November 2013

John and Larkin turned 3 years old on November 17th. Paul had a relatively small gathering for their birthday with family and friends. John and Larkin enjoyed their many gifts, including their new (craigslist, gotta love it) train and lego table, and the adults enjoyed some great food, courtesy of Costco (shrimp cocktail, sandwich rolls, spinach salad) and some great 7 layer dip by Kathryn, corn dip by Sase, and salad by Nana. The kids enjoyed (yes, this includes Uncle Pete) playing baseball in the backyard with J & L’s new bases, and John enjoyed using his new baseball glove. I’m not sure who had the most fun; was it Conner Collicutt smashing the ball around the yard or was it Uncle Pete playing target practice while throwing out the runners going to home plate. Seriously, Pete went something like 12 for 14 on beaning the runner while they ran from 3rd to home and this was like from 40 feet. Kathryn made delicious cupcakes for everyone (blue for John, and pink and purple for Larkin – as requested). Alex, John and Larkin’s cousin, was also celebrating a birthday, his 4th birthday, and he is a speedster. He sprints from activity to activity and rarely stops to take a breath. Go Alex! Give that boy a baton and he’s going to make a name for himself.

The Kindem family enjoyed an early Thanksgiving meal at Nana and Bapa’s house the Saturday before Thanksgiving. John, Larkin, and Reagan enjoyed spending time with their extended family members. Nana’s sausage gravy is out of this world good and the families enjoyed good conversations, watching football, and playing with the kids.

Paul and kiddos made the trek to Philly for Thanksgiving this year. It was an easy decision because Jamie’s high school teammates organized a 5k run/walk in Jamie’s honor the Saturday following Thanksgiving and Paul really wanted to spend time with Doug, Nessa, and baby Aiden. It was a truly amazing event and I encourage everyone to see the family update (soon to come) about this event. The family decided to divide and conquer on the trip up to Philly as they have done in the past. Dan and Maureen took sweet baby Reags, and Paul and Kat took John and Larkin. All three kids did well on the long car ride and John and Larkin enjoyed going through the Baltimore Tunnel and watching movies during the trip. John is a sponge when it comes to shows/movies, but Larkin is quite the opposite and is only entertained for 10 minutes and then she is ready for something else. This made things very interesting for Aunt Ki who sat in the back seat with John and Larkin for most of the car ride.

John, Larkin, and Reagan really enjoyed spending time with their cousin Aiden. Larkin wanted to hold him many times throughout the day and John gave little Aiden many, many kisses. It was so sweet to see. The weather was very cold for most of the week, so we spent most of the week indoors. Thanksgiving was relatively calm given that we had six adults and four children in a house with just one bathroom. Everyone helped out with shopping, chopping, and setting up the table for dinner. Dan Boy made his usual fantastic Thanksgiving feast, which we all very much enjoyed.

The O’Brien Family (led by Maureen) organized a nice family dinner at a local hotel for Friday night after Thanksgiving. Many family members were in town for Jamie’s memorial run/walk and we took full advantage of this by getting together over a buffet dinner. All of the extended O’Brien family was in attendance along with Paul’s entire immediate family, so it made for a wonderful time getting to know each other better and letting the kid’s race around the hotel. The kid’s made many trips up and down the glass elevator and most of the kids were on a sugar high from eating multiple pieces of cake. Everyone seemed to have a great time and the venue was perfect for having so many young kids there. Well done Maureen!

John and Larkin transitioned to a new classroom near the end of the month as they turned three. The transition is made a little easier for them than other kids because they have each other, but also because there are six kids in their class with November birthdays, so they all transition together. Paul met with John and Larkin’s former teacher and she told him that they are right on track, if not ahead, with their development. This is always a relief to hear for Paul because as a parent, you never really know if your kid is on the right track or not. John has shown much improvement when it comes to tantrums and being polite to other classmates and his teachers, and Larkin’s personality has exploded these past few months. She started off shy and reserved, but now is one of the more outgoing children in the class. Paul has also noticed a maturity in Larkin that she didn’t have before. Larkin has always understood things well and generally accepts things that are clearly explained and communicated to her, but now she is becoming much more independent with her thinking and her actions.

Reagan continues to be a bundle of joy for all of us. She has started to say words like, “up, down, her version of thank you, yes, no, diaper, and I want that.” Paul was sitting on the couch the other day with John and Reagan and the two of them were sharing a sippy-cup of water. John started to wine because Reagan wasn’t giving him the cup. I instructed John to ask her nicely, so he said, “Reagan, can I have the cup please?” Reagan looked at me, then to John, and gently handed him the cup. John then said, “Thank you Reagan.” John handed the cup back to Reagan and Reagan said, “Thank you,” then this repeated 10 more times. It was so cute and wonderful to witness the communication between the two of them. Another thing Paul is quite proud of is Reagan’s desire to read books. She will consistently go and pick up books on her own and sit down and flip through them. She’ll do this many times throughout the day. Also, most of the time when you ask her if she wants to read a book, she’ll say, “Yes” and then walk and find a book and bring it back to you. She’ll sit quietly on your lap while you read through the book, which is pretty awesome for a sixteen month old! Reagan has started dancing more and enjoys stomping around and spinning around in circles. She also loves to do things that she’s not supposed to. As soon as you tell her “no” she keeps doing that bad action and just laughs and laughs. It’s hard to be upset at such a cute little girl, especially one with an adorable smile and infectious laugh.

The simplest things can sometimes cause the biggest reactions. Paul has three booster chairs at the kitchen table. Two of them have a red back and one of them is solid blue. Reagan needs to sit in one of the red ones because these seats have a tray that fits them. Every meal John and Larkin fight/discuss which chair they are going to sit in, what color bowl, plate, or cup they want to have, and who is going to sit next to them. Most meals Paul doesn’t give them a choice and most of the time they are okay with this. However, there are times when this is not okay, and they want the same chair or a certain color bowl, etc. And, as anyone that has a 3 year old knows well, it is virtually impossible to reason with them when they’ve already set their mind on something. For example, the other day John wanted a dark blue plate (his pancakes were on his light blue plate). Paul told John there are no dark blue plates. John was adamant about needing one in order to eat his breakfast, so after being excused from the table and fussing for 5-10 minutes, Paul showed John the cabinet with no dark blue plates and a dishwasher with no dark blue plates. John continued to say that they had one somewhere, so after some more wining he pointed to a plate in the cabinet and said that was his dark blue plate. Paul grabbed the plate and took John back to the table where he transferred his breakfast from his blue plate to his “new dark blue plate.” This all seems normal except for the fact that this new plate was actually yellow. Oh, John Boy.