Preschool performance time

Well, yesterday was Trevor's preschool Christmas program. We have been doing a lot lately, and he has been keeping busy. But with it comes the fact that he gets tired. It is obvious he still needs an afternoon nap, or at least some downtime in the afternoon. You would think that he could "catch up" during his overnight sleeping but I think he is so trained to use the afternoon as his naptime that when he doesn't get a chance, he just goes about in his usual sleep pattern. He was up on Monday at his usual 7am, but he had a rough morning of listening as it usual if he is tired or sick. Thankfully, so far he has not shown any signs of being sick.

So when we were at his performance, it was a great show, but he was not in his usual form. He basically mouthed the words, and did the motions, but not with his usual excitement. Even after we were at home, he continued his listening issues from the morning. Funny thing though, as soon as he was done with his hour plus nap, he came down with a different attitude. Man I wish I could get a good nap like that to improve my attitude!

I'm slowly but surely getting through my giant to-do list for this time of year. This week is the worst to come, but I also have to figure out what to do for the kids on Monday and Tuesday. There was a rumor that one of Trevor's friends wanted to have a playdate on one of the days, but not sure if that will happen or not. And BRRRR this weather isn't helping any. Fine...get cold enough to snow, but negative numbers in December??? We haven't even hit the technical start of winter yet! So that's what's going on with us!

Talk about surprising me!

So I knew Trevor was reading a little bit. And I know that the kid has a wonderful memory. But I also know that he loves the time when we read to him. There have been plenty of times where I stop mid-sentence and ask him to finish the line. Most of the time he doesn't even want to do that.

But tonight, he gave me a treat. He said he wanted to show me how he knew how to read. He had picked the story, "The Night Before Christmas". I was expecting that he would get to the more boring parts and either get stuck or get bored and hand the book off to me. But he got through it. He even tried to get me to finish some lines....especially naming a few of the reindeer. "Good job mom!" There were a few times he lost his spot, and then had to really read the words to get back to where he was. So while I know a lot of the story is pure memorization, there were a lot of elements of reading there.

After finishing the story, I really couldn't hide my surprise. I told him that he did a really good job, but he wasn't hearing it. He wanted to get to the next story, which was "Stories of Santa Claus" Actually, it was the words of Up on the Housetop and Jolly Old St. Nicholas put to illustrations. However, every time I read the stories he makes me sing the songs because he has seen that the first pages have the music for the song. So I requested the same thing from him. It is a much easier book in terms of number of words and ease of remembering them. But he still had a good time while I danced along to his singing.

And for the grand finale....he even went and read the entire "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Now while this book takes me about 15 minutes to read, I thought there was no way he was getting through it. Especially after the other two books. But he did it. The. Entire. Thing. And yes, he loves the book. We read it every night since I took them out at the beginning of the month. And he has seen both the live-action film and the cartoon twice already. But again, that is a LONG book for a kid to memorize and have the patience to read. I think he might have mistaken a handful of words the entire thing. He did lose his place a few times again, but just re-read where he was and went right back to it.

After he was done, I tried my best to make sure he felt as proud of himself as I was for him. Now is it bad of me to not want to try to push him into reading every night? I'm not even close to ready to give up reading to him. So I don't want to give him that idea. I know it won't be any time soon, but I really think I'm not going to try to push it up any more than I have to.

Conversations with the kids

It might not exactly be a conversation when it comes to Gwen, but the other day, I was really excited when I knew what she was talking to me about.

It was a few days ago, I had ordered a stocking for Gwen for Christmas to sort of match the rest of us. We have plush head stockings of Pooh (mine), Tigger (Trevor), and Eeyore (Russ). I looked for Piglet, but I only found one on ebay that was going for a pretty penny and shipping from England. So instead I decided to get one from TRU of Elmo instead. She likes Elmo better anyway.

It came in a package and I put it up after she had taken a nap one day. Trevor had not taken his yet so I was happy to see that he seemed to approve. I'm pretty sure he gets how much she likes elmo. But when she came down from her nap, right away she didn't notice it. I had went to get her a snack before dinner and as she was walking with me she saw it. I heard her say ELMO! Then she said "Blankie Elmo". She has been talking about her blankies that she sleeps with when she wakes up in the morning. One of them is a blanket pal bear that I can see how she would think looks like this stocking Elmo. But without even seeing what she was doing, I knew exactly what she was doing and looking at. I took it off of the stocking holder and she cuddled with it for a while. It was pretty cute.

Then yesterday with Trevor: We had been to swimming lessons and then went to the nearby McD's for lunch. It is the one in Edina that has the "world's only pneumatic drive-thru". Simply put it has a station removed from the restaurant where they have to - like a bank teller - send your order of food through a pneumatic tube. They have people manning the station, to fill drinks and take money. Anyway, I had been talking to him about it and how it works because one time when we were there, I think the tube wasn't working because they had people pull up to the front of the restaurant and a worker would come out and give you your food.

