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Highlights

• Calan continues to enjoy basketball and starts swimming at “The Y”
• We learn more about Evan’s food allergies

Calan

Calan continued his fascination with coins, quarter collecting and counting money in general. From all this interest, he’s learning to count collections of various coins more easily now and has begun understanding more of the value of money. At this age though, the value is probably more to do with just having money and not so much about what you can do with it. First things first… For example, we started an old tradition that Dada had as a kid with Poppy – the two brothers would hold a pajama race before bed time, to see who was the fastest at getting ready. Whoever is the pajama race winner would get a few pieces of “pocket change” from Poppy. Calan immediately loved this game, eagerly collecting his winnings at the end (he always beats Evan of course). Dada especially loves it because a race to get ready for bed means the kids get ready quickly without any dilly-dallying.

April also was the heart of Calan’s basketball season at the YMCA, having the first 5 of his 8 games during the month. Watching the games is so much easier this season, since as YMCA members, we can use the childcare area for Evan during the games. Calan’s team is also pretty darn good. For whatever reason, we ended up with most of the “best” playing kids who signed up for the season. Combined with such a focused, enthusiastic coach, the team all but demolishes its opponents. Some scores this month were: 30-20, 26-4, and 44-24. Calan even scored a basket two games in a row. This is a huge improvement from last season where we can’t remember if he scored any baskets…maybe one or two? What sticks out the most in Calan’s personal basketball skills is his dribbling. He seems to be into running and dribbling, and focuses on it better than anyone else when the time comes. Dada and Calan also started playing basketball “games” in the back yard more regularly to help him get more consistent, and of course, because it’s fun. First one to 10 wins…Calan (or Kobe as he calls himself) always wins, but Dada makes him work for it!

Some other quick highlights: 

Calan and Mama went to Long Beach to visit Dr. R. He challenged successfully with pine nuts and is now onto macadamia nuts.

Has an annual visit to the eye doctor. Everything great so far, and even got a new pair of sunglasses after no wearing any for about a year. After wearing them the first few years of his life, it’s good that he has a new pair again that isn’t all scratched up.

We learn about the birds that pervade our backyard. It’s the common House Finch. The eggs are getting ready to hatch as April goes into May.

Notable quotes this month:

“Once I know something (pointing to his head), I never forget it.” – when talking about learning new things.

“When I was a little kid I yelled at you so you yelled at me, so now when you yell at me, I yell at you.” – during a typical power struggle moment.

“When I meet up with a wife, you can be my wife so that I can live with you forever.” – looking into his Mama’s eyes one night before bed.

“Mama, you are my favorite person in the world and then my next favorite is Dada and then Evan…who rhymes with seven.” – the next day, Dada became his favorite person, and that was announced as well.

“When you and Mama are really old and you die and almost ready to die, Evan and I will take care of ourselves because we will be grown-up.”

Dada in the shower one morning, Calan comes to the door just to say: “I love you” … then asks: “if you have time, could we arm wrestle and do a thumb war before you go to work?”

Calan showing us how he’s growing up: At the store with Mama, he volunteered to put all the groceries from the cart onto the conveyor belt, then after the cashier and Mama did the bagging, he proactively lifted the bags into the cart. Later when arriving home from his violin lessons, he asked Mama if she could grab his violin and bring it in. Then he changed his mind and said, “Actually, I should do it, since it’s my responsibility.”

Evan

Evan’s big event this month was finding out more about his own food allergy situation, at least at this point in his life. This month, we met a new allergist in town (Dr. Gianos), who did the most thorough testing on Evan to date. What we found was that a lot of the “allergic” foods (except for fish and shellfish), were elevated to some degree in addition to the egg and wheat we already know about. All nuts, dairy, soy, sesame, and peanut showed elevated levels from his blood tests.

Knowing what we know from Calan’s treatment, this presents ae big dilemma going forward with what Evan eats: Do you make sure to keep these foods in Evan’s diet as a kind of insurance to get him used to them…or, do you eliminate them as much as possible until he can start an OIT plan in a couple years like Calan is on now?

If you keep these foods, the risk “may” be that you tax his immune system as it tries to deal with what is considered his sensitivity foods, which in theory could cause his wheat/egg or even peanut levels to rise. But if you remove these foods from his diet, you run the risk of not having his immune system get used to them (as it acts as a sort of home desensitizing treatment plan). It would be great if Dr. R could give us a simple answer, but he can’t. We were happy that we could share the data with him and talk to him about Evan during Calan’s visit this month – but the sad reality is that you just don’t know; not even the “guru” of this food allergy treatment stuff can say for sure. At this stage in this therapy, there simply isn’t enough information and history to make a guaranteed decision; science doesn’t know enough to say for sure what to do in this kind of situation.The for-sures though are to not introduce peanut given the connection to his brother, and as we’ve now in fact decided to continue giving Evan these foods, the decision comes with the commitment to do it 100%, not just here and there. As we do it in this way, we can at least test Evan every six months (more frequently than normal), and see if we can measure if what we’re doing is helping or hurting him. It helps that we can slowly introduce nuts with Evan as Calan is getting introduced, i.e. hazel nuts, pine nuts and most recently, macadamia nuts.

