"Is it summertime out here now?"

Yes, baby boy... it is FINALLY, mercifully, summertime out here now. 

Swim! Jump! Splash! Run around in your bare feet with no shirt, let the sun dry you off, come back for more! Eat your lunch outside. We'll hose you off! 

Hello summer.  We missed you so!

First Snowballs of the Season! :)

Skylight with marshmallow for this one....

 Spearmint with marshmallow....

"I want blue!!!" 

Aww....

The evolution of Simon writing his name over the course of kindergarten... what a fun thing to have!
It's funny... I've been saying on here that I've seen HUGE leaps forward in the last month or so and here's visual proof. :o)

33 Months Old...

Dear Jonathan,

Today (er... yesterday, actually... oops, my bad) you are 33 months old.  Two and three quarters!

This month, you finished up your very first year of preschool. You did so much growing this year while you were there! When you started, you really were just a baby. There was a stark difference between you and the older two-year-olds and you definitely SEEMED like a baby next to them. By the time the year was up, you were one of the big kids. A sharing, playing, talking, mostly reasonable kiddo.

You loved the school routine and were always the first one at the table for snack, hands folded and ready to say grace, which you almost always lead LOUDLY. "God is gweat, God is good. Let us thank him for our food. AAAAAAAAMEN!!!"  You usually really loved craft/baking time at the table too.

Next year you will go without me and I truly doubt that you will even look back. This is a good thing. Your brothers didn't always make dropping them off particularly easy at that age, so it will be nice to not have to worry I've left you upset. I suspect you may give your teacher a run for her money and by run, I mean LITERALLY, as you have a tendency to take off running in one direction and not stop. We're working on that...

There are two words that describe you well these days. You are a lover and a helper.

You throw yourself full force at us with hugs and kisses. You have been known to even knock me backwards when you run at me without warning to do this.

You are SUCH a helper. You have to have your hands in everything. "I will help youuuuuu!" you'll say and then you come running. It's sometimes more of a hinderance than a help (like when you have to "help" swipe my credit card at the store and "help" me sign me name and in between "help" by hitting the cancel button a dozen times... woe to anyone who gets in line behind us....)

At only two, you already seem to think of others. "Here, I brought this for you!" and seem to realize that your hugs, kisses, pats and rubs on the back can make people feel happy or feel better. :) I love that.

You are my busiest child by a long shot. You never stop moving and if you do, it's cause for concern.  You wake up with the sun (6 a.m. these days!!!) and hit the ground running. Thankfully, you still need and mostly willingly take an afternoon nap and you also are asleep at night by 7:30 or 8. Makes the non-stop motion of the rest of the day more tolerable.

I try to just find things that allow you expend your endless energy. Open areas. Playgrounds. Swimming. My my little fish! I hope it warms up to REAL summer soon so we can swim every single day!)

You are very, VERY strong-willed and independent-minded. (that's a nice way of putting it.) You are my first child to REALLY really test limits on a regular basis. You think nothing of saying "No!" and running away when I tell you do something you don't want to do.  We need to get a handle on this, and SOON.

You still love music and I don't think that passion is going anywhere anytime soon. You love listening to it, singing it, dancing to it, trying to play it. Our days center around what you want to listen to, sing to, dance to, or play. All day. Every day. We have had to start locking the Wii up again because your obsession with the dancing game has spiraled out of control once again.  It hasn't slowed you down though. You just find our phones and pull up the songs to dance to them without the video. Need to hide those too!

Nothing else to say except that you are a 30-pound bundle of energy, love, craziness, silliness and fun, All wound up in the morning and ready to be unleashed on the unsuspecting day. Never, EVER a dull moment!

You make me absolutely nuts and challenge almost everything I know about how to raise a child, but I love you to pieces and wouldn't change you for anything!

Love,
Mommy :)

It Has Been Awhile!

The week got away from me, and not a whole lot has happened.  But here are some fun nuggets...

It was like summer for awhile there, so we had been outside a lot doing summery things,which was oh so nice. Today it feels like we're back to very early spring. Argh.

