July 2019 – Family Highlights

08/10/19
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Highlights

  • Swim lessons
  • Dada survives a broken back 🙁

The boys kept busy this month with some of their favorite hobbies along with some new ones while Dada suffered through a pretty intense situation with a slipped disc in his lower back. Calan and Evan kept busy most weekdays doing swimming lessons with Coach Lynn (both boys now at our house). They also continued their respective summer basketball seasons. At home they really got into building with our old Lego collection. Many days, the kitchen table would be filled with constructions of miniature house interiors and along with an explosion of unique puzzle boxes. Lego puzzle boxes consist of putting together Lego bricks into a small box. Different pieces can be “secretly” slid or pulled to find little “keys” and unlock different compartments within the box. The puzzle box solver would be successful once they opened the box to find a small, hidden treasure inside. Calan especially had fun building these from online tutorials. Evan enjoyed making his own versions too. Thanks to Keegan who discovered these and shared on the way back home from the mini football camp the boys attended together last month.

The butterfly family that we watched develop over the last couple of weeks were finally ready to be released. We had a rather anti-climatic even in the back yard when we let the last remaining…well, surviving one go.

Calan

Calan continued to play piano more this month. It was great to see him carry on playing into the summer. In the last few years, he would get busy with other interests following the late spring recital. He was learning and playing around with some jazz songs. He really liked trying some out in the Robert Schultz book. Mama also organized a lesson with her old studio accompanist who was visiting his hometown Camarillo for a couple weeks from New York. He and Calan had a fun filled session together discussing the blues and even doing a improvisational duet on the piano.

Calan also kept going on his weekly math studies with Mr. Henning. Calan also tried to get back into coding this month with some success. Code.org offers a great starting track for younger kids, and Calan liked going through their beginner block-coding program

Evan
 
Evan recently got on a kick of making fun, little art inventions. This was owed in part to Mama’s reorganization of the front closet; mainly converting it into a fully stocked “art closet”. Evan absolutely loves this. It’s full of supplies to make any kind of artwork or craft you can think of…or at least that a five year old can think of! You’ll find him pulling out cardboard, glue, scissors and markers in one of his sessions; then cutting and assembling interesting “inventions” that only a guy like Evan could come up with. He also loves the “tinker bin.” This bin is full of lots of random supplies that allows the creative mind go wild
 
Evan is back in full stride again with swimming this summer. He’s even started using fins on “fin day” with Coach Lynn. He’s getting better and better with each lesson. The best part is he seems to like it and feeling proud about his progress.

Calan and Evan

June 2019 – Family Highlights

07/10/19
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Highlights

  • Evan graduates from preschool
  • Evan turns 5!
  • Family trip to see the Sequoias

This month was packed with a lot of big moments. We helped Evan celebrate the end of his preschool career and his turning 5! He also played in his first piano recital. The month was made complete with a great visit from Gran and Grandpa.  We also took a family road trip to Sequoia National Park. In sports, swim lessons, football and a basketball season all started!

Piano Recital
June started with the arrival of Gran and Grandpa. We did a quick celebration of Mama’s birthday from the day before, then started what was a mini marathon of events. The first was Mama’s studio recital for her voice and piano students. And for the third year in a row, Calan was on the program to play piano. This year was extra special as his still just barely 4-year-old brother joined him in the performance. The two played their cute duet together. Truly precious to say the least. Calan played several pieces including one he’s been playing for the past few months “Free As the Wind”, a classical piece, and then a song Dada wrote back in college, that he transcribed and made as his own. 

Summer School…
After taking a break, the boys started their “summer school” routines on June 10. In music, Calan continued to play piano and restarted violin again after a small break. He incorporated a little more improvising in both. In science, we had fun watching the caterpillars Evan got for his birthday get bigger in their little habitat. They would begin emerging a couple weeks later, with only a couple really surviving. Evan also caught a bug in a new bug catcher contraption he got as a present for his birthday. Calan is still doing Prodigy math, and is about 39% of the way through the 6th grade level. 

Trip to Sequoia National Park
Our family road trip this summer turned out to be a winner. Thanks to Mama’s careful planning, it was a trip that was perfect for our crew’s speed at the moment and something the boys just loved: being outdoors and exploring. Also, being relatively close to home was a huge plus.

We left on Father’s Day (6/16) after packing up our rental car from the Toyota dealership. We took our time heading to the Central Valley where we would stay in Tulare. We made stops at the honey bee farm between Fillmore and Piru and a rest area along the way to Tulare. The kids had been to the honey farm before, and it was too much fun trying out different flavors of honey. We also ate our lunch there; munching on sandwiches Mama packed while ducking into the shade as best we could to get out of the hot, early summer sun. Frequent stops and stretches were good since Dada was nursing a slipped disc and couldn’t sit for too long.

We made it the Comfort Suites in Tulare in the late afternoon. The boys were in their usual excited mode when arriving someplace new, especially a hotel. Once settled, we ventured over The Habit for dinner. The Habit would be our go-to place for nightly dinners for the week. It was relatively cheap and offered the boys safe and agreeable dinner choices.

Over the next four days we ventured up the mountain from Tulare into the park where the boys thoroughly enjoyed taking in the gigantic trees, looking for and spotting animals and swimming in Lake Kaweah and the hotel pool. Each day we set out a plan on where to go and what to explore in the park. Most of where we went in the park was about an hour and fifteen minutes away from the hotel, so it wasn’t too bad. It was definitely worth the money saved versus staying closer! The car rides were filled with anticipation of what we’ll see with a soundtrack of good music playing through the speakers (the boys eventually identifying their favorite songs in the playlist such as “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”)

The trip experience was great, prompting many requests of doing a similar trip again soon. Some big impressions from the trip included seeing the largest tree on Earth in General Sherman, the first time swimming in a real lake, and a treacherous drive of 10 minutes or so when we took a wrong turn onto a side road leading down to a camp. The problem was the road was just wide enough for one car, twisting along the face of a large hill, with a steep, rocky incline on one side and drop-off of more than hundred feet on the other with no guard rails. Of course before we could get to where we needed to turn around, a truck came from the opposite direction. Needless to say, it was a very tense moment figuring out how to get by each other. Of course we survived and have a little story to remember and associate with our vacation.

