Egan turns three

For a lot of the year, it seemed like Egan was suspended it time, as our little baby. But over the last few months his transition to a little boy has become more dramatic.

Egan careened through the year literally and figuratively. One of the most exciting things about this year has been our new nanny, Rachelle, and our 2-3 day a week nanny-share with Corine. Corine is 6 months younger (and 5 lbs heaver and 2 inches taller!) than Egan and the daughter of one of the biology faculty who started with Jake and I. Rachelle and Egan have a very special and close relationship. He loves to see her arrive and she has an excitement for adventures (like running after the recycling truck to chase it down the next alley and going down the 'big slide' at the 'big park') along with the usual trips to the library and around town. Egan and Corine are good buddies. They love to play together (with the expected 2-3 year old tiffs) and Egan often asks if 'Corine come today?' Their favorite past time is loading up the stroller and push cart with all types of toys and running around in a circle while playing the recorders. If you can call it 'playing the recorder.' It's true, we can't pay Rachelle enough. She has tried to hide the recorders (somehow we have 4 - please note do not buy us anymore!) but if they can't find the recorders they improvise by yelling, banging cymbals, or playing the musical cards from Grandpa Dwaine.

Aside from running in a circle making noise, one of Egan's other favorite things to do it sit quietly and read. He loves to have his stories. He listens to stories for probably a couple of hours a day between Jake and I, Rachelle, and his private storytime coordinator, Elena. He prefers anything about trucks, trains, or vehicles. He also loves the whole 'If you give a ____ and _____ series (like if you give a mouse a cookie)', a book about some ill mannered but charming wolves called 'The Scallywags,' and anything by Mo Willems. In the summer he also really enjoyed hearing chapters from Stuart Little that Elena was reading this summer. He loves the library - he likes story time, but loves his book check out time. Elena has even secured special permission from the librarian to bring an extra book home for Egan each week and she carefully selects something for him each time.

Egan still loves trucks. It's like that boy was born at home on purpose to ride in an ambulance as his first activity. He knows all kinds of truck names (and by association so do we, Rachelle, and Elena). I now know facinating truck facts like how many baffles are in your standard tanker truck and in detail how they apply paint to a fire truck. When Egan sees a truck, he never says 'truck' he says, 'ladder truck,' 'bucket truck,' or (and this is my favorite) 'impact hammer!'

Egan's play has really developed over the past year. He is very much into imaginative play. Unlike his sister, who preferred to BE the play (ie, be the doctor, play waitress), Egan prefers to be object oriented. He will line up animals like a farm, his trains talk to each other, the people driving trucks and load stuff up. He is able to play on his own for long periods of time (up to 30 minutes is standard when he's in the right mood) in this way. He also still like to play with the kitchen - talking to himself as he enters his own world. Egan has little interest in arts and crafts or drawing and writing. In the last few months, he has become more interested in playing with stickers, but mostly he only likes drawing when it means he can spend time with Corine or Elena. He does not often seek out his crayons and paper (always out on the small table in the dining room) out. He is more likely to rip up the paper and carefully insert it into the 'paper' section of his playmobile recycling truck.

Egan's language has exploded. He now speaks in paragraphs and can keep up with Elena (which is saying something!) when he puts his mind to it. It seems hard to believe that a year ago I was worried because he wasn’t talking. Now he has taken off like a rocket. He loves to talk on the phone or skype with his grandparents.

This summer, Egan’s parents finally moved him out of his crib into his big boy bed. He loves to cuddle in there and have his stories and play. He still uses a paci, but only at nap and night time. He is mildly aware of potty training stuff, but not really that interested. We’ve started with some stickers, but nothing more. He still takes a ~1.5 hour nap every day and that little boy loves to sleep in! He goes to bed at 8pm and will sleep until 7 or 8 on the weekends when we aren’t up. He likes his morning cuddles and isn’t exactly at his most perky first thing in the morning. But he is a big cuddle bear...he loves his time with snuggles whenever he can get it - Mom, Dad, Sister, his perfect morning is stories and cuddles from each person. This makes getting out the door for work a little challenging, but it is very sweet.

He has started to experience the tantrums and frustration of getting older. Sometimes it is hard to wait for things. He has less patience for things like dinner time and waiting for blessing (or waiting for anything) than I recall Elena at this age...but he isn’t in daycare, so that makes a difference.

