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Highlights

• Calan becomes a weatherman
• Calan starts private basketball lessons
• Evan gets speedy on his bike

Calan

“I’m afraid that numbers never start and they never end”

Evan

Evan has really liked coloring for some time now, especially when it comes to markers. He usually just scribbles during his coloring sessions…which is pretty normal at this point. This month though, something clicked, and he started to draw his first “guy”. What got him going was trying out the white board. We remember Calan doing this when he was two on his chalkboard… the classic first stick-figure where they get the concept of drawing a face, body and limbs. Despite it not really looking like a person, it’s funny to see him draw it over and over. It’s like they’re saying: “I know how to do this now” … and they do it any time they have a pencil, marker or chalk in hand.

With daylight savings time just around the corner, we had fun going around the neighborhood in the dark with Evan. He’s really getting comfortable on his balance bike, speeding along and even lifting his legs up to show us how he can balance and glide. With Calan at evening violin classes, Dada got the enjoyment of cruising around the sidewalks with Evan. Gliding down driveways, talking about things we see in the night and looking for worms and snails that had come out after the day’s rain are those simple experiences that you end up cherishing so much as a parent.

One milestone this month is that Evan has, for the first time in his life, accepted something else being in the crib with him while he sleeps. The lucky winner is… Daniel Tiger. One day, the idea came up, and he agreed to let Daniel sleep with a pillow and blanket on one end of his crib. It’s his buddy, so why not right? It goes without saying the cuteness we find when we tuck both “boys” in for nappy-naps and nighty-nights. Daniel usually sets a good example of how to get to bed on time too, which is helpful. But after all, he’s also a kid.. and so if we forget to find DT, and Evan goes down, he’s sure to let us know he needs his buddy to report for sleep duty.

Notable quotes this month:

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Highlights

• Second half of First Grade starts at ROA
• Family bowling night

Calan

2017 started as most years do… Those first few days are bitter sweet as we welcome in a fresh, new year, but say an official goodbye to the holiday season. Gran and Grandpa also head back home after their holiday stay, which is becoming more difficult as the kids get older. They miss them even before they drive away, but they know they’ll see them again next time! College football also winds down, and this year especially, Calan was excited to watch some of the big  bowl games. He’s becoming a bonafide fan, always making sure to root for a team in each game with intense spirit.

Another area Calan showed increase intensity was his piano “tinkering”. Lately, Calan has really blossomed on identifying notes on each staff and applying this to his Minuet One song he’s learning. He’s using both hands now as he slowly masters more measures of the song…mostly teaching himself with a few tips from Mama.

As with every end of January, we get to celebrate Dada’s birthday. This year we decided to take the boys bowling for the first time. Eager for our trip. we “practiced” a bit at home with our plastic set. Calan and Evan definitely enjoyed the real bowling alley, but they learned quickly that the real deal is a little more difficult than the toy set at home. Fortunately, we had rails on the gutters for a much needed handicap. Calan was able to get the ball down the lane successfully and knock down pins consistently. Evan was excited to take his turn each time, and with some help, we got his ball down to the pins. His big hangup was wanting to try everyone else’s balls, despite his 6lb kid one being too heavy already. We wrapped up the outing after an hour, with a visit to the arcade there. It was Calan’s first time at an arcade, and he was definitely pumped up to try the video games that looked the most fun. For him, race car driving and air hockey against Dada were his favorites. Dada even taught Calan, that if you just look around carefully enough, you can spot some loose quarters. Calan loved the thrill of finding a few forgotten quarters, and of course getting to spend it on some extra play time.

One developmental trait we’ve noticed with Calan lately is how easily he seems to intellectually understand a physical technique or skill within a sport. Then, how how he’s able to execute a learned skill better than most kids his age after just learning how to do it. We’ve seen this in both football and basketball. He may not be the best natural athlete but he’s not bad either, and when he listens to instruction and has good, encouraging coaches (like we first observed with swimming), he shows that he can get it going faster than anyone expects. We frequently run into other parents who have noticed this and comment to us about it…usually saying how athletic he is. 😉

Notable quotes this month:

Dada being silly talking with Calan about something take a while to do: “That’ll take a long time, that will take until the year 2074, when I’m 100 years old.”
Calan being silly back: “Yeah you’ll probably be dead about that time.”

Looking around the house seeing loose boys socks in various places, Calan says, “Look, there are socks everywhere. There are warm feet everywhere. If you need warm feet, you can put on some socks.”

Calan: “This morning my privates woke me up at 6:59”
Dada: “Oh, ok…what did you do?”
Calan: “Well I had to get up and go potty.”

“I know the drill” – Stated after we told Calan we were impressed with how he was teaching Evan to say a hard word for him, “computer”.

After seeing a lot of worms out during this extra rainy season, Calan said that the worms come out in the rain because birds don’t like to come out in the rain. He said the worms don’t usually come out because birds eat worms.  We asked how he noticed this, and he said it was just an observation because he didn’t see any birds in the rain but saw lots of worms.

During his haircut this month, Calan was sure to show Miss Tory his muscles several times and of course tell his favorite Evan joke (What’s Evan’s favorite clef? The ‘trouble” clef)

“In the dark, you see what you’re doing, by turning on the light.”

Evan

One thing we’ve noticed more and more with Evan is how when he is alone with one of us and Calan is away at workshops or violin practice, he is much more even-keeled. In fact, we really see just how smart he can be. It’s as if he’s allowed to think through things, focus, ask questions, and talk more without the distraction of his fun brother around. Overall, his emotions seem more stable because there’s not the excitement and conflict that you normally get when playing with a sibling and sharing experiences (and toys!) together. These times are nice, and it’s fun to see him in this light. That said,  you could never put a value on what he gets from having an older brother around. Dada can relate, and while personality is a factor, there’s probably some truth to this for all children who aren’t the first-born.

Getting over things quickly… One characteristic of Evan that we see when it comes to emotions and handling them, is that he is able to get over tantrums relatively quickly. One example was during music night with Joe and Patty on New Years Day, Evan was getting upset because he wanted to keep playing with both Patty’s phone and Calan’s camera. During his tantrum, Dada held him close and said to go up to his room and get something of his, a toy or book that belongs to him to play with instead. He went up right away, and 10 minutes later after not returning, we found him sitting in his chair all alone thumbing through books quietly and peacefully.

It’s fun to see how Evan picks up on the little things people say and even humor. For example, when saying the wrong lyrics to a song one time for fun he caught on and made up his own words. For example, his Daniel Tiger, “Grown Ups Come Back” song. Calan and Dada were replacing the word ‘back’ with other words. A couple days later Evan started singing, “grown ups come book, chair, etc. After each one, he would burst into laughter. Interesting that a two-year old could pick up on this and create his own version of the silliness.

Notable quotes this month:

Listening to the Holberg suite, during slow and quiet passages Evan said, “the music is sad”. Then later when the music turned a little more bright and up-tempo he said, “the music is happy!”