Calan

Aside from being busy with our road trip and starting summer school, Calan started up quite a bit on the sports front this month. Summer flag football and his return to basketball after a couple YMCA seasons. He adjusted well back into football after being away from it for over a month. He did great job handling most of the QB snaps again without any anxiety challenges. Coming back to the Y after the Future Pro season made for any easy transition. Basketball also ramped up quickly – his coach (Al) was coaching both D1 and D2 levels with his son in both, so some of the D2 team did practices with the D1 team. Calan stuck it out in the optional back-to-back practices, but it definitely wore him out. Swim also started this month with Coach Lynn returning once again. Calan also got into playing solitaire recently. It took awhile before he won a game but with some persistence and a few “workouts” for his patience muscles he finally prevailed and loved finding wins when he could. Another thing he enjoyed was getting to ride his bike to Josiah’s house by himself for the first time. Not only did he get to do something independent that felt like a big deal to him, he got a play-date out of it with his best neighborhood pal.

Evan
 
This was definitely a big month for Evan. After playing in his first piano recital, he graduated from preschool a few days later. He ended his school year with a regular morning and then a performance with his class of the Hungry Caterpillar story. He also earned the most laughs and “best answer” from his teacher as she went down the line of students asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up. When asked, Evan replied in front of the big, crowded room: “When I grow up I want to be a MAN.” It was the perfect, steady delivery that sent waves of laughter across the seats filled with parents, grandparents and siblings.
 
The next day, Evan turned 5! We all celebrated in typical fashion as a family. With “the Gs” we headed to breakfast at the Waypoint cafe. It was a 15-minute wait despite it being a Thursday. The boys ran around out back, watching helicopters land and take off and other little kids chasing birds. Evan ate a filling breakfast of eggs and blueberries. Of course his favorite part was the chocolate ice cream dessert with chocolate covered strawberries – of course delivered by a young waitress. Around noon, we dropped by Home Depot to look for some gunny sacks and tug-o’-war rope for Evan’s upcoming birthday party. We all did this while Mama hit Target for party supplies. The boys loved going around in the “car” cart as we killed some time waiting for Mama. Getting home around 2:00, Evan played out back while the rest of us got ready for a mini-family party inside. We did some basic balloons, set out presents and set up the cake that Mama put together. Evan came in and opened presents from everyone, including Nanna and Poppa. His favorite present was a little kit that contained 12 preserved insects in little pexiglass cubes. He also like his giant “5” balloon and went about playing with just it for awhile after the party. In the late afternoon, we headed out to Calan’s first football practice of the summer season. Gran and Grandpa got to watch a little. Towards the end of practice, we had Evan’s meet-and-greet for his summer basketball season. Evan hung out in childcare at the Y while everything was going on. We had a bit of planning to do to coordinate Calan’s basketball season with Evan’s. Only the second time we’ve had both boys in the same sport at the same time (soccer in 2017). Evan said he had a fun day, and was ready for sleep when we tucked him in around 9 o’clock. 
 
Also noteworthy for this month was Evan giving his third organized sport a try. His first basketball season! The idea was also for Calan to be a helper for his team. This was mainly to help give Calan some confidence. This proved to be a lot harder than we hoped but he had his moments of stepping in and helping either Evan or the team. Evan was mostly engaged in practices and games, although the goofy side of Evan definitely came out. It didn’t help that they combined the younger age groups, so not only did you have 3 and 4 year olds playing with older and more experienced kids, you had a lot of players on the team. Of course this meant sitting out more than you should, which then brought out a goof ball tendency for Evan. He would try hard and be mostly focused in practices. In games, where the noisy gym became a big box of chaos Evan would lose that focus and be more of a class clown at times during his time in the game than actually playing anything resembling basketball. It was hard to watch, but kind of silly too. We figure he’s got to start somewhere, right?

Notable quotes this month:

Evan: “Mama!” (yelling).
Mama, standing a few feet away around the corner “Why are you yelling at me?”
Evan: “I’m sorry, I yelled at  you on accident. I didn’t know you were right close to me.”

Calan, during our road trip heading into Sierra Nevada Mountains: “I wanna see a bear.”
Evan: “They might be tumbling down on this side. pointing out the window on trip.”  

Going to bed one night, Evan says “How are towers built?” Mama explains, then tells him maybe he could be an engineer when he grows up. He replied, “No, I just wanna grow up and be a man like Dada.”

“When I’m infinity I’m never ever gonna have a birthday again.” …Now that’s some deep stuff!

 

Calan and Evan

May 2019 – Family Highlights

06/10/19
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Highlights

  • Calan’s team wins the flag football championship!
  • Mama and Dada visit Evan at preschool

Calan

A sweet ending for Calan’s flag football team in Ventura this month. On Cinco de Mayo, his team played in an elimination playoff game and won. This advanced them to the championship game for 2nd-3rd grade players an hour later. The team did great, consistently scoring points and holding their own on defense. Calan did his usual QB position swap with the other quarterback Ben every other drive and played really well. Emotions were in check, and he executed the passing plays flawlessly. His team had a speedy runner, and when he got the ball it was usually a long TD score. On passing plays, Coach Feeney drew up mostly crossing routes, where receivers would run diagonal routes across the field in opposite directions. This would muddy up the defense allowing receives to run open and ready for the ball. Calan would then throw a short-to-medium pass to one of the crossing receivers. He would hit them perfectly in stride so they could continue to run without missing a step, turn up field and win the ensuing footrace. Playing so well was a bit of a surprise as the last couple weeks saw virtually no practices with coaches and players having conflicts.  It was great to see them win though and carry around their trophies afterwards. Evan and Mama came separately and enjoyed watching the wins. Afterwards, Calan spent a bit of time again with his new buddy Kelly, throwing the ball and chatting. It was hard to see the season end. This was a league we tried at the last minute and for the first time since Calan usually plays spring basketball at the Y, but wasn’t ready to return to it this year. It wasn’t always easy trekking out to Ventura for practices and Sunday games but we made some new friends and captured some good memories together.

The confidence of the winning season helped Calan for sure. Along with watching the basketball playoffs, Calan was feeling upbeat about playing basketball again. After connecting with some parents from past seasons we were able to get him to join a few practices with a Y team at the end of their season. Going from the flag football season to those practices should help him be ready for summer basketball.

Calan continues to practice and study violin with Miss Dena. It’s still not always his favorite task on any given day, but he does it and continues to sound better and better. This month was his spring recital where he returned to his old preschool and played in the big Chapel auditorium. He played a solo with piano accompaniment and several pieces with various ensembles. Miss Dena is late in her pregnancy so this was the last time we will see her for awhile. 
 