Aside from the allergy news, Evan is his usual self and continues to delight us with his small but growing personality and psychical chunkiness. He’s still growing at a faster pace than Calan, but this is to be expected. It’s funny to see the gap between them decrease, and each month we measure the boys lately, Calan is up a sliver while Evan has grown 3/4″-1″ in a month’s time. It makes sense when you see Evan eating quite a bit more than Calan at most meal times.

Evan is getting good at identifying shapes and other small items in books. And most of all, he’s getting even better at repeating words and short phrases we say to him. He loves doing this, and most words are pretty close to what he hears. He’s getting better at saying his name, but some are still classically cute, such as “muffers” for muffin.

Evan is a tough kid, in that he usually gets right back up after a fall without even crying. An example this month was when he got a pretty good scrape on his knee falling down mid-stride on the concrete in the backyard. He simply got up and kept going (knee turning red and bloodying up the way good road rashes do), and continued to play. He did however learn what “hurt” means, and this month started saying that when he did bump or fall…Without crying, he would say the word “hut.” That said, if the guy is tired or hungry, nothing is easy to handle…and so come the cries if he gets a bump or fall.

Other news…

This month, Mama and Dada finally made the decision to simplify our lives in one area. It seems that the days and weeks of late are filled with just as much planning and scrambling as they are enjoying all the great moments going on around us. A typical week feels so full of “getting ready for the next day” and finishing to-dos around things like allergy foods, school and necessary house cleaning, that it starts to take it’s toll in the form of pressure, stress and tiredness. One way to help calm things down a little is for Mama to teach less and focus more at home with schedules and normal state-of-affairs around the house. So, with the help of work being busier than ever for Dada and being able to add more work time there, Mama set the plan in motion to reduce her teaching days from three to two. Combined with organizing the teaching days differently, i.e. not so much at the beginning of the week to allow for some preparation time, this should help everyone. The plan is to start officially in the summertime and on into the fall. It’s a lot of work doing the parent thing, so you might as well set yourself up for a”smoother” ride where possible…

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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.

We finally did it…it’s bitter sweet of course, but at 21 1/2 months it was time. Evan’s hair had become uneven, and with classic little curls dangling at his neckline his do was looking across between cute and adorable and unkempt, looking like a stray animal at times. We went to our trusted hair cutter Tory, and she did a great job with what she had to work with. To our surprise, Evan handled the entire process with not much emotion at all. A very neutral guy – we’ll take that.

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Highlights

• Calan plants his first garden
• Boys “watch” Broncos win the Super Bowl
• Evan gets going saying lots of words
• A trip to the beach

Calan

Gardening
February kicked off, and Calan was ready for springtime to begin. Specifically, he became very eager to plant a garden and grow some fruit trees. This came about in part after reading one of his book club books, “Miss Rumphius” where planting lupine was a key part of the story. The kids from the book club class at school were each given a lupine seed to take home and watch as it sprouted up from a cup of dirt. When this happened, Calan was hooked and wanted for more.

He always had an interest in planting things and wanting to see them grow but now after witnessing the magic, he wanted to learn more. By more, this meant acquiring as many seeds as possible and figuring out how and where to plant them as soon as possible. Many times we had to tell him it’s a little early in the season but we could surely plan for now. As he waited patiently throughout the month, he collected seeds from pretty much anything he ate or found outside that could be saved and planted. Obsessed at times, we often had to urge him to eat his meal instead of trying to extract tiny seeds from strawberries, blueberries or tomatoes. We would also bide our time waiting for early spring to arrive by reading gardening books and watching TV shows about planting gardens – everything from discovering what grows best in So Cal to what kind of containers we should use.

In the end, with a trip to the nursery and Home Depot for seeds, we ended up selecting just the right amount of things to plant by seed and one special tree – an apple tree with three varieties of apples on it. The tree was a delayed birthday present for Mama’s 40th, so everyone was happy. By the end of the month, we had our lettuce, radish, carrot and parsley seeds all tucked in their designated pots. The ritual began with a morning visit to the new seedlings to water and see how they are coming along. Calan definitely learned to contain his excitement and become patient when it comes to gardening and growing things.

