Five Years Old!

I'm sad that I missed doing a special post for Alex on October 22nd, but we were just so busy that month I couldn't keep up!  Alex had his big 5 year milestone birthday!  I can't believe it has been 5 years since I delivered this little guy after 29 hours of labor. 

These days I couldn't imagine life with Alex.  He makes me laugh every day with a dance or a song or some little remark that I did not expect! 

He is obsessed with Transformers, new and old, which makes Daddy proud and is an interest they both share and revel in.  He also likes cars, jets, dinosaurs, and sharks.  He always likes the "bad guy" in all of the shows and movies. 

He isn't a follower and does things on his own terms.  He has no problem saying "no" to doing something even though everyone else is doing it.  It's not unusual to have a house full of guests and find him in his room playing or reading by himself.

Alex is also my little vegetarian!  He does not like meat so I try to accomodate that and substitute beans. nuts, eggs, and peanut butter to make sure he gets his protein.  This makes me a short order cook since my other two are the exact opposite!

He is my smart, funny, sensitive, unique little guy!  Happy Birthday Alex!



Birth



One Year



Two Year



Three Year



Four Year



Now

Second Grade!

We've had a pretty busy two weeks here...getting ready for school!  Aurora started the second grade on Monday!  Alex does not turn 5 until October so he still has another year of preschool. 

The week before school, we met with Aurora's teacher, Mrs. M.  I was very impressed by her.  She was very organized and upbeat and was great with Aurora.  She did a reading assessment on Aurora and she is reading at a third grade level, which is great!  She also told us about a few things that Aurora is excited about.  The kids all get hot air balloons that they get to raise every 100 minutes of reading they do.  When they reach 1000 minutes they get prizes!  They also have a chance to earn 'behavior bucks' for making good choices.  If they don't make a good choice, they have to give one back.  They can spend their 'bucks' in the classroom store at the end of the week for candy or small toys.  It sounds like a lot of good incentive!

The Friday before school, my mom and I took Aurora to lunch and clothes shopping.  We found a lot of great outfits for her to wear, and discovered that Aurora looks great in hats!

On Monday Aurora was excited to get all dressed up for the first day of school and had a great day!  She discovered she had a few friends in her class that she already knew, and she even earned a few behavior bucks.  Hopefully it will be a great year!

7 Years Old!

Well I'm a little late with the birthday posts this year, but better late than never, right?!


Around 11:00pm on a Friday the 13th in May, 7 years ago, I became a mom. SEVEN years ago - I can't believe it!

These days, Miss Aurora Christine is beautiful, smart, and talented. She is an amazing artist and I love to see her drawings and paintings.  She can read with the best of them, she's got my math skills, and she does great with all of her school work.  She's a social butterfly to the point where she gets in trouble quite often for interrupting or talking!

She's very witty and she's not afraid to say what she thinks.  She's a great big sister to Alex.  And she's just like her Great-Grandma with her love of animals.  I couldn't have asked for a better daughter!  Happy Birthday Aurora!

BIRTH

ONE YEAR

TWO YEARS

THREE YEARS

FOUR YEARS

FIVE YEARS

SIX YEARS

NOW

The Plug Fairy

The 4th birthday is a milestone in our house - it is when we get rid of the nighttime plug.  What is a plug, you say?  Well, it's the name that my husband so affectionately gave pacifiers and has somehow stuck!  At one year, we wean them down to having one just when sleeping, and then the day they turn four, they give it up for good.

We prepare months in advance, talking about how four year olds are Big Kids and don't use plugs.  We read the BinkyBaba Fairy Book (which I change to say Plug Fairy) and talk about how, the night they turn four, they leave their plugs in a box and the Fairy takes them to new babies who need them and leaves a Big Kid present to thank you.

Aurora handled it pretty well when she turned four.  She didn't fuss, although she did stop taking naps and started coming out of her room at night.  I was nervous about Alex, since he seemed quite a bit more attached to his than she was.

