Elek turned 6 today! So hard to believe. It is amazing how much a child can learn and develop over just 6 short years. Given the choice between a birthday party with friends in Melbourne or with their cousins in St. Pete both Elek and B chose to celebrate with their family. So last weekend while we were in St. Pete for Thanksgiving each of them had a designated "birthday celebration day." The day after Thanksgiving was Beata's special day. Weeta, Aunt Sita, and I surprised her by taking her to a kids salon called Lil Dudes and Divas to get her hair and nails done. As I was taking a picture of her adorable french braids afterwards she shouted, "this is a dream come true!" From there we went out for a "girly" lunch at the Museum of Fine Arts Cafe. Then we dropped off Sara and picked up Augie and we went to International Mall where Weeta let B pick out anything she wanted from the Disney Store. She chose an Elsa pajama, Elsa high heel shoes, and a tiara. Afterward, we headed back to Weeta's for Thanksgiving leftovers and a delicious cake prepared by Aunt Sita. It was a great day! The next day was Elek's birthday celebration day. Unfortunately, Fran's car broke down in Crystal River on his way to the FSU game so Sara had to go pick him up and missed out on some of the fun. Weeta and I took all of the kids to see Penguins of Madagascar at the movie theater. Then we all went to Target where Elek was allowed to pick out a toy. He chose a remote controlled spy camera that Sy already has. Next we went out to lunch at Panera where Andrew met up with us. Then it was back to Weeta's house for a bit so I could put Augie down for a much needed nap. Sara showed up and took all of the kids back to their house. Weeta prepared a delicious meal of steak, chicken, and shrimp kabobs and brought it over to Sara's where we all ate dinner and then sang happy birthday to Elek. After that it was backyard fun with the fire pit, roasting marshmallows, eating smores, and Sara chasing Andrew with a hose while I also tried to stop him from making flying fire lanterns. That night, the three boys slept with uncle Fran in the tent in the Allens backyard. Elek loved every minute of it and when I asked him if his birthday celebration day was everything he wanted it to be he said it was better!
This was my schedule today:
7:30- Took Elek for a birthday walk on the beach
7:55- Dropped Elek off at schoool
9: -Dropped Augie and B off at school
11- Met Elek at his school for lunch
12- Picked Augie and B up from school
1- Brought cupcakes to Elek's school for his class
2:30- picked Elek up from school
2:45 - took kids to Walmart to buy a Christmas tree
3:30 - Decorated tree, cleaned house
6:30- Dinner at Doubles with the Hershmans
Needless to say, this mom is exhausted and hitting the sack early tonight....well, early-ish anyway!
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
Elek had a rough last couple of weeks going to school in the morning. It all started one morning after he and I had a longer than normal "date" before school. We had been making it a habit to wake up earlier than necessary for school so that we could fit in a walk on the beach together in the mornings and, on the morning before the morning of his first meltdown we had managed to fit in a walk on the beach and a mile walk/run/skip around the track behind his school. After dropping him off at the classroom I glanced back and saw that he was looking longingly back at me. The next morning, he was squeezing me tight and begging me not to leave and by day three there were tears and more begging. Andrew tried taking him the next day and it was more of the same except that it started in the driveway of our house as Andrew had to force him into the car. The next morning Andrew wanted to get more sleep so I had to take him and it was the worst morning yet. Mrs. Palmer had to call the guidance counselor who told me to walk into the room with them and then leave. I did what she said but had no idea how traumatic it would be. Elek was basically pried off of me and reaching for me screaming, "no mom, don't leave me," which left me with a giant frog in my throat and fighting back my own tears till I got into the car. Luckily, with the promise of Moo's ice cream after 5 consecutive days of no tears and drop off and all of the fun that Mrs. Palmer continually brings into the classroom, he has been doing much better the past several school days. It is heartbreaking to see him not wanting to go to school but also very reassuring that he always reports that he had a good day at school when I pick him up. In fact, today when I asked how school was he said, "fantastic!" I can't even tell you how good it feels to hear that from him!
Last Friday Elek was recognized as the first boy (his teacher alternates each week between boys and girls) in his class to earn the title of "Star of the Week." He wanted it sooooo badly and was very sure that he had it in the bag. On Thursday he came home from school and told me that "something mysterious" had happened at school that day. He said that when he asked Mrs. Palmer who she was going to choose for Star of the Week, she said "I don't know," and winked at him. The next morning he reminded me that that would be the day Mrs. Palmer would announce the SOTW and as I was reminding him not to get his hopes up that he had gotten it and to try and remain calm and collected if he didn't, he looked me in the eye, with his hands behind his head and said, "mom, I'm like 99% sure I'm going to get it, like 99% sure." And when Andrew dropped him off at home that afternoon the first thing he said was , "I guess I was right about being 99% sure that I was going to get it." I swear sometimes I feel like I am speaking to my kids 10 years from now.
Beata gave me a similar, I-am-speaking-to-my-child-at-16 experience this evening. She was wearing a purple necklace that Gigi gave her and digging for compliments so I said, "oh Hermione, what lovely beads. They match the purple dress you wore to the ball just perfectly." She then went on to tell me that there wouldn't be a another ball this year because Lupen called it off and was going to take her out instead. Now, for anyone who hasn't read the HP books or seen the movie, Lupen is a teacher at Hogwarts who is no younger than 45.
"Taking you out?! What do you mean taking you out?"
"Like on a date."
"What?! But Hermione,Lupen is so old. He's too old."
"Yes but he is good to me."
"He is good to you because he likes you like you are his daughter, not because he wants to marry you."
"No mom. He is really nice to me and we are going to get married."
What the hell?! I told Andrew that I literally felt like I was having a conversation with B when she was 20 years old and trying to convince me that a man 20 years older than her was a suitable choice for a partner. I was getting really worked up over the fact that the more I tried to shoot down her decision the more hardened she became in it. Please please please don't let this be an early sign of what is to come!
The kids went to their first chess tournament of the school year on Saturday. Beata took 3rd place in the kindergarten and first grade group and Elek got 1st. He seemed much more excited though about the fact that team Indialantic took home a 2nd place plaque! The older kids were really nice and insisted that Elek bring it home over the weekend before handing it over to coach Cooper on Monday.
Augie can pretty much say anything he wants to now. He is speaking in full sentences. For example, just a few minutes ago he said," I don't want to go to school. I don't like my school. I don't like Mrs. Laurie's class." Luckily I'm pretty sure it was the exhaustion talking since so far he has seemed to really enjoy preschool.
