6 + years of Wells and 2 1/2 years of Sutton

I haven't done a post like this in forever.  

Mostly because I do feel like kids deserve some sort of privacy and don't need to be blasted out as content. But also because the milestones are farther between as they get older. 

Wells started 1st grade this fall, a month after he turned 6 so I think he's the youngest in his class here. The cut off is August 1st and he was born in July. 

I think he really likes his independence at school this year. Last year, he was kind of fearful but now he (unfortunately) will roam and run the halls with other employees' kids. He has lots of friends and hates to go home, to be honest. 

He's reading, which he picked up on his own due to some stellar kindergarten instruction. It's really fun to hear him read signs when we're in the car or at the store. He loves to read the labels on food containers while he's eating. 

Since he's the oldest, we're still figuring things out...he has chores he loathes: unloading the dishwasher, picking up after the dogs in the yard, unloading groceries...he has homework each night (also loathes) and I find him homework if none comes home. He hates cleaning up anything, basically, and he hates going to bed but also hates getting up. Weird, right? Also, hates taking "no" for an answer. Likes to ask at least 4 times in case you say yes.

But Wells loves going places with Scott, he has FOMO and hates to miss anything social (we'd do a lot more social activities if it weren't for the toddler :), and always wants to do things that aren't "boring". He's easy to bribe and easy to take places as long as he's not being bothered by a toddler. He is very sweet and smart and figures things out on his own.

(Wells is in the kitchen making his own breakfast as I type this and I just think what a blessing him being 6 years old is.)

Sutton is the complete opposite of Wells. While she is just as stubborn, she is defiant about it. She has learned helplessness, which is our own fault, I'm sure. It's the age, but I remember being able to bribe Wells at age 2+. Sutton will not be bribed. She doesn't care. She is in it for immediate gratification. Yes, she is sweet and snuggly and kind and helpful. She also wants our complete undivided attention 100% of the time. Unless she's "busy" and tells us to leave her alone. "Busy" usually involves her and her pacifiers (plural) laying on the couch watching Daniel Tiger or building something with blocks or dealing with her shopping cart that she fills up with babies and stuffed animals and pushes them around.

She still has her pacifiers. I think maybe birthday number three will be the magic disappearance date for those. She doesn't take it to school. It'll keep her quiet in the car though since she's still rear-facing. (We'd flipped Wells to forward-facing around 22 months and Sutton is almost 32 months now. She is so much more of a baby than Wells was at this age.)

Sutton is an angel at school and a "big helper", as she calls herself. She's talking and running and doing all the things a 2.5 year old should do. She's totally potty-trained there. At home, it's a different story. We're still working on the potty...again, will not be bribed. 

Sutton is also a pickier eater than Wells was at 2 years old. She eats what I pack her for lunch but rarely eats dinner. Half the time, Wells makes himself and her a snack after school and that's their dinner and I'm fine with it. You can't make a 2 year old eat, I guess. 

All in all, we're having a successful year in 1st grade and daycare as we ride out this final year in Missouri. 

Trying to explain why she must smile for a picture if she wants to get ice cream on the way home

6 Years of Wells!

Wells turned 6 on the 10th. 

The last two years, especially, have flown by now that he's been in school. 

Wells enjoys Pokemon, school, riding his scooter, being outside with Scott, going anywhere with Scott, riding in the UTV, swimming, splash pads, playgrounds, and making friends with anyone and everyone he meets at pools, splash pads, and playgrounds. He likes to shop for toys with his own money and he will do anything for some time to watch Youtube. He loves Sutton and he loves his Nannies and Paps so much. 

Wells exceeded my expectations in his two years of preschool and he continued to do so in kindergarten. I'm not saying I've never worked with him, but I don't push him. He was tested for the gifted program this past year. I'm excited for him to go to first grade. He told me he doesn't need to go back to school because he's already learned everything. Yeah, me too, Wells. 

(Sutton is filling up a shopping bag with whatever she finds that she likes)

Outsourced the cake this year...he wanted Pokemon again and once was enough for me. 

