Adam's First Day of Kindergarten

Aurora getting in on the pictures

Ready for school!

Puzzles

Blurry photo but shows her absolute joy at having finished the puzzle (with Dad's help).

This guy has been working on puzzles by himself for a long time now.  He works methodically by flipping over each piece, then organizing by color/patterns.

Catch Up Part 2: Adam

Happy January 2014

Brother celebrated his 4th birthday this year.  He was lucky enough to celebrate his birthday with both sides of his family in New Mexico with 3 mini-birthday parties in one trip.  He also got to celebrate his birthday at preschool and to have a special day with just us on his official birthday.  The downside is that now he now expects that everyone gets a parade week of birthday celebrations.

Making tortillas with Cho

Adam finished his first year of preschool.  He loves school, so it was surprising how he never asked about it during the summer.  He tried his best to stay indoors the entire summer, but we forced him to go to the park when L would take the kids to the park.  It seemed like the more he stayed in, the more he wanted to stay in and not do very much at all.  He doesn't like the heat, but once we got him used to going out a few times a week, he was much happier and he does enjoy playing with other kids at the park.

Birthday party at preschool

Trying on Dad's glasses

For a while, he was really into coloring.  Over the summer he went from scribbling over pictures to carefully filling in sections of a picture to practicing gradations of color within sections.  It was amazing to see his development.  We're hands-off when it comes to art, because school seems to push out all creativity in the goal to "color within the lines" and then you have to spend so much time breaking out of that structure to actually be creative.  Still, he taught himself to color within the lines.  That's okay.

July 2014

Adam likes to sing and he loves Sheriff Callie's Wild West.  He has also gotten into the habit of trying to say the dialogue to almost anything he watches, even if he's never seen it before.  It's a little amusing.  It doesn't seem to get on anyone's nerves, so that's good.

In the last year it seems that Adam has become more afraid of the dark.  He doesn't like to be outdoors after dark or even at dusk.  He's also developed a fear of being out in the rain.  While we were at the Arboretum in Flagstaff, it started sprinkling and he freaked out.  He stopped where he was and was screaming and crying.  We've talked to him about how he is safe as long as the rain is not heavy and if there is no lightening around.  He understands, but he is having trouble feeling safe.  We got him calm and had him finish a shorter version of the trail with us, pointing out how everything was fine.  I think it's just going to take time and reassurance for him to let go of his fears.

Our sweet boy is into Super Heroes, Legos, Frozen, Tangled and he actually likes to do chores.  We don't have enough age-appropriate chores for him to do.  What a complain, right?  He helps with laundry, dusting, picking up toys to vacuum the floor, putting away dry goods and washing produce.  He also helps Sissy take her shoes off when we get home.

One of the things that we appreciate and admire most about our Adam is how he is able to talk to us.  If he's upset, he always finds a way to talk to us about what he is feeling or thinking.  He takes the time to listen to us when we offer guidance.  He often takes our guidance also and then decides for himself whether we were right or not.  Of course there are times when he is just not happy with us, but he knows we love and believe in him. 

July 2014

Catch Up Part 1: Aurora

January 2014

Our little sleeping beauty has a huge personality.  She loves to go out, outside, just anywhere.  What she really does not like is sitting still and quietly in restaurants.  We are having the hardest time trying to scold, negotiate with, bribe, appease, insist with her that she sit at the table until we are ready to leave.  Most of the time, Matt or I have to take her to the car while the other stays with Adam to finish up the meal.  Unlike his sister, Adam enjoys eating out and has no trouble sitting quietly through the meal.  And I don't mean, silent, I mean, respectful of other people.  Aurora, screams her head off, because we don't allow her to roam around the restaurant.

She's not the best sleeper, but she's transitioned to a decent bedtime which is better for all of us.  Matt and I (mainly Matt, because he stayed up with her more often) were being worn out by her 1am bedtime.

Little Sister is also a bit too rough with her play.  She likes to kick and hit and head-butt and wrestle and she just does not honor when you want to tap out.

Everything else about our girl is absolutely wonderful.  She is talkative and ridiculously smart.  She is strong and healthy.  She is dramatic and funny.  I've caught her practicing her cries, her laughter and even her tantrums in front of a mirror.  She loves acting and will even remember particular gestures and dialog she sees in a Disney movie or on a Disney Junior show.

