Getting the tree (Day 3 of 5)

On Friday, we just stayed around the house and went out to get our Christmas tree. Zac strung the lights on it during naptime then we decorated it before supper. After supper, a package arrived for the kids.

To make room for the tree, we moved Alice's art table to the front windows in the study.

During nap, I took a walk on this beautiful fall day. This is the pedestrian bridge over the highway.

Can you find Simon in the picture below?

Do you see him now? (He's like a cat, always looking for little places he can climb into.)

Excuse me

I was standing in front of the silverware drawer. Alice opened it and bumped me. "Hey, watch out!" she said.

"Alice, you're supposed to say, 'Excuse me' before you bump into someone so they can move out of your way."

"But then they'll think I farted! How will you know if I want you to move out of the way or if I farted?"

"Context clues. Am I in your way? Or does it stink? We'll figure it out; don't worry."

Thanksgiving (Day 2 of 5)

We went to Burlington for Thanksgiving.  The greatness of Thanksgiving food is still totally wasted on our kids, although this year they at least liked the turkey. One step at a time.

It was a beautiful day, so we went to the fish fountain, the neighborhood park, and scootered around a bit. Eleanor painted my nails, Alice's and Simon's. Poor Zac was left out.

Trees, nests, volcanoes, and bikes (Day 1 of 5)

Wednesday kicked off the first of five stay-home days. (The kids were a little more excited about this than we were, to be honest).  On Wednesday, I mainly took care of the kids so Zac could chip away at his infinite to-do list for the house.

We started the beautiful day at dragon park, where the kids climbed trees and build nests.  Simon also likes the tire swing now, although he doesn't want to go as crazy as Alice does, but he'll at least sit on it and let you push it now.

After afternoon naps, we had some fun with volcanoes in the kitchen and race tracks in the garage.

Only 4 more days!

Simon loves kitty (too much)

Simon loves the cat more than anything. The poor cat is quite tolerant, but I feel like her expression in this picture shows that she may be getting tired of Simon's affection.

Simon's sad goodbye

Apparently the morning drop off has been getting rougher, where Simon will not want to leave Zac, and sometimes cries.

Ms. Georgiana sent me these pictures to show that once Simon comes in (and gets a tissue) he's totally fine (especially with his best friend Donovan).

Alice can think about her choices

Translation:

1. I thought I could talk in the hallway and pick poppy seeds.

3. To not talk in the hallway. And to not pick poppy seeds.

I was very confused about why there were poppy seeds in the hallways, but Alice explained that these were two separate incidents and that she was picking poppy seeds outside.

I'm honestly surprised she doesn't come home with this form every day. This was the first one we've seen so far.

Morning with Simon

Alice was playing at Parker's, Zac was working on something, so Simon and I went outside to play. He's a fun kid to hang out with.

Kids and the tree

Lake Wheeler: Now and Then

On Saturday morning we planned to go to Yates Mill Pond for our annual family fall walk there, but Simon fell asleep in the car on the way there, so we kept driving down the road to Lake Wheeler to give him more time to nap. This turned out to be silly because he slept for about an hour and half in the car anyway, while Zac and I took turns playing with Alice.

November 18, 2017 (almost 6 1/2 years old)

Three and half years ago we were here...

April 20, 2014 (almost 3 years old)

Simon eventually woke up. The funny thing is whenever he falls asleep in the car, he wakes up exactly where he left off. He opened his eyes, and without missing a beat, said, "We're here! I want to get out!" With no awareness he had been asleep for over an hour. We didn't have much time left before needing to head home for lunch, but we took a little walk along the shoreline and Simon made little mounds in the sand.

Thanksgiving with Simon

On Friday, Zac and I went to Simon's preschool for their annual Thanksgiving lunch with the parents. Luckily, Simon didn't totally freak out (although he did close his eyes when all the parents entered the room). They sang a few songs (Simon just clung to me) and then we had lunch.

Fishing at the pond!

Alice spends her allowance

I took the kids to the Durham Museum of Life and Science. We played inside and outside, visited the butterfly house and farm animals, and finally, finally, went to the gift shop so Alice could spend her allowance (with a little boost from Grandma Cam's Halloween money).

She bought a "bubble timer", a container of slime, and a butterfly key chain. (It all cost about $15, so she had some money left over.) I didn't intervene too much, but I did talk her out of buying gemstones and stuff that would just lay around and get lost.