Hiking and Beach…
Calan and Evan started to get some nice outdoor time this month. Through River Oaks, Calan joined a hiking group that meets up each Friday. They explore different trails together, and the group his headed by a gal who is knowledgeable about the area and shares with the kids some of what they are discovering on the trails. Evan has mostly been a good sport as he’s right at that stage where it’s best to still keep him in the stroller the whole time, even though he’s just as eager to run up and down the paths and explore nature. Calan especially looks forward to the hikes, something we always knew he would like but had difficulty with before primarily due to the flies we encountered on the trail. I think with the group, he has some distraction from any pests that come flying around his head. 😉 The boys also took a trip to our favorite beach at Pt. Heuneme, on a gorgeous late afternoon. It had been a while, but the kids loved playing in the thick sand, and then venturing down to the water to jump waves and fling mud at the incoming waves.

Notable quotes this month:

Talking about allergies one day: Calan said, ” Allergies are funny…it’s like when the pool has one, it has an algae…when it does, it turns green.”

Heading to the bathroom, he’ll stop sometimes at the doorway. Then, standing halfway in the bathroom he’ll look back towards us and say “I need some privacy, okay?”

Evan

This month seemed to be the beginning of a breakthrough for Evan when it comes to saying words. In reality, it’s actually an increase in his ability to repeat words you say to him. Recently, we’ve become more consistent with his little reading program we call “words” on the old laptop in the breakfast nook. He gets the biggest smile any time we sit him down to eat in his high chair and bring out the laptop. It’s not our favorite way for him to spend his time at the table, but it’s not unlike what happened with Calan at this age where the only way we could get him to eat was to distract him with flash cards. As a result, he latched onto something he was naturally good at…recognizing sight words and reading them. Evan seems to be similar, enjoying the repetition of words. What’s come with this in addition to reading is saying back the words that are said on the program or our own flash cards. He actually does pretty well, saying many words fully and correctly such as: Boat, Apple, Blue, Sweater …. Some of his favorites to act out when he sees them are: Smile, Laugh, and Kick. And of course he’s always up for demonstrating his deep-throated animal sounds when he sees a horse, cow or lion, and does a great impression of an elephant and monkey. Despite the many words he can say, it’s not often that he’ll actually use them in daily context, unless he sees a picture of something like a boat or car. He still loves to point out stars and balls whenever we see one though.

That said there are many words he says that don’t actually sound like the word. This of course, is much more cute. For example, he started a habit of handing you something while saying a high pitched “Heeerrr”, meaning “here”. His word for Pistachios is “statues”. Our favorites are when you ask him to say Calan, he says “Cawln-yay”, and for Evan he says “Awn-yay”. Apparently these words aren’t as easy to say. He continues to say ‘bye’ to things. One in particular he likes is “Bye-bye sun” when we close the curtains in his room.

He’s also getting better as recognizing some of his favorite letters; pointing at them and sounding them out. He likes O, B, and R but is also good at A, D, H, P and T if you ask him what they are.

Physically, the biggest highlight this month is seeing him walk up a short stairway in the house without holding on to anything. Just another sign that he’s getting bigger and stronger every day.

Another highlight that stuck out this month was when Evan picked up a couple dozen pieces from his small toy animal collection. He methodically placed them on his little table one-by-one, almost aligning them into a stampede. It was really the first time we’d seen him be intentional with his toys, other than stacking brick blocks. Usually, he grabs things and just holds on to them, only to drop them in some random place. His favorite items to do this with are his toothpaste and little toothbrush.

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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.

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Highlights

• Calan attends his first voice recital and the Nutcracker ballet
• Calan plays in his first violin recital and does his first voice-over job
• Fall school workshops and Flag football season ends
• Gran and Grandpa visit for the holidays

Calan

‘Tis the season for everything Christmas and capping off another year. As usual, December was filled with getting ready for Christmas and the holiday break and of course, winding down the year. For school, Calan attended his last River Oaks workshops for the fall semester. Flag football practices finished up, and our last Saturday morning game at Pitts Ranch Park took place. Calan got a special acknowledgement and certificate from Coach Jose afterwards for being the “Best Huddler”, in recognition of his enthusiastic and boisterous “ready, set, hikes” during practices and games.

Calan also went with Mama to Westlake to watch her end-of-year winter recital. It was a chance for him to wear his new suit and watch some of his favorite Chistmas songs be performed. A couple weeks later, Calan went on a special trip to the Civic Arts Plaza to watch his first performance of The Nutcracker, where it snowed in the audience. He enjoyed the show, but was most interested in meeting all the girl performers and posing for pictures after the show outside the theatre door.

Calan worked harder than ever this fall practicing violin, going to lessons and classes with the group from Ms. Diana’s studio. The dedication paid off as he was able to play in his first recital.Looking sharp in his new suit, he

One other fun thing Calan experience for the first time this month was recording a voice-over for a small holiday video card that Semtech wanted to send out to customers. With a Dr. Seuss like poem, Calan practiced his lines, adding his own special spirit and emotion when it came time for the official recording – see video.

