Mr. Numbers

I am completely freaked out by Jack's mathematical ability! I was just putting him to bed and he asked me how many minutes there are in 12 hours... My first thought was, "I need a calculator!" but then we started to work it out:

Me: If there are 60 minutes in 1 hour, how many minutes are there in 2 hours?
Jack: 120
Me: Do you know how many minutes there are in 3 hours?
Jack: yes, 180
Me: What about 4 hours?
Jack: I don't know.
Me: Well, there are 60 minutes in 1 hour and there are 180 minutes in 3 hours so you would add 60 to 180.
Jack: Oh, 240.
Me: How many minutes are in 5 hours?
Jack: 300
Me: What about 6 hours?
Jack: I'm not sure.
Me: What is 300 plus 60?
Jack: 360, so that's how many minutes are in 6 hours?
Me: Yes. So to figure out 7 hours add 60 to that.
Jack: 420
Me: Add another 60 for 8 hours.
Jack: 480

The conversation went on like this until I stopped him at 14 hours! The cutest part about it is the way he pronounces the word "minutes"... He calls them "mimmits".

Happy 5th Birthday Jack!!

I'm a little late with this post, like almost a month, but I'll date it for the 21st of March, which is Jack's birthday. Better late than never...

Jack is awesome. He is a very, very bright little lad. He has this incredible natural ability to understand mathematics, it's pretty amazing. At 5 years of age he is capable of counting by 2's, 5's 10's, 100's, 200's etc... All the way to infinity and beyond, as he would say. I have actually watched him count to over 60,000 by 200's! He can also work out basic addition, subtraction and logic problems: Once he asked me what 1,000 minus 2 was and before I could answer, he shouted out 998! The other day we were driving in the car and Jack asked how long it would take to get to our destination- I said I wasn't sure but we could time it. I told him we left the house at 5:01pm and at 5:14pm he announced that we had been on the road for 13 minutes! Although we forgot to look at the time when we arrived, I am pretty certain he would have worked out our exact travel time.

Jack has an amazing imagination. Using any materials at hand (blocks, rocks, paper, chalk), he will often construct elaborate roads and ramp set ups for his cars or monster trucks. Last summer he was very keen on chalk and would create these huge roads and detailed cities for his cars. He kept our street and driveway both pretty much covered in chalk for the entire summer.

He also likes to write and create books. At the beginning of the school year, Jack went through a "book making" phase where he would produce about 3 to 4 books per day, mostly about rally cars. His books usually consisted of pictures and random letters, sometimes actual words, with numbered pages. He was always pretty good about his title page though- one could usually work out what the book was intended to be about because he would write things like, "Rally Car Book- 2009" on the cover. As of late, his book making seems to have slowed down- thankfully. Not that I want to discourage the book making BUT, he was burning through several reams of paper per week!

Jack is secretly learning to read on his own. When asked to read/sound out words he will not perform on cue but he pays close attention when being read to and sometimes, when Annabelle is reading a story and gets stumped on a word, Jack will tell her the correct word... He definitely recognizes many, many words.

Jack has recently discovered the world of video games, thanks Nick. He's not obsessed with them (yet) but he's getting pretty good at navigating his way around the world wide web. He likes to go on-line and play race car games or Webkinz, which seems to be "the thing" at the moment. He has been collecting various Webkinz stuffed animals... it's pretty funny watching him drag around his pink poodle with a bunch of monster trucks!

Jack is, for the most part, pretty easy going but can definitely be very strong willed about certain things, especially if it's something he does not want to do. At the same time, he can also be very sensitive- if he thinks someone is angry with him he gets very upset!

Jack is an extremely sweet little boy (except when angry!) and can be very cuddly, especially at bed time. Nick has, on occasion, referred to him as "kitten man!" Jack still sleeps with Teddy and Other Teddy- his stuffed bear friends he's had since birth.

Jack loves to swim. He has been taking swimming lessons for a while and is really getting quite good at it. Actually, he loves anything involving water, except drinking it!