The big news of the week is that Ben learned how to tie his shoes! I know, I know, he's nine and all... but he really just could never get it before now. I'm so excited for him and he was SO proud of himself.  :)

And this? I give you.... Simon's last ever kindergarten homework!! He has come SUCH a long way and I am so proud of him too! :) :)

He also brought home his highest level "Little Book" ever yesterday. They range from A-M and he had been hanging solidly in the C/D combo ones. He brought home a D yesterday and when I made a big deal about it (because sometimes he brings home "A" or "B" ones just because he doesn't feel like putting the work into reading) he said, "I picked that one because I thought it would impress you!" LOL! And indeed it did... as did his reading of it which was fantastic and he only he needed some help on a couple words!!! 

And lastly, there is this. I wandered into Ben's room this morning to find Jonathan on the floor with Ben's iPod Touch. He had put the earbuds in, had managed to find Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on Youtube and was singing his little heart out. LOL!

So that has been our week. This weekend is our last quiet one for a couple weeks... so hopefully lots of fun will be had! :)

Ben's Biography Project, Simon's Kindergarten Conference and Other Things....

The third graders at our school all write a biography as one of their big projects for the year. I think Ben has been working on it since January or so! They are supposed to choose their mom or dad (although a couple kids did grandparents, so I will keep that in mind for when Simon goes through!) and they came home with a list of questions to ask their subject.

I knew what this project entailed, thanks to parents who have gone before me,  so I encouraged him to write about Tom, not me. (although he was leaning that way anyway.)  You see, once the book is published (they send them off and they are hardbound and everything!!), they have a biography party and the subjects are invited in to hear the kids read their biographies.

You have to sit in the front of the room and pictures of you as a baby, teenager, now and with your child are shown while they read.  Very, VERY sweet, actually... and if Ben had really REALLY wanted to write about me, I would have gone along with it, but I would have been beet red the entire time and wanting the floor to open up and swallow me whole.

Here's a picture of Ben reading his biography to Tom that one of the other moms sent me.  :)

I want to post the actual book (I posted it on FB) but I am having photo rotation and placement issues with Blogger, so maybe later.

He did SUCH a great job... Tom said Ben's a really great presenter. So funny. I kind of thought he'd end up having my public speaking issues since we had such a hard time with him being nervous about his economics project earlier in the year. (although he ended up doing a FANTASTIC job!!) I guess he's over his stage fright, because Tom said he wasn't nervous at all!

Since Tom was at school for the party at dismissal time, I seized the opportunity to schedule Simon's belated Kindergarten conference kid-free while daddy watched all the boys play on the playground.  Whew.

It went well. He's where he needs to be and she doesn't have concerns about him being ready for first grade, although we definitely need to keep up our work over the summer to make sure he doesn't lose ground. His handwriting has improved by leaps and bounds and he is doing a great job with stretch spelling. They are just starting to write sentences, which he seems to be doing well with!  I got a laugh out of one example from his journal that she showed me that said, "On the weekends, I like to upgrade my Lego sets." LOL! He cracks me up.

He's not where Ben with his reading and writing at the same point in his kindergarten year, and I was kind worried about that for awhile...(Not because I'm comparing them... but what else did I have to base my expectations on?) I was concerned more because he didn't seem to be making any steady forward movement than anything else. But now he's making a lot of progress, so I feel better. I know they are unique and different in their strengths and abilities. Simon's also a little younger than Ben was (both chronologically and in just in overall maturity) and just a different kind of kid all around.

The teacher said he does well with math and is really quick with picking up patterns. I think that's so interesting... and it really fits with what I know about how his brain works. :) Definitely my builder/creator/doer.

There are some concerns with his attention and focus, (daydreaming, zoning out) which we're just watching. It's kind of perplexing because I've never really seen that in him, except with homework... but SO much is going on in our house during homework time... so I've noticed it, but never thought much of it. Actually, as I type this, he's sitting, where he has been for an hour, intently concentrating on building a Star Wars Lego set.

I do think he's a super sensitive kid to anything like not getting enough sleep, not feeling 100% for whatever reason. He also gets a little overwhelmed sometimes by all the hustle and bustle at school and I have to wonder if the days there are focus issues aren't days when something like that is at play. But, time will tell...  it's most definitely a possibility, just given the fact that he's in our family.... so we'll just watch and wait.