So he was doing his questions about the time we were there and it wasn't working. And I was explaining it to him again. Then he asked me, "Mom, how old do I have to be before I can work at McDonald's?" Remembering back to when a few friends were working there, I told him he had to at least be 14. But that most people don't start working until they are 16 because that is hold old you have to be before you can drive. And when you want to work somewhere it is probably a good idea to be able to drive yourself to work. Trevor then stated to me, "Mom, I don't want to learn how to drive, I want you to drive me when I'm 16 because you are an EXCELLENT driver." I tried to explain to him that probably by the time he was 16 he would change his mind, but he quickly said that when he has tried to drive (in the driveway with the car off) he just "doesn't know how to do it, I keep turning the wheel back and forth and back and forth."

Between working at McD's and learning how to drive, it will be interesting to see how things change. I am really surprised that he isn't already interested in driving based on his love of Nascar and Cars. But oh well. I'll keep him innocent as long as I can.

One other fun thing

Here is the picture with santa for this year. Gwen was just crying to get off of Santa, but really she wasn't that upset. I wouldn't be surprised if we go for 3 years in a row next year, but you never know.

Annual Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Please excuse the mess

I'm trying to figure out how to clean up the blog and having no experience with it, it is going slow. So please bear with me. Thanks!

So far, so tall

Trevor went for his 5 year check-up yesterday. It went very well. I prepared Trevor as much as I could without making it a big deal to have his shots. They were out of one, so we have one left to get before Kindergarten. They said they would put him on a waiting list and call when one became available. However, he cannot have another shot for at least 4 weeks so that is nice.

He came to the appointment complaining of an upset stomach. He had a good breakfast of eggo waffles, and he actually was happy to say he had this upset stomach because he thought the doctors and nurses could help him. I knew the stomach ache was nervousness due to the upcoming shots. But he obviously couldn't put that all together yet. He just knew his stomach hurt. So he told his nurse, then told the doctor right away. Both of them also knew that it was probably nerves after they heard he had a good breakfast.

So he was weighed and measured first. 45.5" and 48lbs. They took his blood pressure, and then waited for the doctor. We found out he is in the 90% for both height and weight. So unless we have some fast acting growth stunting genes in our family, I'm guessing we have a tall boy on our hands.

We found out the doctor has two kids that are going to be going to the same elementary school Trevor will be going to next year. And because it is such a small school, they might run into each other. He said they have reading programs between the upper grades and the K classes.

I had forgotten that Trevor hadn't been to the doctor since back in March due to his bad ear infection. So really, this past year, he has been very healthy. He has been able to get through a few colds and sick incidents without needing to go to the doctor. It REALLY helps now that he can tell us what is wrong.

After the conversation with the doctor, we went to have his vision and hearing screening. He passed very easily. But after that was the shots. Even with the conversations before hand I knew I couldn't convince him that he could remain calm during them. So we had to hold him down. But after all of it, he recovered quick. I think the build up of it all was worse that the actual event for him. Which makes me wonder if I should just spring it on him rather than talk about it. But remembering back to my experiences, I can't do it. I'd much rather know it was coming than not be prepared for it.

Since the shots, his legs have been sore. He got some special treatment at preschool today because the teachers understand it is hard to sit with "pretzel legs" if you have just gotten shots. He still has his band aids on, but we'll have to take them off for swimming tomorrow. Or maybe not. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

On to more Christmas preparation.....

Final decorations are up!

Friday night, we all went to the tree lot to pick out our Christmas tree. Turns out Trevor knew right away. It was reasonably in the front, as you walked in. I was hoping for something slightly taller, but when I looked around, I didn't see anything better. It is a very round tree. I like those the best. It fills up the corner nicely.

Of course when we brought it home, Trevor thought we should decorate it right away. We had to let it open up and drink some water, I tell him. We didn't even get home until close to bedtime anyway. And when we got up on Saturday morning, he knew that was the day the decorations would go up. I again forget to inform him of one other thing we needed to do in order to be able to put the decorations on. We need the angel and lights on. FINALLY we are able to be ready enough to put the decorations out.

So I'm ready for the fun to begin with the kids. I know Gwen has no idea....and I know Trevor gets it a little bit more. So Trevor begins to find the ornaments. He had already found a package of ships from Star Wars that were ornaments. He took out the X-wing and has been playing around with it. So he found the Luke, got out the Darth Vader that is supposed to "talk" but doesn't now due to us getting LED lights for the tree, and began dueling on the couch. Every few minutes I'd remind him about more ornaments, and he took them and added them to the collection. Yoda, even the rest of the ships, Lightning McQueen, Mater, Thomas, and Percy are all in this reenactment on the couch while we finish decorating the tree. For some reason, he didn't even want me to put the Mickey Mouse ears that we had been getting from the advent calendar that are supposed to be hung on the tree every day.

