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Thomas is in his last year of elementary school (6th grade).  He is enjoying his 4th year in ALL (accelerated class).  Most of his classmates have been in the same class all 4 years which means they know each other well and have a lot of inside jokes.  Thomas has become good friends with many of his classmates.  His current best friends list includes Nate, Ian, Matthew, William, Davey, and Christian.

He’s looking forward to Jr. High, maybe mostly because he will be at the same school as his sister Ila.  He is also ready for a change of pace and a new experience.  He is not looking forward to getting up earlier (Jr high starts over an hour earlier than elementary school.)

Thomas gets up and gets ready for school completely on his own.  He packs his own lunch and makes his own breakfast and heads out to the bus stop. Usually he is up and ready early enough to play on his computer before school. He communicates with his friends and plays with them online as well.

Thomas’s favorite computer games are Terraria, Stardew Valley, Starbound, and Raft. His favorite books are Keeper of the Lost Cities, The Unwanteds, Mihael Vey, and Artemis Fowl. Thomas likes to play card games like Poker, Egyptian Rat Screw, Uncultured Swine, and Golf.  He likes to play Jackbox Games and Chess. He enjoys jumping on the trampoline and swinging on our backyard swing.

In January Thomas left primary behind and joined the Young Men’s organization.  He is excited for all the new opportunities.  He was glad to go to the Temple for the first time almost as soon as he could.  He thinks passing the sacrament is really great.  He is serving as the 2nd counselor in the Decon’s quorum presidency.

Thomas likes to be silly and joke around. He has made up a variety of little songs and taught them to his friends at school.  Some of them are modifications of well known songs, but he has his own original creations as well.  His longest and most creative jingle is about him working in a variety of jobs, but losing each job by doing crazy things.

He has a good relationship with all his siblings. He enjoys a special bond with Isaac since they’re the only boys and they share a room.  He has always been tight with Ila who is closest to him in age. When either of them has a friend over, they always include each other. He likes to play a made up choose your own adventure game with Nicole which he calls “the Bakerling Trials.” He enjoyed discussing plot ideas with Charlotte as she was writing a short story for her creative writing class and he was so impressed with her story that he retold her story for his school storytelling competition. He also shares Charlotte’s fascination with weapons and desire to own a variety of them. One of his favorite things is walking with his siblings to the local grocery store to buy treats.

Much like his siblings, Thomas is an avid cat lover.  He enjoys petting cats, watching them do ridiculous things, and wearing cat themed clothing.

Thomas enjoys being with family.  He loves that he can visit his grandparents across the street whenever he wants and has been known to stop over for frozen treats regularly. 

Some new experiences from this year included getting to fly a small airplane, working the concession stand at a BYU football game (and the Stadium of Fire/Journey concert), flying to Texas for a weekend with his mom in which he learned that he loves moving sidewalks, and learning to tie his own tie.

I am glad that Thomas is part of my family and I love him tremendously.  Here is what I wrote about him last year.

Thomas is in 5th grade and halfway through his 3rd year in the ALL (accelerated) class.  He has always just learned things with very little effort.  I think maybe it makes him a little impatient because he races through his work and doesn’t want to take the time for neatness, particularly with things like art.

Thomas is enjoying learning about US History this year.  He has been working on the great American 5th grader challenge. He has to memorize the Gettysburg address, all the states and capitals, the preamble to the constitution, all the presidents of the US in order, the pledge of allegiance, and be able to write and spell all the words in the pledge of allegiance.  When his brother moved out, Thomas cleaned off the desk in their room and declared that he felt like he made the Louisiana purchase because he gained more than 50% more desk space.  He also pointed out how Thomas Jefferson made the purchase and he purchased the land from the French likewise Thomas Cochran gained more desk space from his brother who will be speaking French as a missionary.

Thomas has had a special relationship with his big brother, Isaac.  He was particularly sad as the day of Isaac’s leaving approached.  After two weeks of home MTC, Thomas assumed that Isaac would sleep at home during his Provo MTC time and became sad when he discovered that he was actually saying goodbye sooner than expected.  Thomas enjoyed getting a chance to be Isaac’s mission companion during some of Isaac’s home MTC days. Despite the time he expected to have being cut short, Thomas has been enjoying the freedom of having his own room. Thomas and Nicole spent some time together planning out the perfect hangout space to create on the top bunk.  By the time they were done, Nicole had an Amazon cart with $80 of items including neon signs, curtains, and new blankets.

