learn, but not so excited about how much time will be spent at school.  (That's pretty much how I'm feeling about it too.)  He has been asking several questions, some of them completely off the wall, so I know he's thinking about it a bit.

He is still super silly.  Most of the time it makes everyone laugh, sometimes it's a bit over the top.  Joshua almost always laughs with him though.  They're still doing quite a bit together -  running around and bouncing and hitting each other with pillows.

Isaac is now able to bring the trash containers into the garage by himself.  He loves doing it, and it is a task I don't mind giving up.

Isaac has gotten much better at remembering the short Bible stories we read at night time.  It used to be like pulling teeth to get him to remember any details, but now he can give most of the story with very good details.

He is also enjoying the picture chapter books that we've been getting from the library.  He has a GoodReads account should you be interested in knowing what we're reading and what he thinks about them.

Isaac is quite helpful and usually listens well to instructions.  He is trustworthy.  I know that if I set a timer for screen time he will be done with screen time when it goes off, even if I'm not there.

Isaac loves his treats (of the candy variety) but understands that treats aren't good for you.  Sometimes he decides not to have his or will save it for later.

Isaac is a wonderful kid.

Friday: last day

Today was our last "no-Dad" day before school starts.  I let Isaac choose the activity and he wanted to go to a new playground.  So we went to the natural playground that I've been wanting to check out for a while.

It was pretty cool.  There were two ramps (shown above) that were a hit.  I think Joshua was just big enough to start enjoying it...there were a ton of things to climb on and he was a bit on the small side.  With a few lifts he was able to do most of it though.

Isaac liked the stump above because when he stood on it he was taller than I was.

Joshua like the heights too.

Isaac climbed into the tree, but wasn't super thrilled.

Then we found the teepee and sent quite a while here.  They found more sticks to add to it, although Isaac's plan was to close the original door and Joshua found the small sticks and threw them towards the teepee...maybe to make a wall?  I'm not really sure what he was doing, but that's fine.

Afterwards we went to the donut shop.  And that ended the celebration of the end of summer; the rest of the afternoon was pretty normal.  I'm a bit sad...the summer was good and I could have used a few more weeks.  However, Tuesday, when Isaac starts school, is shaping up to be quite busy so I might not have too much time to be melancholy.

Thursday: work

Isaac joined me at work for an hour or so before dropping him off with Aunt C.  We stopped by Dad's office to say hi and he finally got to see the robot wheel, after asking on and off for two months.

The day did go better than Tuesday.  It was still busier than (hopefully) normal but not quite so crazy.  Hmm, I feel like there was something of note that I was going to mention.  Oh well.  It was an exhausting day though and I'm glad for the weekend.

We were driving home and Joshua suddenly asked, "Why are there bathrooms on the train?" while Isaac was trying to concoct a plan that would give us a legitimate reason to stay at the hotel by Joshua's school.  Then Joshua saw the Ferris wheel at Dutch Village and switched to how he would keep Ben safe next time they go.

Wednesday: school visit

Today was the kindergarten class visitation.  We had a scavenger hunt in Isaac's classroom...find his cubby, find his desk, find the trash, etc.

The last one was to find his teacher.  Now, to be fair, we had met her for about one minute a half hour before.  I told him the item to find while standing right next to his teacher.  He turned around and went the other way, looking for her.  It was cute.

Isaac's favorite part of the day was playing on a new playground while the parents had the parent meeting.  He loves new playgrounds, but I'm running out of them.  It's what he wants to do on Friday too with the last normal day of summer, and I do have one more up my sleeve.  After that it might start to get a little harder.

Tuesday: first day of school

Joshua and I had our first days of school today; Isaac got to hang out with Cheryl all day.

Joshua was not excited about going to school.  He seemed especially nervous about nap time for some reason.  I didn't get a huge report when picking him up, but the teachers said he had a good day and Joshua seemed happy.

I knew I was going to have a busy day, but it ended up a bit crazier than expected.  One of my transitions had less time than I wanted so I felt a bit rushed.  Also, my second class was about fifteen minutes shorter than my first.  They're supposed to be the same...did I miss something important or was I just sick of talking by the fourth hour that I got rid of all the extra stuff?  Maybe I talked way too fast?  Who knows.  Beyond that though, the first day went pretty well.

Monday: Joshua - 37 months

Joshua is 37 months!

Growth: We had his three year well child check up this month and he's doing great.  He actually increased a bit in height and weight percentiles (to about 14% and 11%, respectively).  He is still in 2T clothes, which annoys me as I'm ready to move to the next set, but guess I'll just wait a bit longer.  All the other things the doctors checked out - motor function, talking, etc. - checked out fine.  The first thing Joshua said to the doctor was "No shots!"

On school: Joshua is not looking forward to the toddler room tomorrow.  There were tears at lunch time.  I'm hoping that once he gets there and understands that is the only option he'll be ok.

On the alphabet: He has J down!  He can recognize it in different contexts.  He might have I down too, but Isaac usually chimes in quickly for that one.  There might be a few more too, I haven't really checked lately.

On playing: He loves to play.  He especially loves to play with Isaac and will pretty much copy anything Isaac is doing.  He loves Legos and Duplos.  He likes bike rides and playing in the sand.  He like books.

On emotions: Oh, it's been a hard month with Joshua's emotions.  There are tears all the time, and sometimes I don't understand what's going on as the smallest things can set him off.

On sleeping: He is sleeping from 8pm-7am pretty well.  Some days he takes a nap and some days he doesn't.  I'm wondering if some of the emotional problems are due to not getting quite enough sleep, but it's just an awkward time.  He will sometimes put himself down for a nap during quiet time instead of playing.  (But sometimes we make him stay in the bed and sometimes I think the nap just happens where ever he is.)

On food: He's slowly starting to eat a little bit better, but still not a ton better.  He is starting to understand that in order to get a treat he needs to eat all his food, and so sometimes manages to do so.

On cuddles: He still is oh so cuddly, but really only when he wants to be.

Sunday: cleaning time

This afternoon was our house cleaner's last day, as she is off on new adventures next week.  However, the past...year and a half?...I loved having her come.  It gave us a time that was blocked off as cleaning time.  Most of the time the house looked incredibly better after she left.  (The times it didn't weren't her fault...it usually meant that something weird was going on that I needed to take care of.)  I also enjoyed not needing to do some of the monotonous chores all the time.  Anyway, it worked very well and so a new high schooler is starting next week.

During this time Isaac needs to clean his bedroom.  Hmm, I should rephrase that.  Isaac is strongly encouraged to clean his bedroom, as there are consequences if he doesn't.  (No screen time or playing with parents until it's clean.)  Joshua is starting to clean his room.  He still gets some help and a lot of guidance, but it's coming along.  Today the boys decided to play together instead.  I regularly reminded them of the consequences, which helped them clean for a few minutes, and then they starting playing together again.

It was almost dinnertime and they realized that they wouldn't get to watch Ben and I play our ten minutes of video games because they hadn't cleaned their rooms.  Needless to say, the rooms were clean within about fifteen minutes.  Oh!  Isaac got some new dressers.  I have a few plans for rearranging Joshua's room too, as his current set-up isn't working well for me.  Isaac's dressers are still mostly unfilled, as we haven't moved the stuff back into his room yet.