Another time, Mama put on the Civil War station on Pandora radio. It was playing chill Appalachian blue grass violinish stuff. She went to the bathroom, and when she came out Evan was looking really sad…as a sad track played. He was sad simply because the music had changed.

“I’m sad. I miss my friend. I miss my friend, Mama”

Using his doctor’s kit from Christmas. Evan checked Mama and Dada with the stethoscope. We said, ‘thank you, Dr. E’ . Then he went and put it away, and when he came back to us he announced to Mama, “I’m not really a doctor”

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Highlights

• Calan performs in his recital and attends Mama’s studio recital
• Calan decides he loves to read music
• We create better habits for Evan keeping his toys organized
• Gran and Grandpa visit for the Holidays

Calan

As December got under way. Calan and Mama brought their respective colds into the Christmas season. They were the kind of colds that are essentially over, but lingering coughs for Mama and a “gagging” throat for Calan stayed with them for days. Calan actually volunteered to take naps a few different days in the pursuit of “getting better.” He also created a new routine this month with Dada, where in the mornings it was Dada’s job to give him his SLIT doses. Following SLIT, he and Dada would go pick oranges from the tree for Calan’s OJ. While Calan squeezed the oranges, Dada would prepare scrambled eggs and toast. This well-rounded meal with plenty of vitamin C would surely fix him up.

Despite working to beat the end of his cold, Calan was able to make it to his final few games of his third flag football season. He didn’t get in a lot of the plays, but there’s still something about showing up to play football that’s enough to motivate this kid. And, the most important thing is he had fun and wouldn’t miss it for anything.

This month Dada went to the far reaches of the shed and dug out from inside his old trunks some journals he’d kept as a kid. We started reading these with Calan before bed because he is always so interesting in hearing stories about Mama and Dada’s lives. It was interesting to share at Dada’s life at age 11, and seeing through Calan’s eyes at six. In some ways, 11 feels a lot older but in others Calan feels “mature” enough that he can relate. One thing for sure, we both liked to play around with the football and play basketball. Despite the similarities, Calan could not quite grasp Dada working 10-hour days doing prep work and washing dishes at Nanna and Poppa’s restaurant on Saturdays. (Dada can’t quite grasp this either but remembers all too well!)

Calan and Mama did a great job learning all of Calan’s violin holiday music this year. There were quite a bit more songs this year compared to last, and Calan was ready for his performance with all the other violinists. With an upgrade to his dress shirt, it was probably the last time he would fit into his suit and fancy shoes. With his funny gag issue left over from the cold, he was also armed with Skittles in his pocket for an emergency “lozenge” during the performance. It was probably more mental than anything, but he did well getting through. To celebrate, we hit up a ‘create your own pizza’ place before heading home. Calan definitely enjoyed that (thanks again to kicking that peanut allergy enough to this point!)

Calan also went through a phase this month where he became obsessed with learning to read musical notation. He loved working in his workbook, identifying the notes on the staff. He also started applying his new knowledge on the piano, learning to read the notes from his book, include both clefs. It seemed any chance he could get, he would run to the piano and start pecking away.

Speaking of peanuts, Dada got to join Mama and Calan this month on a Long Beach trip to see Dr. R. Calan got to try the most peanuts ever to date as usual on his visit (15 peanut M&Ms). He gobbled them down and passed his stress test (running down the hall for five minutes) with no problems. In fact, Calan was joking around saying that he wanted a tummy ache to come on, as if he was daring his body to react. All was good, and we even had some time to talk with Dr. R. as he wasn’t rushed with out appointment coming near the end of his day. Afterwards, we met up with Uncle Colin and Aunt Erin at the Soup Plantation, having a blast as usual with those two over mountains of food, silliness and good laughs. We stayed later than we anticipated, but endured the long ride home in the dark because we knew we would be greeted by Gran and Grandpa who had just driven in from up north. They were a day late from the original plan because their power had been out for days prior to their planned departure. Needless to say, it was a full day for everyone.

The Christmas break was as enjoyable as always with the boys. Overall, the group stayed in pretty steady spirits. This was in part to just laying low instead of doing too many outside activities, where the boys (and grownups) usually get worn out, and tempers can flare. Calan was able to see a movie (“Moana”) with Josiah and have a couple other friend meet-ups at the park, including his friend Augustine from school and his old pal Jake Scheeger. For Christmas, Calan’s favorite gifts were football themed: a real jersey with shoulder pads and a new “Junior” sized football from Uncle Colin.

Notable quotes this month:

Squeezing fresh OJ one morning:

Calan: “This is a big orange, Dada.”
Dada: “Yeah, it’s so big it’ll fill up the room when you squeeze it. Then you’ll have to swim in it.”
Calan: “No, I don’t have to swim in it, because I’ll just drink it!”

“No wonder this was a popular song. They’re doing math in that song.” Referring to the Proclaimer’s ’80s hit “500 miles (I’m gonna be)”

“It’s okay to make mistakes, because every time you make one you get smarter. So I should make more mistakes, huh?”

Fixing breakfast on morning:

Dada: “Calan, would you like cinnamon and honey on your toast this morning?”
Calan: “Nah, I wanna cut the sugar.”

Calan’s top ten things this month:
1. Music
2. Football and other sports
3. Lots of different foods
4 Trains and transportation
5 Fruit
6 Camping
7 Doing fun things
8 Cuddling with the whole family
9 Giving Evan a hug
10 My camera

Evan

Evan the mess maker finally pushed Dada to the brink this month. With Christmas on it’s way, and the old organization methods long gone (baskets around the house to keep toys contained), it was time to get control of the boys’ various toy collections. With this inspiration, we gathered up all the baskets that no longer kept toys in their places, and put them up in Evan’s closet. We labeled each one with things like cars, toys, animals, etc. and put everything from around the house in their assigned spot. With the baskets up high, we agreed that each day we could get out a few toys and return them at the end of the day. Of course, you could trade for another toy during the day. The boys loved it as it became a treat for them to “pick out” different toys from the baskets and play with them. Dada loved it because it meant no more endless quantities of play-things strewn about the house.

Evan tried some free-hand drawing this month as we remembered it was about this time that Calan started drawing a “boy” on the chalkboard. Evan’s boy was a bit different than anything resembling a boy, but he looked forward to giving it a try, saying “I want to draw a boy” as he steadied the chalk awkwardly in his little hand and scribbled in his Evan way.

Notable quotes this month:

Dada: “Evan how old are you?”
Evan: “I’m not old.”

Dada: “Evan could you please put all of the chalk away?”
Evan: “No. I just can’t.”

Dada: “Hi, baby”
Evan: “I’m not a baby. I’m Evan”

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Highlights

• Fall football starts
• Calan’s math explosion
• Good friends for T-Day
• Getting ready for Christmas

Calan

Time seems to move faster as you get older, is the old cliche. Sometimes you don’t even notice time passing, which proves it truly is flying. This month was no exception. Perhaps the end of the year can do that.