So I have this video of Gwen talking to the tree, looking at the lights, taking down any low-hanging ornaments to play with, and Trevor - on the couch - playing with the ornaments. *Sigh* Maybe next year. And I guess I shouldn't complain. He is very excited about getting out these ornaments....he just wants to play with them again. Not put them on the tree.

And a funny side note....I always replace the ornaments that Gwen takes off of the lower branches so she can go through and take them off again. Well, Trevor saw her take one off, and while I told him that it was ok, she just wanted to play with them, he said, "No Gwen, the tree ornaments are NOT for playing with."

I gently said to Trevor, "What do you mean they aren't for playing with? You have almost an entire table full of ornaments that you are playing with."

The look of realization that came over his face was priceless. He didn't really say anything, but he gave the ornament back to Gwen to have her fun with. Merry Christmas Trevor!

Always a new Christmas Spirit

Obviously with each passing year, the kids pick up on different things about our Christmas traditions. I bring up a big pile of movies, CDs, and books related to snow and Christmas. And now when it gets brought upstairs, I get to watch Trevor's mind remember about what they are all about. I also can start to see where I need to fill in the gaps when he can't piece together things about Santa or a story he thinks he remembers from last year.

Funny thing is, he still remembers when two years ago, we showed him the cartoon version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and at the very beginning, there is a Cat in the Hat that raises and lowers his eyebrows. Two years ago, he was afraid of it, for whatever reason. He would hide behind the couch until it was done. Last year, he was proudly telling everyone he was not afraid of it anymore. And again this year, we just watched it tonight and he is still proud of that fact. But we won't mention that there is a scene in the live action version of The Grinch that he is afraid of. And even hiding behind the couch if need be.

I get the added benefit of using Santa in my bargaining tactics for the next few weeks. However, I think I mistakenly told him about the thought that Santa can decide you were not nice this year and put a lump of coal in your stocking. Now when he gets mad at his parents, daddy gets a lump of coal and I've already gotten a whole bag full of coal. THANKS Trevor.

Another new thing, now that Trevor is really on the verge of reading, he follows along with the story, and asks a lot of questions about words that he and I read. Tonight we were reading the Grinch and he asked me about the phrase, "He liked least of all." He asked me to explain how you could like something but get the impression that he didn't like it. He didn't agree that the word "like" should be anywhere in that sentence. So I had to explain the definition of least. Then I think he got it. The other word was chimbly. He told me the word was chimney - until I pointed it out, and said that the author was trying to be funny because it was a rhyming book and he had to rhyme with "nimbly".

Through watching him this year, I think I've decided that this year might end up being the best Christmas for him. He has yet to really get into the commercial side of wanting gifts. I think he senses that he is supposed to want something, but really doesn't care about anything enough to want it. He is much more interested in the spirit as well as celebrating the birth of Jesus. He gets a lot of time to talk about that as well through preschool. I am guessing this is going to change when he gets to Kindergarten next year. He might see things other kids have that he wants, or be more influenced by the older siblings of his friends that want things. And I'm guessing it also will cause Gwen to grow up faster while watching her brother want and ask for things.

So anyway, I'm trying to not put so much pressure on getting him things I think he might like and just trying to make sure he enjoys the season. It is over pretty quick, so I think my time would best be spent enjoying it as much as possible. Merry Christmas everyone!

A difference between boys and girls?

I have heard that there are quite a few differences between girl and boy babies (besides the obvious genetic and physical differences.) Although I know that there is no for sure in those either. Mostly just personality or possibly how your parents treat the difference between a boy and a girl. And in our case, I also wonder if it is partially due to the first vs. second child thing.

I had thought that Gwen was going to take longer than Trevor did to learn to walk...but nope. She was walking a few weeks earlier than he did. However, I think it has taken her longer to learn to climb and now finally descend stairs. I had thought with Trevor, he was quick to want to climb on everything. But only just recently has she started climbing on things. We finally brought up the Christmas decorations which are stored in big plastic totes. She has loved climbing on those.

What seems to be different with her is her small motor skills. She is very independent feeding herself. And part of it is normal development. She now wants to have a spoon to feed herself with anything like cereal or yogurt, or will play with silverwear after eating, pretending like she knows just what she is doing.

What surprised me most recently was that Russ tried to get Trevor to play his new Connect Four game, which he didn't want to do, but Gwen was interested in it. It only took her a few tries to figure out how to put the checkers into the game. So it's now her game to play...hee hee.

Then there are her words. Trevor's big word used to be "ON" for when he saw lights that were on. Gwen's similar phrase and word is "Dark" for when the lights are off. And actually if we are outside in the sunlight she likes to say "Bright!" But I can't get her to understand that lights inside can be bright too. She's been picking up a lot of words and I do remember Trevor doing something that she has been doing lately. If you ask Gwen a question like if she wants water, she usually answers: "No" when she really means yes. Most of the answers she gives are no, regardless of the question and how she feels about it.

I'll be back shortly with our coming Christmas....