Parker is FIVE!

I just realized that I never did an update for Parker on his 4th birthday and I feel terrible about it.  I won’t make the same mistake this year!  So here we are…  Even though he is as tall as some of Thomas’ seven year old friends, it is still hard for me to believe that it has been five years since our little baby was born!

Parker is a joyful child.  He is often loud and boisterous and gets easily excited.  We often have to calm him down a little bit as he does tend to be a bit overly enthusiastic about many things.  Sometimes instead of walking from place to place, he likes to bounce.

He has enjoyed his time at his preschool, but is excited to follow his brother to the big school next year.  It’s always interesting to see how differently your children can grow and develop.  Thomas has always been extremely articulate, but his handwriting takes a tremendous amount of work to be decent.  Parker is doing so much better at this point with things like handwriting, drawing and coloring, but his speech is still a struggle.  He is getting so much better, but we frequently have to remind him to speak clearly and not mumble. 

Parker is doing well with reading.  When I looked back at Thomas’ five year update, I saw that at that age Thomas was always asking about the different words he would see.  Looking back now, I see he was building his sight word vocabulary because when he got to kindergarten, he just took off reading as if he had known all the words for a long time.  Apparently, he did.  Parker, on the other hand, is probably going to be a more traditional type of early reader.  He knows some simple sight words, but usually has to sound out the things he sees.  He is doing very well with his reading though.  He can read simple Bob books with ease, and can usually work his way through a variety of #1 books.  I read a few books to him (and sometimes he reads to me) at rest time (he doesn’t nap, but he does stay upstairs and quietly entertain himself for 30-60 minutes a day), and then usually he reads a few books to his Daddy at bedtime.  I’m not sure if he has the love of reading quite like his big brother, but he does enjoy it.

Back to school, he does pretty well.  For as hyper as he can be at times, I think he is relatively well behaved at school.  His teachers tell me he is generally good about knowing when it’s time to play and time to have fun.  According to his count, he’s only had one time out at school all year, so that’s good.  :) He has been with a few friends throughout all three years at preschool and it seems they are all going separate ways next year.  I know he will miss seeing them daily…especially his best girl friend, R:

This year at school he has enjoyed staying later for karate one day (which he also did last year) and Science Seekers.  We probably will have to continue karate as he enjoys it and it seems to be good for keeping him disciplined and focused when he needs to be.  He has earned his blue striped belt.

He has many friends, and a couple of best buddies, but his absolute favorite, best friend of all is definitely his brother.  They are two peas in a pod!  Parker likes to do what he does and dress like him and be with him always.  And yes, he is almost as tall as him too.

I think Parker started riding his bike without training wheels before he was four.  Last year we moved Thomas up to a 20” bike and we quickly realized that by size, Parker needed to move up too.  That 16” bike was looking smaller and smaller.  So I found a fabulous deal on a used bike at a consignment sale and we surprised Parker with it (They had been turned around facing the other direction and when we told them to turn around and see what was there, this was the reaction):

He loves it and rides it daily.  Thomas likes to ride it too.  He’s a bit jealous of his brother’s fancy geared bike.

Parker remains a good eater.  I think he eats out of boredom most of the time, but he doesn’t miss a snack.  He still loves fruits and vegetables most of all.  His absolute favorite meal is chicken pot pie.  But if he wants something sweet, he loves going out for frozen yogurt and loading it up with way too much candy and such.  Here he was recently with his first friend, SE:

His oddest snack request is pretty funny and unexpected.  If he spies a small can of garbanzo beans in the pantry, he must have them.  Straight out the can.  Silly boy.

Parker is a sweet boy.  He loves to laugh and he gets very upset if he thinks he has hurt your feelings or disappointed you.  I hope he always keeps that sweetness about him.  He also has a hard time being around someone who is hurt or sad.  It really upsets him.  He is truly such a sweetheart. 

So even though he wakes too early (usually by 6:45, if not before) and stays up too late, he’s a sweet boy and his laugh and smile melt me.

I cannot believe it was five years ago that our precious, dark-haired 8 lb, 8 oz baby came home with us.  It has been a fun five years and I only hope the next five will slow down a little so we can enjoy it all the more!

Happy birthday Parkie Park!

Thomas is seven!

It is hard wrap my mind around the fact that it has been seven years since our first son came home from the hospital in this little outfit.  Seriously, is that not a doll baby’s outfit?!?