I took Elek to a skating birthday party yesterday for one of his classmates, Alyssa. As I stood there watching him scarf down Sprite and Pizza I started to tear up wondering how the heck we were already here. How thatlittle big baby of mine was already in kindergarten and going to roller skating parties. He is such a sweet boy. He asked if I wanted to sit down next to him with his friends and kept glancing up at me smiling, as if to make sure I knew he was happy and to make sure I was ok. And I was so shocked by his persistence in trying to learn to skate. By the end he could make it around on the carpet by himself alright but still struggled a lot on the concrete rink. But he insisted that he is going to want a pair of skates for his birthday!
Alright, that's all for now. Eyes are burning...need sleep.
Last Friday Elek was recognized as the first boy (his teacher alternates each week between boys and girls) in his class to earn the title of "Star of the Week." He wanted it sooooo badly and was very sure that he had it in the bag. On Thursday he came home from school and told me that "something mysterious" had happened at school that day. He said that when he asked Mrs. Palmer who she was going to choose for Star of the Week, she said "I don't know," and winked at him. The next morning he reminded me that that would be the day Mrs. Palmer would announce the SOTW and as I was reminding him not to get his hopes up that he had gotten it and to try and remain calm and collected if he didn't, he looked me in the eye, with his hands behind his head and said, "mom, I'm like 99% sure I'm going to get it, like 99% sure." And when Andrew dropped him off at home that afternoon the first thing he said was , "I guess I was right about being 99% sure that I was going to get it." I swear sometimes I feel like I am speaking to my kids 10 years from now.
Beata gave me a similar, I-am-speaking-to-my-child-at-16 experience this evening. She was wearing a purple necklace that Gigi gave her and digging for compliments so I said, "oh Hermione, what lovely beads. They match the purple dress you wore to the ball just perfectly." She then went on to tell me that there wouldn't be a another ball this year because Lupen called it off and was going to take her out instead. Now, for anyone who hasn't read the HP books or seen the movie, Lupen is a teacher at Hogwarts who is no younger than 45.
"Taking you out?! What do you mean taking you out?"
"Like on a date."
"What?! But Hermione,Lupen is so old. He's too old."
"Yes but he is good to me."
"He is good to you because he likes you like you are his daughter, not because he wants to marry you."
"No mom. He is really nice to me and we are going to get married."
What the hell?! I told Andrew that I literally felt like I was having a conversation with B when she was 20 years old and trying to convince me that a man 20 years older than her was a suitable choice for a partner. I was getting really worked up over the fact that the more I tried to shoot down her decision the more hardened she became in it. Please please please don't let this be an early sign of what is to come!
The kids went to their first chess tournament of the school year on Saturday. Beata took 3rd place in the kindergarten and first grade group and Elek got 1st. He seemed much more excited though about the fact that team Indialantic took home a 2nd place plaque! The older kids were really nice and insisted that Elek bring it home over the weekend before handing it over to coach Cooper on Monday.
Augie can pretty much say anything he wants to now. He is speaking in full sentences. For example, just a few minutes ago he said," I don't want to go to school. I don't like my school. I don't like Mrs. Laurie's class." Luckily I'm pretty sure it was the exhaustion talking since so far he has seemed to really enjoy preschool.
I took Elek to a skating birthday party yesterday for one of his classmates, Alyssa. As I stood there watching him scarf down Sprite and Pizza I started to tear up wondering how the heck we were already here. How that
Alright, that's all for now. Eyes are burning...need sleep.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Today was Augie's first day of preschool. Not surprisingly, when I dropped him off in his classroom and gave him a kiss goodbye he could not have cared less that I was leaving him and was very excited to play with all of the new-to-him-toys. When I picked him up this afternoon I had to fill out an incident report because he had a boo boo near his lip from tripping over a toy on the floor and poking himself with whatever it was he was holding in his hand at the time. It wasn't until we were brushing his teeth tonight that Andrew and I realized he had a pretty bad boo boo on the inside of his lip too :( School also wore the boy out. Even Mrs. Hogan, Beata's teacher, noted that he looked exhausted when I arrived to pick him up. He looked like he was in a fog and didn't even show much interest in playing at the water table they had out which he normally would have been all over. When we got in the car I asked he and Beata to tell me three things that they did at school and Augie was able to come up with these:
" Play with alligator."
"Got boo boo."
"Eat."
Tonight as I was putting him to bed I said, "Augie today was your first day of school with Miss Laurie, did you have fun?"
"Yes! Go back!," he said :)
Elek had his pretest for kindergarten this morning. After testing him the teacher came out of the room and said, "OK, wow." She apologized for taking so long but said that she had to move on to the first grade sight words. Elek said that he got stuck on the word "oil" and another that he couldn't remember. While alone with her (Andrew was outside with Elek), I let her know that I was concerned about his ability to make friends. She said, "well I can tell that he is very mature. He is the first one that I have tested who has sat still during the whole test and hasn't tried to get up and walk around the room." Andrew and I were so proud of him and I wish I could have captured the look of pride on Elek's face when he got in the car. He was beaming. Andrew and I had worked the test up like it was a big deal and told him that he was taking his OWLs, a test given to the wizards and witches in HP so I think he was a little nervous beforehand and then both relieved and excited to have breezed through it. After we said goodbye to Andrew I took Elek out to get an Italian ice from a little smoothie/icy shop down the street. He LOVED it and kept saying, "this is a really nice date, isn't it?" I realized that it had been forever since I had done something fun with just him and it made me wish that I had been better about doing it far more often. Never too late to make changes though so I plan to make dates with my boys just as frequent as the girlie dates I go on with my B. After our dessert date we went home and he asked if we could play Taboo. I thought the game was too advanced for him but agreed to teach him how to play. Boy was I wrong, the kid got it right away and enjoyed both guessing words given my clues and providing clues himself, carefully avoiding the words that were off limits. Later in the afternoon we taught Beata how to play and she got the hang of it right away too. Tonight we played with Andrew briefly. It is so exciting that they are reading well enough to play word-based board games with just a little bit of assistance!!
On Sunday, Chris and Christena had us over for bbq and swimming so tonight I made chicken pot pie and they came over to our house. The kids got along great, wielding makeshift weapons at tree trunks and a flipped over row boat that has been sitting in our backyard. I'm hoping that their friendship can develop into the kind that I treasured with my neighborhood buds, Nicky and Marcus.
" Play with alligator."
"Got boo boo."
"Eat."