Jack also loves music. When he finds a song he really likes he will often listen to it over and over again. For a while there, his favorite song was Playing For Change's version of "All You Need is Love" from a Starbucks compilation. One of Jack's teachers brought the CD to school for the kids and Jack loved it so much, he listened to that song whilst grooving in front of the CD player for an hour!

Several times I've asked Jack what he wants to be when he grows up and his response is always the same; "a Daddy." Currently, he has plans to have many children and a cat named Fisher. When he is a Daddy, he also wants to get a fat belly and lose all of his hair!

Jack's favorite color is red. Favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla. Favorite food is probably breakfast sausage, or just meat. At his 5 year check-up he was 44 inches tall and weighed in at 47.5 lbs.

Happy Birthday, little man! I love you!!

Wise Guy

So I go to pick Jack up from school yesterday and I find out that I just missed him mooning an entire hallway filled with people! Apparently, he was at the front of a line of students, heading back to their classroom from the activity room, when he decided to stop dead in his tracks and drop his pants!! It was right around pick-up time so the hallway was filled with parents as well... I feel so proud.

When I asked Jack why he showed everyone his bum he just laughed and said, "cause I wanted to and it was funny!" Although not the type of behavior I would want to promote, according to several witnesses, it was indeed very funny!

Monkey People

The girl on the monkey bars...

and the boy, looking like a monkey!

Morning Commute

On the way to school this morning, Annabelle decided to give Jack the run down on kindergarten... The conversation went something like this:

Jack, when you are in kindergarten next year and I am in 1st grade you're going to have to do REAL work. You're going to have to write in your journal, write REAL words, and you're going to have to sound things out. Can you do that, Jack? At the beginning you just have to write the letters that the words sound like. But sometimes when you're writing in your journal, the teacher gets bossy. She doesn't always let you write "I love" or "I like" you have to write other stuff and she can get REAL bossy about it.
"Does she get bossy to you, Annabelle?"
Yes. She doesn't want me to write things like, "I love puppies" anymore and that's bossy. But it's OK, I can write other stuff now. Also, Jack, when you get to kindergarten, you can't bring toys into school every day. Only on Friday, when it's share and care day. AND you can only bring in ONE thing!

Happy 6th Birthday Annabelle!!

More like six, going on sixteen. Still wondering where that time went. In the words of Annabelle, "six year olds are sassy." And she ain't kiddin'. Annabelle has become quite sassy in her old age!

This past year has been a very busy one for Annabelle. A few weeks ago, she lost her first tooth and then lost a second one on her birthday! In September she started Kindergarten at the "big kid school" where she has been doing really well. She is learning all sorts of new things and has made a slew of new friends. She absolutely loves school, mostly for the social aspect, I think.

Annabelle is so independent, she has always wanted to do things for herself but all of a sudden I feel like she has her own life. She constantly wants to be with her friends; every day when I pick her up from school, the first words that come out of her mouth are, "can I have a play date?" Often she and her little friends will make plans to get together, unbeknownst to the parents, and get very upset if things don't go according to plan... It can be very tiring at times!

Annabelle likes to keep busy with activities. She is always up for trying new things and signing up for groups. Currently, she plays soccer in the Spring and Fall, takes ice skating lessons, swimming lessons, belongs to Daisy's (girl scouts) and takes an after school art class once a week. If we let her, she would sign up for everything!

Not only is she keen to do everything, she is also very good at most everything she tries! She has a bizarre natural sporty ability- she is very good at soccer, she mastered riding her bike without training wheels over a year ago, she can ice skate, ride her scooter, skate board and roller blade pretty well and is now swimming in the 10ft. side of the pool. Now she wants to try snow boarding and play baseball and take dance lessons and karate and everything else under the sun.

Although she is a very, very busy little lady, she also enjoys her down time too. She loves to draw/color/paint and do anything crafty. She loves books, especially being read to, but is also learning to read for herself. Although she is desperate to read and often gets frustrated when she can't work out certain words, she is trying very hard and making great progress.

At six years of age, Annabelle still cannot sleep without "blanky", her ducky blanket which she has had since birth. She is still completely obsessed with puppies and can't wait to get one of her own. For the past two years, we have been promising Annabelle that she could get a puppy when she turned six. Well, six is here and we have had to put getting the puppy on hold for a year; instead of a puppy, she will be getting a new little brother soon! In the meantime, she has been collecting stuffed puppies and, at the moment, probably has over 200 of them!

