Our week in pictures

Stephen has been working diligently with his new bike. I think he'll be able to pedal soon... He really LOVES his bike, though!!


We've talked about the Christmas Story... we had temporarily lost Joseph, so we had to bring in his understudy.

Stephen likes to wear Granddaddy's clothes.

And his teacher's poured some sugar down his throat at their holiday party on Wednesday. The picture doesn't really do it justice... he was COVERED in frosting. And yes, we did switch him over to a booster seat this past weekend, and he's doing very well with it!

As for me? Well, I've been painting. This has been my project while Stephen has been at school. "Classic Taupe" is the new color for our walls!

Fifth Birthday, and a party

Yep, Stephen turned 5 this week! And at age 5, he is 43-44 lbs (depending on what time of day it is, and how much he is squirming on the scale!), and 41" tall in his bare feet. And this lucky boy got a BIG BOY BIKE for his birthday!!! He was so excited - he still struggles a little bit with pedaling his trike, but he's really too big for it now, which made it even more difficult for him. He's been trying REALLY hard already to pedal his bike, and managed to go a short distance on it under his own power already. dToday, we had his birthday party at an indoor playground at a gymnasium. There were three levels of tunnels, and slides, and places to climb, and Stephen and his 3 friends had a GREAT time!!!

After this slide, the small one in our yard just won't be quite as much fun, I think...

The zip line was broken, but Stephen had a great time running up and down the ramp anyways.

Stephen and I raced down the slide (he won!), and he wanted to slide again, and again, and again.

These are the friends that joined us to celebrate today - I don't know why Stephen was acting so silly in this picture, but all of the kids were totally zonked.

Luckily, we did get a good shot

Another milestone that we reached today occurred in the car. Stephen had been complaining about the crotch strap in his carseat for a couple of weeks, and today, I converted it to a booster seat. So far, he's behaved himself pretty well without the restraints of the 5-point harness system. While he had not yet reached the weight or height limit for the harness portion of his seat, we made the decision to switch him because he was obviously uncomfortable, and he was very vocal about it, which created a lot of distraction while driving.

We went to the dentist

Stephen had a perfect check-up, of course! He is not a big fan of going to the dentist, but he was much more cooperative this time than he has been in the past. He let the assistant brush his teeth for him, and even let her do the fluoride gel! Stephen put forth a commendable effort when it came to spitting, but still didn't manage it. He tried, though!

The dentist was impressed with his 4 permanent teeth, and could see where the other 2 are thinking about poking through soon. She also said that there were no signs of his 6-year molars yet, which pretty much means they'll start coming through before his next check-up - at our last visit, she said there were no signs of the first 2 permanent teeth, and they popped through 2-3 weeks later.



Not too much else to report here - Stephen had his annual progress/goal assessment meeting on Tuesday. It went better than the last one - Stephen actually has been making tangible progress towards most of his goals this year, and we discussed how we can challenge him better for the next year as well. Stephen's physical therapist is recommending that he participate in "regular" P.E. classes next school year, with either modified activities, or a student helper, depending on his progress before Kindergarten. The team agrees that it would be good if that helper was a little girl. Stephen apparently has a little fan club of 3 or 4 girls in his class who always want to play with him, and cheer him on when he has PT during recess. What a bunch of sweethearts!! But really, look at that picture - who WOULDN'T cheer for him?!?

Catching up

This is just going to be a quick catch-up post with some pictures - we've been very busy entertaining visitors, enjoying a turkey feast, and being sick (nothing serious - just colds).

A few weeks ago, we noticed that Stephen all of a sudden seemed to have gotten a much better grasp of spatial reasoning when it comes to his body. Where he would previously get someone else to retrieve a toy from under the coffee table (or his picnic table, or the bed...), he was now crawling under there himself to get it! Except for a few necessary reminders not to stand up under the dining room table, this has worked out well for all of us!



We also had a short visit from Pa Rick and Kim. I have very few pictures of Pa, as he was most frequently behind his OWN camera, earning the nickname of PAparrazzi! Stephen did get to enjoy a quick trip down the driveway in Pa's black car...

And he spent some quality time showing Kim how to use the iPad.

Pa snapped this picture of Stephen and his daddy building Santa's Sleigh at the Home Improvment store.

I don't have the obligatory picture of Stephen wearing his turkey hat for Thanksgiving - the little turkey wouldn't wear it.

Stephen had his last swim lessons for the year this past week. He will remain in the same level, since he won't voluntary put his head under water, but he continues to make strides. On Tuesday, and again on Thursday, Stephen and the girls in his class swam the entire length of the pool and back again. He was very proud of himself, but also completely exhausted.

This last picture is Stephen demonstrating a newfound skill. He can now pull himself up and climb out of the pool on his own. He can't quite manage to get himself back to a seated position after he is out, but I'm sure he'll figure that out soon.

We are getting ready for Christmas around here, and Stephen is working hard for the last 2 weeks of school. And of course, we have the big FIFTH birthday coming up next week, and subsequent birthday party! Stephen is very excited about his birthday and party with his friends.