Catch Up Part 2: Adam

Happy January 2014

Brother celebrated his 4th birthday this year.  He was lucky enough to celebrate his birthday with both sides of his family in New Mexico with 3 mini-birthday parties in one trip.  He also got to celebrate his birthday at preschool and to have a special day with just us on his official birthday.  The downside is that now he now expects that everyone gets a parade week of birthday celebrations.

Making tortillas with Cho

Adam finished his first year of preschool.  He loves school, so it was surprising how he never asked about it during the summer.  He tried his best to stay indoors the entire summer, but we forced him to go to the park when L would take the kids to the park.  It seemed like the more he stayed in, the more he wanted to stay in and not do very much at all.  He doesn't like the heat, but once we got him used to going out a few times a week, he was much happier and he does enjoy playing with other kids at the park.

Birthday party at preschool

Trying on Dad's glasses

For a while, he was really into coloring.  Over the summer he went from scribbling over pictures to carefully filling in sections of a picture to practicing gradations of color within sections.  It was amazing to see his development.  We're hands-off when it comes to art, because school seems to push out all creativity in the goal to "color within the lines" and then you have to spend so much time breaking out of that structure to actually be creative.  Still, he taught himself to color within the lines.  That's okay.

July 2014

Adam likes to sing and he loves Sheriff Callie's Wild West.  He has also gotten into the habit of trying to say the dialogue to almost anything he watches, even if he's never seen it before.  It's a little amusing.  It doesn't seem to get on anyone's nerves, so that's good.

In the last year it seems that Adam has become more afraid of the dark.  He doesn't like to be outdoors after dark or even at dusk.  He's also developed a fear of being out in the rain.  While we were at the Arboretum in Flagstaff, it started sprinkling and he freaked out.  He stopped where he was and was screaming and crying.  We've talked to him about how he is safe as long as the rain is not heavy and if there is no lightening around.  He understands, but he is having trouble feeling safe.  We got him calm and had him finish a shorter version of the trail with us, pointing out how everything was fine.  I think it's just going to take time and reassurance for him to let go of his fears.

Our sweet boy is into Super Heroes, Legos, Frozen, Tangled and he actually likes to do chores.  We don't have enough age-appropriate chores for him to do.  What a complain, right?  He helps with laundry, dusting, picking up toys to vacuum the floor, putting away dry goods and washing produce.  He also helps Sissy take her shoes off when we get home.

One of the things that we appreciate and admire most about our Adam is how he is able to talk to us.  If he's upset, he always finds a way to talk to us about what he is feeling or thinking.  He takes the time to listen to us when we offer guidance.  He often takes our guidance also and then decides for himself whether we were right or not.  Of course there are times when he is just not happy with us, but he knows we love and believe in him. 

July 2014