Return to the Vavasour family web site : Go to Kyle's brother Zachary's home page
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Return to the Vavasour family web site : Go to Kyle's brother Zachary's home page |
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pictures | movies | growth chart | update | the family | vital stats
Updated March 19, 2007:
| Photo Gallery |
Click on a group to see the pictures within.
June 2007 to March 2008 (4 1/4
years to 5 years)
March 2007 to June 2007 (4 years to 4 1/4 years)
October 2006 to January 2007 (3 1/2 years to 3 3/4 years)
June 2006 to September 2006 (3 1/4 years to 3 1/2 years)
February 2006 to June 2006 (2 3/4 years to 3 1/4 years)
December 2005 to January 2006 (2 3/4 years)
September 2005 to October 2005 (2 1/2 years)
May 2005 to August 2005 (2 years to 2 1/2 years)
March 2005 to May 2005 (2 years)
Baptism (January 2005) (1 3/4 years)
August 2004 to February 2005 (1 1/2 years to 1 3/4 years)
June 2004 to August 2004 (1 1/4 years to 1 1/2 years)
March 2004 to May 2004 (1 year to 1 1/4 years)
February 2004 to March 2004 (10 months to 1 year)
August 2003 to January 2004 (5 months to 9 months)
June 2003 to July 2003 (3 months to 4 months)
March 2003 to May 2003 (0 to 2 months)
March 27, 2003: the birth announcement
| Movie Gallery |
This section contains video clips of Kyle in QuickTime format. Click the description to view the movie.
* Note: the date filmed is often much earlier than the date the clip was added to this web site.
| Music Recitals |
This section includes some music practices from Kyle, recorded in MIDI. They are unedited and raw; what you hear is exactly how he played it. So if he makes a mistake, it's in there. If it sounds great, that's because he didn't make any mistakes. :-)
| Date recorded | Length (min:sec) |
Description |
| 2007/05/30 | 1:08 | Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (recital version, with bridges) |
| 2007/04/11 | 1:08 | Old Blue |
| 2007/04/09 | 0:47 | Peter and Mary (Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater and Mary Mary Quite Contrary) |
| 2007/01/25 | 0:33 | Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star |
| 2006/12/17 | 0:12 | Jingle Bells |
| Growth Chart |
Click here to see how Kyle has
been growing (1, 3, 4 1/2, 6, 9, 12, 15, 19
months, 2, 2 1/2, 3 and 4 years in the same
pose).
Also, here are some of Kyle's growth statistics from doctor's visits:
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| * measurement likely inaccurate |
| General Kyle Update |
Cross-talk
It seems that at least one child must always have his night light on. Zachary managed to overcome his discomfort with the dark over the summer, but just in time (late June, specifically) for Kyle to decide that the dark wasn't for him. The week of June 25th, his light was on three times that night, and has become a permanent part of his bedtime routine in the months since. He is at least considering the possibility of sleeping without his light once he turns five, but as it stands, the light is on. Since he's scheduled to spend his birthday at Nanny and Poppy's this year (since it coincides with Easter and Spring Break), we'll see whether having Zachary in the room helps or hinders the effort.
He and Zachary are inseparable conspirators lately. He definitely gets into Zachary's games (and is distracted from things he supposedly should be doing, despite his best intentions). At the height of Zachary's Harry Potter enthusiasm (upon the release of the seventh book), he could frequently be heard attempting to speak Parseltongue with Zachary. (For those who haven't seen the movies, it's portrayed as an odd combination of hissing and guttural sounds.) He's also an enthusiastic audience for Zachary's incessant recounting of Pokémon stats. He can be frequently heard asking Zachary whether A can beat B, what evolves into what, etc. Zachary will actually pop-quiz Kyle on Pokémon, but more just so he can tell Kyle the answer than with any real expectation that Kyle might know already. Often, when they are together, it is hard to even carry on a conversation in the same room, since the chatter is incessant. If they run out of things to say, they'll simply repeat the same sentence (or sometimes even the same word) over and over. They monopolise the airwaves, so to speak.
