Auggie at 5.5

Auggie! Naturally, he is one impressive kid. He excels at school--he loves practicing writing at home and will even do it without me telling him how to spell various words. His S's are occasionally flipped, and sometimes an "r" turns into an "n", but he's so motivated!

Auggie goes to Pre-K on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. There are 11 other kids in his class and he adores his two teachers. Since he has such a small class (two kids moved away mid-year) they are a tight-knit group and he considers all of them his friends. Auggie loves his school, and especially loves being the Star Student. This involves me bringing the snack, but the best part is that he gets to bring something for show-and-tell, be the head of the line for the entire morning, and holds the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Physically I think Auggie has Dan's build--a lean muscle machine. :) Yesterday the kids were pretty squirrely and out of control during the afternoon. They had too much energy. After Dan got home from work we all went for a hike. We weren't planning on being gone all that long, but one thing led to another, and we didn't make it home until two hours later. Guess who hiked--uphill and downhill--the entire time? Oh yes, Auggie did. No complaining, either! I think two hour hikes may become a mandatory part of our summer. Auggie is also a great climber, but he prefers bouldering to being roped up for taller climbs. Something about his headgame, I guess. Being roped up kind of freaks him out, but I'm sure that's mostly him being a 5-year-old more than anything else. Regardless, he loves going to the bouldering gym and getting high off the ground so that he can have a good crash onto the mat. He also rides his bike like a pro. No training wheels ever (thank you, balance bike), and he's been on it for more than a year. Occasionally he'll even mountain bike in the Open Space.

We all got helmets for Christmas!

Mentally, Auggie is right on par. He asks me about the difference between asphalt and concrete runways; he wonders about different types of aircraft and explains the types that he will build one day; he wants to make the main road near our house part of the Interstate and plans to do so when he grows up; he knows that he may not always be bigger than his brother, but he will always be older; he knows that he will be taller than me before he is a grown-up. Auggie asks all kinds of interesting questions during our drive to school. Just this week we discussed molecules--what they are, what they're made of, what they build, etc. And during our hike yesterday he asked if his heart has eyes so that it can see Jesus. That was a tricky one, and I tried to explain that the phrase "eyes of our heart" is a metaphor--and had to explain what a metaphor is--but I really struggled to verbalize the meaning in 5-year-old terms. I explained anatomy and that our anatomical hearts do not physically have eyes, and moved on to feelings and spirit.. Yep, it was a tricky one..

I think the molecule questions came from watching The Magic School Bus on Netflix. I heart PBS. :) Auggie adores watching The Magic School Bus and dreams about watching it daily. Daily or weekly TV time depends on the week, but I do try to keep it short. Auggie calls Ms. Frizzle "Ms. Grizzle" which I think is hilarious.

Working on our raised-bed gardens

His imagination is naturally wonderful, but does occasionally drive Eland and me nuts. When playing in the backyard Auggie will insist that his Cozy Coupe car is electric and hence doesn't need gas. When Eland fills his tank with fuel anyway Auggie sometimes ends up in tears. Or if Eland doesn't follow the road signs (ie. chalk lines on the patio) Auggie gets equally frustrated. I often end up telling him that Eland's make believe is not always the same as his and so he doesn't have to follow the same rules. It's still frustrating, but only 20% of the time. I'd say that 80% or more of the boys' playtime together is highly productive and lots of fun. ... Besides playing outside together, they also love playing Legos together and lately have gotten into making books from construction paper. After lunch today Auggie asked how to spell "Illustrated by" for his latest book.

It's electric, boogie-woogie-woogie!

Auggie still speaks with a South African inflection. I hope that never goes away. He refers to car hoods as "bonnets" and trunks as "boots". Pickup trucks are still "bakkies" (pronounced "buckys"). He is certain that he will one day marry Nora--most likely the ceremony will take place on an Airbus A380--and live in South Africa or Minnesota. (I remind him that he and Nora can decide when they are grown-ups if they want to marry, and however it does or does not work out is okay. ;)

Our last day with dear buddies William and Nora before they moved to Minnesota. Tear. :(

Auggie warmed my heart last Thursday while we were at the zoo. The boys were playing in the outdoor jungle gym--not unlike the mesh climbing things with multiple levels that you can take kids to in the winter in the Midwest. Anyway, Auggie and Eland were climbing together, but Eland couldn't make it up the structure that they were climbing. He was just too short. Rather than leaving him behind, Auggie helped pull Eland up through multiple climbing levels so that they could both go down the slide. For however much these two know how to push each other's buttons, they also love each other dearly.

Even though the future is still far, Auggie knows that he will one day be an A380 pilot--or maybe he'll fly 747s. I'm not sure the specific model matters too much yet. And he might design new airplanes, too.

Auggie and his prized possession, his Lego cargo jet

Closing thoughts? Auggie is an inquisitive kiddo whose mind is constantly churning. Dan, Eland, and I adore this loving, sweet boy, and are all amazed at how big he keeps getting!

A highly successful trip to the dentist!

Full of sugar at a classmate's birthday party..
Better make that dentist appointment worth it, ha! 

