Fearfully and Wonderfully: Fall Things

I'm not sure how I haven't posted anything on here since school started, but that's how it goes. We had a busy fall, full of transition, trips, and activity, but overall I think that it's been a good few months for everyone and we've seen a lot of growth and change in both of the boys.

DCA school picture

Gabriel loves kindergarten. Last week he told me that he was sad that there wasn't school on the weekends. Yesterday he asked if he could please go to his school every year. We've gotten into the routine of getting out the door in the morning, helping with lunch a couple days a week, and just the general flow of our household changing with him being in school each day. We love his teacher so much and she is absolutely the best person to be teaching him this year. She is so patient and even tempered. She puts up with his challenges with being quiet and still. She gives him different work to do when he's not challenged in a certain area. I am so thankful for her. She actually sent me an email this morning saying that while the kids were waiting for her to start circle time Gabriel convinced everyone that he was a TaeBo instructor and had everyone doing moves with him. She said "I knew that his leadership and volume were assets!" In another series of emails a few weeks back after Gabriel had a really rough day at school she replied to an email and said "It is my privilege to help him learn these things. I'm totally going to take some of the credit when he is famous for discovering the cure for cancer or the CEO of a tip top innovative company some day! All of us will keep working on this together!" I am just so thankful for her that I cannot even put it into words.

Taylor and I have talked many times and we think that what Gabriel most needs to learn this year is not so much academic, but social. He needs to learn how to keep himself from talking when it's not his turn. He needs to learn how to do something even when it's not fun or interesting to him. He needs to learn how to deal with difficult classmates and dynamics. At his teacher conference a couple months ago his teacher said that she had been working with him and realized that he reads on a second grade level. So what do we do with that? Put him in a different grade? No. He's not socially or emotionally ready for that. There are frustrations with going to a smaller school (there is only 1 other boy in his class), but the great benefit of that is that he gets so much individual attention and he's making slow progress in the areas that challenge him most.

Class field trip to a sunflower farm

What else about Gabriel. He has continued with Ninja class and violin and he really likes both and is showing that he can focus better and try even when something is hard for him. He loves home group on Tuesday nights and anytime the youth group comes over for anything. He likes Wild Kratts, Legos, super heros, going to concerts or plays, hugging Corban, and generally running around and pretending. He comes up with some pretty creative stories sometimes. He is also very thoughtful. He wanted to bring a book to school the other day because he thought a girl in his class would like it. He remembers things that people like and points them out to me when we're in certain stores. He really is good most of the time about sharing with Corban and doesn't like it when Corban gets upset about something or hurt.

IHOP with Daddy

Moes with Daddy. A favorite place to eat since they have chips and Fanta

Oh buddy. He was mad because the Legos wouldn't stay taped to his face.
He said that he looked like a cheetah when they were in place.

So, as sweet, creative, kind, and funny as Gabriel can be, there is certainly another side too. Along with being very passionate about things comes a certain temper and defiance too. Gabriel wants things the way he wants them. He is very strong willed. He of course is doing the same things every kid his age does (lies, takes from his brother, gets mad when he doesn't get his way, has a attitude, whines). Sometimes he has outbursts of anger that take it up a notch. One day recently he was having a rough time so I told him that he needed to rest in bed for a while. He was so mad that he ended up coming head first off the top bunk. He was flailing around angry and decided to get something out of the basket that hangs off the back of the bed. On the way down he hit his leg on a wooden bench and his head hit the floor into a toy plane. Let me say, that whole thing was really scary. I've never heard him scream like that and I thought he'd broken his leg and maybe a bone in his face. He is thankfully ok but that wasn't a fun afternoon for anyone.

Take my picture in this tree!

Dress up day

Free pizza for completing his reading log

Doing a TaeBo video

Fun at Wal-Mart

Doing some kind of science experiment
they made up in the bathroom

Grandparents Day at school

Concert with Daddy

Nutcracker performance

Coloring (which Gabriel now loves)

STEM

Pumpkin patch with friends

Fictional character day at school (Han Solo)

Nellie's Cave hike. Our favorite place to
stop after school if the weather is nice

For Halloween we did lots of fun things. Besides carving pumpkins we went to a trunk of treat at school, went to a fall festival, and went to the Halloween party at Romp n Roll. On the night of Halloween we watched Charlie Brown and Gabriel handed out candy when people came by. When it was time for bed he said "but what if more customers come by and need candy?"

Gabriel's class had a service day where they went to a local nursing home. We colored with some residents and played a game involving balloons and pool noodles. Corban and I came along for the fun too. Corban had a hard time focusing and participating. He spent a good part of the time going up to random people and "meowing" like a cat. As irritated as I was at first, some of the people there really liked it. There was one woman that the director said rarely talks or smiles. She kept grinning at Corban and asking if she could pet the kitty, to which he let her rub his hair. Corban likes being a part of Gabriel's school things. He really enjoys when he can come and help with lunch. He sits at the table with the other kids and talks and plays with them too.

"Gabriel, will you read Voyage of the Dawn Treader to me?"

And now Corban. He's had a busy fall too. He is loving preschool and has no reservations about going. His teacher, who also taught Gabriel at the same age, said to me the other day "how did you get such talkative kids?" Good question. They are frequently competing to talk the most or loudest.

Corban had a rough couple weeks right when Gabriel started school. He was lonely and asked a lot when we could go and get Gabriel. He has adjusted now though and I think he enjoys the attention when he's the only kid home. He told me the other day that he likes it when we have lunch and it's just the two of us. Other things that he likes: doughnuts, chip and dale, getting groceries and pushing the cart, rescue bots, jumping, being a cat, playing tag, the Incredibles, throwing big fits when he can't have his way, puzzles, being really silly, spinning in circles until he falls over, and Ninja class.

Since Gabriel was in school every day Corban and I took a trip to Atlanta in October so that he could go to his cousins birthday party. He even got to go to the aquarium. It was fun to have a little road trip just for us, and Taylor and Gabriel did fun things after school while we were gone too.

Corban spends a lot of time being silly and hyper, but he can also be very calm and sweet. He tells us a lot that he loves us. He says "Mommy you're pretty" a lot too. He helped give Loki a bath a few weeks ago and he went and got her some toys to play with since she didn't like the water. When he didn't go to preschool for a couple weeks due to bad weather and the Thanksgiving break he hugged his teachers when he got back and told them he had missed them. In Ninja class last week he accidentally got poked in the eye. He coach was trying to talk to him so he didn't get too upset. He said, "Corban, do you like school? What kids of things do you learn?" He said "I mostly learn that Jesus died for me."

His favorite thing in Wal-Mart. He uses all my change.

And one other thing that cannot be left out. Gabriel turned SIX. How did that happen. He has been asking for three years to have a big birthday party at the gym where he takes class so that happened this year. I was so proud of him. He was very polite and thanked everyone as he opened presents. He even got a toy that he already had and he just thanked them and said that he liked it. He had so much fun (and he was so excited about his cupcake that he blew out the candle right when the singing started)

Daddy was a hit in the foam pit

Besides his party with friends we also went to Atlanta for Thanksgiving this year. He celebrated his birthday on Thursday with my family and on Friday with Taylor's family. On his actual birthday (Saturday), he was so much in birthday mode that he said "what kind of cake do we get today?!?"