How Aaron Learned To Ride

IT seems like yesterday that I wrote this post on my old blog about 6 year old Noah getting on his two wheel bike for the first time and taking off. I remember crying a few tears because it was such a neat thing to watch. I have always maintained that the summer between kindergarten and first grade is one of the biggest summers of growth. It's amazing how many things Noah learned the summer of 2008.

This time it's a little different. Since I held Aaron back last year, he should be going in to first grade this year but he's not. Nevertheless, this is THAT summer for him, since he is of that age. He is definitely becoming more of a grade school kid than a little kid in attitude and we have been working on that A LOT. But he is also hitting a whole bunch of milestones the same as Noah did in this comparable summer. Through the workbooks that I have both of the boys do every morning, his handwriting has gone from "babyish" that it was in May to much more mature, with correct pencil grip and sufficient pressure. HUGE improvement. He was already reading way advanced for his age, so that continues.

And then we hit another MAJOR one in the last couple of days.

Aaron has never been a super confident bike rider. With training wheels, he would always go really slow and tentative. When he went to Safe City (a week long safety class put on by the fire department last week) he was one of the only kids who still had training wheels on his bike. He asked me to take his off. I figured that since he was already not a confident rider anyway, it wouldn't hurt to have him just learn without the trainers. Neither Steve nor I had trainers and we learned just fine.

So I took them off. I also lowered the seat all the way down, so that he could put his feet down whenever he wanted. We also had a lengthy discussion with Noah that both Steve and I had been taught to ride a bike from our older siblings and he could he be a big part if this. He balked at every mention of it. But we noticed that during Aaron's first attempts Noah sat at the front window watching, while pretending to NOT watch.

After Aaron's first two runs, he screamed (as his way ALL THE TIME lately) threw his bike down, and stormed off. I didn't react though because Aaron's personality is such that I knew he would come back a try again. Which he did. Again and again. All day.

And for the entire day on Sunday, it was a series of try, scream, yell, throw the bike down, declare it the worst thing ever, and then repeat an hour later.

I got home from work on Monday night and wondered if it was just because he was having trouble staying on the sidewalk. So Steve and I decided to take the boys over to the parking lot nearby and see if he could get going that way. He was SO CLOSE. He could glide but he would not keep his feet on the pedals to keep going.

After Steve and I begged, pleaded, scolded, guided him to keep his feet on the pedals, he still refused. Then we brought Noah over and asked Aaron to watch Noah. We put Noah through a series of drills of riding. The minute he was done, Aaron turned around, pushed off, put his feet on the pedals and TOOK OFF! YAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

And yes, I shed some tears this time too.

He was very excited that he could ride. And we were too. After watching him wipe out (happily, no less) we realized the problem. He will only go in circles instead of riding straight. And he will only turn to the left but not the right. Oh well. Let's have this celebration and worry about THAT another day.

Tuesday morning dawned and Aaron was out the door before he even got dressed, wanting to ride some more. So I packed the first aid kit again, pried Noah's Pokemon cards out of his hands for a little while, and we headed over to the parking lot again. This time was actually a little more frustrating for Aaron because he knew he had ridden the day before, but now it wasn't working for him. He started by just walking the bike along with his feet on the ground.

Then, he graduated to pushing off with one foot while gliding with the other.

When we got the the parking lot, much as he did the day before, he took off, going in circles.

And of course wiping out when the circle got too sharp. I tried to get him to follow the yellow lines in the lot, but he was getting frustrated again so we headed home.

After trying a little bit more, I got yet another idea. I had lowered the seat but I hadn't lowered the handle bars. Maybe that was the problem.

So after lunch and a little rest we headed outside to try again. I lowered the handle bars and set him off to try again.

Guess what?????

Yup, he took off!!

He still wobbles and goes off into the grass a lot. But for a little boy who never really got the hang of riding before, he is now riding a two wheeler 72 hours later. As I write this Wednesday morning at 9 AM, he has already been outside twice riding. He has permission to ride on the sidewalk between our house and the neighbor's fire hydrant three houses down unless I am outside with him.

I was very happy that Noah had such a huge part of this process. He is not always a willing participant when it comes to anything supporting his little brother. So the fact that I can say "Noah, YOU were the only one that could teach Aaron how to ride a bike" is definitely a boost for him as well.

