Highlights
- Calan writes an 8,000-word story!
- Evan shows he’s a “big boy” more and more…
As a family, the highlights this month of course included Thanksgiving. What was unique about the holiday and the festivities around this year’s holiday was how much Calan helped in the kitchen beforehand. In the days leading up to T-day, Calan assisted Mama helping to make cranberry sauce, the dressing and cracking lots of eggs along the way. Just a small introduction to some kitchen skills that can grow from here. Calan seems to enjoy it too, in just the right amounts. We had fun on the actual day with Brandyn and Ginny coming by in the afternoon and then Colin and Erin arriving a little bit later. After dinner and saying good bye to Bran and Gin, we played outside on the sport court with Colin and Erin, throwing the football, playing some roller hockey and badminton. Then we walked off some more of our big feast around the neighborhood. They helped the boys get to bed, then headed back home to Long Beach.
And sadly, a big part of this month also brought some devastating fires close to home this year with the Santa Anas whipping around and fueling the terror. We visited Calan’s friend Charlie in Dos Vientos as the fires were getting pretty close to them up there. For a moment, we thought we might need have them come stay with us. Some families at River Oaks lost their homes to the fire. Mama and the kids watched the news eagerly and stared out the window and massive plumes of smoke filling up large sections of the sky. Then at night, we would peer off at flames dancing in slow-motion that eerily burned on the horizon.
Webster the spider was a treat for the boys this month. This funny little creature slept in the crevasse of an orange that had started to split while still hanging on one of the orange trees. He was an unusual guy, and you could always depend on him to weave a good sized web in the evening at the edge of the orange tree and set up shop. Calan and Evan loved going out and observing him with flash lights at night.
Calan
November marked a HUGE explosion of writing for Calan. It all started with signing up for NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) where you sign up and commit to writing tens of thousands of words for a… well, novel. It’s meant for older students but any age can participate. Calan did his own version of a novel and came up with an amazing, cooky story called “Morrow’s Search for the Lost Toothbrush”. He would sit and write for what seemed like hours at a time on his Chrome book. He loved sharing his progress along the way. The story was essentially about a boy who had lost his toothbrush, but endured a long and twisted journey of fantastical experiences with characters only a young, creative writer could dream up. You could really see the influence of all the reading Calan has done in the past (and was doing simultaneously this month). His story took on some crazy twists and turns and was fun to follow along. One aspect that raised some eyebrows was the dialogue. Morrow had some pretty volatile characters around him in his life, specifically the mother who took to losing her patience and yelled a lot. We try not to think too much into this but hey, it’s part of his story and Calan writing to this extent is much more than we could ask for from a kid who historically goes through periods of not writing anything at all.
The Y football season officially kicked off its late fall season. Calan of course was really into the sport with it being the middle of the NFL season. He really got into practicing his QB skills and would often go outside and practice throwing against the net and tire under the basketball hoop. Of course, Dada and Calan shared lots of time throwing the ball and playing “Tiki-Tiki”. This was also his first attempt at a sport since the three basketball seasons where anxiety and mini-panic attacks essentially left him unable to play. He had a little anxiety in the first couple of games but seemed to overcome them after sitting out for a few minutes. You could definitely see him struggling with it. In the end, he allowed himself to get “pumped up” and get his head in the game. We did end up missing a game as it became difficult for him to even get in the car to go. He would express being just “really tired” when it came time to get dressed and ready to leave. There was no reason to push him as we’d already done that with basketball. We helped him get to subsequent games by having him ride with friends and teammates Josiah and Hudson. Also, on the football subject, Calan got to attend his first high school football game. Dada had fun taking him over one evening to see the Scorpions play their first playoff game of the season. We met up with Keegan and his parents. Calan liked the atmosphere and had fun throwing the football with Keegan during halftime and Dada at the end – we left in the 3rd quarter (before it got too late).
Calan also did a series of assessment tests the past few weeks with a few educators and specialists through the school (ROA). Working with Nayri (a counselor in the school district) as the lead, Calan also met with a few other specialists and endured long, somewhat fun, but inevitably taxing sessions. The point of the tests was to help us identify where he’s truly at academically and intellectually. We know he’s bright and well ahead in many areas of his academic development but perhaps not as far along in others. The tests are revealing what we know so far. For example, he’s supposed to stop as the testing gets more difficult, i.e. to his expected level at his age/grade. But, for the most part he kept going and going. The gals running the tests have all been really impressed and loved doing the tests with Calan. Now we see what we can do with this information and learn more about whether he is truly gifted but where anxiety fits in perhaps as a “2E” child. Next steps will be to meet with the team of testers and psychologists to see how the school’s assessment results can get Calan and us the support he needs to help him in any of the emotional struggles he’s facing in any circumstance in his life.
Notable quotes this month:
Said randomly: “If I had 110 of anything on my body I would be a big monster.”
Evan
This guy is making some strides lately when it comes to the little milestones in early life. For example, he has learned to use covers in his bed and sleeps with them over his body most nights. For so long, he never used a pillow or covers. Perhaps he wants to be like Calan and Mama and Dada. It’s also been getting a little cooler at night. Either way, we hope he’s finding it more comfortable.
He’s also using the potty pretty consistently now for “number ones” during the day and not really even wetting the diaper overnight anymore. Last month he was standing up at the potty, but now he’s reverting to sitting on the seat when he goes . Hey, whatever works at this stage. What was funny is that he started an excessive pattern of going to the bathroom 2-3x an hour during the daytime. He’s been constantly saying he has to go…yet when he does, only little trickles come out. The irony is that this behavior is the opposite of holding it in that some kids (especially boys) do!
Influenced by Calan, Evan also started getting into writing more lately. He’ll use his little journal notebook that’s been dedicated to him to use for art, scribbling, etc. But what’s fun is watching him try to write his own stories. He’ll sound out each word extremely slowly. He doesn’t get the spellings right, but does manage to write enough letters to make the word work as best he can. For example, “Love” is just “LF”. Best of all, he is completely fine with not having it perfect! Calan even helped him transfer his “story” into a Google doc on the computer. Too cute.
Notable quotes this month:
After a shower one cool night, Dada asked: “Evan are you cold? Evan replied: “I’m a little bit warm but a lot a bit cold.”
Evan decided not to do a nap one day. Around the time he normally gets up he asked, “Did I just do my nap? I was dreaming I was up and walking around the house the whole time.” Yes buddy… you weren’t dreaming!