Kindergarten Kid

Connor started school this September past. Although still only for years old, his birthday is this calender year, so he falls in the 2022/23 intake. We had the option of holding him back one year, but he's ready. If he'd been our first, I certainly would have spent more time debating the benefits of keeping him home another year. He's so sociable and confident, and he's watched Ada for his entire life. 

He's been doing super, as expected. He's making lots of new friends, the first without his big sis. Up to now, Connor has mostly played with kids that we met when Ada was a baby. Covid means that Connor never really got to go to Family Place as a toddler and develop those friendships. 

So far, his only real difficulty with starting school is learning how snack works. During the first two to three weeks, we had to pack him more and more lunch each day, as he would eat everything he had and get hungry again later. Our boy is a healthy, growing Irish kid, who can eat and eat and eat. At one point, we were packing two full lunch boxes with him. Thankfully, things have settled down a bit over the weeks. 

If that's the worst we have to deal with this year, I'll be a very happy dad.

Fourth Race Around The Track

My youngest turned four today. 

I'm not sure how that happened so fast. All at once, it seems so recent that I was showing Ada her new baby brother lying in the crib in the hospital room, and that it was months and months ago that Connor was learning to use the potty. 

Connor has been an absolute light in our lives for four whole years. 

Of course, some mornings, the light needs to be turned down for an extra hour or three. Like this morning, Connor was up and out on the couch at 5am... Let me say that again. The little monster was awake at FIVE AY EMM!! Sitting on the couch, playing Switch... Claire found him when she gave up trying to stay in bed with the pains in her shoulder. 

I cooked pancakes and crispy bacon for his birthday breakfast, but made the critical error of not having it done before he unwrapped his birthday present. His visiting grandparents got him a set of Hot Wheels race cars, and Claire and I got him a Hot Wheels track set. Once he laid eyes on that, nothing else existed in the entire universe. 

The track set we got him has a launcher system and ramps and my entire morning and early afternoon was to the tune of *slap, shunk shunk, slap, shunk shunk, slap, shunk shunk, "Yay! I did it!" slap, shunk shunk, slap, shunk shunk, slap, shunk shunk...* Mistakes were made. I needed painkillers by noon. 

We picked up big sis at 3pm and went to a nearby activity center for some fun and play, and then went out for dinner together. The visiting grandparents joined us for all this too. Cake was just before bedtime, which could have been another mistake, but exhaustion soon over and the birthday boy was asleep as soon as his tired little head hit the pillow. 

It's hard to imagine that I'm signing Connor up for school this year. Next September, my youngest will be starting kindergarten. What am I going to do then? 

So much freedom...

The Visitors

Once again, my morning started at 6am, but I definitely looked at my watch at 4:45am. 

I got dressed and went out to the living room to find Connor sitting on the couch, in the dark, playing Switch. I might have snapped a little bit too harshly and sent him back to bed. Checking in on the Switch, the battery was only down 4%, so he couldn't have been there long. As soon as the kids I was caring for arrived, I went in and got Connor up to let him play. But not on the Switch. We have a strict "No screens" policy while friends are visiting. 

Once Ada got up, plans got into gear. 

A little before 8am, someone knocked on the door.

You see, dear Reader, Claire’s parents flew in from Ireland last night, arriving after the kids bedtime. They went straight to their accommodation, and crashed hard. However, jet lag is a cruel master, and they were up early, waiting for a text. 

Connor ran to answer it, as he loves to do. He checked the window to see who was there, and shouted "What are you doing here?!?!" The last time they visited was for his second birthday, two years ago. He's only ever known them through Skype.

Ada jumped up from her breakfast and hugged Nana. It was really nice to see that neither kid had even a bit of shyness around their grandparents, even after this isolated time. 

Technology. 

Amazing. 

For The Joy Of Books

We’ve been reading books every night to Ada since she was a toddler. She’s always loved books. That means, of course, that we’ve been reading books to Connor practically since he was born, and he loves it too. 

Every night we read at least two books, one that each kid picks, but often we read more. Some of the current popular picks are Hugs and Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch, while A Visitor For Bear by Bonnie Becker has been Connor’s favourite for a while now. Personally, I love the book Ada Twist, Scientist, by Andrea Beaty. 

Claire has been reading chapter books to Ada, broken up over several nights, starting with Fantastic Mr. Fox and Matilda by Roald Dahl, and currently they’re working through Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, Claire’s favourite book. 

But, since starting school, Ada has been bringing home lots more books to read from both the school library and the class teachers collection. While the books we have to home are all a little much for her to read, school have really simple books for her to start practicing her own reading skills. 

And that’s how, a few weeks ago, Ada read a book to me for the first time. It was so momentous that I marked it in my calendar for posterity. 

Books have always been special to both Claire and I, so it’s really great that we can pass that joy on to our kids, while sharing a special time every evening where all screens, music and distractions are put away, and it’s just us, some books, and a host of magical characters. 

Sweet Pepper Man

My son is weird. 

Growing up in my house we always had an old sweet tin stocked with chocolates and biscuits and treats that we could pretty much dig into at our leisure. It was always there when the cousins and friends came to visit, or when a neighbour popped in for a cup of tea. Because it was always there, my siblings and I never really thought about it. We didn’t just eat chocolate bars all day long, and never went looking for something before meals. 

That said, I do have a wicked sweet tooth. I enjoy my chocolates and biscuits, even the inferior ones we get here in Canada. So does my daughter. Ada will happily devour a chocolate bar, or raid the cookie jar when she’s hungry. 

But her brother can’t even finish the thin shell of chocolate on a Kinder Egg. Connor hsa never shown the least interest in sweet things, beyond a sense of obligation because Ada is getting something. He rarely finishes even the smallest ice cream cones or sweet deserts, much to Ada’s joy. Even a sweet apple will be picked at and then mostly left untouched. 

However, Connor loves a good, crunchy Granny Smith. He’ll happily nibble the heads of broccoli while I chop and prepare them, and he adores fresh, raw, red bell peppers! Today I took him shopping to Safeway and he insisted on picking out a pepper to buy. Fine by me. I had planned omelet for dinner and needed half. He could eat the other half, I thought. 

Connor had other ideas. This evening, while I was preparing dinner, Connor ate the entire bell pepper. I just had to cut out the seeds and white connective tissue and he ate whole thing like a sliced apple. I had to text my friends that live near us to see if any of them could offer a replacement. Thankfully one did, but when I started cutting it up Connor ate half that too!! He then went on to eat his entire dinner on top of that, and a few forkfuls of my omelet besides!

My son is weird.