Tonight as I was putting him to bed I said, "Augie today was your first day of school with Miss Laurie, did you have fun?"
"Yes! Go back!," he said :)
Elek had his pretest for kindergarten this morning. After testing him the teacher came out of the room and said, "OK, wow." She apologized for taking so long but said that she had to move on to the first grade sight words. Elek said that he got stuck on the word "oil" and another that he couldn't remember. While alone with her (Andrew was outside with Elek), I let her know that I was concerned about his ability to make friends. She said, "well I can tell that he is very mature. He is the first one that I have tested who has sat still during the whole test and hasn't tried to get up and walk around the room." Andrew and I were so proud of him and I wish I could have captured the look of pride on Elek's face when he got in the car. He was beaming. Andrew and I had worked the test up like it was a big deal and told him that he was taking his OWLs, a test given to the wizards and witches in HP so I think he was a little nervous beforehand and then both relieved and excited to have breezed through it. After we said goodbye to Andrew I took Elek out to get an Italian ice from a little smoothie/icy shop down the street. He LOVED it and kept saying, "this is a really nice date, isn't it?" I realized that it had been forever since I had done something fun with just him and it made me wish that I had been better about doing it far more often. Never too late to make changes though so I plan to make dates with my boys just as frequent as the girlie dates I go on with my B. After our dessert date we went home and he asked if we could play Taboo. I thought the game was too advanced for him but agreed to teach him how to play. Boy was I wrong, the kid got it right away and enjoyed both guessing words given my clues and providing clues himself, carefully avoiding the words that were off limits. Later in the afternoon we taught Beata how to play and she got the hang of it right away too. Tonight we played with Andrew briefly. It is so exciting that they are reading well enough to play word-based board games with just a little bit of assistance!!
On Sunday, Chris and Christena had us over for bbq and swimming so tonight I made chicken pot pie and they came over to our house. The kids got along great, wielding makeshift weapons at tree trunks and a flipped over row boat that has been sitting in our backyard. I'm hoping that their friendship can develop into the kind that I treasured with my neighborhood buds, Nicky and Marcus.
Monday, August 18, 2014
B had her first day of VPK today. At pick up her teacher, Mrs. Hogan (Elek's teacher last year) told me that she was reading a story to the class and substituted the word "playground" for "recess" since she wasn't sure if all of the kids would know what "recess" meant. She said that Beata stopped her and said, "that doesn't say 'playground' it says 'recess'." Her teacher said she guesses she won't be able to substitute any more words this year :)
Tomorrow is Auggie's first day in Mrs. Laurie's two-year old class and Elek has a pre-test for kindergarten. His first day of school is Thursday. I will try to remember to write about each of their first-day experiences later in the week!
Tomorrow is Auggie's first day in Mrs. Laurie's two-year old class and Elek has a pre-test for kindergarten. His first day of school is Thursday. I will try to remember to write about each of their first-day experiences later in the week!
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Yesterday Elek was being a poop toward Beata and Kole during a play date at our house so I told him that he couldn't play Warcraft the next day. This morning I reminded him that he couldn't play today. His response: "I know, it's because of the party pooper."
"Who's that?"
"Oh, YOU know her." He responded, referring to me, of course.
Little smart ass.
Beata taught herself to do a 3 part braid. I may have shown her briefly once a long time ago but never with an explicit lesson. She just figured it out. I guess where there is a will to be a girlie girl, there is a way.
Augie likes to come up to me and pretend that he is a dog so I will pet and love on him. I call him "Augie doggie."
"Who's that?"
"Oh, YOU know her." He responded, referring to me, of course.
Little smart ass.
Beata taught herself to do a 3 part braid. I may have shown her briefly once a long time ago but never with an explicit lesson. She just figured it out. I guess where there is a will to be a girlie girl, there is a way.
Augie likes to come up to me and pretend that he is a dog so I will pet and love on him. I call him "Augie doggie."
Sunday, July 20, 2014
A Wonderful Weekend
Sometimes weekends are so great you feel like you want to record them. This weekend was one of those weekends. On Friday I took the kids to the zoo. We met up with Amy, her kids, her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew. The kids all enjoyed seeing the giraffes and playing in the splash pad area. Then the Hershman crew had to take off but us Lamoureuxes stuck around and had some more fun. We picnicked under an oak tree, saw the "licky deer" (Beata's name for the sweet doe who loves to lick hands and arms through the fence), visited the lagoon area, and the petting zoo. The kids were excellent and made me start thinking that I may be able to take them on some more adventurous day trips on my own. After that we spent over an hour killing time in Target during a heavy rainstorm. They were also wonderfully behaved for this portion of our outing which was even more impressive since they were exhausted. Finally we went home where Augie took a nap while Elek and B swam and I made dinner. Later that evening Andrew took the kids for a swim while I went for a jog. I came back home, helped him put them to bed, and then played tennis with Jess at Ryckman for an hour until the lights turned off on us at 10. Tennis with Jess is great because we are both the exact same level of horrible and we are able to use the time to talk about everything under the sun.
Saturday morning we all went to the beach at 9:45 and stayed until about 1:45. The Kennedys and Peters were there as well and the husbands and wives took turns surfing. The waves were much larger than they have usually been this summer and I was catching them!!! I used a lot of what Andrew had told me on our last surf date and it paid off. I had a blast!! The kids had a great time too, confidently going under and over much larger waves than they have ever been in and definitely at the upper limit of what I would consider safe. When we finally returned home, the kids ate a picnic lunch outside, Augie went down for a nap while Elek and B swam, and I made some chicken salad. Andrew went to the Sun Shoppe for a bit to play chess, came home, ate lunch, and went out to fly his plane at the beach. He was very excited to have flown his Radian without power twice for 5 minutes each. Then B and I went to Walmart and Publix for some girlie time with is always a lot of fun. I love our time alone together and it is obvious by her constant beaming smile that she loves it too :) Later that evening we went out and surfed again. Another great surf session and more fun for the kids in the water.
This morning I woke up and met Lisa at the beach at 7:30 to surf. Jess showed up a little later and we were out for about an hour and a half until it was time for me to go home and get ready to go with the family to Pump it Up for Rowan's 4th birthday. By the time we got home at noon I was more tired than I have been in a long time and my body felt totally worked. But a 10 minute power nap did wonders. I woke up, cleaned the house a bit, and mostly enjoyed a lazy day of putting together a star wars puzzle with Elek and Andrew (the hardest puzzle ever I might add), eating lots of chocolate chip cookies, and hanging out with the kiddos and Andrew. Unfortunately Andrew's Radian wing got stuck in the wheel of his bike while on his way to fly it at the beach so he is in the process of trying to glue it back together now. Tonight we went back to the beach with the Peters and surfed again while the kids got smashed around in the water. Came home, rinsed off in the shower, and took a dip in the pool. A perfect ending to a wonderful weekend!!!