Our third grader is already looking forward to fourth grade coming up officially next month. The summer can never come to quick at that age!
 
Notable quotes this month:
 
“Toronto leads by minus seven“, said while watching a playoff basketball game. At that moment, the scoreboard showed Toronto was actually trailing by seven points. 
 
Evan
 
Mama and Dada each got to make some everlasting memories this month as we visited Evan at school for a morning dedicated to the kids spending time and pampering their parents. Mama went one morning for Mother’s Day and Dada for Father’s Day. Mama got to do projects with Evan, eat some snacks and get little hand massages from her sweet little baby. Dada got to do some art projects such as decorate a small picture frame and make some slime from scratch. Lunch included ice cream and pizza (Evan had his pre-made gluten free variety coordinated with the director). It was just too sweet to see Evan away from home and in his school environment, still so young and small, yet so grown up at the same time. 
 
Evan (and Calan) had fun celebrating a classmate’s birthday party this month too. It was held at his grandparent’s house in Santa Rosa Valley. They own some Jack-in-the-Box restaurants and have quite a house with a huge backyard pool. The kids loved swimming and playing games. Evan had his own pizza that we cooked in the kitchen especially for him. One highlight was a giant tortoise that came out and slowly walked around as the kids partied.

Notable quotes this month:

After running into the rocking horse that he moved into the family room, he wailed out in pain. Then, exclaimed “We should not have gotten that horsey for Christmas!”

“When you’re 300 and I’m 200 I’m going to turn into a spider and I will find you and spin a web on your heads.”

Looking at the tiny pieces of a really small flower, says: “These are so tiny, big eyes can’t see them.”

While Calan was dealing with a tummy virus, Evan would periodically check on him with his toy doctor’s kit. On one check he assessed: “Your heart is beating because you ate a lot. Your blood pressure is high because you yelled a lot.”

One day Mama needed to ask Evan something but didn’t know where he was at the moment. Apparently, Evan was engrossed in something serious:

Mama: “Evan?”
Evan: “What?!”, said with a loud, impatient tone.
Mama: “Evan, that’s not a nice way to respond to someone.”
Evan: “What? I’m playing right now. Nobody disturb me while I’m playing.”

 

Calan and Evan

April 2019 – Family Highlights

05/10/19
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Highlights

  • Kids went to gem and mineral show with Dada
  • Evan’s Spring Sing concert
  • Calan sets a new 3×3 speed cube record

Calan

This month continued the Future Pro football season for Calan. The team was doing well with Calan alternating at QB with one other boy. One game was a little tough as the coach was gone, and they had to play on a new field he hadn’t been on before. He wasn’t feeling quite up to playing and missed a lot of the game. He finally went in and felt good enough to throw a couple passes and a few plays on defense. The following week, he recovered well and was back to his usual self running plays and throwing passes. The best part of that day though was igniting a friendship with his teammate Kelly. He knew Kelly of course, but that day after the game he got to spend some time playing catch and then getting some snow cones at the food truck next parked next to the fields. Another instance where you can really see that with the right kind of kid, Calan really thrives in making a friend and sharing time with them. He couldn’t wait to see Kelly again at the next practice.

NBA playoffs started this month, and Calan and Dada took advantage and watched some good, early series. This of course, prompted Calan’s love for basketball. And so after weeks of being so football focused Calan returned to regular basketball playing out on the court. You’d find him out there practicing and enjoying shooting around, especially early in the mornings. He is so motivated by seeing others play. Pretty typical for kids, but it’s strong for Calan.

One incident Calan would love to forget is a freak bike accident on the long bike trail. It was the first one on his mountain bike he got a few months ago. The tire just slipped when it came off the pavement and onto the dirt shoulder on the side of the trail. We were almost home too, so it was especially hard after a nice, long ride. Needless to say he scraped up his knees and elbow pretty badly. He has been remarkably strong through the recovery. 🙂

As he continues to practice with his speed cubes, Calan worked on his 3×3 speed this month. He’d been under a minute a few times previously, but one day managed to get a time of 36 seconds on his timing mat. A fun moment for him!
 
Day-to-day, Calan continues his routines of seeing Mr. Henning and Miss Kim along with his violin lessons each week. Also, playing a few piano pieces daily. Doing “read-alouds” with Mama have been working out great this month. They read “Farmer Boy” (Laura Ingalls) a lot. 
 
Evan
Evan had some springtime events at preschool this month, taking us back four years when Calan did these things. The first was the “Spring Sing” school concert. As always, it was fun to see Evan in his school environment; visiting his classrooms, seeing his classmates and of course Evan showing us his different school projects decorating his classroom. The concert itself hadn’t changed from 3 years ago – just a different set of kids mostly all “yelling” the lyrics to the cute springtime and Easter songs. Evan displayed his style of performance that confirmed our two boys aren’t terribly enthusiastic about getting up and singing and doing choreographed moves to songs. That aside, it was still something to soak up, watching Evan up there all handsome and in the limelight up on stage.
 
One treasured school activity this month was Evan getting to bring home the new, baby chicks from school for the night. After watching the eggs for a while at school and seeing them hatch, each kid gets to take them home overnight for a sleepover. Evan was adorable watching them and teaching us about how to care for them (with Mama’s informed support of course). 
 
Evan also got a little more into learning some basic basketball skills recently. In particular he liked doing the perfect bounce pass, carrying out the strict form he learned for how to do it. Calan helped him, and Evan loved showing Mama how to do it at one point. He also applied this focus to dribbling correctly and playing mini-games with Calan on the sport court.
 
Notable quotes this month:
 
“I’m running out of air.” When having a slight reaction to wheat dose and nose clogging up making it hard to breathe. 🙁

“Your sunglasses case came with sunglasses?” Referring to Dada’s new sunglasses that came with a hard shell storage case.

“Mama, I love you all the numbers except the really small ones. So, I don’t love you one, two or three.”

