Parent teacher conferences are Thursday. Third quarter has come and gone. It's the same old thing with Katherine's class, but I did want to say how well the boys are doing. Nicholas is now reading simple books. Not just the ones he's read a hundred times in class, or ones we've read dozens of times at home, but ones he hasn't heard before. He's doing great.

Over the weekend Jonathon was spelling and reading 3-letter short vowel words, which took me completely by surprise.

Oh, and Katherine has begun cooking dinner once a week. Actually, this being her first week she has made two dinners. The first night was a pasta dish, the second was eggs baked in sliced chicken cups. Both meals turned out very well. She's already picked her menu for next week. Sloppy joes!

I've been home with a sick Katherine and a sick Jonathon, now it's Nicholas's turn. This morning he came in moaning around 4:30 a.m. By 6:30 he was feeling warm, had a headache, a tummy ache and a cough. I asked if he wanted to stay home, but today is karate day and he really wanted to go to school. As his eyes watered and he lay like a lump on the couch, Rebecca convinced him it was OK to miss karate so he could get better at home. So, I'm hear finishing up Christmas cards, while he slept until 9 and is now snacking on some graham crackers and watching cartoons. Later on I'll have him take another nap.

Ok, who does that leave? Rebecca? Earlier this week she had a headache and felt bad but she didn't tell me until after she came home from school. Maybe that was her day? Let's hope we're done with this cycle.

Periodically I get fed up with the boys and their boyish behaviour (jumping off the back of the couch, needling each other, generally being unpleasant) so I call for a rest-time. Nicholas goes to the girls' room and Jonathon goes to the boys' room, and the timer keeps track of a random length of time. Today, it's 55 minutes, because I felt like it. And because I wanted to catch up here and 20 minutes wouldn't cut it. Call me selfish, go ahead. I can take it.

This week's topic is Math. There are some fabulous books, a TIME-Life series for Children, called I Love Math. Clever title, I know. But each book has a different focus (say, the body or a zoo) and over about 60 pages it covers multiple math facts with that topic. For example, the Zoo Math book has pages on estimating a large number of flamigoes, measuring lengths of animals that are all curled by up using a string and ruler, solving a mystery that asks time questions, and a story about a mouse in a rainforest who solves math word problems to escape various creatures trying to eat him. Inside the front and back covers are board games to play that teach odd/even and addition.

Another series we're using this week is called MathSmart. They are short books that each cover a single topic in a story form. The one I have in front of me is about counting to 100 and guides kids with a number line along the top of the pages. This series is broken up into levels of difficulty but they're all for the K and under crowd.

What's nice about both series are the adult guidance portions either at the bottom of the pages or at the back of the book. They outline what the kids should be getting out of each page along with supplimental activities.

On-line, the site primarygames.com has a section of math games rated for different levels. The boys have spent a good deal of time this morning moving from one page to the next for counting, adding, completing patterns and matching shapes. If you prefer printable materials, enchantedlearning.com has a large section wth printable number lines, subtraction worksheets, sorting activities and many others. I'll probably head there when we finally get around to doing money. Just a warning, many resources there are for site members only. If you're a homeschooler, it's probably worth the minimal yearly fee to have access to everything though.

Most of what we're covering this week is reinforcement for the boys. They are familiar with the concepts but need regular daily practice with telling time, remembering left from right, using a ruler, patterns, recognizing a hexagon and all the other aspects of Math. It's fun though and they enjoy it quite a bit.

Happy Birthday, Nicholas!

Yesterday the big guy turned 5. He's been waiting for this day since Katherine had her birthday and last week we made up a countdown chart for the wall. He crossed off each passing day, picked out his birthday cake, chose paper plates and wondered every day what he would receive as gifts. OK, the last one I'm not so proud of, but what can you do? The boxes arrived a week ago and since then they've been on top of the TV cabinet. This place isn't big enough for us to really hide anything so he had to deal with being teased by their presence every day.

Finally, the dawn of the 20th arrived. Shortly after 6 I shooed him back to his room. For a kid that wakes up around 7 these days, 6 was way early for him to be wandering. Besides, we'd set up a preschool scavenger hunt (an idea I stole from elsewhere) to find his gifts and I didn't want him moving things around. Around 7 when everyone was awake, he was allowed to move the cereal box from blocking his bedroom door. In fact, he put it back on the kitchen counter where a DVD was waiting. Looking confused, he put that back on the movie shelf where one of my shoes was sitting. The shoe went in the pile, Katherine's reading light went back on her nightstand, the pot moved back to its cupboard and the bug vaccum returned to the bug house. And in the cupboard under the bug house were his gifts. The night before the girls disappeared off to Target with daddy to purchase gifts as well so he had quite a pile. An action figure of Anakin Skywalker, a big bouncy Spiderman ball, a toy Spiderman camera, a Spiderman game joystick and a tape player. Somehow I completely missed on the Amazon site that the camera wasn't real! How did that happen? It doesn't seem to bother him though, it flashes and makes noise and what else does a little kid really want?