Notable quotes this month:

Reading a book with Calan and Evan, we looked at a page filled with a busy nature scene in it. Pointing out some of the animals, we noticed a couple frogs playing in a pond. Calan said, “Uhoh, that frog fell of his lillypad…” Then, as we turned the page he followed with “Such is the life of a frog.” Not something you’re accustomed to hearing from a five-year-old. Later we found out he’d heard this “Such is the life of…” from the classic Rudolph movie he’d seen recently.

“No-kay”

Evan

Evan had fun this month getting to run around and “socialize” at Calan’s football practices. He still continues to have no fear when he spots a group of girls or friendly dogs walking by. He usually gravitates to both with utmost curiosity.

Evan is also getting faster and faster when he runs. He’s also figured out out to walk up stairs while holding onto a railing. It’s also been fun watching him respond to requests such as “go get your milk” or another item you might not think he understands. His favorite activity to do upon verbal prompt is “brushing teeth”. For whatever reason, he loves to hold his toothbrush and chomp down on it. At first, we thought it was teething but he actually gets the brush going in motion, as if he’s brushing. A good habit to learn early!

This month and Christmas wouldn’t be complete without the arrival of Gran and Grandpa a few days before Christmas. The kids were really excited for them to come. They arrived on a fun night, with Uncle Joe visiting for a family music jam. We were able to get a few music nights in with Uncle Joe earlier in the month and the Rodriquez clan one night.

Some of  the highlights during the “Grands” visit included a day-trip to the Natural History Museum, playing a new game called Bananagrams, testing out the new lights and video equipment with Heidi and Grandpa we got for the upcoming Las Vegas trip, doing a grown-up outing to see “The Big Short”, shooting hoops with the whole family in the backyard, various trips to the park, a Long Beach outing where Calan tested out of Brazil nuts, and of course opening presents before and during Christmas.

[Show as slideshow]

Highlights

• Flag football begins
• Basketball and Soccer seasons end
• Thanksgiving with the Levys

T-Day
Thanksgiving weekend was a little different this year as we didn’t host or cook a meal on T-Day. Instead, we visited with friends, and Dada participated in a friendly game of flag-football. Later in the day, Calan got a chance to hang with his older pals Zach and Shayna at the Levy’s house. We hadn’t been to a Levy Thanksgiving since well before kids, but this time around was much different. Something about keeping track of little ones and not really getting to visit and relax much. That’s ok…like we always say, there will be plenty of time for “relaxing” in those kinds of settings after the kids grow up. More importantly, the kids had some fun and left with some warm memories. The next day, Calan was talking about what he was thankful for and said: “I’m thankful for the house we went to last night (for Thanksgiving)”.  Thanks, Shannon and Moshe!

Calan

Kindergarten
Calan continues to do well with learning and school. He has so many places and tools for gaining new information and skills, it seems like he’s always learning something new, whether formally or informally. The true nature of home-schooling. Some examples of “learning tools” to this point at home include his Brain Pop app (listening to short, animated descriptions covering specific topics on any subject imaginable), Freerice (vocabulary work), his math workbooks (where he can sit quietly with his pencil and focus on a variety of short exercises), his question and answer pages that Mama writes out for fun and school turn-ins (including word puzzles, math and basic problem solving), learning addition basics on the abacus, etc. These are just a few things he spends time with each week. Then of course his workshops. Dada went with Calan for four weeks on Tuesdays this month, and Mama continued with Mondays. It really is a special time, going through the routine of seeing Calan be a “big boy” student in a school setting. Watching him lead the way to his classes and the various routines at break time such as snacking, potty stops and site-seeing the beautiful pond/park setting at the school’s complex never gets old.

Sports, sports, sports
At one point in the month, Calan was a triple sports athlete. We never planned for him to take part in this many sports, but one seemed to lead to the other this fall. Calan is definitely up for trying any kind of sport these days, so when his friend Josiah invited him to join flag football with him (his Dad Jose coaching and Dada assistant coaching), his response was nothing short of excitement. And so, while soccer wound down and basketball finished up with its final Monday night practice and Friday night game, flag football kicked off  its season. As it goes, football appears to be the clear winner for Calan’s favorite sport. What’s not to like about running, throwing, catching, and chasing other kids? Calan gets pretty pumped up about football and is eager to learn it’s many facets. As usual, he’s not the fastest, most agile and skilled guy on the team, and since it doesn’t matter, Calan doesn’t care and embraces just trying and practicing and finding the thrill in getting better.

Music
Calan had fun this month learning more songs on his violin, including Happy Birthday, which he played for Grandpa. In fact, this month we noticed he tends to explore more on his own and self-teach. He continues to work on his songs that Diana assigns him, but for the first time, he is seeking out other melodies and trying to learn them on both his violin and piano.