August 4th was our chance to see a night of the annual Celebration of Light fireworks competition. Kyle definitely overcame his trepidation for this event the previous year, and was enthusiastically looking forward to it. The whole walk to Jericho Beach, he was making firework sounds to himself. And, he loved them when they started. In his usual verbose way, he described virtually everything he saw as it happened. The adrenaline finally died away only as he returned home and entered the house, whereupon he collapsed in the nearest chair and had to be carried upstairs.
He can be a very cheery boy, chatting, singing, and frequently skipping and galloping, just for fun. On the other hand, he can also be pretty moody at times. There was a spat of many weeks near the end of the summer where he seemed to have a hair trigger, regularly being inconsolable. We think he was experimenting with strategies for getting his way. Does sulking work? Not on us, but he seemed to be giving it his best shot to be sure. Sometimes it might be a simple thing, like he had a balloon from Red Robin that he managed to pierce with the cocktail sword he'd also got. No, we weren't going to go back and get another. The oddest thing that upset him during those tumultuous days of August was when Chris (from church) was mentioned. He got very upset that he was unable to recall who Chris was. Though, hopefully he'll get used to it, because no doubt that won't be the last time he will have to struggle with fading memories. :-)
When the mood strikes...
He did try to push matters in other ways, though. The end of the year marked several experiments with defiance. For example, on November 30th he went into the void behind his bed again, despite being warned against it. The consequence was swift, decisive and entirely appropriate, though. Due to the configuration of his furniture, his bed could not go back against his wall or his organiser would block access to one of the drawers under his bed. I warned him after the last incident that, if he ever went back there again, I would move his bed back against the wall and he would lose the use of that drawer. He was pretty angry with that, but there wasn't much he could do to argue. His sense of organisation was challenged, not at all to his liking. That was the drawer his pyjamas went in. Nothing else would do. Once the reality sank in that he was not going to win, he started to talk himself into a rearrangement that might work. (In reality, though, his pyjamas now often live on the floor next to the inaccessible drawer.)
On January 3rd, Red Robin played into another incident: he stubbornly decided he was too tired to climb the last step to our door, and flopped down on it, complaining how tired his legs were. When I tried to cajole him to come in, he began to throw a tantrum and stamp on the spot. Apparently his legs were too tired for walking, but not for stamping. He insisted he could not move, even though he would move in the course of his tantrum. When he gets in such a sulky mood, we don't want to validate its effectiveness by giving in. If he's calm, we'll help, but not when he's having a tantrum. After many minutes of him staying on the steps while I watched from the window, trying to appeal to him to come in, etc., I decided to get tough: "If you're so tired, I guess we're going to have to get you to bed earlier from now on, and no more junk food since you seem not to have enough energy. ...unless you come in in the next 30 seconds." He protested that he "really" was too tired to come in, but did it anyway. Afterwards, trying to find a solution to save face, he suggested to me that he'd have been OK if only he'd had a glass of water.
Things got tenser when we found out that, during a visit to Nanny and Poppy's a week later, Zachary and Kyle had stolen the equivalent of a bag of caramels to eat in their bedroom. They hid the empty wrappers behind Zachary's bed, and Kyle had then lied about it. We expressed our disappointment over this for sure, and impressed upon Zachary (as we have a number of times) that he needs to set a good example for Kyle. Thankfully, Kyle has pulled back from this defiant mood, and has returned to his more usual self: with a sense of order that includes no hesitation to "play the parent" with Zachary. :-)
The only thing we had to contend with for the remainder of January were a number of bathroom accidents. They were puzzling and frustrating to us (though probably due to him being distracted). We were patient and they, too, seem to have subsided. In retrospect, these relapses might've been an early sign of the impending stomach flu that would strike Kyle in mid-January. He was left quite listless (with an elevated temperature) for several weeks. Certainly that might've affected his ability to notice a full bladder. Whether it was one stubborn cold or several in succession is hard to tell, though. (Zachary still has an irritating post-viral cough as of this writing. As for Kyle, he still wears a diaper to bed, though, and the only recent problem was wherein Grandma had forgotten about this particular point one night when we'd gone out before Kyle's bedtime. I discovered the consequences of this at about 1:00AM, leading to a late-night laundry run, though no lasting harm. :-) )
Do you think he's going to be a teacher or disciplinarian in the future?
