Highlights
- Calan turns six!
- Gs visit with overseas visitors
- Calan eats his first official peanut
- First grade “starts”
Calan
As with every August in recent years, this month is extra exciting for our birthday boy Calan. It’s worth mentioning that this was the first year in the last few that Calan anticipated August 10th with reserved excitement. The party was set. Out of town company to arrive soon. Calan just happy and ready to celebrate. What more can you ask for?
Visitors from Paris and Oregon
Part of what made this year different was the pleasure of having out-of-town guests for the birthday week, along with Gran and Grandpa. Gran’s college roommate Judith and her husband Gabrielle were visiting from France. As it turned out, they were great company. The Parisian travelers brought with them a good energy that was both easy for the grown-ups and offered engagement with the kiddos. Of course, most days the “Grans” and their travel partners were out sight-seeing LA. During these times, our life went on pretty much as usual. In the evenings, we enjoyed eating together, sharing stories and just being together. Evan and Gabrielle especially got along well, often engaging in silly games that brought the biggest smiles to Evan’s face and of course, the rest of us.
An appetite for reading
As the second half of summer played out, Calan became more and more interested in reading chapter books. He expanded his reading from mostly the Magic Tree House series and reading with Mama books like the Roald Dahl collection, to some brand new series. He started with some books in the Boxcar Children series with Mama and Dada but after a few trips to the library he ended up with some new favorites: A-to-Z Mysteries, Calendar Mysteries, and the Capital Mysteries. (Yes, he seems to love mysteries!). He did most of this reading during “quite reading time” (rest periods for peanut doses and Evan’s naps), but we would often find him downstairs in the morning engrossed in one of his books. As he completed books rather quickly, we wondered if he was reading EVERY word as he seemed to be skipping through the pages pretty quickly. Either way, we discovered that his style of reading still allowed him to follow a story and catch key action sequences throughout the books.
Learns to ride a bike
Well, it finally happened…Just days before his sixth birthday something clicked for Calan in both his courage and ability when it came to riding his bike. The stars aligned one day when we stopped in the Newbury Park thrift store to look for some books. There happened to be a small bike there that drew Calan’s attention. As Dada looked around the store, Calan took to scooting around on the bike. Within minutes, he was reporting that he’d pedaled ten feet or so all on his own. Needless to say, when we got back home, we pulled out his bike, removed the training wheels and in no time at all Calan was progressively going further around the pool deck until he completed a full lap. Dada did and said nothing; Calan did it all on his own. He knew how to balance from his many days on his balance bike when he was younger, but his confidence finally allowed him to learn to ride sans training wheels. We even got out the larger bike he’d never even tried before but is more his size, and he had no problems. He wanted to make a plan for how to keep up his new skill in the coming weeks, such as going out on the sidewalk next, then to the park, then on the “long bike trail”. But it didn’t matter, he was already set to hit the “streets” and completed the goals in his plan within the week.
Eats his first peanut!
https://oitmommyloves.me/2016/08/25/a-peanut-and-a-plea/
Notable quotes this month:
While swimming: Dada observes Calan flailing about in the water and says “Calan, what kind of stroke is that? You should practice your strokes.” Calan: “I make up my own strokes. That’s just part of my life. ”
Dada: “What would you like to have sun butter on today? Apple? Banana? Or pretzels?
Calan: “Nothing, I want sun butter on air.”
To Mom and Dad: “I listened to you guys. I found out the more you listen, the faster things get done and the more time you have.”
Watching the Olympics: “Wow, there are lots of things going on right now. Someone is “olympic-ing” on the balance beam and somebody is “gymnastic-ing” on the floor, while someone else is over there running.”
To Dada:
“I still yell at mama sometimes, but I don’t yell at you anymore.”
“I wish I could eat a peanut butter sandwich right now. Later when I can eat lots of peanuts, you and I will eat peanut butter sandwiches together.”
“You said peanut butter sandwiches are really good. That tells me you really miss eating peanut butter sandwiches because of me.”
While reading, but not feeling too focused…”It seems like I’ve read the same page like three or four times in a row now.”
Calan on making his bed. “I took some days off from making my bed. I was tired of doing it. I just do my thing.”
“Mama, I’m more related to you and Evan is more related to Dada” (After Mama mentioned the slight skin tone differences among the four of us.)
At home one afternoon… “Am I going to have to live in this house with kids? When I’m grown-up and I have my own kids, do I have to live here?”
Calan: “Is tomorrow Wednesday?”
Dada: “No, it’s Monday.”
Calan: “Ah… it hasn’t been Wednesday in weeks!”
Evan
Taking it up a step in the pool
Evan took his next step in his swimming journey by being able to go in pool with a vest. While this isn’t actually any step toward learning to swim, it at least allows him to get even more comfortable in the water as he floats around on his own with us hanging out nearby. He seems to like “da float” for the most part – we just won’t tell Coach Lynne!
Some other little Evan highlights this month…
- Evan has never wanted to ride his Calan’s old balance bike, much less let us put a helmet on him. After seeing Calan riding his bike around the pool a lot, he wanted to try the balance bike. While he barely walks the bike, going at a turtle’s pace, for what it’s worth he at least tolerates his helmet too.
Notable quotes this month:
One Wednesday, while returning home from the beach, Evan said “Do it again beach!”. Exactly one week later we talked about how we were going to the beach to well, “do it again”. After we left the beach that day, just as we turned out of the parking lot, Evan said: “Bye-bye do it again beach!”