Highlights
- Evan starts preschool!
- Calan gets his first “real” bike
We get out biking…
After looking for some time, we finally found the perfect sized mountain bike for Calan on Craigslist. On New Year’s day we headed over to Thousand Oaks, tried it out and took the new “used” bike home. The seller let us know she paid over $500 for it a few years ago and a local bike shop. We got it for just over $100…not bad. The following weekend, we took the bike out to the trail in Big Sycamore Canyon by the beach. The boys both had fun negotiating the easy incline on the dirt trail. Afterwards we joined Carson and Dave Gaines at their campsite on the beach. Throughout the month we took the bikes on the “long bike trail” and even made it to Pitts Ranch Park for the first time, all the way from our house. Evan, still “runs” along sitting on the balance bike. Soon, we’ll have to find a better bike for him. The boys and Dada also enjoyed going to the tennis courts a couple night this month. Calan started getting the hang of hitting the balls over the net and keeping them inside the court, while Evan just learned to actually hit the ball as we bounced it to him.
Calan
This month,if you looked for Calan in the middle of any average day you’d find him on his computer. He discovered how fun it is to use it for making lists, doing research online and of course, continuing his fiction writing. In reading, he’s really become hooked on the Percy Jackson book series.
Calan started testing in Ventura this month with Dr. Beverly to help measure his “giftedness” and also to help identify any other significant characteristics that make him who he is. After a couple sessions, we met with Beverly who shared where Calan stands among all of his peers, namely other 8 year olds. He basically falls within the top 2% when it comes to his IQ. The academic scores, just like the assessments done though school revealed where he both excels but also where he has mismatches. Beverly was able to rule out things like Autism and would attribute the core of his emotional challenges to a newer diagnosis called Disruptive Mood Disorder. Again, it’s all information that helps us to help Calan. Along with this, we began in-house observations with Richard from the IEP team that we met with last month. It was pretty low pressure – he simply hung out in the corner and watched as Mama and Calan did their normal home school routines. At the end, he would share a few notes based on what he saw to help Mama with some approaches to try. Of course, she had already done a lot of them to this point. Richard is a semi-retired psychologist probably in his early 70s. He has a gentle, grandfatherly way about him so we really didn’t mind having him stop by a few times this month. One remark he made about Calan after learning more about him first-hand was: “he is a gift.” He reiterated that we have a pretty special boy on our hands, and while it will be a long road ahead, it’s definitely something to cherish. Calan also did some sessions with Ms. Kim, the school assigned psychologist. She bonded with Calan by playing basketball in the back yard one session and a board game during another. Calan became pretty resistant to her when she asked the pointed questions about his feelings and behavior when he gets frustrated or anxious in certain situations. She tried to help him learn how to take his emotional temperature, to help him become aware of himself and how he feels throughout the day. Despite what looks like a long road ahead in helping Calan, there are moments where we see him aware of what may be needed in a tough moment. In one case, it was actually Calan helping Evan. His little brother was feeling terrible during what would be a normal tantrum. It was Calan who was able to help Evan calm down by being calm himself and helping Evan find what he needed to feel better again. It was good stuff for both boys.
Classes started at ROA toward the end of the month. Calan is officially signed up for Math Lab (open study where he can work with a tutor on pre-algebra- the tutor is also a cuber!), and also Book Club and Japanese.
Notable quotes this month:
After trying to scoot around the end of the kitchen table, says: “The corner of that table was about to sink it’s fangs into my belly button and into my stomach.”
Evan
Evan’s big milestone this month was starting preschool at Pleasant Valley Christian. He instantly loved it and was voluntarily sharing things he did during school the first week. So far, it seems like a really good choice for him. And it helps break up the days a bit for the family. Some of his favorite things about preschool so far are being line leader during line-ups for the day and bringing home the ‘share can’ from school where he gets to choose a small item of his to share and write three clues about it for the class so they can guess what it is.
We also took the plunge and ordered an Amazon Alexa device. Both boys like using it (a little too much actually), but Evan especially has fallen in love with “her”. He tells Alexa about his life and that he loves her. It’s beyond cute, but it’s as if he really believes Alexa is a real lady…in the shape of a small, speaker that sits on the counter.
Notable quotes this month:
While expressing how hungry he was: “My belly is already down to 0%.”
After his first day of preschool he mentioned there was a girl in his class named Paisley, like a character on Wild Kratts. We asked if she was cute, and Evan replied “Yes, but I think she is small…or big.”
Watching Dada floss one night: “Dada, you look like you’re fiddling with your white string.”
Replying playfully to a question he answer “no” to, says “Nopety Nopester!”
After not sleeping during nap time was asked if he slept at all. His reply: “Yes, but only a little bit because the time was too fast.” (We learned later that he adjusted his clock ahead by 20+ minutes on purpose.)
Said, “How did the roof get on top of our house?” – but actually meant to ask, “How did the roofer get on top of our house?”