He is definitely a perfectionist, and one for rules and order. This can work against him when it comes to the English language, though, since he has a persistent preference for the regular conjugation of verbs (i.e. "go-ed" instead of "went"). One of the funnier consequences of his inferred rules of grammar ties in with the impending visit of Aunt Heather and Uncle Tom, wherein they were going to introduce newborn first Cousin Catie for the first time. For many weeks he'd been talking with enthusiastic anticipation about his cousin's arrival. Since he'd known about her before her birth, she'd been given the name "Baby Lees" which stuck even after birth. He preferred to call her that instead of Catie... or at least he almost did. We noticed he was calling her "Baby Lee" rather than "Baby Lees", and so Irene corrected him. He protests, "no, it's Lee! There's not two or three of them!" (This is not to say he doesn't still have some baby language of his own. Irene's particularly endeared by Kyle's tendency to call meatballs "meatbulbs". Now that nuggets are no longer "muggets", I think she clings to this one and even encourages it, perhaps as one of his last vestiges of toddlerdome.)
His expectation for respect and order also means that certain comedy is lost on him. We'd visited Science World in August wherein the exhibit was Grossology. Accompanying this was Science World's usual stage show where live volunteers would do demonstrations. For this one, though, they had developed a shtick wherein the goofy "lab assistant" kept acting up and did not listen to the "professor", playing tricks and doing things behind the guy's back. Kyle did not approve at all.
There goes his modelling career
The kids' inevitable tendency to disaster if left to play together long enough reached new heights on September 1st. Kyle and Zachary had previously been banned from entering each others' rooms unsupervised because of the mischief they could get up to. This had led them to play in the hall between their bedrooms, and they did so that day. Because we don't want to insist on them being quiet all the time, we let them do so, but could not stay in the room with them. What did they manage to get into this time? Well, it started with a game of tag -- in a very narrow hallway -- wherein their bedrooms were obvious safety zones. Well, Zachary was determined that Kyle should not escape at one point, and grabbed him by the ankles as he entered his door. Kyle fell forward and his forehead came into contact with the edge of the drawers at the base of his bed. Flash back to almost exactly four years ago. Blood on the floor, blood on the sheets, a screaming child, and a demand for explanations as we try to clean up the wound sufficiently to see just how much damage has been done. Then, it's off to UBC Urgent Care (formerly UBC Hospital's Emergency) to get him looked at.
It did calm Kyle down considerably when we assured him that we'd get him to the hospital and that they were going to fix him up. He was pretty brave and mature for the most of the wait, cuddling, resting, and listening to storybooks for most of the hour we had to wait. His demeanour varied from whimpery to great right up until the local anaesthetic was applied. The doctor had me hold a cloth soaked in anaesthetic gel to the wound while he left the room, and it had to be held firmly. Kyle begged me to remove it, complaining in a panic "it's too cold!" (In reality, it was the deadening sensation he was feeling, not cold, and he would only feel it as long as I touched the wound, but I couldn't remove the cloth.) Ultimately, I calmed him down by singing to him. (For those who know me, you'll know I will never sing if I can avoid it at all, but I needed to comfort him somehow and Kyle very much likes music.) After that trauma was over, he was incredibly calm and stayed perfectly still during the actual stitching. Yes, stitching, not glue like Zachary. Also, unlike Zachary's forehead-meets-bed incident, these stitches were very prominently in the middle of his forehead over one eye. For that part of the procedure, it was my turn to fight the squeamishness, as the doctor opened and irrigated the wound (allowing me to see its full depth and ability to split open), and then proceeded to sew the skin back together while I held Kyle. I tried not to betray to Kyle how unsettled I was feeling, but did have to glance away a couple times.
