Nicholas is reading! Actually, really, reading. He and Joe are working on a book that I swear we've never read before and he is getting about least half the words on the first try and making very good guesses on the rest. And not just the 2-letter words he's been doing, but 4- and sometimes 5-letter words. As Joe pointed out, the book has really good pictures, so Nicholas is using the pictures for clues, but that still requires being close on the word to know which part of the picture that particular word is likely to be!
I am so impressed!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, I am stunned and so excited! I might cry!
Friday, June 28, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Crafting
I think I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the things Nicholas and I did while he was home with that nasty virus (for 5 days!!!!!) was a fun craft project. And we were home long enough to see the project through to completion.
I had been working on an alphabet baby book off and on for the previous couple weeks and Nicholas was really intrigued by it. So he wanted to make one with me for himself. But I convinced him that an ABC book was really too baby-ish for him and came up with the idea of a wall hanging of his name.
I had figured he would pick out the scraps of fabric that he wanted to use and assign them to different letters and make some of the other decisions, but leave the actual work to me. But, no, he did a lot of it. I did all the tracing (he tried, but I needed much more precise and straight lines than he was giving me) and cutting and guiding of fabric through the sewing machine, but he was an equal participant in all the ironing and did most of the foot pedal to make the sewing machine actually sew. So it really was a team effort.
When he is in the right mood he is really a great partner. And, really, have you ever seen a 4-year-old boy who was so careful and trustworthy?
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| From 2013 June |
I had been working on an alphabet baby book off and on for the previous couple weeks and Nicholas was really intrigued by it. So he wanted to make one with me for himself. But I convinced him that an ABC book was really too baby-ish for him and came up with the idea of a wall hanging of his name.
I had figured he would pick out the scraps of fabric that he wanted to use and assign them to different letters and make some of the other decisions, but leave the actual work to me. But, no, he did a lot of it. I did all the tracing (he tried, but I needed much more precise and straight lines than he was giving me) and cutting and guiding of fabric through the sewing machine, but he was an equal participant in all the ironing and did most of the foot pedal to make the sewing machine actually sew. So it really was a team effort.
When he is in the right mood he is really a great partner. And, really, have you ever seen a 4-year-old boy who was so careful and trustworthy?
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| From 2013 June |
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| From 2013 June |
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| From 2013 June |
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| From 2013 June |
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| From 2013 June |
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| From 2013 June |
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Baby Girl
We had an ultrasound 9 days ago and I am just now getting around to posting. This says 2 things: 1) Life has been out of control; 2) I have gotten completely out of the habit of blogging.
The short report from the ultrasound: everything looks great, the baby is perfectly healthy, and it is a girl.
The ultrasound was more anticlimactic than it was with Nicholas. This was in part because with Cashew we'd had a 12 week ultrasound and honestly she looks about the same to our untrained eyes on a fuzzy ultrasound screen, whereas with Nicholas we hadn't seen him since he was a circular blob with a flashing dot for a heartbeat and so were amazed to see him looking like a, well, baby. It was also just a difference in the way this tech/facility did the ultrasound. With Nicholas it lasted over an hour as she measured each bone and organ, whereas this tech got the screengrabs she needed in like 20 minutes and then did the measurements from those afterwards.
We had decided years ago that we'd find out the sex of the next baby and make it public, mostly so that Nicholas could know, figuring that would make it more concrete for him. When at some point a couple weeks ago Nicholas decided it was a girl baby, we were really glad we had made that decision because we figured that if it was a boy we needed to set him straight soon. I figured out that everyone he knows who has had a baby in the past year has had a girl and all his friends with little siblings somehow all have sisters (a bunch have older brothers), so it made sense that he would assume girl. But Nicholas is never wrong. (He really isn't--it is creepy.)
And Nicholas was ecstatic when told he was right. Why? Because he wants to go buy her dresses. Grandma Alice, do you want a shopping buddy?
Nicholas has also decided that his baby sister has curly red hair. And while it is entirely likely that she will end up with curly red hair, I think he expects to see her with curls down to her shoulders the day she is born. Joe's comment is that we should warn the doctor, since Nicholas is always right.
