Highlights
- Calan gets his first desk
- Calan visits a goat farm with school friends
- Evan gets his first haircut
- Evan LOVES to count
- Spring basketball starts, and we officially join the YMCA
Calan
The Desk
This month, Calan got an exciting addition to his room. It had been a long time coming, but we finally set out for a real desk that Calan could use for his various projects, games and “studies” in his own room. After scouring Craigslist and a stop at a thrift store, we came across one that would work. It’s a student-sized desk made of real wood from sometime before 1950. It had been fixed up and painted by a couple who “restores” old furniture in Newbury Park. Once we got it home, the first project was to clean up and sort out the contents of Calan’s room (it had been awhile). This also spawned a mini closet make-over, where we completely re-organized Calan’s closet so that everything in his room had a dedicated place to live when not in use. When the floor was clean and clear, in came the desk; and the entire room was transformed. Instantly, Calan felt a little more grown up standing in his newly, refreshed space. A desk isn’t a true working desk without the proper office supplies, so we made sure to equip it with the necessary tools every five-year-old needs: stapler, scissors, pens, markers, pencils and so on. Once the top was adorned with his globe, over-sized train books and lamp he was all set.
One perk of the new desk and clean room feel was that Calan immediately felt good again about sleeping only his room during the night. So, the end of an era was upon us. Since just before Halloween, Calan would creep into our room sometime in the middle of the night and sleep the rest of the night in his make-shift bed there. It’s interesting what can end up changing a habit… literally overnight.
Basketball
Calan also started his spring basketball season at the Y at the end of the month. Still with the 5-6 year olds, this season immediately had a different vibe and pace as there are two coaches for the kids. They are volunteer dads, but the head coach brings an energetic spirit and experience that the kids seem to respond to during drills and pep talks. We liken Scott, the coach, to Calan’s swim coach Lynn. They both bring that tough, but “I’m on your side” approach to their instruction. Calan seems to focus well with these kind of outside mentors and really shows a growth in his abilities.
Money
One of Calan’s “educational” highlights this month was around coins and counting money. For Easter, he received a quarter collection board (all 50 states), and really got into finding the right quarters for it. We’d talked about money before, and the values of each coin, etc. but something sparked this time, and he was hooked on gathering and counting all his money. We found out that he has more than $200 already saved, and talked about how he can continue to save these funds but also spend a little to see what it’s like to buy something with your own money. He felt like he had a lot of money, and even mentioned that if someone comes to visit he will be happy to share it since he has so much of it. He also talked about selling the book he is currently writing for $1, and that will give him even more money.
Notable Calan quotes this month:
“I’m going to write my own book, and it’s going to say ‘written by and illustrated by Calan Marquardt'” And in fact, he did start working on his book at his new desk. He managed to create a cover with the title written on it, “The Old Crowing Rooster”. Using his new office supplies, he cut out pages, then stapled and taped them together to form the physical book.
“I’ll keep sleeping in my own room for a long time, depending on how my life is going …” After his big room clean-up and new desk was in place, there was a renewed spirit about sleeping the night in his room.
“I made a dolphin sound with my bottom.” After accidentally making a series of unexpected “toot-toots” from, well…his bottom.
“No, they’re not people…they’re students!” In regards to the kids who were performing at the annual MTAC honors recital Mama was attending.
Calan goes through phases where he wants to build forts, caves and ‘mud piles’ with ALL the blankets and couch pillows in the house. While this is fun, we have to manage it a bit because it can end up taking over the entire living or family room, and there’s usually no rush to break it down and put it all back… After a particularly busy cave-building week, this exchange came about:
Calan: “Mama when I can I build a cave?” Referring to removing and piling up all the cushions and blankets from the couches.
Mama: “When I say we can…”
Calan: “Well you better start thinking about it because it’s been a long time.”
Evan
Evan is really starting to get the hang of numbers. In fact he’s getting good at not only identifying individual numbers one through ten, but also is finding a love for counting. Midway through the month, he surprised us by counting one to eight all on his own after we read through one of his counting books.
Another thing he loves to do is sing “Happy Birthday”. Gran, Nanna and Poppa all have their birthdays within about month of each other this time of year. This gave him plenty of time to hear and try to sing the birthday song. Any time he would see a cake and candles, he would say in a sing-song style “Happy—Daaaay”. He usually leaves out the prefix “birth” or replaces it with some other indistinguishable sound — although one time it came out “Happy Beer Day”.
As long as we’re on the subject of fun things Evan likes to do, it’s worth mentioning his spinning phase. For a couple weeks, Evan fell in love with the concept of spinning. This meant he loved anytime something could be spun…His favorite would be a basketball or volley ball spinning for a long time on the hard floor at the Y. He would ask Dada to do it over and over. He also liked seeing the word “spin” and of course saying it, once he figured out how to say it. Our favorite though is when he tried to spin is own body. It was as awkward as it was cute to watch…well, until one time he spun right into the built-in cabinet at home, then having been startled and in a daze of dizziness slowly fell down backwards with a big plump. He was okay…and again, it was as painful as it was cute to witness that.