The Peanut Chronicle: June 2015

Friday, June 26, 2015

Pictures

I'm going through pictures and so wanted to post a few for those of you who don't regularly check the albums. We are having such a great summer so far! And I absolutely love the relationship these two have.

From 2015 June

There are a bunch more recent pictures here: June album

Missing Them

I'm missing the kids a lot today. It has now been 3 1/2 days since I was home and this morning I missed them on Skype by all of 10 minutes and they are now in the car and so unskypable. And that just-miss apparently tipped the emotional scale and the tears started. This may work out well for them, though, because a sentimental mommy tends to buy better souvenirs.

Six!

I know it is a month since Nicholas' birthday, but I wanted to do a birthday update post. Not so much about his birthday itself but on where he is at 6. I'm not quite sure where to start, so let's see how this goes.

Nicholas has loved being in elementary school this year but has expressed frustration at points with some of the academics. "We did that in preschool, Mom!"
His two biggest obsessions right now are Wild Kratts and baseball. His birthday party was a Wild Kratts party where we did games for different animal powers.
When he decides to focus on something he amazes us with what he is capable of doing, how self-directed he is, and how long he can work on it. He will go in his room and work on building Lego creations for hours. Same for painting (although not in his room). He won't build with Legos without directions, however.
He is a wonderful reader but most of the time doesn't really like to read. Looking at the books the library had out for summer reading, the ones for kids entering third grade are about what he usually reads. He can read just about any word he could use in a sentence. We have trouble convincing him to read, though, and he says reading is boring. For a couple weeks he got really into these Ballpark Mysteries books but then dropped them. He has been more interested in reading some nonfiction about baseball and animals, but that is also not consistent, with him reading one evening and then refusing the next few.
He loves playing outside and with friends.
He loves his little sister and at times clicks into this amazing big brother who helps her and takes care of her. He virtually never picks on her but he does sometimes get a thrill out of teaching her things I don't want him to or getting her to mimic things like shrieking. There is a power trip when you know you can get someone to do anything you do.
He has lost 6 teeth. 2 are completely in. 2 are almost in. 1 more is partially in.
His musical ear amazes me. Over the winter when we were in the basement more he would sit down at the piano and make up songs with certain feelings, using the notes and tempo to create a feeling.
He can get very silly, but when he cares about something he has a laser focus.

This age seems to be a transition from little kid to big kid and Nicholas fluctuates between them, super responsible and capable one minute and then a scared kid the next. I see him turning into the elementary school kid and my preschooler left behind. And I am so proud of him for all he is becoming. But I am also sentimental and so get sad to leave all that was behind.

From 2015 May