Flag football
For Calan, his highlights included the beginning of his third flag football season. As fall basketball wrapped up, it was on to the outdoors for late afternoon Wednesday practices and Saturday 10:oo am games. Our official coach was Kyle H. from the Y, who we’ve gotten to know a little bit from him refereeing basketball games and more importantly, being Evan’s buddy in childcare. Sharing the coaching duties with Kyle was a volunteer Dad, Ryan who we had just recently seen coaching basketball opposite courts from us during our Monday practices. We were pretty happy with this duo as  we expected them to be a little more “into” coaching and less hands off and go with the flow. Calan obviously responds and grows much better with the more involved coach. The team was large again, which has its pros and cons. Less playing time in practice and games, but Calan has a chance to get acquainted with more kids and be a part of a larger group. This was Calan’s second season in Division I, and he’s been doing great. Again, he doesn’t get a lot of “touches” in the games, but when he does he goes for it 100%, especially on offense. In fact, one run he got going so fast he couldn’t keep up with himself – video.  He even caught his first flag football pass – video. Defensively, he’s still a little reserved. But that’s ok, as we tend to see the more aggressive kids get banged up a bit more. We worked on the mouth guard again in the beginning, and he actually got comfortable with it. During the second game, we cut it down in size on the sideline so it wouldn’t push too far back in his mouth to make him feel like he was choking. Unfortunately, in the middle of the month he got hit pretty good with a cold. The kind that makes him feel “stuff” way back in his throat. Calan can’t handle this too well. His gag reflex gets pretty sensitive, and he has to have water ready to wash it down at a moment’s notice. Needless to say, putting a mouth guard in only makes things worse. Being the non-aggressive type works to his advantage then, so we’re getting by without the protective mouth gear.

Another effect of his yucky cold was missing out on our schedule Long Beach trip to challenge up on peanuts and check in with Dr. R. We had to postpone the appointment into late next month. No harm done in the long run as it just extends his treatment, and gives him a chance to continue more slowly as we ramp up peanut intake.

Other notable events this month included Calan being really interested in the presidential election. It was a bigger deal to him than we would have predicted, and he really got into tracking the votes on election night. He was rooting for Hillary simply because she was a “girl”, but also found Trump intriguing.

Calan has also been cruising along in his school books. What stuck out this month was his math. He would get on these rolls and want to just stay focused on learning, doing and repeating the exercises in his books. This lead to two things: first, getting pretty good at addition and subtraction, and even beginning multiplication. And, second, finishing his book for the year. So, we got the next books, and Calan started his second grade curriculum.

Notable quotes this month:

“I’m going to vote for myself when I’m 35. I was born in the United States and I’ve lived here more than four years.”

Hanging out in the downstairs office/guest room: “Dada, here’s something I’ve been wondering for years…actually something since I’ve been born.” Then, looking around the room, says: “Well, there’s no clock in here.”

“I’m glad I’m not a girl. Because if I had to have twins I would just…” (makes a face like someone passing out) “So I’m lucky I’m a boy…and Evan too.”

“People who want to get married, need to fall in love first. They will have to fall in love so they can get married.”

“If you do something for your allergies, it’s more important than getting poor.” He explained that he was making the point that you’ll die sooner from an allergy than you would from running out of money at the end of your life. Deep…

After clapping for the opposing team who had just run for a big gain, Dada says “Why are you clapping, Calan?”
“Because they didn’t make a touchdown.”

Seeing Calan limping around the house with a makeshift crutch, Dada says “Does your foot really hurt?”
“No I’m just pretending.”
“Why?”
“Because I like to. That’s just what kids do. Its part of playing”

Calan: “Mama said we’re having turkey for Thanksgiving.”
Dada: “Are you excited?”
Calan: “Yes, I think it came from a real turkey.”
Dada: How do you know?”
Calan: “Because there are two bones on top.”
Dada: “Why does that make you think it’s a real turkey?”
Calan: “Because I saw one on ‘Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.’ ”

Evan

Evan continues to be our little troublemaker. Leave something of importance out, he’ll find it and assume it’s free to play with. Leave out markers or a sharpie, also fair game to see what surfaces will accept these attractive, bold colors. Little by little, we’re getting better at putting things away. It’s not like we haven’t already, but it’s time to get serious. While he hasn’t done anything really terrible like breaking a TV or dumping smart phones in the toilet, he’s still our little Dennis the Menace. He keeps us on our toes all day and our exhaustion levels on high by the nighttime.

At Thanksgiving this year, it was fun to see Evan engage more with Uncle Colin and Erin, who visited us for dinner. Colin loves to play with the kids, and we knew Even would be perfect for him, since Colin hadn’t seen him since he was a baby. The two did push-ups together, and of course Evan landed a few wrestle-mania style “love attacks” on Colin. After dinner, we did our “triathlon” of a quick basketball/zip line session outside, then a few sets in the gym with some up-tempo music, then a long run/stroll outside in the cool night air. (This exercise routine has become the tradition this fall on Thursdays. The kids really love it.)

Evan and his brother also couldn’t wait to start decorating for Christmas right after Thanksgiving. We leveraged their eagerness to help get things out from under the house, unpacked and put up around the house. The tree was naturally their favorite. Of course, Evan didn’t actually leave much up with the other decorations. For him, it was a fresh batch of new toys. He can’t get enough of the battery operated, animated music makers that Gran has sent us over the years. At first it’s cute… but then he gets obsessed, and then a lot of yelling ensues when BOTH boys become obsessed over them. In the end, we’re left with all these festive “toys” strewn about the house IF they survive the onslaught of “playing” that goes on with them. To make life easier, after a week, said decorations disappeared one-by-one back under the stairs. Ah, a calmer life. We’ll see them again next year. 😉

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Highlights

• Disneyland trip
• Halloween!
• Gran and Grandpa come for a quick visit

Calan

This month was fairly routine for Calan with his main activities centering around school, basketball and of course, continued peanut dosing. We did have a nice, “non-routine” visit from Gran and Grandpa the first week of the month however. Gran stayed for more than a week, while Grandpa dropped in for the weekend so they could attend Aunt Billie’s 100th birthday celebration. Gran stayed with us most of the week prior and the week after. This made it much easier to care for Evan during Calan’s Long Beach trip to see Dr. R this month. In fact, it made regular days much easier. 🙂 Gran also stayed with Evan on our 2nd annual Disneyland trip this month with Calan.

Disneyland
This year, our trip to Disney was a little less complicated than last year. Not only was it the second time, so we didn’t have to plan as much, we didn’t have to worry about taking a lot of special snacks and/or figuring out peanut-safe places to eat. We did have the day’s peanut dose to consider, but that was simplified by packing six peanut M&Ms. He had plenty of time to eat those standing in the long It’s a Small World line.

Calan is still on the reserved side about all there is to see and do at DL, staying close to Mama and taking it all in as we ventured around the busy theme park. This year was a bit more crowded than last, but you just go with it. Luckily, we aren’t in need (yet) of the more popular, thrilling rides that come with the notorious longer lines. While we did wait 20-40 mins. at times, it was tolerable, and Calan didn’t seem to mind. Of course, we did end up joking that Disneyland should be called “Disneyline”.