We still have a month until school starts. Who knows what will be achieved in that month. Both boys have swimming lessons so who knows.They are also going golfing with my parents for the first time as well. We are going camping for the first time this coming weekend. SO many adventures lie ahead. The stores may be stocking backpacks and school supplies, but we're not looking. There's a whole lot of summer left for us!

Thursday Thirteen: Aaron Edition

Today was Aaron's "graduation" from Young Fives. Young Fives is a wonderful program, but given what I know now, it may go down as a bad decision on my part. How was I to know how far he'd grow this year and the changes that lie school next year would make that will affect him? It was still a good year of learning for him. And BOY did he learn this year.

First Day of Young Fives

1. Aaron went from knowing his letters to READING. Now I don't mean sounding out words, like Noah did when he entered into Kindergarten. I mean full fledged, fluent reading of chapter books that Noah wasn't reading until mid year first grade. One of the MANY reasons I think he would have been fine to go into first grade next year instead of kindergarten.

2. I wish I had measured him at the beginning of this year because I think he's grown several inches. I can't believe how tall he's gotten this year. He will be out of place with begin a full head taller (or more) next year in kindergarten. I hope he doesn't get teased too badly about sticking out.

Last Day of Young Fives

3. Along with height, I didn't realize until I looked at the pictures how much he has thinned out. His chubby little baby face seems to be turning long and thin...one more way he looks just like his Daddy

4. At the beginning of the year he could not buckle his own seat belt, open the car door, unlock the front door of our house, or zip his own coat. He does all of these independently now.

5. His sensitivity issues, while still there, are indeed decreased by about a million. No longer does he cover his ears at loud noises. He had no issue with the fire drills at the end of the year. I guess the real test will come this year during the fireworks on the 4th. He hasn't made it through them once without crying and hiding yet. He still has a very hard time when there' s lots of chaos or craziness around him, which was one of the BIG problems with his classroom this year, but I do believe that having to deal with it helped us to talk with him about different situations and at least give us one more piece of information into that little mind of his.

6. One of the reasons I sent him to Young Fives at this school was to get some kind of special needs identified in relation to these sensitivity issues. Whether this is good or not, none ever was. When I talked to the OT, she said that even though they think something is there, they couldn't test him since he didn't need speech and only the kids who need speech receive any other special services. Sounds kind of odd to me. Another reason I SHOULD have put him in kindergarten this year.

7. His speech went from still needing translation at the beginning of the year to now even pronouncing R's much of the time clearly without reminders.

8. Sleep issues have gone away. He has always been a light sleeper, but has gone from difficulty going to sleep to going right to sleep and sleeping through the night until actual dawn.

9. Although he still wakes up with a very full pull up most mornings, he can go once in awhile staying dry. It's a start.

10. He played soccer and baseball this year. He did okay in both but I'm not quite sure either would be his "thing". We'll keep letting him try different things, just as we do for his brother.

11. His love and craziness for water continues. But it has definitely matured. He is not quite so RANDOM about his needs to be engulfed in water anymore. He is a little more discerning about when it is and is not appropriate to get completely soaked and is starting to get a little bit better about restraining himself when needed.

12. Aaron still repeats things MANY times and verifies periodically just to be sure the rules haven't changed. I like this part of him because he very rarely ever misbehaves in school, unless it is a genuine mistake. If the rules change, he clarifies them, and then it's okay. I worry a little about his teacher next year dealing with that, since I know her and how she relates to the kids. I hope she can find some patience to talk to him and appreciate it for what it is, like his teachers did this year.

13. He still loves to snuggle with me and even in the hottest weather likes to be bundled under blankets. It seems strange unless we remember ta ht this was the child who as a baby would not stay asleep unless he was swaddled so tight that he couldn't move.

As far as his year was concerned he had a great year. He learned so much and he loves school. Yes, the many concerns are weighing very heavily on my mind going into the summer. He reads so far ahead but his fine motor is still a bit behind. He needs school more than two or three days a week, which is what his kindergarten program is next year. I am losing LOTS of sleep over what to do about next year.

But for right now, we have three months ahead of us to play.