One realization we had this month is that as much as Calan his growing up every day and becoming mature in his confidence and independence, there are some sweet qualities still left from his “earlier” days. An example of this is telling his buddies and friends “I love you” when saying goodbye. He did this with Josiah a couple times, and his pal kind of just smiles and isn’t sure what do to with that. We like that for now, it still can bring smiles to everyone’s face.

Notable quotes this month: One night Calan said ‘I want to play in the NFL when I grow up.” The next morning,  the subject of what a musician was came up. Mama was  telling him a musician is someone who makes music, which prompted Calan to say, “I want to be a musician when I grow up.”

One afternoon, when we didn’t have a sitter, Dada did some work at home while Evan napped. Calan had agreed to work at his little desk and do his own thing (such as copy a magazine cover with penceil to a piece of paper). After some time of what seemed like a relaxed work session for both Calan and Dada, Calan announced, “I’m so stressed out from all this work”.

One day when Calan became upset Evan came up to Calan as if to check on him (as he often does if Calan his expressing anger over something). He looked at Evan and waved him away, then said, “When I’m yelling I don’t like Evan. When I’m not yelling I like him.”

Evan

Our “snuggle” continues to amaze us every day. While he his mostly predictable he did go through a phase in the middle of the month for about a week where he stopped wanting to take his afternoon nap. He eventually got back to it, although he wasn’t the old guy we once knew who would just roll over and drift off to sleep, sucking his thumb after being set into the crib. He would however, return to this sweet habit a few weeks later. Our best guess is he wasn’t feeling well due to some teething…it wasn’t obvious though. With him calming down again before naps and bedtime, he had a renewed interest in reading books instead of wanting to get down as soon as getting situated in the rocking chair.

We always like seeing little signs of Evan “growing up”. This month we noticed a bit more putting things in their place, such as wanting to put his milk cup in his tray’s cup-holder. He also likes to put other items around the house back where he believes they belong. That said, these moments only account for a small fraction of the times he actually does put something he’s taken out back. In fact, he’s still pretty good at dropping food on the floor once he’s done.

Evan seems to even understand and make an attempt when you politely ask him to put something back or close a cupboard door he’s opened as part of his investigating. While he’s a bit more exploratory than Calan ever was at this age, he’s better than most toddlers who get into things constantly, creating mess after mess.

One cute thing we discovered this month is that Evan likes to walk holding hands when we’re outside (usually), such as a sidewalk or parking lot. Nothing’s sweeter than strolling slowly with a soft, little hand gripping yours.

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Highlights

• School, plus Basketball and Soccer seasons
• Halloween!

Calan

After starting in late September, we had basketball and soccer practices consistently each week this month. It was nice creating the routine with the boys, with Monday basketball practices and Tuesday soccer practices. Then, the whole family could join up for basketball games, held mostly on Friday nights at the Y. That said, with Tuesday night violin group rehearsals every other week, Tuesday could get pretty long for sure, especially when you factor in Calan’s workshops at River Oaks in Westlake Village all morning. Needless to say, everyone did pretty well.

While Calan handled the busy routines each week and was pretty enthusiastic about his organized team sports, we did come up against a couple of challenges with basketball and soccer. When it came time to playing in a game, Calan was pretty uneasy about it. As his parents, who passed onto him whatever set of genetics we were blessed with, we completely understood his feelings of apprehension. Playing is fun, but come game-time it’s like you’re performing, and you feel as if you need to match the skills of the other kids and even the coaches to participate. You’d rather just play around and enjoy the activity of the sport instead of trying to produce all the skills and knowledge needed to compete. Those are two different things. Calan said it best one day after basketball practice when another kid asked if he wanted to play a game of “knockout”, which they had just played with the coach in practice. Calan said, “No thanks, I just wanna shoot around.”

Calan was able to work through soccer scrimmages though as Dada hung out with him during one practice (carrying Evan the entire time, no less!). What also made the difference was playing an in-practice game called “sharks and minnows”. Calan was famailiar with this as we’d played it alittle with Josiah when we prepared for the soccer season. He enjoyed the sharks, and mostly made the connection that the same things you do in that fun, friendly game were the same things you did in a scrimmage. In the end, he found it comfortable enough to trot around the soccer field, chasing the group of kids kicking the ball. If the ball came his way, he was happy to just pass it along. It was quite an improvement though from running off the field with tears in his eyes from practice in his second time out. Oh, one last incentive that helped him was Dada working in that he could go to Wendy’s after each practice for some chicken nuggets – a reward for sticking it out in practice and realizing that he actually does like soccer. We’re glad we chose a more low-key program called “Kids Love Soccer” compared to some of the other more competitive ones out there, even at this age. It ended up being just right for Calan to have the opportunity to grow and overcome his fears.

