Kid Stuff

The kiddos are doing great! They're getting adjusted, albeit s-l-o-w-l-y in some ways. I can't decide if photos of Maryland friends are helping or hindering, but oh well they're staying out on display. A fantabulous graphic designer friend (yes, Shell, that would be YOU) made us an "ABC" book for our family out of pictures from all the times we'd spent at their home over the last 5 years. And the kids fight over it almost daily. K carries it from room to room, and we never know exactly where it's going to wind up. I found it in my bathroom cabinet last week...

A is loving school, in spite of the early hour he has to get on the racebus (6:25ish a.m.). We still have the same bus driver but she has been driving a much larger bus this week, so I'm afraid she is failing the NASCAR qualifiers this go-round. You have to slow down too much to go around corners with the extra long school buses you know. Still, I have a feeling I'll go back to calling it Mario Andretti's school bus once she gets hers fixed.

A has been doing great at his writing skills! He has to practice writing his name and all the letters in the alphabet every day at school, first by tracing over the letters and then trying it "solo", so to speak, and we're getting fairly legible results. Yay! His new teacher and school OT can tell he really hates the pencil/pen work though, because it uses those darned fine motor skills he has so much trouble with. A's hand strength, while improving, is still not quite up to where it needs to be just yet. His school OT has given him a squeezy "koosh ball"-looking thing that changes color from purple to pink if you squeeze it really hard; A has to change the color to pink using only one hand for 10 repititions, and then do the same thing with the other hand. If he uses both hands at the same time, we start over. A really hates that ball.

He reads pretty well now; his favorite books are Dr. Seuss books, especially Green Eggs and Ham, but he'll read anything. He reads the back of DVD cases, posters at the grocery store, and the bulletin at church too. A usually reads out loud, so it's also helping with his verbal skills at the same time.

Other improvements have been attempts to color in the lines of a printed picture, cutting pictures out with scissors and glueing them onto another sheet of paper -- by himself, and making whatever the craft of the day is. Some days he still needs hand-over-hand with the scissors or pencils, but he's doing more things independently now. He has even started cutting along curvy lines with a very obviously deliberate swerve to his cutouts.

A brings home a huge stack of artwork and worksheets every Friday in his backpack so we (his parents) can see what he's doing and what he still needs to work on. He actually seems somewhat interested in our reactions to his work, once we can flag him down to try to talk to him about it. He doesn't seek out approval generally, we have to try to get his attention to show him we're looking at his work. But when we say something or ask about one of his papers and show it to him, he gets this little proud smirk like, "Yeah, I did that." Endearing, and A looks a lot like his daddy when he does this.

The only downside to A getting used to his school routine is that he'll still get up around 6 a.m., even on the weekends. I pray to sleep in until at least 7:00. (I should just shoot for the stars and ask for 8). Have I mentioned that I'm not a morning person?

Miss K is a little bundle of sunshine herself most mornings. She's up between 6:30 and 7 a.m. and comes running into our room yelling, "Daddy! Mommy! The sun goes up!!!" This is very exciting to her that the sun comes up each morning, so we hear about it. Every day. At bedtime, we get a dejected, "Oh...the sun goes down." K hates to go to sleep. She's even weaned herself off of a daily nap, much to mommy's chagrin.

K loves dress-up, dancing, and reading books. In fact, the little booger can already read some words and is working on her writing skills. She can get most of the alphabet written down all by herself, although we have noticed that she makes her "C" and "D" backwards. Something to watch. K also loves to draw and likes to create circles, triangles, and squares. She has recently discovered the joys of sidewalk chalk and has had a blast decorating the back patio.

Another favorite thing to do is help mommy and daddy cook. The process takes twice as long when she "helps", but she absolutely loves it. I never know what she's going to choose to wear when we're cooking. Sometimes it's a ballet skirt; sometimes it's nothing but her underwear and frog rain boots. As the muse strikes, I suppose. We made "monkey bread" for breakfast today, which she thought was hilarious -- she kept looking for the monkeys and wanted to open the oven to see if they were in there yet.

K is loving having Daddy home during the day, because he gets to play with her during what would normally be "water cooler breaks". She also gets exclusive mommy and daddy time throughout the day, so her world is all good right now.