Anyway, so that went well. I asked about his teacher for next year because, why not? I knew there wouldn't be an answer, but I had to try.  ;)  But yeah, no answer on that.

Moving on... that same day, Jonathan had his very last Two and You class.

Early on, I told him I wanted to take a picture of him with Miss Sally... he had other ideas.  Miss Sally had brought in a new cd player. He posed with it. LOL!

He danced up a storm that day... this is him during Bear Hunt.

And with buddy Lillian.... 

Finally, I got my Miss Sally picture. ;)

Whew. Crazy Friday!

Yesterday...

Yesterday was Jonathan's very last Tuesday Two and You Class. I may have cried a little. We still have one more class Friday (different group of kids, so Tuesday was the last of its kind) and I'm sure I'll cry again. The last time I came through, I was pregnant with Jonathan, so, while I was sentimental about it being Simon's last 2s class, I wasn't really all that SAD because I knew I'd be back three years later.

That time FLEW. Like WHOOSH. Really? How?

I even went into it KNOWING how quickly it goes and savoring it as much as I possibly could. We only missed one class the entire year and I couldn't even bring myself to stay home on Daddy-Day because I didn't want to miss anything.  It's really such an amazingly special time in life and was such a wonderful experience with both Simon and Jonathan.  So many good memories and keepsakes...

So today we made the traditional end-of-the-year pizza, which I had looked forward to all year. (because it's SO good!)   It was a great, happy day for Jonathan. :)  Mommy, on the other hand was kind of a wreck, though I held it together until we sang the Goodbye Song for the last time. No stopping it after that.

Yesterday evening, we all played outside and I snapped this picture of my "baby" running through the field of buttercups next to our house.

He runs almost as quickly as the time goes by....

Next year he will go to school without me. While one hand, I look forward to this because it will be a whole new season in my life and the first time one has started school and I haven't had another baby at home to take care of,  all the "lasts" sting just a little more this time around.

I could swear it was YESTERDAY I did this with the other two, wasn't it?

Sigh.

But it's good. It's really, REALLY good. I'm ready for this season... for the little bit of freedom it will bring and for what it means for Jonathan too.

Bittersweet though! I wish I were not such an easy crier!!

Perfectly AWFUL!

Jonathan had yet another round of assessments from the Infants and Toddlers folks on Monday to help them decide whether or not it's time to show us the exit.

This one was with Joanne, the OT and his regular weekly teacher, Cindy. I went into it knowing he'd probably test pretty well... maybe not as well as the speech part of it, but nevertheless, too well to qualify for much, if anything at all.

At this point, I'm painfully aware that our hope for getting continued services lies in some very creatively written qualitative portions of the reports from all of our various service providers, as well as the people who make the ultimate decision having mercy on us.

MY GOSH this stuff is complicated.

Anyway... so, he woke up yesterday and was kind of "off" from the start. He has these days sometimes and actually, they are what a big part (but not all) of what makes me concerned for him starting school on his own next year. It's one thing for it to be Mommy and Me where I can be there to assist, redirect, reboot, remove, sit on, hold back, chase... whatever needs to happen. It's quite another thing altogether for a teacher to be alone with eight three-year-olds and have mine be the one running away, throwing things, refusing to sit, melting down... etc.

So yesterday, he was just "off" from the get go... he wasn't in a bad mood, really just... off... and a little defiant.

Time and time again Cindy refers to him as "self directed" which makes it sound kind of...  dare I say, nice? Just happily independent. The reality is, it's more like he really doesn't give a crap what I want him to do, he's doing his own thing and if I try to make him do something else, he is going to make my  life difficult.  But yes... we'll call it self-directed. Makes him sound less evil.