Finally, the monumental night arrived!  Alex put his plugs in the box and got a cup of water (Big Kids get water, he says), and went to bed.  There was no crying, no fuss!  I heard him whimper twice through the night but both times he quieted himself down.

When he woke up, it was clear that he had not slept well...he was pretty grumpy and rubbing his eyes.  But he did not cry or fuss!  And he was excited to see what the Fairy had brought him....

A Cars TV/DVD set for his room!  He was so excited!  Big Kids have TVs in their room.  We set it up and he was so proud of it.

Then nap time arrived....and Alex realized his plugs were gone for good and not just for the night before.  A meltdown ensued - it was not pretty!  But he eventually calmed down, especially after I mentioned he'd have to lose his new TV if he couldn't act like a Big Kid...and went to sleep.  

And he's been doing fine since!

Four Years Old!

My little buddy is four years old today!  I can't believe it!  Alex may be small for his age, but he has a BIG personality.  He makes me laugh several times a day with his comments, songs, and other goofy activities.  Sometimes he will randomly break out in song, and sometimes he will do a little dance and shake his bootie.  If you ask him what his last name is, he will tell you, "The Great!"  (Alexander the Great)

He's very sensitive and affectionate and likes to be held, cuddled, or hugged.  Several times a day we have this exchange:

Alex: "Hey Mom guess what?"

Me: "What?"

Alex: "I LOVE you!"

His speech is no longer delayed, he is learning his letters, can spell his first name, and he can count to 20 in English and to 10 in Spanish, Japanese, and German.  He is also day potty trained! 

Alex really is the sunshine in my life.  Happy Birthday Buddy!!

Birth

One Year

Two Years

Three Years

Now

Potty Trained!

Well hopefully I am not jinxing myself but I think it's safe to say that Alex is FINALLY potty trained!  Day-trained that is.  We won't try for nights until he consistently wakes up dry, which isn't happening yet.

It's been a long, long year!  We started potty training in August of last year at the prompting of his preschool.  You may remember that  it wasn't going well.  At some point I just decided to stop worrying about it and though I reminded him every morning on the way to school to not have any accidents, and reminded him to go potty all day on the weekends, beyond that I  didn't say anything to him.  I just kept sending changes of clothes to school.  Eventually the accidents started getting less and less. 

One day he decided he didn't want to use the little potty anymore (shown above -taken in May).  He wanted use the big one.  Then, last month he started finally running to the bathroom on his own!  And it has now been over a month since he has had any accidents!  I am so happy to be over this milestone!

We celebrated by painting his toenails. Yes, he really wanted his toenails painted...and decided on a glittery purple!  Josh wasn't too happy about  it, but I try not to limit my kids on gender stereotypes (as evidenced by the last photo in this post).  My  decision was rewarded as I watched him play and repeatedly stop for a moment to look down at his toes with a big smile!

First Grade!

I'm behind on posts again - life is so busy right now!  Last weekend we finished our preparations for the start of school.  Saturday we took the kids to get new shoes and haircuts!  Here they are post haircut:

Sunday Aurora and I had our traditional lunch and back-to-school shopping spree with Grandma S!  Aurora picked Chili's for lunch and we shopped at Target and the mall.  Aurora has very long legs and a tiny waist!  She's also not big on shopping so had to make sure she had some fun in the middle, like riding the quarter rides at the mall.  She did pick out some outfits for herself.  My mom and I were not very impressed with the selection this year.  Aurora's school has a lot of rules - must have sleeves, no graphics or pictures except for insignia's smaller than 3in., must be a certain length, etc. and we had a hard time finding cute clothes that met the criteria.  Regardless we did a pretty good job!

Finally the first day arrived - here's the first grader!

