Highlights
- Calan becomes a weatherman
- Calan starts private basketball lessons
- Evan gets speedy on his bike
Calan
When it comes to clothes, Calan loves wearing costumes, whether something spooky for Halloween or the wardrobe for a professional weatherman or football player. But when it comes to day-to-day, he definitely likes to stick to one go-to ensemble. We think this month he set a record for wearing one of his shorts and t-shirt outfits (blue) at least three weeks straight. We appreciate he has his comfy clothes, but we’ll be looking forward to some different outfits when he’s open to it. It’s just one of the battles that’s best to let go… One fun skill he learned this month in the area of wardrobe was the ability to tie his own shoes. The days of tying Calan’s shoes before heading out somewhere have now passed by…another bitter sweet milestone. (And of course, Calan already likes Dada’s shortcut move of just slipping on shoes that are already tied up. Efficiency at its finest.
Calan enjoyed his second trip to Sky High (trampoline) this month to help his friend Ian celebrate his sixth birthday. He and Evan both had a great time. And while Evan had to steer clear of the birthday pizza and chicken nuggets, it was another opportunity for Calan to just dig in with the rest of his peers and enjoy the party food sans a major allergy risk. One sweet moment during the afternoon was when all the kids were waiting for the cake to be cut. Calan and Evan ended up sitting next to each other, and Calan leaned over and put his arm around his little brother as they anticipated the cake eating. Then he pulled him close, hugged him tightly and planted a kiss on his head. Just soaking up the moment of happiness together. You can’t beat that.
In Calan’s school work, he’s started learning multiplication and division. He seems to have grasped the concepts and basic steps to solving problems pretty quickly. Better yet, he also has an interest in doing these math problems, particularly multiplication at the moment.
This month, we got a new playground installed at our park. The boys had fun watching the playground take shape after the old equipment was dug up and removed. When it finally opened toward the end of the month, they had fun checking it all out and exploring it from top to bottom. It was sad to see the old stuff go, as we had so many memories with Calan on it during the past six years. But now we can make some new memories with the boys, especially Evan, on the new and improved gear.
One cool thing we started (on Super Bowl Sunday) was one-on-one basketball lessons. One of the dad’s, Mark Campbell, we met at flag football last summer has a real passion for basketball, and loves to teach. Mark has a good soul and absolutely loves connecting with people who want to learn. He immediately was impressed with Calan’s attentiveness and response to detailed instruction for such a young kid. Calan has been having a lot of fun learning some more basics in the sport such as proper shooting form, lay-up technique, and general basketball fitness. Mark is moving away (back to NJ) later this spring, so for now we’ll meet up each Sunday morning for an hour and continue diving into Calan’s love of the game.
Notable quotes this month:
“I’m afraid that numbers never start and they never end”
“I’m gonna get that for free…you know from Santa Clause.” – Taking about how he’s going to get an RC car eventually.
” I thought New England was supposed to be the best team in the world.” During the second quarter of the Super Bowl when they went down 21 to 0. Little did he know what was to come…
“I picked out better meteorologist clothes so my pajamas won’t get wet.” Getting ready to head outside in the rain and check in on the rain gauge.
“If you go around the side you’ll see the definition of a flood.” After coming back inside from investigating one of the big rainstorms this month.
Talking about being a meteorologist after enduring some big wind gusts in a storm: “How do they go outside without getting hurt or seriously injured?”
During a conversation about socks. Calan said, “I have a hole in my sock. Maybe Nanna could sew it up next time she is here.” He remembered Nanna sewing up his old pillow that was coming a part. Dada responded, “Nanna could, but she likes to make things more than fix things when it comes to sewing.” Calan said, “Maybe she can just make me a new sock then.”
Calan said that whenever we like something there is always one part of it that we might not like. Then added, “Like Mama loves living with me, but the one part she doesn’t like about it is if we fight.”
Calan: “You do it.”
Dada: “No, you take responsibility and be in charge of it.”
Calan: “Ok, if I’m in charge then I’m telling you to do it.”
“That’s what I always do sometimes”
Talking to Mama about when she was pregnant: “Wow, you had a stomach ache for a year.”
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:
At dinner one night…
Mama: “Evs, take another bite.”
Evan: “No, I only eat doors.”
Opening his bedroom door to get him after a long nap… “I woke up?”
Playing catch one time with a little Nerf football. One toss grazed off his shoulder… “Wow, you broke me. I am broken! “
Dada: “Why did you yell ‘Go away’ at Mama, downstairs?”
Evan: “Mama doesn’t get me.”
