Rowan: 4 yrs. 2 mo.

Rowan, Rowan, what do I say about her?!  She is a tough little cookie.  At times I feel like she is more mature than her brother at the same age, other times I feel like she is less mature.  And even sometimes I forget that she is 2 yrs younger than Liam, because often times she is trying to be just like him!  She is quite stubborn, and knows ALL my buttons to push at any given moment.  I really wish I could be more patient with her. She is doing really well at school, although recently she has been testing her teacher and not being the best listener in class.  She has taken a liking or rather love to art, and she paints and draws VERY well too, especially for her age.  She continues to enjoy her dance class, although we were pretty embarrassed at her dance recital at Christmas time when she decided to pull her skirt down while she was dancing.  When they told us that the recital at the end of the year costs $50, but to participate was optional, we opted to not do it.  We thought she could use another year of maturing before we do that.  She is mostly a picky eater, although we were very thrilled that she tried and liked an Indian meal, Coconut Korma, that Mike made.  

One phase that we are very glad is mostly over now (knock on wood), is she kept waking up in the middle of the night and would insist that we sleep in her room, or she would sleep in ours.  She also would not go to sleep at bedtime without one of us in her room.  It lasted at least a month + and we even asked her Dr. about it. She said we had to be very firm about her staying in her bed, and us in ours.  Finally, she got past that phase (hopefully) which we are very glad about. Although bedtime is still crazy, her not wanting to go to bed, getting out and being loud so Liam can't sleep...I still will take that over her insisting we are there till she falls asleep.

Shortly after her 4 year check up, we had to take her back to the Dr.s for an infection on her flumb (as she calls it). She was playing with some winter gloves, and I asked her to take them off, and she told me that she was using it to make her hand feel better because it hurt.  The room was dark, and at first glance I thought she had wiped her nose and had a booger on it. Then I realized that her thumb was all swollen and looked very infected.  It appeared to have swollen up over night because it didn't look that way the day before!  I called the Dr. right away, and they got her in.  They drained it, took a culture and bandaged it up, and she was on antibiotics for 10 days.  All I can think that happened was it got infected after I trimmed up a hangnail.  But, the Dr. said kids hands get so dirty and it could have been from anything.  The test actually came back positive for Staph and Strep! Really glad we got the 'White Boo Boo Mystery', as Liam named it, treated ASAP.  When she was at her 4 yr check up on 11-27-13, she weighed 31.8 lbs (23%), and her height was 37.5" (9%) 

comment by Gramdma B on 02/14/2014
Rowan is such a sweety! She is all girl though, with all the crazy stuff that goes with that, I still haven't figured it out:) We love her like crazy.

Liam: 6 yrs. 2 mo.

Well, Liam turned 6 a few months ago. He still loves going to school, and we just had his first parent/teacher conference last week.  The teacher told us that they expect the kids to be reading at level 2 by the end of January, and at level 4 by the end of the school year.  She said he's at least level 12, which is the highest level they are allowed to test at in Kindergarten.  We were pretty proud of that. At the start of the year, they sent home a reading program that is online called Raz Kids.  He started out very motivated doing the reading and quizzes very quickly.  Although, he kinda burned out on them as they got harder, but is somewhere near the last of the first grade levels (Level J).  We don't want to push him too hard so that he doesn't like to read, so we are having him read paper books to us at night again, like he was doing in pre-school.  We started the Complete Collection of Curious George a few days ago, and hope this helps getting him to enjoy reading again.  One of his Christmas gifts this year was a new tablet because his old cheap one fizzled out just after a year of use, but unfortunately he has become very hooked on his games lately. Somehow we will need to encourage more reading and playing with toys and less game time.  I think having warmer weather soon will help, I think everyone is getting a little stir crazy this winter.  At his 6 year check up (12-10-13)  we actually started to see a new Dr. that is closer to home.  Her name is Dr. Vargo, and so far we really like her.  His weight is 43.4 lbs. (35%), Height 3 ft. 8.5 in (31%).  

comment by Grandma B on 02/13/2014
He is such a sweetheart. I think he will be excited to be able to be outside playing again too.

Liam: 5 yrs. 9 mo.