And that's exactly what I intend to do.

A Little Nurture Goes a LONG Way

I took this picture of Aaron last week. I loved it immediately. It's not your typical "cute kid" picture but the expression seems to fit him.

He is a highly sensitive boy anyway and I have always wondered how it would affect him as he grows up. He has done extremely well in school this year both socially and academically. Way better than I anticipated actually. He's reading books that Noah read in first grade last year and he is learning how to separate good from bad behaviors socially.

I put him in young fives instead of kindergarten this year because of his sensitivities issues. I do think it was the right decision, even though I think he would have been fine either way, in hindsight that is.

He is prone to "phases" big time though. The last few weeks he has entered into a overly sensitive, crying temper tantrum phase. It doesn't help that his big brother knows how to push his buttons and does it at every drop of a hat, which often makes it hard to figure out which kid should receive the consequence at any given time...the one who instigated or the one who reacted so horribly that things got way out of hand.

Within this phase (which I know was brought on by a school situation, but it still needs to be dealt with at home) he is also back to acting quite a bit younger than his actual age. It was very frustrating this past weekend while we were with so many other kids. He was flying off the handle constantly, I was frustrated at both his behavior and other's reaction to it, and by Sunday I was feeling very dejected.

I went to bed Saturday night wondering what changes we could make to try to counter act the behavior. Up until then, I had been just ignoring it and telling him to stop crying. The result was that he would wander off crying, instigating more fights with whomever (usually his brother) had started the fight in the first place and the problem continued to escalate.

So when yet another tantrum started at my parent's house this weekend, it was suggested that instead of ignoring it, which was clearly not working, I should try to nurture it. Extra over the top hugs, kisses and love each time the crying started.

It's working! All three times he had a fit on Sunday, I tried it and each time when he calmed down, went off in a different direction to do something else, rather than return to the place where the problem started. In the four days since then, we have had a total of ONE crying fit. I am feeling very ashamed that it took someone else to tell me to show my kid some love but this is the same person who has been teaching me how to love people for a very long time when I was never quite taught those skills in my younger years. I just consider myself lucky that I have her now to kick my rear into gear when I need it.

And I have to admit, I like the chance to just sit and snuggle with Aaron. I realized that I don't do that nearly enough with either of the boys anymore. Just because they're getting older, doesn't mean that they don't need that affection anymore. I think that maybe in the name of "discipline" I may have erred on the side of lacking nurturing. It's a good lesson that I need to learn...finding the balance between the two. I have not learned the art of nurturing very well and you would have thought that after almost eight years of parenting I would have gotten better. Luckily, all is not lost. The boys are still young and changes for the better can always be made. If I don't nurture them now, how will they ever learn to nurture others?

It's interesting that the person who reminded me that I need to be more nurturing is one of the few people in my life who have actually nurtured me. It is such a good lesson for me. What we learn when we are young is what we are when we are older. But at the same time, I have also learned that it's not too late to instill nurturing in my kids, because I don't think it's too late for me to learn how either. And I also know that you never outgrow the need to be nurtured...even as adults, we need it too.

The week has definitely been so much better than it would have been had I not been given this advice. Do I worry about what will happen next week? Big Time! Between Aaron returning to the stressful classroom situation and every evening home with Steve and Noah alone, it's going to be hard to keep the new Aaron going.

But for now, I will continue to enjoy the new dynamic that the three of us have going. Noah doesn't seem to be baiting him nearly as much either. Maybe Noah is learning a little nurturing in the process too. One can only hope. Or maybe he doesn't like that little brother gets extra snuggles every time he gets picked on. Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter. We're happier, which in the long run, is the only thing that counts.

And all it took was a little bit of love.

Aaron's Own Library Card

For March Is Reading Month, Aaron's Young Fives class sent home a calendar of a different activity to do each day of the month to encourage literacy. Now, the kid is already reading books that Noah read last year in first grade, so I think we're pretty good on encouraging literacy, but I thought it would be fun to do the activities anyway. We are probably the only ones in the class that did it (yes, it is just that kind of class), but nevertheless, some of the activities have definitely enriched us.

