Liam: 5 yrs. 8 mo.

Liam started Kindergarten today.  He actually doesn't start public school for another week and a day because they are doing assessments this week.  We are looking forward to talking to his new teacher 'Miss Shedden' on Friday morning.  Since we already paid for the month of August at Kids Village, the kids will be going there for 2 weeks.  He is in Miss Kelli's class, who we really love.  He had her for 1/2 the school year after his first Sweet Pea teacher left.  Miss Kelli was the one that recognized that he was ready to start reading, and got him on the reading program.  Sadly, the teacher he had the following year didn't even know he was reading.  And after talking to one of his friends mom who was in the same class, we realized we had the same complaints about that teacher.  Real bummer, since that was his last full year there.  We have heard that Kindergarten is learning letters, and sounds, and that is pretty much it!!  We are really concerned about him being so bored!  Although, we hope he does better about doing school work than he has been about doing the work books with us.  He started out really happy and excited to do them with us, then as the summer went on, he got more and more upset when we wanted to do them with him.  Hoping that his attitude about learning will improve!  Thankfully he did very well with his swimming lessons over the summer.  He listened pretty well, for him, and made some great improvements.  He started diving to the floor for toys, and often picked up more than 5 toys in one dive.  He worked on his breathing coordination with the swimming strokes.  He started doing the front stroke and back stroke, and floated on front and back.  He is so comfortable in the water now, I think it is just a matter of maturing a little more till he is swimming across the pool on his own.  Anyway, I look forward to picking him up from his first day today too, and hearing all about it!

comment by mom/grandma on 08/22/2013
He is such a sweety! I can't wait to hear all about his first weeks at school. We are all missing him.

Rowan: 3 yrs. 8 mo.

Rowan finished up her swim lessons last week, and today she started her 2nd year of Pre-school.  Since we had signed up the kids for Kids Village, and could not get our money back, they worked it out with us for the kids to attend for the month of August.  So Rowan is going to Kids Village MWF with Miss Korbi, and will go to her new school, Avondale, T and TH with Mrs. Ashdown.  It will be a crazy 2 weeks for sure!!  She loves to wear dresses now, and insisted on wearing one to her first day of school.  One of the cute words she made up over the summer is 'Pumper'.  I got them a suitcase to use for sleepovers at Grandma's house, and she decided it should be called 'Pumper' because the handle goes up and down.  We thought it was so cute we decided to keep calling it that.  Another word she says is Ibuprofie, for Ibuprofin.  There have been some other words too, but I will have to add them later since I can't remember them all.  So back to her swimming...for her age she did pretty well.  She is pretty stubborn and wants to go at her pace, and do her own thing, so it was a bit of a slow process.  She did learn to go under the water, and do some of the breathing, so that in itself is a great improvement.  She used to hate to get her face wet, but now she is really comfortable with it.  She got to go to a bunch of splash pads over the summer, and really was great with getting splashed on.  When I was let go at work, Rowan tended to get up pretty early in the morning, and she would sit on the top of the stairs and yell 'I want to get dressed now'.  It was pretty frustrating because she would often wake up Liam, who liked to sleep in.  After several weeks, we finally convinced her to come down the stairs quietly, and hang out with us in our room.  Another great improvement that happened in the last week, is she has decided to try some new foods!  In one week she tried 'Szechuan Tempeh', 'Eggplant Parmesan', 'Southern Stir Fry Pasta', 'Sloppy Joes' and Corn on the Cob....she decided that she loved all the new foods...Who knows how long this will last, but we were very surprised and happy about her willingness to try new things!  She has made a new friend this summer, named Meika, who is a little girl of one of my past co-workers.  They don't have many friends around here the same age, so we decided to get them together for play dates.  It has been fun, and hope to continue it over the school year too.  Anyway, I look forward to picking her up from her first day, and hearing all about it.