Friday night - update!

Sorry, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth - just been busy with the usual usual STUFF!
It's Friday night and I'm watching Nemo (again) with the kids - building Friday night memories :)

Trick or treating was wonderful - It was mild and clear. The older boys went as the tiger twins, much better behaved than last year, and Matthew only blew out one pumpkin this year instead of every pumpkin on the block.
He loved it so much he decided that he was going to be a tiger for a long time. He wore his tiger to nursery the next day, and also all day Wednesday, and again on Thursday when we went to pick Duncan up from school.
He also wore it for a good portion of the day today, although he is very understanding of the fact that Halloween is over. The house across the street that was decked out to the gills with Halloween fare has instantly transformed into the house decked out to the gills with Christmas lights, so they are taking their cues from the colourful assorted lights across the street, and realize that we've changed holiday focus.

The boys were playing in the bathroom last week, swinging from the towel holder and pulled it right out of the wall. Never a dull moment around here, and always something to fix it seems from the destructive duo. Of course, I must add that now the baby has graduated to full time mischief maker, joining his brothers in running me ragged. In fact, he's almost more work than they are now, just entering into the stage where he's old enough to get into trouble, not quite old enough to reason with, bribe or threaten.
On Wednesday I took them all to the park - I figured it was nice enough, and the only thing stopping us from actually doing something fun was my own laziness, so I decided to get out and make the most of it - after all, they are 3 energetic and healthy little boys. I regularly read Rebekah's blog- a 3 year old battling cancer, and Maggie's page- a 3 yr old who has recently lost the fight against cancer - and I hug my boys just a little tighter, and know that those parents would give anything to take their kids to the park - so off we went.
We were there all of 10 minutes when Duncan slid down a slide that was still wet from the rain the day before, and not having an extra set of clothes (Why don't I carry those everywhere?????) we had to walk home (Duncan riding his trike, and not too pleased about it either). Got home, made lunch and even had the energy to go back to the park in the afternoon - carefully avoiding the slides, they had a ball on the swings. Joey is of course, very difficult to take to the park. For him, the playground doesn't hold as much allure as running full tilt boogie along the park path towards the road. This means that he demands most of my attention while we are there, and I have to trust the older boys to stay within visual range - which they were surprisingly good about doing. Leaving the park is more often than not quite difficult as Matthew usually decides to play "run the opposite direction that we are going", and the second you move towards him, he has engaged you and pulled you into his 'game'. I'm not fond of this game - but he loves it, and plays it at every opportunity.
Upon returning home, again, the boys ran straight into the backyard - leaving me a moments peace to actually clean my kitchen without constant interruptions to get chocolate milk, or break up a fight. They even went to bed fairly easily.

Today was another round of assessments for Matthew. Speech and social language primarily. We are very pleased that he scored within 'expected' range for his age. Nursery school has had a tremendous effect on him, and we are noticing HUGE differences in him. The fact that he actually sat for the entire assessment was in itself a huge leap forward. Compared to the notes they had on him from his last assessment exactly 2 months ago - the change has been astronomical. In August he had tested 7 months behind. 2 months later he has caught up. He points, he waves and he sings songs. I credit his nursery school teacher (who used to work with special needs children) with a lot of the improvements we've seen. We'll have another assessment in 6 months to make sure he's still progressing forward, and if at that time he's approaching a 4 yr old level as expected we won't need any further speech therapy at all.
Overfocused behaviour (on lights and fans) and extreme sensory issues still tend to be a problem for him, but we are hoping that he will develop strategies to help him cope with this, so that it won't interfere with his ability to learn and focus in school. The outlook right now is very very positive, which makes today a very very good day.

Duncan on the other hand, appears to be having some difficulties in kindergarten. Not academically, but socially. He has a tough teacher this year, and she has requested an interview "before the December interviews" to discuss a few things - I'm pretty sure I know what the focus of this interview is going to be. He doesn't like to follow rules, and has a difficult time transitioning from one activity to another - he gets that from me I think. I've had trouble with that for 35 years ;)
I measured him yesterday, and he's grown a full 2 inches+ since school started in Sept. He is well into size 4 now, and his size 3 jammies are actually getting tight in the toes. Good thing, since he'll be 5 in April, and is all about growing right now. He desperately wants to be tall......

Joey - is joey. My baby is growing up and being such a wonderful funny little guy - he's a pure delight - even when he gets into mischief. It's a joy to watch our last baby learning and growing and finding his own place in the world. He smiles and laughs constantly, and although he hasn't spoken a single word yet at 18 months, I have a feeling that he's going to suddenly explode into full blown sentences somewhere around the 2 yr mark.
This is typical Joey these days - Lots of fun.