Anyway, so there were a couple meltdowns before we even left the house yesterday morning over ridiculous things like a bagel I didn't cut the right away, a button on the toaster I forgot to let him push, and when I interrupted his "self-directed" Wii dancing marathon.  ;)

He was okay when we stopped at the store but then when we ran to Walmart for a couple things, he was doing things he usually doesn't do, like trying to escape from the cart, running away and then shouting "no" when I'd tell him to come back. He was non-stop motion the rest of the morning... knocking things over, kicking and flailing when I'd pick him up, running through the house. Think tornado. Or SuperNanny.  I could just picture Jo Frost gasping at the video footage of my household at that moment and exclaiming, "This family needs my help! I'm on my way!!!"

(just an aside, I will say the errands part of my day went slightly better than last week when I tried to go to Home Depot after dropping the big boys off at school. When I pulled into the parking lot, J decided there was something about Home Depot that day that was highly offensive and/or horribly frightening and unacceptable to him and screamed and screamed until I gave up, put him back in the car and went home. But, I digress....)

To add insult to injury, he skipped his usual naptime yesterday because he simply couldn't settle down no matter how much reading or rocking we did. I kept replaying the morning in my head and wondered at what point he had gotten a hold of coffee?

Finally, I gave up and took him outside with Simon (off from school for kindergarten conferences) to wait for Cindy and Joanne to show up. I knew I was really living on the edge by daring to deviate from our Monday routine; (normally, on Cindy days, I set him up in the living room with something calm and quiet about about twenty minutes before to get him into "Miss Cindy mode") but he was so wired that I thought if I could wear him out a little it might help.  As it was, I kept reminding him while we were outside "Miss Cindy is coming soon with her friend Miss Joanne and what will we do when she gets here? We'll go inside and play with her toys for awhile....right? We'll go inside without crying? YES... we'll go inside without crying! YAY!!"

He was actually perfectly agreeable to all this... that is, until the cars pulled into the driveway at which point he waved hi to Cindy, spotted Joanne,  burst into tears and threw himself onto the lawn facedown.

Crap-freaking-tastic. I broke him again.

I took him inside and "rebooted" him with his favorite combination -- his binky, my cell phone and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" on Youtube. LOL. What? That doesn't work for your toddler?

Thankfully, it was somewhat effective.  We let him finish his song and then he gave up the phone pretty agreeably after some initially tense negotiations.

However, he still was in weirdo mode and every task Cindy tried to do with him, he would purposely do incorrectly or flat-out destroy. If she told him to point to the airplane, he'd point to everything BUT the airplane. If she told him to match the colors, he'd put them on all the wrong ones. If she told him to hand her something, he'd throw it across the room, or hold the objects in front of his face and talk to them. At one point, she asked him to count something and he actually counted backwards.  Seriously?

It was sort of funny to watch him be so... I hesitate to say this... but ... BAD. I mean, really just plain BAD. Defiant. Difficult. Bizarre. I would have been completely mortified and frustrated were it not for the fact that he's not usually like that with her and she knows what he CAN be like and what he is really capable of. But sheesh... at one point, she put laminated colored papers down to match colored toys to and he yanked them off the carpet and just started waving them around in the air so fast neither one of us could catch them and then he threw them.  It just went on and on.

The whole thing was just kind of a train wreck, honestly.

And then he passed out in my lap -- worn out I guess from wreaking havoc on everything around him.

Luckily, a train wreck is kind of what we needed because rarely does anyone completely believe me when I say how difficult this child can be.  Don't get me wrong. He's quirky and has some sort of weird obsessions and other things... but more days than not, he's a good listener and a pretty easy and pleasant kid to deal with.

As far as the test scores from yesterday. Well, he definitely didn't score like he would have on a more typical day. And I'm THRILLED because, though this isn't how he he ALWAYS is, he does have this mode he gets in sometimes which, along with the other sort of different stuff he does sometimes,  has the potential to be a real problem next year at school and it's a HUGE part of what I've been worried about.  Also thrilled because his behavior definitely dragged down those scores (to what extent yet, I don't know) and every little bit helps when trying to convince them to give us more time...

