Lochlan at 7: Playground Groove & Lemonade

Little man is growing up to be big man for sure. The size of his feet along is a sure sign of that. The kid  s wearing a size 2 on his birthday. I don’t think Paley hit size two til third grade. In the last year he made the transition from Kinder to first grade. His progress from one grade to the next was pretty smooth. The only real fear we had from moving up to first grade was recess. He’s always been used to a small group of kids and now he was in general population with upwards of 200 kids playing around him. He took flying his first grade year and still soaring. 

He continues to be more and more interested in sports with hopes to start playing baseball this Spring. He still loves being in charge of his sisters and that was more evident when we were traveling in Japan and Thailand. Lochlan has always loved the rules and his biggest hurdle was his need to broadcast the rules, while thinking since he knows the rules then they don’t apply to him. We had a few moments on the trip where he had to sat down and discuss the consequences of being a know-it-all. 

While in Tokyo still, we finally hit a wall with all the “I know more and I don’t have to listen” talk. One can say it was a come to jesus moment. When we made the skip over to Thailand for the second week of our trip. We were traveling with a more aware kid on that half. We finally started to enjoy the trip as a family unit and I was barking less as a parent. One highlight from the trip, Lochlan developed his love for lemonade. We tried our best to avoid drinking water at restaurants in both countries, unless it was bottled. I think Lochlan drank more lemonade on those two weeks than he did all year. We knew he obsessed with sucking on lemons, but this was a whole new ball game for Lochlan. 

He also had an amazing summer at camp. The year before was plagued by counselor problem but this summer was a lot smoother. They returned for another two weeks at Kennolyn. Was he ready for overnight camp this summer, maybe but he would have been very home sick. Two weeks was a perfect, 10 days of go, go, go. By the end of the two weeks he was spent.

As we move into 7, looking back at 6 there was a lot of growth. His speech has improved but not greatly. It’s going to take time to see his lisp letters disappear. As Kinder progressed his ticks started to diminish and at the start of first grade they manifested again. One thing we have learned from his older sister is starting school can be stressful. We’ve reached October already and the tick that has manifested has already started to diminish. One place his ticks just seem to disappear is when he is on his bike. The kid took to riding bikes pretty quickly and the fast he can go the better. 

With the age of 7 our hope is to allow the twins to explore being individuals this year. So much of their early childhood is spent together, They have never had a problem having separate but doing a sport on their own will be interesting. Right now, Lochlan is his own when it come to his personality and thought process. I wouldn’t change anything when it come to being Lochlan. I have learned to so much in the last 12 years in letting your kid grow at their own pace and certainly give them more control of who are their friends and who they want to be around. I’ve made mistakes with Paley and learned from them.