Saturday morning we all went to the beach at 9:45 and stayed until about 1:45. The Kennedys and Peters were there as well and the husbands and wives took turns surfing. The waves were much larger than they have usually been this summer and I was catching them!!! I used a lot of what Andrew had told me on our last surf date and it paid off. I had a blast!! The kids had a great time too, confidently going under and over much larger waves than they have ever been in and definitely at the upper limit of what I would consider safe. When we finally returned home, the kids ate a picnic lunch outside, Augie went down for a nap while Elek and B swam, and I made some chicken salad. Andrew went to the Sun Shoppe for a bit to play chess, came home, ate lunch, and went out to fly his plane at the beach. He was very excited to have flown his Radian without power twice for 5 minutes each. Then B and I went to Walmart and Publix for some girlie time with is always a lot of fun. I love our time alone together and it is obvious by her constant beaming smile that she loves it too :) Later that evening we went out and surfed again. Another great surf session and more fun for the kids in the water.
This morning I woke up and met Lisa at the beach at 7:30 to surf. Jess showed up a little later and we were out for about an hour and a half until it was time for me to go home and get ready to go with the family to Pump it Up for Rowan's 4th birthday. By the time we got home at noon I was more tired than I have been in a long time and my body felt totally worked. But a 10 minute power nap did wonders. I woke up, cleaned the house a bit, and mostly enjoyed a lazy day of putting together a star wars puzzle with Elek and Andrew (the hardest puzzle ever I might add), eating lots of chocolate chip cookies, and hanging out with the kiddos and Andrew. Unfortunately Andrew's Radian wing got stuck in the wheel of his bike while on his way to fly it at the beach so he is in the process of trying to glue it back together now. Tonight we went back to the beach with the Peters and surfed again while the kids got smashed around in the water. Came home, rinsed off in the shower, and took a dip in the pool. A perfect ending to a wonderful weekend!!!
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Augie Pogie Puddin' 'n Pie Turns TWO!!!
Augie turned 2 a couple weeks ago and I have been meaning to write a little post about him in celebration. Here goes:
- He likes to be very independent. I am not allowed to help him at all with the process of climbing into his high chair, getting buckled in, or attaching his meal tray. He wants to do everything that Elek and Beata do and gets very upset if he is not allowed their freedoms.
- He has absolutely no fear of the water. When he sees Elek and B jump off the side of the pool he gets out of the water, walks to the edge of the pool, and walks right in himself. This definitely keeps me on my toes since he has not yet mastered the art of jumping so he would smack the back of his head on the edge if I didn't catch him each time. Oh and not to mention he can't swim yet. He sure tries though and it's hard to believe but he can already touch in the shallow end if he stands on the tips of his tippy toes. He had his first swim lesson on Friday. A woman named Frances came to the house for a one-on-one session with him. He loved it and I am really hoping she can teach him at least to turn around and grab the wall if he were to fall in.
- When he sees a birthday cake or anything party-related he says, "mom. happy birthday to you." Except that it is all jumbled up and totally adorable-sounding.
- When he isn't happy about something I've said he says dissappointedly, "oh mom."
- He often greets people by running up to them and hitting them.
- He has "duplex" fights with Elek where they hit one another back and forth and call each other "duplex." This strange battle has it's roots in lessons taught by cousin Sy.
- He is a pretty laid back kid and very likable. He loves to make people laugh. He is very go with the flow and can usually skip naps and still be good as gold till bedtime.
- His best friend/frenemy is Hayden Hershman. They treat one another like brothers, getting excited to see one another and fighting over toys.
- He has got a great head of hair. A mixture of tight curls and strands as flat as a board. I love the scraggly mess atop his head but Andrew would love to shave it all off. He threatened to while I was out shopping last week actually and got himself a nasty phone call with all sorts of other threats if he went through with it.
- If I ask for a kiss or hug he usually denies me but the second I look sad he showers me with "lovin's".
- We haven't had nearly the focus on teaching him letters and numbers that we did with Elek and B so he is much further behind in these areas than they were but I'm convinced that if we spent time with him on it he could pick it up pretty quickly so I'm not worried about it.
- "Dada, throw up," is how he asks Andrew to launch him as high into the sky as he can....he LOVES it!
- He loves hanging out at the beach...in the sand and in the water. He loves it all.
- He can come out with some pretty long strings of words at this point but he leaves out articles and pronouns so you've kinda gotta piece it together.
- He doesn't like smoothies which is just so strange since Elek and Beata have always loved them. He also doesn't like bananas and is wishy washy when it comes to strawberries.
- He is a very physical kid. He knows a soccer ball from a baseball from a football and loves playing with all of them. He gets especially excited about baseball though. I am hoping that Andrew and I can pull through as parents and help foster his love for sports despite our being so sport-challenged/uninterested.
- He is killing it on his strider bike. He has loved riding it from day one but a few weeks ago really mastered the "run-run-run put your feet up" part that we have been trying to teach him. A few days after he turned two he rode his strider all the way to Orlando park and all but one block home. He did it at a decent pace too and I am sure that if I had pressured him at all he could have made it the whole way back. I'm fairly sure that we could have they boy riding a two-wheeler by 2 and a half!
- You can tell he is hungry when he gets grumpy. In fact, he gets grumpier when he is hungry than he does when he is tired.
- The first thing he usually wants to do after waking up in the morning and from naps is "see B."
- He still twirls his hair when he is tired. It is the sure-fire way to tell whether or not he is sleepy. It was so sad when Andrew trimmed his hair before because he couldn't twirl. But the second those locks grew out he went right back to twisting that hair around his fingers. Sometimes he works it into knots from twirling it so much.
- He is obsessed with his Pop Pop. When we were in California he usually preferred him over me. He grew very comfortable with Weeta on that trip too. I'm pretty sure I could leave him with them for a month and he wouldn't ask for me.
- He has an awesome relationship with his aunt Gigi. He acts like he doesn't like her and they go back and forth hitting and pinching one another (don't worry, she does it lightly) but you can tell that he loves her a ton. And when he is feeling sentimental he will love on her.
