five

It's funny, each year I'm blown away that another year has passed and my boy is a year older.  Now we're heading into year SIX...boy is there a lot that is going to happen in the next year.  The past year has been eventful.  Here are the highlights.

School

The Lutheran school has been a great place for Riley.  He's made some good friends and has had an absolutely wonderful teacher.  Mrs. Blake could not have been more sweet and supportive to Riley.

He's also been going to the public preschool four days a week.  Previously he was getting therapy for a speech delay, but he is tracking with his age group now.  He's still been getting OT however, since it has been determined that he needs help with sensory integration.  This makes it hard for him to screen out sensory input (like a noisy classroom or another student brushing up against him) and can lead to overwhelm.  Overwhelm initially was causing behavior problems until he started to work with the OT and they helped to come up with some ways to deal with it, like giving him "weighted activities" like carrying things.  He seems to do best in small groups.

Socially Riley is doing better although he is still a young five.  The speech delay put him behind in this aspect.  Preschool has been good for his social development, but he still struggles in social situations at times, especially when there is a lot of commotion.  In those situations you'll frequently see him go off by himself.  I can understand how he'd need to do that if he's in sensory overload though.

This year he's learned to write his letters and he is starting to sound out words and write them down on his own.  He's writing "books" with increasingly elaborate story lines.  He's even started reading BOB books himself before we read to him at bedtime.  It's so cool to listen to him while he reads.

Riley will be starting kindergarten in August.  He'll be going to a classical school that sounds really great and has a great reputation.  If you're not familiar with classical schools go here and you can learn more. 
Overall Riley likes school.  Hopefully that will continue once the school work gets more challenging...

Brotherhood
Riley has taken to being a big brother very well.  He truly seems to love his sister and will very happily play with her.  Well, at least until she starts tearing apart whatever it is that he's making.  He's generally good to Kendall and at times is very sweet.

There has been much less of, "No Kendall!"  Actually, Riley frequently wants to copy what his sister is doing or what she has.  Last night this even meant putting on nail polish (much to my dismay.)  He will frequently want something that she has (normal) and will also play with toys he knows that she likes before she can get them (also normal, if irritating.)  It's interesting that he seems unaffected by his sister's crying and whining (which she does a lot more of than Riley ever has.)  The only thing we've heard is him commenting on how she is noisy or that she cries a lot.

I know that he pays attention to what's going on with his sister though.  For instance, the other night they were eating dinner and Riley commented that Kendall was, "going to be a girl soon."  He meant rather than a baby.  His way of observing that his sister is growing up.

Overall the kids get along very well.  I hope this continues...

Homebody
Here's something that hasn't changed at all.  To quote last year's birthday blog, "Our boy loves his home (especially when Mommy is there...)  Given a choice he would never leave."  He looks forward to coming home and playing with the new Lego Apple Tree House that he got for his birthday.  Different from last year though is that he does want to go for play dates at friend's houses.  Oh, and he still loves Chick-Fil-A.  Still, there are times where I think he would never leave the house if we didn't make him.

He is also his Mom's boy.  He loves his Daddy, but he LOVES his Mom.  I don't blame him.  'Nuf said.

But he still loves the outdoors
Riley has recently started to ride a bike with training wheels.  It's usually the first thing he does when he gets home.  He'll ride around the driveway and into the garage over and over.  He also loves to go out for a ride on the street.  We'll go out with him and let him ride around the streets in the neighborhood.  He loves the bike (that's Daddy's boy!)

We've also gone out for a few rides with him on the trail-a-bike.  This is fun for both Dad and boy.  We've been on the roads around the house as well as on the bike path that goes through downtown.  We did a family ride once this spring as well.  Riley loves it and he even PEDALS, something I wasn't quite sure that he'd do.  I caught him on video though so I know that he does.

