Catching Up

My last post was in early November and I'm feeling a little neglectful of my blog readers. Lots has happened, so I'm going to throw it all into one post that will probably turn out to be relatively lengthy so bear with me.

In mid November I had my first visit to Kiernan's would-be preschool. Now Kiernan was only 2 at the time so this is a little early, but we had recently talked with his daycare teacher and she mentioned she thought he could benefit from some speech therapy. One thing led to another and we ended up going in for evaluation to see if he could enroll in the local school-district funded program called Child Find. Kiernan's evaluation determined he fell into the bottom 7% as far as his speech capabilities so we managed to get into the program. The way it works is he sees a speech therapist 2 days a week at the preschool (which also happens to be in the elementary school) he would normally attend.

I was in a bit of a culture shock I guess when I visited the school the first time. The doors were locked, and had badge readers on the doors. There was a check in routine in the office for visitors and the doors only unlock at the last few minutes before class begins for the day. The bell to indicate school beginning, and class ending wasn't so much a bell as a buzzer of sorts. Man, school was never like that when I was a kid, we could come and go all day and the office was on the second floor, far removed from the main doors. Wow, post Columbine school is different.

Kiernan attended his first day of preschool on November 29th. He LOVES it there. He often asks to go see his teacher, Debbie even on days he is not due to attend preschool. His speech has improved, and we have even gotten comments of the same from his teachers at daycare.

The end of November brought Kiernan's third birthday. Three! Where does the time go? We again did a shared birthday party with our friends in Castle Rock who have a son that is 2 days older than Nathan. Sadly, I have yet to go through the photos, so I'll try to get those done soon and post some.

Sometime around the end of November or beginning of December Kiernan decided it was time to be a big boy and graduate out of diapers! We are both elated at this. It has been trying, but he is now able to make it all day at school with no accidents (most days). We worked on achieving the same at home, and got down to about 1 accident a day, so definitely progress.  He still wears a diaper at nap and bedtime as he seems to have no control then, but it will come with time.

December came and we did a couple of fun things outside in the beautiful weather. Kiernan has a certain fondness for Christmas lights that became apparent this year. I was thankful for this as it brought back the Christmas spirit that I had lost years ago thanks to Beosig's less than enthusiastic response to the season. Something about ghosts from his childhood...whatever. I don't hold it against him, but it did kill my spirit outright. I used to be the type that would easily spend 8 hours or more decorating the house for Christmas. Not for many years however. Alas I digress.

Our local zoo had a huge display of Christmas lights. I thought Kiernan would enjoy them. Little did I know how much I would enjoy them as well! It was amazing! I plan to go next year as well. The cold night air (which wasn't all that cold) made maneuvering through the zoo so easy! The animals were very active, particularly the big cats, however due to the sheer number of people, and lack of a tripod, I was unable to get a good pic of most of them save the snow leapoard. She's so beautiful. All shots on the above link were with a HAND HELD  camera. I'm fairly impressed they came out as well as they did. The one of the tiger head lights was blurred, but semi-intentionally to make the lights stand out more. I honestly couldn't tell you who was more excited about this outing, Kiernan or me.

Kiernan helped us decorate the Christmas tree this year. He enjoyed putting decorations on the tree, and taking them off,  showing us and telling us what he had, asking the color, and then hanging the decoration back up. Wash, repeat ad nauseum. It was cute.

Also in December on Christmas eve, we went to a place in south Denver called the Wildlife Experience. I happened to drive by one night and see all these beautiful Christmas lights outside the place and so thought it would be fun to go see those. They called it the "Winter Wonder Lights". These were neat too, but honestly I enjoyed the display at the zoo more. Beosig failed to prepare properly for being outside in December, and was freezing his rear end off by the end of the visit. Really, it had been balmy temps in December so I guess I can't say too much but still... We did get to see Santa claus there, and this was the first time for Kiernan. As it turned out he was too shy to speak to him, let alone sit in his lap. Ah well, maybe next year. We did get a picture of him giving Santa a hug though! There will be more photos posted to that link later, just haven't had time to go through them yet.

Kiernan particularly enjoyed Christmas day and opening gifts. So much so that he "helped" his Mom and Dad open their gifts as well. We stayed home, just the three of us and I fixed us some prime rib for dinner, a first time for me. It turned out quite good if I say so myself. However the cost makes it a bit prohibitive to do with any frequency. Prime rib is my fave though!

For New Years Eve we went to a friend's house in Castle Rock. There was lots of grazing, no real meals per se, but lots of snack food, and plenty of good company. I was good and only had a sip of champagne at midnight. The temperature that night when we left was a chilly -15F. Kiernan did well, and despite our best attempts to get him to sleep until new years he was so excited he managed to stay up until the ball dropped. I'm sure other parents would berate me if they knew.

I guess that sums up the rest of the year.