Max + Finn: August 2013

Friday, August 30, 2013

3-year checkup

finn and i went to see dr. nancy yesterday for his 3-year checkup. finn has been to the doctor twice in the last year i think. both times brent took him. the first visit was last fall for a flu shot. he felt big and proud and didn't have to sit in dad's lap, didn't flinch once and thanked the nurse when she was done giving him the immunization. the second visit was to the emergency room after he fell into the sharp tile corner at the fire place while dancing. he cried when it happened and i too wanted to cry too when i saw the swelling and the bleeding. horrific. at the hospital, brent said he did great and barely cared when the doctor cleaned the wound and super glued it together. i didn't hesitate taking finn to dr. nancy to his 3-year checkup. basically, it is just a check to ensure he is on the right track. not a single shot scheduled at this visit. finn and i arrived with plenty of time for him to check out the fish in the aquarium. we got called in by a nurse who showed us where he was going to be weighed. without shoes. i bent down to help finn remove his shoes. he wouldn't have any of it. no. the shoes were to stay put and he was not going to stand on the scale. i got on the scale and showed finn how easy and fun (really..) it was. didn't work. what happened to that easy-going kid who sat perfectly still when his dad took him to get a flu shot? this nurse just wanted to get his weight! we moved onto the measuring thing on the wall. no interest in that either. again, i showed him how easy it was and the nurse played along. "now your turn, finn" in a chipper voice. no dice. so, i did what i had to. i told finn (in swedish so the nurse couldn't understand) that if he let us weigh and measure him, he would be rewarded with m&m's. it worked. not like he jumped up on the scale all happy or stood up against the wall without me "helping him" along but still. it worked. situated in the exam room, the nurse asked some questions while finn happily looked at books. she gave us a gown for him to wear after getting undressed. right. i got him undressed when she left and got the gown put on which lasted about 2 1/2 minutes. not too bad. the fact that the gown had pictures of that black cat (?) and the yellow little bird (tweetie?) and some other characters on it helped some. as usual, finn didn't say two words to dr. nancy but she and i had a chance to catch up. bottom line is that finn is doing great and all is looking good. finn got a green lollypop and a truck sticker. he was pretty happy about that.

stats from the visit are as follows:

Weight - 32 pounds / 14.5 kg (52% for age)
Height - 3 feet, 3 inches / 0.991 m (78% for age)

Max starts first grade

max has been back to school since late last week. We were ready for school to start back up.. It isn't easy to keep a 6-year old busy and content over the entire summer between camps and vacation while mom and dad try to get all their work done. I think max had pretty good summer overall but he too was ready to get back into the routine of school and to see his friends every day. ms. pardini is his new teacher and max is really enjoying being a first grader. The first couple of days, we walked him to the class room just as we did every day when he was in kindergarten. However, as of first grade, the kids can be dropped off at the drop off area and that's what max wants us to do every day. Just like the big kids. he has home work every day and not monthly homework, as in kindergarten. he has definitely been tired, especially this week, being the first full week back. we are all happy it is friday and look forward to some extra sleep (wishful thinking..?) and an extra day off with monday being labor day. needed!

Thursday, August 29, 2013

finn

finn turned 3 on august 9th, our last vacation day in sweden. it was nice for my family to have a chance to celebrate his birthday with him. we have lots of august birthdays in the family and celebrated finn, hampus (19) and sam (4) all in one day. it was a beautiful day and finn was so excited when he woke up. to finally be 3! his cousins sam and maj came to see him and they played at the play ground. after that, we headed to the beach and to lunch at marinan. marinan has it down..they are settled right at the beach and has part of the beach built into their outdoor patio so the kids can play in the sand in between bites while the parents have a chance to enjoy their food/drinks. genius.

finn he had been waiting for sooooo long to turn 3 and talked about it for months! several weeks ago, i came to pick up finn a little earlier than usual. the kids were up from their nap and his group were sitting around the little table, enjoying a treat. it was someone's birthday and the parents brought a treat for all the class mates. they had just handed out the cake when i arrived. i looked at finn and realized that he was crying and angrily pushing away the cake. he didn't want it. my kid - not wanting cake? something i had never seen before. after talking with his teacher to find out if she knew what was going on, we realized that he was upset and disappointed because it wasn't his birthday.. he was looking forward to it so much and knew it was "coming up". so sad!

well, our little guy is now 3 and officially a big boy. he wants to be just like his big brother. he in fact copies pretty much everything max does. this evening, he actually copied everything max said, sentence after sentence until it became just too annoying.

oh, and i called him a "big boy" the other day and he asked "am i a big boy now"?...followed by "can i have coffee now"? not yet buddy! one day.