So Liam has been in Kindergarten for a few weeks now.  He is doing really great-even though the stuff he is learning he learned 2 yrs. ago?!  It is strange to have our kids that are 2 years apart learning the same stuff at school.  He came home today saying 'The A says Ah'....Poor kid is going to be so bored!  But, he is meeting new kids that live around our area, so that is good.  He talks about the different kids in his class. There are a couple boys that he mentions more often, so I think it is just a matter of time till he is making some friends.  Mike and I both went to Liam's K. assessment.  He pretty much Aced it!  I think the teacher was a little surprised how far along he is.  She pulled us aside afterwards and said that she could give him a little something different to do when they are learning how to blend sounds, he can make a sentence with the word. She also said he could start the reading program they have where they take books home to read, like they did at KV.  They also have some electronic devices where he can play learning games on. Having her tell us that did relieve us, although on the other hand, we haven't heard of it happening yet...it has only been 3 weeks or so, but hopefully soon.  He had the PTA carnival/ Fund raiser last week. The kids had a great time.  They had games there, and a bounce house which of coarse they loved.  They also had a silent auction, where we won about 35 books for just under $50.  We were pretty happy about that!  He started a golf class yesterday after school that runs once a week for 4 weeks.  He really seemed to enjoy that.  We figure if he won't be learning much at school, we can keep him growing in other areas.  Plus we will continue to do reading and worksheets at home too.  The hard thing lately about him has been his meltdowns after school.  They don't have snack time, so when he is out of school he is really tired and hungry.  The trick is to get him home in a good enough mood that he will eat, and be OK....it has been tough though.  His meltdowns are exhausting, frustrating, and depressing.  He gets on a 'I hate you-you hate me' kick, and it's very hard to turn it around.  There is going to be a parent teacher group meeting coming up soon, and they will be talking about how to avoid the meltdowns after school, which I look forward to learning about!  Anyway, overall he is doing great, and really loves going to Kindergarten!

comment by mom/grandma on 09/19/2013
He seems really positive about it when he tells me about school too. Hopefully they will get some enrichment going soon.

Rowan: 3 yrs. 9 mo.

Rowan has been doing really well in her new school.  She really loves going to her dance class too!  It has been a great relief to have both their schools closer to home.  They both were going to Kids Village for the last couple of weeks in August, and the commute every day was exhausting.  We will miss KV because it was a great school, and the teachers were always so nice, but since I am not working nearby it just wasn't convenient anymore.  KV was nice in that it had many different classes; music, art, science, and cooking...but I think that it did take away from some of the core learning time.  Her new school has one teacher, which so far I think is nice.  I think we will get better feedback on her progress...Before when they had teacher conference at KV, we had to talk to 5 different teachers, and their feedback was so general, and not very specific. We have already had a progress report sent home just after 3 weeks at her new school!  Also before school started they did individual assessments for all the kids, which I thought was good too.  The teacher told me when it was over that Rowan was where the kids will be at the end of the school year.  So she may be a little ahead knowing all her letters and sounds, but I do think the handwriting practice will still be helpful...also she needs some work on her numbers.  She comes home talking about what she learned, which neither kid really did at KV.  So I thought of a few of the words she says that is so cute: Pack-Kack for Back-Pack, she still says Lellow for Yellow, Chick Balls for Chick Peas, Yorget for Yogurt...I know there are more, so I still need to pay attention and write them down as I hear them.

comment by mom/grandma on 09/19/2013
She is such a cutie! She seems pretty excited about her dance class. So much fun, I bet she is a cute dancer.

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.

Liam: 5 yrs. 7 mo.

Been a long while since my last update on Liam, and lots of changes too. Not only with him, but also with our lives.  He has finished his 3rd year of preschool, and is reading so well!  He is also starting to do math in his head.  I keep telling him he has his dad's math brain.  Mike purchased several Sylvan Learning work books at Costco near the end of school, and Liam has been doing the 1st grade language book with ease.  We hope he isn't too bored in Kindergarten, but mostly it will just be getting used to bigger classes and going to school everyday.  Speaking of Kindergarten,  he will most likely be going to the school near our house instead of the one by Grandma's house because I recently lost my job which was in Orem (near Grandma's). 

We decided to continue with swim lessons over the summer even though it is a drive, and we are trying to cut down on our spending.  We feel that swimming is a very important skill to know, and can save a life too.  He is really excelling this summer with swimming.  He is getting very good with the breathing, and learning to float and all the strokes too.  We are very proud of how well he is doing! 

The biggest issue I have about staying home is all the bickering the kids do.  Both kids have dominant personalities which makes for lots of fights.  It drives me insane!!  I know I need to plan more things for them, but I have found it hard to do since they have swimming lessons everyday (Mon-Thurs), and it is right in the middle of the day so it's hard to plan play dates around....but I am trying!!  There is only 3.5 weeks left of swimming and then school starts shortly after....the summer has flown by so fast!  My hope is with school is we can establish a better schedule, and I will have a little 'me time' to get some things done during the day, which will be nice. 

Anyway, I wish I remembered all the little things Liam has done over the last several months, but he continues to be such a great kid.  One thing I do know is that his eating has improved vastly!  He LOVES spicy food.  He has tried and loved one of our pasta dishes called 'Fiery Fusilli'.  Now that I am home, I have been planning and cooking meals more often during the week.  It took him a while to accept the fact that I can actually cook (since usually dad is the one).  The other day I made an Asian Chickpea salad. He usually will not eat salad, but he tried it, and loved it!  He likes to mix up spices, and makes up recipes and tells us about it. He has been talking about having a cooking contest which we think is just adorable!

comment by mom/grandma on 07/25/2013 Watch out! He just may win a cooking contest, he has an amazing ability to put things together.