A quick breakfast and we dropped the girls off school. The playground across the street has finally opened so I promised that we'd pick the girls up from early release and play there for a bit in the afternoon. Dropped Ian off at FSI then picked up the birthday cake at Heidelburg Pastry Shop on Lee Hwy. It looks and smells so good in there, but does anyone really pay $4 for a cookie? Granted it's a lovely cookie, but $4? I don't even ask how much the chocolates are. They don't have prices on them.

We dropped the cake off in the fridge then attended storytime at B&N. It was held outdoors because most of the county was out of power which made intersections interesting. Generators kept the construction going so it was difficult to hear over all the noise, but we listened and then hopped right into the car (for the first time, we drove to B&N and I did miss the nice walk) to go to Annandale. Nicholas had asked for McDs for his birthday lunch and who better to have it with than grandma? She even splurged on fudge sundaes. Nicholas did say several times "I don't feel 5". As mom, I can definitely say he looks 5. He also said several times "I wish I was 6". As mom, I can definitely say I'm glad he isn't.

We were back in Arlington with about 20 minutes to spare beofre school got out. The boys got dirty in the playground sand pit and sweaty on the spiderweb before the girls joined us and we made sandcastles and sand food. Ah, the joys of sand. Can't wait to go to the beach in August.

Katherine still isn't feeling well as her cold lingers and laryngitis sets in, so after brushing off pounds of sand, we came home for homework and some down time. Rebecca's class is working on Time and the "igh" combo, Katherine's class is focussing on recycling and multiplication tables.

A box arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon that will help Rebecca and the boys quite a bit. Watches for all four of them from campmor.com, for about $5/each the boys' watches have labeled watch hands with an outer ring of numbers for the specific minute times. This morning Nicholas looked at his watch and said "It's almost 8" and right he was. We've been working on time for over a week and it's slow going but he's definitely getting it.

After dinner of fish sticks and farfalle (butterfly) noodles (another Nicholas request), the whole family watched the twins play baseball at the park next to the library. The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed watching so live sport before getting back home to wait for Jeff. He came over to have some cake and he brought gifts for all the kids. I had been hanging on to music tapes for, well, at least a decade past the time I actually listened to music tapes. During the past couple moves, they have all been disposed of. And now, all the kids have tape players for use in the car. Well, Jeff was so kind as to go through his old stashes and let us have such classics as the theme to the Ghostbusters and FootLoose, along with Cyndi Lauper and Weird Al. All tapes that the kids will love to listen to, especially on our drive to the midwest later this year.

When the baseball game was done, the twins and their parents came by to share in cake as well. Izumi and Dan were in Manila will us and they're off to Beijing this summer. They brought Nicholas gifts as well and totally floored Nicholas with Spiderman legos. Over this past weekend Nicholas found a small set of legos that I had as a kid and literally spent hours playing with them. My parents have bought him a huge set that he'll receive this coming weekend and I just know that he will be beside himself. We've never had real legos and I'm almost as excited as the boys are. He also received a floor puzzle of the States which I am completely thrilled with. We put it together today and talked about our trip this summer. We'll be doing a week on the States this summer (so the girls can do it too) and this map will be great.

No one got to bed before 9 but until the last few minutes no one was cranky about it either.

I just can't believe he's 5. He's learning to read and write, tell time and draw great pictures. He can tie his shoes and gets himself completely washed and dressed. He makes his bed better than his sisters. Earlier this week I'd asked him to organize the art corner, basically just stacking up papers and putting the makers away. He pulled out all the construction paper and organized it by whole sheets and scraps, and then by color. He folds clothes from the laundry pile, carries his stuffed dog everywhere, still stuffs his pockets full of treasures, and loves spinach, mushrooms and pickles. He adores Katherine, tolerates Rebecca and is Jonathon's best friend. He is so sensitive and I love having him home with me where he's outgoing and doesn't have a malicious bone in his body (except, sometimes, when Jonathon is on his last nerve, but then that's not really malice is it?). He's such a wonderful kid, and I just can't believe he's 5.

When do we get to sleep in? Well never of course once you have kids but it sure would be nice.

Yesterday the boys were invited to a party for Kelly and Sunshine, held at Kids at Work. They, of course, had a blast in the germ factory. Sunshine turned 4, Kelly turned 5, and siblings were invited. So I crammed my four plus Meg and Katie into the car and we all trundled over together. At the same time as the party I also dropped off two pairs of glasses that needed repair and they were done by the end. It was amusing to walk through the mall with six little people trailing behind. We got the typical stares.