Egan’s year of adventures included Nana, Big Opa, and Brayden at Thanksgiving. Christmas was in Austin and full of lots of adventures. The summer included a repeat trip to Mexico...where swimming lessons paid off and he waded into the ocean enjoying the warm water and playing in the elaborate sand castles that Poppa built for him. Then it was up to the lake for a week, enjoying Red Camp. Elena stayed behind, so Egan got to be an only child for two weeks in August. A big part of the year was having Auntie Jo nearby in Philly to visit on weekends and kitty sitting Isis her cat.

With a sense of adventure, virtually no fear, and a very loving heart, Egan is running full speed into 3 years old!

Elena is 7!

Elena has cruised through her 7th year. It was a busy summer. In May, right after her birthday, we flew to Scotland for a trip to celebrate Richard & Dinny’s 40th wedding anniversary. She had a great time and was in her element traveling and being by the sea. Then, after school ended, Gram & little opa came to visit.

First grade is going great for Elena. At first she was very apprehensive about starting 1st grade. Leaving her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Patton, was very hard. She loved Mrs. Patton (really we all did). Elena visits Mrs. Patton almost every day on the way out of school - their close relationship continues. But after her initial apprehension passed, she really settled into 1st grade. In the beginning, the change from the creativity and freedom on kindergarten to the increased structure of 1st grade was difficult. But as the school year continued, the chance to work on projects, be in reading groups, and have a math buddy made up for some of that change. Mrs. Stump developed some interesting projects, like making a poster about an animal (Elena picked the ostrich). Elena really grew with her reading during 1st grade. She is reading books like the Clementine to herself. She still really enjoys being read to and we are almost finished with the Laura Engalls Wilder series. Elena is adding ‘doubles facts’ (like 12 + 32) on paper and can do a fair amount of problems in her head. She enjoys math and is allowed to play extra math games with another little boy in class when they finish their work early. She is ‘second best’ in math, almost always losing to Dennis, but relishes when she can outwit him or finish more quickly. Her writing has become more expressive and complex. She wrote several long, complicated stories throughout the year. Her spelling was very good (unlike her mother) and her handwriting was a struggle (like her mother!). We appreciated the high standard, especially in reading/writing, that Mrs. Stump held Elena too. Each reporting period the bar has been raised.

Elena got to be close friends with several kids over the year, including Sophia and Lexi. She also have become good buddies with Dennis. Dennis is from China, so Elena can help him with some words and, as mentioned above, Dennis gives her a run for her money at math. Mrs. Stump reports that Elena moves between the different ‘groups’ of kids with ease and doesn’t seem to have one specific set of friends. Elena has also stood her ground with regard to some hard teasing by the class ‘cool kids’ and we are proud of her for how she handled that situation (see the blog entry on Nellie Olson). For all of her desire to be with friends, she still craves some isolation and alone time. When she doesn’t get it, she get upset and can start to have some anxiety come back.

Elena is very into making ‘big plans’ like opening up a flower shop from the garden she will plant, or saving up all her money to buy a swing set, or starting a bake shop. She will talk about these kinds of things for hours. As always, she favors role playing games (especially when she can be the authority figure) and will play teacher to imaginary students in her room for hours. With her friends, they often play school, hospital, or restaurant. We were able to channel some of these ‘big plans’ into Odessey of the Mind - a competition when students use creative problem solving. This year she participated in the non-competitive primary division and had a very good time.

Emotionally this has been a much calmer year for Elena. The anxiety that accompanied her last year, following our move to Kutztown, has been under control. She has worked hard, and so have we, on helping her express her feelings in constructive ways. Elena can still struggle with being overwhelmed, but this happens less and less now. Physically, Elena has become a little more adventuresome and outgoing. She has continued with swimming lessons through the year (taking a break in the fall) and is now able to swim about 10 meters by herself. She exhibits confidence in the water now. She spends her days often running around the back lot with Kelly and Zeb and Cailyn. It seems along time ago that she was timid and wouldn’t go off and explore on her own. She remains very verbally expressive and still has an exuberant flamboyance when dressing. Mainstream fashion has yet to make an impression.