Calan’s favorite ride this year was the Casey Jr. Circus train. He also loved the monorail and It’s a Small World, of course. Unfortunately the main train that goes around the park was closed this year for maintenance. We had talked about going on the Big Thunder Mountain train ride, after easing Calan’s apprehension about it… but lo and behold, when we got the the entry gate in the late afternoon finally, the ride had just shut down for repairs. Next year, on that one.

We weren’t able to find any of the main characters to get a classic Disneyland photo, such as the ones where you stand with a towering Mickey or Minnie…but that was okay with Calan as he seemed a little “shy” about meeting up with anyone from the Mickie Mouse crew.

All and all, it was fun for us as parents to see the experience through Calan’s eyes again. His excitement was mostly contained, but he clearly enjoyed it. At the end, after the sun had long set, Calan really wanted to spend some of his own money to buy a treat and a bubble making machine we’d seen a hundred different kids carrying around the whole day. It was a long decision making process, but he finally ended up with some over-sized Mickey lollipops. Before we exited, we stopped at a stand where he bought the really cool bubble maker…you know, the kind that lights up, plays music and spews out hundreds of tiny bubbles. 😉 We stayed until just after 9. Calan, exhausted from the day, slept most of the way home.

Notable quotes this month:

“This is my question mark Position. If you ask me something and I don’t know the answer this is the position I will show you. ” –After asking him where Evan’s missing shoes were.

Dada heading out the door to work one morning, Calan acting like a superhero: “I’ll move out of your way Dada. I’m a superhero that keeps people from being late to work.”

Playing Frisbee with grandpa in the backyard, the two struggling for a moment on a couple tosses: “I’m too little and you’re too old, Grandpa!”

While getting stuck in the middle of a rumble tumble pileup: “I don’t like this part of my life right now!”

“I’m happy I’m not a girl because if I was a girl I’d worry about having twins.”

“Mama, I’m glad I got a flashlight for my birthday. All these years I’ve been wanting a flashlight for my 6th birthday.”

Looking at himself in the mirror: “Wow, I’m getting skinny. I need to eat more pizza.”

Running up to Mama one afternoon: “Maybe we can build a tree house using the natural resources in our back yard.”

Evan

Halloween
This year, Even really got into the spirit of the late October holiday. This is officially the last Halloween where we get to “pick” what one of our kids dresses up as. Next year, we can only imagine what Evan will really want to be. That said, input did come indirectly from the little guy. During the last month or so, Evan showed an affinity for the Statue of Liberty. While playing with blocks, he would stack them up and proclaim he’d built the infamous green lady holding her book and torch. He’d even stack other items into his own version of the statue, like small boxes of food in the kitchen. When thinking of a costume, it was clear Evan had to BE the Statue of Liberty. So, with a little searching and some luck, Mama found the perfect costume for Evan. Needless to say, when it arrived he was fully into the spirit of putting it on (for a little while anyway), and of course, was cuter than ever.

The boys had two fun outings related to Halloween this year. The first was at the Y for an event they put on, complete with tons of games, arts and crafts and spooky decorations. The kids wore their costumes, which they loved. Calan had fun of course in his full body glow-in-the-dark, skeleton costume, and Evan surprisingly handled the whole evening really well. In his usual tempered excitement, he explored and soaked up everything about the party that he could. His favorites were the throwing games, such as tossing small bean bags through a giant jack-o-lantern’s eyes and flinging ping pong balls at little white cups that looked like ghosts. Before our eyes, Evan seemed much older than we were used to, as we didn’t have to manage him like he was just tagging along with the family. We could simply enjoy him taking in and participating on his own in the whole experience. Some of the Y staff noticed too, commenting what a “cool” kid he was and how “fun” he was to watch going all around at his moderate pace. We’re glad he had fun. He even wore his costume the entire time we were there, so photo ops were everywhere!

Halloween night also went great for the kids. To keep things simple, we headed out on our own, but were quickly met by our two neighbors across the street (Molly and her mom Carrie and Emerald Baker with her two young boys). We walked with them for most of the trick or treating, which was nice. We hit all the good spots on a few streets and took in the Halloween spirit together, watching the kids cruising through the neighborhood. Our favorite was watching both Calan and Evan running up to doors, then calling out “trick or treat” as delighted homeowners opened their front doors. Evan seemed to take all the cues delivered by his older brother and had no problem getting in place each time in order to fill his plastic jack-o-lantern with treats. When it was time to head back, the kids threw off their customs, and we dumped all the candy on the kitchen table as if we’d just come back from robbing a bank. For Calan, this was extra special this year as it was the first time he could try practically anything he wanted, except for candy containing actual peanuts. While he could eat those and be fine, we still reserve peanuts for his doses. By next Halloween, treats with peanuts will probably just be his natural way of “dosing”. For now, he enjoyed a mini Kit Kat and Twix bar for the very first time. Evan is not so lucky…yet. We had his ‘safe’ treats pre-arranged, and he didn’t know the difference.

A couple other quick updates on Evan: For fun, we set Evan on Calan’s old toilet seat a few times this month. Evan seemed to get a kick out of it while we encouraged him to “go”. By the third or fourth time, he actually did go a little bit, but it was probably just a fluke, as he wasn’t able to do it again the next few tries. Oh well, it’s just a tiny introduction to seeing what it’s like to be a big boy. That didn’t stop us from watching the famous “Poop Song” on YouTube a dozen times though. Evan can’t get enough of that.

Evan also tried some good ol’ home cooked gravy this month. Mama made some pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy one night. It was delicious. Evan called the gravy “gravis”, and he seems to take after Dada when it comes to putting gravy or sauces on breaded meats. Calan, not so much. Dada sees many gravy laden meals shared with Evan in the future! On left-over night though with the pork chops and delicious veges that came with, Evan turned down the gravy for some reason. As it turned out, he didn’t eat much of the pork chops anyway as he crunched away on his broccoli and sweet potatoes. Dada’s line to Evan: “You can’t just eat your vegetables. You need to finish your meat!”

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Highlights

• ROA classes and basketball season starts
• Calan looses his front teeth!

Calan

Wednesdays…
September always sets the stage for new routines going into the fall. This time around, we ended the month with River Oaks classes starting on Mondays and Tuesdays and basketball season at the Y — Monday early evening practices and games Friday nights. Because of work schedules, Mama got to establish these new routines with the boys during the week for the most part. A fun tradition for the boys came on Wednesdays though. Wednesday afternoons are the one part of the workweek where Dada can be at home, and Mama is teaching at the studio. We made it extra fun, by choosing a different activity to do each Wednesday after Evan got up from his nap. With the weather still warm, we hit the beach on one Wednesday. On the next, we hung out at the train station, then road the Camarillo trolley all around town. On another, we went to the boys’ favorite park, called the “yellow park” up in Mission Oaks where Evan showed us he could go down the big boy twisty slide all by himself, and Calan jumped in with the other kids to play and go wild on the big playground. On the final Wednesday, we ventured out to a bike trail, Chesebro Canyon in Agoura Hills where Calan got to try out some light mountain biking and Evan cruised along in his buggy behind Dada’s bike.