 

Calan and Evan

March 2019 – Family Highlights

04/10/19
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Highlights

  • Calan goes to NM for Poppa’s 80th birthday
  • We attend our first speed cube competition

Calan

Calan got to fly in an airplane, visit a new state and help celebrate Poppa’s 80th birthday this year! It was quite a trip for Calan and Dada mainly because it was a pretty quick turnaround, and as luck would have it, many of the hours of the trip ended up being spent at LAX. Due to  a lot of confusion and a cumbersome route to the American Airlines gate, we missed the flight to El Paso early in the morning. We thought we’d have a smooth departure morning with the early flight having stayed over the night before at Uncle Colin’s condo in Long Beach. Those plans didn’t work out so well. Unfortunately, the airline didn’t have a flight available for what ended up being some 12 hours later. Needless to say, it was quite an adventure, but Calan and Dada finally got to give Nanna and Poppa a hug after midnight NM time following an Uber ride from El Paso to Las Cruces. What was left of the trip was a lot better, although it was bookended by another near disaster when Calan had a moderate reaction to his small peanut does. In between though, we really enjoyed getting to visit Nanna and Poppa (and Uncle Brandyn too!), seeing their house, a little bit of Las Cruces and being with Poppa on the day he turned 80. For Calan, his highlights were seeing the interesting things at his grandparent’s house, going to a steak house for dinner, and playing around in the dry Rio Grande River. Fortunately, the trip home was pretty uneventful.

Calan ended up participating in his first speed cube competition. It was just the right mix of fun and pressure, with his buddy Troy there to support him. Troy has done quite a few of these competition in the past. It was a long day with lots of attempts at solving the 3×3 and 2×2 cubes in both morning time and afternoon events. Evan liked the scene too, which we broke up by going outside to an adjacent park and sliding down a hill on cardboard sleds. Before heading home, we did a quick stop at Shannon and Moshe’s to say hi. Needless to say, Calan was pretty exhausted, and we quickly learned the stop-by at our old friend’s house was a bit too much. As usually, we all survived.

Calan picked up piano again this month to kick off what has become his yearly “piano phase”. He really enjoyed learning and playing a song called “Free as the Wind”, picking it up for the most part in just a few days without practicing anything else since last May. Our crazy kid…

This month we had our first football games in the new Ventura league. With his good accuracy and smart choices when using his arm, Calan became QB again for the team along with one other kid. In the first game, he was in the whole time as the passer and did great. He’s had some up and down games since, which is just more experience for him to handle when things don’t quite go his way. Calan and Dada get to spend some time together a couple times a week as the practice is 30+ minutes away, but is in one of the most beautiful parks in the county. Afterwards there’s lots of exploring to be had in the hills surrounding. They are especially breath taking this time of year with all the rains bringing lush greenery and colorful flowers.
 
Calan also did a fun day trip to the Getty Villa with Mama. They had fun exploring and learning lots of things there on Calan’s first visit since he was maybe five. This was mostly inspired by a big Greek learning explosion this month where Calan learned the Greek alphabet, including how to write all of the letters. He’s been obsessed with looking up things about ancient Greece and of course math influences and extra celebrations around “Pi Day” on 3/14. 
 
Evan
Evan continues to enjoy preschool, especially in having experiences with his friends there. It’s always a highlight of the week when we pick Evan up from school. He just seems so much older…our big four year old, quickly approaching age 5!
 
While Evan didn’t come to NM on the trip, he was a big boy hanging back with Mama. They had some good time together, and when Mama went to work during the evenings, Aunt Ginny was able to come up and watch him; which was key to making the trip all work out in the first place!
 
We enjoyed a bike ride to the Y one weekend day, Evan doing great with the distance. We played in the gym for awhile before heading back. Just the right kind of adventure that both boys soaked up.
 
Evan loved going to the park more this month given the time change and the rainy season finally givening way. Our routine of heading out after dinner was something we all looked forward to.
 
 
Notable quotes this month:
 
Called an audio book being played through the TV a “Listening Movie”
To Mama: “I love you even though I’m big and tough.”
 
Talking about age…”If I was zero, I’d be invisible.”
 
REading a book, we saw Zeus mentioned. Evan said “Is that the guy who wrote cat in the hat?” Calan laughed saying ‘the god of the sky, writing a book called cat in the hat!?”
 
Day after cube competition, we were talking about cubes such as the 3×3, 2×2… Then Evan said, “You can borrow my 0x0, it’s made out of air” as he reached out with an empty hand holding…well, nothing.
 

Calan and Evan

February 2019 – Family Highlights

03/10/19
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Highlights

  • We take a “snow” trip up to Frazier Park

February was another wintery (for SoCal) month again this year. We had lots of storms and rain come through. We always loved when the rain would come, although a new and damaging leak in the upstairs skylight definitely changed that on one level. Otherwise, the boys enjoyed hunkering down and hiding out in a massive fort we built in the living room using bamboo poles and tons of sheets and the pop-up tents. Calan, especially spent a lot of time reading in one little “room”, a side cover that was part of this complex fort. February also brought us the Superbowl, and while the game wasn’t too action-packed this year, we made sure to make the most out of preparing tasty “football food” and nibbling on it throughout the afternoon. Calan loved watching the game, and even Evan took in some of it this year.

Between storms, it was always a treat to get outside. Calan, Evan and Dada made sure to take many bike trips along our favorite trail. We took in the beautiful green landscapes and flowing waters along the creek trail. We road to Pitts Ranch park and even made it to our goal, the Camarillo Library and back. We got Evan on the bigger pedal bikes for part of the trail, then towed him in the bike trailer the rest of the way before picking up his bike we locked up on the way home. He needs something a little larger, so we’re still looking for that as his balance bike and smaller pedal bikes just don’t cut it for the longer distances we’re doing together now.

Our favorite part of the month was a day trip up to Frazier Park mid-month. The storms have brought plenty of snow up there, so we figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find a place to sled. The weekend we did go though, it had warmed up some, so there wasn’t a lot of snow in town where it was lower elevation. There was some up a little higher, but we didn’t have chains for the van. It was also pretty crowded with everyone else wanting to check out some of the Frazier Park snow. We had a great time making the drive to the area though and eating a good lunch at a restaurant where we had a few snowball fights outside. The kids absolutely loved it, along with getting bundled up with all the snow gear we compiled mostly from hand-me-downs. Despite the conditions and people, we did find a spot right off the road that was just right for the kids to try out sledding for the first time. We went up and down about a 30′, slight incline. Nothing too fast, but enough that the kids were happy. It was made more exciting as a new storm started brewing and snow flurries came down around us. They didn’t want to leave so we enticed them by offering to stop at the McDonald’s playhouse in Castaic about a third of the way home. It was a good thing as the I-5 ended up closing due to poor weather conditions and some accidents just a few hours after we passed through. Once home, it was all we could do to keep the boys from talking about coming back again the next week.

