Tuesdays.

Tuesday.  Woodrow.  Tears.  Mine. 

Our Youth Center on base offers a great program called Start Smart Sports.  The program is for 3-5 year-olds, is 1 hour each week for 6 weeks and the concept is introducing basic sports skills.  The class is pretty parent-child oriented with a station system.  And it's FREE!  Woodrow was talking about wanting to play basketball for a few months because he'd see the sign-up poster when we would take Theo to Jiu Jitsu in the Fall.  So, I signed him up.  The class started in early January.  I'm so impressed.  The Coach is great, the tips were fabulous, and it was totally age appropriate, and did I say, FREE! 

Woodrow did really well at the first class.  He listened, tried all the activities with me, and we left and went and got him a mini basketball to practice with at home.  He told Theo all about class, showed him the moves, and had a good time.  Dribbling was a little tricky though.  Week 2, Woodrow did well.  While the class is an hour long, after about 40 minutes (the first 10 are instruction to parents mainly) the kids are pretty much over it.  Woodrow had fun.  He practiced the skills, and while dribbling was still a little challenging, he was getting better with passing and shooting. 

See.  Woodrow is the athletic one so far.  Theo would always pick up a ball and throw it backwards.  He does swimming and Jiu Jitsu, and he's good at those, but Woodrow is a natural.  That kid picks up a football and can throw.  He has got the moves.  But.  Woodrow doesn't like people.  I say this semi-joking and semi-serious.  It take a long time to get into Woodrow's circle of trust.  The time is decreasing and he has warmed up a little more, but it's hard for me. 

Week 3 and 4 resulted in refusing to participate.  Last week we went to class and listened to the instructions.  Woodrow tried the first station, one time, and then stopped and refused to continue.  So, after talking to him calmy, listing all sorts of bribes, we ended up leaving.  This just embarrasses me, even though I know it's normal.  It also just hurts because I know that Woodrow had fun doing it, he was good at it, but I think just being around those other people (7 other kids and parents, and the coach) was too much for him. 

Today, Woodrow didn't even want to go, but we went.  I debated not going.  But I wanted him to see if maybe he'd enjoy it today.  He held my hand as we listened to the coach, but he refused to try any of the stations.  This week there were only 4 other kids.  I reiterated that no one else was paying attention to us, just try the activity, we could even just do whatever we wanted to the basketball, but he wasn't having it.   So again, we left...mom in tears to the parking lot.

Lately, it's been very apparent to Mason and I that these tiny humans have so many of our/our families traits.  Theo is so artistic, but emotional and sensitive.  Woodrow is so athletic, yet anti-social and reserved.  Time will tell for Maximus.  It is hard for me to know that they get the best and the worst of us.  I don't want my kids to have any of the struggles that Mason and I face in our lives.  I want them to live their best lives and let nothing hold them back!  So, we'll keep trying new things and love them as they are. 

Maximus at 15 Months

On January 18th and 19th I was very aware that Max was turning 15 months soon!  So exciting.  Yep.  It's January 23rd and didn't note it on the 21st.  Sorry baby.  You can use this in therapy against me one day. 

Our sweetie is a bundle of energy and I should be burning waaaay more calories each day.  Maximus is on the GO!  He's a speedy walker now.  It really took him a month to go from the slow wobbly walk to trotting.  He is all over the place now.  He likes to keep up with his brothers for sure and doesn't like to stay contained.  He does pretty well at the grocery store, but if we take too long, he's climbing out of the seat, even when strapped in!  He also is still climbing, so I often find him on top of the coffee table, train table, or dining room table!  Yikes! 

This weekend I had to put away his 12 month clothes and swapped out the 18-24 month clothes.  Acceptance.  It's hard for me.  But I've done okay about packing away and donating the clothes he's growing out of.  He's in size 3 diapers and has a little belly on him. 

Our little Guam baby LOVES to splash in the water whether it is the pool, beach, or bathtub.  He went to the base pool for the first time last week (I think).  The older boys are in swim lessons and I think this may have been his first time in the pool.  He really likes playing in the water at the beach and crawling around in the sand.  We've gone a longer time without a bathtub poop incident, so that's a plus, fo sho! 

Maximus is so curious about all the world around him.  He is frequently caught with his brother's toys, chewing on nerf gun bullets, opening drawers in the kitchen and getting into everything.  He's taken to his pacifier much more as he's teething again.  He'll often get it and his blankie from his crib and walk around the house with  them.   He got one more tooth this month for a total of 6!  He's saying: dada, mama, mo-mo (more), wa-wa (waffle), ball, baa, ni-ni (night night), bye-bye, wodo (woodrow), bro-bro (brothers). 

Little man also loves some carbs!  Max loves waffles, mini pancakes, goldfish, pizza, fruit and he's drinking water, whole milk, and the occasional juice box he swipes from his brothers.  He's off bottles and completely drinking from sippy cups/straws now.  Time to pass the bottles along. 

We get a few special hours together each day when Woodrow and Theo's school overlaps.  Most days this is Max's quick naptime, but other days we have some fun.  Mason declared the other day, "I feel a little sorry for the other ones, because Max is definitely the cutest toddler out of all of them."  Ha!  To say we all love our Maximus would be an understatement.  He's a busy guy, but we're so glad he's ours!

Fun in the Sun: Fish Eye

While the Mainland is in the throws on winter, we are having our own winter here in Guam.  Mid-December through mid-February is the nicest time in Guam.  There is usually a strong afternoon/evening breeze and the temperatures drop to about 78/79 degrees.  After 4 Minot winters, we are soaking up our time in Guam, especially knowing it will be coming to an end this summer.  Over the winter holiday we didn't travel and so we spent a lot of time at the beach.  It was perfection. Mason and I had some scuba dates, we had beach dates as a family, and some stay home and build legos and relax days. 

On New Years Day we went to Fish Eye for the day.  This area is a marine preserve and a popular tourist location.  We don't tend to go here too frequently, just because it can be more crowded.  We were there for the beach, but there is a large pier and underwater viewing area you can pay to enter, many beginning scuba divers/tourist groups come here all day, and there is an underwater walk experience others come for.  The beach wasn't too crowded since it was a "cooler" day with a stronger current.  It was nice to just relax and kick back.

Woodrow was particularly eager to snorkel this day, which was fun since sometimes the boys are so wishy washy about wanting to snorkel.  We encouraged them that Fish Eye was on of the best places to snorkel because there are always sooooo many fish (tourists tend to feed them and they congregate).   He had a really fun time going out with Mason.  They saw the huge barracuda who lives there and parrot fish.  Theo stayed on the shore and talked every second that they were in the water.  Maximus just tried to be in the sea at all times.