Losing front teeth
After loosing his front two bottom teeth in June, Calan was more than eager to see his top front teeth getting loose. Of course, as one began to wiggle, it became a habit of Calan’s to play and fidget with the loosening tooth. Before you knew it, out came one and then a few weeks later the other one nudged out. Suddenly, Calan looked like an older kid, with the big gap in the middle of his upper line of teeth. Depending on how fast his new teeth come in, the timing looks pretty good to learn and sing “All I want from Christmas…” for the holiday coming up in a couple months.

More growing up…
It’s fun to observe Calan growing up in terms of how he’ll stop and think about something and what it means. For example, we were recently listening to the old sappy love song “I Cross My Heart”, by George Strait. As he listened a couple times, Calan volunteered that the song is pretty and that when he listens, it makes him feel like someone has left, or moved away, or has died. Just a feeling he shared entirely on his own.

Another step up in his thinking came one day after a beach trip. In this instance, he showed a bit of empathy. It’s a lot to do for Dada to get the boys unloaded, car unpacked, then everyone in the shower with a thorough washing to get all the beach sand washed away. Then it’s on to the kitchen and getting dinners together. Even though Mama usually has some good leftovers prepared, making it a straightforward process, it’s a lot of steps to pull it off in a reasonable time frame. As the boys were settled down and eating, Dada had a chance to put together his own dinner. Calan looked up as if to ask for something and said, “Dada…” Then, paused. “Actually, I’ll wait until you get your food, start eating, and feel good. Then I’ll ask you for some more milk.” As it turned out, Dada encouraged Calan to get his own milk, which he did. It was nice to see this maturity in thinking about someone else, their state and what they needed before his own needs were met.

Calan’s basketball season started off with some interesting games. In particular, one was a bit wild with kids playing hard, reaching aggressively for the ball, bumping each other, etc. Part of this was due to the personality of the kids perhaps, but the other part is that the referee for this game was letting almost everything go, despite many of the actions not being permitted per the rules of the division, and of course general basketball foul guidelines. Calan of course did not partake in any of this aggressively play, which is always his style with the other kids. I asked him after the game, why he didn’t reach in more and attack the ball (like he does in the backyard when he plays against Dada!). He said that he didn’t want to break any rules because the referee might blow his whistle at him. Just one example of how Calan likes to follow directions and rules outside of his familiar surroundings at home. 😉

Notable quotes this month:

One day while snacking on some tasty ham rolls together: “I love this ham. Dada, no matter how much you like this him, I like it more.”

Making up his own song one day: “My name is Earless. I have no eeears. That means I can’t heeeear anything I say.”

“This is the best time I’m having in my life!” – after playing Dada in a basketball game for the first time in a while and “beating” him.

Dada: “Aren’t you supposed to be eating lunch?”
Calan: “I already ate.”
Dada: “Oh, what did you have?”
Calan: “Nothing.”

Another sweet, out of the blue quote: “Here’s the reason Evan and I play a lot together: Because we love each other!”

“I want to check it later, but I want to eat it now.” – Referring to a new kind of protein bar Mama just got out for him.

“Sometimes when I sleep I get tired…of sleeping.”

Said to Calan: “How old are you?”
Calan’s response: “Almost seven, and just turned six.”

“Sometimes I miss someone that’s moved away so much that I forget them.”

One night, after turning out the lights and tucking Calan into bed: “I want you to tell me a short story about your life.”

Said after attending his first writing and literature class at school this year: “I’m going to practice writing in my writing log. By the time of the next writing and literature class I’m going to be the best at writing.”

One day, while playing around with his football indoors: Calan throws the ball a littler too hard across room to…no one. Hits the window hard. Mommy asks in a reflex response, “Did that hit the window?” Calan: “Yeah, but it didn’t break it.”

Calan: “Mama why won’t you have another baby?”
Mama: “Do you want me to have another baby?”
Calan: “Yeah”
Mama: “Why?”
Calan: “I want more kids.”

Heading to the park one day –
Dada: “Hey, you should ride your pedal car all the way to the park sometime.”
Calan: “I would, but I never have any letters.”
Dada: “Huh?”
Calan: “Well, not the kind like an O or and N, but someone who will let me ride it there.”

Evan

Cognitive growth spurt?
Evan continues to be our little guy who has the ability to seem so small, yet so big at the same time. It’s a characteristic he’s really good at. This month, Mama used a term to describe him and some of his peculiar behaviors: “cognitive growth spurt”. Of course, we always see little moments where Evan is learning how to do something, communicate better or where he shows us a deeper emotion towards a given situation. This month though, there were a few things that stuck out as if his brain was having a little growth spurts of sorts.

In particular, as he begins to speak more and more, he attempts to say longer strings of words to ask for or describe something. Often times he’s trying to get out words and stories so much that you can really hear him struggling in his speech as he attempts to force words out of his mouth. You wonder if his brain knows what to say, but at the same time doesn’t know how to say it. His version of stuttering is pretty cute. The more he works on speaking, the better he’ll get.

Another interesting example came one night when he woke up at 11:00pm crying. This is extremely rare for Evan, as we could count on one hand how many times he’s done that since his first year. This night was odd though. It turns out he would awake every 45 minutes yelling for his stars. His stars are the ones from his turtle that shine all over the room. We usually just turn them on before bed, and they turn off automatically after 45 minutes. Tonight though, he decided he wouldn’t sleep, and when the room went dark from the turtle going to sleep, he would cry out. Perhaps he just wasn’t having a good sleeping night, but it begs the question as to why. He wasn’t sick, and he’d had a normal couple of days before. But for some reason, it was important that he stay awake and keep an eye on his stars… all night. His screaming and crying out wasn’t just being ornery, they were full blown primal screams. Completely out of the ordinary for Evan. Needless to say, we figured out how to strap the turtle to a little side table and teach Evan how to turn it on himself. Problem solved. Sleep recovery, next step.

Also this month, Evan came up to Mama slowly one morning with his head hanging down low. He sat down beside his Mama, and she asked if he was feeling sad…and Evan replied “Yeeeah”. So Mama asked if he wanted her to help him feel better, and he said “Yeeeah”. They hung out for a few minutes cuddling and picked up a nearby book to read. This is something we’ve seen lately; Evan seemingly in touch with his feelings, enough that he can kind of communicate them even if he’s not sure what and why he’s feeling a certain way.

Notable quotes this month:

Dada getting Evan up from nap one day after Mama had put him down and gone to teach. Evan points and tugs at Dada’s shirt in the dim light and says, “This is not Mama. “

E: Dada, I want a peanut (after hearing about Calan eating peanuts during this last month)
D: Well, we don’t want to give you peanuts just yet. You could be allergic, just like you’re allergic to wheat and eggs.
E: I don’t touch wheat
D: That’s right, you’re allergic, so you don’t want to touch wheat or eggs
E: Don’t worry.
D: What did you just say? (surprised)
E: I don’t know…
D: It sounded like you said ‘don’t worry’, did you say that?
E: Yeah.

