Long time no write

My posting here has become less and less frequent over the years, and in this most recent break (one of the longest I think this blog has seen) I've pondered whether I want to continue the blog or if it's maybe time to say goodbye. Most of the time when I think about writing now, instead of being excited or thinking through the words I want to put down (as I used to do), I feel a pang of guilt and push the rest of my thoughts aside.  But this space has always been a comfort to me. Even if the words I write go unread, the process of putting my thoughts to "page" has often been therapeutic.

I think two things have contributed to my lethargic/apathetic attitude towards my blog. First, when I began this blog one of the main purposes was to share updates with my family and friends that are spread far apart. At the time I began the blog (in 2009!!) Facebook wasn't as popular as it is now, at least not with generations other than my own, and not as many of my family and friends were on it. Now that they are, I find myself sharing a lot of the fun photos and small updates there that I used to share here. It's quick and easy and you get to be "liked". Who can argue with that?

Second, my laptop had been slowly dying making the process of writing and uploading pictures incredibly slow and painful. With limited time as it was, I just didn't have the patience to wait on the computer.

But it really didn't take much pondering to decide that I'm really not ready to say goodbye to my blog. And I just recently got a new computer so I'm hoping that will help me to write more frequently. But, even if it doesn't, it's just nice to have this outlet for writing the occasional update, venting a frustration, or sharing something interesting. 

All of that said, I think we're due for an update...

 

I left off my last update hoping that the coming winter would not be a long and harsh one. As we're finally on the other side of it now, I can say that my predictions that it would be a bitterly cold winter were not too far off. We got some snow, but overall I didn't feel like it was a lot. The problem (for me anyway) was the cold cold COLD temperatures! It was so hard to go out and do anything with the boys because of all the necessary layers and the time it took to get bundled. I also didn't expect it to get dark so early! I mean, yeah, that happens in Georgia too, but it didn't occur to me that more northern latitudes would get dark even earlier. The sun was setting usually around 4:30. That's crazy!! As can be imagined, none of us were big fans of feeling cooped up AND in the dark. We welcomed spring with open arms, and I can say that I think it was one of the most beautiful springs I have experienced in my life. I don't doubt that a large part of that was simply the juxtaposition of the two seasons, something you don't experience to the same extent in Georgia.

Spring has brought lots of outdoor play time on the trampoline in the backyard, or with the neighbors in the front yard. The boys really enjoy playing with the neighbors' boys across the street, and I just can't get over how much I enjoy that. We really didn't have a lot of kids the same ages as our boys in our previous neighborhood, and it makes me so happy that the boys have that here. I remember so many happy hours playing outside with neighbors growing up and it's something I've always wanted for my children.
 



Star gazing with friends



Drew is a few short months away from starting kindergarten. He is super excited! As any mom facing it for the first time, I have mixed feelings of excitement and sadness, but I think overall we're looking forward to it. I think Drew is ready for the challenge. We had applied for him to go to the dual language program (Spanish immersion) our local school offers, but unfortunately there is only one class so entry is lottery-based and he got waitlisted. I'm still waiting and hoping, but, after freaking out initially, I've calmed myself by trusting God's plan. What's meant to be will be. Between Spanish DVDs, Spanish classes we've been taking, and my own Spanish abilities, I don't doubt he'll learn some Spanish anyway. And, on top of that, I became fluent in Spanish even though I didn't begin learning it until 7th grade. So it's not the end of the world if he doesn't learn it now (though I really wanted him to have that native-like fluency I feel I lack...).
 






Kindergarten Orientation

Since my last post, Drew has progressed even more in the reading department. He's reading full books now and only seems to get caught up on fairly difficult words. At risk of sounding like I'm bragging, he's really shocked me with some of the things he's reading. He read the word "island" the other day (which isn't even the most shocking of words he's read... try "wainscot" from a Beatrix Potter book. :P Not that he, or I, knew what it meant :P), but that stood out to me because I vividly remember a student in my class when I was in 1st grade reading the word island as "iss-land" but Drew didn't even hesitate in reading it correctly. My mom and dad constantly give me looks when he reads words that are much too big for a 4-year-old to be reading and all I can do is shrug. I don't know if it makes me sound more or less bragging to say I really didn't teach him that. For reasons that are kind of complicated to explain, I actually didn't really want him to read until kindergarten. Not that I discouraged reading, but I definitely didn't sit down and work on phonics with him. But he's definitely reading. I posted on Facebook last night that TWO HOURS after I'd put him to bed, I found him reading in his room. His biggest concern? "How could you tell my lights were on??" Sigh... I completely understand how difficult it is to put down a good book, but I didn't expect to begin this battle so early.