It is apparent through her writing and introductions that one of the primary ways that Elena identifies herself right now is as a sister. She and Egan remain extremely close. He calls her ‘sister’ and she calls him ‘brother’ or ‘buddy.’ While he does annoy her; and she bosses him, for the most part they are very loving. She will patiently read him stories time and time again. They like to cuddle and also play games, like matching or Operation together. She will help him when he needs something opened or fixed.

The year started for Elena with a family trip (including Jake’s parents) to Scotland. And I was reminded that embedded into her being is that 2 year experience of traveling when we lived in the Netherlands. Given how much she can be upset by small changes at home, it is amazing how much she embraces traveling. Being in Scotland with her was a great joy. We took a family of 4 vacation to Mexico in the summer as well...to truly relax and celebrate our first year in Kutztown. Elena, fresh from her swim lessons, floated for hours in the calm ocean waves. Christmas meant a chance to return to Austin to see Gram and little opa and have a warm holiday.

It is dangerous to make predictions about your child...I don’t want to imprint my own desires (except that she is happy) onto the life in front of her. That being said, I have two predictions about Elena. One, she will live by the sea. In Scotland, she would sit on the rocky beaches and watch the waves with the cold wind of the North Sea whipping in her face. In Mexico, she floated in the warm water and I wondered if, like her father and I, this was the first time in over a year she had truly relaxed and let go. She will beg to go to the beach for vacation. The second thing I predict is that if she chooses to get married one day, she will wear pink cowboy boots.

Until then, she moves forward into her next year...7 is supposed to be a lucky number!

Another start to the new year...

Once again, we'll try again to be better about updating our blog! Let's see how long this lasts this time. Per last year, I'll start by posting Elena and Egan's birthday letters, which I wrote for their birthday in 2011.

Hook'em

Egan is ready for summer...in his longhorn digs!



And he is showing off his latest skill - jumping off the ground with both feet. He plays bunny, jumping all over the house.

Sandbox

One of our late winter/early spring projects was to make the yard a little more kid friendly. We've got lots of space, but not much play stuff. And with no fence, it is easy for Egan to 'get away.' So we decided to build a sandbox for the kids and put up a partial temporary fence. Partial in that it wraps around the side of the house were you can't see from the kitchen window and prevents Egan (theoretically) from running into the front.

First the sandbox went in...Before that could happen - I had to move a whole suite of bulbs that were planted by the original owners. You can't really tell in this picture, but it was bitterly cold that day! So much for spring.


Jake made the sandbox out of a whole sheet of plywood for a lid with 1x12 sides.



The inaugural dump of sand.



Almost full and very popular!

LolliPop

Act now - because our friend Kurt Friehauf has posted for 1 week the video of Elena's talent show.

The song was cut off at the end when they were supposed to all sing around 'their lollipop.'

http://faculty.kutztown.edu/friehauf/temp/videos.html

Exciting addition to Ktown

Guess what! The Frying Dutchman Donut shop is open.

Egan samples their wares opening week.


Elena and Sophia met for a donut date on opening day before school. Elena dressed in a brown dress (chocolate) with a pink shirt (strawberry) and then Sophia dressed in a polka dot dress (sprinkles). They were a chocolate donut with strawberry glaze and sprinkles.

They make gourmet made-to-order donuts like French Toast, Snickers, Fluffernutter, and Caramel Latte. I've got my 'own' donut, which is the Mexican Chocolate - cinnamon sugar with a dark chocolate drizzle. They are dangerously good.

Laying a Hedge

We earned our neighborhood crazy points this weekend. We've got some old bushes along the alley. Three overgrown lilacs (one with a never say die crab tree in the middle of it) and a very beautiful quince bush (which has great flowers in the spring). But instead of individual plants, we wanted to have a little more privacy and protection for the kids from the cars on the alley.

Jake, suffering from winter boredom, came home from the KU library with a book called something like, 'english hedgerows for the commoner.' We love the hedgerows of Wales, England and Scotland. With the help of this book, and a few youtube videos (did you know that 'laying a hedge' is a competition in England? And there are many how to videos on this topic? Well, now you do) we decide that our ragtag bushes can become a fine English hedgerow. Or at least if we kill the bushes, they were rotting in the center out anyway and would have had to be cut down anyway.

So, I'm assuming that you haven't run out and bought a book on laying an English hedgerow (but you might have looked for some youtube videos...). You are probably wondering, how do you lay a hedge? And is this an appropriate thing to discuss in front of children and/or company?