I'm afraid she had a pretty rough first day.  They are doing construction all over the school for a gas leak (that is apparently not a danger to the kids?) and there are lots of construction sites and dirt everywhere.  They can't cook hot meals until it is fixed.  They had a fire drill and a lockdown drill.  In the lockdown drill they told the kids if a bear comes in the school or a person with a weapon, they should hide and be very quiet.  I'm all for preparing kids for these situations, but on the first day of school when the kids are already nervous!?!?  Aurora said all they did all day was go over rules and "she didn't do anything fun."  On top of  that, there was some confusion with her after school arrangements (that's a WHOLE other post) and instead of going to the after school program she had to sit in the office until Josh picked her up.  She was not a happy camper.  :-(   

Luckily, the rest of the week went pretty smoothly and she's enjoying it a lot more!  She's even proud to have the special job every morning of taking the attendance sheet to the office.  Hopefully it will be a good year!

Kindergarten Graduation

Aurora graduated Kindergarten on Monday! I can't believe it! They had a small ceremony at school where they sang a few songs and got their "diplomas." There was also artwork that the kids had done showing what they wanted to do when they grew up. Aurora's was an airplane and said, "When I grow up I want to be a pilot." I did not know this about her!

We also received her report card on that day and she got a perfect report card! Advanced in all areas! She did a fantastic job this year, I am so proud of her! On to First Grade!

Tooth Fairy Adventures

Aurora lost her second tooth last week! A kid at school "accidentally" kneed her in the chin and the loose tooth came right out. She came home from school with the tooth in a little plastic treasure box and an envelope to put a note in. She wrote a little note to the Tooth Fairy and set it out to be taken.


It was the male Tooth Fairy's duty to get it and leave the money in the middle of the night because he can see in the dark much better, but he forgot, so the female Tooth Fairy had to do it when she got up, before the kids were woken up.

Unfortunately she is not very sly because after Aurora showed me the glittery dollar bill, the following conversation ensued:

Aurora: Mom I saw you get my tooth last night.
Me: No I didn't!
Aurora: Then why were you in my room?
Me: I was checking to make sure the fairy came!

I'm not sure if she quite believed me. Oh well! In this house, if you don't believe, then you don't get any money!

Later that day, I finally read her note to the Tooth Fairy:

(I like your money, The Tooth Fairy)

She's her father's daughter, for sure!!

Braggin' on Aurora

I'm so proud of Aurora!  She is doing so well in school.  We recently got her 3rd quarter report card and she is exceeding in everything!  Her teacher said she is doing a great job and is a very quick learner.  She learns her sight word lists overnight.  Her teacher's comments (the handwritten comment was by the principal):

Aurora has also advanced to first grade level reading!  She brought this book home last night from a first grade class and read it to me with no problem!

That's my girl!

Aurora's First Story

The other day I was helping Alex with his homework (identifying shapes and colors), and I needed to distract Aurora, so I asked her to write me a little story.  Here is what she wrote:

 

Translation: "A green dragon with the blue stripes was hungry.  He found the blue berries.  The end."

Not bad for a 5 year old I say!

All About Aurora

Here are twenty things about Aurora:

1. She is way messier than Alex
2. She can learn a site word list in one day
3. She can say her ABC's backwards
4. She does not like milk
5. She is 100% Josh, except for her OCD, which she gets from me
6. She LOVES all animals and gets that from Josh's grandmother
7. When we visit his grandparents, she is out on their farm from sun up to sun down
8. She has to have the exact same bedtime routine every night, down to the same questions and answers ("Did you spray the Monster Spray?")
9. She has the attitude of a teenager already
10. Before she tells you something, she always says, "I have to tell you something.."
11. She chews on her toenails (Ew!)
12. She cannot handle sugar and gets extremely hyper
13. She is very clumsy, but has amazing balance
14. She's a negotiator, and often uses reasoning I cannot argue with
15. She does not like to sleep
16. She is afraid of the dark
17. She makes friends everywhere she goes
18. Her favorite food is pork - pork chops, ribs, bacon, etc
19. She loves all things space (like her Daddy) and knew her planets before her alphabet
20. She loves to sing and dance

And from her own words..

