Mason 4 Year Old Stats

I gave up on blogging a while ago but do look back for stats on the kids. I didn't record Miller's last few appointments but Mason had the following stats for his 4 year old checkup.

Height: 44 inches
Weight: 44 pounds

He was 97th percentile in one and 94 in the other. They didn't give me a sheet so I don't know which went with which measurement. I do know Miller was a half inch taller and 2-3 pounds less at the same appointment.

Mason wowed the nurses with his humor and decided to tell everyone they had a lot of good books to read at the office. He also danced for the doctor "Can I show you something?" He was hilarious.

Automotive Lesson

I have learned a life lesson related to new cars. NEVER buy a new car the first year the car comes out or has a major overhaul; especially if you are buying one with a year that is in the future.

My Volvo XC60 was a 2010 purchased in 2009 and it was the first year of that car. Lots of trips to the dealer. It didn't cost me anything, all under warranty, but the time and frustration was too much. I opted to buy a new car before the items were no longer covered by my warranty.

The new Tahoe...love the car but am extremely frustrated with Chevrolet. I drove off the lot with a recall on it. One would think if you are selling a new car, you would just do the warranty work before someone purchases it. Nope. Then it was the multiple trips due to no AC. My trouble shooting details identified part of the problem and it went to Chevy to find a resolution. Now, my locks quit working. Ryan was gracious enough to drop it off for me and while it was there 2 more factory updates/recalls came out (software update and lift gate recall). They were also taking a look at my temperature gauges that weren't showing the numbers correctly. They still have it.

In the past 9 months I have owned a 2015 car in 2014, it's been in the shop 4 times. Chevrolet needs to take a serious look at their quality control and testing procedures. I would gladly wait to purchase my next car knowing it had a little more testing under the hood (pun totally intended).

Maybe my next car will be a bicycle (pedal) but even those have gotten too fancy for me. Sigh.

November Already?

Facebook has clearly led to the demise blogging. It's much easier to snap a pic and tag it. Since I am lazy, there will be no pics to accompany this short update.

Halloween came and went. We had fun trick or treating with the neighbors. We were supposed to attend a block party but the group hosting was just starting to trick or treat as we were wrapping up. Instead, we had an impromptu gathering at our house. 9 kids, 6 adults, up until midnight?!!? Fun but I am too old to see midnight (hold that thought...).

Fast forward a couple more weekends and I flew to MN to visit Emily, Sheryl, Bridget, and Michele. We had a great time too but we stayed up until 3am and were back up before 8am. I am definitely too old for that. The following day was painful and took a bit longer to recover than years past. Plus, MN was snowy and cold. I don't miss that one bit.

It's been almost 2 months to the day I bought the boys a new pair of tennis shoes. They already outgrew them so today was new shoes and haircut day. Miller decided he wanted a bigger boy haircut so no buzz job for him. He looks so darn cute (and old!). He also decided he wanted tie tennis shoes. We will see how long that love lasts.

Next week is Thanksgiving and Xmas pictures. Hopefully I will remember to take some and post some.

First Grade, Growing, and All that Jazz

I don't think I posted back to school pics here since I hit up Facebook instead.

Miller is in the dual language program at his school (it's a pilot). He has 1.5 of the 3 hour block dedicated to reading, writing, and social studies in Spanish and the other half in English. Then he spends the rest of the day using English for math, science, and whatever else they do. His main teacher is the Spanish speaking teacher so he's immersed/exposed to it more than the other class (they have 2 classes of 18 that switch for that period of time) which helps, I think.

We are five weeks into the school year and I think he's doing a great job. He's picking up and reciting more things in Spanish. Ryan and I are app dependent for quite a bit to make sure we are saying things correctly.

He's reading more fluently (English) and appears to really do well with math. We don't have our first conference until the middle of October but so far, it's not affecting him negatively which was my main concern.

He got to take Mooch the Monkey (or something like that home) this weekend. The teacher gives the Ty beanie out to one kid each week that has earned it for being student of the week. Miller said he received it because he tried the hardest to learn Spanish this week. Whoot woo! Except now I have to help him write a short report on what he did. Always more work for me. :)

We are also working on his "Hispanic Week" report. He received Argentina as his country to research. We did a little surfing today and got the flag and map taken care of. Next weekend we will hit up foods and special facts. Then we have to decorate some doll in traditional clothing. Then, he has to give an oral report. At least they gave us plenty of time to get it done because this about drained the patience meter for me.

Mason is also soaring at school and I think he likes his big boy classroom. He is doing more and more that I forgot Miller did at that age. To us, he's still the baby in the house.

Mason has already outgrown the shoes I bought for back to school. Miller's have fallen apart. Today I dropped another hefty debit card swipe at the shoe store for new shoes. I can't believe how quickly they either outgrow or destroy them. I quit buying $20 cheap ones years ago but the more expensive ones don't seem to last either. Sigh. Darn kids.

Mason's back to school pics were adorable. Miller has his this week so I need to find him a shirt to wear. Of course he doesn't want anything nice and I am not willing to shell out a big amount of money for one pic = one time wear. Maybe he will have to wear his school polo. We will see.

Time to go figure out what else I need to prep for school this week. Fundraiser stuff came home and a wish list for extra supplies. I look forward to our taxes going up $50 per year for the school if it helps eliminate the money I shell out every month on little things here and there. Somehow I think it won't make a difference on what we send to school but it will help improve the aging buildings and lack of technology at the schools.

Mason 3 Year Old Stats

Mason's 3 year old check up was perfectly uneventful. He was weighed, measured, pottied in a cup, listened to, looked at, etc. He's on the right growing path and no shots this round.

Height: 40", 95%
Weight: 38.5 lbs, 94%

Doc said he's on track to be 6'3". Right in line with his daddy. No shorties (other than me) in this house.