On his actual birthday, we ate at Cracker Barrel, went to the army museum, and then opened presents and had cake. On the weekend, we went to the aquarium at Bass Pro. He did get to spend the whole week with Nanny and Pap. 

Wells was kind enough to buy her that baby doll with his birthday money.

In case you've been following along and keeping track, Wells has had FOUR birthdays in this house now: three, four, five, and six. Two was in Kansas and one was in Pittsburgh.  

                        Four birthdays in one house is definitely a record for us. 

FIVE Years of Wells.

Wells turns 5 today. We did cake and presents last night since we never know what time Scott will be home on a weekday.

First a reflection: When Wells turned one, it was just a celebration. Two was a bit more confusing. We had two parties in Pennsylvania and Wells and I were on our own in Kansas on his actual birthday. Three was harder for me because he clearly wasn't a baby anymore and he was getting ready to go to preschool. The only thing that got me through four was having a 3 month old baby, so it was okay if Wells was getting bigger because we still had a baby around. Five is different because he's a big kid now and she's not a baby anymore. Ugh. 

All that to say, my feelings surrounding Wells' birthday are so completely and entirely different than Sutton's. I expect it will always be this way. The 4th of July even feels different now. That whole summer in Wyoming is imprinted into my head, with him having a dead-center summer birthday. I remember the summer before so clearly too. "Summer" has a whole different feel to me now. 

In true big kid fashion, he wanted a Pokemon party. I did my best. (I swear I'm never messing with a balloon arch again. I will just pay $30 for two bunches of balloons from here on out because they love balloons. It's worth it.)

Wells is a noticer. He notices everything. He currently is obsessed with snakes and, well, I don't like snakes. He always thinks everything dies by "venomous snakes" eventually. He saw a dead deer on the road last week. 

Hey, there's a dead deer. 

Yep, Wells, there is. 

...venomous snake. 

Or...a car hit it, Wells. 

Wells is enjoying his little life here in Missouri. I have no idea how long we'll be here, but he's making friends and getting involved. He played soccer in the spring, finished preschool in May, went to summer school in June, he goes to Kids' Kingdom at church, VBS is coming up, and then he'll start kindergarten. He likes to be busy! He is always disappointed if I say it's a day where he doesn't have anywhere to be. He legitimately doesn't love Saturdays. 

This, again, was a year where Wells didn't have to move to a new state/house but we did make one trip to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving and he had a visit from pap, a visit from pap and nanny, and then a visit from nanny, his aunt, and his little cousin this week for his birthday. 

He's at the age where he has thoughts and opinions, so I just asked him where he wanted to eat lunch for his birthday. He said Panda Express. He loves the honey walnut shrimp there. I ate a lot of Panda Express while I was pregnant with him and after he was born because we happened to have one right there in Laramie on the UW campus. Nice, right? 

He loves digging in the dirt. He will play in the backyard for an hour or more, just digging, building piles, and covering himself in dust. 

He is very into Pokemon, Sonic, and ninjas. Still loves TV. As of this week, he prefers Wild Kratts, but he will still happily watch CocoMelon and Daniel Tiger and Bubble Guppies with Sutton. (Nothing beats those nature documentaries on Disney+ that Scott puts on for him, though.)

Wells is a true first child: he is neat and orderly in his own way. He likes rules. He loves expectations. He needs to know. He does not go with the flow. If you saw my Instagram story yesterday of Sutton digging into a banana split with two hands and laughing maniacally, Wells was sitting next to her, upset that he'd dripped ice cream on his shirt. He is my child for sure. 

Something cute and worth remembering: Wells calls my mom and dad Bridge Nanny and Bridge Pap because they live next to a bridge. He literally came up with this all on his own like a year and a half ago. He calls, then, Scott's mom and stepdad Tunnel Nanny and Tunnel Pap. Because in their neighborhood for Christmas, someone puts up a tunnel of lights that you can walk through. That's how his little three year old mind made sense of the places and people we visit in Pennsylvania. 

This is the cake recipe. I've been using it since 2020 for all birthday cakes. I added in a chocolate layer. The cake was tasty but not all that artistic. I did add some gold sprinkles into the yellow cake batter too because Wells loves sprinkles in and on everything. 

