Thursday, May 28, 2015

A Day In the Life of A Ham Photoshoot

These kids. This was part of our Adam is 5/graduating preschool, and Colin and Claire are turning 3 photoshoot. It was raining and they were excited to do it. Can't keep us inside during a 3 month monsoon. Every soccer game this season has been close to rained out, for me, and there are floods all over the state. The lakes are actually full for once, and I have to admit... I love the rain. Lots of people are feeling cagey. I say, keep it coming. Doesn't stop us one bit. Except, let's keep everyone and their houses safe. Fortunately we've just been wet and a little puddly in our area... so far.
No seriously, the giggles are just way too much...
Too many giggles for me to count...

Colin marches to the beat of his own drum. (Adam tried to put his arm around him. It was a negative, ghost-rider).


Brothers.
 And I'm going to start a photography series called "THESE TWO."
Hams.


Apparently Adam can rap and Claire can do the running man.


They need their own reality show.
 
Colin looks rejected, but we all asked him to dance. He likes to dance solo.
But he can appreciate a good time.
Okay guys, I'm out of here.

Pure insanity radiates off this girl.

#1: The sign says candy and craziness... surely it meant us.
#2: Don't park right in front of the candy store when trying to do a photoshoot.
#3: Yes, Claire is doing a pull up to see better.



Colin: "I'm going to need someone who really knows how to drive this thing."

Claire:"This poor horse has been attached to his metal device."
Colin: "Somebody call Elsa, see if she can thaw his heart."
 I'd like to say our life is like this all the time, but we have our fair share of fights, tantrums, pouting, feelings hurt and refusal to wear clothing and eat food. They just have smiles that wipe that all away when we go out together and be ourselves.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Adam's Pre-K Graduation

It always seemed silly to me to do a preschool graduation ceremony... but they are so harmless and cute that it's not like you could boycott it, right? Plus the kids are excited. Adam is now very interested in what Kindergarten will be like... and basically, it will be the same thing. Same teacher, same class, most of the same kids, just a little more work. I think that's how it should be.


My parents came and Shannon's flight back from Nashville arrived just in time for him to make it. Claire wore her prettiest pink dress and Colin wore his favorite plaid blue shirt. Adam looked so handsome, and knew most of the program-- songs like Peace Like a River, The Fifty Nifty US States (he likes that one the best), fumbled through the one about all the Presidents, like all the kids did, and there was that song about how the the mandible is connected to the something and the Cranium is connected to the vertebrae; a clavical was in there and something else about a tibia and fibia. I don't know. All I know was when I sang that song in the 3rd grade (definitely not when I was 4) we used those fancy terms like "shoulder," "ankle" and "arm-bone."





Adam was super cute and posted right in front of me by divine intervention, sang the first part of the program softly and quietly... promptly stopped, mouthed "I HAVE TO POTTY!!" and stopped everything he was doing so he could focus on that. To his credit, he didn't run off and he didn't stand there and grab his crotch, so I'm going to count it as a 100% win. After a few minutes I could tell he was pretty uncomfortable so I shimmied to the side and told a teacher running the program and we pulled him off so he could take care of business.


Then he got his little paper diploma, we pushed through the crowd back to his classroom and he and the twins and their friends had cake and got some congratulations. Overall I rate it: Cute. Glad teachers and faculty take so much time out of their lives to make things special for our kids.

It wasn't enough to get handshakes, he wanted hugs all around.
Congrats, big Kindergartner.

Adam with his buddy Liam.

It's not a party without Adam's CAKE FACE.

Monday, May 25, 2015

This (5 year old) Kid.

This kid. I mean... THIS KID. He turned 5 this year, on 5-5-15. He is reading easily at a first grade level, although he says it's boring. He's doing 1st grade level math. He has a memory that saves me more often than I care to admit. From where my keys are to where the birthday candles are that I stuffed in the back of the pantry a year ago. Seriously, he got his cupcake and said, the birthday candles? I asked where, and he pointed to the cabinet. I dug, and dug, and dug, and found them, and looked at him in amazement. He just smiled and waited for me to light them. And then didn't mind when Colin refused to eat his cupcake until he got a lit candle too.

He is beyond kind, compassionate, empathetic, and engaging. I don't just love him, I like being with him and hearing what he has to say.

For his birthday this year he got a set of golf clubs so he could go golfing with Daddy, a Spiderman sleeping bag so he could go camping, a new Superman costume, and his cousin gave him a tackle box so they could go fishing together, one of his new favorite things.


