Nathan is 5 Years Old!

At five years old, Nathan weighs 50.2 lb and is 47 3/4" tall.  He is quickly growing out of his size six clothes and into size seven, and is wearing size one shoes.

Nathan is a great kid.  He is such an amazing brother for Olivia.  The very first thing he says to me when I pick him up from school is, "Where is Olivia?"  He always gives her a great big hug at the end of the school day and so he misses her when she doesn't come with me to pick him up.  He likes to show that he is strong enough to carry her, and when he is in an exceptionally good mood he offers to give her a kiss to show his love.  Nathan gets along really well with Matthew, for the most part.  They have their occasional disagreement but typically they can play really nicely together.  Nathan also gets along well with Kayla.  Matthew and Kayla look forward to the days that Nathan is in school because they always play together at recess, with a few other kids from both Kindergarten and Grade Two.

Nathan enjoys school.  On his first day of school he was fighting tears when he asked Olivia if she was going to miss him.  At the end of each school day he tells me everything that happened that day without much coaxing.  He most often talks about his new friends Marie and Kristina-Faith.  He is quick to notice which of his classmates have some sort of disability and so we have had quite a few conversations about how God made each person unique.  If he is slow to get ready for school in the morning, all I have to do is threaten to call his teacher to say that he won't be coming and then he starts listening to me and goes a little quicker.  Each recess he plays with Matthew and Kayla, his kindergarten friends and then some of their grade two friends.

Nathan is always very reluctant to try something new.  He is cautious, so when it comes to doing anything physical, he holds back.  He cannot climb very high on the space net at school and he screamed when we tried to teach him how to rollerblade.

He is playing soccer again this year and is the largest kid on his team.  He seems to enjoy it and is okay at it.  He listens really well to his coach and follows directions really well.  If he gave it his all when he was playing a game he would be a star, but he is content to just give it 50% :).

Nathan is a creature of routine.  If he could, he would have the exact same thing for breakfast and lunch everything single day.  Breakfast is always a bowl of cereal (usually Corn Pops or Captain Crunch) and a banana.  The banana can be green or yellow or spotted brown, he doesn't care.  For lunch he likes to have oatmeal banana chocolate chip muffins and can easily eat five of my regular size ones.  Unlike every other child I know, Nathan does not really like jello.

He likes to have all of the hallway lights on when he goes to bed.  It makes sharing a room with Matthew difficult, because Matthew likes it to be really dark.

We spent a lot of time learning to read this summer, but have not really sat down at all since school has started.  It shocked me when he grabbed a book that he had received as a birthday gift last year and completely read the inscription on the inside of the front cover.  He knows the sound each letter in the alphabet makes so it makes sounding out words easy for him.  Since school has started he has been really encouraged to write in his journal at school and on projects, sounding out each word as he spells it.

Nathan still enjoys talking about the Bible/Jesus/Heaven.

He also is pretty aware of his conception story; he knows that he was made at the same time as Matthew and Kayla but he was frozen before being put in my tummy.  Apparently he is quite open with this, because Jackson was telling Melissa: "Mom, did you know that Nathan is way older than me because he was frozen for a long time and then put in Auntie Laura's belly?"

This past spring/summer Nathan developed an awful habit of biting his fingernails.  I tried using the nailpolish designed to deter biting, but he was unphased by it.  This last month I ordered "Biter Be Goner" online and it works great!  As long as we remember to apply it every evening, then he will not bite his nails.  If we forget for a day or two then he starts biting them again.  I think he mostly bites them when he is laying in bed at night and maybe while we are driving in the car since I don't see him do it outside of those times.

Nathan loves to sing.  He is quick to learn any song that Matthew and Kayla learn.  He quickly learned "Shout to the Lord" in the spring/summer and so I heard it almost on a daily basis.

