It's amazing to me how two kids can be so different, yet so very similar. It's quite interesting how close Matthew and Kayla are, despite there being gender differences. It's actually quite amazing. I imagine that they will start to grow apart once they start school, because Kayla will likely gravitate towards the girls in the class and Matthew towards the boys. That will be interesting too, to see how they change with the introduction of school and more independence from me.
Matthew and Kayla are best friends. They do everything together, by choice. They play trains together, they play with stuffed animals together, they bath together. What one does, the other does, too. They both take turns 'leading' the play, it just varies, depending what they are doing and who is 'better' at that type of play.
They both go to bed at the same time, around 7:45/8:00pm, and sleep until 7:15am.
MATTHEW
Matthew weighs 36.6 lbs and is 42 7/8" tall. He comfortably wears size 5 clothes and wears size 9 or 10 shoes (depends if Nathan has forced him to move up a size or not!).
His favourite thing to do right now is play Go Fish, Uno, or Othello. He's extremely quick to pick up the logic and strategic way to play games, and so he often wins, even against Jon or I. This has also made him a poor loser, too. We're working on that.
He still enjoys playing trains, but it has taken a backseat since the introduction of Paw Patrol. He's seen every episode numerous times and can tell you exactly what happens in each one. His favourite character is Zuma, and so his new favourite colour is Orange (Zuma's colour).
Matthew can count up to one hundred and is good at basic math. He likes to 'play math' with me, where I use chocolate chips and marshmallows and do basic math equations and patterns with them, and they get to eat everything at the end.
He has become a much better eater, and enjoys my cooking over Jon's due to the simplicity of my meals. He still is a true Dutch-boy, favouring any sort of 'meat and potatoes' meal.
He is great at listening to the Bible stories we read after dinner and can answer any question I ask him about what he had just heard. He is even able to recall the basics of what happened in the story we read the prior evening.
Our largest frustration with Matthew is that he is lazy when it comes to dressing/undressing himself. He tries to pretend that he can't do it and puts up a huge fit, hoping that either Jon or I will help him. Most of the time, we don't. He is fully capable of dressing and undressing, it's just a matter of him learning to exercise this independence.
- the
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I've recently added
- if
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Matthew can recognize and say the basic hours on the clock.
We are still working on his speech, and our largest focus with him right now is correcting his lisp. He knows how to say 's' correctly, it's just a matter of it becoming second-nature for him now. He has made huge improvement in the four months since he started speech therapy, and considering we have only had a handful of appointments he is doing well.
KAYLA
Kayla weighs 41.4 lbs and is 44 1/2" tall. She is starting to wear size 6 clothes, and wears size 10 or 11 shoes.
Kayla continues to be an extremely easy child to parent. She is seldom disobedient and is only put into time out once every month or two. She is very even-keeled emotionally; she doesn't show extreme excitement, but she also doesn't get overly upset.
She loves to colour, whether it be in a colouring book or on a blank sheet of paper. She's recently discovered all of my plastic tracers, and has been creating many pictures out of the traced items. She can easily sit at the kitchen table and colour for an hour or two.
Kayla also loves to craft. If I let her take out the craft box every day, she would, and she would spend hours gluing and taping things together. She is always very intentional in how she puts her crafts together, and everything is put perfectly symmetrical if there is opportunity to, or the instructions are followed to a tee. Kayla doesn't get near as much time to craft as she would like, solely because of my lack of desire to have the other kids do it too. If she were an only child, she would love it!
In addition to colouring and crafting, Kayla loves to do school workbooks. She likes writing things, and often asks me how to spell out words so that she can write them on paper. Like Matthew, she absolutely loves Paw Patrol, so I currently have a list of all of the Paw Patrol characters written out and hanging up.
She is very independent and able to do almost anything asked of her. She is my largest helper with Olivia because of this, but also because she loves her sister dearly.
Kayla is good at playing Go Fish and Uno, however, she does not like to play, she prefers to watch. Every few days I force her to play with Matthew and I, in hopes that she changes her mind and begins to enjoy it. I believe that she doesn't like to lose. She is just as happy watching and helping her cousins play as she is playing herself. At least if she watches she still learns the strategy!
