This has been a year of growth, fun, new experiences, and learning new things for the boys. It’s a lot of fun to watch their interests and their talents begin to emerge. Personality traits have begun to show themselves. And now that August is old enough to play, it’s been fun to see them really begin to enjoy playing together, along with dealing with the ever-present issues of sharing and teasing each other.
August has quite a determination with most things. He desperately wants to be able to do everything his big brother does. He basically potty-trained himself before he was 2 because that’s what he saw his big brother doing. When the year began, he hadn’t even started talking yet. Now he is very quick to share his likes and dislikes, make up elaborate play scenarios with his brother, he’s learning to count, knows numbers and shapes and loves to read. He likes to pretend to write because he sees his brother practicing his writing so much. He would rather “write” with a pencil on a coloring sheet rather than color it!
Kaden matured almost overnight when he began school. A little more timid than his brother, we were really wondering how he would do in school. He’s always stood off to the sidelines when with other kids. We realized he would do okay when on the third day of school he didn’t want us to walk him to his classroom anymore. From where we drop him off for school, he has to walk almost a block through all the other grades’ playgrounds to get to the kindergarten area. We were afraid we’d never get him to do it. Yet he just took off and loves his class. From what we hear from him and his teacher, he has plenty of friends, participates in class, and is so happy in this new little world.
Both Kaden and August love the ocean. They have read many books and watched many ocean documentaries. They know most fish and sea creatures by name. So the culmination of their little lives came this spring when we went on vacation to San Diego. To this day they haven’t stopped talking about the beach and asking when are we going back to the ocean. We keep this love alive in them with their aquarium at home. The highlight of the week is going to the pet store. While Dad gathers supplies for the aquarium they love looking at all the fish.
They also have a huge love for snakes and reptiles. Again, having read many books and seen more documentaries on TV, after they look at the fish in the pet store, they run off to see the reptiles. They can also identify every type of snake and lizard. Yes, I’m very worried there may be a snake pet in our future…
This year we hired a part time nanny so that Christian could work with me in my business. The boys absolutely love Stacie and she’s become a part of our family. Since we don’t have much family in Arizona, the boys really didn’t see many people other than us. We felt it was important to try to provide an extended family atmosphere for them in whatever way we could. So introducing Stacie into the mix has been so much fun for them. She really enjoys teaching, so she teaches Kaden his afternoon Kindergarten session. While Kaden’s in school, she plays dinosaurs with August and they do little crafts, puzzles, and games. After school she often helps Kaden ride his bike and they go to the park.