Ultimately, though, I'm not convinced the experience was a lesson learned, since, upon seeing it in the mirror afterwards, Kyle decided it looked "cool", like Harry Potter. I guess that makes Zachary Voldemort. It certainly did alter the character of Kyle's first school photo.
Embracing school
Yes, indeed, Kyle is going to school now at the Pre-Kindergarten level, as foretold in earlier updates. He was incredibly thrilled with this turn of events. He seems to be extremely self-aware of his status as the "little boy" of the family, and I think going to school with Zachary makes him feel big and mature. (Not that he's mature for his age!) He's been pretty excited about school just about every day, and fit in and participated with ease. Daycare perhaps gave him a social edge over some other kids who had not participated in a group setting before. Pre-K is a half-day event, which ran from 8:30AM to 11:30AM until February. For his regular daycare days (that'd be Wednesday through Friday) he would then be shuttled off to daycare for the remainder of the day, as we'd contemplated last update. This continued until his shift to afternoon (12:30PM to 3:30PM) Pre-K as of February.
He has enthusiastically embraced Mandarin class, as well. In short order he was saying "hello" and relating all the words for various family members (mother, father, big brother, little brother, etc.), singing Happy Birthday in Mandarin with Zachary (not that it was anyone's birthday, and he'd forgotten most of it by the time my birthday came in November). And, he's also enjoying his after-school dance with the other Pre-K children, with his favourite part being the "freeze dance" (wherein they must freeze whenever the music stops).
Pre-K was the novel part of his day, though, and he was missing most of daycare's more fun activities since they were in the morning. So, this perhaps helped with the transition in several ways: he was making new friends while not immediately losing contact with his old friends, and still the highlight of his day, novelty-wise, was Pre-K, paving the way for the future at the school and letting go of daycare. This also resulted in a lot of crossover as he would bring stories of Pre-K back to his friends at daycare. On October 17th, one such story was less than thrilling to the daycare caregivers: It seems that day they'd practised the classroom lockdown drill (i.e. the response to dangerous intruders). So, he'd happily decided to play lockdown with his friends, wherein they would hide under tables and be quiet. Irene got called aside at pick-up time and a quiet word was had about certain concepts being too old to be introduced to Kyle's playmates.
Having Kyle in Pre-K leads to a different development path than Zachary had. For Zachary, we taught him his alphabet and printing. While Kyle definitely had a leg up on these things from us before entering Pre-K, his ability to recognise and write letters has definitely progressed more systematically than it had with Zachary under our direction. At the very least, he'd long been able to write his own name and begun practising writing Zachary's. More recently, he's been able to remember and write out full words with assistance. For example, the Valentine's cards for all his classmates and teachers were written in his own hand, spelled out, more often than not, by asking me the spelling in full, and then writing it after I'd spoken it. (Only long names like Christopher and Alexander had to be spelled in pieces, though he did need to be corrected for a missing letter here and there with the others.) And, as of this writing, he's showing the beginnings of true reading skills (vs. memorising stories) by sounding out words and recognising some with the assistance of pictures to give context.
In that respect, I was a bit amused when Kyle accompanied me to the bank in December. An elder lady (whom the teller informed me was a retired teacher) had taken a shining to Kyle; and, upon hearing he was four, she pulled him aside to teach him to write the letter "I". He dutifully followed her instruction, neither he nor I betraying that he could, in fact, write "Kyle Vavasour" without assistance. Actually, Kyle's first term Pre-K report probably gives a good idea of where his skill level was as of December.
Leaving behind the life of a pre-schooler
Indeed, as of January 31st, Kyle finished with UBC Daycare. There was a tearful farewell (tears courtesy of the caregivers, who had grown quite attached to him), a "Story of Kyle" with a picture book of memories to take home, a special snack, cards for the caregivers and a gift for the centre. The text of his Goodbye book reads, in part:
Dear Kyle, It has been wonderful having you at Acadia. You are such a kind and loving boy. We will remember all the great pictures you would draw for us, and all the amazing things you would build and create when you came to daycare. You made many friends at Acadia. And you had so many ideas, and a wonderful imagination! We went on so many adventures! Forest walks, even picnics in the snow! We danced and celebrated so many special occasions together. [...] All your teachers and friends from Acadia will miss you very much. We wish you all the best!