One of the games at the party was like musical chairs but much more clever and didn't induce kids to knock each other to the floor. Different colored construction paper was on the floor and enough squares for everyone to stand on one. Music played, kids danced and when the music stopped everyone hopped onto a square. A color was picked out of a bag and everyone on that color was out and the squares removed. It went on until there were two winners left. All the kids could dance even when they were "out" which is really all they cared about anyway.

We dropped Meg and Katie off just as their mom pulled up, and Meg asked if Katherine could sleep over. OKs all around, Katherine packed up a bag and went back to Meg's house, which really made -today- easy.

Katherine was invited to a birthday party for this morning, but Nicholas had a photo shoot for OshKosh way out at the Avalon Zoo past Marikina. Both couldn't be done at the same time but with Katherine at Meg's house, she went with them and then stayed until we got back. They went to Glorietta after and when we collected her she has just completed getting a pedicure and manicure. What an indulgence!

The rest of the family, as I said, was at the Avalon Zoo. Really really far away when we were supposed to be there by 8:30. Filipino time, we showed up about 9. Marikina isn't even on our street map and the little map we'd been given... well, let's just say distances on the paper weren't quite what they were in real life. There was also some concern among the other moms about the safety of the area, being so close to the northern hills and guerilla groups. We all figured that as long as we were home before dark all would be well. I figured if we were gone by noon, all would be well. Can you imagine kids standing around and smiling for 8 hours?

It was a simple affair where Nicholas had been asked to model some clothes along with five other kids, two of them being Kelly and Hannah from his preschool class. They did swimsuits while blowing bubbles and eating watermelon and other clothes while playing with beach balls. The zoo was actually pretty nice with animals as varied as wallabees, tigers and tapiers, and the compound was pleasant. Not a bad place to be, it was just so far away. Were there no places closer that could have sufficed for greenery? Afterall, none of the pictures involved animals of any sort.

The photos should be out in March, so I'll be asking Jennifer and Kristine to watch out for them. I also gave the organizer our e-mail address. Because you know, we'll be home in 26 days.

Tomorrow is the big day.

The treasured blanket has been found (in the top drawer of the kids' computer desk, of all places). It has been laundered, folded and gently put aside. Tomorrow, it will go in his Special Box. The same box that holds his tiny shoes, his baptism cross, the newspaper from the day he was born and an assortment of other milestone remembrances.

It's been nearly five years in the making and the time has come to bid farewell to his most favored of comforters. The once plush baby blue blanket has thinned and worn holes. It has turned a dusky gray with its frayed edges and chewed corners. It has been a hero's cape, a turban and a wrap. Most often, it has been a source of warmth and comfort and his best friend.

He asked me several times today if he could have it back once it was clean, then remembered that he didn't need it anymore. But I'm sad to see it go. Somehow I felt that as long as he had it, he was still my little guy. The one who needed an extra ounce (for that's all it weighs anymore) of security. With the blanket he was my quiet little boy who could be calmed just by touching the fragile piece of cloth. But who am I kidding, he hasn't been a calm, shy, insecure boy in a long while. It's been painfully obvious how he's been growing out of the blanket phase simply by how often he misplaces it. I'm certain it has phased me more than him. I spent evenings looking for it while he slept peacefully on. I spent days looking, for my own reassurance more than his.

It's time for me to break the blanket ties for both of us and accept that Nicholas is becoming secure with himself. It's time for mom to let him go a little more.

He looked at me over dinner and did have one final request though. He asked if he could be the one to put it into his box tomorrow.

Absolutely, Nicholas. Just don't be surprised if mom sheds a little tear for the big kid you're becoming and the part of the little boy you're leaving behind.

Last night...

Rebecca was asking Ian where a coloring pad she received for Christmas had been put. She asked where he had put her “pitcher”.

Rebecca: My pitcher?
Ian: A pitcher? A baseball pitcher? Beer pitcher?
Mom: A pitcher is for iced tea.
Rebecca: OK, my art, where’s my art?
Ian: Which art?
Mom: Art Garfunkel?
Nicholas: R2-D2?

Commence riotous laughter.

You have to admit, that was pretty good for a four year old.

At AmeriKids, Nicholas is the only 4 year old boy with three 4 year old girls. One of them has already told him that she loves him and wants to marry him. He has bashfully said that he loves her too.

Now, for our four year old, love is an extension of like, and I think it's adorable that these kids are being so sweet to each other. It's a class of 12 kids and Nicholas is the oldest boy in the class. It's good that he's getting a bit of attention because at home his siblings don't shower him with the attention he craves. He's still a wonderfully sensitive and sweet boy and she's a sweet girl so I'm glad they are friends. In fact, all three little girls are great.

We had the AmeriKids Open House this evening and I had my 5 minutes of talking about sign-up sheets and asking for someone to take over the website. Lucky me, we have a volunteer, so I know that it won't immediately die. I completely forgot to bring my camera to take photos for the website. Oops.

