2018/19 school year

James is in kindergarten, Sonja and Michael in 4th grade, Nikolas in middle school, and Stephen at home with Ms.Noreen.

We found a perfect nanny for Stephen--and our nanny found a perfect baby who doesn't fuss, who goes to sleep with no resistance and never cries--everyone is amazed when they see Stephen curl on his belly, with his knees tucked under him, thumb in his mouth, ready to sleep with no complaints. No rocking required.

Two brothers getting along in a shopping cart

Practicing dress-up before Halloween

James is very quiet at school, his teacher Mrs. Clark says.  I guess he is saving his words for after school, because at home he never stops making sounds--if he is not talking to someone, he is talking as he plays war with Lego people, or humming, which eventually turns into loud singing.  His first questions after school are 'Can I have a playdate with Sebastian?' and 'Can I play Minecraft?'
I did let him play Minecraft during fall semester, and it was too obvious how video games affect young minds, creating addiction and aggressiveness.  At some point we had to cut gaming out completely.
 
Same thing with Nikolas.  All he wanted to do for a while was play with his friends on Xbox, and we let him as a reward for being so good at school.  But again, as it started absorbing his life, we had to disconnect Xbox.  Nikolas has been taking all advanced classes offered and 7th grade math, doing all of his work independently with great results.  Very proud of him.

With baka

Sonja has been swimming and playing soccer at the same time for a little while until swim schedule changed to overlap with soccer.  We've had to pause swim practices several times for a month or two at a time so she could participate in soccer leagues.  Luckily, the club allows it, as much as I feel embarrassed about it.  She is choosing soccer over swimming (although she has a great predisposition to become a great swimmer!), so we'll keep swimming in the back pocket anyway.  As for soccer, she has advanced to be among 12-yr-olds, and the coaches love her enthusiasm and sportsmanship.
Next year she'll start on the travel team.
 

Michael and Nikolas have both been on baseball travel teams.  Baseball 5-7 days a week..... Now that we've built a batting cage in the backyard, it's baseball non-stop.


Managing travel to different places for the two boys has been challenging for Robb and me, and I can't even imagine how it will be next fall when Sonja starts traveling with her soccer team! 
This winter I managed to make it to California to visit deko at the same time my mom was visiting him.  Some pictures from an always beautiful Manhattan Beach....

LA in January 2019 (with baka and deko)

Grandma and grandpa visited us in January:
 

 Here is Stephen lounging on our brand-new firepit patio, completely relaxed:



Sonja's newly formed soccer team went to Tampa for their first tournament.  This was only supposed to give them a feel for the travel team that they are going to be in next fall.  They played 12 year olds because no other 10U teams signed up (and for us it didn't matter, it was just for practice), however, our girls ended up winning the entire tournament!


 Nikolas had a couple of friends over for a sleepover on his 11th birthday:













Just a couple of cute pictures of Stephen:

Eating yogurt (hopefully some ended up in his belly)

May 2019: James on a class field trip


June 209: Sonja's first swim meet with the Gator Swim Club:


James has learned how to rollerblade :)

Someone looks very excited opening the birthday present!!!!  Stephen is turning 2!
 
 















June 2019: at the piano recital, Thomas Center



Stephen is starting to get interested in train tracks and to put them together by himself:
 

 This year all our February birthdays are getting celebrated in June, because travel baseball took all of our prior weekends!

 



 Paper recycling:


 Yum, ice cream!


And just another photo, before I cut Stephen's hair:

Sonja joins swim team

Like I mentioned, those swim technique lessons really paid off, both for James and for Sonja--I finally found a swim team for her that would fit our schedule (Sun Country) and she got evaluated for every stroke, including butterfly that she had just learned with our instructor at home, and she got accepted.

She's been swimming 4 times a week, 6 hours total per week, and she has already improved.  Her lung capacity is getting better quickly.  It's so much fun to watch her progress. And the best part is, she is always excited about every practice and never complained about being tired.  When I asked her if she'd be up for swimming an hour on Wednesdays, and then going over to her soccer practice right afterwards when her soccer season starts in September, she said she'd do it and see how it goes, if she can sustain it.  Always willing to do her best!  Attagirl!

A month after we joined the swim team, the team merged with the Gator Swim Team, which is a serious team, and last weekend we went to the first meet in town under a new name.

Sonja's very first practice at the Sun Country pool.

First meet as part of Gator Swim Club, Gainesville

Ready, set, go!

James starts kindergarten and learns how to swim!

First day at the big kids' school!