 

It seems words are just the name of his game. He likes to do crossword puzzles with me and occasionally guesses an answer based on a clue or letters provided and he has taken to figuring out how to say words backwards in his head (like "milk" is "klim"). But for as much as he's into words, he seems to struggle the same amount with many physical tasks. Even using a fork seems to be quite difficult for him. And he's still struggling with writing and pencil grasp. He definitely gets the concept of spelling but pencil to paper is still very difficult. Despite a lot of effort on my part, he continues to hold his pencil in a full fist. And as if I wasn't worried about it enough already, at kindergarten orientation they told us to "make sure your child has a mature pencil grasp by the time they enter kindergarten". I've tried everything I can think of (and everything everyone else on the internet has thought of) to build hand strength and to get him comfortable with the correct pencil grasp, but at this point it's become a battle of wills and I've decided it's a battle better left for professionals. He's more interested in coloring, drawing, and writing now than he was even a few months ago, so at least we've made progress there. And he did shock me by writing a number of sentences inside a fortune teller at my mom's house. My mom said he sat down for a half hour and did it all by himself (using the death grip, of course, but hey... it's legible). I'll take it!


If you can't tell, he's still obsessed with superheroes
And his "fortunes" are more like "commands"



In case you weren't sure what I meant by "fortune teller"

Because I can see that this is already getting quite long, I will save the rest for (a) future post(s). But don't worry, I'm already writing them as you read...

 

Flashback Friday: My baby can read!

The other morning Jason carried Drew downstairs, plopped him on the sofa next to me, handed him a book, and said, "read it to Mommy!". Drew "read" a page of his book to me; I smiled and said, "good job!" then Jason said, "keep going!". Drew proceeded to "read" the entire book to me. It's not the first time he's memorized phrases/pages of books, but I was shocked that he had the WHOLE thing memorized! I looked at Jason and asked if he'd been working on that with Drew and he said, "no! I walked into his room and heard him reading it! I turned the page and he kept going!".



As always happens, he doesn't do nearly as good of a job once he knows the cameras are rolling, but I caught the gist of it anyway. It's not a complicated or lengthy book, and he's obviously working from memory/pictures (and the rhyming helps too), but even so, that boy's memory is going to get him places!  And, if I remember correctly (funny how I have a horrible memory, but Drew seems to have an amazing one), I believe memorization is one of the first steps in learning to read.

It just so happens that in the process of uploading the above video I came across this video from almost exactly a year ago! (This video was taken on 2/28/2012 and the above video was taken on 2/27/2013!)



I can't believe how much he's changed in a year!! With the amount he talks it feels like he's been talking in sentences for years already (and he's only 2 years old!)! Boy... we gotta slow down!

Seriously, I'm just remembering... Did I tell you Drew can spell, too? He was typing on my laptop and I was calling out letters while he typed them. I've taught him to "spell" Mommy, Daddy, and Drew, so I was calling out the letters then having him tell me what word he spelled. Then I asked him to spell James. I sounded out the "j" sound and Drew hesitated for a moment then hit the J, then I made the "a" sound (that one's easy of course) and he hit A, then I said "mmmm" and Drew again hesitated then typed M! I spelled out E and S for him, but I couldn't believe he got that far! Of course, since then he's been saying "Buh... buh.... James!". It doesn't quite work that way....

Monday Minute: ABCs

This is the video I've been trying to get from my phone to my computer. Drew is starting to recognize some of his letters! He's (obviously!) not perfect, but it's fun to see him starting to grasp the beginning concepts of reading.

Letters and numbers he regularly recognizes: W, 4, and O/0. W because Jason has many shirts and items around the house with a big W for University of Wisconsin football.

Monday Minute: Reading

Drew's "reading"!