As with any gathering, we all brought food to share after. I'd had high hopes of making a mild guacamole but can you believe there wasn't an avocado to be had? So I went for the next thing I could think of while staring at the shelves in the store. Hummus. Canned chick peas to the rescue.

The only problem was I didn't have a recipe in front of me, nor had I looked at one earlier, so I prayed I had what was needed. Being the fabulous cook that I am, I didn't. Fresh garlic? Nope. Seasme paste? Nope. I'm lousy at substitutions but with 45 minutes to change and make the hummus, there was no choice. Garlic powder to the rescue. And one recipe I found online actually had a recipe for making sesame paste. The funky thing was that I had a bag of sesame seeds. Certainly not something I normally keep, but it would work. All I needed to do was toast up the seeds, grind them up in the food processor and add the rest of the ingredients.

I didn't add enough lemon juice or sesame oil, it needed fresh garlic and would have done well sitting overnight first. Unfortunately, I overtoasted the seeds so there was an overwhelming smell of roasted sesame in the mix. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't what I planned. I've come up with something new "Smoked Hummus". Next time I know what to do and it'll be delicious. At least the pita triangles were fool proof.

Laura and I are still plugging along on organizing the Seafront library. It's a fun project as we are both bibliophiles. Watching the shelves take shape and planning what to do with various books has really been enjoyable. I'm hoping when we're done it will be functional for the users. It's a tiny room and doesn't need to be designed like a full-fledged library.

Stephanie and I are slowly prepping for Laura's baby shower. I should say that Stephanie is. She's making and distributing the invites. I'm providing the space (our house) and ordering the cake. We'll do the food together. Ryan didn't want a baby shower in the normal sense, so this will be an evening affair for couples to attend. It should be fun.

Friday the new family I've been chatting with over e-mail finally arrives. Ian is their office sponsor, so he'll be seeing them on Monday. I'm hoping to have them over for dinner next weekend.

So how is Nicholas doing these days with his speech? He's 4 1/2 and with the exception of mixing up his pronouns (she/her/hers and he/him/his) he is doing very well. I would describe his clarity with strangers at about 3 1/2 though.

Jonathon is moving along well. He picks up poor grammar from his brother and the two of them use several of the same mispronunciations. For example:

Bubblefly: A flying insect with often colorful wings.
Catterputer: Those little crawly bugs that turn into bubbleflies.
Munty: aka Something.

If I here any more, I'll add them in. They are getting bigger so the cute words are being edged out by proper words, which is a sad thing to see.

Aw, isn't he cute? Nicholas has come so far, and I can see how preschool is helping him quite a bit too with his speech.

We're currently working on 3 important words. Jonathon (which he can say when we go through it slowly), class and school. The 'k' sound has always been difficult at the beginnings of words, and combining it with other consonents is proving a challenge. But he shall prevail.

When you're a kid, for the first few years every birthday is accompanied by shots (if you're a vaccinating parent, like we are). This one was no different for Nicholas. He received the final MMR in one arm and the final DTP in the other.

The nurses love to have my boys come in for shots. Jonathon was literally begging for some, trying to climb on the table after Nicholas was done. Yes, I know he just wanted the lollipop after, but come on, that's still weird.

Nicholas put on a show but dutifully followed the nurse and resigned himself to the injections. The stars and stripes bandages didn't hurt either. I've taught the kids that it will hurt, it's OK to cry, but rather than freak to say "ouch ouch ouch" repeatedly while getting it. It works and as soon as it's done they're all smiles for getting through without crying.

To top it off, they both got a lollipop. And a mini candycane. Yum, leftover Christmas candy!

He's 4 today!

And to prove how grown up he is, as we were getting out of the car for preschool, he put his blanket on his seat and said "I'm big now, I can leave my blanket here."

*sniff*

Our big boy will be turning 4!

3/6/04: Nicholas has a wicked sense of humor and the facial expressions to go with it. A sweetheart who is free with hugs, sunshine in the morning and easy to put to bed, he's also bright, inquisitive and retains more than I imagined.

I think the whole speech thing has disctracted both him and me from how smart he is. It's hard to know if he's understanding when he couldn't repeat or acknowledge the question. But as his speech improves it's all coming out and there's a lot in his little brain. The sounds are there as well and we've reached a point where it's slowing him down to think about saying a word rather than seeing if he can even form the sound. We're very proud of how far he has come in the past year.

Nicholas has taken an interest in his workbooks so we bought a bunch of new ones to keep him interested. The toughest part is drawing the letters themselves and he gets extremely frustrated when what he draws doesn't look like what he intended. He can trace very well so we're going to stick with that for a few more weeks. In fact, one of the best things is something my mom introduced me to, dry-erase books.

