Welcome Logan!

Logan Gregory Hughes was born on May 13, 2014 at 10:29am. He weighed 9lbs. even and was 21" long.

At first he was an extremely relaxed and calm little boy. He waited until late the first night to show his true colors and really knows how to use those lungs!

Braydon is adjusting to being a big brother and seems to really love Logan. Even though he is scared to hold him because he thinks he will break him, he always wants to kiss and hug him!

We are adjusting to being a family of four! The first week has been pretty easy, but with Chris going back to work next week I'm a little scared to be alone with two boys all day! Plus next week Braydon finishes school! Luckily we have family coming in over the course of the next few weeks so that will help!

Braydon 5th Birthday and Doctor Appointment

Yesterday my little boy turned 5 years old! I really don't know where the time has gone, he can't really be this old, can he? It seems like just yesterday he was turning 3. We had his birthday party on Saturday and he had a blast. He kept changing his mind about the theme, but settled on a Star Wars theme.

He had his friends come and they played on his bouncy house and fought with the homemade light sabers I made. We gave them pizza and cake and they all had a blast, and the weather was wonderful!

On his actual birthday he had to go to school, but they celebrated there too. He brought cupcakes and apple juice. The teacher gave him a birthday crown and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. We also let him pick where he wanted to go to dinner. He choose BJ's Brewhouse and loved that he got a birthday dessert!

Today he had his 5 year old physical and also a physical for school. He weighs 49lbs. and is 44 3/4 tall (3' 8" 3/4). They did a vision and hearing check. This child has bat like hearing so don't ever let him fool you! He ended up getting two shots and was really brave about it. Afterwards I took him to McDonald's as a reward for being so good. We do have to go back to complete some more stuff for school and get a another shot, but no hurry.

Kindergarten

Today was a very emotional day for me. I registered Braydon for kindergarten! It's hard to believe that in September of this year I'll be sending my little boy off to school. He was so excited he wanted to start school there today!

Playroom

When we moved into our house I was so excited because we had a den that could be turned into a playroom for Braydon. This excitement quickly went away when I learned how a child views "clean" and how an adult views "clean". I organized the room and even gave him bins with pictures to put things away himself. He thought the bins were supposed to be used to dumb stuff out and carry around whatever he wanted in them. The lucky little boy also has a nice train table in his room, but he is more interested in taking the tracks off and creating his own layout throughout the house. I have cleaned up many of the messes in the room and even thrown toys away because he doesn't clean up. Today however, I don't know if its because of the pregnancy hormones or what, but I decided that the room needs to go away!

What drew me to this conclusion? Well he took a step stool out to reach a tall shelf and take something down. All I could see was the bookcase falling over and him getting hurt. Plus he hasn't cleaned the room in a week, and his version of cleaning is throwing everything in the toybox. He then cries when he can't find what he wants, because it's not in the labeled bins! He also has two bags of toys which he "lost" because he didn't clean up. These bags have been out of the room for almost a month and he doesn't seem to care. This makes me think he has way too many toys!

Our home owners association is hosting a garage sale in a few weeks. This seems like the perfect time to sell these toys that he doesn't seem to even notice are gone. Plus with his birthday in a few weeks, and the baby due to arrive soon I think a good purge is necessary. I'm also vowing not to buy him a single toy for his birthday!

Parent/Teacher Conference

On Monday, we had Braydon's first preschool Parent/Teacher conference. I went into the meeting a little nervous because Braydon has some behavior issues in class that I already knew about.  I came out of the meeting very pleased with my little guy! He has developed quite a bit since he started preschool this past fall.

Some things that he couldn't do when he started school, but is able to now:
* hop on one foot
* catch large ball using only his hands
* cut a straight line
* copy simple directional strokes (triangle, square, circle)
* efficient pencil grasp
* print first name

Also when he started he could only identify 2/6 shapes, now he knows all of them. In the fall he only knew 3 of his uppercase letters, now he knows 10. He knew 2 lowercase in the fall and know 6. Phonics show the most improvement with 1 in the fall and 14 now!

The only behavior issues he still has is that he takes toys or books from other kids. We are working on the sharing issue with him, so hopefully he will fully understand sharing by the time kindergarten starts.

Accident Prone

Braydon has visited the ER 8 times in his lifetime. Here is a list if you want to keep track.

1. Ear infection - 6 months old
2. Head wound - needed staples
3. Eye wound - cut his eye and the lid got infected and swollen
4. Ear infection - leakage because of tubes in ear
5. Cut on eye brow - needed stitches
6. Head wound #2 - needed stitches
7. Had bumps under arms - contact dermatitis
8. Cut near eye brow #2 - no stitches :) 

So when something happens to him I don't jump to take him to the hospital. I try to assess the situation to see if he really needs to go. He was jumping around yesterday and tripped over the dogs bed. He ended up hitting the corner of his little card table. Blood started rushing and so I called his Dr. and they told me to come in. Luckily he didn't need any stitches or anything. The cut isn't too deep and should heal on its own. This kid just needs to be put in bubble wrap so he doesn't get injured anymore!

Reality

Everyone always tells us how sweet Braydon is and that we are so lucky. But what they don't see is the struggle we fight with each and every day. Since Braydon started preschool he has had a few incidents with not being good in class. After much discussion with the teacher we decided to begin using behavior charts to show how he does every day. Since he started these charts around Thanksgiving he has only had a few with all smiley faces. Most of the problems stem from him not using his inside voice, or keeping his hands to himself. Today however we received the worst chart so far and it makes me not want to send him back to school. These charts reflect how we parent and just looking at it makes me not want to show my face at the school.

Today was a tough day to begin. Braydon was being a bully to me and knocked me over in front of the other parents, and wouldn't listen to me. So I was scared to see how his chart would look when I picked him up.

Usually on the car ride home we discuss his behavior, but today all he kept telling me was that he wanted a snack. I'm at my wits end with his behavior and worried it may get worse when the baby comes! Really wish they had a manual for how to deal with 4 1/2 year olds, because I'm at a loss!