2015 Happenings

Hard to believe we are already 3 months into 2015.  Also hard to believe that someone in our house turned 4 last month!  Seems like yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital.  But it was actually 2 homes and 2 states ago, which is also a little difficult to believe.  Lots of changes in only 4 years!

So, just a quick comparison:

Tiago - 2 days old

Tiago - 3 years and 11 months old

The second picture is him with his car which he painted at school.  I have been amazed at the amount of "homework" for Mom and Dad for PK-3.  I have gotten very creative with paper bags, cardboard boxes, and am even learning how to sew enough to put together the odd costume.  But I have to love this kid; he has never been much of a fan of costumes.  Even when we tell him that "all the other kids will be..." (dressed like kings and queens, wearing red, jumping off cliffs...) he tells us that he doesn't care what they are doing.  It does bode well for the teenage years.  

He is doing really well overall.  Now that we are out of the tantrum threes, he is pretty agreeable most of the time.  We are working a lot on communication, and instead of screaming/moaning/whining talking and explaining what he wants.  I am very proud of his vocabulary.  He is open to learning new words, and I try to use big ones so he can add them to his vocab.  Vehicle is one he learned recently, since we are constantly discussing cars, SUVs, buses, tractors, boats, and everything else with wheels.  

We had him in two different soccer programs, one at school two nights a week, and one through an MLS team which runs a  youth league here. He is playing with kids up to kindergarten at school and is generally quite intimidated (comes from having no competition at home), but he is more comfortable with the group of kids his own age.  And doing pretty well - last practice during the scrimmage at the end he kicked a goal at each end.  :)

Tee ball starts tonight.  He likes to hit balls that I pitch to him in the backyard, so it will be interesting to see how he does with the tee.  We have been discussing it, but he doesn't seem to quite understand how it works.

Tiago is still a boy who is all about his people.  Every time he gets upset about anything, he tells me that he is crying because "I miss my family!".  And he does love them all - my side, Jaime's side, aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone.  He drew a picture over the weekend with about 20 stick figures in it, and told me that it was the family, so he wouldn't miss them so much.  He is just all about his people.

And now the fun part - some recent pictures:

Our King Cake this year.

 Mardi Gras crown they made at school.

 Happy Birthday! (maybe next year we will comb his hair...)

The scientist.  He had some test tubes and pipettes and was mixing colored waters together.