Cindy had seen all of his most atypical (read: WEIRD) and difficult behavior before, just not often and especially not recently so I know she wasn't hugely surprised... but Joanne was really surprised. It was really,  REALLY good that both of them were at the same time to see it.  I told Cindy later I had been starting to feel like Big Bird before everyone on Sesame Street knew about Mr. Snuffalupagus. Remember how he'd always disappear when Big Bird went to go get his friends to introduce them to him? GAH!  So frustrating. (I used to yell at the screen all the time when I was kid)

Anyway, so Jonathan finally showed some of his Mr. Snuffalupagus side to someone new today. Someone else who can help us advocate to keep our support in place for next year.

I never thought I'd be so thankful to see one of my kids do badly on a test! I don't know what got into J yesterday, but I'm happy it did! (even though it was kind of a challenging day all around!) I couldn't possibly have asked for a better scenario... as weird as that sounds... he did exactly what we needed him to do! :)

Today You Are Six!

Dear Simon,

Today you are six.

This year, your birthday falls right before Mother's Day again just like the year you were born. I remember waking up in the hospital on Mother's Day and just being in awe of being a mom for the second time.

You are my little comedian, always looking for the laugh, the comic foil to your older brother's straight man act. You have a contagious enthusiasm for absolutely everything, even the incredibly mundane.

Bagels for breakfast?  "YAY!!! Thanks, Mommy!!" 

With butter and cinnamon sugar? "It's a party!!!"

You can have an extra five minutes of computer time today! "Oh boy!!!!"

Your favorite jammies are clean! "Awesome! Is it bedtime yet?!"

You started kindergarten in the fall. We've had our ups and downs with it. You've loved it and hated it and everything in between. You've skipped into the school doors in the mornings and I've also had to drag you in and leave you crying with your teacher. The thing about you is that you have a tendency to get upset and seem angry when you are anxious about a situation or aren't sure of something, and parts of kindergarten have shaken your confidence a bit, which was a first for you, I think. 

You've grown so much though! Just in the last month, your reading has started to take off. Your pile of sight words that used to be so painful for both of us, you can now rattle off in a minute and a half. You are starting to really GET reading and writing and it has changed your outlook drastically. The transformation has been awesome to witness. 

Your biggest loves these days are Star Wars, Minecraft and Legos and all combinations thereof. You still love those Legos with a passion. You spend so many hours building and talking to yourself on the floor of your bedroom. As much as it pains me, I've given up on the piles that are constantly on the floor. Those little bricks and Lego people bring you so much joy. 

You are not much of an outdoorsy kid, though you do love to dress up in a Jedi robe and run around the yard with a light saber fighting imaginary battles. Sports aren't your thing... at least not yet. You do love our climbing gym and will show off your hanging upside down trick to anyone who will watch.

You have always been my artist. You love to create in any form and love to give people what you've made. We got you your own little box of "office supplies" for Christmas and you went bananas for it. You'll often disappear up to your "desk" (the top of a toy box) and draw a dozen pictures to be hung around the house or given away. You love to paint too. When we get the paints out at home, you're always the last one left at the table. Every day you bring home pictures you've drawn or painted at school (I thnk you must ALWAYS choose drawing during free centers!!) and you get so offended if you find any of them in the recycling bin. I explain I can't keep them all  (because it's a LOT)  and I make sure to hang the ones you seem really proud of on the refrigerator. :) Really special ones get tucked away. 

You are incredibly sensitive and loving. You think of other people often and you are always an eager helper. You are so generous with your affection, always ready with a hug or kiss for someone who needs it. Two of the little friends you have made at school this year are a lot like you and it's funny because you all like to hold hands and hug and kiss each other at the end of the day. LOL!

You are my only child who will willingly pose for a picture and actually, you are constantly asking me to take your picture or get something you are doing on video. I should do it more often than I do, simply because you make it so easy!

It was hard to decide what to do for your birthday this year. We started out planning a kids' party, but then decided that wasn't such a great fit right now. You seem to enjoy small, quiet events and get overwhelmed easily by too much going on. I think we came up with the perfect plan. We are taking you to the Lego store to pick out a new set and then we're going to Medieval Times to watch the show and have dinner. We got the birthday package so they'll announce your name and give us cake, which I just KNOW you are going to think is AWESOME. :)

Can't wait to celebrate!