So you lay a hedge by cutting a bush or tree at a sharp angle 90% through, then you lay it over into the bush beside it. The cut branch or truck will survive (so they say) and sucker up. This will provide an angled branch with straight suckers. Repeated from bush to bush and over time this will create an interwoven fence (if done properly that will even keep sheep out, but we have not Egan tested it). A fence made entirely of plants with no posts or wire. A fence that will encourage wildlife and birds and habitat...

...A fence that will make your neighbors think you pruned your bushes and didn't bother to clean up afterward? Here's hoping that the spring is kind to our little garden experiment and that the greenery conceals our angled hedgerow attempt.

Jana and Baby Claire

Jana first held Elena when she was 3 weeks old. I think that it was so long ago that the picture is actually on print film (gasp!)

Last weekend, a little bit of sadness (Jana's grandfather passing away), brought a little bit of happiness. When she was in the area, Jana, baby Claire, and Aunt Tracy made a trip out of their way to visit us in Kutztown.

I can't believe that my dear college friend and cross country buddy is now a mommy too! Don't we look all grown up!

Laura Ingalls vs. Nellie Oleson

There are lots of possible titles for this post...
- The sisterhood of the elastic sweat pants (my idea)
- Flipping the bird (Jake's idea)

but we'll go with Laura vs. Nellie Oleson because that is probably how Elena thinks of it.


When we were in Austin, Gram took Elena shopping. At a fabulous sale at the GAP, we found some fleece sweat pants. Gram bought Elena three pairs in different colors. I thought this was great (thanks gram!) because Elena still likes to wear her skirts and it's so cold now in the winter. So she could wear these underneath. Or wear them around the house on the weekends. Elena was very excited for them to come out of the wash and wore the pink pair to school.

A little bit later, Elena started to complain about the elastic on the ankles. I thought it was too tight, maybe shrunk in the dryer? But the didn't seem to tight. Then Elena started to say how she hated them because they looked like 'Jacob's pants' (Jacob of her class - not Jake her poppa). Something about 'boys pants' - I pishawed this comment that elastics cuffs are not the definition of 'boys.'

I guess I didn't really notice, but she pretty much stopped wearing them to school. Until about two weeks ago. She must have worn them again (I don't keep a log of her clothes, so I couldn't be sure) but on Sunday morning she put on the pants to wear to church under one of her dresses. Before we left she detailed this elaborate plan to cut the elastic off the cuffs and hem them up with tape. I finally asked her what was going on. It turned out that Elena was getting made fun of at school for wearing the pants...because one girl (we'll call her Nellie - not her real name - for the purpose of this story) has deemed them 'boys pants' and teases her about them. So she stopped wearing. But she likes them, so her solution was to cut the elastic off. On the drive to church we discussed what it was to be a bully and tease people. Then I said, 'so say we cut off the elastic from your pants. Then Nellie makes fun of you for having cut the elastic off...what would you do?' Silence. Elena eventually responded, 'I never thought of that.' Then I asked her, 'so, if Nellie is a bully, and she is teasing you about your pants and you change your pants, what have you taught her.' Elena says, 'that teasing people get them to do what you want!' Hummmmm....

Appropriately the time for all ages during the service was about gloves and mittens. How sometimes we can feel like a finger in a glove - cold and alone...but really we are tucked inside a mitten of community - never alone. On the car ride home we talked about all the people in Elena's mitten - Anna from Sunday School, Sophie, Jacob (of the infamous elastic boy pants), all her Shabbos friends, her family, Mia, Xander...

So last week I noticed that Elena was wearing the pants again, a lot. At the parent-teacher conference we mentioned this teasing to Mrs. Stump. She wasn't too pleased to hear about it and asked if elena would come and tell her. Our sense was that Elena seemed to feel like this was tattling and preferred not to. Elena was wearing the pants again and seemed to be handling it OK.

Tonight I go in to read bed time stories - Nellie Oleson has returned to the story line - dun dun duuuuunnnnnn. And I noticed that the red pair of elastic pants was set out for tomorrow. Then I remember she wore the green pair to school this morning. So I asked,
'How's it going with the whole pants thing? Has Nellie quit teasing?'
'Nope -she still makes fun of my pants during lunch. That's why I'm wearing them every day now to school.'
'Really? You've been wearing them every day?'
'Yeah - so I don't teach Nellie to tease people until they change.'
'What does she say?'
'Elena's wearing boy pants again.'
'What do you say?'
'Nothing, I just ignore her. I don't want her to think that I care.'