- He is a big boy both physically and personality-wise. When you see him with kids his age it is hard to believe he isn't quite a bit older because of his size and the way he acts.
That's all I have time for for now. Will try and write more about the other two munchkins later. Today is Father's day and we are hoping to hit the beach. Yesterday we went to the zoo for Andrew's company picnic. After the BBQ we let the kids play in the splash pad which they all loved and then I let them play in the indoor play place there (it started to downpour) while Andrew ran to Walmart. That night we made last minute dinner plans with Amy and Steve. We went to El Ambia, an amazing Cuban restaurant, while the kids stayed at home and had a blast with Ava and Gavin. Hoping for an equally awesome day today!
- He likes to be very independent. I am not allowed to help him at all with the process of climbing into his high chair, getting buckled in, or attaching his meal tray. He wants to do everything that Elek and Beata do and gets very upset if he is not allowed their freedoms.
- He has absolutely no fear of the water. When he sees Elek and B jump off the side of the pool he gets out of the water, walks to the edge of the pool, and walks right in himself. This definitely keeps me on my toes since he has not yet mastered the art of jumping so he would smack the back of his head on the edge if I didn't catch him each time. Oh and not to mention he can't swim yet. He sure tries though and it's hard to believe but he can already touch in the shallow end if he stands on the tips of his tippy toes. He had his first swim lesson on Friday. A woman named Frances came to the house for a one-on-one session with him. He loved it and I am really hoping she can teach him at least to turn around and grab the wall if he were to fall in.
- When he sees a birthday cake or anything party-related he says, "mom. happy birthday to you." Except that it is all jumbled up and totally adorable-sounding.
- When he isn't happy about something I've said he says dissappointedly, "oh mom."
- He often greets people by running up to them and hitting them.
- He has "duplex" fights with Elek where they hit one another back and forth and call each other "duplex." This strange battle has it's roots in lessons taught by cousin Sy.
- He is a pretty laid back kid and very likable. He loves to make people laugh. He is very go with the flow and can usually skip naps and still be good as gold till bedtime.
- His best friend/frenemy is Hayden Hershman. They treat one another like brothers, getting excited to see one another and fighting over toys.
- He has got a great head of hair. A mixture of tight curls and strands as flat as a board. I love the scraggly mess atop his head but Andrew would love to shave it all off. He threatened to while I was out shopping last week actually and got himself a nasty phone call with all sorts of other threats if he went through with it.
- If I ask for a kiss or hug he usually denies me but the second I look sad he showers me with "lovin's".
- We haven't had nearly the focus on teaching him letters and numbers that we did with Elek and B so he is much further behind in these areas than they were but I'm convinced that if we spent time with him on it he could pick it up pretty quickly so I'm not worried about it.
- "Dada, throw up," is how he asks Andrew to launch him as high into the sky as he can....he LOVES it!
- He loves hanging out at the beach...in the sand and in the water. He loves it all.
- He can come out with some pretty long strings of words at this point but he leaves out articles and pronouns so you've kinda gotta piece it together.
- He doesn't like smoothies which is just so strange since Elek and Beata have always loved them. He also doesn't like bananas and is wishy washy when it comes to strawberries.
- He is a very physical kid. He knows a soccer ball from a baseball from a football and loves playing with all of them. He gets especially excited about baseball though. I am hoping that Andrew and I can pull through as parents and help foster his love for sports despite our being so sport-challenged/uninterested.
- He is killing it on his strider bike. He has loved riding it from day one but a few weeks ago really mastered the "run-run-run put your feet up" part that we have been trying to teach him. A few days after he turned two he rode his strider all the way to Orlando park and all but one block home. He did it at a decent pace too and I am sure that if I had pressured him at all he could have made it the whole way back. I'm fairly sure that we could have they boy riding a two-wheeler by 2 and a half!
- You can tell he is hungry when he gets grumpy. In fact, he gets grumpier when he is hungry than he does when he is tired.
- The first thing he usually wants to do after waking up in the morning and from naps is "see B."
- He still twirls his hair when he is tired. It is the sure-fire way to tell whether or not he is sleepy. It was so sad when Andrew trimmed his hair before because he couldn't twirl. But the second those locks grew out he went right back to twisting that hair around his fingers. Sometimes he works it into knots from twirling it so much.
- He is obsessed with his Pop Pop. When we were in California he usually preferred him over me. He grew very comfortable with Weeta on that trip too. I'm pretty sure I could leave him with them for a month and he wouldn't ask for me.
- He has an awesome relationship with his aunt Gigi. He acts like he doesn't like her and they go back and forth hitting and pinching one another (don't worry, she does it lightly) but you can tell that he loves her a ton. And when he is feeling sentimental he will love on her.
- He is a big boy both physically and personality-wise. When you see him with kids his age it is hard to believe he isn't quite a bit older because of his size and the way he acts.
That's all I have time for for now. Will try and write more about the other two munchkins later. Today is Father's day and we are hoping to hit the beach. Yesterday we went to the zoo for Andrew's company picnic. After the BBQ we let the kids play in the splash pad which they all loved and then I let them play in the indoor play place there (it started to downpour) while Andrew ran to Walmart. That night we made last minute dinner plans with Amy and Steve. We went to El Ambia, an amazing Cuban restaurant, while the kids stayed at home and had a blast with Ava and Gavin. Hoping for an equally awesome day today!
Monday, April 7, 2014
I ran into Denise, a neighborhood friend who has 7 kids, one of which babysits our kids, at Publix this morning. She is one of those women who, as a newer mom, you want to follow around with a notepad to figure out everything she does so you can replicate it in hopes that your children will turn out as awesome as hers. I like her because she is very sweet and laid back but is also very honest about the struggles of parenting. I told her about how I was taken aback I was by my own emotions during Elek's kindergarten orientation last week. About how, as we sat at the cafeteria tables and I held my five year old's small hand in mine and the short "a day in the life of a kindergartner" movie started up, I struggled to hold back tears as I wondered how in the heck we were already here? We talked about how neither of us consider ourselves to be particularly emotional parents, but how sometimes, all of the sudden the reality of how quickly our kids are growing up and growing nearer independence creeps up on us and hits us hard. I told her how much I was enjoying this time in my life and how I would love to always have a 22 month old toddling around my house if I could. She said that she was always the same way. That she loved mothering her kids when they were little and would have loved to always have a baby on her hip if she could have too. Now that her oldest is a freshmen in college and her youngest is in 2nd grade, she says that she unfortunately has more bad days than good. That as hard as she tries she can't help but take her teenagers' not so kind words to heart and that their selfishness drives her nuts. As most experienced parents do, she parted with the advice to enjoy this time in my life because it goes so fast. She didn't know that I have heard this advice enough times to heed it. Sure there are times when I feel like I need my space from the constant demands of parenting but for the most part I do just wish that I could freeze this time in my life and stay here forever. I've got 3, gorgeous, smart, loving children and a husband who I feel so grateful to have snagged. Since I can't make time stand still, though, I will just have to come here as often as possible to document the day-to-day Lamoureux life so that one day I can look back and remember just how sweet it is.