[Show as slideshow]

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!”

[Show as slideshow]

Highlights

• Fun with Nanna and Poppa
• Swimming lessons come to our house
• Football, football, football
• Evan goes on first “movie adventure” and starts swimming

Calan

Nanna and Poppa visit
This month began while Nanna and Poppa were here for a special visit. The kids always find fun, little “themes” with Nanna and Poppa when they visit, and this time was no different. Most notable was Calan and Poppa solving mysteries together. Their toughest case was a loose coin that was found downstairs on the floor. It was a 10¢ Mexican coin. At first, no one knew how it got on the floor of the family room, or even how it came to be in our house in the first place. Together, Poppa and Calan asked questions and narrowed it down that Dada had been to Mexico City years ago, and had saved some Mexican coins. The coins were brought out earlier this year when Calan became interested in money and currency. Perhaps, this coin fell on the floor upstairs. When Calan discovered that stepping on a coin with his bare foot caused it to stick to the bottom of his foot, he hypothesized that the coin traveled downstairs on his the sole of his feet. Mystery solved!

Another theme during the trip had to do with an invisible bunny named “Harvey”. This little bunny was both illusive and mischievous. Whenever you tried to find him, it was…well impossible, because he was invisible. At times, Calan said that he could in fact see Harvey. He pointed out that Harvey had very long ears; and indeed, they were 85-feet long. Whew… But for the days that Nanna and Poppa were here, Harvey was responsible for anything then went wrong: when items went missing or were moved, or when unexplained messes were discovered. Harvey also made appearances on the pages of books we were reading with Calan. He’d literally pop up, right in the middle of the story. He was quite the guy, that little bunny.

Poppa also introduced “got your nose” to Calan. If you’re quick enough, you can swipe at someone’s face at the speed of light and capture their nose. If you hold your hand just right, you can show the person their nose in your hand. 😉 Calan had a lot of fun with this, although he preferred getting noses rather than having his taken.

Nanna got to enjoy many precious moments with the kids, sometimes just sitting and talking outside, walking around with Evan, or reading a book with Calan or Evan on the couch. She also did some math on the abacus with Evan, which was a sweet moment to see Nanna, the teacher with her grandson. We enjoyed our time, and even got to reminisce watching old videos and family photos Poppa had digitized and brought for us to watch.

As usual, the visit went by quickly, and before we knew it we were taking Nanna and Poppa back to the airport. Calan stayed home from the trip to Burbank, but as we pulled away, waving with windows down, Calan stretched his hand out toward Poppa alongside the car and yelled “got your nose!” Sorry, Poppa, hopefully you get your nose back soon.

Swimming and Football
Calan stayed pretty busy this month with his swimming lessons, football schedule and playing with friends. On the football side, Calan continued to enjoy his practices and games, despite being on the large team and not getting to touch the ball much. One fun moment came though when Dada urged Jose to influence the other coach to let Calan run a play for the first time this season. Calan had been eager to run for days. In fact, much of his play time in the house recently was running imaginary plays with his football. He was nearly obsessed. yelling “down, set, hike!”, then scurrying through the family room, around the kitchen, living room, and dodging imaginary tacklers always to score a touchdown. At times, Dada became the guy to defend some of his fantasy plays and was instructed to try to catch him. Of course, Calan believed he was getting faster and faster, showing us he was faster than when he was four and faster than the day before as he “trained” each day. Well, his intensity paid off on the play he had the chance to run. With Nanna and Poppa looking on, he got the ball and bootlegged around the left side, then turned up his speed as he raced along the sideline to the goal line with the opposing team in pursuit. Just as he crossed, he scored: https://youtu.be/xwQHApPywW4

As Calan’s football obsession continued, we coordinated some “off-field” games with friends. We had fun a couple Sunday afternoons at the Rodriquez family church. The intensity dominated here too as Calan worked hard to get the ball and be a part of the plays, unlike his structured YMCA games. And of course, after each Y Saturday game as time permitted, Calan loved running plays and racing his new friends Steve, Susie and Joe from the Trapp family. Calan also got much better at throwing and catching. When he wasn’t tearing through the house carrying the football, he and Dada were having some good throw and catch sessions in the living room. After a few days, Calan would have moments where he could catch almost anything thrown his way from the corner of the living room to the top of the first floor landing (yes, Mama we played safe). It was a quick and fun way for Calan to improve and get comfortable catching the football. Next season: practice throwing skills outside. 😉

On the swimming front, lessons moved from the early morning at another host’s house to an early afternoon session M-Th at our pool. There was a little extra activity because we hosted a second class to help out coach Lynne. Calan did great, continuing to improve his strokes. His hardest thing to remember was keeping “tight fingers” as he moved the water with his hands, and of course, taking breaths when swimming across the pool. He especially loved fin day on Wednesdays because he gets to go fast. He likes going as fast as he can, which Lynne quickly points out is okay as long as technique is good. He also got “cleared” to use his goggles for swimming but not to become dependent on them. Combined with swim play-dates with friends like the Rodriquez clan or Trapp family, Calan is getting to spend some good time in the pool this summer.

Notable quotes this month:

Dada just before a warm Saturday flag football game: “Don’t drink all your water at one time.”
Calan: “But the Earth has more water. We can just dig for it.”

“I’m so cold. If I was warmer, I’d still be cold.”

Mama and Dada were talking about how Calan forgot to subtract on one of his math activities…he had added instead. Overhearing, Calan looked up and said, “Oh, c’mon guys, don’t just talk about it…sing about it!”

After trying to go potty one night before bed and nothing came out: “My body says, ‘OK we’re not gonna go potty now, the food hasn’t dissolved yet.'”

Calan: “Did you know cats are nocturnal and we’re diurnal?”
Dada: (feeling particularly tired at the moment) “I want to be both, just so I can sleep all night and then sleep all day.”
Calan: “Well…Dada, that’s what bears do in the winter.”

When talking one morning about ages: “Mama, why do people turn numbers and not letters?”

“Sometimes I try and kick my butt and do butt-kickers to keep from people grabbing my flag.” (Oh, we’re talking about a football drill here)

Evan

Evan had a couple of fun “firsts” this month. Since Calan’s swim coach Lynne needed our pool for 4 weeks to use for another class we worked out that she would introduce Evan to the pool officially one Sunday afternoon. Evan was comfortable floating around and getting “dunked” in the water last summer. This summer, he had forgotten that it’s okay to get in the water and was a little apprehensive. Just when he was back in the groove with Dada though, we handed him over to Lynne for his 30-minute session. He didn’t like that so much. With Evan crying, we hid ourselves inside with Calan and watched out the window. Within a few minutes, Lynne was able to calm him down to first be comfortable with her. Twenty minutes later, Evan was happily diving under water in Lynne’s grasp and retrieving “treasures” at the bottom of the pool. He had accomplished the first step toward learning to swim. Lynne gave us some instructions, including buying some new treasure with Evan and letting him go under water daily with us. It’s safe to say that Evan looks forward to his swim sessions with both Mama and Dada (and Calan too, of course).