At this point I started to laugh and I put my arms around her. I pictured my little girl, a stone wall of elastic cuffed pants, stubbornly making her point that she wasn't going to change. In fact, Nellie, if you don't like my pants, I'll just wear them every day! Ha - take that! I had Elena tell the story to Jake, and he laughed too. We told her that we were really proud of her for finding a way to handle the situation, but if she started to feel sad or overwhelmed to tell Mrs. Stump, that is wasn't tattling.

There are times when her ability to be stubborn and sick to her guns in the face of great adversity has caused us much anxiety. Because those stubborn guns were pointed in the wrong direction. We've know that she can grit her teeth through a lot. It's nice to see her turn that into an amazing display of confidence.

All of a sudden, I have this incredible urge to order myself some elastic cuffed fleecy sweat pants and wear them to school lunch. I hope I can sit by Nellie Oleson.

Settling in and saying no

We've had about 18 months to settle in to our new home. And this winter it finally is starting to calm down and feel like 'normal.' This is the first time that at the two year mark, we are not preparing to leave a place. So it's nice. Instead of looking for new childcare, new place to live, new jobs...we are thinking about preschool for Egan in a year or so, starting to think about a renovation for a mud room, and establishing work routines.

We have really been welcomed by our new communities. Work is very supportive, and in spite of all the budget challenges, we feel pretty stable. Our neighbors remain wonderful, though we see much less of each other on these snowy winter days. This summer we started going to a local Shabbos, hosted every friday night by a family with a daughter in Elena's class. Here we have found new friends, both faculty and community, that have been amazing. We have settled in at our new church - and though we still miss our morning two block walk to the classed in New River Valley UU Congregation...we don't mind the drive to Reading to one of the original UU churches. I've been helping with the auction committee and Jake volunteers in the nursery.

All of this settling in has lead to some saying no. Especially in the last week. Last Sunday at church, the president asked me to consider running for the board. Sunday evening, when we were at a dinner in town, I met the mayor of Kutztown. Upon learning that we lived on the 'south-side' she and Kurt (work friend) joking tried to convince Jake or I to run for town council because they need more people from our side of town. (I know you are probably thinking what I was 'Kutztown has sides?') Then today, Andy Arnold (host along with his wife Arabel of weekly Shabbos and candidate for the 'north side' council seat) tried to convince me to run for school board. I'm flattered that people think of us (even if it just because of where we happened to buy a house) and a little amazed that we can be so settled as to be cajoled into running for local offices in only 18 months. Then again, there are a lot of really old people in town who aren't going to run for office! During these times, I call upon the 'angel' on my shoulder, a working mom mentor I've had for a long time, Cathryn Harbor - wife of our undergraduate advisor Dave Harbor and amazing doctor (the medical, not rock, kind). They have three amazing kids - all of whom I used to babysit when I was in college. But I digress. Cathryn told me that when you have kids and two full time careers you get to do one (maybe two when they get older) 'extra' things. She said, 'I'm not on the PTA, I don't run races to cure cancer, I don't teach Sunday School or coach soccer. My 'one' thing is taking care of myself, I eat well and exercise. When you are a working mom, you only get one thing. Pick it, and say no to everything else.' So when someone asks me to run for school board (or heck coordinate the school carnival) Cathryn appears on my shoulder and whispers in my ear. I have to ask myself - is this more important that my 'one' thing? You might ask, what is my 'one' thing? Well, right now mine is working out. A 4 days a week at the gym when I get up at 6:05 am and can get home by 7:15. The other two days I do yoga in my office with my window covered. (Jake is pigeons of course!) So is the school board more important than my workout? Right now, no. I have to say no. I have to take care of myself. But maybe some day I'll work up to 'two' things - then maybe I can consider something important like church board, town counsel, or school board. And I like thinking that we now live in a place where I have this to consider.

Snow for Sale

We've had a nice few days of snow here. These pictures are actually from last Wednesday evening.
Egan, Elena, and I tried to get ahead of the shoveling. While I cleared the driveway, Elena tromped around through the snow and Egan filled his truck up.