Happy 6th birthday, sweet boy!

Love,

Mommy :)

Universal Language....

I always get to school to pick up Ben and Simon at around 3:30. It's a little early, but means we get to be at the front of the pickup line and that just makes things easier with Jonathan. There is space around the corner for him to run around and dance or whatever.

It also means I get to watch the school's special education students dismiss, which is something I have really come to appreciate and enjoy, especially now that I've had a kiddo with infants and toddlers for awhile now and I've learned more about ASD. I find myself drawn to observing them. The teachers and the kids alike just make me smile.

There is a little guy who knows everyone's name and always comes to adorably invade our personal space and say hi. I love him. He cracks me up. I know his name is Michael because as soon as he veers in our direction, the teachers start yelling, "MICHAEL! Come back over here!!!" He must be in trouble a LOT because he is often coming out of the office with the vice principal. Poor buddy. I don't know how they can be too mad at him... he's so cute and outgoing and he just makes me laugh.

There's another little guy in a wheelchair who reminds of the little old man from "Up". (probably because that's what his mom dressed him as for halloween this past year, complete with walker... maybe the most adorable thing I have ever seen) He is the happiest kid and you can't help but smile when he comes down the hall. 

There's the little girl who is apparently a runner. I have learned that in special ed lingo, they call this "eloping".  (Jonathan's an occasional eloper... sigh... I hope we work this out before preschool starts next year...) Anyway, a teacher always has this little girl by the arm.  Once, I watched her sit down and work with her on eye contact. It reminded me of the things Jonathan's teacher did with him early on when he never made eye contact.

There is another little boy whose name is Billy who is about six years old who always comes up to Jonathan to touch his face gently and say, "Hi baby!!!" Every day, without fail, he asks me what his name is.  "HIs name is Jonathan." I tell him.  He'll repeat it and then touch him again. Then the teachers yell at him to stop touching the baby. Every. single. day.  I always say I don't mind but they call him back over anyway....

I could go on... I just love watching them all... it's really one of my favorite parts of the day.  One thing a lot of them have in common is that they are almost ALL drawn to Jonathan. "What's his name?" "How old is he?" "What game is he playing?" (he usually has my iPhone while we're waiting) Jonathan is usually very tolerant of all the attention and will say hi and show them whatever he has on the screen.  I think he thinks they are all big brothers and sisters. 

So there is this one little guy...I learned yesterday his name is Isaac. He always makes a beeline for Jonathan and gets really close to us to see what Jonathan is playing. He usually just watches for awhile until one of the teachers notices he has gotten out of line and drags him away. Again, I always say I don't mind, but they are insistent he come back to them. (shrug)

Yesterday, when he came by, Jonathan was dancing to "Can't Touch This".  Isaac didn't say a single word, he just started dancing too. It was as if the music brought him to life!

Jonathan laughed and danced more. Isaac busted some seriously coordinated MC Hammer moves. The teacher, instead of dragging him away like she usually does, she just stood there to supervise. "Isaac LOVES to dance." she said. 

"So does this guy! All day long!" I replied, laughing.  "Jonathan! Look! You have dance friend!"

We continued to watch them.

Isaac and Jonathan danced and danced. Jonathan laughed and smiled, so excited to have someone dancing with him.  The  two seemed to mirror each others' dance moves. All the other special ed teachers stopped to watch.  "Isaac's dancing!!" one exclaimed. "Look at him go!!" "Look at the little one doing it too!!"  Other teachers nearby on bus duty turned around to watch the funny scene.  

For those couple minutes while they music played, the odd pair were completely in sync, both dancing like no one was watching.  

When the song ended, Isaac abruptly turned around and walked away and Jonathan immediately started looking for another song.  And just like that it was over. 

I don't know about everyone else who was there to see it; but for me it was kind of hard not to feel like I had just been a lucky witness to something beautiful and profound. :) 

Feline Anatomy... with Jonathan...

Future Hallmark Employee...

I was playing around on the computer last night while texting back and forth with a friend when an email popped up from Ben's reading teacher. 

All it said was was:

"Your son is quite the poet! :-)"

My immediate thought (and reply) was:

"Uh oh."