Still a Lego man!

Eland at 3.5

Eland at three-and-a-half going on four... So cute! This kid is adorable, and while he very much is a big boy especially as he keeps up with everything that Auggie is doing, he is still my very, very cute youngest. I think he might even have dimples now, due to the fact that he has the same big, squishy cheeks that I had at his age. :)

My goodness, the funniest things come out of this kid's mouth! He's not trying to be funny, although he loves a laughing reaction. I do correct him and help him say words the right way, but I am not always quick to do so as his words are just awesome to listen to.

• "keencumber" - cucumber
• "hambooger" - hamburger
• "marvel" - marble
• "Aahl-lee-lin" - alien
• "maddie-gas-gar" - Madagascar
• "ka-potamus" - hippopotamus
• "choy-oh-ta" - cholla (as in the cholla cactus; Spanish pronunciation, so it sounds like "choya")

Dan occasionally asks the boys what they're thinking about when they have that distant daydreaming look in their eyes. One time Eland's reply was this exactly, "Space shuttles, biplanes, hovercrafts.."

After watching The Magic School Bus episode about hens laying eggs and how they develop into chicks, Eland asked at dinner, "Is ketchup from a tomato, does it hatch and out comes ketchup?" Hehe.. I love this kid. 

Lately if Auggie has given Eland a hard time about something and needs to apologize, Eland will remind him that, "At church they say, 'Love is kind.'"

E once asked me how to say, "space shuttle" in Afrikaans, and then promptly asked if it was, "spoyce shuhhtle" in the best slow-and-sloppy accent that he could come up with. Thanks to Google Translate I could give him an answer. In Afrikaans, space shuttle is "pendeltuig."

Ready for a sub-zero Chicago winter day 

As Eland watches Auggie working on letters, spelling words, and coloring in general, he has made his own progress. He now signs his name with a big "E" and will throw in an "A" or "T" every once in awhile. He holds his pencil or marker like an experienced writer. He has figured out how to draw Land Rovers all by himself yeserday, and just like Auggie still refers to a car's hood and trunk as its "bonnet" and "boot". Naturally, pickup trucks are still "bakkies." 

Eland can't wait to go to school next year and was distraught for a good week when Auggie started Pre-K this past August and he didn't. In his application for this coming August I requested that he have the same teachers next year that Auggie has this year as we adore them and Eland already knows them well. 

Eland rides his balance bike like a pro, balancing and all. We gave him a little pedal bike for Christmas but he has very little interest in riding it at this point. He adores the bike, but hasn't gotten the hang of the pedaling and breaking combo. Honestly, there isn't a very good place for Dan and I to help him practice as our street isn't flat and the park is kind of a hike for how heavy his bike is. I'm sure it won't be too long, though, before he figures it out. Surely this summer.

Eland still rocks his South African motorbike from Hendrik

Maybe it's from being a little brother, but more likely it's simply from being a three-year-old: Eland has had his fair share of owies. A couple of months ago Auggie slammed the sliding closet door on Eland's thumb. Auggie wasn't doing it on purpose--as I assured both Eland and Auggie--he simply wanted the door shut while they were having a brother spat about whether or not they needed any light while using their headlamps in the closet. Regardless, Eland's thumb got caught in the crossfire and the nail wound up very purple. In retrospect I should have melted a hole through the nail with a hot paperclip to release pressure from the bleeding, thank you Dr. Google, but I couldn't tell if it was necessary. Alas, it was, and next time I'll know. Anyway, Eland's poor nail came off the nailbed bit by bit. Every few days we'd trim it to keep the hanging parts from snagging, and then finally one day during quiet time the remaining oval of a nail fell off, never to be seen again. I really have no idea where it is, haha. Thankfully a new nail had been growing in its place and E's new nail is now about two-thirds of the way grown. Phew!

Getting silly for a picture..

Trying to get still..

Okay, here's E's thumb nail

And now he wants to show off our starter garden :)

Back in February I discovered an odd patch of skin on Eland's left forearm. It was circular, but not a complete circle, and mainly looked like eczema. I treated it as so, not thinking there was much to it, and would apply Vaseline at bedtime. I can't remember why I bothered to do this, but for whatever reason I showed it to a friend one day who made the suggestion that it could be ringworm. Then I showed it to Dan, who wondered the same thing. So I took Eland to the pediatrician, who said it could be either ringworm or eczema. His suggestion was to treat it as ringworm for a week, and if it didn't clear up with clotrimazole cream, then we could try hydrocortizone and treat it as eczema. Apparently clotrimazole doesn't bother eczema, but hydrocortizone cannot go on ringworm for whatever reason. ... So we tried the clotrimazole and wouldn't you know that the circle of dry skin disappeared in a week. Go figure. I have no idea where Eland would have gotten ringworm, but I am at least relieved to know that it's easy to treat and it's not actually a worm as I had previously thought. It is just a little skin fungi, that's all--which isn't so bad when your original perception was that it was a worm. ;)

See it?

