Austen

I rarely blog about Austen.  The other 3 seem to steal the spotlight a lot and he's more of a quiet boy. 

So, today I'm going to take the opportunity to put him front and centre.

A little note:  I joke that he should've gone as "the insomniac" for Halloween...just check out those dark circles under his eyes!

 

A "sleeper" he is not...always one of the first awake and ready to go.

 

Austen is not too advanced when it comes to reading and writing.  I don't know if that's because he didn't go to Junior Kindergarten, because he's the youngest in his class, or that it's just not a strong skill for him.  Nevertheless, we're super proud of his accomplishments and the small strides he does make at school.    The other day he sounded out the colours and had fun writing them.

 

If he's not strong in language, math is the complete opposite.  He blows us away with his mental math competencies!  We can ask him any first grade math question and he'll figure it out in his head WITHOUT any finger counting or writing anything down.  Wow!

 

He wrote these math questions himself the other day...all his numbers are backwards except the 5 (which kids usually do get backwards) so there's some concern there...but ignoring that, he got all the math!

 

And some art added in to his math:

 

Austen adores arts and crafts.  He creates things daily.  Always drawing a picture for mommy or daddy or his teacher.  He loves it.  Tape is his best friend and he goes through a roll about a week.  At least once a week he asks me if he can paint and he also loves playdough, stickers, bingo dabbers, and more.  And he's good at it too!  He was able to use scissors properly before his 3rd birthday.

 

He's a very sensitive boy.  Very empathetic and always giving out hugs.  He gets hurt easily so that sometimes gets in the way, especially at school.  He's an easy prey for "bullies" and has come home a few times now telling us about bullies (which absolutely tears at your heart, as I'm sure some of you readers know).

 

Austen's health story was one of the first I wrote about way back when I was started my blog.  The trials we went through with his ear infections and food sensitivities was not a fun path but it taught us a lot as parents...mainly to always explore other options and don't accept a doctor's points of views as the right and only way. 

 

Austen loves fish.  He loves to go fishing.  He loves to look at fish.  He loves to feed fish.  Draw fish.  Paint fish.  But not eat fish.  No siree.

He's going as a fisherman again this year for Halloween.

 

That's our Austen in a nutshell.  There's sooo much more to him and this only scratches the surface.

 

More on him and his siblings to come on this Halloween day.

 

Oh, and remember to be safe and protective parents this Halloween.

Click HERE to read just how. 

It's great.

PS  Today marks 9 years since my surgery!  Wow!  Time goes fast!