Proud kindergartner :)

Over the past month we've been getting swim lessons for James (to learn from scratch) and for Sonja (to learn proper techniques).  They have paid off big time!  James went from a chatty kid who is happy to hang out on the steps of the pool and in the hot tub where he can reach the bottom and merrily play with no interest in swimming, to a real swimmer--in just about a month.  He started pushing off and diving though water from one side of the pool to the other, as well as swimming on the back and freestyle.  I got him a nose clip so he wouldn't have to hold his nose with one hand, and that was helpful.  As soon as he realized that he could swim, he started jumping off the pool head first (!) and then also doing both front and back flips in the water!  I was shocked by his courage and determination.  Nothing stops this kids when he sets his mind on something.

Stephen is standing by himself, cruising

Stephen is standing more and more on his own, without realizing it.  He is such a cuddly little thing-perfectly chubby, and likes to cuddle with us or with pillows, blankets, large stuffed animals....
He wobbles with both arms bent at elbows at his sides.  While the trick is to give a new walker something to hold in the hands to make them think they are holding on to a stable object, this didn't work with Stephen.  He wouldn't hold anyone's hand or anything in his hands, but likes to keep his balance with just moving his arms on the sides.

His favorite destinations are couch (grabbing for remote controls to press buttons and watch the lights turn on as he points the remote towards the TV); electronics (again, pushing buttons to turn lights on and off and to see the CD tray come out); his changing table (pulls all the clothes down to the floor, and also unzips the bag that holds his socks to pull the socks out); kitchen drawer that holds plastic containers (they have to be replaced at least a couple of times a day); kitchen drawer that holds cake sprinkles and extracts (shakes the sprinkles, of course, and plays with little extract bottles); bathrooms (as much as we keep him away, he sneaks there, too, and goes for the toilet water....)

Standing without holding on....

Just chillin' on the pillow

Rummaging through his favorite kitchen drawer (where I keep cake sprinkles)

Someone got caught!

Stephen and Michael, dancing

Stephen is getting started on the comic books, keeping up with his siblings.

Disney with Grandma and Grandpa

Right after we came back from California, we repacked to spend a few days in the Disney World with Grandma and Grandpa:

James particularly enjoyed driving the race car!

Sonja in her race car in front of me and James

Stephen notices Eeyore approaching....

.... and bursts into tears and screams, moving away as far as he could!

 

 

 

 

James won't have it!  These strange, large creatures terrify him!

Big bear, CA

We are here in Big Bear with deko for a couple of weeks!
We're spending time watching soccer world cup in our cute log cabin, walking to the end of our street and into mountain trails after breakfast, and, at the end of the day,  driving down to the lake for a walk with deko where it's flat and easy for him walk and where the kids can enjoy the beach.
It's great to get away from FL heat and humidity, enjoy early morning coffee on the terrace, watching sunrise over the lake and mountains. It's wonderfully chilly in the morning--but by 9am it heats up.
Stephen bonded with deko immediately.  He spends a lot of time entertaining himself rummaging through kitchen cabinets and pulling spices out (we are keeping other things away from him).  He cruises along the kitchen, along TV stand, along the fireplace, and now also, up and down a couple of steps between living room and kitchen -- we are showing him how to go down legs first instead of head first.  We can expect him to walk any day now.
He giggles, 'talks' and makes funny faces all the time.  Somehow he knows exactly when people around him are joking around and laughing about something, and he joins in with his grown-up sounding chuckle, 'heh-heh'.
When I hold him in my lap and he decided to grab someone's attention,  he'll stand up, raise his arm with all fingers outstretched and call 'heeeeh'. I caught him opening a forbidden cabinet and yelled 'ne, ne!' He paused, looked at me, and said something that sounded like 'ne, ne', and then went back to rummaging.
One thing that he is overdoing, and I'm allowing it for now, is nursing.  Since he is spending all this extra time with me, he thinks that it all has to be spent nursing, any chance he has, any time he is in my lap.  I'll have to rethink the plan to nurse him as long as possible, although I never planned to go much longer than a year....

The big kids have been enjoying playing Foosball in the house basement, putting together large puzzles, playing chess with deko, walking with me in the morning up the trails through the forest, collecting pretty rocks and looking out for any interesting animals (we saw a coyote, falcons, woodpeckers, no snakes or bears, thankfully...).  We were also able to walk to a local zoo where we saw much more of the local and not-so-local wildlife.

Morning gathering on the terrace

Hitting the trails in the morning

A brief pause on the trails

Walk by the lake

Deko, taking on the steep street on which we stayed.

Stephen enjoyed eating a good potion of fish and broccoli off of deko's plate.