Currently, Annabelle's favorite color is blue. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is chocolate. Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese. At her six year check up she passed all the tests with flying colors. She measured 46.5 inches tall and weighed in at 46 lbs.

Happy Birthday my big girl! I love you!!

Status Update From Jack:

"Hey, guess what! BOO HOO, the groundhog saw his shadow- six more weeks until my birthday. That's boring and rubbish. Wah."

...He learned about Groundhog Day at school today

Kindergarten Concert

Annabelle has been looking forward to the Kindergarten concert for weeks. It's been completely maddening because she has been talking a lot about it but never really giving any details! Every time I would ask her a question about the show, she would tell me, "it's a big surprise" and nothing more. Once, she mentioned that they got to practice on stage but when I asked what they had practiced, I got the usual brush off. Who knew she was so good at keeping secrets? I did find out, however, (from her friend) that they were performing several songs, including jingle bells.

Well, the big day finally arrived and Annabelle was very excited. The show was made up of all 4 kindergarten classes so there were about 100 kids on stage. The music teacher did a phenomenal job of keeping all the children in sync! The concert was adorable and the kids did a great job... and they did indeed perform jingles bells, amongst a few others that they had been learning in music class. But the BIG SURPRISE was that Annabelle had been one of the few chosen to play an instrument- I had absolutely no idea she would be playing the maracas for one of the songs!

Here are a few pictures from concert day:

Annabelle's class- before the show (photo stolen from one of the other moms)

On stage, waiting for the concert to start!

Patiently waiting for her big debut!

Showing off her maraca skills!

Oh Boy!

That little waving hand cracks me up... It's like the baby is trying to say hello!

So we had another ultrasound yesterday and everything looks great- phew! Baby is right on track for growth, etc. Oh, and if it wasn't obvious from the post title, it's a BOY! He is expected around June 10.

The kids were very excited to find out what we are having. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, Jack wanted a boy, Annabelle a girl. Jack was pretty thrilled when I told him we are having a boy, Annabelle, not so much. Her initial reaction was less than favorable... She immediately started screaming, "NO!" "I WANTED A GIRL!!" "I WANTED A GIRL!" then she proceeded to push Jack, who was trying to make her feel better, and punch him in the nose! I was so pleased I told her directly after school, whilst still in the schoolyard, so everyone could see how happy she was to have a new brother. Not.

By the time we got home, she realized how ridiculous she was being and apologized for acting crazy. She also told me, several times, that she is happy that the baby is a boy. I'm guessing that she became upset initially because Jack got what he wanted and she didn't... Everything is a competition with her and apparently, he won this one!

Concentration

Good old Santa brought these Vtech computers for Annabelle and Jack. They haven't had much use until today- I guess it took them this long to burn through all their other loot- but they sure are making up for lost time! Both kids started playing this morning before school and have been sat here since retuning home from school, almost 2 hours ago! I wonder how long this will last...

Also, random thing: today Jack told me that he wants the new baby to be a girl! I'm pretty shocked about that- he was holding strong, wishing for a boy, for weeks and now this sudden change... I'm guessing Annabelle might be behind this.

Something is Missing?

Looks like the tooth fairy will be making a visit to our house... Annabelle lost her first tooth today!

The Sweetest Boy

Jack came into my room this morning and handed me this post it note:


I am one lucky Mama!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2009!

This year we had the family over on Christmas eve for the usual Chinese food/present extravaganza. In the hours leading up to the big Xmas eve event, Annabelle and Jack were extremely annoying excited. We spent most of the morning getting the house in a presentable state and making Christmas cookies... or should I say, I spent most of the morning picking up after them and trying to keep them from eating all the cookies!

Once the guests started to arrive the kids seemed to be a little less crazy... Still off the wall with excitement, only they had other people to entertain them!

Despite going to bed well after 9pm, they still both woke pretty early on Christmas morning. Once Nick and I dragged ourselves downstairs, we let them open their presents from Santa...