We discovered a new website called starfall.com that is awesome for teaching kids to read and the games are very fun. I highly recommend preschool and early readers to go there (with parent's, of course). We also made cookies letting Aaron read the recipe, drew a picture of Dr. Seuss on his birthday and looked at a map of Michigan cities.

But the one that I think Aaron was most excited about was getting his own library card. Noah got his own a couple of years ago and I wanted to wait until Aaron really appreciated it before it was his turn. I do like that besides giving the boys their own card, there are also key tags so I can keep it on my key chain too, for extra security should they get lost. (Now I just need to actually keep track of my keys)

So off we went to the library.
Happily waiting his turn














Signing his name













Deciding which design he wants for his card












Checking out his own books













Proud Boy!

Tackle It Tuesday: The Beds

Anyone who has ever read my blog, old one and this one, knows that there has been an ongoing battle with the bedroom space in our little house. I went back and counted at least six different posts about different bedroom changes in the just over two years I have been blogging.


And yet, here's another. But I think (or at least, hope) that this may be the last one for quite awhile. Noah had been asking for a desk in his room for quite a long time but his room was way too tiny. The room upstairs is huge and runs the length of the house but for reasons I will not go into here, he will NOT sleep upstairs, so we couldn't move him up there. So a few weeks ago, Steve and I came up with the idea for a loft bed for him. Here is the set up of his bed before....a top of a bunk bed from my parents, which we love, but had lots of unused space underneath for such a small bedroom.

Knowing it was quite impossible to do himself, he enlisted the help of Ron, Deb's husband. Although he was not a willing participant at the beginning, you could tell after they got going that they found their stride.
The day became a flurry of activity, and not always in such a nice way.

As soon as we got home from church and lunch was done, the boys and I set to work with the initial preparation, which included moving ALL toys out of Noah's room and upstairs to Aaron's, which was already a MASSIVE pig sty. It became clear that rather than sorting through toys, it would be necessary to spill EVERY toy that we owned into a huge pile in the middle of the room and start from scratch.


At least one room was completely cleared.














Now let me just say that I have started having really bad PMS for the last few months lately(which I will be addressing at my annual in a couple of months) and this Saturday was the peak of this month. The poor kids didn't know what was coming :(

Add on top of that two little boys who really didn't want to spend the day cleaning their room. There was indeed screaming, crying, toy throwing, and other unpleasantness happening. But four hours later, Aaron's room was complete, with his new bed (Noah's old top bunk) in place.





Then, it was time to go see how progress was going on the actual construction of Noah's new loft.

It was pretty cold outside so I changed my mind about wanting Noah to be involved in some of the construction but that didn't stop the boys from wanting to go outside and watch a little of the construction before I brought them in to settle in for a movie after the trauma of cleaning we had endured.

After a pizza break for dinner, the big boys were finally ready to bring the pieces inside to begin to put it all together in the bedroom.

From that point on, it seemed as if things went pretty fast. Actually, to me, I felt that they cooked along at a pretty good pace all day.

Due to the time change, bed time came earlier than anyone expected and by 7:30 I was rounding kids up for bed, but having a small dilemma of where to put everyone to sleep. Aaron was SOOOO excited to go to bed in his new bed but Noah's loft was still a shell standing in his room.



So I put him to bed in our bed, knowing full well that it was pretty unlikely that he would be able to fall asleep with the drill going strong next to him and the saw going outside. And I'm still not sure if he actually fell asleep or not. But around 9:30 PM, about 7 hours after they started with a pile of wood and a sketch on paper, it was done! I still can't believe they got the whole thing done in seven hours.

And it is very sturdy. It even held me :)

And after waking (?) Noah up and moving him into his new bed, I waited for him to fall asleep before beginning the process of moving shelves, toys, etc, back into his room. It took Minnie (the cat) about 30 seconds to settle into a new home under the bed since she could no longer go lay next to her buddy anymore.

The next morning, both boys had to take turns posing from atop the bed. And Monday night, as I understand it, the boys were actually excited to go to bed in their new beds. One of the things that made me happy was that BOTH boys got new beds of sorts and Aaron loves his bed so much that he goes up during the day just to lie in it.














Of course, now MY part of the job starts. It will probably take me at least a month to sand it all down, fill in the screw holes with wood putty, and stain it, but I think I will wait until it gets warmer so I can have the windows open. Which means, folks, that there will most likely be even more posts in the future about this bed.