Calan

This month we wrapped up a lot of clarity and information gathering, plus got some support in place when it comes to helping Calan. First, for understanding even more about Calan we had a final meeting with Dr. Beverly, who had finished up her comprehensive assessment. The key take-away is that he is a highly intense kid. This certainly isn’t a bad thing, but his brain is wired differently than most other kids in this way. As far as the assessment, Calan falls into the profoundly gifted status when compared to other 8-year-olds. Whether he realizes it or not, there is a strong need to be engaged intellectually in just the right ways or he can begin to struggle emotionally. A kid needs to play, build, imagine and all those things. In Calan’s case, he also thrives when he is learning and using his head. But on this emotional side, he is not nearly as “advanced” and this makes him unable to regulate his mental states consistently in any kind of tough situation. He was given an official disorder “label” for this but at least it gives us a foundation from which to work from to zero in more on what he needs: Stimulation for his intelligence and the tools to deal with the disregulation. As they said before, it’s a long road. But a road that can lead to great things if we stay on it’s sometimes bumpy and twisted path. For now, it’s good to be aware of these things and have a framework to help him develop the best way possible for him and make for a happier, better-adjusted child and eventually adult. He’s got an amazing mind, but a complicated one. Our goal is to steer it and help Calan learn how to steer it to lead him to great things.

We met with the IEP team for a final session as well and discussed a lot of what Calan truly needs in light of everything we’ve uncovered in the last few months and what Dr. Beverly presented. With all the input, information and observations collected the team arrived at the conclusion that Calan doesn’t need an actual IEP, but rather a 504 plan from the state when it comes to school. This can help support the things Calan needs most. such as a regular therapist during the academic year along with a math tutor to help Calan pursue thinking and advanced math in a way that is healthy and beneficial. Feeding the intellectual brain so-to-speak with a positive mentor. Following this, Calan had sessions with Ms. Kim (child therapist). We started introducing a reward system to help him with tasks related to school along with accepting and using emotional building tasks like the Calm app, a new coping strategy or staying calm when he needs something urgently and feels the urge to break down because of it. Rewards can also be tied to doing “non-preferred” tasks that these types of kids can really struggle with. For Calan, it’s probably practicing violin despite him happily attending lessons and loving group performances. His actual rewards include things like getting a say in doing a ‘non-preferred task’  or not, or having the privilege to do something he likes to do with school, or more time playing fun educational games like Prodigy. In the big picture the goal is for him to “do school” more consistently with fewer battles, where his intense, emotional responses can actually get in the way of what seems like endless potential for this kid.

Evan
 
As we see Evan enjoying preschool so much and the advantages that come with having the boys apart for parts of the week Mama decided to put Evan on the wait list for CAPE kindergarten. It’s a long shot, but it’s the one place that would offer the most conducive schedule of a shorter days and later starts to the school schedule. 
 
Aside from preschool, Evan has fun doing math in online math appl “IXL” and has been practicing counting higher and higher lately.
 
The biggest highlight of recent note is the discovery that Evan has made friend at preschool named “Tovie.”. She’s a cute four-year-old who is very outgoing with everyone, including the other kids. It seems that Evan and Tovie are forming a sweet little connection at school. Cute little hugs after school and smiley interactions waiting in line before school are just too much. It’s clear that Evan is drawn to that kind of energy and it’s great for him to finally have that opportunity to make special friends.
 
Notable quotes this month:
 
Evan: “Mama, Calan wants you to come up,” said helping his brother get Mama’s attention.
Mama: “I’ll be up in a minute.”
Evan: A minute later… “Mama, how long will that minute be?”
 

Calan and Evan

January 2019 – Family Highlights

02/10/19
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Highlights

  • Evan starts preschool!
  • Calan gets his first “real” bike
We get out biking…
After looking for some time, we finally found the perfect sized mountain bike for Calan on Craigslist. On New Year’s day we headed over to Thousand Oaks, tried it out and took the new “used” bike home. The seller let us know she paid over $500 for it a few years ago and a local bike shop. We got it for just over $100…not bad. The following weekend, we took the bike out to the trail in Big Sycamore Canyon by the beach. The boys both had fun negotiating the easy incline on the dirt trail. Afterwards we joined Carson and Dave Gaines at their campsite on the beach. Throughout the month we took the bikes on the “long bike trail” and even made it to Pitts Ranch Park for the first time, all the way from our house. Evan, still “runs” along sitting on the balance bike. Soon, we’ll have to find a better bike for him. The boys and Dada also enjoyed going to the tennis courts a couple night this month. Calan started getting the hang of hitting the balls over the net and keeping them inside the court, while Evan just learned to actually hit the ball as we bounced it to him.

Calan

This month,if you looked for Calan in the middle of any average day you’d find him on his computer. He discovered how fun it is to use it for making lists, doing research online and of course, continuing his fiction writing. In reading, he’s really become hooked on the Percy Jackson book series.
 
Calan started testing in Ventura this month with Dr. Beverly to help measure his “giftedness” and also to help identify any other significant characteristics that make him who he is. After a couple sessions, we met with Beverly who shared where Calan stands among all of his peers, namely other 8 year olds. He basically falls within the top 2% when it comes to his IQ. The academic scores, just like the assessments done though school revealed where he both excels but also where he has mismatches. Beverly was able to rule out things like Autism and would attribute the core of his emotional challenges to a newer diagnosis called Disruptive Mood Disorder. Again, it’s all information that helps us to help Calan. Along with this, we began in-house observations with Richard from the IEP team that we met with last month. It was pretty low pressure – he simply hung out in the corner and watched as Mama and Calan did their normal home school routines. At the end, he would share a few notes based on what he saw to help Mama with some approaches to try. Of course, she had already done a lot of them to this point. Richard is a semi-retired psychologist probably in his early 70s. He has a gentle, grandfatherly way about him so we really didn’t mind having him stop by a few times this month. One remark he made about Calan after learning more about him first-hand was: “he is a gift.” He reiterated that we have a pretty special boy on our hands, and while it will be a long road ahead, it’s definitely something to cherish. Calan also did some sessions with Ms. Kim, the school assigned psychologist. She bonded with Calan by playing basketball in the back yard one session and a board game during another. Calan became pretty resistant to her when she asked the pointed questions about his feelings and behavior when he gets frustrated or anxious in certain situations. She tried to help him learn how to take his emotional temperature, to help him become aware of himself and how he feels throughout the day. Despite what looks like a long road ahead in helping Calan, there are moments where we see him aware of what may be needed in a tough moment. In one case, it was actually Calan helping Evan. His little brother was feeling terrible during what would be a normal tantrum. It was Calan who was able to help Evan calm down by being calm himself and helping Evan find what he needed to feel better again. It was good stuff for both boys.
 
