Family Update

 Taylor is 4 months now. I can't decide what his temperment is or how to classify him. He is different than the other two were (or maybe I just can't remember). When he is awake, he is really content and happy for anyone to be holding him. When he is hungry/tired, he is a very frustrating baby. He just cat naps here and there, and occasionally he'll take a real nap. And he does not like to eat. I do remember when R and E were toddlers, it would be hard to nurse them if anything else was going on in the room because they were so distractable. Well Taylor is like that already! Even if we're in a room alone, it's off on, off on, off on. Which drives me crazy because my milk is on on, on on, on on. If you get my drift.  Anyway... Somehow he manages to gain weight at an amazing rate. He doubled his birthweight in 3 months, instead of the standard 6 months. He is way chunky, weighing now what Elisabeth (and myself) weighed at one year!

 

 Elisabeth is 3-1/2 and reading like a champ. We exposed her, sure. But she really taught herself. She also likes to scream. She plays great by herself but Rychen often tries to get her involved and they end up screaming at each other... we really wish they would just play on their own a lot of the times.

 

 Rychen is two months shy of 7. He can read a little bit better than Elisabeth. But his math abilities are well into third grade. Its intersting to see how the two kids have their individual strengths. He has only recently been doing spelling and is doing well, not because he is good with language but because he is good with memorization. So his guesses are terrible, but once he is taught how to spell something he won't forget. Rychen can read chapter books now but he still won't pick them up and read on his own. However he has read several books on audio, including the entire first book of Story of the World which is how he is learning Ancient world history. Rychen's good news lately is that he has nearly mastered all the songs in the Suzuki book 1 for piano and is now in book 2. Another exciting thing is that he can now eat oatmeal and eggs because we figured out he was only reacting to certain types. He is not allergic to oats after all, but the trace amounts of gluten from processing them. And eggs he can have naturally raised eggs.

 

 ME... I am doing a twice weekly swim class at YMCA and running the other days. I don't have any event plans yet but would like to do a few half marathons later in the year, and a sprint triathlon or two. But its just fun to get out and work my body. I am still working at home 3-5 hours a day.

 

 Rychen is swimming and running also; and just signed up for a Half-Ironman triathlon! That will be exciting. He is much busier at work now that a few more brokers have joined their office. But he still finds time to clean our house :) He is building our fence by himself. We just had our 8th anniversary and are still goin' strong!