Quinton Update ~ March

My monthly update on Quinton.  What a silly boy!  Ever since his brothers birthday he has been counting down the days until his own.  I'm pretty sure he likes it when it's Uncle Jack's birthday cause he knows he has one more month until it's his turn to celebrate. 

Q has been so into things.  He loves Skylanders, which was his brothers birthday gift.  He loves playing the games, attacking the bad guys and winning missions.  Seriously this boy can tell you anything you want to know about Skylanders.  He can relive every moment and totally beat your bum on anything you have wrong. 

Quinton also loves anything to do with dragons.  Dragons and dinosaurs.  The boys just watched some episodes of "Riders of Burk".  Quinton is all over that one as well.  He loves it so much.  He can tell you all about the dragons and what they can do, how to "save" them and what he would do with each one.  I'm always surprised at how much he can take in and to what detail he can tell it back to you.

He has been enjoying reading with us and is always upset when he doesn't go up a level at school for reading.  I'm very impressed with his ability to "stretch out words".  When Q doesn't know a word he sounds it out.  He does this by putting his hands by his mouth and pulling it out, as if stretching/pulling bubble gum out of his mouth.  It makes me giggle sometimes but it totally works for him.

Quinton's writing has improved a lot as well.  Every time he does his nightly reading he shows off the writing to me to ask if it's good enough, or neat enough.  Each day he is improving little by little.  I still can't see his letters being capitals or small letters but it works for now.

This past month was hard on our little man.  He is so caught up with everything Otis I'm never sure what to do.  Lately he has been having nightmares and crying in his sleep.  So we put him in with our CTG and are going to sessions.  So far nothing has been said yet, as we had to reschedule his meetings, but I'm hoping we get some where with him.

Quinton's is slowly ready for the outside.  I'm pretty sure the nice weather we have been having is also helping out with him being more and more excited about going outside to play.  He asked if we could garden the other day.  I'm not ready for him to do the garden work yet, mainly cause the ground is still frozen but hey, whatever works right?

It was a fluke that I managed to get this shot.  Auntie Leah, Uncle Pat and baby Grayson had such a great Easter egg hunt that the boys were moving so fast.  Q loved his visit with them and loved the hunt! 

Kyler Update! ~ March

I promised myself that at least once a month I would make a post for each of the little men in my life.  Something to tell you what they have been doing and what they enjoy.

This one is for Kyler.

Kyler has now been 8 for a whole month.  In that time things have been a bit crazy (which I'm guessing is actually more "normal" than crazy).

Just before K turned 8 we started him to get assessed with the "Crisis Therapy Group".  They were great with him.  We had our first session right before his birthday and Arnold and I had our "Asses and Predict" session right at the end of March.  Everything is AOK with him.  They do "predict" that he will have some more sad moments and maybe hurt people but we need to keep our boundaries up and our rules to sort of "fence him into a safe place" as they told us.  Over all things are ok with him.

Kyler started to bring home chapter books from school.  The last few have been from the collection called "The Magic Tree House".  He enjoys them, as they are exactly 10 chapters in each book, which means about 1 chapter to 2 chapters a night and he can finish one in a week.  It's so much harder for him to read out loud so sometimes we do a chapter in his head and a chapter out loud.  He has really been enjoying this. 

He also brought home a "Flat Stanley" book.  I loved it!  There was so much he learned (in this one Stanley was in Egypt helping with a dig and catching bad guys).  Lots of new words.  Some harder than others but generally great for him.  I'm excited to see what book he brings home next.

Kyler is also loving the great outdoors.  In the past few weeks he has been wearing his new yellow and black runners.  He has told me, more than once, that they make him go faster.  You should have seen the look on his face when we told him it was time to send his winter coat and snowpants to the back hall and he could wear his new shoes all the time (unless it rained, then his new boots).  He was so excited.

I haven't had him ask for a soccer ball yet but I'm positive it's coming.  We also haven't "found" the soccer balls and outside toys yet.  We did clean the back yard but more of a clean the grass off than find the toys kind of thing.