The book was presented to all the kids at reading time, with Kyle in a seat of honour. When it came time to send people out to snack, they are usually dismissed one at a time, and Kyle got to decide the order. True to his nature, he did not play favourites and dismiss his friends first. Rather, he dismissed kids based on who he believed was sitting most properly. The saddest part was that Kyle wouldn't be seeing best friends Isaac and Roi regularly anymore, but there was a promise to return periodically, and both Isaac and Roi will be attending Kyle's birthday party at the end of the month.
Christmas
On special occasions, a comment about Christmas is warranted, of course. Upon watching Polar Express, wherein the theme is the nature of belief in Santa, Kyle figured out this message in his own way, "I think they can only hear the bell if they believe in Santa. I believe in Santa. The reindeers believe in Santa." (I thought the last sentence was particularly cute.) As to Christmas gifts, Zachary's Webkinz pet had long intrigued Kyle. Unfortunately, when he got his own at the same time, he had taken off and thrown away the tag. (He doesn't like tags.) The tag is the key to accessing the web-based virtual pet part of the experience. (Webkinz is a stuffed toy with an online counterpart that lives in a virtual world much as The Sims.) So, a Webkinz was on his list for 2007. What does he do when he gets it? He removes the tag again, in full knowledge of why it was there. Thankfully, after an exhaustive search (there seems to be one every Christmas for something), we found the tag. As it should happen, his Webkinz pet (a platypus named Google) was able to "recharge" Zachary's account, extending his subscription by a year and the two live together in their virtual house. With Zachary's pet tabby, Furry, being maintained by Grandpa, it fell on Irene to maintain Google. She seems to have embraced this. In fact, I suspect it's not entirely for Kyle's sake that she's on the Webkinz Mah-jong game every night, earning Kinz Cash for Google. Kyle does like to know how Google is doing, though, and particularly likes the cookie/blending/sandwich-making games (wherein three ingredients are mixed to create something new which may or may not be edible, depending on whether the recipes are followed correctly).
Arts and sports!
Kyle's extra-curricular activities continue. He's entered the Sunbeams II level at Music for Young Children and has deftly adapted to the style of his new teacher, Melissa. (To be frank, I perhaps had more trouble adjusting from the style of his teacher, Marika, of last year.) One thing that became evident pretty early, though, was that Kyle was not sight-reading the music so much as memorising the entire songs (12-16 measures, typically) after one or two goes through. He wasn't looking at the sheet music. In recent times, he's improved on this, especially as he becomes better at reading notes "randomly" placed around the staff. (The core competency of Sunbeams I sight-reading is the one octave from low G to middle G, with a smattering of other notes from the bass clef.) He did extremely well during his Christmas recital, and received a number of compliments. Additionally, the class was surprised to learn recently (when his birthday came up) that he wasn't even five yet. Regardless of his skill, though, he really enjoys music, so that's the most satisfying part. (Speaking of musical talent, though, Kyle added another to his repertoire on November 2nd: he can now whistle! :-) )
Another extra-curricular activity of his, which brings back memories of getting Zachary into French immersion, was Kyle's first turn at skating lessons. Positions were first-come, first-serve with doors for registration opening at 7:30AM. I volunteered to leave for the Community Centre at 5:30AM to line up. ...in a line that wrapped around the building by the time I arrived. ...in freezing rain. I cannot remember the last time I was so cold or so wet. And what I was, in fact, lining up for, was a ticket to come back at 10:30AM for his 15 minute window for actual registration. (Well, technically, the same window was for both Zachary and Kyle. Our goal was to have them registered in their respective classes so that they were on the ice at the same time, hence our need to be early and get a competitive edge. Not that there were many times that would work with their schedules individually, let alone together...)