And he is totally Superman, and not just to me. He is so super-kind and self-sacrificing... he'll take the blame for a mess that he didn't make, offer to do something when Claire is refusing to clean up her own mess, and one time, when Claire had decided to have a midnight binge-and-color session in Shannon and I's bed in the middle of one night, I woke up to Claire, sprawled out in our bed, covered in marker, marker all over the sheets, in her hair, in her face, with strawberries staining her hair and face (and and empty strawberry container in the bed too). When I was talking to her about how I was unhappy, Adam interrupted me:

"Mommy, No... It was my fault. I did it. Don't be mad at Claire, I made this mess."

Claire just grinned at me, looking so hopeful and proud with her marker stained face. Adam is absolutely her Superman.



 At the doctor for his check up, he answered all of her questions and we talked about his SPD. She and I agree that he is growing to adjust so well that a little OT will probably help, but that it's not affecting his growth, and his ability to be safe is not causing harm. He has really started to be able to control his impulses by being so uber-aware of how to keep Claire and Colin safe, because they want to do everything he does... and he has no desire to scare me.

He is in the 90th percentile for weight (rock-hard muscle), and the 75th percentile for height. She asked if we had changed anything this last year to help him grow at such a rate and the only thing I could think of was that he is on a probiotic that has completely changed his pickiness. He's still picky, but chooses well. He would say his favorite foods are hot dogs, cupcakes, carrots, broccoli, and apples. At the bottom of the list are pizza, chocolate, and peanut butter. Plus, he never sits still. I mean, if he's awake, he's moving. That's burning some serious muscle and helping him grow too.


He has been begging to be 5 since the day he turned 3... and the day after he turned 5, he asked when he'd be 6. Slow down, little guy... I'm soaking it all in.



This next year he will start Kindergarten in the fall at his private Montessori, and continue to be in a small classroom with access to the materials he needs. His strengths are math, science, and of course, the sensory area, which, in his stressed out days he could spend all day there. He is starting to like to write and is writing short stories and turning them into books. Here are a few...

some of his art...


"I play with Claire. I play with Colin. After I play I eat lunch. After I eat I like to sleep."
It's fictional, apparently, because naps happen on a 0% basis around here. After he turned 5 he asked if he could quit napping at school, because it's a law in Texas that they at least lie down for 30 minutes. He's ready to keep working.

I like to play at school. I work at school I drew a picture of a house. It has a rainbow and poison ivy. I like it!


Adam has career ambitions when he is 5... he plans to play golf, play soccer, play baseball, and become a model. He has serious opinions about black and white pictures though, and prefers the ones with "all the colors." It's so fitting to his personality, and now, even though I love his black and whites, am very aware that he wants to see ALL THE COLORS.

Still love this one though.
If you talk to this kid on the street it's probably because he stopped you to ask how you were doing, what your name is, what your dog's name is, and to tell you he likes your shirt/shoes/hair. And then he'll wave buy, and say "nice to meet you." It's not a 100% chance that this will happen, but when he's on his game he is the most charming kid I've met, although I'm extra biased, I couldn't be prouder. I was never that way as a kid, and I just see all this warmth and intelligence radiate out of him.

Many might see a wound up ball of energy or a kid who can't stop moving... I see one of the kindest, most observant people on the planet, adult or child.

Adam is super sensitive though, and a perfectionist, and he sometimes get frustrated that he can't read perfectly or that he can't write exactly how he wants, so to help, we work at home too. He is one of those people who is smart but would never claim to be... who doesn't see his own worth all the time, and gets very frustrated if he's not the "perfect" person... and sometimes he thinks perfect means that you just walk in and are able to do it, because frankly, it's new for him to have to work at things to really master them. So we are spending a lot of time lately talking about how much EVERYONE has to practice to be good at things, and that some things just come more naturally for some people.

...like smiling naturally for the camera...
When he got his last hair cut we had to compromise. He wanted it super, super short, or as he put it, "straight," as in, "straight across my forehead." The style right now is to have the little faux hawk, which he used to have, but he likes it this way. His regular hair cut stylist, Ranae, compromised with me. We went as short as possible without being so short that his hair would stand up, and when she styled it she did it the "straight" style she was thinking of... think Zac Morris from Saved By the Bell, and Adam re-styled it for her. It looks awesome this way. He knows what he's doing.



There is absolutely NOTHING I wouldn't do for my kids, and especially this one. He lights up my whole life, has made me realize more about myself and has supported me to the ends of the earth and back, with a thousand hugs a day and a hundred "I love yous." I am a writer, but there would never be enough words to express how much I adore this little face and all of the light and power he breathes into me every day, pushing me to do things I never thought I could and making me feel more proud than ever that he chose me to be his Mommy.