Kids Update

Cees, just turned 7yo: doing great, very interested in the world around him, just decided he will take up astronomy as an hobby. So today I let him web surf and he spent quite some time reading about the Cassini mission to Saturn. He is also very much into Goosebumps. He had his 7yo checkup today and was very healthy, apart from the throwing up issue of course and he is dropping in percentiles in weight. He is now totally off the charts, while he used to be between 5th and 10th percentile for most of his life. Another one to push calories on! When we are settled in our new house, I plan to make a lot of foods from scratch and add calories and things like protein powder wherever I can.

Tim, 5yo. He is doing reasonably well, although all the stuff surrounding the upcoming move is really hard for him. He thrives on structure and it is hard to provide it all the time for him in the middle of trying to get everything ready and painted and organized for the move. Still, I do homeschooling with him almost every morning and that helps him a lot. I keep it short, just some math and phonics, it just has to be there. But I think things will go much better once we are settled in our new house.

He is very creative, I think that's one of his strong points. He can spend hours just cutting and taping and drawing and making up stories and games and adventures with the props he creates.

Sleeping is still an issue. Even on medication, he goes to sleep after 11pm. But he doesn't lose it all the time any more at night, like he did before we started medication. I hope things will get better when we are more settled. I might up the medication, but not yet. We'll see what happens.

Tara, 2y5mo: another non-potty trained 2yo. She was very interested in it about a year ago, but with all the moving around, we have not been able to follow up on it. I plan to start putting her in underwear when we are settled into our new house and just see how she does. I think she must be ready, but of course, you never know :-) She can scream extremely well and is very very grumpy every morning when she wakes up. She speaks in full sentences and can be very caring one moment and yelling and hitting the other. Very two! She is starting to count, sometimes it is 'one doll, two dolls, two dolls, two dolls, two dolls', other times it is more like '1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 6, 10'. I have heard her count correctly a few times, but it still needs some work most of the time :-) She is very much into shapes, especially triangles and squares. Also rectangles, which she call 'beds'. We have geoboards for the boys, but Tara seems to spend the most time with it, almost every day. Winnie the Pooh and the Teletubbies are her favorite characters. Her favorite computer game is Reader Rabbit Toddler.

Jane, 1y4mo: emulates lots of behavior from her big sister Tara, both positive and negative. Is too independent for her own good, running off whenever she gets the chance. I have to keep her in sight every minute when we are out. She is using lots and lots of words and if she can't make it clear with words, she will use signs and gestures. She is another climber, she reminds me a lot of Timmy at this age. Including the non-sleeping characteristics.... She is in the process of giving up her nap, since if we let her nap, she won't sleep till 2am or so.... She loves singing, especially songs with gestures. She loves to play with dolls and bears or to carry them around in the sling. It is impossible to keep her confined to a shopping cart or a stroller, she will climb out of everything, even when buckled in (only then it takes her 10 seconds, instead of 1) Good temper tantrum thrower, she is clearly close to being 2yo! :-)

The Birthday Present: -3.5mo. Not much to say about this one. Moves about a lot. He/she is now big enough that I can identify the different body parts and point them out to the other kids. Neat!