They are great, allowing him to trace, erase, and trace again. We have a half dozen or so now, for words, letters, numbers and shapes and 3 different color markers. The other books he enjoys are sticker workbooks. My mom got him a maze book that he loves and he uses his finger to trace so the book can be done over and over again. I also picked up a Health and Science workbook for preschoolers. It's fun just to have a guide for things to talk about with the boys. The first few pages are about living vs. non-living things and it's been interesting putting it into terms they can apply. One of the guides for living is something that moves. Well, try telling a 2yo that a bicycle is not alive! There are other things of course... moving, growing and reproducing... but that's a lot to think of all at once. The boys aren't quite at the point of being able to consider multiple questions at once.

He knows just about the whole alphabet in Caps and is learning the lower case. Jonathon isn't too far behind and I thank the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics grandma and grandpa gave Nicholas for Christmas. What a great invention. Nicholas is the lucky kid in the family with 8 unique letters in his name, and he can find them all in the fridge magnets. Often he lines them up backwards, but it's a start.

I recently picked up a pack of Short Vowel books for him that he's really pleased with. Each book is a handful of pages and focusses on a single short vowel. At the moment I'm going with repetition and following the words with my finger.

He wants to take piano lessons (he can start Music Appreciation at the Yamaha School in the fall if he wants). He wants to go to school (I plan to enroll the boys at Amerikids this week, to start in April). He wants a kite and an Obi Wan costume and a real light saber (his birthday is in April, but I make no promises).

He wants to trade the cats in for a dog.

3/1/04: Nicholas had a good weekend with no pain, so it seems that gas was the culprit for his episodes. Will keep you posted.

Nicholas is having a problem, maybe someone can give us suggestions.

2/27/04: He's been saying for a while that he has a persistent tummy ache. I figured it was an offshoot of the Mono and the inflamed spleen and what he was describing as a tummy ahce was actually a general ache affecting his abdomen. Yesterday though made me wonder. He starting crying hard and saying it hurt. He said it hurt to cough, it hurt to talk and it hurt to breathe. I had him sit on the toilet since that often eases Rebecca's similar complaints. Instead he cried all the harder. Thoughts of heart problems, lung problems and all sorts of issues sprang to mind, but when he showed me specifically it was the area between his belly button and his rib cage. That seems to nix the heart and lungs concern, so what gives? It's too high to be his intestines and not centered over his appendix. Did he do damage to his spleen when he fell off the bed last week and it's only now developing into a problem? That seemed a stretch. It left the stomach and Ian guessed he's having gas issues. It's plausible, but what's causing it, why are the pain triggers so varied and what can I do for it?

After sitting on the toilet and not having much luck, he layed down on the couch and the pain eased. Enough so, he jaunted off to the playground with his sisters. Not 10 minutes later he was bawling back at home in great pain again and laying down eased it after several minutes.

Today, all morning he was fine while riding his bike, eating breakfast and then lunch. Naptime came with no issues. Near the end of naptime he woke up crying and pain. This meant that playing at the playground caused pain, and laying asleep caused pain. What gives? Could it really be gas? Neither of us are heartburn/gas bubble prone so we don't really know what he's experiencing and with that, don't know how to help.

From his nap he moved to the couch, propped up and began to feel better. He decided he didn't need to go to the doctor and that he was thirsty. Down to the kitchen he went and the crying began again. He barely made it back up the stairs. This had me thinking again that there was an issue with his lungs and breathing. Stairs seem to be a significant trigger. Even getting into and out of the car brings on the tears. Does this ring any bells with anyone?

This afternoon after the water incident, we went to the clinic. The nurse said his abdomen was very noisy and concurred that it was probably gas even though his stomach went from distended and painful to soft with no pain, in a matter of minutes with no gas released as far as we could tell. He received a dose of Maalox but a couple hours later back at home he was in pain again. I'm just not convinced.

We'll try the Maalox a few more times over the weekend. The next time he hurts I'll put a warm rice sock on his tummy. I guess I can also try to keep him from getting too physically active.

Yeah, right.

But if this pain keeps coming back, mommy's spider sense tells me something else is up.

It's been one of those days. I didn't get enough sleep last night and that just started the ball rolling.

Nicholas has a rash on both of his arms.

Let's recap. Last week he started with the high fever. Then over the weekend he added a headache that wouldn't quit. He had a tummy ache and no appetite, but also no diarrhea or vomitting. Monday morning he went to the doc for a check on amoebiasis and came back negative. The doctor said he had a virus, we'd have to wait it out. The fever keeps coming back, it's unpredictable, but it ebbs and flows. We get home from the doctor, he throws up all over the kitchen. For the next few days, he has trouble walking because his knees hurt too much and the vomitting continues, one time with specks of blood. He had no energy and spent most of his time resting on the couch or sitting on the bench at the park. Wednesday, a spark of life and he begins to play again and eat a bit, but tires easily. Thursday, a rash appears on his arm and today, Friday, the rash is fading from one arm and appearing on the other.

Now, look up the process of Dengue Fever and I am seeing things in 20/20 that were difficult to connect day to day.