A little bit later, after I had almost finished the driveway, Elena pushed Egan down the walk on his truck filled with snow. When they arrived at the driveway, Elena said, '7 cents please.' I paid her the imaginary money and she said, 'here is your snow' and Egan dumped the truck out. Paying to have snow delivered to your shoveled driveway? I paid another imaginary 7 cents and told them to get rid of it over the snow banks.

There is now probably about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. It has been a pleasant day of constant snowing, but right at 32 degrees, so nothing accumulates on the street and the plows aren't out. So everything has that fresh dusted look. We are making pannekoeken for dinner. The only thing missing is a fire place for a fire.

Show n Share

Every Friday is Elena's 'Show-n-Share' day at school. For several months, she has been asking to bring her little brother in for her show-n-share. Her teacher, Mrs. Stump, agreed to it. So on Friday Egan got to visit Elena's classroom. It was a huge event for both of them. Egan arrived and went straight to sit next to sister in the circle. Elena shared that this was her little brother Egan. He was two. They liked to play hide and seek and when she hides on the basement stairs, Egan can't find her.



Then the kids asked questions. Can he count? When you play hide and seek does he count? What other games do you like to play with him? When was he born? For his part, Egan held Elena's hand and sort of cuddled with her while he chattered away about fire trucks and horse and buggies and was generally pleased with himself as the center of attention. All of the kids found it funny that he was talking out of turn the whole time! They couldn't figure out whether to interrupt him or wait. Eventually with Mrs. Stump's rare approval for such things, they were simply allowed to talk over him!



Then her turn was over and Egan had to go home. He managed to make it out of the room, but then threw a tantrum in the main office when he realized that sister got to stay in school and he had to go home. They both talked about it all weekend.

Closet of doom, meet Martha Stewart

Our little cape-style house has lots of closets. But most of them are very awkwardly shaped. One of Elena's close is narrow but has three rows of hanging bars!

The hall closet gets hard use for such a small space, because we don't have a mud room in the house (yet). It is so narrow that I can barely walk straight into it, but it had two rows of bars. The first row has two - high and one at knee level. The top shelf held the mitten/hat basket. And it was nearly impossible to get anything out of the closet without knocking something off the hanger or dumping the mitten basket onto your head. As a result, it looked like our closet was vomiting fleeces and mis-matched mittens.



With winter (ie mitten and boot season) upon us again, we couldn't take it any more. After a little reflection, we decided the only option was to remove all the bars, put in cubbies, and install hooks along the side.

Much better, see.


Now we even have individual mitten/hat bins!


Martha Stewart would be proud.

Bitty boy is 2

Happy Birthday Bitty Boy!



I relish that I can still call Egan my ‘Bitty Boy.’ The year from 1 to 2 is always amazing. Talking, walking, running...play shift to the dramatic exploration of the world around.

Physically, Egan really developed his gross motor skills this year. He is very focused on keeping up with the big kids. So it wasn’t long from his teetering first steps that he moved to running and climbing. Egan has little physical apprehension. He will try to climb almost anything from a ladder in the garage to the tallest (1.5 story!) slide at the play ground. He is on the merry go round, the swings, climbing up the rope net. When he falls, it usually doesn’t slow him down. He’s just up and moving again. He is not apprehensive about things - he will go out in the row boat alone with sister (parents right near of course for safety, but not for his peace of mind! He would row across the lake.) Egan is the child that mocks ‘baby proofing’ and has pried the light socket covers off to try to plug in the vacuum in. He will run away after other kids, or dash off to the other end of the playground. It’s both inspiring to see his exuberance but also frightening to keep him safe!

Egan is still a little guy. I don’t have his official stats, but he’s still wearing some 12 months clothes and when compared to other kids his age, he’s certainly holding steady in the 5% for height and weight. He is working on his 2 year molars and now has a full set of chompers, which, thankfully he uses with less frequency than his sister did at this age. He is less interested in things like coloring or drawing. Though he does like to paint with dot markers. He is very engaged by games and puzzles - even if he can’t play them exactly the way the directions say.

In the past month or so, Egan’s language has exploded. He didn’t say very much until this summer, when single words become more common. Now, he strings three words together ‘Daddy play now.’ ‘Read story Egan.’ He likes books, his favorite stories are Biscuit, Duck in a Truck, and anything with trains.