I keep thinking Kyler hasn't grown that much until he tries on something from last year and I see just how small it is on him.  He hasn't been able to find a spring/summer/rain coat this year.  They are out but he just hasn't found one he likes.  Something is always wrong with them.  I'm *sure* he doesn't get that from me, right?  He put on a pair of size 7 pants the other day and it looked like I had shrunk them in the dryer.  It's not to put it past me but I know I didn't.  They have been around for a while, he just hasn't had them on lately.  I can tell for sure he has grown!  It's now size 8 or even 10's for him. 

Kyler is such a big help with his little brother, who has been having a lot of "Otis Days" as we like to call them.  Kyler is always there to give an extra hug or squeeze or remind him that we all love and miss Otis.  Just a few weeks ago I was doing something downstairs and it got really quiet upstairs.  You know that quiet I'm talking about.  The one where you are *sure* something is wrong?  Well Kyler was snuggling with Q in the back chair reading him a few books.  I love that part too.  They can read to each other.  It's something they both enjoy.

For Kyler's birthday in March we did rock climbing.  Kyler really enjoyed it.  I'm pretty sure Arnold has plans to take the boys again in May sometime.  They are starting to climb everything.  Just last weekend they were told to get out of Papa's tree at least 3 times!

Kyler got to visit with his Godmother Leah, Uncle Pat and baby Grayson.  I have to laugh at this picture every time!  I love Grayson's face, and it matches the look on K's face.  I swear if K looked like that and I looked over I'd have Grayson's look as well!

Well that's my update on Kyler!!

Monthly Review ~ Februrary

I was hoping to start one of these every month but January was just a bit insane for this.

Lets see.. Our February went something like this:

We had our service for our son, Otis, on Feb 1st.  It was hard to do but so wonderful to have so many friends and family around.  Arnold's family came from Alberta, and some of our friends came from Toronto, and our family came from everywhere.  We are so blessed to have support from so many people.

Arnold's parents and brother left on Sunday and we headed back to Toronto on the Monday.  The little boy who I did daycare for, his grandfather passed away.  So we went to the visitation to show our support to his mom and dad, and meet their sweet little girl!

That week I tried hard to "jump" back into things.  I wanted to get life as normal as we could.  Not only did we have a short week but we went right into Chinese New Year at school. 

We found out a few things about Kyler and school.  He had a grade 8 bullying him at school and Kyler fought back... by punching him.  So we had to address this.  As well as anything going on since losing Otis.  We decided to seek some help and were able to get into a "Crisis Event Therapy" waiting list.  (We just got the call a few days ago booking K in for a session with them March 6th).

I helped out in Quinton's class as much as possible.  Q's teacher, Mr. B., had jury duty and we had subs all week.  Different ones almost each time and was hard on the kids to not have a regular person.  I was there every day for most of Feb.  I would help with the subs, and what needed to be done, and help with the work that needed to get done.  It was an adventure.  Even more so as February is one of the "busiest" months for a teacher.  There is Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, 100's Day of School, Valentine's Day and finally a bit of calm!

On Family Day Weekend Arnold had asked for a day to himself.  So we made sure to buy everything he wanted and try to have a day off for him.  But plans changed when the boys attitudes got bad.  Instead of going to visit our friends the boys had nap times.  VERY much needed for them. 

We did get to do something fun.  We built a ladder for the boys bunk bed.  They have never had one (and we have had this bunk bed since before Q was born) so this was a new request.  We got the wood, measured it out and went to work.  The boys had alot of fun:

The boys were back to school on the Tuesday and back into the swing of things.  We had Church Photos, a friend's birthday and some serious clothing shopping that weekend.  And Sunday was a nice church day and some relaxing.

In all this time we have also had eye appointments for me and the little boys (and my brother); dentist appointments for the Visser family; a blood pressure appointment for me; a doctors appointment for Arnold; and a hospital visit.  It's been a busy month! 

I've really enjoyed being our "family".  Slowly, I am learning to enjoy my family the way it is.  With my 2 incredible, helpful, amazing boys here on earth to drive me crazy and knowing we have 2 wonderful babies in heaven watching over us.

Every month things will get easier, become more adventurous and begin to thrill me more.  For now, it's learning our new norm.