Basketball was very similar. The practices were fine, but game nights on the indoor courts didn’t provide him the most comfort. We figured out pretty quickly though that if Mama stays right by his side (to help him), he wants to keep it that way and not be separated…thus, not get in the game. But if Mama isn’t nearby then we are able to almost trick him into playing in the game. For example, Coach Tim merely told Calan to stand on the circles imprinted on the court where defensive players can stand to block offensive players. Calan obliged, not realizing that in doing so the game was underway. All he had to do was put up his arms, and he was “playing in a game”. We also found a decent basketball hoop for the backyard on Craigslist and got him a new basketball (a bigger one). This allowed Calan to practice at home almost every day for a while, which always helps to build confidence in new abilities.

It’s been fun to watch him grow in the sense that he can get out there and do something he was once afraid of; but more importantly use the new confidence to further his enjoyment of it. In basketball, he was able to dribble the ball along the court and even take some shots. Again, a huge stride from where we first started! We also made sure to keep these experiences about him and not us, which we think helped him break through the momentary discomforts more easily. You can see how some parents easily turn these situations into their issue, resulting in being tough and pushing their child to just do it. The last thing we wanted was Calan to resent something he naturally liked. He may not be the biggest, quickest and most skilled kid out there, but it brings a smile to our faces and hearts to see him having fun with these sports and getting better and better.

Halloween
This year’s Halloween was just right; and mostly uneventful except for the trick-or-treating that Calan really looked forward to. Our friend Dea, Louis and their son Beni moved away this summer so our tradition of meeting up with them came to an end. As darkness settled in the neighborhood though, Josiah and his family and some of their friends stopped by the house, and we all went around the neighborhood. Calan wore his witch (warlock) costume well, and Evan the penguin strolled with his content-neutral demeanor around the streets. In the end, the group dwindled and soon we found ourselves walking back home and capped the night off by looking through and playing with the loot the Magic Jack-o’-lantern had provided Calan.

Some notable quotes this month:

“I thought just wild animals lived in Asia… How many people live there? ” – after looking at the web stats spreadsheet Dada was working on for Semtech where it shows web visits by global region.

Calan: “You just close your eyes and when you open them again it’s morning” – when talking about sleeping through the night. The best part is that he named this as a “zap night” because you “zap into the morning”.

“I’m thankful for my rock, and I’m thankful for you because you do lots of fun things with me” – talking to Dada (melting his heart in the process), as he expressed his thoughts after talking about being thankful for things at school.

Evan
One of the things that stood out this month with Evan was his social skills. Specifically, it seems wherever we take him (the park, the store, Calan’s practices), one grown-up or another becomes enamored with the mini-person toddling around. He also often approaches people eagerly, and then the passersby instantly light up and smile. They invariably offer tons of positive remarks about how cute and adorable he is. I think we just run into a lot of nice people (a testament to the area we live in perhaps), but we certainly won’t disagree with the nice pleasantries given to our sweet little guy. Evan seems to like the attention, but he appears more curious without reservations more than anything. We started calling him our “little extrovert of the family.”

Evan also seems to love dogs, especially small ones. If we’re out, and a dog owner comes within 50 feet of us, he’s on his way over, usually following the dog for a minute. Many times, the dog walker will stop so the little guys can say hi. So far, the dogs have been pretty relaxed and allow Evan to gently pet them. He’s tentative but very curious about them, and of course the dogs love the affection. It’s a nice win-win exchange when this happens. It makes us think for a split second about how nice it’d be for the boys to have a pet…but then reality sets in. In due time…

Somewhere in mid-October Evan’s verbal communication started coming out more than it has before. We have no idea what he’s talking about or trying to tell us, but he’ll utter a wide variety of syllables at any given time. It’s only natural at this age, but we still wish we could understand him. He seems content enough not to have anyone actually respond to whatever it is he’s trying to tell us.

Despite the non-nonsensical language he’s progressing with, Evan is flirting more with some actual words. We talk about “ears” a lot because he likes to feel your ears when cuddling or drinking a bottle with you sometimes. So, he’ll utter the word ears. He also tried a “hi” here and there after we started saying it to him more frequently for a few days. It kind of goes away though if we stop, which is interesting. Our favorite word this month though is how he says “stars.” Stars seem to be in every other baby or small children’s book. We also light his room up with his turtle star light at night, so whenever he sees stars in books or at night, he gestures to them and says his version of “stars”. It’s most precious when we’re about to put him to bed and he looks at all the stars filling his room and whispers and draws the word out like “staaaaaaaaaw(s)”.

Finally, another physical trait he’s developing is his throwing arm…when it has food in it. We’re still trying to figure out the correlation as it doesn’t seem to necessarily be when he’s full, or not in love with the type of food in front of him, but he definitely means to do it when he does. Sometimes, if we’re not right there, we’ll come back to his chair only to find countless pieces of food strewn across the floor. It’s not unlikely to be bombarded by O’s cereal zipping out of his hands at breakfast either. So…we’re learning that we may have to take a step backwards in his finger food and also only give him one or two pieces at a time, otherwise he’ll be learning the hard way that food on floor means less food in belly.