Socially, Egan is an extrovert. He loves people, he feels comfortable in groups, either playing with the big kids or off playing by himself. He has little apprehension of different situations/groups and warms up very quickly. If he sees a group of kids, he will run to be a part of that group. We are lucky to have a tribe of older kids that welcomes Egan into their games and accomodates his younger age. He is starting to copy cat - from cooking, to sisters dress up, to social laughing. Egan likes to do what you are doing so that we can be together. Egan remains an extremely loving child. He wants to cuddle, have hugs, be near you. He wants to push his head against yours and press his forehead to yours and smile. He wants to pet your face, he wants to get under the covers and snuggle in his PJ’s. We cherish these moments of rocking him after nap or cuddling in the morning. We know they are brief in the span of a lifetime. He wants to climb up on sisters bed and snuggle and read books with her. Unlike Elena, he doesn’t have a ‘lovey’ (like her trusted Bunny). He’ll play with stuffed animals, books, toys, dolls, trucks, but hasn’t ‘bonded’ with one. He also doesn’t make up imaginary friends - I guess he doesn’t need to. He has sister.

A few of Egan’s favorite things: Egan loves trucks - fire trucks, trash trucks, tow trucks. He hears a truck on the street and drops everything to go running to climb the chair to look out the window. The garbage truck comes early across the street (5:30 am) if he happens to hear it, he will wake up and chirp from his crib ‘Trash truck!!!! Egan up!!!’ This is of course just what parents love at 5:30 am. Egan loves dogs. He likes to pet dogs and watch dogs. He doesn’t mind licking and a little rough housing. He likes to play with stuffed dogs, feeding them and walking them. Egan loves cooking. He loves his play kitchen with pots and pans. He likes to cook all the board game pieces (so much for that play food!). Egan also love to help in the kitchen. Like Elena, he has a kitchen chair to stand on and always want to help stir, cut (with his plastic play knife), and taste. He likes to help with the dishes, even if they need a secret wash after he is done. He also loves his paci...though his is sort of starting to lose interest during the day (hopefully?!) Egan also loves his sister. He likes to have her read to him. He likes to play with her. He is also starting to be more independent in play and will entertain himself. Like the time he snatched the garlic salt off the kitchen counter and started to use it in his kitchen! See how angry he was when I took it away

(and vacuumed it - mom’s are SO mean sometimes).

Egan’s biggest source of frustration is basically being two! He cannot always express what he wants as we play a round robin family guessing game at his words. When the big kids are doing something and he cannot, he gets mad. When he sets his mind to doing something and it doesn’t, he gets upset. He is pretty good at handling transitions, as long as he wants them to happen!

This year has been so much fun. The fall was filled with discovering our new town. Egan settled in with his nanny, Brittany, and spent most of the winter reading books and playing kitchen while the snow fell. Then it was off for his first international adventure, to Scotland, where he proved to be a wonderful traveler, just like his sister. Summer including trips to Mexico and Maine and lots of time at the pool and playing in the yard. Now fall has arrived again and he begins another year. Who knows if he will get much bigger this year, but we know he will do some amazing things. We’ll keep snuggling you bitty boy as long as you will let us.

Elena is 6

6 Years Old



One year ago, Elena sat perched on another year of change. This is not uncommon for her....3rd birthday preparing for the move back to the US, 4th birthday preparing for the birth of her sibling, 5th birthday packing for a move to Kutztown. Each birthday we seem to be anticipating something major happening in life; this year is however different. We have no major news to announce. And I think this is a good thing for our little girl.

Elena is now 6 years old. And for some reason her 6th birthday seems harder than usual. Second only to her first birthday, which following the cake and presents involved us drinking wine and crying over the videos of her first year. Some how this year she seems older. She is reading - I mean really reading. Like she read all of her birthday cards (a few errors, but none the less). When she reads, it still astounds me. I'm amazed that she can do this. I know that we've been reading to her for years and that she's been talking in paragraphs since age 18 months. Sure she has been learning her letters and writing the names of friends....but still it seems like a miracle when she reads books! I'm quite certain that I didn't read in kindergarten. I know Jake didn't because he was blind as a bat, his vision undiagnosed until 1st grade when he was amazed to learn that for all those months the teacher had been writing on the board during class. Elena reads books to Egan. She reads cereal boxes. And sadly now she can also piece together our parental trick of S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G things. In fact we have taken to spelling things to her so we don't have to say them in front of Egan. How did she get so smart? And she does math, too. She likes to sit up stairs and do math problems for fun 'so her brain will grow.' Now I know that Jake and I are dorks of amazing proportion - but I do not recall doing math for fun so early in life. She'll sit at her dry erase board making up math problems for hours.

