the days are just slipping away from me lately. we have been super busy and every once and awhile i stop and think this is just the beginning of managing the schedules of three active children. and then i go hide under the bed.
later this month f. will celebrate his 6th birthday. i have NO idea how it is that i became the mother of a 5 and 3/4 year old (as he will tell you if you ask). f. is still having some bouts of anxiety, but for the most part is doing really well. he is a budding reader. i am an avid reader, so for me this is soo fun to watch. he is a creative soul and love to tell stories and author and illustrate his own comic books. of course they mostly involve potty humor or destroying bad guys, which i suppose is typical behavior for a boy his age. he has been counting down the final days of school for about a week now. and really i cant blame him. he got his final report card a few weeks ago, so i cant imagine what the teachers are doing to keep their charges engaged and busy. he got a fantastic report card, which at the ripe old age of 5 means exactly what?! he was
still emerging in the areas of hand eye coordination and using writing conventions. really, in kindergarten?! every other area was
exceed. nonetheless, i am super proud and still somewhat shocked that he will be a big first grader in the fall! even though he squeezed into a pair of 2T shorts over the weekend thinking they were his, he is growing up so fast.
we have sponsored two midshipman this year from the naval academy and f. has really enjoyed getting to know them. they are fantastic guys and really super role models for him. they are active, super polite, and love to play with all of my boys. f. thinks of them as family and gives them a good workout by chasing them with water guns, introducing them to icarly, and telling stories about his school friends. they keep coming back for more, so either the food is soo bad on the yard, or they have fun with us too. it has been such a great experience that we signed up to sponsor two more in the coming academic year.
f. has been anxiously looking forward to his birthday and plans to celebrate by having a party at the new lego store in the mall. bad mommy that i am, i didnt camp out to reserve a party date, so that wont happen until august. i had no idea the parties would be soo popular and that calling within the 1st half hour of when you could start signing up for parties would only enable us to celebrate in august! oh well, he can spread his birthday out and have something to look forward to all summer long!
m. is getting big too. he lives life to the fullest. he plays hard and has the battle scars to prove it. he looks soo much like f. did at that age and reminds me of his big brother more often than not. he is an eating machine, until it comes to dinner time, during which he mostly goes into hunger strike mode. he is starting to talk in sentences and continues to narrate our days. his latest favorite phrases are "whats going on?" and "whats happening here?" not sure where they came from, but they crack me up almost everytime i hear them. he responds to questions with a zestful "oh yes!" especially if food is involved. he loves to play with his brothers and is always inviting them to join in whatever game he has concocted last. he still runs everywhere like a madman. we went to the pool in our community for the first time this weekend. i quickly realized that, due to said running, i will not be managing the pool with all three or possibly not even just the little two on my own.
k. is talking a bit more. but mostly still conveying his message through his combo babble and point method. occasionally he opts for pulling m.s hair clear out of his head to get his point across. thankfully these times are the exception, rather than the rule. every once and awhile he will say something totally understandable and you will wonder where that came from. his therapist says she is happy with his progress, so that is good. although she also informs us that unless something changes drastically she expects him to qualify for child find (basically the preschool aged version of the infant and toddler program) when he turns 3. i have mixed feelings about that and wish he were making progress at a more rapid rate. i cant help but wonder how long the effects of prematurity will stick around for this little boy. when he enters child find, official records will be retained and become a part of his school file that follows him through the public school system. part of me thinks so what, if he needs the help better that he get it early on. but another part of me worries about him being labeled and having this record follow him. in the end, i know we will pursue the child find program, if that is what they think he needs to succeed. still, i cant help wishing that my body would have held on a little longer to let him grow a little stronger before he was born.
k. is happy and silly most of the time. when i get cross with him he laughs as me, and i cant help but want to laugh back. vicious cycle, i know! he loves to wear his plastic fireman hat and has been known to refuse to leave the house without it. hat, or haa as he calls it, is a good friend that can only be substituted by one of f.s oriole hats. thankfully big brother likes to play along.
one of my greatest joys is watching all three boys play together. they love to wrestle, giggle, tickle, and chase each other. they love to work as a team to make gigantic pillow towers that they climb to the top of and inevitably fall back to the bottom again, laughing the whole time. before we tuck them in to bed they all race from one side of k.s room to the other and back again. j. and i just sit and say "ready, set, go!" until one of us grown ups gets tired and sends them all to their respective sleeping spots. it seems like they never tire of each other. i hope this feeling lasts them a lifetime. my heart is full.