Wells does summer school

Kindergarten had an ocean theme at summer school. 

I actually laughed when I thought about Wells going to summer school. No way. He doesn't have to be in school for an extra month. He will only have a month and a half left of summer. Totally unnecessary. 

Then I thought about it...

He needed to get used to a new building. 

It'd be nice if he became familiar with the teachers. 

He might *gasp* learn something.*

Then Scott said What's the worst that could happen? He could make a friend. 

Then I thought about how all the kids around here already know each other. I don't want him to be the odd man out on day one of kindergarten. It'd be nice if he had some friendships in place. 

Then Scott said What else is he going to do? Watch tv all day?

That settled it. Wells was going to summer school. 

Every morning for the last 4ish weeks I dropped him off at 7:30am and picked him up at 3:30pm. He got used to a whole new group of kids, a new set of teachers, he ate breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria, and he got to know the lay of the land in our new school. He's spent more time there than me so far! 

When I think about it, it was completely intentional on my part, sending him to summer school; I'm trying to make life easier in the fall, not harder. If he's already comfortable there, I won't have to worry about him adjusting to kindergarten. 

This is not a big school but it has lots of big kids, so it's not like his preschool experience (for me, anyway). I walked in with him on the first day, but otherwise I just dropped him off in the car line and picked him up in the car line. There's no signing in, signing out. I don't get pictures posted on Facebook in a special group about what the kids did that day. Truthfully, I have no idea how parents just...drop their kids off at school, having no idea what's going on on the inside of the building. It's crazy to me. 

Scott told me to put him on the bus but that was a little too wild of an idea for me. The bus. Imagine. 

There have been a few pool trips where I talked to a lot of the teachers and got to know some of the kids. We even went to a birthday party last week. I can tell that these teachers love teaching.  (Um, it also doesn't hurt that I was in the building several weeks ago and talked to the summer school kindergarten teacher for a bit...I'm that mom already.) It's also a small enough school that every child is known by name, so I'm sure every teacher knows who this little extrovert is at this point. 

*I am actually a HUGE proponent of year-round schooling. No one in the world needs 3 months in a row off of school/work. You lose so much learning. Two-week breaks spaced throughout the year would be much more effective for everyone.

Friday Things 5/19

This has felt like a long week? I don't know. They're all kind of long weeks since we're in toddler-land. I have discovered that while it's 10000% easier just to stay home all the time when you have a little baby, it's 10000% easier to be out of the house with a 1+ year old because it keeps them busy. Chasing her around the house and saying no all the time gets old for everyone. 

+I'm trying to get back into hiking? I don't know. On days where it's just the right temperature, it works out. 

+ The LAST week of preschool pick-up. PTL. 

+ Preschool graduation was last night. There should be a medal for those parents who get everyone out the door on their own. We all looked and felt better pre-ceremony for sure. Scott had to meet us there. Since it was over past *someone's* bedtime, we had to just get take-out instead of going out to eat. It's so weird to think that we've got Wells ready for kindergarten and now we're back in the throes of "beginning toddler" with Sutton. 

She ate an uncomfortable amount of cake. She was up, then, until 11pm. 

His cap/gown/tassel were nicer than the ones I had in high school. 

I'm much more broken up about Wells graduating preschool than I am about Sutton getting older? Is that weird? He's my literal baby. I mean, so is she but still. I don't know how parents do this. 

+I used to love the way some fashion bloggers were just simply source where they got their things with arrows. No fancy "COMMENT LINK!!1!" or "DM for LINKS!!". Just here's where I got it. So...using the editing features in Stories to my advantage. 

Linking up for Friday Favorites! 