He was a mere 8 lbs, 4 oz. then, and now he’s somewhere over 60 pounds (62 at last check a month ago). We came home from the hospital completely in awe that he was miraculously and safely into this world and that he was ours forever.  Additionally we were in awe that the hospital allows first-time parents to walk out that door at all.  We were clueless.  But here we are, seven years later and hopefully we are getting better at this gig called parenting.

Seven seems like a big age and I am not sure I am ready for it.  In the past year, Thomas has learned to tie his shoes (finally!)…

…and he has started losing his teeth (at this point he has lost the front two teeth on the bottom)…

And he just generally seems to have crossed this imaginary line into the world of “big-boydom.”  I find myself really trying to be aware of the clothes I buy him (that they aren’t too cutesy and are more plain).  And every time I hug him I am amazed at how big he is now.  I guess he has “filled in” as people say and he is just so big I cannot stand it.

He started the Cub Scouts this year and he loves it.  We haven’t been able to make many meetings lately because of baseball, but he misses it so much and wants to get back to them soon.  He was so proud of himself when he placed second in his pack at the Pinewood Derby races back in March.

As I mentioned, he is playing baseball currently.  I was surprised initially when he said he wanted to play this year and it very well may be the last year he gives it a try.  It has been machine-pitch baseball this year and it has been a bit of a struggle.  He seems happy enough, most of the time, but he went through the first 4-5 games without a hit and I think the frustration was finally getting to him.  Finally he got a hit and maybe that will give him the confidence he needs.  He starts his first try on a swim team soon too.  We’ll see how that goes.

The things that he loves most of all are playing outside and reading. The boy reads everywhere and all the time. 

At any given moment you could stroll through our house and my car and probably find 4-5 books he has left open to a page or with dog-eared pages.  He gets very upset at night if I make him turn off his lights before he feels he has had ample time to read.  He loves it if we get him to bed early enough on a Friday night that he can have 1.5-2 hours to read. 

I try to take him to the library every couple of weeks.  It’s hard to limit him to 15-20 books and he usually reads 5-6 in the first day.

He reads very fast too.  One time we read two pages of his book silently together.  He finished before I did.  I thought that meant he didn’t really read it and he would have no comprehension of what he had read.  So I asked him some questions about the story and he answered every one of them correctly.  He generally does very well with reading comprehension at school, too.  He also does well with spelling, but sometimes gets frustrated when he knows the word is not spelled right but he can’t quite figure out how to get it right!

He goes through phases on the books he likes to read.  We tend to like books that are part of a series.  He started with Magic Tree House books, then read most of the Flat Stanley and Ready Freddy series.  His current favorites are the Bailey School Kids, Geronimo Stilton, Dan Gutman’s “My Weird School” books, and various books by Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume.

Thomas also likes to make you laugh and he likes to think he’s pretty funny. 

On the flip side, he can have a bit of a temper sometimes and we’re trying to help him better handle his frustration without yelling and getting so upset so quickly.  He is generally such a happy boy, so s tough to see him so quick to anger when someone (generally his brother) doesn’t do what he wants them to do!

His circle of friends changing somewhat over the year, but the one thing that stays the same is that his brother is his absolute best friend.  They fuss and fight like I am sure most brothers do, but at the end of the day they want to be around each other as much as possible.

Food is not so much of a challenge these days.  Well, I should rephrase.  He is willing to eat most of what we give him, but sometimes I feel it takes him almost an eternity to actually make it through dinner.  But we have continued with making him (and his brother) eat at least small amounts of vegetables and everything else that is on his plate.  Recently he surprised us with a love of roasted okra!  However, his favorite is still pizza (and spaghetti with meatballs and chicken parmesan – apparently he is a fan of Italian food!). 

I’ve said it for several years, so I might as well say it again…Thomas is a happy, social child and he is such a blessing.  His teacher talks about how talking to him is like talking with an adult. She recently surmised that the reason he comes over to talk with her so much is because talking with adults is easier for him than talking with his peers.  I thought that was funny.

For all the moments he drives us crazy by not listening or having a temper, there are many more moments that he does something to make us smile.  I remain eternally thankful that he is our son.  It’s been quite a ride these past seven years and I look forward to the years to come…I just want them to slow down!

Calling the tooth fairy!

FINALLY!  Thomas was starting to feel like he was the last kid in the entire first grade to lose a tooth. 

About a week ago, the tooth was getting very loose and I thought it was going to come out at any moment.

That tooth had other plans.  It had plans to hang on for dear life.