2/3/04: When it rains it pours, and I wish I was talking about the weather. Nicholas has been absolutely miserable the past couple days. And all the other updates.

Yesterday Nicholas complained a good part of the day that his knees hurt and it hurt to walk. This morning he woke up drenched, whimpering and stiff as a board, fell asleep on the couch at naptime, and spent a good bit of time resting. His own choice. At the playground yesterday he sat with me the entire time, except for the trip home for Motrin and then the clean-up when he threw up all over the picnic table seat. Today, he was better but still sat for a while on the bench. He's sick, he's tired, he's achey. But he's not vomitting anymore. His fever fluctuates all day giving him headaches. My first thought this morning with the extreme aches... Dengue Fever.

Thankfully, no spreading rash has developed. That's not to say I won't be watching him like a hawk. His most common phrase today was "I hope I feel better for the Harry Potter party." Today is Tuesday and the party is on Saturday and I sure hope that whatever this is has high-tailed it out of here well before then.

It might be over reacting to have considered Dengue Fever, except that this evening a DVA rep came by the house saying that the results were in from the mosquito traps that were done a while back. Our house had come up positive for Dengue Fever. You know, you can't win. Malaria mosquitoes like cesspools. Dengue Fever mosquitoes like clean puddles. And the water doesn't have to be still either, a steady drip (say, from an a/c unit) is all that's needed to encourage them to breed.

Katherine was home from school again today. While she's not vomitting any longer, she also hasn't eaten enough to keep a hamster alive, and has lost weight and all her energy. She did better today, keeping down toast, applesauce and some plain macaroni noodles. Her fever comes right back whenever the medicine wears off, but Motrin keeps it under control. Tomorrow, she'll be back in school, provided she's not covered in a rash, is bleeding from her ears or has a second head growing. At this point, I don't know what's coming from around the corner.

Tomorrow is Rebecca's last day of her meds. I'll be glad to see the end of those, and I know she is too. Liquid meds from now on, no matter if I have to go to the pharmacy to get it. Pills are NOT worth this hassle.

Oh, and Jonathon? He started in tonight saying his stomach hurt. Something is up with him as he bursts into tears at just about anything. How does anyone separate the fact that he's Two from potential illness symptoms? I guess I'll just have to wait for him to burn up or throw up.

It's getting closer to the time where I can put away my secret decoder ring.

I'm coming to realize that much of what I thought was gibberish coming from Nicholas is actually an expanded vocabulary. I could never figure out a word, but now racking my brain I'd say something that might be it, and lo and behold... that's what he was saying. The other day it was something along the lines of "mayhe". Mayhe? Ok mom, think, think... put it into context, think... "Amazing?" I'd ask him. Yes! A point for mom!

He's such a chatterbox. A year ago, I never thought there would come a day that I would look at him and say "Nicholas, be quiet! You're talking too much and I can't hear anyone else!", but that time has come.

We're still missing a lot of sounds. Several from the beginning of words (i.e. F, S, SH, L, R, K... ok, lots) and several all together (i.e. G, TH). While we're working on those, he has in the meantime successfully replaced "me yes" with "I", and we hear "May I have...." which is simply music. Get him on a topic he likes (Star Wars, Spiderman) and he won't stop talking. His grammar is coming along slowly as well and he's become so much more open to correction, using past tense and putting in all the words required for a proper sentence. We used to hear "Help me my 'oes" and we're getting to "Please help me put on my shoes" It's coming!

Halloween brought out the, uh, best in Nicholas

'ick -oh- 'eat
'mell my gock!
If you not
I not 'are
I down you un-way!

Translation:
Trick-or-treat
Smell my sock!
If you don't
I do not care
I'll pull down your underwear!

Nick-o-as can say book, but we're still calling in reinforcements.

It's time to look into alternatives for helping Nicholas with his speech. I'm not cutting it and he's just not making the progress he should have by 3 1/2 years old. When he did finally start to talk, we didn't correct his language for fear of discouraging his use of words. But now, that has backfired to a point. His pronunciation is terrible and his grammar is worse. We have finally reached a point where hearing "me yes" and "I" run 50/50 but it's been over a month to get this far. It is taking days to get a single word pronounced properly, like booK vs booT. There is a speech specialist at the school but she's only for the students enrolled at ISM. Of course, I'll be calling her outside and will hopefully either work with her or get an alternate recommendation.

He does have a fabulous sense of humor though, proclaiming things his favorite (My Beh-It!) or so funny (Dat So Moooonnney!).

He's doing well manipulating the mouse and going through computer games, zipping through Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam after watching his sisters play them. He also enjoys Blue's 1-2-3, Elmo in Grouchland, MathBlaster and Reader Rabbit Phonics. For Christmas he'll receive the new Finding Nemo game.

