I've been working on this project little by little and it's finally complete! Check out this photo book of Gavin's preschool art work. Every little thing that came home this past school year was photographed and placed in this album for us to remember forever. Can't wait to get it in the mail later this week!
Enjoying summer and time together to the fullest!
I have a mental bucket list of the things I wanted to complete/do while on maternity leave. I think we've completed most - take care of the garden, go to the beach, SWIM (lots), pick strawberries, cherries and blueberries, make my first pie from scratch with Gavin's help (strawberry rhubarb, it was good), make strawberry jelly (with Gavin's help), make pesto (again, help from Gavin), go to the park, get back into running, start core exercises, eat sushi (boy I missed that while pregnant), go on a date, take lots of photos, see Monsters University (we went to the drive in!), drink a Rubaeus (a delicious beer from our local brewery that has been MIA for five years and is one of my faves), watch fireworks, take Gavin to zoo school and Lego camp, work with Gavin on his letters, numbers, writing, drawing and other crafts, etc. Left on the list - finish Gavin's preschool art work photo book, blog weekly (sorry about that, too little too late), go on a family vacation (Traverse City in a few weeks, a week on the bay, ahhh!), and at least one more trip to the local beach.
On the Isla front, we've just been soaking her in. She is generally a happy little girl who eats and sleeps well. She has her moments of crabbiness, but really they are quite rare. At about three weeks old, we had three evenings in a row of crabbiness for several hours, creating a nervous feeling in me that she may develop colic. Fortunately, it seems to be an isolated incident thus far. She typically is easily consoled when she gets upset and we have a good feeling for her variations of crying - what cry means what. She has her "I'm hungry cry" and her "I have to poop" cry (this one lingers for quite some time until the deed is finally done)". In general, pooping seems to upset her more than I ever remember it affecting Gavin as a newborn.
At a weigh-in today, Isla is 10 pounds 7 ounces, so she is gaining weight like a champ. She officially has rolls in her legs and they are starting on her arms. Her cheeks are chubby. I love it!
About two weeks ago, Isla began to smile - those very quiet and fleeting flashes of smile that are very difficult to capture in a photo. I've tried and tend to get it too late as it is disappearing. Just yesterday, I FINALLY captured one (see below). I love the smiley phase - almost a "thank you" for the first six weeks of pouring love into her. Today, she flashed a big smile when I went to pick her up after a nap - the smile screamed "that's my mom and I'm so glad to see her!"
On the Gavin front, he is a sweet big brother. He's pretty much through the jealousy phase which was short lived and mainly consisted of a lack of understanding that mom and dad weren't always available exclusively for him at the very moment he needed us. He's been learning to share and we've heard several "but I need SOMEONE!" in whiny voices. We're in full-on Love and Logic mode with him and it helps greatly. I love to see the confidence he is building with all of the "deposits" of choices he gets to make. It's a fun way to parent. And we've begun a reward system with a responsibility chart and tokens to be earned. He gets to collect tokens and turn them in for new Lego sets.
Speaking of Legos, the kids is in LOVE with them. Some days he spends three hours playing Legos, creating all sorts of things. Most recently, his creations have taken on a symmetrical look, with the same size and color pieces on each side. I'll post some photos. He's off to Lego Camp this coming week for a couple of hours a day.
Sorry it's taken me a while to post some real updates on the kids. So much of the blog has always revolved around our kids. I'm working, though, mentally on a post about me. Where I am at this point in our family's journey. I'll work on getting it down in writing and posted. I get a lot of questions about how I'm doing - and I'm sure many more would like to ask but don't quite know how, so I'll use the blog to fill you in.
Here's a boat load of photos from the past weeks. I have about 100 photos just trying to capture Isla's smile, all a little too early or too late. Seemed I never had the camera at just the right moment!
I can't believe it, but Gavin has completed his first year of preschool! Time just flew by this school year, it's hard to believe his academic year ended a month ago. This kid just really loves school and loves to learn. He's looking forward to a year of developmental kindergarten (half days every day Monday through Friday) starting this fall. A few of his friends from preschool will be joining him and others will go on to a second year of preschool for four-year-olds.
Between feeding and snuggling a newborn, I've been working on a photo book (to be posted to the blog soon), capturing copies of all of Gavin's school crafts and artwork. I was looking for a way to "keep" everything, without actually keeping it, so decided that taking photos of everything throughout the year and creating a photo album would be a good compromise. I did keep some things - about a quarter of what he brought home.
In addition to my photo book, one of Gavin's teachers also compiled a scrap book of school memories for each of the kids, loaded with little projects and lots of photos. It was so sweet of her to do this - particularly given the time involved in making each of the fourteen kids their own book. Preschool was the first real time that Gavin was away from home for any significant period of time. All of those moments that mom and dad weren't there are captured in the book. It gives a fun look into what the days were like for him and his friends.
If I had to summarize Gavin's learning's this school year, I'd highlight the following:
1) A very strong knowledge of letters and numbers. He knew them all going into school last fall, but now can confidently write and identify each one and knows the sound that they make. He can sound out words and identify the letters. No reading yet, but he just loves for us to read him books and magazines. He gets two regular magazines in the mail now - Lego Junior and National Geographic Kids. He looks forward to their delivery with much anticipation. And then reads them and re-reads them until they are falling apart. He's also quite good at creating his own stories from memory and from pictures in books. He falls asleep each night "reading" stories to his soft friends. It's a hoot to listen to him through the door.
2) He's become a good friend. Staying home with dad definitely has it's perks, but Gavin has really developed social skills with other kids this past year. He's made lot of friends. We're working to get them together over the summer, too, so they can keep in touch. Gavin looks forward to school days so much, for the most part due to a desire to see his friends and teachers. I think he'll do really well going to school every day this coming school year, allowing him more time to develop friendships.
3) Listening to and following directions from teachers, adults other than mom and dad, has been valuable. Mrs. B and Mrs. V are wonderful woman who really love these kiddos. We heard all about them from Gavin!
4) Art skills! This kid just loves projects, coloring, painting, gluing, taping, cutting, stickering, etc. He now colors in the lines for the most part with his crayons and markers. It's one of his favorite things to do. His creativity shines through his creations.
