Catching up with Ronan - Ronan is in his final year of preschool at The Learning Center. He's the big boy on the playground, a leader of sorts, and the younger kids really admire him. He's a magnetic guy in a fiercely independent way -- always creating new superhero games, finding a new adventure to begin, and making all kinds of tools and weapons and "science experiments." He's also quite the reader, mostly because he knows reading allows him to journey to new places. He hasn't mastered "real" reading yet, but he is obsessed with hearing stories and being read to. We recently finished reading the first installment of Harry Potter to him, along with the first book of the Dragon Slayers' Academy series. He also enjoys Greek myths, soldier/battle stories (Beowulf, Star Wars), superhero stories (Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man), quirky tales (Sendak's Brundibar), and, perhaps most of all, he loves the stories that we make up for him. All through Italy (more in the next post), Popo Kathy sat in between the two kids, weaving tale after interesting tale for them. What a precious treat!
Ronan is our string bean -- tall and lean and strong and active. At his last check-up he was in the 95th percentile for height and 70th for weight. His BMI was in the 20th percentile. He is so slim that the doctor advised us to keep up the full fat everything in his diet -- milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. -- since he clearly needs the calories. Healthwise, Ronan has had a good year compared to the previous year when he seemed to have more asthma problems. We only had to use his asthma inhalers a few times this past year. He did have an unusual situation develop early in 2009 -- a hydrocele (swollen scrotum) that was probably there since birth. We decided to have it surgically fixed in July and he was a real trooper. In May we had Ronan tested (finally) for food allergies and learned that he's severely allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and egg whites. Interestingly, he's not allergic to shrimp. So, our house is stocked with Epi-Pens and we carry a pen everywhere we go with him. Given his worried, concerned nature, he is very careful with his foods and always asks people who may be feeding him if there are any nuts or eggs in the food, bless his heart.
Ronan will be entering kindergarten in about 7 months. I cannot believe it! We just finished registering him for the Palo Alto public school system. He will most likely attend our neighborhood school, Addison, but we are also considering an alternative school called Ohlone, which admits students by lottery each year. We'll know more in February -- keeping fingers crossed and minds open now!
Now that Ronan is almost 5, we have a pretty good idea of his temperament and the areas that might prove challenging and triumphant for him in the coming years. He prides himself on being a "maker" -- someone with a vision and creative ideas who can bring those ideas to life. If he's not crafting a real, working bow and arrow out of sticks, rubber bands, tape, and chopsticks, he's making a telescope or an oxygen tank or a sword and sheath. He went through a lovely period of making books and dictating to us the stories to go with his pictures. He has an astounding memory and regularly mentions details of events and people from... years ago. We think this is all part of his "hyper perceptive" personality. Everything is heightened with him. He is also wonderfully loving and protective of his little brother and a sweet, affectionate boy with us. On the challenging side, Ronan can be very sensitive, anxious, and worried about new situations and activities. Change is difficult for him. He's already passionate and emotional, so during times of transition, he can be downright recalcitrant, nervous, and angry. One of our goals as a family is to help him foster his creativity and engineering prowess while also helping him manage his emotions during the transitions that are inherent in daily life. We are so interested to see what he chooses to become as a young man and as an adult.
Catching up with Callum - Our little Callum is now almost two years old and a joy to be around. We all adore Callum. He laughs a lot, he sucks his thumb in an endearing way, he's "chubby and cute" (according to Ronan), he cleans up his toys, he helps us around the house, and he snuggles with us every chance he gets. While Ronan is intense and opinionated, Callum is easy-going and flexible.
From September 2008 to May 2009, he went to daycare/preschool at Ronan's school, but unfortunately he spent almost the entire nine months with ear infections and colds, medicated with increasingly potent antibiotics. Not our idea of a good preschool experience. So we brought him home in May and hired the most amazing (really, we are crazy about her) full-time nanny to care for him while we worked. She is such a reliable, sweet, conscientious, and caring person and has developed a strong bond with both Callum and Ronan over these last six months. In August we decided to get ear tubes for Callum since he still had fluid lingering behind his ear drums. The surgery was nerve-wracking for us, but quick, not painful, and it completely changed our lives. Callum has been ear infection-free since the surgery in August and we thought he couldn't last a few weeks without a new infection! Now that he has been able to hear clearly for five months, his language has really taken off. He can repeat almost any word we say and he is regularly talking now, forming more and more two-word combo sentences. It's delightful to watch him develop and flourish now that he's feeling more healthy!
Callum gets along with pretty much anyone. He loves dads (as much as Ronan loves pretty ladies), he waves and says "Hi!!!' to everyone, he gives people hugs and high fives. He is still a loud little boy, his voice so much more penetrating and piercing than any of ours. He loves trying to do whatever Ronan is doing, just like all younger sibs. And he's content to be in our arms, snuggling and caressing us. One of his funny habits, which he probably developed while I was nursing him, is to slip a hand down the front of my shirt while sucking his other thumb. He immediately relaxes and rests his head on my shoulder. He doesn't do this with anyone else, thank goodness, and I don't actually mind that he does it with me. It's sweet. I nursed him for 17 months and, truly, I enjoyed every bit of it.
Callum, we predict, will be our sports fanatic. At such an early age, and with little or no anxiety, he marches forth and tries out any activity that might involve a ball, a bat, or wheels. He loves watching kids play soccer and baseball. He instinctively knows how to play catch and how to kick a ball in a certain direction. Last weekend we went bowling for a kid's birthday party. Ronan's anxiety prevented him from willingly participating, but Callum LOVED it. He watched a few seconds of other kids bowling and immediately tried to pick up a ball himself. I carried the ball over to the lane and he basically threw or rolled the ball himself for the rest of the game. He loved it and was so pleased with himself.
And Mom and Dad - We're working, we're trying to get our lives more organized, we're trying to see friends and family more regularly, we're going on more dates, we're saving to buy a house, and we're getting skinnier/healthier. :-)
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