The other day I wrote down his name and we were talking about the letters and how they compared to Jonathon's name. He still feels it unjust that Jonathon gets 2 Os and 2 Ns to his own 1 of each. But he can recognize the difference between the 2 names. And he practiced writing his own string of Ns, Hs and group of Os. Mixing all the cards up, he got them right. So we added Mommy and then Daddy and he got them right too. A bit of sight recognition can go a long way! Thanks to some recent Manila arrivals, Laura and Ryan Koch, we are also currently small letter magnet enabled, so we'll be having lots of fun this week. Thanks!

Before now the girls have generally eclipsed what he was learning and how capable he is.

Nicholas can count to 7, recognize some letters and numbers, knows a bunch of colors, can color almost in the lines, and can follow a maze (and cheated only at the very end). He can dress and undress himself, knows all the chess pieces, can bounce/roll/throw/catch, can do a rung on the monkey bars by himself, rides a 16" bike with training wheels, uses a napkin, says Excuse Me, Please and Thank You without prompting, and can buckle himself into his carseat. Yeah yeah, I know there are some kids light years ahead of him, but with no direction for the past 3 years but what he picks up from around the house, I don't think it's too shabby.

So today we watched Bear in the Big Blue House and their Numbers episode. We also colored in his Spiderman coloring book and played with magnet letters to write out his name, his sisters, baby, mommy, cat, dog and horse. He asked me to tell him each letter, repeated it, and found other letters in the pile that matched. We need a few more sets of letters though. There is a set from when I was a kid and obviously missing some letters, and though I've bought a new set to add to it since then, there simply aren't enough to write out all our names at the same time. And many of them don't have magnets on the back so they can't be fridge art. Must fix that soon since he's interested. And of course wherever we are, Jonathon is too so he'll reap some benefits from this as well.

I'm definitely thinking this was the right choice for us. The thought kept rolling around our heads to put Nicholas into preschool (AmeriKids at Seafront, $120/mo, 9-1:30, M-F) but today I thoroughly enjoyed having just the boys, doing fun little kid stuff and talking with Nicholas. Yes, talking, as he's a chatterbox and full of ideas. I can also spend quite a bit of time each day correcting his grammar and pronunciation. Now we don't have nearly the number of interruptions as before and I can really focus on him. It's a huge deal that he can now say "one" instead of "uhf" and "pott-y" instead of "puh-ee." I'm still working on correcting words like "maf" for "fast", and fixing his grammar. He has an extremely difficult time integrating the "k" sound into any word. With effort he can make the sound alone (but often will revert to a "t" sound instead) but putting it into a word hasn't occured but for once instance of managing "beh-kah" instead of "beh-ah". He seems to flip consonents around a lot. And rather than saying "I" he'll use "Me yes." He chatters non-stop but it's like listening to code. There is a drawback to this, as Jonathon is picking up a bunch of his poor speech. I'd like to fix it all at the same time and I have high hopes as Nicholas is already correcting himself in some situations.

I'll have to record some of the things he says. Especially at dinner time, it's rare when I don't break out laughing because of a response he gives. Many of his quips are 3 year old humor (having to do with bodily functions usually), but some of them are priceless.

He is still the charmer, even in his 24-hour Spiderman PJs (complete with hat and pull down mask) that we found at the nearby ShoeMart for $6. We went in and looked through all the Spiderman Ts, but not one of them would do. He didn't want a t-shirt with Spiderman on it, he wanted to BE Spiderman. And luckily enough they had them. I'm wondering if I shouldn't get a second set.

Nicholas, May 2003 – He really wants to learn how to do the “Mont Ee Bars” at the playground but has a smidgen of fear left. I’m not sure his arms are quite long enough to do them at all, but he likes to try it out with someone holding his legs.

He’s also become our designated snack getter for the playground. We have these little yogurt drinks here called Yakult that we bring every day. The kids like them, I’m not even going to try one, but the ads say they’re full of beneficial lactobacilli for a healthy intestinal tract. Who can argue with that? And for P29/5 you can’t beat the price. I pick up 8 or 10 packs when we go to PriceSmart. We also usually bring several water bottles and a bag of chips or pretzels to munch on. Even though the playground is in the shade around 4 when we go, it is still over 90 degrees and muggy out. The kids stay really thirsty the whole time as they run around and get dirty. We do the opposite of the yayas though. When it gets really hot, I douse the kids with water. Local custom seems to be sticking a rag in the back of the shirt over the collar, and wiping the kids’ faces every 10 minutes.

Anyhow he’s talking up a storm. But only we can understand him still and oftentimes he stutters trying to figure out what word to use and how to say it. He still uses sounds for some words like the sucking sound for drink, though he will say soda or lemonade to be specific.

He’s back to taking naps several times a week. And the crowds cheered. The threes have hit him hard with the whining and fussing, slamming of doors and such and I really do miss my good boy some days. He’s not nearly as miserable as the girls were at this age, but it’s still hard to take since he was such a laid back accommodating toddler. This too shall pass. At least with a nap, he’s bearable around dinner time, otherwise he runs around the table and is a general nuisance. Classic signs of being overtired.

