Sniffles

Mattie and Jamesie caught a little cold at the start of the week, so there have been a lot of runny noses around here -- but that hasn't stopped them from running all over the place on their tricycles!

Preschool orientation for parents was last night, and orientation for the kids is next Wednesday.  The main change (besides new teachers!) is that the three year olds start 15 minutes earlier (8:45 instead of 9 AM).  We'll have to change our ways -- by the end of last year, we weren't even on time for 9 AM!  :)

Today we met the therapists who will be working with James through the Preschool Intervention program.  There's a speech therapist and an education specialist, and each of them will be in James's classroom twice a week for a half hour.  We went to their office and they did a little play session (without us) to do some initial evaluation and get to know him.  They said he did a great job!  They were especially impressed with his language and how clearly he was speaking ("his speech therapist must have been fantastic!" said his new speech therapist.)  The education specialist said that when she read his IEP, she was surprised there weren't any articulation goals (that is, working on improving his clarity/pronunciation), but now that she's met him, she understands why he didn't need that.  :)  Of course, they always keep an eye on that kind of thing for kids with hearing loss, but it was great to hear that they thought he was doing so well.  They were also impressed with his pre-academic skills (letters, numbers).  Go, James!

Apparently the thing he didn't do for them was do the hand motions along with songs, so they mentioned they'll be working on that, along with the other goals that the IEP team set at the end of last school year.  (I'm not sure exactly why hand motions with songs is an important skill, but apparently it has something to do with coordinating different types of activities, as well as being able to fully participate in preschool activities.)  Our babysitter N was surprised to hear that -- she says he does the motions when they sing songs at home.

Jamesie went to the ear doctor on Wednesday.  (The doctor said his ears looked good, although we're still seeing a little gunk in his hearing aids.  So, hopefully the doctor is right and all is still well.)  Jamesie picked out a sticker to bring home to Mattie, and it made Mattie's day!  It was very sweet. (Later in the day James crashed his tricycle into Mattie's tricycle, and Mattie said, "Bad James!  But good James for bringing me a sticker!  I put the sticker on my shirt over the airplane.  Sticker shirt!")

Fun at Daniel's House

Even when they're not at Pump it Up, the boys have a great time at Cousin Daniel's house!

 (The Lego model Mike is working on was one of Daniel's birthday presents, a fire truck with about a gazillion small parts. Not exactly age appropriate, but the boys liked the finished product!)

Pump It Up

Daniel has been talking about his Pump it Up party for months and months, and the day finally arrived! (Pump it Up is a place with indoor inflated toys -- bounce houses, big slides, obstacle courses.) Daniel had told us all the details in advance -- the starting time, the safety video, all the attractions. :)

 It was a lot of fun! James, of course, plunged right in and fearlessly went on everything. Mattie was not quite so adventurous -- he went on the slides by himself at first, and then at some point midway through decided he couldn't do it without Mommy. (Which was a problem because they only wanted one person on the slide at once.) He also wasn't so big on the obstacle course -- he didn't think he could make it up the climbing wall (though he did after some encouragement), and then he didn't like the big slide at the end. Poor kid! I think he had a good time anyhow.

 Daniel had a great time, too. I think it was all he imagined!

Go

James happily spelled his name on the computer again today, and in the tub, he picked up a G and an O, put them together, and said, "G and O, go!" (Go, James! Super speller!)

 He was jumping on the bed after his bath (which isn't allowed -- they can jump before bath but not after, because my theory is that too-active playing after bath makes it harder for them to fall asleep), and I told him no. He said, "J for jumping James! J likes to jump!" -- as if he had to be allowed to bounce because the alphabet said so! Nice try, kid. :)

 [Photo from 8/15 in Florida.]

J-A-M-E-S

James typed his name on the computer today, spelling it all by himself! Go, James!! (The boys love "making letters" on the computer, and I've been singing them a little song about how to spell their names, so now he seems to have it -- he did it a couple times, and also spelled "dad", "cat", and "mom" with some help sounding them out.) He's also gotten pretty reliable with recognizing "cat" and "dog" when we spell them, but when I typed "stop" he said, "go!"  (And his next guess was "pig", so he still has a ways to go on the sounding it out idea.)

 The boys have a "Talking Words Factory" Leapfrog DVD (or "alphabet froggie", as James calls it) that's all about letter sounds and putting them together, so I think that's helped encourage their interest. (Thanks to N for getting them the "talking letters" one for their birthday!) Of course, in the tub, he picked out the E and the S, and the J on the other side, and then put another 10 letters in between to "spell James" (although I'm pretty sure he knew it didn't really), so we'll see. :)

Matthew mainly likes to just fill up the screen with capital B's when he's playing with the computer.  :)  But he might be able to tell you how to spell James (and possibly Matthew) -- I'll have to ask him.

The Age of Negotiation

I told the boys they could play downstairs for another two minutes, since dinner was almost ready. Matthew replied, "How about three minutes?" Then, when it came time to go upstairs, I said we'd go after I counted to 20 -- and Matthew said, "How about 20 minutes?"

And yesterday, James said he wanted some milk, so I said, "Sure, let's get you a little milk."
James: "I want a big milk."
Me: "Okay, we'll get you a big milk."
James: "I want a super-big milk!"

Trike Outing

The boys had fun with their tricycles at the park.  James uses the pedals, but Mattie insisted on just pushing with his feet instead.

Today is rainy, so they're riding up and down the hallway instead, James on the tricycle and Mattie on the tractor.  :)
 

Home Again

We're back home from Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The boys enjoyed their last day of playing with Daniel and the other friends and relatives (we enjoyed visits from Bettina, Gyne, and Honorary Grandma Sue). 

They also contributed to Daniel's "education" because James was telling Sue that she fell down the trapdoor, and Daniel didn't know what a trapdoor was.  So we showed him a Scooby episode that demonstrated it.  :)  (Daniel, by the way, sings a version of "Ruby Tuesday" which includes the line, "James and Matthew like Scooby-Doo."  Clever boy!)

The weather didn't cooperate for a last swim the morning we left, but James "helped" Grandma clean the pool by throwing his football in so that she could fish it out with the net.  :)

Grandma let the boys take a few toys home, and they were very excited this morning about the "new toys."  Thanks, Grandma!!

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

We had a great day celebrating Daniel’s 4th birthday today. Uncle Adrian's sister Tash and her family were here too (all the way from England), and it was wonderful to see them. Everyone had fun in the pool!

Daniel's cake was actually a set of cupcakes frosted to look like a (Dora the Explorer) cake -- a cool idea! All the kids got a turn blowing out the candles. (James was especially excited about that, and Mattie was delighted with his cupcake!)

After the cake we had a pinata, which was one of the high points for Daniel -- he's been talking about it for days, and even afterwards, asked everyone over and over again, "Did you like what came out of my pinata?" The pinata had ribbons to pull to break it (the kids took a turn pulling a ribbon until one opened the bottom of the pinata -- appropriately, Daniel was the one to pick the magic ribbon). This seemed like a much better idea than letting them swing at it with a stick! There was plenty of candy for all the kids. (James enjoyed collecting it, even though he didn't want to eat any!)

The girls were great playing with the boys -- Izzy, Daniel's older cousin (age 8), was especially sweet with them. She spent quite a while drawing pictures with Mattie (which is to say she drew nice pictures, and Mattie added a lot of orange scribbles), and then she read him some stories.

The girls also adored the dogs -- when it came time for them to leave, the dogs got the most enthusiastic goodbyes! :)

Daniel was so nice – he let James and Matthew help him open his presents. (James loves opening presents!)

Airborne

High flyers at the pool today!