At one of the family skates, where Kyle had been particularly enthusiastic, Irene had taken advantage of the presence of one of the skating instructors to get him appraised. As a result, he was given the go-ahead to enter at Level 2, rather than Level 1. It seemed appropriate, since Level 1 was about getting the children able to stand and walk on the ice, which Kyle seems to have mastered. (See videos.) Indeed, he held his own for the entire session, inheriting some of Zachary's speed-demon mentality, trotting along on his skates in an eager effort to be first across. The last class for the session gave Kyle his first experience with ice hockey, wherein each child got a stick and attempted to score goals on the instructor by shooting an oversized puck between two pylons. (Needless to say, the instructors perhaps did not try their hardest to defend the goal, much to the delight of the children. Children get such breaks. Likewise in Kyle's music class when the kids are waiting for their solo time, the kids "mysteriously" always seem to win the kids vs. parents music-themed board games that the rest get to play.) At the conclusion of the session, Kyle was declared fit to move up to Level 3. Despite this success, both Kyle and Zachary have decided to take a session off from skating lessons, electing instead to participate in the family skate when the whim strikes. I suppose that spared me another early (and possibly wet) morning of lining up. Perhaps next registration session will be at least in warmer weather.
Speaking of ice time, on February 29th, Kyle got to see the Canucks in action. Unlike Zachary's first experience, it was not a successful game. Though, Kyle was happy. To his mind, each period was a separate game, and he felt happy that the Canucks had won the first two and lost only the last one. When asked what he liked best about the game, though, his first answer was "the music" (referring to the incidentally rock music that they would play when the game was not on). Beyond that, he liked the small Canucks shirt he got out of the deal. (He wore it skating at every opportunity after that, and insisted on his jacket being open so that people could see it, contrary to his usual desire to be zipped up tight. Fashion wins out over comfort, I guess.) Beyond that, he was pretty happy to see Sami Salo (or "Oliver's dad" as he put it) score a goal, since Oliver is a Pre-K friend.
Earlier in February, Kyle also got to see Walking with Dinosaurs live at the same location. (He was rather pre-occupied with the idea that the ice was taken away for the event and kept commenting on the differences in the arena when dressed for hockey vs. pre-historic exploration.) Kyle was definitely reassured to be up in the balcony for this event, but seemed to enjoy almost all of it (except for a couple loud moments). He particularly fell in love with the baby T. Rex that makes an appearance near the end. (The baby T. Rex is human-operated vs. being more of a robotic vehicle as the larger dinosaurs were, so it had better expression. It also certainly helped that the baby T. Rex came out with the shows MC/narrator and held hands as they took a bow. He was also delighted to see that same baby T. Rex ham it up, not wanting to leave the spotlight after that.)
Kyle is definitely an inquisitive boy. On a walk home from school (while Irene was out of town), he started asking the deep questions: "why does the sky turn red at sunset?" I explain that white light is made up of different colours, and the red gets through the air while the blue bounces around, making the sky blue and the sunset red. He seems to get it, but wants to know why there are all these colours if the sun is yellow. (I explain that the sun shines with all the colours, just the yellow is brighter.) "Is the sun the biggest thing in the universe?" I tell him that the sun is smaller than most stars; they're just further away. "I didn't know that!" He seemed eager to learn. I wondered how much of it was going to be relayed to his friends at school or daycare the next day...
See archive for previous updates.
| The Family |
Click here to view pictures of
some of Kyle's immediate family members.
| Vital Statistics |
| Full name: | Kyle Alexander Vavasour |
| Birthdate: | March 27, 2003 (3-33-3) |
| Time: | 10:18AM |
| Birth weight: | 4295g (9lb. 7 1/2oz.) |
| Length: | 55cm (22in.) |
| Hair: | Dirty blond/light brown (black at birth) |
| Eyes: | Brown |
| Labour: | Started at about 4:50AM |
All content ©2003-2007 Jeff Vavasour. Updated March 22, 2008.