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Highlights

• Kids visit the Natural History Museum
• The first trip to Disneyland!
• Calan starts school, violin classes, basketball and soccer
• Evan is learning to read words

Calan

School and many new activities…
This was certainly a busy month, with new schedules and activities starting up for Calan. Our new “kindergartner” seems to be taking the busier schedule in stride though. School was already underway at home, but on September 28, he started his two days of classes at River Oaks Academy – charter home school. Each Monday and Tuesday morning he’ll spend a few hours in classes that let him explore science, imagination/improv acting, creativity (working with clay), arts and crafts and even one centered on Mindfulness. The bulk of his “schooling” happens the rest of the week at home though, as he works with Mama learning math, writing and various subjects about history and science through various resources – mainly his Magic Tree House books and some books borrowed from school such as “Life of Fred”. As the weeks continue, we tap into more and more educational resources whether online or books we can check out from the school. Some more details about Calan’s learning and where he’s at were captured in a letter to his primary teacher at the school (see below)

Calan also started his first-ever practices for basketball, soccer and violin group playing this month. Basketball is at the YMCA on Mondays. He loves running around doing the different drills while Dada and Evan hang out nearby. The coach is very easy going and always offers positive support for the kids, so it’s been great so far. Friday night games will start in October. He also had his first soccer practice. Here, he really gets to run a lot which he loves. He’s not quite as sure of himself however, as he worries more about being “good” at the skills needed to play in a game or some of the drills with the other kids. The coach and his assistant are also a little more structured and demanding, shouting out commands and reminders as they guide the kids through their different drills and techniques.

Every other Tuesday evening, we (Dada, Calan and Evan) trek over to Thousand Oaks for his violin class. This is his chance to play in a group setting, some of the exercises and songs he works on with his teacher and Mama each week. Calan seems so grown up in the rehearsal room as he focuses intently on Ms. Diana and what he’s supposed to play with the group. As the rehearsal goes on, more kids join in making the group larger – but still only eight kids or so. The pieces get more advanced and the other students who come in are older and have been playing longer. When it’s time for Calan to “drop out” because he hasn’t learned those songs yet, he’s not ready to leave. He finds a seat and sits and watches another 15-20 minutes as the other kids play their pieces together. He’s definitely inspired to play like the more seasoned players he’s watched.

Heidi’s letter to the Leina, our main teacher contact at River Oaks:

Hi Leina,

Now that we’ve been going at this in a more structured and “rigorous” way for a week (not really, Calan told his violin class last night that he hasn’t started school yet lol), I’ve learned a little more about where he’s at and have some questions.

Math: I think the books we have are perfect, and we’ll be excited to hear more from Fred when we can. I think we will be ok with turning in the first one at the next meeting. Calan is much stronger/more confident with old fashioned, single digit addition/subtraction than he is with all the various ways the singapore books ask the students to apply the math. I understand this, I’m the same way:) That’s one reason we were sort of skipping around at first. I know that we’re realizing an even greater importance than in the past on a deeper understanding and more meaningful application of math concepts, so I think that working slowly through all the exercises will be good for him, although he’s sometimes reluctant. I can’t quite gauge the reason for the reluctance – is it difficult and he’s tuning it out, or is he finding it boring? Even though he can do basic addition/subtraction and follow directions without my prompting, I’m needing to sit with for all the picture/word problems and number bond activities. I’m careful to make sure he thinks through steps, but with these, I have to prompt him along the way. If I give him a plain worksheet though, I can walk away, just check in every few minutes, and be a cheerleader. For the most part, he’s still using fingers to solve these problems.

Reading: He’s comprehending a lot more than I originally though. We’ve had a nonfiction explosion as he’s discovered the Magic Treehouse Fact Trackers. He’s obsessed and he’s starting to tell us things he’s learning in these books. Things we’ve not talked about, that he’s definitely getting straight from reading the books. Even though these books are young, we’re starting to be a little concerned about some of the subject matter that’s coming up. Mostly various ways that people can/have died! He seems ok, but he also internalizes a lot of anxiety. But he loves the books and reading them makes him happy, so maybe it’s ok . . . In terms of inference though, I’m pretty sure that’s still “lagging”.

Because reading is so off the charts, I’m starting to wonder about other skills that he’s “skipped”. We’ve talked about hand writing, and I think spelling is going to be coming along naturally, as he’s more confident in writing. But what about grammar? Obviously, we correct him when he speaks, but should we be addressing grammar more formally? And phonics? The explode the code book we have is perfect, because it’s getting him to write (slowly), and giving us some vocabulary to cover. There have been a few words in there that he doesn’t totally understand. But as we were working in it the other day, I realized we’ve never talked about what vowels and consonants are, or syllables (we did for the first time), and only loosely addressed differences in letter sounds, as he’s encountered new words. Regarding grammar, we’ve never talked about parts of speech, and punctuation has only been touched on.Should we “go back” and try to cover all these basics somehow? If so, should we do it with a text, or is there some kind of a phonics and grammar checklist that we can use to make sure we haven’t missed something. OR, can we just let all of this catch up with his reading organically?