Helpful boy
Riley is still a heplful kid.  He loves to get involved with things that we're doing and help in any way that he can.  He's wanting to do more independently which is cool, even if he at times moves at a snail's pace.  Most of the time that's not an issue though and it is really fun to have him doing things with us.  And it's nice to see him starting to take responsibility for things around the house.

Play
Playtime is very similar to last year.  Riley made the transition to regular Legos with this birthday.  He got the Apple Tree House set and a motor home.  He plays with them every day and he and I will sit down and go through the instructions to build these very elaborate structures.  The pieces can be very difficult to get apart (there is a special tool we bought which is made to do so) and it's a struggle to get Riley to keep the parts out of his mouth (teeth are an effective, if destructive, tool also.)  He LOVES his Legos though and is turning into a formidable builder.  An interesting difference from the days of speech delay is that he nearly constantly sings to himself while building with Legos.  He sometimes sings songs he knows and other times will make up silly lyrics to go with tunes he knows.  It's cool to listen to.

Other favorite things have been drawing and coloring, and frequently cutting out doors and house shapes from his pictures with scissors, spinning in a big box we got a chair in and building with blocks.  We think we may have a future architect or builder on our hands here, since Riley has loved houses in any way shape or form possible for a long time.  We'll see...

He also loves playgrounds whether outside or at the aformentioned Chick-Fil-A.  Part of  our bike ride on the path downtown was stopping at a playground that has a merry-go-round.  I haven't seen one of those since I was a kid and you couldn't get Riley off the thing.  Well, except for the one time he let go and got pitched off...lesson learned though.

During "rest" times Riley likes to watch videos.  His favorites still include Curious George, and he also loves Alvin and the Chipmunks, Beethoven and UP.

Birthday
Riley's fifth birthday was a lot different than his fourth.  This time around he had a bunch of friends since he wasn't the new kid any more and the kids were able to come to the party.  So we had a houseful.  The theme was Curious George again as George is still a fave.  Here's a slide show:

Five.  Wow.  We love our boy and it continues to be such a joy to watch him grow and develop.  This is going to be a big year with school starting.  He's going to be learning so much and growing bigger (well, at least if he eats...)  We continue to be thankful for our son and are grateful that the Lord has allowed us to be his parents.  We love our Riley-Boy!  Happy five my boy!

Jonathan

training

Training is something that is really most important when you have to do something quickly, efficiently and most importantly correctly the very first time.  Over the years I've had CPR training many times.  Fortunately I've never had to use any part of it.

Until today.

The kids ate precious little for lunch today, so when dinner time came around they were pretty hungry.  Riley actually asked for BOTH chicken nuggets and mac & cheese (we're usually lucky to get them to eat one of them.)  Both kids were happy when I said yes.

Kendall has gotten pretty good with nuggets and actually (unlike her brother) generally takes small bites.  Tonight for some reason she stuck a whole nugget in her mouth and shortly thereafter started to cough and then to choke.  I'm so thankful for all those years of CPR training because the training for a small child who is choking WORKS. 

Having seen that training so many times over the years I didn't have to think about what to do but was just able to act.  Never have I been so happy to hear my baby girl cry.
 
I didn't freak out about the whole thing until Kendall was back in her high chair eating her last nugget (chopped up VERY SMALL.)  At that point I had an entirely different perspective on the training that I've at times I've found boring and repetitive.  Boring and repetitive means you know it.  And you'll likely be able to use it.  Correctly.  First time.  Right now that's something that I'm very grateful for.

I love my baby girl.


Jonathan

a rock in the ear

Earlier today Shelby got a call from Riley's preschool teacher saying that one of his friends had put a small rock in his ear. I took my lunch hour at his school to (hopefully) get the rock out. Some pictures...

The rock was very small and easy to remove (fortunately.) The boy who put the rock in the ear was given a good talking to and Riley was told (by more than one of us) that he didn't have to (or shouldn't) let anyone put rocks in his ear (or anywhere else...) All's well that ends well. Kids are funny.