With his money from Grandma Cam, Simon picked out an airplane and some chocolate covered bugs.

He ate the bugs as soon as we got to the car. He kept asking, "Where are their legs?"

The slime was a big hit. For some reason, Simon calls it his royal chicken.

Simon's conference

We had Simon's fall conference. They always talk about how sweet and easy he is, especially compared to Alice. The commented on his friendship with Donovan and good they are together.

One thing we were concerned about was if Simon's lack of sleep at night was causing any problems at school, but they said he was fine there. They said (after much questioning by me) that Simon did seem to maybe have some anxiety or resistance to change. It sounds like he does the same to them that he does to us where he will ask the same question over and over again. The example they gave was him asking if they were going to go outside to play that day.

Simon said the item below is a "circle calendar."

Simon loves boiled eggs (but not the yolk)

Playdate with Julia and Brantley

On Saturday, I arranged a playdate with Alice's friends (Brantley & Julia) from kindergarten at her old school. We went to Crowder District Park and they had a great time playing on the playground, picnicking by the pond, and then building "bug houses" out of mud on the picnic table.  They really spend the most time with the mud, and sometimes threw the grubs they found to the fish in the pond. I had a great time visiting with the moms.

When we were walking back to the cars, Simon found a stink bug and kept talking about the stink bug he found. Until he screamed, "Owww!" and dropped the stink bug. Turns out his little stinker was actually an assassin bug. The kid is lucky to be alive. (It kills bugs, not humans, but the internet says the bite is worse than wasps. It must not have really got Simon good, because he would have at least cried, probably.)

Simon's long goodbye

Simon seems to be experiencing some anxiety lately. He makes us repeat promises a gazillion times before bed, and now he also does it during the goodbyes in the morning. It's just a phase, we tell ourselves.

Alice's art

Translation:

AVA Arcaro

Alice Vivian Sera

Arcaro Zac Arcaro

Simon Arcaro

I love mom I love Dad I love my

brother and all my

friends very very much

Emre Emre

???????  Eeeek!

numbers

Alices 1st first grade report card

Simon's House

Simon loves to build things out of the scrap wood in the garage. Here's a tour of his latest creation.

Simon's sleep issues

We don't remember exactly when it started or how long it's been going on (years? months?) but Simon has trouble falling asleep at night. I can remember when he was a baby and I could easily rock him to sleep at naptime, but usually gave up at nighttime and just put him in his crib awake. He rarely cried about it, so it wasn't a problem.

If I had to pick a time that it started becoming a problem, maybe it was when Simon finally stopped wearing night diapers. He would use "I'm going potty" as an excuse to leave his room multiple times before finally falling asleep.

But again, it wasn't really a problem because he didn't bother us and eventually fell asleep.

But then, one time we woke up to him screaming at 4am because he had fallen out of the bathtub. Why was he in the bathtub? He found a cockroach in there.

That was when we realized he must be getting up in the middle of the night too.  But, he always put himself back to bed, so not a problem.

Then there was the time Alice woke up in the morning and found him asleep on her couch. Another time we found him asleep in the basement. Sometimes in the living room.

One time, he screamed in the middle of the night (because the cat scratched him) and when I got up, I discovered he had turned every light in the house on.

So we came up with a new plan. We put toys in his room so he would stay in there and play when he woke up. It sort of worked, except he would play far more than sleep. Sometimes he would play in his room and then fall asleep in the hallway.

The problem with Simon is that we don't have much leverage with him. He doesn't care about bribes. He doesn't care if we take away stuff.  We bribed him with candy. He loves candy. We took away all the toys in his room. Nothing worked.

The current pattern (as of 11/25/17) is that we sit on the couch in his room until he falls asleep. This seems to keep him in his bed, and he soon falls asleep. Then he wakes up at 3 every morning crying for Zac. Zac goes in and resettles him. We don't know what time he wakes up in the morning, but we think it's pretty early.

I don't want a dog!

At supper out on the deck one evening, Zac was talking about getting one of the lights with lasers for Christmas to light up the tree leaves in the back yard.

Alice interjected, "No! I don't want to get a dog."

"What?"

"I don't want to have lasers in our back yard because then I might look at them and go blind and we'll have to get a dog."

Cockroaches on the deck in the dark

One of Simon's more unsavory enjoyments in life is to go out on the deck in the dark and catch cockroaches. He then holds them up to the kitchen window to show us in the light. He absolutely loves it. We make him flush them down the toilet.