Random Holly Videos

Jun 13

So.

By Shona in Happenings

I guess it has been a while since I posted. For some reason, the energy and motivation to do it are lacking. But maybe I can turn that around. I have lots of pictures, going back a year or two at least, that have never been posted. I would like to make it a summer project to get a lot of those pictures up here on the blog. Some of them are beautiful. My children are beautiful.

Emrick starts “Transitional Kindergarten” in August, which is crazy. And yes, I will now explain what Transitional Kindergarten (aka “TK”) is. California’s birthday cut-off date for Kindergarten used to be in December, which is relatively late. What that means is that you could start Kindergarten in August at age four, so long as you would be turning five by December of that same year. But a few years ago, they changed the cut-off date to September 1, and simultaneously instituted a program called Transitional Kindergarten. TK is designed specifically for those kids who would have been eligible for Kindergarten a few years ago when the cut-off date was December, but who are now out of luck because the law changed. In fact, enrollment is limited to only those students whose birthdays fall between the new Kindergarten cut-off date, and the old cut-off date (September 2 to December 2). Emrick will be five on September 16, so he is qualified for this “transitional” class. The class is not mandatory; its purpose seems to be to give kids who are old enough to be in school, but too young for Kindergarten a chance to prepare for “real” kindergarten the following year.

In Utah, the Kindergarten cut-off date is September 1, firm. There is no TK, so Emrick would not have had the opportunity to enroll in a public school at all there, until next year. So I guess that’s a plus to our being in California now. I am hoping that Emrick gets a lot out of the class.

Some districts have instituted a process by which some TK children may be allowed to go straight to Kindergarten instead, or straight from TK to first grade, skipping K altogether. There’s a petition process that parents can initiate.

In OUR district, it may be a little tougher to do something like that. I attended a K/TK info night back in March, and I learned that this is the first year that the district is going to consider allowing some TK kids to move on to K instead. There is no petition available, but apparently they are going to assess the children 4-6 weeks into the school year, and if they think any of them are already ready for Kindergarten, then they will move them to a K class. It has obviously crossed my mind that they may do this with Emrick, but I am not going to count on it, nor get my hopes and expectations up about it. Emrick is very bright, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he should be in regular Kindergarten this fall. I can see advantages and disadvantages to it. And honestly, I wonder if he will be too reserved at the beginning of the school year for the teachers to even realize how much he knows. On top of that, being Kindergarten ready is not just about knowing stuff, but it’s also about emotional maturity, and I honestly just don’t know where Emrick falls with that.

Anyway, so that’s one little update.

If I can get my blogging act together, I will soon post on the following events:

1. My birthday weekend in Monterey (hey it was a milestone birthday — you only turn 21 once!).

2. Grandma Sorensen’s visit here last month, and the tour we took of the Jelly Belly factory (for Emrick’s enjoyment, obviously).

3. Our upcoming trip to Florida.

4. The crazy adorable things that Holly does and the sooooo funny things that Emrick says (I’ve been writing them down!).

I hope everyone is having a good June so far.

Just for fun, here are two more pics of Holly, who is so precious I can’t stand it.

Bored and Beautiful.

2 comments

Mar 07

Holly is 18 Months Old/Happy Birthday to Me!

By Shona in BabysorII, Holly's monthly birthdays

Holly turned 18 months old yesterday, the same day that I turned… well, the same day that I had a birthday.

She is truly amazing. She is smart, stubborn, adventurous and loud. And she is so vocal. She is talking a lot now, though her speech is almost exclusively single words — nouns, of course. She says drink, cat, Mama, Dada, poop, eyes, nose, hair, hat, chin, cheeks, bum, shoes, outside, ice, dog, tree, and on and on. She also says Emrick’s name, though it comes out as “Enk”. But today she said “Emmick”, so she’s almost got it! She doesn’t combine words yet, except for one short sentence which she just learned this week. That sentence is “Stop it!”, a command she lodges at Emrick whenever he’s bugging her, which he does sometimes. And by sometimes, I mean all the time. He loves her so much and loves playing with her, and sometimes in his eagerness he invades her space, and bosses her, takes toys from her, pokes her, teases her, forces hugs on her, etc. It’s all in love (Really!) but teaching him to respect her boundaries and personal space is an ongoing process to be sure. Anyway, it is quite astonishing to hear my BABY yell, with perfect enunciation, “Stop it!” at her crayon-stealing brother.

I picked up this hat in Target’s dollar section, and Holly loves it. The day we bought it, she grabbed the People Magazine I was browsing in the checkout line, and then proceeded to open it and look at the pages like a grown up. Thank goodness for phone cameras.

Here are five things about Holly Belle.

1. She can hold a bulk-sized box of Goldfish in a headlock, using only her legs.

2. Sometimes Marcus and I think she looks like Tobey Maguire.

3. She finds it comforting to have one binkie in her mouth while holding another binkie on her head.

4. She finds it even more comforting to have two binkies on her head. She sometimes falls asleep this way when I put her down for naps and at bedtime.

5. And lastly, she likes to sit in buckets, baskets, anything small and cozy.

So that’s a little about Holly. On Thursday, I took her in for her 18-month check-up with our new pediatrician here in California. She had to get some shots, and the poor thing was so sore and miserable for the rest of the day. On the plus side, she slept like a rock at naptime for the next two days. And now, except for a very low grade fever, she is back to her old, high-energy self. I don’t recall her height and weight measurements (as taken at the doctor’s office) at the moment, but I do remember that her height was at the 67th percentile. I specifically asked about this because at her last checkup in Utah, they said she was at the 30th percentile. On the one hand, it surprised me to think that she was only at the 30th because she had previously registered much higher/taller than that. On the other hand, it made sense to me that her percentile ranking might drop since Marcus and I are short.