Wondering if anyone made it to the end of this post, but I'm at least glad that I have the event documented. Now to get off the computer and head out to buy balloons to stick on hubby's car to surprise him for his birthday today. See you all later :)

300 Posts! Almost Wordless Wednesday: Action Shots

This is my 300th post on the Wheelz Blog in just over two years of blogging. Not sure if that's really a milestone or not, but the number stuck out at me while I was trying to decide which picture to post for WW today. These shots were the result of me saying, "Aaron, I want to try out the new camera. Jump for me."




























Silly Boy!

Potty Issue Question

I know quite a few bloggy friends who are all dealing with potty training issues with their young ones right now. Even though Aaron has been potty trained for several years, he is still waking up every morning soaked to the skin through his pull up and pajamas every morning.

We limit his drink intake for an hour before bed and also have him go before he goes to bed. He still wakes up soaked. I think he's such a sound sleeper that he just doesn't wake up. While we were at my brother's house over the break, I found out that my nephew (very close in age) still does the same thing and their pediatrician suggested getting him up to use the bathroom around midnight right before my brother and SIL go to bed. It is working for them and makes perfect sense.

So Steve and I decided to try it. But when I went to try it last night, several issues arose.

A. We go to bed fairly early so Aaron had only been asleep for about three hours. Would that really make that much of a difference when most of the night still lied ahead of him?

B. Unlike my brother's house, where the bathroom is right near my nephew's room, we would have to bring Aaron all the way down the stairs to the bathroom, coming much closer to fully waking him up rather than just letting him stay half asleep

C. Steve is concerned (and rightfully so) that with Aaron's personality, he may just decided to not go to sleep at bedtime if he knows we're going to be getting him up to use the bathroom in a few hours anyway

D. The kid is just way too heavy to carry when he is in a deep sleep that we can't wake him from

So because of these issues, I chickened out. And Aaron was so soaked this morning that he was changing his clothes at 6:00 before the rest of us had even gotten up.

I think it is a great idea to try but the logistics of it just don't seem to fit. So many out there are just saying, "Just wait until he's ready." But at the moment, he is almost 5 and a half, waking up SOAKING WET and cold every morning by 5:30 AM and even his brand new pajamas are becoming threadbare since we have to wash them after every single wearing. PLUS...I am really ready to not spend money on pull ups anymore.

So, my bloggy friends, what's worked for you?

I Just Laughed Out Loud

Just had to share the conversation I had with Aaron a few minutes ago

I walked into the bathroom to do my thing. Minnie the Cat followed me in (as has been her thing lately) and I quickly closed the door, but not before Aaron saw me.

"Mommy, can I watch you pee?"

In a not so nice scolding, "Aaron, that's disgusting. Don't say that again!"

"No, Mommy, can I watch U-P, you know Up?"

"Oh"

Aaron is going through a spelling phase now that he can read a lot of things around. He was holding the Disney movie Up and wanted to watch it while I was in the shower.

Oops...

Wordless Wednesday: Readying The Countdown

(The glue stick didn't work so mommy broke out her trusty glue gun)































9 Days to Go!!!!!!!!!!!

The Nativity...Aaron Style

Last year I did an entire post about all of the different nativity sets in our home. It has always been a special thing to see the kids not just look at the Nativity sets, but actually interact with them, even paying with the Baby Jesus. I think it makes a great opportunity for dialogue about the story and I love that the kids enjoy it as well.

So this year when I started getting them out, Aaron was SO excited. I put our main adult one and the main kids one both on the same table, on different shelves. Our Baby Jesus stays away until Christmas morning, but all the other pieces are up for grabs (figuratively). Aaron set right to work setting them up in different formations. Every morning I find them in different arrangements.

But my heart melted completely when I came in the other day and found the nativity sets like this:













Aaron had both of the sets arranged so that all of the pieces were crowded around to "see the special Baby"

I often marvel at the way my youngest son thinks. I love his mind and the heart that is behind everything he does.

FYI, I am not changing them. I think he's got it right.

Wordless Wednesday:Mid Sneeze

Wordless Wednesday: A Chuck E Cheese Birthday