March 8, 2012

6.75 years old

Life with a 6 year old has it's challenging and rewarding times.  I won't complain, it is nice to have children who are old enough to do things on their own.  I keep waiting for a child to reach the age where we can comfortably go out and have them babysit the others. I hear that is when family life changes.
If you ask me Keaton is 6, but if you ask him, he is almost 7. Only 4 more months to go. July 15th to be exact. He is already planning it all out.
Here is a little bit about what life has been like for me with Keaton.

SLEEPING  Keaton was never been a good sleeper.  Since the day he was born, he has never slept really well.  I am not sure if I am to blame for that or not.  Keaton was one of my most challenging babies (putting it nicely).  If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have stressed out about it as much.  Life is okay and he would grow up to be an amazing young boy.  Anyways, back to sleeping.  He goes to bed between 7:30-8:00 p.m.. He will usually wake up at least once or twice but lately we haven't seen or heard from him all night long.  This might be the start of something here. I like it.  He is usually the first to wake up bright and early - 6 a.m.  He usually knows not to come into our room and go straight upstairs to put on a cartoon or something.  We don't want to wake the others.  Usually Ellie has already beatin him to it at 5:45 a.m.  That is about to change too after she is done teething.  I just wish he would sleep alittle more, but people tell me all the time that some kids need more sleep than others. Early to bed and early to rise is our Keaton.
EATING  This is a struggle for me.  I have always dreamed of having a child that would rather snack on veggies and fruit than a fruit snack or a gogart.  Is that practical? Lately it has been a struggle to get Keaton to sit down and eat an entire meal.  Breakfast he does pretty well at. He is at school and brings his lunch pal home clean, so I know he is eating what I pack for him.  Dinnertime, well that is a whole new ballgame.  Tonight for example, I had made some Wild Rice Chicken soup with bread.  The first thing Keaton said when he saw it (enter crying child here) "Why did you make this soup? You know I don't like it! I am not going to eat it, only the bread!"  This is usually what he says most nights.  He would settle for maccaroni and cheese or hot dogs each night and be perfectly content.  He gets distracted easily especially when all of his friends are outside playing and he has to be inside eating. He will try to get out of eating but we make him eat a certain amount before he is allowed to leave the table.  So tonight he had to eat his bread and take 3 big spoonfuls of soup before he could go.  So he did it and was gone.  Bedtime rolls around, " I am so hungry, I am starving! Can you make me something to eat?" (Enter a tired, frustrated mom) This happens quite often.  How do you teach them? Seems like he never quite gets it. Some days I want to just give in and give him something to eat so he will stop the whinning but what would he learn? So he went to bed hungry tonight. Heaven forgive me but hopefully lesson learned ?
GROWTH SPURTS  Keaton gets growing pains and sometimes he gets them pretty bad. I won't lie, they are no fun. I rememeber having them as a child and they were pretty uncomfortable. I swear sometimes I can still feel them now and again. Maybe I am still growing. When this happens he will come and get him and I have been using some essential oils and it seems to really help him when I rub his legs with it.
PLAYING  Keaton loves to play.  Especially with his friends.  His good little friend Logan who lives just across the street has become his good little buddy. They are together when they can and they get along so well together.  Their favorite thing right now are Lego Ninjagos.  Keaton has always enjoyed a good playtime.
SCHOOL LIFE  Keaton is in the 1st grade.  He loves school.  He constantly amazes me with how much he has learned.  There is really no homework that is sent home with him during the week and he can retain everything he learns without trouble.  He is reading at a 3rd grade level right now. He really enjoys reading.  It has opened a whole new world to him.  He still gets excited to have hot lunch every now and then when it is something that he really likes.  I will keep letting him think that way. It doesn't stay that way for long.  He enjoys learning and has a great group of little friends. It is fun to walk down to the school and watch him come out of his class room and over the cross walk to where I am waiting for him.  He is excited to go home when the day is done too.  He gets worn out.
HOME LIFE  Am I a boring mom? Probably. But I hope not.  We have a pretty happy home life I think.  The kids are healthy, happy and doing well.  We have had no problems with home life.  Sometimes we get alittle bored now and then but that is when the imagination comes to life.
THINGS TO WORK ON   There is quite a list of something to work on. There is always something that needs to be worked on but for now, we are trying to teach our children obedience.  Seems like they never take us seriously until about the 4th or 5th time.  I am tired of it! They should be obedient to whatever is being asked of them.. I feel myself rasing my voice quite abit during the day and that tends to make me grumpy. Any ideas on how to get them to learn the first time we ask them? I am taking all ideas!!!!
We are also working our prayer. Seems like prayer time is a time to be silly.  Now I know that kids will be kids but there comes a time when some reverence is in order.  We are still working on that.
FAVORITE TOY  Keaton's favorite toy right now I would have to say are his lego ninjagos. He will line them up neatly in a row each night on his bedstand.  Put them all together and design ships, etc.   He has never really been drawn to a certain toy like some kids are from birth. Keaton's interests come and go.
WHAT WE ARE READING  We are reading a few things right now.  Lance's father compiled a notebook full of stories from his childhood growing up in Colorado. They are adventurous and very fun stories to read.  Our boys really love those stories and ask for a Grandpa Snyder story just about every night. They are starting to memorize them.  For fun sometimes I will make a twist to the story that is not written to see if they are actually listening. They will catch me on it so I know they are listening and that they know the real story.  We are also reading The Wizard of Oz.  They are liking that story as well.  After we read the story we usually watch the movie to compare.  We just finished reading Charolette's Web and Heidi.  One of my favorite things to do is read to them at night. They are in bunk beds right now and they just lay there and gaze up at the ceiling and listen carefully and then ask a million questions while I am reading. Love it!
EXTRA ACTIVITIES  We just enrolled the boys in spring sports. So that will be coming up shortly.  They are excited about that. Keaton will be in a League for older boys that do coach pitch.  Last year he did T-ball and he was too old for that. Kind of got bored but it was nice to have both boys on the same time. It made it easier for a 9 month pregnant mom to get around.  This year Keaton is in his own little league. I am excited to watch him this year. He is really, really good. Some kids have to work really hard at something like baseball and other things, well for Keaton, I swear it just comes naturally.  With golf, soccer, basketball, football, you name it. He loves it and knows how to play the game.  Hoping he will go pro one day so Lance and I can retire early. Wishful thinking I know but it is always nice to dream right?
That is our Keaton wrapped up in one Post. Of course there is so much more to this intelligent boy of mine that I wrote here but it gives you an idea of what our life is like with this sweet boy in our lives.  We love Keaton!

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