Highlights
- We take a family/work trip to Las Vegas
- The boys have fun in Calan’s indoor soccer/basketball class
- Calan’s school workshops start up again
- Evan passes his 18-month checkup
Las Vegas Trip
This year, we started off with something completely brand new for us as a family – a road trip. But this one had a twist, both in the trip itself, the destination, and the purpose for going in the first place. We essentially combined a work trip (for both Mama and Dada) with something fun and different for the kids to experience, and included Gran and Grandpa in part to help support making it all possible. For togetherness sake, it wasn’t your traditional trip because of the long and often erratic work schedule, so needless to say, there wasn’t a lot of time to all spend time together. From the kids’ perspectives that probably didn’t matter so much because of all the distractions, including the long drive with new scenery and places to visit along the way and of course a brand new city and the fun that comes with camping out in hotel rooms when you’re a kid.
As it was, Calan and Evan spent most of their time with Mama and Gran and Grandpa. Aside from getting to sleep in different beds and hanging out up high on the eighth floor, the boys stayed pretty busy sight-seeing with Gran and Grandpa and riding the monorail too many times to count with Mama (the monorail being Calan’s favorite activity). But they also enjoyed outings along the strip, including Circus Circus and Paris.
The trip was definitely an experience since there was so much to manage with everyone’s needs. For the kids, it should be a memorable one in the best way it could (well, probably not for Evan as he’ll never actually remember it). I guess that’s about all you can ask for.
Calan
After Vegas, it’s on to the new year, which of course was already under way. For Calan, this meant resuming some of his activities from the fall – his schooling at home and River Oaks workshops along with his violin lessons and classes. He also enrolled in a low-key YMCA indoor basketball/soccer tandem class every Monday at 5:15. It was tough to transition from the long holiday break back into school-like routines. With workshops not actually starting until later in the month, it was definitely an ease-back-into-it exercise. Calan wasn’t always willing to do the more structured learning such as exercises in his workbooks or his online learning apps that he previously enjoyed doing. That said, he’s always up for lessons in day-to-day activities, like cooking, coloring and playing and scouting around in the backyard.
One kick Calan was on this month had to do with hanging. Evidently he discovered he’s getting stronger and that extending his arms and hanging from any kind of bar is fun. So, most of our trips to the park were for the purpose of finding something to hang on. In the end, he would do it a few times, then quickly revert to his traditional play at the park. He almost convinced Dada to buy a pull-up bar made for kids to wedge into a doorway. Tempting…
We (mostly Mama) continue the challenge of getting him to eat his allergy food doses each day. As the visits to see Dr. R have increased over the months, more things are added that he needs to incorporate into his diet. It seems lately that there is so much, that it’s not incorporating as much as it becomes his diet. This isn’t the case entirely, but it seems he doesn’t eat as much as he used to, so by the time he eats his eggs, cereal with soy milk, a “nut ball” (a specially made snack that Mama came up with to get things like his Brazil nut in), plentils or a smoothie, there isn’t much room for anything else in his belly. Fortunately, he still gets his favorite treats such as granola cereal, toast and freshly squeezed orange juice from our tree most days. He also likes his chocolate chips that help him eat his Biscotti, another Mama twist because it’s filled with some of the foods he needs. Of course, the challenge comes in because none of these must-eat foods is his favorite. It’s not that they taste bad per se, but they do to him simply because he doesn’t get to make the decision to eat them. That’s the tough part of this treatment for Calan (and everyone else); many times the process of getting these things down (and checked off the list each day on his mock spreadsheet) leads to battles we’d rather not have. We just hope that in the long run this will still be easier than having to manage the peanut allergy as he goes throughout the rest of his life.
Evan
As usual, Evan continues to delight us each day just by being him. His interaction with Calan and vice versa is truly a treasure. His eyes often light up and energy increases when Calan comes into the room after being away at school or out with Mama. He loves to play with his big bro, whether it be chasing around the house, bouncing the large inflatable balls at each other, indoor tackle football (Calan does most of the tackling), or just a calm reading session together.
One cute thing Evan does with regularity lately is lie on the floor, on his back. He usually has a ball, and attempts to play his version of a Dada game called “throw-catch”, where he’ll lie on his on Dada’s chest and throw the ball up in the air together and practice catching it in his chest. He makes an attempt to throw the ball, but it usually goes off in some direction, too far away to catch. If he’s outside, and there is no ball, lying down face up means he just wants to peruse the sky for a few moments. When he does this, you’ll usually hear him sayshis version of “moon” over and over (whether the moon is currently visible or not).
Evan has recently discovered he likes building (stacking) the big cardboard brick blocks. The best is if his little, shaky tower falls over, he’ll erupt into a loud chuckle. The loudest screeches come when he gets something tall enough and intentionally knocks it over.
One thing you can count on from Evan is him saying “byeeee” to everything. He’ll do it when people are leaving, but he doesn’t just reserve it for humans…If he puts down a toy or is done with his ten-minute brushing sessions with his toothbrush, he’ll say “byeeee…(fill in Evan-ese word for the item here)” and wave his hand half hardheartedly at the object. He also loves to talk about “bappies”, his word for batteries. He learned that his little Thomas telescope stopped playing music because the bappies had run out. Dada had to order special watch bappies for it, and when they arrived, it was a big event to get them in – including Evan wanting to work the screwdriver to open the compartment. His favorite word of course is still “star”. He can read the written word easily, and will point out the star symbol anywhere he sees one. Amazingly, he says star almost perfectly, yet no other word comes close at this point.
As for Evan the trouble-maker, or “Destructo” as he’s sometimes referred, it’s safe to say the little guy can sure keep you busy as he investigates things around the house or in the yard. Unlike Calan at this age, he’s into grabbing things. Whether it’s a kind of toy or contents of drawers or cupboards, it becomes quite a chore to keep up with him. In fact, the mere action of cleaning up a room seems to ignite his own efforts to picking things up…unfortunately, they don’t end up where they’re supposed to be and are often taken from where they’ve just been put away. He’s getting better little by little, but he loves Mama’s and Dada’s things in their room. 😉 His favorite though is trying to fit objects he finds into the tall, metal vases we have flanking the fireplace mantel. If it fits, it drops on in…if it doesn’t fit, it gets balanced on top…ironically, precluding anything else from going in.
We also had Evan’s 18-month check-up this month (more than a month later). One thing for sure, Evan has steadily gotten less tolerant of these exams. Being held down just to get measured is as if you’re pinning him down to torture him with sharp objects. It’s funny, because he’s so mellow in many situations and tough/tolerant of pain if he falls down or bumps something, but if he’s not in the mood to be placed down for a diaper change or exam, plan for a good fight. It’s good to know he has both sides.
Finally, on a sad note this month, we lost our Beta fish “Bob” after almost three years. We think this is a typical lifespan, but have heard they can last longer. We’re not sure if the colder nights (and the house heater being broken) and having to adjust Bob’s fish tank heater caused any issues or if it was just his time.