All About Alex

Here are twenty things about Alex:

1. He loves milk and will drink it over anything
2. He does not like juice, except lemonade
3. He likes to come up with names to call people, always ending with -head (milkhead, mommahead)
4. When Aurora is not home he will play by himself for an hour or more
5. He loves trains, planes, and automobiles
6. He is not fully potty trained yet
7. If he has been in his room by himself for longer than 10 minutes, I can guarantee he is stinky
8. He calls Aurora "Sister"
9. He's a momma's boy
10. He tells me he loves me several times a day
11. He loves to sleep and will ask for naps and bedtime
12. He still naps for 3 hours a day on weekends
13. He can count to 20
14. He has some speech problems and gets weekly therapy
15. Most likely from having constant ear infections until he got ear tubes at 14 months
16. He loves baths but won't get in until the water stops running
17. He still uses a pacifier when sleeping, which I won't take away until he turns 4
18. He tries to compliment me to get out of trouble ("I like your hair...")
19. His favorite food is spaghetti
20. He loves to dance

And in his own words...

Reading!

Last week, Aurora read a whole book all by herself for the first time!! She read "Balloon Animals." It was the first evening she had ever seen this book. By the time I took this video, I think she had practiced it so many times that she had it memorized. But the important part is that she sounded out all the words herself and I didn't read a word of it! I am so proud of her! I don't expect anyone to sit through this video but wanted to document it here.

Lost Tooth!

Aurora lost her first tooth yesterday!  It has been wiggly for a few weeks.  She's been very patient about it and yesterday at lunch it started bleeding and when she put a tissue on it, it came right out!  She was so excited!

Several years ago I picked up a special tooth fairy box for her to put her teeth in.  It's been sitting in my jewelry box just waiting for this moment!  So we cleaned up her tooth and put in the box and under her pillow.  When she woke up this morning she had $8 covered in sparkly tooth fairy dust!  I explained that the tooth fairy gives a lot for the first tooth and a little for all the rest.  She didn't seem to mind!

Potty Training...

So Alex and I have been working on potty training. Let me be honest - I don't think he is ready. But his teacher thinks he is. Plus, his school is split into two sides - a daycare side and a preschool side. Three-year-olds move to the preschool side, but not until they are potty trained. Alex is the only three-year-old still on the daycare side. :-(

[Let me just mention here that Aurora pretty much trained herself at 2 1/2, shortly after Alex was born.]

When Alex started back at the school in August, they told me to bring him in pull-ups and they would start working with him. We (his teachers and myself) set him on the toilet at each pull-up change. Then we started taking him every hour. He eventually started to go on the toilet occasionally, but he still wouldn't tell us when he had to go.

A few weeks ago his teacher suggested we put him in underwear, so that he would really feel it when he has an accident. I am seeing the same results. He'll go when you put him on there (although sometimes he has a HUGE meltdown when I ask him to sit on the toilet), but he won't tell us when he has to go. He has no problem playing in wet (or worse) underwear and pants. His teacher says he'll get it in time. Meanwhile I have to do laundry every day to supply them with 2-3 new outfits each day and rinse out poopy underwear.

I'm tired and frustrated. He's not happy and is being held back in school. Where do we go from here?

Kindergarten Registration

I registered Aurora for kindergarten today!! I can't believe she is starting this fall! It seems like just yesterday she was a chubby little baby. I picked her up early from preschool and we headed over to her new school. The first thing she noticed was the playground. She said, "Mom, look at the cool kindergarten playground!"

We went inside the main area and headed to the cafeteria. While I filled out paperwork she ran around and made some friends! Then we met the nurse and the principal. Aurora told the nurse straight up that she was "allergic to dust and penicillin."

After we were finished they gave us a tour of the school. She checked out the gym, the library, and two of the kindergarten classrooms. She seemed a bit overwhelmed in the classrooms, but she wanted to stay and play with everything!

As we were leaving I asked her how she liked it and she said, "I want to start tomorrow!" I wanted to tell her, "I get three more months of you being my little girl!"

Here is Aurora singing one of the songs she is learning for preschool graduation: