Hundred Days of School

  Today is Anthony's 100th day of school.  I believe they have some sort of celebration planned.  Our homework for the day was to bring in 100 small items.  Anthony decided on his own that he wanted to bring popcorn kernels.  Counting out 100 was a big job.  The first 3 "bundles" went well, then he started running out of steam.  I did one, he did one, then once we got to 70 the end was in sight and we were good to go.

  On a related note, his math skills are really improving.  He can clearly count by 10's, though when I counted by 2's the other day it clearly blew him away.  He is also good at adding with manipulatives.  The other day at dinner he counted three boys and two girls (fishie counts) and then proudly announced we have 5 people in the family.  We do food subtraction all the time and he's pretty good at that, too. 

What he can't do, yet, is add abstractly.  Right after he successfully added up the members of our family, I asked him what 3 + 2 was.  He just looked at me blankly.  That's okay, I'm fairly confident that abstract math is a lot harder.

Vans

Anthony really wanted his new tennis shoes to be Vans. As we looked at shoes at the store he would pick them up and check the back label on the back. He says they are particularly good at skateboarding. Of course he doesn't have a skateboard but he still enjoys wearing them.

Thank you Kathy

Aunt Kathy remembered how much the boys enjoyed their matching Cornhuskers shirts last Christmas.  She sent Anthony a very cool superhero shirt complete with built-in cape.  Joshua got one too and Anthony was hoping that he would wear his today.

Fattening up quite nicely

 Its funny, everyone who sees Baby Richard comments on how tiny he is.  Meanwhile, I think he's huge.  Relatively speaking.  He has a tummy, a double chin and his newborn size clothes fit.

  Mini-dude went in today for his Synagis shot and a check-up.  He's up to 7 pounds, 11 ounces.  Doesn't sound like much for a 7 week old baby, but its four pounds heavier than when we first met him.  He's not on the growth charts yet, but when you adjust for prematurity, he's at 50-75%.  (i.e., as a brand new baby, 40 weeks gestation.)

We're Naming Him Squeakers

Yes, I actually told the hospital social worker that.  She didn't think I was funny, I didn't terribly like her either, I'm afraid.

In any case, the baby squeaks.  A lot.  He'll grunt and occasionally cry (by cry, I mean bleat like a goat), but his main vocalization is squeaking.

Valentines

Anthony made his own Valentines this year. It was a torturous having him write names on all of them, But then we discovered that he likes to trace. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

We had to make almost 40 of these things, between preschool and daycare.  He scrawled his name on all of them and wrote/traced everyone's names on the front.  (I was kind of surprised at the number of kids who didn't write their names/friends names, as it was heavily encouraged by the teachers.  Of course, since it started as torture for us, I get it.)  He came home with two bulging boxes of treats.  Let the gorging begin!

Rockets

Anthony's Christmas present to Daddy was a paper rocket kit. It's powered by a bike pump and the rockets are made of paper and tape. They will easily go 100 feet in the air. Next year we're giving Bob the backyard ballistics book.

Winter Book

Anthony has made many books in preschool this year. Yesterday he brought home his winter book. He was particularly proud of the snowflake he cut out all by himself.

Blocks

Some of our unit blocks were mine as a child. They are quite recognizable for the pen and ink artwork on the sides. Anthony you had me call Grandma to see what she said when auntie Andrea and I did such a naughty thing.

Sleepy Time

Anthony's Camera

Yep. He has his own cell phone camera. Bob disabled it so it will only take pictures, no you-tube no games.

Not surprisingly, he specializes on headless photos.

Tummy Time for Two