She is really becoming confident at climbing different playgrounds. We have so many different ones close to us that we try to explore a new one every now and then.
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Last year, I started a tradition of videotaping Matthew and Kayla individually while I asked them a list of questions. I asked them the same questions this year, and these are the responses I got (Kayla did not enjoy being put on the spot with the questions, and so she had a lot of "I don't know" answers):
1. What's your name? Matthew
2. How old are you? 5
3. What is your favourite color? Orange
4. What is your favourite toy? My leap pad
5. What is your favourite fruit? Banana
6. What is your favourite tv show or movie? Paw Patrol
7. What is your favourite game? Uno or Go Fish
8. What is your favourite animal? Dog
9. What is your favourite song? ABCs (He should have said "Awesome God")
10. What is your favourite book? The ABC one (What?!? He should have said "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Suess)
11. Who is your best friend? Kayla
12. Who are you going to marry? I don't know.
13. How many kids are you going to have when you are married? 5
14. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles
15. What is your favourite cereal? Froot Loops
16. What is your favourite thing to eat for lunch? Cheese and Crackers and Donuts (the one day Jon has to feed the kids lunch, this is what they had (after walking to Tim Horton's)...and now it's his favourite?!?!)
17. What is your favourite thing to eat for dinner? Green mashed potatoes (our nickname for boerenkool)
18. What is your favourite thing to do outside? Go on the trampoline at Grandma's
19. What is your favourite drink? Juice
20. What is your favourite snack? Cheese and meat on bread (??)
21. When is your bedtime? 8 o'clock
22. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My baby (he still sleeps with his doll)
23. What is your favourite holiday? Waffle day (??)
24. What do you want to be when you grow up? Work at the...with Dad (he was going to say work at the greenhouses, but corrected his answer)
25. Name one thing you do really well? Listening
26. What makes you feel sad? If they hit me
27. What makes you feel happy? If they don't hit me
28. If you could choose a different name, what would you choose? Zuma (from Paw Patrol)
29. Where do you want to go on vacation? To Zuma Island (??). Airplane to Disneyland.
30. What is your favourite thing to do? Play with my friends
31. What is your favourite thing to do with Mom? Play Uno
32. What is your favourite thing to do with Dad? Play Othello
33. What's your favourite thing to do with your siblings? Play with them, play toys
1. What's your name? Kayla
2. How old are you? 5
3. What is your favourite color? Pink
4. What is your favourite toy? Leap pad
5. What is your favourite fruit? Strawberries
6. What is your favourite tv show or movie? Paw Patrol
7. What is your favourite game? I don't know
8. What is your favourite animal? Cat
9. What is your favourite song? I don't know
10. What is your favourite book? A Paw Patrol book we have.
11. Who is your best friend? I don't know. Remy and Carly.
12. Who are you going to marry? I don't know
13. How many kids are you going to have when you are married? 2
14. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes
15. What is your favourite cereal? K: Mom, you know the yellow box at Grandma's house in the play food? Me: Corn Pops? K: Ya, that's it.
16. What is your favourite thing to eat for lunch? Waffles
17. What is your favourite thing to eat for dinner? Chicken Cordon Blues
18. What is your favourite thing to do outside? Play
19. What is your favourite drink? Pop
20. What is your favourite snack? Little bit of everything (Cheerios, raisins, marshmallows, chocolate chips)
21. When is your bedtime? I don't know
22. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? I don't know (She doesn't necessarily have a favourite, but definitely likes to have her 'Noise Maker' (Soothe & Glow Seahorse)
23. What is your favourite holiday? Noah's Ark day
24. What do you want to be when you grow up? To work at the greenhouse.
25. Name one thing you do really well? Climbing
26. What makes you feel sad? I don't know
27. What makes you feel happy? I don't know
28. If you could choose a different name, what would you choose? I don't know
29. Where do you want to go on vacation? I don't know...oh, the beach!
30. What is your favourite thing to do? Watch tv
31. What is your favourite thing to do with Mom? I don't know (She should have said to help me clean)
32. What is your favourite thing to do with Dad? Wrestle him.
33. What's your favourite thing to do with your siblings? I don't know. Play with them.
"a true Dutch boy" - so cute!
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