Jonathan

easter

Easter is a holiday that always seems to be a photo opportunity for the kids, if not for the family.  The kids are getting more difficult to get pictures of together, but individually we get some good shots.  Here are a few photos:

If there was ever a question these two were siblings...

 

This is the kind of photo the kids would prefer.

Happy Easter all.  He is risen indeed!

Jonathan

baby girl is two years old

I guess it takes a birthday to produce another blog entry.  But we’re so excited to celebrate our baby girl’s second birthday today. Here's a rundown on what she's up to.

Kendall is talking all the time and imitating words that we say.  There are no concerns with language development with our girl. Her current regular vocabulary is:

Hi, bye, night night

No, Yeah (said with much enthusiasm!)

Please, thank you, more

Milk, juice, tea, waffle, cracker, cookie, chicken, nana, apple, pretzel, vitamins, medicine

Baby, car, book, light, ball, George (the monkey), Pooh

Sun, dog, kitty, tickle, shirt, pants, socks, shoes, diaper, powder, bath, potty, poo-poo, pee-pee

All the major body parts (sticking her finger in eyes, nose, mouth and ears), counts one and two

Kendall remains a picky eater, but seems to get by on a base of cheesy scrambled eggs, chicken nuggets, waffles, mac and cheese, oatmeal, Cheerios, mixed fruit and veggie baby food, peanut butter, yogurt, milk and kefir.  She's easier to feed now than six months ago, but dinner time can still be a bit of a struggle.  Fortunately she no longer sticks her fingers in her mouth the whole time we're trying to feed her.  She insists on feeding herself and gets quite upset if we try to help.

She loves to play with her kitchen and serve tea and snacks.  Her big presents from us for this birthday were related to tea...  She is also fascinated with cars – the movie, her cozy coupe, big cars, small toy cars.  There is a "sculpture" made with buried cars at a restaurant near our church that she gets all excited about.  She’ll be begging for her license the day she turns 16.

Kendall has a couple of babies – her favorite being Baby Stella.  She pushes her in her stroller, feeds her and snuggles with her in bed.  She also has quite the menagerie of stuffed animals, many of which inhabit her bed.  She loves to snuggle with them and with Baby Stella at bed time.

She loves to read books (both with us and alone.) She loves to play with her ball popper, picnic basket and purse.  She dances whenever music comes on and loves music in general. 

She also loves the toys that attach by magnet to the refrigerator.  One of her favorite things in the house is the drawer full of sippy cups.  It's funny, I think she'd be OK if we got rid of the majority of her toys as long as we left that drawer alone.

Kendall is very good at playing by herself for long periods of time.  She especially enjoys being outdoors and we suspect that she will be daddy’s riding partner for years to come as Riley prefers being inside.

Kendall is also becoming more self sufficient. She always wants to walk rather than to be carried and is even wanting to tackle the stairs wherever we go.  It's a riot to watch her go down the stairs since her butt is nearly touching the stair as she's going down because her legs are still so short.  It's also nerve wracking if we aren't holding her hand.

She still naps a couple of hours in the afternoon and sleeps from 7:30pm – 6:30am, much to our delight. She's always been a good sleeper.

Kendall also gets along well with her brother Riley.  There are times when they get on each others nerves of course (especially when it comes to sharing toys), but overall they do very well together.  (By the way, this is our first picture of Kendall in pig tails.)  Here they are sharing a chair while engrossed in Curious George.

Our baby girl has been very different than our boy and most of the difference has been really fun.  She's turning into a very affectionate and fun girl.  We love her like crazy.  I'll close with a slideshow from birthday number two:

We love our two year old!

Jonathan

it's been a while...

Life has gotten away from us over the last five months or so.  We're hoping to keep up with the blog by not making it so labor intensive in the future.  Hopefully this will mean more, but shorter, posts.  First we need to catch up a bit though, so here's a slideshow that gives an idea of some of what we've been doing:

Here's to more blogging in the near future!

Jonathan