The nitty gritty details of a (typical) week in the life of the lamoureux family:
Monday
8:15- 9:15am- wake up to the sounds of either beata or elek playing with augie in his room across the house, scramble to get all 3 kids dressed and fed, put snacks in back packs, and load all kids up to drive elek and b to school. walk each of them to their classrooms. augie likes to lead the way just to make sure that we know that he knows his way around.
9:15-10:15 - either leave augie with andrew and go work out at the beach access/go for a jog or come home and start cleaning or go grocery shopping. wake andrew up at some point within this time frame. he usually heads into work around 10 or 10:15.
10:15-11 - grocery shopping, cleaning, taking augie out to ride his strider bike in the street
11-12 - lap time at the library
12- pick up kids from school
12-2 - feed kids and andrew lunch, clean kitchen/house, elek gets to play his 30 minutes of war craft if he has earned it at school with good behavior
2-4 augie naps, clean house, prep dinner and hang with kids
4-5:15 -take kids to elek's soccer practice
5:15-6:45 - let kids play at flutie park with friends or go home and get dinner ready while kids play indoors or in the backyard
6:45 - 8:30 - andrew gets home, eat dinner, do dishes, if i didn't get to workout in the morning i will go for a short workout sometime after andrew gets home and before it gets dark, bath or shower kids, andrew brushes elek and b's teeth and we tag team augie's because he screams and squirms the whole time, play around in the living room as a family, andrew gives kids work to do
8:30- 9:15 - andrew reads harry potter to elek and b while i read and sing to augie in the rocking chair. then if the kids are still awake we switch rooms. andrew scratches augie's back and talks to him while he is in his crib and i go into elek and b's room and sing jesus loves me and "a wonderful woman lived in a shoe/she had so many children she knew exactly what to do/she held them she rocked them and tucked them in bed/i love you i love you is what she said" to each of them twice, one for each hand
9:15- 12:30 or 1- chill with andrew on the couch watching tv or talking. lately he has gone into work from about 10:30 to 1am.
12:30 or 1- go to sleep
Tuesday
- B stays home from school
- Usually meet up with friends (Amy, Jess, Lisa, Helen) and their kids at Ryckman park for lunch from 12:15- 2:15 or so
Wednesday
-Elek has soccer practice at 5
Thursday
- Our low-key day. No commitments other than school
Friday
- Kids are at lunch bunch till 3. Elek has a 5pm soccer game
Saturday/Sunday
- Beach, hang out with friends/neighbors, talk about all of the things we should be doing around the house but do more enjoyable things instead
One night each week we usually go out to dinner with the Hershmans for "taco tuesday." And typically in the evenings we do end up going to Orlando park to get some more fresh air.
In the past month or so Augie's vocabulary has exploded and in the past week or so he has started talking in 2 word phrases! Last night actually he pointed to the door and said, "mama door open." He can say "augie" and calls beata "B." He still struggles with Elek's name, calling him "Eh." It takes very few exposures to a word for him to pick it up now. This boy is semantic bootstrapping like crazy and it is so much fun to watch. Whereas in my last post I mentioned that he said "yeth" to everything you asked, his comprehension is now much better and he will be sure to tell you "no" if that is the answer your question warrants. He won Andrew's heart when he started saying "work work" while Elek was playing Warcraft one day. He is pretty good on the stider bike now. Not quite running on it but getting there. The best part is that no matter how many times he falls down he always gets right back up and tries again, almost always without even the slightest whimper. He is extremely tough. The other day he face planted in the mulch while swinging on his belly on the swing in the backyard. He cried pretty hard and had scratches all over his chin but the second that I kissed his boo boos he stopped crying, said "down" and wiggled his way out of my arms so that he could run right back to the swings and do it again. He will do anything his brother and sister do and is constantly watching them to make sure that he doesn't miss anything. Sometimes we like to mess with him by having B and Elek do silly things like wave their hands in the air to see how long it will take him to notice and start doing the same gesture. Usually it is not more than a couple moments before our little monkey is doing what he sees and the older kids crack up laughing! Augie can also be pretty aggressive. When he gets mad about not getting something he wants his first instinct is to run up and hit the person he believes is to blame. He also tends to greet Elek and Beata after school with a slap of some sort. He also likes pushing peoples' buttons. He knows that he will get a big reaction out of Elek if he turns off Warcraft in the middle of the game....so he does it...quite frequently and lands himself in time out. He is the same way with his friend Hayden, following him around even though he knows Hayden likes his space and grabbing at his snacks because he knows it will piss him off. If I had to guess I would say that Augie will grow up to be very social, a class clown, and super athletic....time will tell if these predictions are correct and it will be fun to find out!
Beata continues to be Beata :) Stubborn, lovable, and intelligent, all wrapped up into one adorable little brown eyed package. Her reading skills are seriously insane. She can pick up just about any printed material and power through it. Her teacher told me that she had only ever met one other 4 year old who could read. Not gonna lie, that made me feel proud. And the crazy part is that she was reading pretty darn well even at 3 and a half. B loves to pick out her clothes and brings me into her closet every night to have me take down what she wants to wear the next day. Usually she is so excited about it that she ends up wearing it to bed too. Unfortunately we have discovered that a drawback to a small class size is that there are fewer kids to relate to. On the night before they were supposed to go back to school after spring break B told me that Catherine and Izzy (the only two other girls in her class) never wanted to play with her and that they always said "go play with Thad and Ian (2 of the now 4 boys in her class)." When I asked her teacher about it the next day she said that they do sometimes leave her out that she thinks it is because, intellectually/maturity-wise, Beata is pretty far beyond them. Luckily on the playground she does seem to play well with kids in other classes and she gets along well with friends like Reagan, Emily, Kole, Aidan, and Rowan outside of school.
