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.