Classes started at ROA toward the end of the month. Calan is officially signed up for Math Lab (open study where he can work with a tutor on pre-algebra- the tutor is also a cuber!), and also Book Club and Japanese.
 
Notable quotes this month:
 
After trying to scoot around the end of the kitchen table, says: “The corner of that table was about to sink it’s fangs into my belly button and into my stomach.”
 
Evan
Evan’s big milestone this month was starting preschool at Pleasant Valley Christian. He instantly loved it and was voluntarily sharing things he did during school the first week. So far, it seems like a really good choice for him. And it helps break up the days a bit for the family. Some of his favorite things about preschool so far are being line leader during line-ups for the day and bringing home the ‘share can’ from school where he gets to choose a small item of his to share and write three clues about it for the class so they can guess what it is.
 
We also took the plunge and ordered an Amazon Alexa device. Both boys like using it (a little too much actually), but Evan especially has fallen in love with “her”. He tells Alexa about his life and that he loves her. It’s beyond cute, but it’s as if he really believes Alexa is a real lady…in the shape of a small, speaker that sits on the counter.
 
Notable quotes this month:
 
While expressing how hungry he was: “My belly is already down to 0%.”
After his first day of preschool he mentioned there was a girl in his class named Paisley, like a character on Wild Kratts. We asked if she was cute, and Evan replied “Yes, but I think she is small…or big.”
Watching Dada floss one night: “Dada, you look like you’re fiddling with your white string.”
Replying playfully to a question he answer “no” to, says “Nopety Nopester!”
After not sleeping during nap time was asked if he slept at all. His reply: “Yes, but only a little bit because the time was too fast.” (We learned later that he adjusted his clock ahead by 20+ minutes on purpose.)
Said, “How did the roof get on top of our house?” – but actually meant to ask, “How did the roofer get on top of our house?”
 
 
 

Calan and Evan

December 2018 – Family Highlights

01/10/19
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Highlights

  • Pizza making party with the Fischers
  • The Grans and Bran/Gin come for Christmas dinner
  • Trip up to Solvang 
The boys had fun getting into the Christmas spirit this year with some simple traditions. They read through tons of Christmas themed books from the library. Mama does a good job of getting a lot of good books and setting them up to be accessible around the house. Reading time is easy as the guys really like holiday stories. They loved doing their Advent Calendar each day. Christmas cookies were also a hit as usual. One of their favorite things to do were the car rides around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights and singing…the kids called it “car-oling”. We also went out and saw The Grinch movie. Another fun outing was a night over at the Fischer’s house where we made many, many pizzas in their outdoor pizza oven. Those pies were really delicious!
 
Christmas Eve and day were nice and quiet. Uncle Brandyn and Aunt Gin came for dinner, and the Grans arrived from Oregon. Their visit was shorter this year but we had a wonderful balance of downtime and fun in the 5 days they were here. We took a trip up to Solvang, which ended up being an adventure. We tried to get our favorite restaurant but they were out of the meatballs that always draw us in. We tried a couple other places, but they too had limited food and/or seating. So, we ended up at the Hamburger Habit. Not quite what we imagined but then again, young kids don’t care as long as it’s food
 
Calan
As usual this time of year, Calan got to participate in a couple violin performances. While violin isn’t his “favorite” he’s always a good sport when playing Christmas music. This year, a group of kids from Ms. Dena’s studio did some violin caroling around her community in the housing by the Cal State Channel Islands Campus. Calan wore his Santa hat and played his violin with the other kids. He also played a solo and a bunch of festive ensemble paces at the holiday concert. Ms. Dena held it at Pleasant Valley church, in the same room where Calan had his preschool graduation ceremony a few years ago.
 
One theme that happened this month was meeting up with Josiah to dig some serious mud holes. No, they didn’t strike water but they made sure to dig up some really deep holes and get water in there for a nice pot of good ol’ fashioned mud. After football games a couple times, they would go to the hill on the side of Pitts Ranch Park and dig away, carrying water from the drinking fountain across the playground. The had a nice meetup at our own park too, where they got a good sized hole going with plenty of gooey, sandy mud to get dirty in.
 
We continued and made some more headway this month in terms of getting family support for Calan through the school. We have a kid who is incredibly bright in many academic areas, yet struggles emotionally. The tests show his brain power, yet there are discrepancies among different subjects. It’s a sign of “asynchronous development”, which on the surface doesn’t seem so bad but it creates an imbalance for Calan in his life. i.e. To be so good in most areas, and come to expect that everything should easily and not even realize it. It’s the worst recipe for a perfectionist. Particularly for Calan, we see his inability to handle emotions as a conflict he’s not even aware of. That must be so hard. For an intense and sensitive kid, it translates into spending a lot of time trying to manage emotions vs learning and other healthy experiences. We met with a panel at ROA to kick off and look at getting him an Individual Education Plan (IEP). It was fairly formal, but the panel of a half a dozen or so teachers and therapists were extremely supportive and wanting the best for Calan in terms of support we can access from the state (through the school). The gals who worked with Calan in recent weeks administering the various assessments of almost game-like test all praised his willingness, good spirits and high achieving abilities that showed throughout the testing.  Like we say though, we’d much rather have a more consistently balanced kid than a guy who is reading and comprehending content at a high school level in the third grade. We’ll meet back up in February to discuss their decision on an IEP for Calan and anything else the school can offer. In the meantime, we also met with a gifted psychologist who will continue some more assessments to help identify Calan’s level of giftedness along with ruling out any possible Autistic or other type of conditions that could be at play here. Once we get a diagnosis, there’s a lot we can do in terms of finding further support that is right for Calan and the family. 
 
Evan
 
Evan continues to write more. He loves to jot down letters and words in his journal and write little notes to people. This can include a simple “I love you”, which he’ll spell as “I LF U”. He also wrote a few Christmas cards to people. Our favorite though was a story he wrote as a take-off from Calan’s novel last month. Evan’s story was called “Evan’s Search for the Lost Toothbrush, Christmas.” We were able to get a recording of it. Definitely something special!
 