Thomas continues to claim that hotwheels cars appeal to him even though he rarely plays with them.  He does still enjoy Legos.  Mostly he likes to make stop motion videos with the things that he builds. He likes playing chess and playing some card games. He is particularly good at Egyptian Rat Screw which is a card slapping game.

Thomas recently installed DouLingo and started learning Russian. He chose Russian because he wanted to learn something different and he likes that they use a different kind of alphabet with Cyrillic letters.

Thomas anticipates things with excitement, he is almost always anticipating something.  He is often telling me how many days and sometimes how many hours until some exciting event happens..  Lately he has been tracking his birthday, but he also keeps track of when the next family birthday will occur or how many days till an appointment, field trip, or celebration. He eagerly anticipated his first chance to shoot a BB gun and became extra excited when a time was finally set.  

Thomas has started participating in D&D every Thursday with his friends.  I think there are 10 boys in the group. After school they walk over to one of the boy’s houses. Thomas likes to bring a bag of cheddar jalapeno cheetos to share with his friends each week.  It has become a fun social event and a good bonding opportunity for all the boys. 

Thomas enjoys socializing with his friends and siblings. Thomas’s best friends right now are Christian, Matthew, Nate, William, Kaden, Davey and Ian. Thomas is good at finding unique ways to connect with his friends online while he is at home.  They started with having group conversations on Google Docs, but have moved on to zoom calls, google meets, and communicating through steam games.

One of Thomas’s favorite things to do is to run across the street and collect treats from his grandparents.  Sometimes he fills his pockets with otter pops and then puts them in the freezer at home so that he can enjoy his stash for an extended period.  He also likes to bring his friends across the street for treats.  I think he enjoys having this extra special privilege that he can share with all his friends.

Thomas’s favorite foods are mostly sandwiches.  He likes when I make a giant sandwich with a loaf of french bread.  His other favorites include egg and bacon sandwiches and grilled cheese. 

His current favorite computer games are Terraria, Stardew Valley and Slime Rancher. His friends pitched in to get him a game called Stray that he has been enjoying the last few days. 

He still hates to dress up in costumes of any kind. This year for Halloween he dressed as “future Thomas” which meant he wore a hat and glasses that lit up.

Thomas is interested in guns, crossbows, and weapons of all types.  Since his sister received a battle ax for her birthday, Thomas has asked for a variety of different weapons. Unfortunately for him, guns and weapons are a topic that can get him into trouble at school and other places so his parents have avoided supporting these interests to any great measure.

Thomas and Ila are still great friends.  They still enjoy playing together and insist on inviting each other to their birthday parties.  Recently Thomas has started enjoying spending time with Nicole on occasion and has matured enough to be more forgiving of her occasional lapses in social skills.

Thomas loves cats and considers it a personal insult when people say unkind things about them.  He was jealous of his sister’s collection of cat shirts and asked for some of his own.  Now his wardrobe contains enough cat shirts that he can wear one every day. His daily wardrobe includes jeans, a cat shirt, and a hoodie.

Inevitably my early risers always start to want to sleep in just before they are required to start getting up earlier for school and Thomas is no exception.  The boy who was always the first to wake up naturally and put his backpack out at the bus stop 2 hours early, is now barely waking up in time to say goodbye before I leave and sometimes choosing to sleep in as long as he can before school. He still packs his own lunch and makes his own breakfast every day and I appreciate his independence in those tasks.

Thomas is a great son who enjoys being part of our family. He likes to have fun with his siblings and friends. He tries to always be kind and I am glad that I get to be his mom! Here is what I wrote about him last year.

Ila is a girl who loves cats. I’d say it’s impossible to know Ila and not know that she’s obsessed with cats. She is almost always wearing something with a cat on it. She often responds with a quick Meow. All of her online identities are cat themed. She plays cat related games and obsesses over her own furry friend, Rillian who she refers to as her baby. She takes all negative comments towards cats personally as if they were said about her or intended to hurt her feelings.

Ila cares deeply about how everyone feels. She can’t handle seeing anyone sad. She has always been sensitive in this way. She would cry anytime anyone got yelled at. She seeks out the sad and endeavors to make them feel better. She even can’t stand seeing people on movies or TV shows who are either sad or embarrassed. She hates when everyone knows something except for the main character and that character is made to seem a fool for not knowing.