Beyond bikes, cute sayings, and the occasional interesting owie, Eland is a super nearly-four-year-old. Along with Legos--which he tells everyone that he has ("We have WEGOS!")--Eland adores his three doggies aka Doggie Blanket, fire engines, space shuttles, reading, putting bad guys in jail and making bullet noises (which makes his peace-loving-mom cringe, but he's a boy uggh). Eland considers his best friends besides Auggie to be William, Oen, and Noah. (Noah is from Sunday school so I don't know too much about him.) Eland nearly always has a cheerful disposition and when he does nap, which isn't often anymore, he generally wakes with a smile on his face. If Eland is grouchy, there is a reason. Either he's tired, he's hungry, or he has a cold. And it's easy for me to have sympathy for a grouchy kid anytime there is a legitimate reason.

Eland, Auggie, Nora, and William

Eland and Oen at the Biopark

Last Saturday while Auggie and I stayed home for a birthday party, Eland and Dan went on a climbing day trip with some friends. Another family was supposed to come, and not only did they come, but several other families showed up at the crag as well. Before heading out for the day Eland kept talking about all the friends he was going to make--he just couldn't wait! And every bit of his anticipation was satisfied. Apparently he was a social butterfly: he shared his trucks, remembered everybody's names, and even watched a princess movie in a little pop-up tent with some of the kids. Hehe.

Checking out an igloo that Dada made in December

Closing thoughts? Dan, Auggie, and I adore this kid and are having a blast watching him grow!

A child of the next generation

Reading with Brother

First trip to the dentist, a complete breeze!

All smiles

Look, Sandrine! A kiddie digger!

When Your Kids' Childhood Doesn't Look Like Your Own

Dan and I have been talking a lot lately about what we want for our kids and what is currently lacking. This conversation revolves a great deal around our neighborhood--there are very few kids, and I wouldn't ever send Auggie and Eland out to play around the neighborhood by themselves.

My childhood was fairly different than Auggie and Eland's. I grew up on a block with tons of kids. We'd have Super Soaker fights on hot summer days, we'd play tag through multiple backyards, jumping fences and chasing behind garages. Plenty of afternoons were spent drinking Kool-aid (which I would never feed my kids! Ha!) and watching Batman cartoons at friends' houses. Supposedly Dan's mom used to have a big triangle that she'd ring outside at dinnertime and that's how he and his sister knew it was time to head home from whatever they were doing with their friends.

Is it okay that my kids' childhood is going to be entirely different than my own? In discussing what we want for our kids (to be able to set them loose, let them run around the neighborhood, ride bikes, have fun, etc etc), Dan and I are realizing that our desires for them are not possible where we live. Our street isn't busy, but it does have a hill with a corner at the bottom and cars tend to whip around the corner which is one house up from ours. Auggie and Eland would not be safe riding bikes on the street.

As I mentioned before, there really are few neighborhood kids. There are two houses with two kids each around the corner, but they are in the middle or end of elementary school and aren't Auggie's and Eland's ages, and one more house way up the street with three kids who are even older. And supposedly there's a little boy down the street from us who might be in between the boys age-wise, but I haven't even seen a glimpse of him since we moved back from South Africa.

And what about sports? Piano lessons? Classes at the local park district? (Do we even have one?) I played T-ball for three or four years, loved floor hockey, and swam on the swim team, but my kids don't even know how to swim! (Okay, so I'm probably to blame there. Top priority this summer..)

So I'm still wondering if it's okay that my kids' childhood experience is going to be so different than mine or Dan's. We both want what we had for our kids--because it was really fun and I think it fostered creative thinking and independence--but are realizing that their childhood is ultimately going to look vastly different than ours. I'm afraid of them not having enough socialization, or that they won't play enough sports. Although I have to admit that Auggie is only 5 and isn't even in Kindergarden yet. We do have plenty of time to work things out.

If I look at things from a different point of view, though, I am realizing that while Auggie and Eland's childhood will look different than Dan's and mine, theirs will still be uniquely their own and have plenty of great aspects, too. For one, every once and awhile on a Sunday afternoon after church Dan will take the boys rappelling off of a nearby dry waterfall. Pretty much every weekend they spend at least one day tramping through the wilderness, building racecourses in the dirt for their monster trucks, and even attempt some rock climbing. They love playing outside in our backyard and get plenty imaginative with the bikes, cars, trucks, and sandbox. We go camping a lot. I hope to tear out some useless bushes this spring and construct some raised-bed gardens so that the boys and I can grow veggies. (We already started an indoor potted winter garden this weekend.) Dan takes the boys "mountain biking" in the flatter trails near our house after work every once and awhile. And they do have plenty of playdates with kids who happen to live all over the city rather than right in our own neighborhood.

That said, thinking about their childhood as different from my own is a bit challenging to adjust to. I'm still not thrilled, but at the same time, I keep reminding myself that it will be uniquely theirs. They will carry their own rich memories of childhood--whatever they may be. I will just need to get over guilty feelings of things not being perfect or exactly the way I want them to be. Their childhood could actually be a lot better than mine. And I guess we'll just have to invite friends over for intentional Super Soaker fights. That's okay, right?