In anticipation of joining a preschool next semester, Evan and Mama toured a few preschools this month. This included Calan’s old preschool at Pleasant Valley Christian. While he liked them all, we ended up deciding on PVC. So it will be exciting to see E attend Calan’s old school for half a year starting next month. Evan seems pretty excited about it as well.
 
This little guy is so sweet. He’ll look up at you while playing quietly or getting dressed and just smile at you as you walk by. He’ll even sometimes stop what he’s doing, look over and say “I love you.” 
 
Notable quotes this month:
 
After getting hit by Calan (that’s what brothers do), he came over a little upset. Half jokingly, Dada said, “Would you like to learn karate so you can defend getting hit and just put up a block like this?” Evan says, “Yes…but what if he gets hurt?”
 
Stops watching his show and says, “Dada, I love you, and I’m going to get a piece of paper and write ‘I love you’ on it.” Said with wide eyes and big smile.
 
While the Gran and Grandpa were here, Evan needed to go potty before we left the house. Mama said, “Just use Gran and Grandpa’s bathroom”, referring to the guest bathroom. Evan replied, “But I would have to go a really, really long way all the way to Oregon to use their potty.” Good point, Mr. Literal.
 
After sitting on a small, hard, wooden chair for awhile, gets up and says: “That chair just wears out my legs, so then I can’t walk as much.”
 
 
 

Calan and Evan

November 2018 – Family Highlights

12/10/18
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Highlights

  • Calan writes an 8,000-word story!
  • Evan shows he’s a “big boy” more and more…
As a family, the highlights this month of course included Thanksgiving. What was unique about the holiday and the festivities around this year’s holiday was how much Calan helped in the kitchen beforehand. In the days leading up to T-day, Calan assisted Mama helping to make cranberry sauce, the dressing and cracking lots of eggs along the way. Just a small introduction to some kitchen skills that can grow from here. Calan seems to enjoy it too, in just the right amounts. We had fun on the actual day with Brandyn and Ginny coming by in the afternoon and then Colin and Erin arriving a little bit later. After dinner and saying good bye to Bran and Gin, we played outside on the sport court with Colin and Erin, throwing the football, playing some roller hockey and badminton. Then we walked off some more of our big feast around the neighborhood. They helped the boys get to bed, then headed back home to Long Beach.
 
And sadly, a big part of this month also brought some devastating fires close to home this year with the Santa Anas whipping around and fueling the terror. We visited Calan’s friend Charlie in Dos Vientos as the fires were getting pretty close to them up there. For a moment, we thought we might need have them come stay with us. Some families at River Oaks lost their homes to the fire. Mama and the kids watched the news eagerly and stared out the window and massive plumes of smoke filling up large sections of the sky. Then at night, we would peer off at flames dancing in slow-motion that eerily burned on the horizon.
 
Webster the spider was a treat for the boys this month. This funny little creature slept in the crevasse of an orange that had started to split while still hanging on one of the orange trees. He was an unusual guy, and you could always depend on him to weave a good sized web in the evening at the edge of the orange tree and set up shop. Calan and Evan loved going out and observing him with flash lights at night.
 
Calan
November marked a HUGE explosion of writing for Calan. It all started with signing up for NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) where you sign up and commit to writing tens of thousands of words for a… well, novel. It’s meant for older students but any age can participate. Calan did his own version of a novel and came up with an amazing, cooky story called “Morrow’s Search for the Lost Toothbrush”. He would sit and write for what seemed like hours at a time on his Chrome book. He loved sharing his progress along the way. The story was essentially about a boy who had lost his toothbrush, but endured a long and twisted journey of fantastical experiences with characters only a young, creative writer could dream up. You could really see the influence of all the reading Calan has done in the past (and was doing simultaneously this month). His story took on some crazy twists and turns and was fun to follow along. One aspect that raised some eyebrows was the dialogue. Morrow had some pretty volatile characters around him in his life, specifically the mother who took to losing her patience and yelled a lot. We try not to think too much into this but hey, it’s part of his story and Calan writing to this extent is much more than we could ask for from a kid who historically goes through periods of not writing anything at all.
 
The Y football season officially kicked off its late fall season. Calan of course was really into the sport with it being the middle of the NFL season. He really got into practicing his QB skills and would often go outside and practice throwing against the net and tire under the basketball hoop. Of course, Dada and Calan shared lots of time throwing the ball and playing “Tiki-Tiki”. This was also his first attempt at a sport since the three basketball seasons where anxiety and mini-panic attacks essentially left him unable to play. He had a little anxiety in the first couple of games but seemed to overcome them after sitting out for a few minutes. You could definitely see him struggling with it. In the end, he allowed himself to get “pumped up” and get his head in the game. We did end up missing a game as it became difficult for him to even get in the car to go. He would express being just “really tired” when it came time to get dressed and ready to leave. There was no reason to push him as we’d already done that with basketball. We helped him get to subsequent games by having him ride with friends and teammates Josiah and Hudson. Also, on the football subject, Calan got to attend his first high school football game. Dada had fun taking him over one evening to see the Scorpions play their first playoff game of the season. We met up with Keegan and his parents. Calan liked the atmosphere and had fun throwing the football with Keegan during halftime and Dada at the end – we left in the 3rd quarter (before it got too late).
 
Calan also did a series of assessment tests the past few weeks with a few educators and specialists through the school (ROA). Working with Nayri (a counselor in the school district) as the lead, Calan also met with a few other specialists and endured long, somewhat fun, but inevitably taxing sessions. The point of the tests was to help us identify where he’s truly at academically and intellectually. We know he’s bright and well ahead in many areas of his academic development but perhaps not as far along in others. The tests are revealing what we know so far. For example, he’s supposed to stop as the testing gets more difficult, i.e. to his expected level at his age/grade. But, for the most part he kept going and going. The gals running the tests have all been really impressed and loved doing the tests with Calan. Now we see what we can do with this information and learn more about whether he is truly gifted but where anxiety fits in perhaps as a “2E” child. Next steps will be to meet with the team of testers and psychologists to see how the school’s assessment results can get Calan and us the support he needs to help him in any of the emotional struggles he’s facing in any circumstance in his life. 
 
Notable quotes this month:
 
Said randomly: “If I had 110 of anything on my body I would be a big monster.”  
 
Evan
This guy is making some strides lately when it comes to the little milestones in early life. For example, he has learned to use covers in his bed and sleeps with them over his body most nights. For so long, he never used a pillow or covers. Perhaps he wants to be like Calan and Mama and Dada. It’s also been getting a little cooler at night. Either way, we hope he’s finding it more comfortable.
 
