October Wrap-Up

We’re enjoying some mild weather this November.  The boys love to help Evan rake leaves.  We don’t have a lot of trees in our yard, but our neighbors do and they fall in our yard.  So, there is plenty of raking to be done.  The best part is jumping in the leaves when they are done.

School is still going well.  I ordered Daniel his reading curriculum.  He seems more than ready to learn to read.  He knows all of his sounds and is very good at rhyming.  As usual, we’ll start out slow and then move at his pace.  His writing is also getting better.  A lot time he asks to write things, or have us spell words for him.

This was his idea to do this with the blocks at the library.

He is also very interested in the skip counting that he has learned at CC.  He’s learned a lot more than I thought he would.  My little sponge also knows most of the history sentences and Latin so far too.

Nicholas does not want to be pictured as much during school.  I have been able to be in Nicholas’ CC class a couple of times in the past month.  At first, he didn’t want me there.  But, I must not have been too embarrassing because he told me I could come back any time.  I did manage to get a quick picture during his presentation from the first week.  He wasn’t too thrilled about it.

We also finished up another round of swimming lessons at the end of October.  Nicholas was very close to completing his level this time.  Daniel wasn’t too far off, but he wouldn’t go under water consistently.  Most people that know him would be surprised by it.  We were at first.  Then we asked him why.  He said that he was too cold.  So, we’re going to take some time off before we sign up again.

Watching Nicholas' lesson on the last day.

Nicholas also had his annual MRI and heart appointment a couple of weeks ago.  We received some positive news.  His heart is still functioning at 100%.  Therefore, his cardiologist feels comfortable in waiting on heart surgery.  We will go back in a year to see if anything changes.  We’re hoping his heart remains the same until he is big enough to have his valve put in through a catheter and not open-heart surgery.

Lots of waiting the second day!

He had to fast this day and he wasn't too happy about it.

Nicholas is really growing up though.  He’ll be in double digits before we know it.  One area we have given him control over (with a little veto power) is his hair.  Because he’s such a sweaty kid, we’ve always just had his hair buzzed.  Well, in the last few months he’s really wanted a style.  This time he was very pleased with his haircut.

The boys both knew who they wanted to be for Halloween this year.  Nicholas was Batman and Daniel was a medieval knight.  Daniel shocked all of us when he lasted the entire time we trick or treated.  Every other year he wouldn’t even last an hour.  

His haul!

Nicholas' pile.

They’ve enjoyed their candy for almost a week.  However, yesterday, they sold it to Nana to give to the troops.  Nicholas is motivated by money, so it wasn’t too difficult of a decision.  Daniel had to think about it for a little bit.  It did help that we let them pick out a few of their favorites to hold back.

What should we keep?

Tough Decision

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than three weeks away. Of course, Christmas is already advertised everywhere.  I’m happy to report that I’ve already started my Christmas shopping.  In fact, I have 80% of the boys’ gifts purchased and hidden away.  Like every year, we’re trying not to make the focus all about what can we get.  So, we’ve already purchased and packed up our Operation Christmas Child boxes.  The boys had fun picking out items to fill the shoe boxes.  One of our favorite things about it is that we can track them and find out where they go. 

I’m sure things are going to get really busy from here on out.  As per usual, I will try and blog.