Birthday Interview:
1. What's your name?   Nathan 
2. How old are you?   Four.  Five.
3. What is your favourite color?   Blue
4. What is your favourite toy?   I don't know.  That I have or that I've heard of?  Umm.  Hatchimals
5. What is your favourite fruit?   Banana.  I mean, apple.
6. What is your favourite tv show or movie?   Avengers
7. What is your favourite game?   Marvel Guess Who
8. What is your favourite animal?   Leopard
9. What is your favourite song?   Shout to the Lord
10. What is your favourite book?   The Bible
11. Who is your best friend?   Liam and Jackson
12. Who are you going to marry?   Kristina-Faith or Marie
13. How many kids are you going to have when you are married?   Four.  Or five.
14. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast?   Chicken Noodle Soup.  I mean Captain Crunch
15. What is your favourite cereal?  Captain Crunch.  I mean Lucky Charms.
16. What is your favourite thing to eat for lunch?   Chocolate Icing on Sprinkles with Peanut Butter toasted on bread.
17. What is your favourite thing to eat for dinner?   Chicken Noodle Soup
18. What is your favourite thing to do outside?   Play soccer.
19. What is your favourite drink?   Milkshake
20. What is your favourite snack?   Little bit of everything.
21. When is your bedtime?   7 o'clock
22. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Zuri (a Beanie Boo)
23. What is your favourite holiday?   Going to school
24. What do you want to be when you grow up?   A spy
25. Name one thing you do really well?   Running
26. What makes you feel sad?   Somebody kicking me in the face 11 billion three thousand times.
27. What makes you feel happy?   A hug or a kiss.
28. If you could choose a different name, what would you choose?   Peter Parker.  No, Peter.
29. Where do you want to go on vacation?   In heaven.
30. What is your favourite thing to do?   Go to a ice cream store with everything ice cream with all the candy and all the ice cream stuff and buy all of it.
31. What is your favourite thing to do with Mom?   Tickle you.
32. What is your favourite thing to do with Dad?   Wrestle
33. What is your favourite thing to do with your siblings?  Play Wii. 

Olivia is 3 1/4 Years Old

Time is flying!  It's getting difficult to remember when I have to do an update on each child...

Olivia is now 3 1/4 years old.  She continues to grow, both physically and in personality.

She weighs 33.8lb and is 40.5" tall.  She wears size 4 or 5 clothes and size 9.5 shoes.

She can act like a older preschooler, but she can also act like a young preschooler :).  She really plays the baby in the family role quite well.  You can tell she is used to being around older kids because she can play alongside them really well, but she can also be really whiny and babyish.  I really see this when we are out in public and she doesn't want to walk anymore.  Even if my hands are full of bags/bins/clothes etc, she will stop walking and will refuse to continue unless I pick her up.  I've really buckled down on this and I refuse to pick her up.

Olivia is behind where her siblings were academically, but I know that's okay and everyone catches up at one point.  There are probably only a handful of letters she could recognize.  She knows her name begins with an "O", but that's about it.  We've worked on spelling her name a couple times, but that's about it.  I really need to be more intentional about sitting down and working with her on it.

She can sing the ABCs up until the letter P, and then starts all over again.

Olivia loves having (store-bought) waffles for breakfast.

Her favourite thing to have for lunch is a slice of bread with chocolate icing and hagelslaac.

She loves oranges, candies, and chips.

Olivia's favourite thing to have for dinner is french fries.

She prefers to watch YouTube videos on the iPad over watching cartoons/movies.

She loves riding her bike at the greenhouses or on Auntie Candice's old scooter in the backyard.

Olivia still idolizes Kayla.  You can always hear her trying to get Kayla's attention to show her something she's done.  She enjoys sharing a bedroom with Kayla.

Nathan is definitely Olivia's protector and comforter.  If he is not pestering her, then he is giving her hugs and kisses and sticking up for her.

She is definitely left-handed when it comes to printing/colouring.  It will be interesting to see if she is left-handed for sports.

Olivia doesn't naturally say the 's' in s-blend words (ex. 'school' is 'cool'), but when you encourage her to correct herself ("What is cool?  Do you mean sssss-chool?), she corrects herself effortlessly.  She can now say "Nathan" instead of "Mathan".

Her hair curls the nicest when it is dirty and has been wet and dried.