The friend I was texting knows the teacher AND Ben, so I jokingly mentioned I was a little concerned as to what this "poem" might be about. She replied with "There once was lady from Nantucket..."

I shot off another reply to the teacher saying she could NOT leave me hanging like that and that I was waiting for the punchline and PLEASE tell me his poem didn't have anything to do with anyone from Nantucket or anyone's momma being so fat. (remind me to write a post about that last one... just btw...)

She wrote back with this:

"About Family...

Hugs and kisses, loving arms to reach

Kindness and patience always ready to teach

A family is so safe and secure

For any sickness they are the perfect cure



I wouldn’t leave them, even for a bribe

because we are too much like a tribe

Fun-filled games of hide and seek

With crazy aunts and uncles, our family is unique



Quiet time and snuggling up to read a book

On the couch, at the table or in our nook



and there is more, this is what I used in the Biography poem that the kiddos are sharing...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All I could say was, "Wow!"  

It's so cute! And great! And sentimental! I honestly didn't know Ben had this in him anywhere! 

I also may have teared up. Maybe. Just a little....

He's such an awesome kid. :o)  (and she's an awesome teacher... gah! One of my absolute favorites ever!)

Just Gotta Dance...

My third-born is just goofy, crazy, silly, weird, and SO fun.

It's really true that you love all of your children equally but differently. My heart completely just bursts with so much love for this little boy who just goes through life at top speed all the time and with total, unbridled joy and exuberance in everything he does.  I love his energy and his enthusiasm. I love when he says "Mommy, I'm going to HUG you!" and runs at me as fast as he can, throws his arms around me and squeezes his arms as tightly around my neck as he can.

That act right there? That's Jonathan in a nutshell.  I really just enjoy him so much lately I can hardly stand to put him to bed at night because I miss him! (someone remind me of this post when he hits that evil stage they all hit at age three and I want to sell him on Ebay)

I think, somewhere in the back of my mind, it is slowly becoming very, very real to me I will never walk this way again and I'm even enjoying the things about him that should probably get on my nerves. LOL. It also helps that he is going through an incredibly easy, pleasant and fun phase right now.

Part of this fun phase is that he is completely and TOTALLY head over heels obsessed with Just Dance for the Wii. It's ALL he wants to do and absolutely nothing makes him happier than dancing.

It's right up there with any of Ben's obsessions (which also have their own blog label because they have been interesting over the years, to say the least...) This particular one is just a whole lot cuter and more publicly acceptable than some of Ben's have been.  (heat pumps,  for example...oy... that was a fun one)

So the little one, he dances. He dances ALL day. He dances every day. He dances everywhere. He dances when there is music and when there isn't. He sometimes dances to music that is clearly only playing in his head.  In a box. With a fox. In a house. With a mouse. You get the idea.

Any chance he gets he escapes to the basement playroom to play Just Dance.  (this is really what should get on my nerves, but it doesn't because it's adorable and I know, probably fleeting...)  I have had to sometimes lock the door to the where the Wii is so I can keep it under control.  But I know  if I leave it open and let him go, I can sneak down and watch him talk to himself and work on his dance moves. I spend way too much time just standing in the doorway giggling to myself.

He also will steal any internet-enabled device he finds so he can pull up Just Dance videos on YouTube. If you're with Jonathan and you don't have an unlimited data plan. Hide. Your. Phone.

He shops for new Just Dance installments on Amazon. "Can we buy Just Dance FOUR? Pwease pwease pwease?"

He will dance for an audience, but only in that, if you turn on one of his songs and there happen to be people in the room, he won't NOT dance. But he really doesn't give two figs if anyone is watching or not.  He just wants to dance for himself. He never even notices he has an audience. I wish I had just a little of this. He makes people laugh and smile wherever we go.

He memorizes the choreography exactly. Not even kidding. If you watch the screen, he's doing his two-year-old version of whatever the figures on the screen are doing. After a few tries of a song, he doesn't even need the screen.

He can also read the song titles. (among many other things) We discovered this recently and it's another post entirely.