As a gift for his birthday, we ordered him a lightsaber from Amazon. It arrived late, but of course, if you arm one child, you must arm them all. So we are now the proud owners of red, purple, green and blue lightsabers. Since blue is Nicholas’s favorite color, that one is his and he carries it everywhere, usually hooked over his pants, and it’s pulled out regularly to fight off bad guys (usually his brother) and he adheres fairly well to the rule that we don’t hit people, we only hit other lightsabers. We’ve had some mishaps, but nothing too bad. Of course Star Wars (all 5) are his favorite movies, how did you know? He enjoys Harry Potter too, but Star Wars beats out all the rest.

Saturday & Sunday, April 19th – April 20th: Can anyone tell me what April 20th is? OK, this year it’s Easter Sunday, true, but it’s also the day that Nicholas has his big third birthday. That’s right, he’s three years old! And he gets to celebrate with all the fanfare of Easter.

In our case, that means church, an Easter egg hunt, presents and of course a cake. Saturday was a busy day. We spent a good deal of time marching from one bakery to another desperately hoping to find a Star Wars Jedi cake that could be make and even delivered, oh by the next day. Well, I think even we found our limit with the status quo of immediate satisfaction! Several places wouldn’t be able to do it by the next day, and only one place had any form of Star Wars and none with a Jedi. Arg. OK, this will teach me to avoid leaving anything to the last minute, especially during Holy Week. Happily, Nicholas decided he would like a Spiderman cake, and Goldilocks bakery could do it in a day, so with our fingers crossed we put in our order and Ian would pick it up Sunday afternoon.

I needn’t have worried because it all worked out beautifully. After a miserable time at church (Nicholas had a meltdown over part of a granola bar. Remember, he’s 3) we had omelets for lunch and then nap time. After naps was the Easter egg hunt in out living room with plastic eggs filled with gummy worms, then birthday cake. The cake was great. I mean really good! Very light chocolate cake with layers of chocolate chips and marshmallows all covered in an extremely light marshmallow/meringue frosting. There will be pictures up on his page when we get our PC. Which reminds me, apparently there was a dock strike in California a few weeks ago? Folks who’d left the month before us still don’t have their HHE, so it really is all a guessing game when we might get ours.

OK, so after the cake and ice cream where Ian gave the kids gigantic pieces that none of them could finish though I didn’t have any problem at all with mine, we hopped next door to the playground. The bug scope had been recovered from the depths of the living room couch, so it came along, holding the favorite examinee for the day, a dried up lizard. Oh, it’s only a couple inches long and I’m pretty sure it died of a heart attack when we found in the corner of the girls room, but it looked pretty cool up close. I took a ton of pictures of Nicholas and those will be put up as well.. when we get the PC.

Home again and we wrapped up the day with present opening where the girls both gave him homemade cards with boxes harboring jelly beans. I think the beans disappeared before the box hit the chair. Then he opened our gift which he already knew about since we’d bought it in the States. A 400piece Lincoln Log knock-off set. Now all we need is a set of little plastic horses and they’ll be set. He’s received a Blue’s Clues birthday card from grandma and grandpa earlier in the week but only opened it this morning and thought it was the coolest thing.

All in all, it was a good day for him. All last week we would ask him how old he was and he’d hold up 2 fingers. Then we’d ask him what Sunday was.. his Bufday! And he’s work diligently to hold up 3 fingers. It was funny because Saturday morning when he woke up and came over and stood on the couch saying he was 3 already. When I reminded him that his birthday was still a day away he stretched up tall and said “Me bih boy! Me Eee!” And you know, he does look every bit his age.

Grandpa thought Nicholas was getting too shaggy, so off they went for a boys trip to the barber. He's looking mighty cute now. Grandpa got his hair cut so that Nicholas could watch the whole process first and go through it himself without worry. Of course, I knew he'd do fabulous even without a guide, but they had a good time together. Grandpa even took him out after to get a couple new cars.

Last night he slept overnight at the grandparents home along with his siblings. I was told how he had a little bit of a hard time going to bed wanting mom and dad, but eventually it all worked out. After Katherine and Rebecca took care of him when he didn't want to sleep by sitting with him and looking through baby pictures, Katherine let him fall asleep in her bed. When it came time for Katherine to get to sleep, she decided that it was OK for Nicholas to stay there, and she'd just cozy up with him. How cute is that?

A couple days ago we went to the hotel pool. Nice and heated, with a great hot tub, we stuck some water wings on him, but before we knew it, he was paddling around the whole pool without any help. I figure it won't take too long in Manila before he's a true swimmer. He was very pleased with himself and kept saying "No hep, me 'im!"

We're redesigning the kids' pages, so we can edit them through MoveableType, which we use for this index. This post makes those pages appear, so ignore this.