ICYMI:

Mother's Day thoughts

Best, Easy, and Practical Teacher Gift

Plus, Feminism on my Substack

4.5 Years of Wells.

I am convinced that as soon as a boy turns 3, you become unable to take a good picture of him because he just cheeses at the camera. Like, no discernible facial features. We've been at that stage with Wells for like a year and a half now. Here's a rare normal smile:

dressed himself on this day

Wells is shockingly smart. I feel a lot of peace in knowing that he'll be ready for kindergarten in the fall. From the minute I found out he was a boy way back in March 2018, I was hesitant; a boy born in July is always incredibly iffy when it comes to school. Should we start him at 5 or wait til he's 6? Then, I knew it'd depend on him. This is seriously something I thought about at least monthly for a very long time. Once he made it through most of PreK-3 last year, I figured he'd be just fine in kindergarten at age 5. This year he is doing PreK-4 and I think two years of preschool have made all the difference in the world. Highly, highly recommend that strategy! Put your boys in preschool at 3 to see how they do. 

But back to the smart part: he's always reading out numbers and letters when we're out driving and walking and shopping. He counts to 100 or 120 aloud all the time. He likes to build his Legos and play by himself quietly. Sometimes he likes books but he's not a superfan of reading; I can tell he wants to read and be read to, but he doesn't enjoy the process or something. I recently taught him how to play checkers and now we play checkers before bed instead of reading a book. He likes to cut and paste and scribble, but he does not (does not) like to color at all. He used to love to paint, but he's just not a fan now. I'm hoping he grows back into that. 

I spend most of my time just reinforcing life skills like change your clothes, wash your hands, put your shoes away, etc. I set out his clothes every night and he knows where they are for preschool in the morning. Same with brushing teeth. He's learned how to do that on his own too. 

Wells' favorite movie seems to be The Lion King. He watches it a lot.

Wells, like me, is very routine-oriented and task-driven. If something is amiss, he lets me know. He needs his vitamin every day, he lets me know if I forgot to give him something or do something I mentioned in passing hours before...memory like an elephant, that one. 

He is the sweetest as soon as he gets up in the morning and right before he goes to bed at night. He does not (does not) nap. He goes and goes from 6am-ish to whatever time we allow him to stay up until. During the week, I try to make sure he's in bed by 8pm. He's just that type and doesn't require a lot of sleep, I guess. 

He is a true first-born rule follower, but he likes to create his own rules. He's a negotiator and I often refer to him as an "unruly politician". I heard that from somewhere and it describes Wells perfectly. 

put his mittens on by himself

Wells LOVES people. He can make a friend anywhere. I attribute this to the fact that I took him everywhere with me for his first two years. He smiled and talked to everyone from the seat of a shopping cart and the highchair at restaurants. He never has toys or our phones when we're out and about. He's always looking for someone to talk to instead. 

Wells loves:

Fairlife protein milk, jelly toast (no butter) and eggs, Legos, Youtube, and playing with friends. He likes Paw Patrol and Spidey and His Amazing Friends. He told me yesterday that he "hates PJ Masks" when I offered him a PJ Masks band-aid. 

Wells doesn't like:

Going to sleep at night. Baths. (he tells me this every single day)

^^ That has been Wells since day one. He's never liked either of those.

Wells has his own personality and is completely his own little person. I tell him all the time that he's my little baby Wells and he tells me no, he's not. However, his greatest aspiration right now is for him to be "big enough" for me to allow him to watch Power Rangers.

Halloween-ish 2022

I'm not a Halloween person. Figuring out and putting a costume together is my nightmare. Halloween doesn't need to be scary; that's scary enough for me. Kids love it though. We did a costume when Wells was about 3 months old, I bought one in 2019 because I thought it was cute, and we skipped a costume in 2020 because we had just moved and we lived in the country and he didn't know any better. Last year, we did a trunk or treat for the first time ever. This year, we went back. These are at Scott's work, so the effort part is minimal for me. Half the effort of Halloween is finding out where and when to go. Wells doesn't do Halloween at school. Pretending "Halloween" is the day of trunk-or-treat has been really great the last two years. 

With all that in mind, I don't go all-out for Halloween. It's an -ish holiday around here. In fact, Wells was a ghost last year and wanted to be a ghost again this year. Done. I asked him if the baby should be a pumpkin or a bat. He said pumpkin. Done and done. 

Obviously, of course, trunk or treat was around naptime. 

I washed the ghost costume and put it away for next year. He might be too tall though, so I don't think I'll get three years out of it. We'll save it for Sutton.