But tonight was the night.  Finally, his grin has changed.

I must first confess that we still brush our kids’ teeth every night.  Their dentist told me once that he brushed his own kids’ teeth until they were 8 or something because he figured there were some lessons that were just too costly to teach (ie. wasn’t worth letting them get cavities to realize they needed to brush teeth better).  We are trying to move Thomas into doing this completely by himself (and he is fine with that, by the way), but I still help a little. 

So tonight I was using his electric toothbrush and gently going over the bottom teeth.  That one tooth seemed to move all the way back and I thought it may have popped but I wasn’t sure.  He immediately said “OUCH!”  There was lots of toothpaste froth, so I told him to spit.  And there it was in the sink.  His little tooth.  He was so very happy!

My camera was acting up and I was trying to rush to capture the moment, so excuse the less than stellar pictures.  In this next one I focused on the wrong thing (I mean to focus on his reflection in the mirror), but you get the point.  He couldn’t stop looking at himself.

 

 

He was positively giddy before bed.  He said he heard the tooth fairy pays $5 for the first tooth.  As happy as he was, I guess I hope she doesn’t disappoint!

By the way, I pulled out his baby book to record the momentous occasion and noticed that was the first tooth that came in (well, it and the one next to it came in simultaneously, just before Christmas in 2006).  Six years and one month later…first in, first out!

The reader

Thomas loves to read.  It’s a shame I can’t have the house filled with an endless supply of books because I swear, he’d not sleep until he could read them all (if it was up to him, of course).  As it is, he reads the same books over and over again (beginner chapter books that are usually about 60-80 pages long). Don't get me wrong, we check out books from the library as often as we can and we have bought a gracious plenty for his own library.  But there are never enough!

At school they had to come up with New Year’s Resolutions/Promises.  His said, “I promise to read Charlotte’s Web more often.”  Later he added that he also resolved to clean his room more.  I think he's doing better with the first promise.

Today when he got in the car from school, he found the book he had been looking for this morning was waiting for him on the seat.  He immediately started reading.  When we got home he told me he was going to ride his Powerwing and read.  I suggested that might be a bit tricky, but he said he had a plan. 

A few minutes later, there he was in the cul-de-sac alongside the road:

We may have to beg him to do homework, and it’s often like pulling teeth to get him to do more than the minimum…but when it comes to reading, there is never enough time in the day for him to read as much as he would like.  I really hope and pray he can keep that love of books!

And not to be left out, Parker wanted me to take a picture of him riding the 360 (his brother’s 360 since we are still waiting on the warranty part to repair his…broken less than two weeks after Christmas!).

Those boys of mine….!

Fifth Disease

After five years of the preschool experience, I’ve seen a letter a year (at least, it seems) warning of the presence of Fifth Disease in one classroom or another.  We managed to escape it’s rashy glare until now. 

On Sunday, while in church I noticed this horrible rash on Thomas’ cheeks.  I thought maybe he was having a reaction to the detergent still in his shirt since he was wearing a collared shirt and it was rubbing on his cheeks.  It would be an odd occurrence, but Thomas has been known to have sensitive skin, so I just never say never.

It didn’t really get better when he got home and changed, but he had no other symptoms so we didn’t worry about it.  This is what he looked like a day or two later (and yes, in need of a trim!)

That night I went to check on him before I went to bed (as I do every night) and since he had removed his shirt, I could see he had welts and a rash over his entire torso.  I immediately consulted Dr. Google and decided it must be Fifth Disease.  With Fifths, the child has the symptoms of a cold and maybe a mild fever and headache and then they get better.  Then a week or two after the first onset of “cold” symptoms, the rash appears.  They are no longer contagious, but man, it is alarming!  Oh, and yes, they had the cold symptoms sometime between Christmas and New Year’s and Thomas complained of a headache once or twice during that time (which isn’t completely abnormal for him).

You can’t see well from this picture, but the rash now covers his entire torso and down his arms and legs. 

Craziness. It should go away within a week. Let’s hope!

Oh, and of course the day after Thomas’ rash first appeared, our little Doodlebug didn’t want to be left out.

So far his rash on the rest of his body isn’t as bad, but man…it’s sad looking at these two this week!

Six

When I am stressed or have something on my mind, the writer in me comes out and I have to write to feel better.  I wrote this about six days after the Newtown shooting.  I thought I’d share it here in all it’s unedited glory because it’s too depressing to pour over and edit…but I want to share anyway.

