2013 Update

Kole Turns 5, Karissa 3

Kole's birthday fell on a Tuesday and Karissa's on a Sunday, so both got the benefit of extended weekend with visitors and time with friends and family. Kole's being in the summer there were lots of activities that might be involved in an ordinary summer, but it's convenient to throw in the added bonus of being for his birthday to go to a water park, or go to the play park at a McDonalds.
Karissa turned three years old (today) and we had over Grammy and Pa Gedy, Grandma, Pa Pa and Grams, Dawnell and John, Duane, and Alison. We had burgers and hot dogs and hot links and brats and watched the Cowboys beat the St. Louis Rams.
Karissa's favorite thing in the world is Minnie Mouse, she got several dolls and clothes with the character on there. Once the crowd had left, she immediately wanted to watch 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' on Disney Jr. She also requested to watch 'Toy Story 3'.
This past Friday we all went to the bounce house place in the Parks Mall, where Karissa loves going to bounce. Kole is a great brother in that environment playing with her and watching after her. They play great together.
Kole had an eventful summer, in what would eventually become his last summer before entering the world of scholastic education.
With Kole being a little older and more independent (potty trained) and a little wiser, he may have had a more eventful summer. He learned how to ride a bike, finally going solo with no training wheels on August 4, and became a Kindergartener. And as part of the Fletcher father-son-grandson trip this year came a trip to the beach - to Port Aransas in Pa Pa's RV.
By the way, as it turns out, Karissa is 37 inches tall and about 28-and-1/2 pounds. The average for a 3-year-old girl in the US is 33 inches and 30.8 pounds. So, she's on the tall and skinny side. Again, thank God she took after her mother. She took to potty training very quickly, as legend goes, and I can't remember the last time she made a mess when the sun was up. We may have purchased our last diaper - ever!
On his 5th birthday, Kole was 44 lbs. and 46 inches, with the US average for boys being 41.8 pounds and 42 inches.

Kindergarten for Kole

 Kole began Kindergarten at Florence Hill Elementary in Grand Prairie. We did some testing with Kole over the summer to make sure he was ready for Kindergarten at such a young age and we stumbled into a program that was right for Kole at Florence Hill so we enrolled him about three weeks into the school year. We visited his class just before he was enrolled officially, so that helped the transition when he actually came up for his first day. His teacher is Ms. Wyatt. He goes from 8:10 to 3:10 each day and hasn't had a bad experience yet as of this writing. He mentions other kids getting in trouble or being mean, but he has steered clear of any trouble or negative feedback from his teacher. We found out that his school is a "no peanut zone", which is a head-scratcher for us as parents and makes us wonder, yet again, how we got by so well before without it when we were in school. If some kid has a peanut allergy, no one in the school can have anything peanut related. So, no PB&J, etc.
We don't know any declared friends, but we have heard the name Nicholas mentioned by Kole a couple of times.

Summer Fun

Summer festivities this past year included a little family getaway to Glen Rose in August where we were able to go to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center and look at and feed animals. But that wasn't the best part. BY FAR. The best part, as far as Kole is concerned, is staying at a hotel with a pool. We ended up staying at a rather ordinary Holiday Inn Express with a pool no bigger than a standard residential pool. But to Kole and Karissa, it was paradise and a water wonderland. Kole slept with Mommy, which meant I shared a bed with Karissa. And even at 2 years of age, was a marvelous bed-hog, sleeping horizontally or diagonally in the middle of the bed, or as close to it as possible.  But, I'll admit it, upon waking up I just watched her for 10 minutes, sleeping peacefully. It was a magical parent moment.

As mentioned, there was a father-son-grandson trip again, this time we took the RV to Port Aransas where Kole saw the ocean and a beach for the first time and fell in love. He played and splashed in the ocean and every moment of it was sheer "Daddy watch me!"-joy. Daddy stayed back at the RV most of the time Kole and I were at the beach since he needed to minimize sun exposure. He's been having more skin issues and had a recent surgery to remove a good part of his upper lip. At any rate, Port Aransas was great. We ate out one night then cooked steaks on the grill another. Kole devoured every scrap of meat off a 12 oz. T-bone steak and proclaimed that steak was his favorite food ever. It should be noted that days later he proclaimed the same of spaghetti, then later of fried shrimp, etc. The drive was about 8 hours each way, with most of it spent watching Disney channel on satellite TV, thank the RV. Kole and I got lots of good bonding time. It's a trip I know me and Pa Pa won't soon forget, and I hope Kole won't either.