the allen fam

So Proud of My Little Boy

At the end of August, Carter and Halle began going to Dancing Moose Montessori School on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30-3:30.  From the first day, Carter has LOVED it!!  It took a few times for Halle (and mommy) to be ok with the idea (we were both bawling at drop off time on the first day!), but she is enjoying it now.  I absolutely love this preschool.  Everything is hands-on, and their class sizes are extremely small.  There are six kids in Carter's class ages 3-5, and seven kids in Halle's class, all two year olds, and with two teachers .  They have their Montessori "work" time in the morning which is child-directed learning through manipulatives, etc.  Each child chooses a "work" from the shelf (puzzles, bead work, shapes, counting, etc.) and works on it with direction/explanation from the teacher for as long as he/she desires before getting a different work.  It allows each child to learn at their own pace, and no paper and pencils!!  I also love that each child is required to have a nap (or at least lay down quietly) for two hours after lunch, since both of my children still need their afternoon nap!  I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a pre-school.

Two stories about Carter I wanted to document so I don't forget...

    Last Thursday, Jesse and I went in to Carter's class after nap-time to bring cupcakes for his birthday.  [He turned 4 yesterday, so birthday post to come soon...]  After cupcakes, I got some time to talk to his teacher, Ms. Cheryl, while the kids were playing outside.  She started telling me about Jacob, a boy in his class.  Carter has talked about Jacob quite a bit at home, so I knew they were friends and played together a lot.  What I didn't know was that Jacob has some social anxiety issues.  Ms. Cheryl told me that the first couple of days, Jacob wouldn't play with any of the other kids.  Carter kept asking him to play, but Jacob didn't feel comfortable, so Carter asked him what he wanted to play.  He wanted to play Transformers, and apparently Carter yelled "yay! I know that game!"  Side note - Carter has never seen or played with any Transformer toys, so I'm pretty sure he had no idea what Jacob wanted to play, he just wanted to play!  Apparently, Jacob and Carter began playing, and Jacob has really started to overcome some of his anxieties.  He still gets nervous if there are more than just a couple of kids playing around him, but as long as Carter is there, he will continue to play without withdrawing.

    At back to school night in Carter's class, I started talking to one of the other mothers with a little boy in Carter's class.  She told me how her son, Aiden, had a really hard time the first couple of days at pre-school and cried pretty hard when she dropped him off.  She said that Carter always came up to him, gave him a hug, and said "Don't be sad, your mom will be back after nap time to pick you up!".  She was very appreciative of Carter befriending Aiden that way, and said Aiden talks about going to pre-school to see Carter all the time!

Both of these stories brought tears to my eyes as I heard accounts of my son acting in a way that I always hoped he would.  He did it on his own...no prompting from mom and dad, no selfish thoughts of a reward, just an empathetic attitude and concern for the well-being of his peers.  I can't tell you how proud I was and thankful for such a sweet little boy.  I wish I could say he acted that way all the time, but I am overjoyed that he would act that way when he knew I wasn't there watching.  =)  

The End of Soccer

We made it through our first season (6 games) of soccer with Carter and he had a blast!  It was great to see the progress he made over those 6 games and practices.  From crying at the first practice because he didn't want to be on the field with all of the other kids to actually kicking the ball the last couple of games was great for him.  His coach was really low-key (almost too much so for Jesse!), but I think it was great for Carter to not have too much pressure on him and have fun running around chasing the ball.

He learned a lot about playing with the team and also made a good new friend (see Coby below).  He had a fan club of family and friends every week to see him play (thanks to everyone that came!), and I think that helped boost his confidence since he tends to get embarassed when attention is drawn to him.  He is already asking when soccer starts again next year!  I'm sure we will try another sport or two over the next year and hopefully add some music lessons in there too!  =)

Carter and Coby

 

All Dressed Up

We went to a wedding a couple of weekends ago which we don't get the opportunity to do very often.  How cute are these two all dressed up!

The New Place

We have been living in our new home for a little over 3 weeks now.  We ended up closing on our old house 2 weeks early and moving with about 2 days notice!  From the time we put our house on the market to the day we closed was 28 days - crazy!!  We are settling in wonderfully and loving this change in lifestyle!  The kids have done great and made the transition easily.  Bed time has been a little harder since the kids are now sharing a room (it's super cute to hear them singing Jesus Loves Me and Twinkle Twinkle together, but not when they are supposed to be going to sleep!), but that was to be expected.  =)  I wanted to post some pictures of the house (mostly for my mom!) that now has 8 of us living there.

Moving

 

Carter and Halle's room

Our bedroom

Front room

Kitchen

Living Room

We have all become quite the organizers!  Nikki and I have used about every available space for storage, and Jesse and Kris almost have the garage so Nikki and I can both park cars in there!  It's pretty amazing since I know a lot of single family homes that can't fit two cars in their garage (that's not directed at anyone reading this post!).  =)

We have loved sharing our time with the Zyps, eating together, watching our kids become better sharers (there's always progress to be made there), and sharing responsibilities around the house.  We are really looking forward to what God has in store for us in this situation!!