Up until last Friday, what I feared most for my first grader is that he would be exposed to peanuts at school. After the elementary school shootings in Connecticut and the horrifically tragic death of 20 first graders, my fears have moved into realms I never could have begun to imagine.

When mass shootings occurred in our country before, I have been moved to tears and have felt tremendous sorrow for the losses of others far away. But this has been different. For those children hundreds of miles away, I have sobbed. I have weeped. My heart has ached. I have, at times, struggled to catch my breath. I have felt this so deeply because it is so unimaginable and unconscionable to so violently take the lives of such innocent 6- and 7-year old children.

But the hardest part is that I know exactly what a classroom of first graders looks like. My son is six and I can’t help but think of those blessed souls that were lost in Connecticut without picturing my son and his friends.

Raising a six-year old is a wonderful time to be a parent; it should not be a time to grieve. Six year olds are full of wide-eyed innocence. They believe in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and superheroes. They look at their future occupations in terms of what they really want to do without thought of the dollar signs attached to it. My son wants to be a police officer. One of his friends wants to be a cheese taster. Another wants to be a “fire girl.”

Their dreams are big and limitless. When the sun is up (and sometimes when it is down) they never stop going. If I could bottle the boundless energy of a six-year old, I’d be a millionaire.

Six-year olds are learning to read and they are excited to do it. My son fusses every night when we make him turn off his light, stop reading and go to sleep. He wears pajamas with cute characters on them and wants slippers that look like stuffed animals and make funny noises when he walks. He’s too young to worry too much about looking “cool” around his friends. He loves his mommy fiercely and wants to be like his Daddy when he grows up.

First graders still have pajama days at school. At recess they chase girls and girls chase them. Boys think girls are funny and laugh or wrinkle their noses at the thought of kissing them. The best part of a first graders day is often lunch time when they can test their “trading” and bartering skills with their friends. My son was proud to trade half his sandwich for a few Doritos. But he felt a little jilted when he gave up two vanilla sandwich cookies for a bite of a gingerbread cookie. These are the things you live and learn when you are a six-year old. You don’t learn how to protect yourself from the most evil monster no one could have ever imagined.

The world of a six-year old is seen from a different viewpoint…your waist. So much of the world is above them. They are about four-feet tall and quickly growing into their lanky arms and legs. Some are missing teeth (though not mine, he’s still waiting for that mountainous milestone). They spend so much time looking up, figuratively and literally, to the world around them. They trust in adults.

I don’t want to even start imagining what those precious little children were thinking when that monster came bounding into their classroom that morning. This is not a world they should ever have to know. I haven’t told my children about what happened because they are too young. One is four, the other is six and they are too young to know anything about the evil lurking in this world.

Hopefully our country will learn from this tragedy, but unless they know first graders like I know first graders, it might not be so easy. It’s going to be a long time before I can look at the children coming out of his school, out of his class and not think of that man, of those many grieving parents and of a country that needs to do better. All I want is for being six-years old to be a time of blissful ignorance again. And I want to go back to thinking the greatest threat to my first grader is peanuts.

Christmas at Parker’s school

On Tuesday morning, Parker’s class performed their Christmas songs along with another 4s class.  It was adorable, as always, and Parker seemed to take his performance quite seriously!  He was focused on his teacher and sung all the songs and did all the hand motions.  He was too cute.

For the most part, Parker had his songs down right.  But he did insist that in Joy To the World, the line was not “In every heart, prepare him room” but “In every heart, prepare he broom.”  He was quite insistent that his music teacher had said just that.  I tried to convince him otherwise.  Logic was futile.

The above photo was to the lyric, “What can I give him?  Give him my heart.”  Too sweet.

His class is on the front row.  The other class is in the back.  The other two 4s classes held their performance on another day.  And at the end, as usual, there was a visit from Santa himself.  Santa looks like he is needs to eat some Christmas night cookies!

Afterwards his class hosted the parents/guests in their class.  He presented me with his Christmas wreath of painted hands.  I should have taken a picture of it.  Oops.  At least we now have one that matches his big brothers.  I love those sweet mementoes of their childhood!

A quick pic with a few of his buddies…

Today was his last day of school until the new year (sniff! sniff!) and his class had a Christmas party. 

Such cute little snacks!

And then to finish the day, a gift from his teachers and a goodbye hug!

Thomas still has one more week of school.  Not sure what we’ll do next week with little brother but we’ll have to come up with something!