The short report from the ultrasound: everything looks great, the baby is perfectly healthy, and it is a girl.
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| From 2013 June |
The ultrasound was more anticlimactic than it was with Nicholas. This was in part because with Cashew we'd had a 12 week ultrasound and honestly she looks about the same to our untrained eyes on a fuzzy ultrasound screen, whereas with Nicholas we hadn't seen him since he was a circular blob with a flashing dot for a heartbeat and so were amazed to see him looking like a, well, baby. It was also just a difference in the way this tech/facility did the ultrasound. With Nicholas it lasted over an hour as she measured each bone and organ, whereas this tech got the screengrabs she needed in like 20 minutes and then did the measurements from those afterwards.
We had decided years ago that we'd find out the sex of the next baby and make it public, mostly so that Nicholas could know, figuring that would make it more concrete for him. When at some point a couple weeks ago Nicholas decided it was a girl baby, we were really glad we had made that decision because we figured that if it was a boy we needed to set him straight soon. I figured out that everyone he knows who has had a baby in the past year has had a girl and all his friends with little siblings somehow all have sisters (a bunch have older brothers), so it made sense that he would assume girl. But Nicholas is never wrong. (He really isn't--it is creepy.)
And Nicholas was ecstatic when told he was right. Why? Because he wants to go buy her dresses. Grandma Alice, do you want a shopping buddy?
Nicholas has also decided that his baby sister has curly red hair. And while it is entirely likely that she will end up with curly red hair, I think he expects to see her with curls down to her shoulders the day she is born. Joe's comment is that we should warn the doctor, since Nicholas is always right.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Happy Father's Day
Nicholas made Joe a father's day card at school, but Joe is out of town for the next few weeks, so I'm posting a picture here. This way I figure he can see it and I get the record.
The typed part is based on an "interview" the teacher did with each kid, so it is his answers but not his sentences. The labels on Nicholas and Daddy are a teacher's, but as I far as I can tell, the rest is his.
The typed part is based on an "interview" the teacher did with each kid, so it is his answers but not his sentences. The labels on Nicholas and Daddy are a teacher's, but as I far as I can tell, the rest is his.
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| From 2013 June |
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Reading Progress
Nicholas and I have been trapped at home for the past two days as he battles a nasty virus. (Quick aside: as far as illnesses go this one isn't actually that bad since it really just consists of a fever, but that fever is high and uncomfortable for him and I am living in incredible anxiety at the idea of catching the virus myself, as fevers are the absolute worst for the baby--for myself I'd take a fever over vomiting, but vomiting doesn't hurt the baby while a fever really can. So any prayers you want to send that this virus skips over me and Cashew would be appreciated.)
Anyway, the upside of being stuck at home and it just being the two of us is that we've really spent some good quality time together. Much more, I'm ashamed to say, than I usually make time for. Yes, there has been plenty of time when he is up for no more than lying on the couch watching tv and I am doing dishes or laundry, etc., but when the Tylenol is being most effective we've played games (a babysitter he had last week and he played Trivial Pursuit, so that is what he insists on most, with me whispering the answers to him), worked on a fun sewing project that he is doing the planning of but I clearly will do most of the work for, had a lot of snuggle time (I know, bad for spreading germs, but the little boy is sick and needs snuggles to fall asleep and I'm the only one around to give them), and done some reading.
And it is this last point that the post is really about. He has made a big leap forward on his reading/pre-reading skills. I don't know if he made the leap in the last couple days or I just haven't been attentive enough to notice before, but sometime in the last few weeks he started actually sounding out words rather than sounding out a series of letters. I'm not sure if I can really explain the distinction in writing, but when he tried to sound out a word before he would make the sound of each letter but couldn't blend them together. So even if he had all the sounds correct, he couldn't jump from that to thinking of a word that sounded like that. But now when he sees a word he makes a guess as to what it is based on the letters involved.