Anyway, it's his top obsession at the moment, so the old one is fading and there is wayyyy less opening and closing of the DVD player lately, which is good for both the DVD player and my sanity.

The new obsession is also kind of fun at parties and school fairs when he busts a move to whatever song is playing.  Looking forward to my brother's upcoming wedding reception! ;)

I wish there were a preschool dance class for boys. I would sign him up in a heartbeat, though it probably would blow up in my face because he generally likes his dancing (as with everything else) on his own terms. But it might be fun for awhile.... "for awhile" being the key words... because I've learned my lesson. I used to think with Ben that these obsessions would lead to bigger things....that he'd stick with them. I know now though that I should just enjoy  them while they last because eventually they will give way to something else once he's learned everything he wants to learn about whatever subject he is fixated on.

So we'll enjoy the dancing while it lasts and I'll be over here hoping the next obsession isn't Star Wars because goodness knows we have enough of that going on over here already and 23 light sabers is really enough for any one family, even one with three boys! Besides, that's Ben's current passion (fifth or so round of it... sigh...) and I don't think I can take any more Star Wars talk from sun-up until sun-down.  One of HIS current favorite things is to watch videos of himself at slightly older than Jonathan's age talking about Star Wars and make fun of all the things he had wrong.  LOL!

I wish I could get them both obsessed with Just Dance at the same time. Maybe we could go on Ellen? I hear she really likes quirky kids... like the four-year-old who used to bite animal crackers into the shape of states.

Oh wait... no... what wasn't on Ellen. That was in the backseat of my car sometime in 2008. I have the weirdest kids EVER... and I wouldn't change them for the world. ;)

Catching Up...

Last week was busy, busy, busy...

Hoping to catch up here a little this week!

Dusted off the camera yesterday to take some new pictures after a Facebook meme from May 4th (Star Wars Day!) inspired me. I knew my Star Wars obsessed kids would want to try "Vadering". ;)

We haven't stopped laughing at this picture.

Ben didn't want to be Vadered, but he agreed to a light saber battle.

Since I had the camera out, I took a few new pics of the kids since it has been WAY too long.  Simon was quite amenable to this.

Ben, notsomuch...

And Jonathan gave me at least 23 seconds of his time... 

I also got my vegetable garden planted this weekend! We'll see how this little experiment goes. I have two different kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, red bell peppers, and jalapeños all planted in my box.  I planted peas too, but the sprouts weren't looking so great by the time I got them in the ground. I think they wanted to be planted a couple of weeks ago, but sadly, the box wasn't quite ready. :(

There's also a bunch of garlic and a blueberry bush I planted down there in some of the open space back in the fall. And in that same area,  I also put whole mess of herbs in a spot that usually gets taken over by "ground cover". That's what the landscaping guy claims it is, anyway... all I know is it's ugly and looks like weeds and if I'm going to have something go wild and crazy down there, I'd rather it be something fun, like basil, mint, oregano, and rosemary!  Will take a picture later. :) 

Too Awesome for Speech!

Courtney, Jonathan's SLP, came out this morning to finish up his speech assessments. Today's was for articulation.

Even with my hope that he can get support going forward, I had to honestly say I really don't have any speech concerns and haven't for awhile.  His talking is really kind of amazing, especially when you consider where he started.  (see below! This was from January 2012. I can hardly even remember what this was like...)

(btw his fun new word of the week is, "Actually".  I just love hearing him talk and his sweet little voice. It never gets old... entertains me all day long and just makes me laugh! I think I may want to keep him this age forever... sigh...)

So she scored the test while she was here and yeah, no surprise, he passed with flying colors. I'm so proud of my little buddy. He has come SUCH a long way in a short time. :o) As for the ones she did two weeks ago, apparently the normal range is between 85 and 115. He scored something like 105 on one and 115 on the other one. LOL. He's just too awesome to qualify! ;)

So no doubt about it,  we are graduating from speech! YAY!

Courtney comes back in June for a check-in and then will be at the meeting we have to go to in July, but I couldn't help feeling a little little sad when she left today! It's good though. There was a time when I was honestly worried he wouldn't talk... so this really is the BEST possible outcome!