Evan also went to his first movie in a theater this month. Like his swimming lesson, he was unsure at first as we walked though the door and into the dark theater with speakers booming out a preview. Evan stopped in his tracks, then started inching backwards, saying “too loud, too loud.” Once we helped him in and got settled though he was glued to Dada’s lap the entire movie. We saw “The Secret Life of Pets” (co-written by Mama’s old student’s Dad Cinco). He enjoyed the movie, but needed the security of Dada (and Mama, who joined us a few minutes in coming from work). The “movie adventure” was also extra special because we went with our new friends, the Trapp family from flag football. Evan and Dada sat next to Lizzy…who is just a couple months older than Evan but was a movie veteran. Needless to say, she didn’t stay in her seat the entire movie.

A sweet moment with Calan, we have to record was when one morning Calan was doing math exercises at the kitchen table. Evan came up and started to nuzzle Calan with the top of his head. Calan instantly got annoyed with the interruption from his little brother, but then realized that Evan was just showing him some loving affection. Just then Evan said, “I love you CAW-yon.” Calan immediately took a break from his work, and they hugged for nearly a minute just cuddling head to head. That’s good stuff.

Notable quotes this month:
Evan loves baths, and one Sunday evening as Dada drew the water Evan said, “Evan take a bath. Take off shirt and take off pants.” As Evan begins to say short sentences and other strings of thoughts and words, this one was especially cute.

Sometimes when we stop doing something with Evan, we say “last time”. He likes to apply this to other things like “last time piece” to say one more piece…or “last time book” for that one final book.

[Show as slideshow]

Highlights

• Evan turns two
• Nanna and Poppa arrive for their visit
• Calan graduates kindergarten and celebrates with school’s graduation and year-end party
• Morning Cloak caterpillar becomes “Hatcher” the butterfly

Calan

Summer is here…
This first real month of summer never quite feels like it’s here, but little by little the season lets us know. For starters, Calan’s late spring session of workshops at school ended and he got to participate in River Oaks’ school graduation ceremony by playing violin with the “school band.”

Swimming classes also started up with our favorite instructor, Coach Lynne. The first four weeks took place at another house in Camarillo, at 7:45 in the morning. Each day, Mama and Calan would get ready and scoot out the door for the half-hour lesson then catch up with Dada and Evan as Dada went off to work. Calan picked up mostly where he left off last season, this time looking even stronger and faster as he practices the various strokes and forms Lynne has the kids practicing to perfection.

One early summer night, Mama came home with a dark, fuzzy caterpillar. We didn’t know if he’d survive but Mama was determined to give him everything he needed. Well, it didn’t take long because within a day he’d found a spot in his bowl and turned into a chrysalis, hanging upside down from a small twig. He hung out that way for about ten days, when one morning we found the outer layer had been shed, and we had a Morning Cloak butterfly as a momentary pet. Of course, we had to release him so we set out in the back yard when we thought it was time. At first, “Hatcher” didn’t do anything and we thought the worst. But with a little help, we got him fluttering his wings and he took off out of the bowl, flew around the yard for a few seconds, then disappeared into the jungle, high up in the back trees. The boys were excited and were ready to find some more caterpillars to see grow up.

We also kicked off the summer season of flag football. This is Calan’s second season of football, and it’s a bit different this time around. Last time it was a young, small team of five kids with our friend Jose coaching the team. This time around, we’ve moved up a division as Calan really wanted to be on the same team as Josiah. This meant sneaking Calan in with a slightly older team of 6-8 year olds. The team size was twice as large as well, at 10 kids. There were also three coaches total, in addition to Jose this time. Calan didn’t seem to notice at all, but the experience is a little different because you have these bigger, faster kids getting many more chances to carry and throw the ball. And with many more players, that leaves Calan with next to no opportunities to ever run with the ball — something he was really looking forward to. So far, his “assignment” has been to be the center and kick most of the plays off on offense as he hands off to the QB. At least he gets to touch the ball each play. That doesn’t mean we still won’t urge the coaches to let him have his chance sometimes too.

Both grandparents visit in the same month!

The new tradition of Gran and Grandpa coming for Mama’s and Evan’s birthdays resumed this month. As May spilled into June, we had our usual fun with “the Gs”, flying kites, playing board games, reading books and lots of play time in the park. The biggest event that we got to share with the Gs besides Calan’s solo violin recital and Mama’s birthday at end of May, was Evan’s birthday. More on that to come…

As sad as we were to see Gran and Grandpa depart back to Oregon at the beginning of the month, we were as glad to welcome Nanna and Poppa for a visit at the tale end of the month. The kids quickly warmed up to Nanna and Poppas as they arrived in the early evening of June 29, flying in from NM. Evan immediately wanted to play ball with the big, bouncy beach balls and Calan was eager to show off his missing teeth and the tops of his new, permanent teeth coming in. “Hand”, thumbs up, and the grip were all back…although, this time Evan was having fun with these as he played with Poppa. Calan learned “got your nose” from Poppa, and loved it. More next month since Nanna and Poppa’s visit was mostly in the beginning of July.

Calan also participated in a week-long art camp at the YMCA. It was the first time he had been away from the house (and Mama and/or Dad) for the bulk of the day…and multiple days in a row to boot. At times it seemed more about managing that process than it did about his experience at the camp. It takes a lot to ensure Calan has all the right food/water throughout the day to make it through the longer schedule. One challenge we had to get through was his eyes being extra sensitive. Perhaps it was being out in the sun most of the day, but as he rubbed them, sunscreen inevitably worked its way in and the red and itchy eye syndrome set in big time for him. He seemed to enjoy the camp aside from that, loving mostly the time they got to play water games and go on little walks…but Mama especially was glad when it ended. In fact, we decided to opt out of the second camp we’d signed up for in August. I think these things will get easier as he gets older.

Of course, this month began an exciting chapter in Calan’s OIT allergy therapy. He started peanut dosing! Mama is now documenting the complete story on her own site here: oitmommyloves.me

Notable quotes this month:

“I want to go to the money store and buy a thousand dollars.”

Dada: You use to make your own toast when you were four.
Calan: Yeah, I was just a little more independent back then.

“Dada, whenever I do something kind, I really want you to give me some money.”

Evan

Just like that, it’s Evan’s big month. He has turned two, and if he wasn’t a full on toddler before he officially is now. The big (little) guy had a great day laying low with family, including Gran and Grandpa. He sported a new outfit (thanks, Gran!) and had a lot of fun with his favorite things at his little party after his afternoon nap: balloons and candles. In fact, we lit the candles several times on his cupcakes so we could all sing Happy Birthday and blow them out. He loved it each time, begging to “do it again!” after each one. For his birthday, he got a new tricycle, a small, wooden train set of his own, a nice beach/sand toy kit, some clothes and some great books from the Gs. He also got a personalized music CD from Nanna and Poppa, which was really cool. We had fun watching him dance and run around with his party balloons after his party. As always, we figure he may have had no idea what the extra fun was all about but he soaked it up and loved it.