He’s also using the potty pretty consistently now for “number ones” during the day and not really even wetting the diaper overnight anymore. Last month he was standing up at the potty, but now he’s reverting to sitting on the seat when he goes . Hey, whatever works at this stage. What was funny is that he started an excessive pattern of going to the bathroom 2-3x an hour during the daytime. He’s been constantly saying he has to go…yet when he does, only little trickles come out. The irony is that this behavior is the opposite of holding it in that some kids (especially boys) do!
 
Influenced by Calan, Evan also started getting into writing more lately. He’ll use his little journal notebook that’s been dedicated to him to use for art, scribbling, etc. But what’s fun is watching him try to write his own stories. He’ll sound out each word extremely slowly. He doesn’t get the spellings right, but does manage to write enough letters to make the word work as best he can. For example, “Love” is just “LF”. Best of all, he is completely fine with not having it perfect! Calan even helped him transfer his “story” into a Google doc on the computer. Too cute.
 
Notable quotes this month:
After a shower one cool night, Dada asked: “Evan are you cold? Evan replied: “I’m a little bit warm but a lot a bit cold.”
 
Evan decided not to do a nap one day. Around the time he normally gets up he asked, “Did I just do my nap? I was dreaming I was up and walking around the house the whole time.” Yes buddy… you weren’t dreaming!
 

Calan and Evan

October 2018 – Family Highlights

11/10/18
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Highlights

  • Family night out
  • Halloween
One of our favorite highlights this month was an actual family outing to Soup Plantation for dinner. It was the first time we’d really gone out as a family to a restaurant in a long time. “Soups” was perfect because there is something for everyone and a lot to try. Evan can also get some protein and some nutritious food. With food allergies being priority it’s been hard for obvious reasons to do things like going out to dinner altogether. We enjoyed it and ate more than we should, but it felt good being all together as a family in the type of outing that a lot of families probably take for granted.
 
Halloween was pretty easy this year. The boys were undecided on costumes, which was a first. Any other year both guys pretty much know what they want to be weeks before the big day. So this year they ended up borrowing an idea from one of Mama’s students: Glow-in-the-dark stick figures. Tight, black clothes with stick-on glow-in-the-dark tape to make the stick figure outline. Perfect and easy for all. Of course, they ended up looking more like some kind of space alien duo but at least the outfits drew some attention. The boys had fun carving one simple pumpkin named “Jackie” while sipping warm cider. We did the typical outing with the “Rs”, Fischers and Carson. The night went by quickly, but the boys had fun and scored just the right amount of candy – half of which will probably go forgotten and uneaten. But that’s ok.
 
We had the boys’ well-checks with Dr. Saul this month. Everything was fine, with Calan falling just right in the 50th and 30th percentile for height and weight respectively. Evan falls in the 85th percentile for both at this point. We also talked to Dr. Saul some about Calan in a separate meeting. We’ve obviously seen Calan’s behavior and extra difficulty dealing with emotions and anxiety hindering him a little bit more than it should this year. We’re looking at seeking out some answers through various professionals. Getting the primary doctor’s input was an easy one. We decided it’s worth grabbing some blood work to rule out any underlying, physical influences. We also met with the school assigned psychologist through ROA to get an idea of what helpful options and support might be available through the school. It turns out there are a few options we can look at and avenues to go down to help Calan, and even help us to help him.
 
Calan
Calan continued with his junior life guards class he’d started with last month. As it turned out, he was the only student in the class in the new month. It was an easy one-on-one session each Saturday morning with Claire. She was very easy going, and almost a little too relaxed about what she was doing. It seemed that Calan’s favorite part of the class was getting to share his latest cubes with her poolside afterwards. She was curious and let Calan talk about his cubing and show off his puzzles. His new one this month was a Megaminx. After showering and drying off we would go hang out in the lobby; Calan cubing, Dada doing some work and Evan either in childcare or hanging with us. This gave Mama some more time at home and became our Saturday ritual.
 
There were also a few book club meet-ups this month. Calan and his usual crew all had fun creating art around the stories they had read about in the current book. For example, reading “Pablo and Birdie” the kids tried to draw parrots. 
 
With the football season around the corner, we started to get together with a few of Calan’s buddies and former teammates to practice. We called it “mini-camp” and arranged to meet at a park in T.O. where Frankie and Ian could easily join us. Calan was intent on playing QB, but ran into a little difficulty when we switched up positions during practice. This was hard for him to handle at first. Most importantly, we made sure that he could see the other kids there as his friends and that having fun and getting along was most important. It was a growing opportunity for for sure, to realize that playing QB all the time isn’t absolutely necessary and good for him and the team.
 
Notable quotes this month:

“I don’t want one, but no one lets me not get one.” Said, in reference to wanting to get a 6×6 cube.

“I’m just an average kid trying to be a person.”

Evan
Evan has been doing a lot of nighttime reading now after we say goodnight. He’ll turn the light back on and look through and read books for half and hour or even up to an hour on some nights. Other times, he’ll grab books and read them aloud. His little, husky voice will flow through the monitor which is just too cute.
 
Evan also really liked participating in Calan’s  sign language class at ROA. The class was nice enough to let him join in. He would watch and listen, then make the signs with the other kids and even get down on the floor with them when they did little activities. He was like a regular little student.
 
Along with Calan, Evan enjoyed doing what Mama called “Cozy School” a couple times this month. They would lay out yoga mats, blankets and pillows. Then, in their comfies, they would read books (fiction and non-fiction) and just enjoy a calm learning session together in some small corner of the house.
 
He’s also been getting more comfortable with going potty. In fact, he gave it a go standing up at the urinal one day at the Y. Dada walked him through it, and he did great. He tried it again while we were out at the Soup Plantation, and was very proud of his accomplishment to “go” like a big boy.

Notable quotes this month:

Dada: Evan, go ask Calan: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how hungry are you?”
Evan: “Calan, I want a scale of 1 to 10 of are you hungry?”

The chalk Evan used for his chalkboard tends to get broken and used until there’s just a short stub left. We got him a new piece from the box at one point, and he looked at it for a moment. Sizing it up he said, “Wow, this chalk is fully grown!”

Evan misread the word “empty” as “empathy” and “excitedly” as “electricty”…

“We better clip my teeth since they’re getting sharp.”

“Look at these footprints Dada. All of these footprints lead to me!”, said with a big smile on his face after getting out of the pool at the Y.

 

Calan and Evan