My Five Little Monkeys

The Boys Are Away...

The girls will play!! Ok and Daddy too... How lucky are we that BOTH sets of Grandparents wanted to spend time with the Grandkids this weekend!! Best of all?? They wanted to do it in THEIR houses! Yay! Not only is this super exciting for the boys, because they get some awesome time away from the house, and get to be "one on one" for a few days. It's also really awesome for Jon and myself! We are allowed the freedom of only having two children! Getting out of the house with just two, is really so much easier for us. We really enjoy the freedom, and often times are able to get some things done that we aren't able to do with all five kiddos!
So this weekend, my parents have William. Jon's parents have Evan & Jack (they come as a package deal!) and we have the girls...
Yippee!! And thank you in advance Mom's & Dad's!! :) You guys are the best!!

Boy Genius

** I removed the music that was interfering with the video! Please view it again!**

Honestly, I'm not sure that my head is going to fit through the door anymore.

My child?

Yeah, he's a genius.

No big deal or anything... But yeah. A genius.

I mean in case you were wondering, or keeping track, or...just wanted to talk about it. If you're wondering who the heck I'm talking about, you have to understand that I totally think all of my children are amazing, super smart, adorable lil' people. I really am so able to recognize that each of my children has their own individual strengths and weakness'. I don't favor one child over another, and try very hard not to show favoritism toward any one child (at least not for any long period of time) heh. Now that I've said my "disclaimer" about all my children being equal.

CHECK THIS OUT.

Evan can read.

Yeah.

No big whoop right? Um wrong!! Totally big Whoop!! Hello people he's not even 4 years old. He can just barely speak, and moreover he has been able to do this for a period of time unbeknownst to us! EEEP!

So Evan. He's a prodigy I think. It all kind of started about 6 months ago. Right before we began the school year. I had been working with Evan and Jack both, and trying to fill in the gaps where their summer school program left off. I was working with Evan and playing with magnetic letters. I noticed that when I would move the letters and form small words like C-A-T he would point out the letters and sound them out. Much like you would teach a small child who is learning to read. The sounds never really fit together though, and the word would never quite come out as CAT. Knowing that he had such an interest in letters (and numbers too) I figured he was simply interested in the spelling of the word, and had no idea that there was truly a meaning behind the letters.

Fast forward to a few months later. I see Evan in the playroom, looking at a book, following the words with his finger. It was as if he was reading the book, just like we do, following along with our finger to follow the words. He was muttering while reading, but again, the sounds coming out of his mouth were fairly unintelligible at that time. Since then he has progressed by leaps and bounds. We aren't really sure of the exact reasoning behind it, but he did have a change in teachers right around the time that all of this language explosion took place. We noticed that Evan was liking school a lot, and was coming home very happy... Coincidence? Or Conspiracy? You decide...

Anyway, a few weeks ago while Jon and I were gone for the day, Jon's Mom Connie and Evan were able to sit down and devote a whole afternoon to letters, numbers, spelling, and figuring out if he could in fact read. Since his vocabulary had expanded exponentially over the past months, we knew that he could say words. It was just a matter of listening closely enough to understand what it was he was saying. Connie was able to come up with a list of at least 25 words that Evan was able to identify. She was simply writing the word down, and then Evan was speaking the word back to her. There was no picture prompt or verbal cue, to help him. It was all Evan, and his knowledge. Jon's Mom was beyond excited... I was so excited for her. I was even more excited though, for Evan.

So since we were able to tap into his awesome brain, we've been able to figure out that Evan knows no less than 55 words currently. He can sit down and physically 'read' a book. He absolutely loves to be read to, and is just as content to sit and read to himself.

Ok I've totally rambled on enough... Check out the video, turn up the sound, enjoy the show. Also know that in the video it's just Evan and myself. I have no visual cues for him to go by, and am obviously holding the camera, and typing with one hand... Excuse the typos and the jiggly camera!!

Holy Crap.

Thank you for pointing out that I haven't updated the blog since LAST MONTH. I was fully aware of that. I was also aware of the fact that it wasn't even a real post... Thanks. I've been just a little on the busy side... Turns out my au pair is away...again. I'm not feeling quite as introspective as I did the last time she went away. This time, I'm feeling beat down. I'm feeling worn out, beat up, tired, and really overall? Done.
Of course I'm still not going it completely alone, I am still blessed to have the help of Jon's Dad. But regardless of the help that I have, I still am run ragged at the end of the days. It has little to do with the actual interaction with the children and them wearing me down. Of course that's certainly part of it. It's more to do with the constant running, the endless cleaning, the laundry, the nonstop yelling (from me and them), the meal prep, fighting over eating, and the driving...OH the driving... back and forth, back and forth... and back again. Eeesh.
So What's been happening since I last posted you ask? A lot. But more than I can really encompass in one post... But I felt I should let you all know that I am in fact alive... I'm doing well. I'll be back soon. I promise.