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.