Now, I hesitate to say that he is reading, because he only gets it right about 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 times, even with only 2 and 3 letter words, but this is one of those cognitive leaps that just awes me. And I think it might be new because he seems a little taken with it to. I first noticed it in the bath last night when we were playing with his foam letters and so we played with them a long time and he seemed as excited as I was with the number of words he was getting right and how close he was on the others. And then both last night and today he kept stopping me when I was reading to try and read himself. I have promised him that as soon as he is well enough we will go to the library to get some beginning reader books because the Magic Treehouse books we are up to have words that have to be around a 4th grade reading level and he is at "See Spot run" and so was getting frustrated.
He is so close. It is Nicholas so this may have been the leap and he'll be reading for real later this week or there may be another key pivotal leap necessary and it may take him another year to reach it, but I am impressed nonetheless.
Seriously, I know everyone learns these things--from learning to walk to potty training to learning to read, but watching him go through the learning process of each has given me such respect for how hard these things are that we take for granted. Seriously, I'm realizing that all of my real accomplishments were in my first 5 years. Getting a Ph.D. is just having a good work ethic and reaping the benefits of reading my whole life. In terms of the actual cognitive work involved, it was nothing compared to learning to see words where once there were just a set of letters.
And so once again I am in awe of my little boy. And humbled.
Anyway, the upside of being stuck at home and it just being the two of us is that we've really spent some good quality time together. Much more, I'm ashamed to say, than I usually make time for. Yes, there has been plenty of time when he is up for no more than lying on the couch watching tv and I am doing dishes or laundry, etc., but when the Tylenol is being most effective we've played games (a babysitter he had last week and he played Trivial Pursuit, so that is what he insists on most, with me whispering the answers to him), worked on a fun sewing project that he is doing the planning of but I clearly will do most of the work for, had a lot of snuggle time (I know, bad for spreading germs, but the little boy is sick and needs snuggles to fall asleep and I'm the only one around to give them), and done some reading.
And it is this last point that the post is really about. He has made a big leap forward on his reading/pre-reading skills. I don't know if he made the leap in the last couple days or I just haven't been attentive enough to notice before, but sometime in the last few weeks he started actually sounding out words rather than sounding out a series of letters. I'm not sure if I can really explain the distinction in writing, but when he tried to sound out a word before he would make the sound of each letter but couldn't blend them together. So even if he had all the sounds correct, he couldn't jump from that to thinking of a word that sounded like that. But now when he sees a word he makes a guess as to what it is based on the letters involved.
Now, I hesitate to say that he is reading, because he only gets it right about 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 times, even with only 2 and 3 letter words, but this is one of those cognitive leaps that just awes me. And I think it might be new because he seems a little taken with it to. I first noticed it in the bath last night when we were playing with his foam letters and so we played with them a long time and he seemed as excited as I was with the number of words he was getting right and how close he was on the others. And then both last night and today he kept stopping me when I was reading to try and read himself. I have promised him that as soon as he is well enough we will go to the library to get some beginning reader books because the Magic Treehouse books we are up to have words that have to be around a 4th grade reading level and he is at "See Spot run" and so was getting frustrated.
He is so close. It is Nicholas so this may have been the leap and he'll be reading for real later this week or there may be another key pivotal leap necessary and it may take him another year to reach it, but I am impressed nonetheless.
Seriously, I know everyone learns these things--from learning to walk to potty training to learning to read, but watching him go through the learning process of each has given me such respect for how hard these things are that we take for granted. Seriously, I'm realizing that all of my real accomplishments were in my first 5 years. Getting a Ph.D. is just having a good work ethic and reaping the benefits of reading my whole life. In terms of the actual cognitive work involved, it was nothing compared to learning to see words where once there were just a set of letters.
And so once again I am in awe of my little boy. And humbled.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Minivan
With the upcoming arrival of a new member of the family also comes the addition of all the baby gear. And while there isn't much we can do right now about expanding our living space to accommodate the household stuff, it was time to seriously consider upgrading our cars.
