Summer Travels

Forest is back in school which means I finally have a bit of time to blog. I'm also about to get a new computer which will hopefully be capable of uploading picture and running two programs at once which will also make me more likely to blog! For now I'll just quickly summarize the traveling around we did this summer. 

Actually, not much. Due to the nature of Jonathan's job, he essentially has half the year off. Because Forest isn't in 'real' school yet we prefer to travel in the off season when we can help it. But even a light travel season for us is still pretty active! 

Forest and I started the summer with a trip out to Huntsville, AL to visit my sister's family.

I love seeing the gaggle of cousins hang out. It is such a departure from our house where it's mostly just me and Forest all the time. He adores his cousins, especially the older ones. Forest has never asked for a baby brother or sister but has asked if Lucas or Corbin could be his big brother. Poor Forest was definitely born to be the youngest (which he is, in a sense). We did lots of playing, hiking, and space center visiting. It was such a fun time.

 

The smartest kids I have ever met. Wouldn't be surprised if one ends up at NASA one day.

posing by my super cool yellow rental car.

While we were in northern Alabama, we also got to spend an afternoon with my BFF from high school and her crew. 

I'm obsessed with the fact that the 5 year old drove us around everywhere on the golf cart. These boys have a good life and great parents (and grandparents)!

Pirate faces.

I'm not sure if Talia's house or if Talia herself if my happy place but visiting with her is always so good for my soul. I've always said that about our friendship. When we spend time together, it's like quenching a thirst I didn't know I had. Maybe I should move to Alabama and have my BFF and sister nearby. Hmmmmm. 

We took a break from traveling in July but in August ramped it up and spent a week in Perdido Key/Orange Beach with our families. It was lots of boat and beach time with a few other excursions sprinkled in (Blue Angel practice, train museum, trail riding, etc). We had a great time!

Tubing with Uncle Clint. Only flew off twice. Just a small sampling of my childhood. And in Uncle Clint's defense, it was a really rough day on the water!

For labor day weekend we headed north to Montana. It was a fast and furious 72 hour trip to The Ranches at Belt Creek where we got to be outside all day long enjoying cooler weather and doing a few of our favorite things: horseback riding, ATV riding, hiking, drinking a beer on the patio without sweating through my shirt, etc. 

I'm not gonna lie, ya'll. Living in Scotland and Northern California for 4 years and then moving back to Houston is ROUGH. Growing up in Louisiana, I had no idea that it was possible to live in a place without crippling humidity and scorching summer temps. Not to mention the beautiful scenery in those two places that made our lives an outdoor paradise. Hard to feel like SE Texas isn't a major downgrade sometimes (don't tell Forest- he is Texas' #1 fan). 

Come summer time we are on the struggle bus here and Montana was a great respite.  Bring on the fireplace and hot cocoa! 

Y'all I seriously loved living in Scotland. I fell in love with colder weather while we were there and still miss living in a place where I could wear Ugg boots and drink hot chocolate basically all year round. Sigh. Fall is coming....eventually. Speaking of Fall, our travels will include Hawaii and our yearly trek to San Antonio.  Stay tuned!

First Day of Pre-K!

Forest started Pre-K last week and I'm equal parts excited and emotional. Knowing this is the last year before Kindergarten is hitting me hard. As a stay-at-home mom, I feel like once your youngest/only child hits school age, its a mini empty-nest syndrome. Having an only child means experiencing every single milestone for the first and last time all at once. The preschool years have been so fun and I'm cherishing them and prematurely mourning the end of this season of life. 

But it hasn't all been flowers and rainbows, especially in terms of school. Forest has been veeeeeeery slow to warm up in the school setting which has caused lots of worry and wondering about his social development. I'm happy to say that this year seems to be getting off to a great start! He is talking to his teachers and making new friends and just looking more comfortable in general. No one loves school more than this kid and I hope that continues his whole life. 

Have a great year, sweet boy!

 

Four and 3/4! Almost 5?!?!?!?

Forest only has three months left as a 4 year old and he is counting down the days until his birthday. He's grown up so much in the past year, but especially over the last couple of months. He's super independent and can do so much by himself but is also becoming much more particular about things and giving SO much attitude.

We are getting a sneak peek of his teenage years for sure. 

Favorite Book: This kid is a voracious reader so picking one book is way too hard. 

He loves the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems and anything Berenstain Bears. We've started going to the library at least once a week which has opened his eyes to a whole new world. He always picks a Magic Treehouse, Magic School Bus, and Curious George book and wipes the library clean of any and every Mo Willems or Berenstain Bears book in stock. 

Favorite TV Show: PJ Masks for sure. He is totally obsessed. His favorite character is Gekko and it's so extreme that he now insists on wearing green everyday. 

He still likes Octonauts and loves to rent Berenstain Bears DVDs from the library, and Wall-E is for sure still his favorite movie. 

Favorite Toy: PJ Masks Headquarters and characters/vehicles. His grandparents always make sure he has plenty of paraphernalia to fuel his latest obsession. #onlychildproblems  He is also really into card games/board games so will play Spot it, Memory, Guess Who, Skipbo, Uno, Candyland, etc all day long. And he's back to trains and puzzle-mania.