They both received TONS of presents! Jack spent the morning trying out various new toys and Annabelle spent most of Christmas morning on her new Rollerblades:

Later on in the day we headed over to Nana and Papa's house for Christmas dinner.

Jack was really mad because I made him wear that sweater. He kept complaining that it was itchy (which it was not) and also that it was choking him (even though the neck was never zipped)... He took the sweater off the second he got to my parents' house!

The Santa Picture

December 2, 2009

Big News!

Hello blog, it's been a while. I have been feeling very tired and slightly sick so I have been ignoring you... But with good reason; as it turns out, there may be another Monkey appearing in a few months!

If all goes well, little "Squish", as it's been called, should be making it's way into this world early June, 2010.

So far everything has been pretty routine. There's been a bit of morning sickness, and afternoon sickness, oh, and night sickness too, but it has not been too bad. Definitely no where in the league of sickness I suffered whilst pregnant with Annabelle. These days I am feeling better, no where near as tired and much less nauseous. Hopefully the worst in over.

We recently told Annabelle & Jack about the big news and they are both VERY excited. They had completely different reactions: Annabelle started jumping up and down in excitement and Jack started asking technical questions like, "if you eat food will it hit the baby in the head" & "is the baby made of metal?" (he thought the ultrasound picture looked like metal). But once I explained that we will not be having a robotic baby, he seemed pretty happy to become a big brother... So excited in fact, that he then asked for 2 babies, one boy and one girl! When I told him that we will only be having one baby he decided he wants a boy. Annabelle, of course, wants a girl. She also wants to be there when I deliver the baby so she can see how it comes out... Um, I don't think so! The next ultrasound is scheduled on my birthday, January 12th- hopefully all goes well!

Girls Are Mean

Five year old girls are MEAN! Annabelle has a friend over for a play date and they are completely TORMENTING Jack. At the moment, he is upset and they are both chanting:
~girls go to college to get more knowledge
~boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider

I've never heard that one before- it's kind of a catchy little song...

Look Mom!

Jack FINALLY learns to pump!

Being Creative

This morning I found Jack playing golf in the living room. Everyone else was still in bed when I heard someone shuffling around downstairs. I went to investigate: Jack had set up his own little mini golf course! He had taken an empty toilet paper roll, using it as a tee, stood it on it's side and placed a golf ball on top. He had found a toy golf club and he was using an orange soccer cone as the hole. A funny site to stumble upon!

Doing Great!

Annabelle, being Annabelle, was completely unfazed by the school switch. She took the transition in stride and has happily adjusted to her new surroundings... I think she enjoyed all the attention of being "the new kid."

She ended up in the same class as her neighbor friend, Lila, so she was very happy about that. She also knows a bunch of kids from preschool, the daycare at the gym and soccer... It is only a matter of time before she stages a coup!

Kindergarten

Phew, we survived the first 2 weeks of kindergarten... Glad that's over!

Annabelle was so excited about going to kindergarten at her new "big kid" school, she had been counting down the days since the beginning of August! Because of the Labor Day holiday, first day of school was not until Tuesday the 7th and by then, she was VERY ready.

But because Annabelle's new school does this thing called, "exploratory", where, for the first 3 days, they shuffle the kids around to try and find the best class mix, she ended up having one teacher on the first day and a different teacher the next. It was all a bit disjointed and nerve wracking, I must say. I just wanted her settled with a class already!

The whole process seemed to take forever but soon enough she was settled and loving school. She was very pleased with her teacher and was even in the same class as her little buddy from preschool, Tore. All was going swimmingly well until...

Yesterday I received a phone call from the parent center informing me that a space had opened up at another school, one which we had requested her to attend months ago.

Faced with the dilemma of what to do, Nick and I weighed the pros & cons and, of course consulting Annabelle about it, have decided to move her over to the other school. Annabelle will be starting kindergarten AGAIN on Tuesday, at her NEW, new school!

Even though she loves the current school and is a little bit sad to be leaving all of her new friends, she is looking forward to the switch. Several of her friends that live on our street, as well as many friends from preschool, also attend this new school. Hopefully she will be as happy there as she was in her first kindergarten!!