Elek continues to be my sweet, apple-cheeked, smart ass. He went through a period where he was being jerky toward Kole when they would play chess and was acting "too cool for school" in his classroom but has really improved his behavior since I made his screen time contingent on good reports from his teacher and kind behavior with friends. For a while he was also acting somewhat like a punk with his baby brother but in the past few weeks he has gotten much better with him, taking pride in watching out for his safety. His chess game is better than ever and he placed 1st in the k-1 under 500 group at the last tournament! We can't wait till next year when he can join the chess team at school because we know he is going to love learning alongside other kids. His obsession with warcraft is quite strong and he so looks forward to playing each day when he gets home from school. I try to limit is play time to 30 minutes each day but this is not easy to do when his dad loves playing with him too:) I think that he is really enjoying soccer a lot more this season, mostly because his coaches this time around are awesome. He has two practices and one game per week and it is easy to see that he and kole have improved a ton just since last season. As Elek told me today (because Andrew told him), B is good at reading really fast and passing over words that she doesn't know and Elek reads more slowly but always sounds out words that he is not familiar with.
Alright, not sure if it shows in my writing but I am fading. It is 12:10AM and I am running on empty! Will have to write another time about how my mom came with Liam and Sy for spring break this year and our plans to visit Grace in California in a month and a half.
Briefly though, we just wrapped up a great weekend last night. Friday night we went to Elek's soccer game and then met up with the Hershmans, Watsons, Harrels, and Moseleys at Ryckman for dinner in the park. Saturday we took it easy around the house and then went to Chris and Christena's house for a BBQ dinner and pool time. On Sunday I worked out, Andrew went in to work, and then we cooked out on the beach with the Callahans...hotdogs, watermelon, smores and all! Did I mention that I would love to freeze this time in my life? ;)
The nitty gritty details of a (typical) week in the life of the lamoureux family:
Monday
8:15- 9:15am- wake up to the sounds of either beata or elek playing with augie in his room across the house, scramble to get all 3 kids dressed and fed, put snacks in back packs, and load all kids up to drive elek and b to school. walk each of them to their classrooms. augie likes to lead the way just to make sure that we know that he knows his way around.
9:15-10:15 - either leave augie with andrew and go work out at the beach access/go for a jog or come home and start cleaning or go grocery shopping. wake andrew up at some point within this time frame. he usually heads into work around 10 or 10:15.
10:15-11 - grocery shopping, cleaning, taking augie out to ride his strider bike in the street
11-12 - lap time at the library
12- pick up kids from school
12-2 - feed kids and andrew lunch, clean kitchen/house, elek gets to play his 30 minutes of war craft if he has earned it at school with good behavior
2-4 augie naps, clean house, prep dinner and hang with kids
4-5:15 -take kids to elek's soccer practice
5:15-6:45 - let kids play at flutie park with friends or go home and get dinner ready while kids play indoors or in the backyard
6:45 - 8:30 - andrew gets home, eat dinner, do dishes, if i didn't get to workout in the morning i will go for a short workout sometime after andrew gets home and before it gets dark, bath or shower kids, andrew brushes elek and b's teeth and we tag team augie's because he screams and squirms the whole time, play around in the living room as a family, andrew gives kids work to do
8:30- 9:15 - andrew reads harry potter to elek and b while i read and sing to augie in the rocking chair. then if the kids are still awake we switch rooms. andrew scratches augie's back and talks to him while he is in his crib and i go into elek and b's room and sing jesus loves me and "a wonderful woman lived in a shoe/she had so many children she knew exactly what to do/she held them she rocked them and tucked them in bed/i love you i love you is what she said" to each of them twice, one for each hand
9:15- 12:30 or 1- chill with andrew on the couch watching tv or talking. lately he has gone into work from about 10:30 to 1am.
12:30 or 1- go to sleep
Tuesday
- B stays home from school
- Usually meet up with friends (Amy, Jess, Lisa, Helen) and their kids at Ryckman park for lunch from 12:15- 2:15 or so
Wednesday
-Elek has soccer practice at 5
Thursday
- Our low-key day. No commitments other than school
Friday
- Kids are at lunch bunch till 3. Elek has a 5pm soccer game
Saturday/Sunday
- Beach, hang out with friends/neighbors, talk about all of the things we should be doing around the house but do more enjoyable things instead
One night each week we usually go out to dinner with the Hershmans for "taco tuesday." And typically in the evenings we do end up going to Orlando park to get some more fresh air.
In the past month or so Augie's vocabulary has exploded and in the past week or so he has started talking in 2 word phrases! Last night actually he pointed to the door and said, "mama door open." He can say "augie" and calls beata "B." He still struggles with Elek's name, calling him "Eh." It takes very few exposures to a word for him to pick it up now. This boy is semantic bootstrapping like crazy and it is so much fun to watch. Whereas in my last post I mentioned that he said "yeth" to everything you asked, his comprehension is now much better and he will be sure to tell you "no" if that is the answer your question warrants. He won Andrew's heart when he started saying "work work" while Elek was playing Warcraft one day. He is pretty good on the stider bike now. Not quite running on it but getting there. The best part is that no matter how many times he falls down he always gets right back up and tries again, almost always without even the slightest whimper. He is extremely tough. The other day he face planted in the mulch while swinging on his belly on the swing in the backyard. He cried pretty hard and had scratches all over his chin but the second that I kissed his boo boos he stopped crying, said "down" and wiggled his way out of my arms so that he could run right back to the swings and do it again. He will do anything his brother and sister do and is constantly watching them to make sure that he doesn't miss anything. Sometimes we like to mess with him by having B and Elek do silly things like wave their hands in the air to see how long it will take him to notice and start doing the same gesture. Usually it is not more than a couple moments before our little monkey is doing what he sees and the older kids crack up laughing! Augie can also be pretty aggressive. When he gets mad about not getting something he wants his first instinct is to run up and hit the person he believes is to blame. He also tends to greet Elek and Beata after school with a slap of some sort. He also likes pushing peoples' buttons. He knows that he will get a big reaction out of Elek if he turns off Warcraft in the middle of the game....so he does it...quite frequently and lands himself in time out. He is the same way with his friend Hayden, following him around even though he knows Hayden likes his space and grabbing at his snacks because he knows it will piss him off. If I had to guess I would say that Augie will grow up to be very social, a class clown, and super athletic....time will tell if these predictions are correct and it will be fun to find out!