Favorite Foods: Mac and Cheese. We went to Torchy's the other day and he boycotted ordering anything because they didn't have mac and cheese on the kid's menu. What kind of upstanding Mexican Restaurant doesn't serve Macaroni and Cheese?!?! The nerve of some people. 

Stats: 45.5 inches (96%), 46 lbs (85%). He can still wear size 5T shorts but other than that he is solidly shopping on the big kid side of the store and wearing size 6. He's actually technically a size 7 in some of our favorite brands. Waaaaaaaaah!!!!

so tall!!

Cutest sayings: "And also...." He uses that phrase a lot when he's giving his little monologue speeches. We always give him choices as a way to evade power struggles so he likes to flip the script on us and say '"Mom, I can either have a popsicle or a cookie for dessert. Those are your two choices. Does that sound like a good plan?" And one we hear A LOT is "I promise I'll take a nap tomorrow.' He is really great at 'using his words' and is pretty adorable when he says things like 'Mom, it's just making me feel really frustrated that you interrupted me doing my puzzle to tell me it's lunch time.' and speaking of puzzles, when I saw that it was past bedtime but he was close to finishing a 100 piece puzzle I said 'you know what, go ahead and finish.' He replied "Thanks for letting me finish mom. It feels really great to get to finish something I already started on." So stinkin sweet.

New Skills: So much! He is doing a really good backstroke, free style, side glide and stream-line swimming. He's always been a strong swimmer but he's getting swim team ready (though he may need to improve his speed)! 

We always said we'd start team sports at age 5 so he's taking that very seriously and we put him in some private lessons to get him ready. 

He's basically reading fluently and read his first chapter book recently (Magic Treehouse Afternoon on the Amazon, end of  2nd grade reading level). The highest level book he's read was a 'P Level' which is considered 3.9 grade level on the AR scale but he's really consistently and confidently reading at an end of 2nd grade level. IDK, but I think he's incredible and most importantly he is so proud of himself (even if he does stay up to all hours of the night reading...). 

One thing I really wanted to work with him on this summer were his fine motor skills. Everyday we color a picture, do a pencil control activity and do a puzzle or build something. He's gone from coloring chaotically to being able to color in the lines, he's writing all of his letters to where an outsider could *probably* read his handwriting,  and he is drawing much more clearly (though he mostly still draws Wall-E over and over again). 

His 'wall-e' apron. "The scribbles are the trash."

The great thing is that he's so proud of himself! He used to leave Sunday School and barely care about his monochrome craft that he did. Now he talks about how he colored it so good and why he choose the colors he chose and look at how good I drew my name, etc. 

His hand eye coordination is also a little behind his peers, but has come a long way this summer! He took a tennis camp and loved it. It was incredible how much his hand eye coordination improved just by spending 2 hours a day working on drills that focused on them. It made me realize that it's just not something we ever work on at home. 

He's always been such a gross motor kid (running, bicycling, swimming, climbing, etc)  but other than soccer we never just play with a ball. We have just stopped gymnastics and plan to do tennis, swimming, and soccer in the fall so hopefully he will continue to improve his hand-eye coordination skills, since it's definitely not something that comes naturally to him.

Challenges: Sleep is still my biggest joy-robber. He is just never tired anymore. He is restless at bedtime and takes hours to fall asleep but then is up at the crack of dawn. And forget naps. They don't even happen once in a blue moon anymore. We've both been sick this week but he still just won't nap. It's hard when as a mom, you need more sleep than your 4 year old. And he probably needs more sleep than he's getting, but how to get him there remains a mystery. Lately what's been working is to put him to bed at 7, let him read by himself 15-20 minutes and then I come in give him a snuggle, prayer and lullabye and then turn lights out for the night. It's working a bit better but I'm sure like most things with Forest, it'll stop working after a few weeks. 

I struggle with patience. A lot. Forest is truly a great kid with a sweet and sensitive heart. But he tests boundaries constantly and his energy level is seriously obnoxious. . I'm sure single-momming it half the time doesn't help. Things go more smoothly when I have Jonathan to help reinforce things.  But I see some kids who are unflinchingly obedient and it makes me a little bitter sometimes.

He's simply not a born people-pleaser, which is fine, but means we have our work cut out for us. He's a total sweetheart and doesn't do things maliciously or defiantly, he just really wants to do what he wants to do, and usually judges the consequences to be worth the misbehavior. 

He's grown up a lot over the last few months, and I definitely feel like we are on an upswing! He's starting to have a better attitude, be more compliant and make better choices and yet still has his wild and fun spirit in tact. 

This one keeps us on our toes, but there is never a dull moment and he is amazing at entertaining himself. He loves animals and all things science, loves his friends and is always ready to have a good time, preferably by running around and being super silly. He's a total class clown, a stickler for rules (other than mine ;), and a major homebody. We love him so and squeeze him tight every single day. What a blessing!