Anyone who has read this blog since the beginning knows the story of Katia (http://peanutchronicle.blogspot.com/2009/05/goodbye-katia.html). In short, the Civic is the first car I bought, before my senior year of college and both for sentimental reasons and because it has served me/us incredibly well for the past 10 years, I feel attached to it. And Joe feels attached to it because that is the car he learned to drive stick shift on and has become over the last couple years "Daddy's car." But, as much as we love it, it is just too small for two carseats. As you can see in the picture in this post when we were getting ready for "Peanut," the infant carseat can only go in the middle seat. But the back bench isn't wide enough to fit Nicholas' carseat on the side next to the infant seat. In theory we could put Nicholas behind the driver and the baby behind the passenger seat if we moved the passenger seat up all the way so there was no room for an actual passenger. We actually have friends who had to do this in their car. But, realistically, it just wasn't a good option. And, as much as we love Katia, she is an almost-16 year old car. She runs really well and I hope still has close to 5 years left on her, but we have known for awhile that she was nearing the end of her useful life with us.
And so, we bought this:
I have been drooling over minivans for a couple years now, but couldn't justify the expense until now. We are all already smitten with the fun features that come along with a brand new car, but I know the real payoff will come this fall when both kids fit easily in the car, when I can get the infant carrier out without worrying about the car door hitting other cars, and when people come to visit and can actually go places in the same car as us.
This picture perfectly captures the progression of my life over the past ten years.
I bought the Civic at 21 when I needed a reliable car with good gas mileage but didn't need much space. We bought the Accord right before Nicholas was born, upgrading to a family sedan alongside parenthood. And now as we prepare to become a family of 4 we have the minivan. The van should keep us for awhile, though. :)
Nicholas is smitten with the van and Joe and I chuckle over the idea that it is very possible that this could be the car Nicholas learns to drive on.
Given how long we tend to keep cars and that this one is actually brand new and a Honda, it would not be odd if it is still around in 12 years. And if it is, it will certainly be the one subjected to the teenage driver. I mean, just look at how dangerous he is--tattoo and everything.
Anyone who has read this blog since the beginning knows the story of Katia (http://peanutchronicle.blogspot.com/2009/05/goodbye-katia.html). In short, the Civic is the first car I bought, before my senior year of college and both for sentimental reasons and because it has served me/us incredibly well for the past 10 years, I feel attached to it. And Joe feels attached to it because that is the car he learned to drive stick shift on and has become over the last couple years "Daddy's car." But, as much as we love it, it is just too small for two carseats. As you can see in the picture in this post when we were getting ready for "Peanut," the infant carseat can only go in the middle seat. But the back bench isn't wide enough to fit Nicholas' carseat on the side next to the infant seat. In theory we could put Nicholas behind the driver and the baby behind the passenger seat if we moved the passenger seat up all the way so there was no room for an actual passenger. We actually have friends who had to do this in their car. But, realistically, it just wasn't a good option. And, as much as we love Katia, she is an almost-16 year old car. She runs really well and I hope still has close to 5 years left on her, but we have known for awhile that she was nearing the end of her useful life with us.
And so, we bought this:
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| From 2013 June |
I have been drooling over minivans for a couple years now, but couldn't justify the expense until now. We are all already smitten with the fun features that come along with a brand new car, but I know the real payoff will come this fall when both kids fit easily in the car, when I can get the infant carrier out without worrying about the car door hitting other cars, and when people come to visit and can actually go places in the same car as us.
This picture perfectly captures the progression of my life over the past ten years.
 |
| From 2013 June |
Nicholas is smitten with the van and Joe and I chuckle over the idea that it is very possible that this could be the car Nicholas learns to drive on.
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| From 2013 June |
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| From 2013 June |
Monday, June 10, 2013
Batman
Nicholas: "I'm going to wear Batman underwear because I have a Batman tattoo."
Me: [laughter]
Nicholas: "That was the funniest thing I've ever said."
Me: [laughter]
Nicholas: "That was the funniest thing I've ever said."
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Back Home
We're home from the cruise, which was Nicholas' best cruise experience, mostly because there is so much more he can do as he gets older. I may get around to writing more posts later (but if not, there are photo highlights in the May album), but here are a few snapshots of the week:
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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| From 2013 May |
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