As Evan becomes more verbal, we’re always taken aback when he says something. What really stuck out this month was when he would voice something he wanted to do that he liked. The best examples of these were “Fly da kite!” whenever we went to the park with Grandpa to try out a kite. Grandpa picked up a new kite this year, so it was extra special, and elicited many “fly da kites” for a few days…and the rest of the month for that matter! He also enjoys riding in the shopping cart at the store with Mama and promptly announces “Ride da cart!” when the opportunity arises.

One thing Evan did this month at the Y was change his response to being dropped off at in the child care area. Usually, when getting left in child care, Evan gets a little reserved or even upset when parting ways with Mama or Dada. It usually has to be quick, and we have to sneak out as best we can. Evan will sometimes cry, then get over it in a minute. One day though, Mama opened the door and lo and behold Evan walked in excitedly all by himself and didn’t even look back at Mama. Later when Mama returned to pick him up, he didn’t come running over. It’s nice to see him become comfortable in a situation that normally stresses him out. 🙂 On another note, Evan calls child care “Kyle-care”…he’s trying to say “child” but the irony is that his favorite guy in there to play and hang out with is a college student named Kyle.

[Show as slideshow]

Highlights

• Calan loses his first tooth
• Recitals, recitals, recitals…
• Basketball season winds down
• The Gs arrive for their early summer visit

Calan

As Calan inches towards six, we met with one tell-tale sign of our first born becoming a big kid. One of his bottom teeth started to loosen, and after several days of “playing” with it, the tooth came out all on its own. In fact, it had no problem coming out and did so overnight while Calan was asleep. After some pretty good searching around his room, we weren’t able to find the missing tooth, really hitting home the idea of “losing a tooth”. The tooth fairy had no issues with receiving a note that the tooth had been lost, and she left her gift just the same. Calan was quite proud of his new gap in his front lower row of teeth, and was excited to see the new, permanent tooth already making its way up through the gum line just behind the old “baby” tooth. Any chance he could, Calan would show other kids his mouth and talk about his lost tooth–a girl teammate on his basketball team or a small group of a few kids at his new hip-hop class. One funny part to the tooth coming out event is that Calan had visited the dentist just a week and half prior…the dentist said it’ll probably come out in “two months”. It lasted just ten days.

This month was definitely the season of recitals. For Calan, he had his group violin recital in Thousand Oaks, then his first ever solo recital in Moorpark a couple weeks later. Sandwiched in between was Mama’s studio recitals for both voice and piano, which Calan also attended. The group recital was nice as Calan was able to play multiple songs with the large group of other players for the first time. His solo recital was just right for him, as he got right up in front a pretty packed church and played his first individual song “May Song” in under a minute, did a quick bow, and sat back down. Easy as pie. Gran and Grandpa had just arrived for their early summer visit, so it was nice to attend the recital with them too.

Calan’s great basketball season at the Y closed out this month too. His little team, with so many strong players and the fantastic coach, won all their games against the five other teams. We really hope to get Coach Scott back for the next season and keep many of the same players if possible, as Calan seemed to really enjoy his time at practices and of course, the games.

May was also filled with a late spring session at River Oaks. Calan took some classes, including self-defense and improvisation. He had never taken a class like self-defense and was actually a little worried about going to the point of telling us he didn’t want to go. We talked about it to where he felt comfortable enough, put his brave hat on and went for it. It was a great example of how you can try something you’re not entirely sure about, and you find that it’s something you really like. Going into the class he actually cried a little, but after the first class (and each of the five classes actually), he would come home and talk about and show the different moves he had learned in the class. After day one, he even voiced how he was looking forward to going again. 🙂 It helped that the instructor is just right with the kids; making it fun, upbeat and educational all at the same time. Can’t beat that…

Notable quotes this month:

Calan was asking when we can do something. Dada said, “We’ll plan for it and do it someday…” Calan quickly responded with, “But today is someday, and tomorrow is someday… every day is someday.”

As he shakes his head slowly with a slight smile, Calan said, “People change and grow all the time. You can’t make it stop.” This was after Dada looked at his loose tooth and said he’s growing up and gave him a big hug.

“Before my life ends, I’ll give you hugs always,” to Mama one afternoon.

When first learning about homonyms this month, Calan liked to bring up examples he discovered. In the beginning some of his examples would be the same meaning, and others would be actual homonyms like “two” and “to”. But one in particular caught us off guard, when he said, “Chicken! The chicken that we eat and the chicken that’s like on a farm.”

With the peanut dosing just about to get underway in early June, we talked a little more in-depth about his overall OIT treatment. While he truly seams completely fine with it all, there was one moment where he responded back with, “Why did you sign me up for this?”

Dada: Calan, how hungry are you?
Calan: I’m not hungry, I’m starving.

Evan

This was Evan’s last month to be “one”. It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years already that we were anticipating this little guy coming into the world. Nonetheless, he’s getting ready to turn two. When Calan was this age, he was a full inch shorter than Evan is now…so our “little” baby is definitely growing fast, as if he wants to catch up with his bigger brother who is almost four years older.

This month, Evan decided to up his skills when it came to descending stairs, and started walking down the stairs on his own with regularity.  This as opposed to sliding feet first on his tummy. The only problem though is that every five times or so, he misses a step toward the bottom and takes a tumble. This usually happens when he’s carrying something. Perhaps he can’t see the last step or two and tries to walk as if he’s on the flat floor. At any rate, he’s learning, and Mama and Dada have learned to help coach him to use the railing.

In other news, Calan is good at “coaching” Evan NOT to enter his room. A couple months ago Calan’s room at gotten really clean and tidy when we got his new desk. But as the days went buy, more things like trains and other toy sets were taken out. Evan loves to investigate and pick up pieces that are lying around. We’re in a phase right now where this really bothers Calan. So… for the time being, Evan is just not allowed to enter his big brother’s room. This sets up some pretty stressful moments if Evan makes an attempt…but the alternative is definitely worse. 😉

One activity that came out this month that Evan really showed a likeness for was coloring…specifically, markers. In the past, he’s been drawn to markers, crayons, pens, etc. but we had to end up putting them all “away” so he wouldn’t walk around the house and turn any surface into a art canvas. Funny, this is definitely something different from when Calan was really little. There probably isn’t a single item (a book, a wall, etc.) that Calan did toddler graffiti on. We were just lucky in that department. This month though, we made designated times to use markers and crayons with Evan, and he always loves it. If you even say the word “makers” he’ll quickly come running repeating, “markers!” He’ll sit at the art table and pick up marker after marker and scribble to his heart’s content. Little by little, he’s understanding the more structured approach to using markers and even water color paints. Now, if we could just teach him to put each of the caps back on the markers. One step at a time.