Kindergarden has been quite the adventure. Mrs. Patton (known informally by Jake and I as General P due to her uncanny ability to keep quiet control of a room of 5 & 6 year olds - I'm pretty sure that if I was a kindergarten teacher there would be screaming, crying, probably some sort of explosion or flood and you'd find me drinking in my car in the teachers lot) has inspired much of Elena's academic growth. For the most part, Elena really likes school. She loves her journals and projects. She likes her science centers, art, music, fitness...and of course recess and lunch! It was hard to 'sit so much' when she first arrived, but she seems to have settled in. We feel very lucky to have such a hands on, inspiring teacher as Mrs. Patton.

In addition to 'real school' there is also 'play school' (as Elena calls it). The Alley Cats (as we call the neighbor kids) play school several times a week for HOURS. The oldest kid (usually Kaylin) is the teacher and then Elena, Zeb, and Kelly are the students. They have fitness, art, spelling and math tests, worksheets...the whole nine yeards. When not playing school they are using the gas power golf cart as an ambulance and taking turns being the injured person, nurse, doctor, and driver (well, not the kindergarteners yet).

Her growth has been amazing. It's like she is in her spring, new growth everywhere. But, to keep the analogy, it has been a hard winter for Elena. This has been a tough year for her. I guess that with everything that we've thrown at her, the move away from Blacksburg was just a little too much. Some how it seemed to hit at a tender time. She grieved the loss of her two best friends, Mia and Xander (and by that I mean cried herself to sleep clutching photos - talk about parental heart break.) The fall was spent mostly just wanting to go back to the place she was. No doubt that the stress of being a 'kindergarten' added to the effect. We all felt the loss of the Maroon room and going to kindergarten in a new town was sort of like learning to swim by running through your sprinkler for practice before jumping into the deep end. We were all better prepared by Alexa, Jen, and Amanda than we thought, but it was still a shock to the system. Over the fall we came to realize that this move caused some true anxiety in our little girl and we are all working hard to help develop new coping techniques for the stress that she feels (and puts on herself).

Elena and Egan maintain a very special relationship. They don't fight nearly as much as I recall fighting with my brother! And so far no one has been stabbed with a pencil or backed over with by a car (events from the Sewall side). Elena loves to read to Egan and they will play games together. She maintains an uncanny ability to translate his needs and select things that he needs and wants. And sometimes she does use this against him by teasing, but mostly she is a very loving, connected, and special big sister. He clearly adores her and pretty much wants to be like her.

Over the last part of this year, Elena has become much more out going in larger groups and with kids. She enjoyed meeting new people and playing at the playground with other kids now. Elena has also been taking swimming classes (we got behind in the Netherlands and never caught up) and she is starting to enjoy the pool (heated and covered for the winter!) and wearing her goggles. She is getting physically braver and taking more risks as she gets older.

Usually these updates end with a hint of what it is to come....the next big stepping stone on the path of life is ready for her to leap on to. This year, kiddo, it's all up to you. What adventures does the next year hold? What big challenge will you tackle? How will you grow? It's all up to you and we know you will do amazing things. We love you so much.

What can I say, we've been busy

Obviously, for the last year keeping up with the blog has been hard for us. We've been so busy with our jobs and spending more and more time and the kids. The nights seem to just be prep time for the morning and weekends are triage for the weeks. It's hard to find time to 'keep up' with stuff like photos, blogs, friends, family. I wish it wasn't the case. But a new year. A new start.

In fact, I'll start by posting the 'traditional' birthday blog posts to Elena (now just a few months away from her next birthday) and Egan (ready for his 2.5 year appointment!). I always write a 'letter' to my kids on their birthday that tells everyone about their year. This year was no exception. Except I just didn't get around to post it on here. So I'll share those and you can start to catch up with us.