As I’m realizing that we have so many great resources, and he’s hungry to learn (albeit still on “his terms”), the only other “issue” is that we don’t have time for everything. And I’m perfectly ok with picking and choosing. I just want to make sure that we’re not missing something that we should be doing.

—

Hi Leina,

There are a couple of things I wanted to mention before we meet tomorrow…

We’re still having a hard time getting him to narrate his thoughts or answer questions/retell stories on command. If I try to type or write his thoughts, he gets silly. We do have lots of conversations about everything though – his experiences, books, etc, so I’m not concerned about it, I think he’ll make the leap soon. I think this may be emerging for him because he’s started to reenact some of the Magic Treehouse adventures. His obsession with those books is growing! The last two days he’s been pretending to be Jack – he packs his backpack with a notebook, pencil, and a relevant book, and uses the couch as the treehouse. He’s started copying down text from books, just like Jack does in the stories.

I’m a little worried about the subjects of the books, though. He reads them all fluently, and while I think they handle the subjects in a gentle and age appropriate way, he’s still reading about things like Pompeii, the Titanic, etc. He doesn’t seem to have made the connection that a lot of these subjects entail death and disaster, but on the other hand I sometimes wonder if he’s connected more than I think, and he does hold on to information even if he doesn’t talk about it right away. He doesn’t forget much, and he does get anxious. I don’t want to take these books away – I have started using them as incentives for other things, to help pace him and motivate him, and he just adores them – but I worry.

The Natural History Museum
One fun trip we got to do as a family was visit the dinosaurs and butterflies among other exhibits at the Natural History Museum in LA. We left as early as possible with Calan who was extra excited to learn more about the dinosaurs he’d been reading about in recent weeks. It was a fun morning of exploring around and taking everything in. We ate our healthy lunches that we packed after a couple hours of walking around. As the morning went on, it got busier and busier, especially in the popular museum sections. We were all ready, especially Calan, to get away from the crowds and the large, echoing halls and rooms. Luckly, we found our way into a section about the history of SoCal and LA, where it was dark, cool and quiet. It was a nice cap to the morning, although Calan got an extra treat when he got to play in the water features just outside the museum entrance. A chance to cool off a little on a warm day. Evan did well too, watching all the activity around him. Eventually he too was ready to get out of his stroller and move around – not always easy in a crowded museum.

Disneyland
For sure, the highlight of the month was a trip to Disneyland. This was Gran and Grandpa’s very special birthday gift for Mama’s 40th and Calan’s 5th… Dada was lucky enough to get to come along too! It was Calan’s first visit to the park, and while it was tempting to pump him up about it, we restrained and got him just excited enough in the days leading up to September 23rd. Evan stayed at home with sitter Annie – we’ll save his turn for the future. Like the museum trip, we set out as early as we could and armed ourselves with snacks, water and a good plan for what to see/do and where to eat. (Good job Mama!). It was a good day overall, because we stuck to our plans and were able to enjoy rides and experiences that didn’t require waiting in 45-minute lines. Riding the train was an obvious hit, and an easy one to do around the park. Calan’s other favorites were the Monorail, Autopia (driving cars along a motorway), the horse-drawn carriage, double-decker bus, Carousel, the Jungle Cruise and of course It’s a Small World. All these provided for a full day, despite some intended rides we wanted to try being closed. Also, fast, high and crowded rides weren’t necessary for all to have a good time. Watching Calan have fun and see everything for the first time is more fun for Mama and Dada anyway. Our lunch AND dinner spot at the Carnation Cafe was great too. It was cool, with big-walled booths and a really helpful staff. We called it our “restorative niche” when we stopped in, a term we recently read about that introverts use to describe a place to get away from people, noises, etc. so they can recharge. 😉 Here are the pictures from Disneyland.

Evan

Evan continues being the Evan we’re coming to know (for now). He loves playing with Calan, kicking any kind of ball around, and eating most things. One of his favorite snacks now is a fruity-veggie-yogurt smoothie in the mid morning. He sucks it down through his straw quickly and with the utmost satisfaction. It’s becoming his biggest meal of the day.

Evan is also starting to “understand” a few written words now as we continue to expose him to reading, flashcards and multi-media. Arms up, Ball, Tongue, No, Teeth, Yes, Head, and Mouth are a few that he’s responding to more consistently when we hold these cards up or find them in a book. It’s always fun to see how cute he is when his brain is working these words out when shown to him.