Beata continues to be Beata :) Stubborn, lovable, and intelligent, all wrapped up into one adorable little brown eyed package. Her reading skills are seriously insane. She can pick up just about any printed material and power through it. Her teacher told me that she had only ever met one other 4 year old who could read. Not gonna lie, that made me feel proud. And the crazy part is that she was reading pretty darn well even at 3 and a half. B loves to pick out her clothes and brings me into her closet every night to have me take down what she wants to wear the next day. Usually she is so excited about it that she ends up wearing it to bed too. Unfortunately we have discovered that a drawback to a small class size is that there are fewer kids to relate to. On the night before they were supposed to go back to school after spring break B told me that Catherine and Izzy (the only two other girls in her class) never wanted to play with her and that they always said "go play with Thad and Ian (2 of the now 4 boys in her class)." When I asked her teacher about it the next day she said that they do sometimes leave her out that she thinks it is because, intellectually/maturity-wise, Beata is pretty far beyond them. Luckily on the playground she does seem to play well with kids in other classes and she gets along well with friends like Reagan, Emily, Kole, Aidan, and Rowan outside of school.
Elek continues to be my sweet, apple-cheeked, smart ass. He went through a period where he was being jerky toward Kole when they would play chess and was acting "too cool for school" in his classroom but has really improved his behavior since I made his screen time contingent on good reports from his teacher and kind behavior with friends. For a while he was also acting somewhat like a punk with his baby brother but in the past few weeks he has gotten much better with him, taking pride in watching out for his safety. His chess game is better than ever and he placed 1st in the k-1 under 500 group at the last tournament! We can't wait till next year when he can join the chess team at school because we know he is going to love learning alongside other kids. His obsession with warcraft is quite strong and he so looks forward to playing each day when he gets home from school. I try to limit is play time to 30 minutes each day but this is not easy to do when his dad loves playing with him too:) I think that he is really enjoying soccer a lot more this season, mostly because his coaches this time around are awesome. He has two practices and one game per week and it is easy to see that he and kole have improved a ton just since last season. As Elek told me today (because Andrew told him), B is good at reading really fast and passing over words that she doesn't know and Elek reads more slowly but always sounds out words that he is not familiar with.
Alright, not sure if it shows in my writing but I am fading. It is 12:10AM and I am running on empty! Will have to write another time about how my mom came with Liam and Sy for spring break this year and our plans to visit Grace in California in a month and a half.
Briefly though, we just wrapped up a great weekend last night. Friday night we went to Elek's soccer game and then met up with the Hershmans, Watsons, Harrels, and Moseleys at Ryckman for dinner in the park. Saturday we took it easy around the house and then went to Chris and Christena's house for a BBQ dinner and pool time. On Sunday I worked out, Andrew went in to work, and then we cooked out on the beach with the Callahans...hotdogs, watermelon, smores and all! Did I mention that I would love to freeze this time in my life? ;)
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
A brief update before I go veg
Augie says yes (read "yeth") to just about everything you ask him. Pretty much as long as you use a rising intonation and don't include the words "night-nights," "nap time," or "brush teeth," he will feel that it is safe to respond with "yes." Ex:
Me: Augie do you want to go to Publix?
Aug: Yeth.
Me: Augie, do you want liver for dinner?
Aug: Yeth.
Elek and Beata have fun using his automatic response to their benefit.
Beata: Augie, do you want me to eat some of your ice cream?
Aug: Yeth
The rest of his speech development seems to be at a bit of a stand still. He will say "arf" for dog and knows the sounds made by horses, pigs, cats, owls, and a few others. He loves to retell the story of Pop Pop taking him out to see owls in our backyard a couple weekends ago by pointing to the backyard and then saying "Pop Pop Who Who," always making sure that you then retell the story to him so that he knows you understood him. While he does seem kind of behind for his age speech wise I'm not concerned because his language seems right on track. He's a boy of few words but he knows what's up:) He still loves to sit at the table and draw and loves riding his scooting toy, strider bike, and Elek and B's rip riders in the front yard.
The other day I gave Elek and B a reading test online. The test had them simply read words until they could no longer get them right and then I calculated their score. Based on this test, Elek is reading at a second grade level and B is reading as if she was 6 months into 2nd grade! I am very proud of how well they are both reading and excited that they seem to enjoy it more. B especially will pick up a book and just start reading it to herself or one of her brothers...it's awesome! Elek's drawing has gotten very good. He loves drawing with his dad and by himself. 99.9% of his drawings show a good guy giving it to a bad guy with a bow and arrow. Believe it or not, Donkey Kong Country has also become a thing of the past in the 2 short months since I last wrote an update. Now he is drooling over War Craft. That's right, the same game that Andrew spent COUNTLESS hours playing when I first met him. The same game that he would hang up on me for. The same game whose character's little phrases like "work work" and "we need more lumber!" will forever be ingrained in my memory from the nights where I would be doing homework on his bed and hearing it play in the background. That's right....War Craft has re-entered my life and it sure looks like it's here to stay...at least for the next 13 years. Because Elek was being a bit of a punk to other kids and he and B had both been being punks with one another and with Augie, I recently started a new "punishment" initiative. Any child (i.e., Elek or Beata) who hurts or harasses another child shall heretofore be sentenced to writing that child an apology letter. On day one of the new rule, I am pretty sure that Elek had submitted 2 apology letters before 8:30AM. Since then the pile has grown a bit but I do think that it seems to be working. Neither of the kids are crazy about being forced to sit down and write legibly so they will usually do what it takes to avoid it. Elek was also giving his teacher a hard time about doing his morning work so now, in order to earn the privilege of using screens after school, I have to get a good report from his teacher. So far screens have only had to be taken away on the first day, other than that he has been excellent at school. Hooray for, as Dr. Phil would say, "finding his currency!" All of my kids are obsessed with the song "Roar" by Katie Perry. Beata in particular loves to sing it in the car, at the park, wherever. Augie requests to see the video on the computer all the time by pointing to the computer and saying "oar oar oar oar oaar" to the tune of the song and then saying "on." My parents brought Sy and Liam in town last weekend for the chess tournament and Sy competed in his very first tournament. Beata was actually the only one to walk away with a trophy this time. She placed by the skin of her teeth, and got the 7th place trophy. We are still trying to figure out why Elek will play so well online and when he practices with his dad but then have such a tough time winning matches against other beginners during the tournament. Being a perfectionist and pretty competitive this is hard for me to accept but luckily I have Andrew here to remind me that what matters is that they ENJOY the game.
Ok that's all that my exhausted brain can think of for now. Every single one of my kids drives me nuts one minute and make me want to eat them up the next. I was looking through old pics tonight and couldn't believe how fast the time is flying. Would love to freeze this time in my life.
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