January 2014

What Sissy L O V E S to do is dance.  She will dance to anything.  I mean, anything.  I have seen her dancing to Reveille which was hilarious.  She makes me wish I had a video cam on my forehead that I could have record on command.  Her ability to dance to the beat of a song is amazing.  I think we need to look for dance and/or music classes for her.  She has a gift for it.

April 2014

Aurora counts to 11 and can nearly sing all the words to "Let It Go", her favorite song right now.  Thanks to Frozen, she is obsessed with Olaf and snowmen, in general.  Actually, both Adam and Aurora love the movie and the characters.

She is working on being able to jump.  She handles a fork and spoon and pencil and brush fairly well.  Like big brother, she likes painting and popsicles and being chased around the house.  Her favorite book is "Early Bird".

April 2014

In just a few more weeks our daughter will turn 2 years old.  She loves people's birthdays and especially singing Happy Birthday.  While we were at In N Out Burger last week, she kept saying, "Ha-birday" to one of the workers.  She was so happy about it.  Finally, we realized that she thought it was his birthday, because he was wearing an In N Out Burger hat.  In May, we had my sister wear one when we went out for her birthday.

June 2014

Right now, Aurora is hanging off my arm and making it difficult for me to write any more in this post. 

July 2014

I forgot to add earlier, that I also caught Baby Sister dancing to the beat of me chopping garlic.  I guess, any beat will do!

Back to School

Let's go!

Adam started his first day (of his second year) of preschool today.  He's been looking forward to returning to school even if it means getting up an hour earlier.  We had no problems getting him up and ready for school this morning.  He has matured over the summer and his happy acceptance of returning to a school year sleep schedule is one benefit of his growth.

Preschool!

I decided not to cut Adam's hair before his return to preschool.  He was pretty consistent in his answer that he does not want to cut his hair.  Since he's been so good about having it washed (the main reason for keeping it short in the past), it seemed like a fair trade.  He promises to take good care of his hair and I'll let it grow.

Adam said his favorite part of school today was going potty.  This must be in reference to my asking him to make sure he goes when he needs to so there would be no accidents.  I'm thinking that making a treasure chest had to be another favorite of his day.  He was excited to show the chest to me when I picked him up from school.

Single Dad Christmas

Adam prepared this treat for Santa

We should have taken our 2013 Christmas photos early, because we didn't take any pictures on Christmas Day.  I was in bed with a sinus infection and reoccurring migraine Christmas week and Matt was on his own with the kids.  Matt kept the holiday fun going for Adam and Aurora.  They had a great time opening gifts with Matt and trying out their new toys. 

The day after Christmas Matt took me to urgent care and I was able to get antibiotics.  A couple of days later, I was feeling much better and was able to rejoin the family.  One of the first things I did with the kids was paint.  Aurora has surprised me with how much she enjoys painting or drawing with crayons.  When it's time to take her out of the high chair and let our paintings dry, she cries to get back to painting.  In fact, she whines and cries while I'm trying to set up their paper and paints.  She has no patience at all! 

Painting on left is Berta's, middle is Aurora's and the two on the right are Adam's

Adam's big Christmas gift from us is a Spider Man bike.  A few days after Christmas, Matt assembled the bike and Adam was able to try it out for the first time.  It was so exciting to see him start this new experience.  I loved riding my bike and for me, it symbolized adventure and freedom and whole days of fun and play. 

Go Adam!

Now that I've put a limit on how much overtime I'm working, it seems like I have a lot more time to spend with the kids.  Imagine that!  In these times, I'm trying to think of everyday things that they can do or help with.  Aurora started her first chores with putting toilet paper away (stacking them in the bathroom cabinets) and dusting in the living room.  Both kids really like helping around the house and I'm happy to have the extra bits of time with them.
 

Adam helped make cinnamon rolls for Aurora

Every year for Christmas, we take the kids to pick out an ornament.  I wanted to make sure I captured the year for each of their ornaments before I start to confuse and forget them.

Adam, 2010

 (darn it.  where is 2011?)

Adam, 2012

Aurora, 2012

Adam, 2013

Aurora, 2013

Photo Drop

Gingerbread house Adam made at preschool

Smile!

Aurora trying to sit on the controller while Adam plays

Aurora is quite the bully and since she has started walking more, she has started chasing Adam around, trying to take things away from him and sometimes even hitting.  In the above picture, she is trying to interrupt his game by sitting on the controller.  He is telling her to stop, but also trying to be careful with her.  He is a sweet brother.

Sleeping through her cold