But she is growing so fast now, I would have been really skeptical if they had told me she was at the 30th percentile again. She is only 18 months, but she already fits well into size 2 clothes. I mean, most of her 18-month-size clothing still fits fine, but I suspect it will grow snug in a month or two, and in another month after that, it will be too small to fit comfortably. Her 12-month-size pants fit like Bermuda shorts now. Compare that with Emrick, who at 18 months old, was just starting to almost be big enough to fit properly into his 12-month-size pants. This is an entirely different experience. I find myself constantly thinking, “Ohhhh. So THIS is what parents mean when they talk about how fast their kids outgrow their clothes!”

Anyway, I don’t know if the doctor’s office in Utah made an inaccurate measurement last September (they did have a pretty rudimentary method of measuring, whereby they simply laid the squirming baby down on the examining table paper and then drew lines at the head and the heel, as opposed to this most recent measurement, which was taken in a tray with a sliding measurement thing) or if she was just in a growth plateau at the time, but in any case, it is clear that right now anyway, Holly is a little bit taller than average. I can only assume that this is Grandma Sorensen’s genetic influence! And I am back to thinking that Holly is on track to be taller than her parents and brother.

Here are some pictures of our big girl, taken yesterday morning.

Oh my goodness. This gorgeous, blue-eyed thing is so sweet and special, and we all love her so, so much. Oh Holly Belle! ~muah!~

4 comments

Jan 25

More to Come

By Shona in Uncategorized

I’ve been terrible about posting on the blog lately, and I wish that I’d been better… not because I think you all are on the edge of your seats about it, but for posterity. Some day, I hope, the kids will enjoy looking back at these posts and seeing themselves so small and amazing, and I hope they will understand how much they were loved.

We sold our house in Utah, and we’re there right now because the movers start packing us up tomorrow. I will give more details about everything later. For now, here are some pictures of the beautiful children.

Oh Holly! The feistiest one in the family!

I hope everyone is doing well. More pictures and updates soon.

2 comments

Dec 27

Random Holly Videos

By Marcus in BabysorII, Videos

We need to post a few updates about our move, Christmas, and the kids. In the meantime, have some videos of Holly having fun pretending to count and running around in her big brother’s shoes.

Dec 10

Emrick Turned Four a While Ago!

By Shona in Babysor, Happenings

Maybe it’s not exactly exciting to post about a birthday ~~three and a half weeks~~ ~~two and a half months~~ nearly three months after the fact, but Pookie needs some acknowledgement here! That kid is FOUR, and I can hardly believe it. His appearance, his speech, his attitude… they’ve all become so much more grown up lately. The last glimmer of “toddler” in him is finally gone. It makes me a little sad. Last night I was watching some old videos of him singing songs — posted on this blog in earlyish 2013 — and ohhhhh. My baby! He was so sweet, so round, so compliant!

But of course, it’s amazing to see him develop into a real “little boy”, one who can dress himself, get on the potty by himself, and get his own snack. One who reads and does math, and whose print is at least as legible as Marcus’s! One who often can operate electronic devices better than I do. And one who says things like, “Mommy, I’ve changed my mind about those guys.”

Grandma Sorensen was in town the weekend before Emrick’s birthday, so we went ahead and celebrated then. We asked Emrick where he wanted to eat for his birthday meal, and he picked Carrabba’s. Believe it or not, we had not been to Carrabba’s in a while. Our local franchise (the only one in Utah) came under new ownership/management last year, and the service has declined since then, so we don’t eat there as often. Plus, we just don’t eat out as much — especially to full service restaurants — now that we have two kids. But this was Emrick’s birthday meal and he wanted Carrabba’s, so that’s where we went! (And it was good!) Before we left, Emrick was watching me get ready and asked me to put some stuff on his hair. So I used a combination of gel and hairspray to give him a comical hair do.

I lifted Emrick in my arms so that he could see his new hair in the mirror. When he saw himself he laughed and said, “I’m not the same boy anymore.”

LOLOLOL. I have no idea where he got that, but man did I find that funny. By the time we got into the car a short time later, his hair was starting to look more normal.

Emrick is loaded up and excited for Carrabba’s.

Emrick loves his bread and olive oil.

Holly had no complaints either.

After Carrabba’s, we went home to open presents. The only problem is that Emrick fell asleep on the drive home, and the prospect of new toys and presents was not enough to wake him.

I stuck a present under his arm while he slept, hoping to get his attention. Nope.

But eventually we were able to get him awake enough to remember that he had presents (!) and soon he was opening them.

Grandma Sorensen got him a felt pizza set, and he LOVES it.

I got him some books and a notebook with pencils. He likes to write out his letters, and sometimes he doesn’t always do it in the right spot. So I bought him a notebook just for that purpose.

And then we had cake and ice cream. For the past two years, Marcus and I have baked and decorated a cake for Emrick ourselves. But this year Emrick asked for a specific cake from the grocery store. Over the summer, Marcus had bought a slice of some fruity cake from the Smith’s bakery that had pineapple and mango in it, and Emrick loved it. So then either Marcus or Emrick got the idea that we should get a whole one for his birthday. Great! But when I tried to get one, I learned that that particular cake had been a seasonal item (no longer in stock, now that the season had changed) that was special ordered and not made on site, so it was a no-go. So I bought this lemony thing instead, and added some writing to it with red gel. It was definitely a no-fuss cake, but it was quite good and Emrick liked it a lot.

Happy Birthday (again), four-year-old boy. No matter how big you get, you are my Pookie. Forever and ever.