Ila continues to be one of my most avid readers. She loves a good book series and is an amazingly quick reader, she can tear through a 300 page book in an afternoon and still have time to play a game or two. Her teacher has challenged each student in the class to read 40 books this school year, Ila completed the 40 book challenge in the first month and a half of school.

Ila is in her last year of Elementary school (6th grade) and is not looking forward to Jr. High. Her teacher this year, Mrs. Berger is really good at finding fun ways to study world history and Ila has loved learning from her. They preformed a play to learn about Ancient Mesopotamia and put together a museum for Ancient Egypt. Ila has regaled us with daily facts about the cultures she has been learning about.

Ila is just finishing up her first year in our church’s Young Women’s (YW) organization. She is currently serving as the secretary of the 12-13 year old class. Considering the advancement to YW the year they turn 12 and her December birthday, she has spent the year being the youngest girl in the organization and the only one in her group who hasn’t started Jr High/Middle School. She has made several good friends in the group and enjoyed attending the weekly activities. I was impressed to see her leadership skills on display this summer at Girl’s camp when she created the “Camo Cats Club.”

Ila was thrilled to go inside the temple for the first time this year. She is eager to go as often as we can get an appointment!

Ila’s best friend at school this year is a boy named Tim. They play together every recess and hang out after school on Thursdays. They have a lot of fun playing and laughing together. She still keeps in touch with her friend Cecily who lives in Lehi. Cecily and Ila mostly play and chat online and have infrequent chances to get together to play in person.

Ila’s favorite food is Salmon. The other main foods in her diet include chicken strips, baby goldfish crackers, Lays Original wavy potato chips, grapes, bananas, hardboiled eggs, French fries, frozen pepperoni pizza, peanut butter, chocolate, and salt. She still doesn’t eat a big variety of food. She would much rather eat Kroger brand frozen pepperoni pizza than any take out pizza. She doesn’t ever eat noodles, rice, or any type of sandwiches. She doesn’t eat quesadillas or any Mexican food, in fact the only way she eats cheese is on pepperoni pizza.

Ila set a goal to learn how to bake independently this year and quickly mastered making chocolate chip cookies without any help. She has since made a variety of baked goods with minimal help from her mother.

Ila still gets along well with her siblings. She plays regularly with Nicole and Thomas and they enjoy occasional sleep overs in each other’s rooms. She likes to have long talks with Charlotte and appreciates how helpful and kind Isaac has been to her. She rarely fights with any of her siblings, although she has been known to occasionally snap at someone, but she feels guilty about it soon after. Next year will be the first year for both her and Thomas to be at schools with none of their siblings.

Ila enjoys playing with her friends, time with family, playing at the park, walks around the block, swimming, jumping on the trampoline, petting cats, visiting her grandparents, and playing on the computer. Apart from these, she likes to play chess and Rook and other games. She enjoys watching Studio C , Bob’s Burgers, old episodes of the Simpsons, Phineas and Pherb, and a variety of movies with the family.

Here is what I wrote about Ila last year.

Isaac is such a kind and helpful brother that when asked who she wants to marry, Nicole’s only answer is “someone nice like Isaac.” He helps his siblings with all their computer issues, introduces them to new games and has spent all his allowance at times on games for his siblings so they can play together.

Isaac identifies himself as a nerd who loves math and science.  He follows tech news as well as NASA and SpaceX.  His favorite clothes are his “nerd shirts” which feature amusing math or science references. For his Junior year in High School, he has signed up to take AP Calculus, AP Physics, and Chemistry. We just really hope he gets to take all those classes in person since he does really well in class, but less well at completing school work at home.

Isaac has become skilled at working out computer issues. If you are interested in starting a tool franchise business, you can check franchise.cornwelltools.com/franchise-opportunity/investments-and-costs and learn about various tools needed to run your own business. He can do some programming in C#, Arduino code, Java, and HTML. He is good at working out the bugs in whatever technical setup he is creating.

Isaac was excited to start his second year of marching band. He thoroughly enjoyed marching band last year and didn’t even complain about the week of practicing from 8AM until 6 or 7 outside all day in 90+ degree heat.  He loved the inside jokes and fun social times and was particularly eager to start in person marching band practices after spending the end of the school year quarantined at home.  He has tried for months to convince his sister to join the marching band and finally succeeded by doing her Saturday chores for a week in exchange for her trying band for one day.  His efforts were rewarded as Charlotte enjoyed band and has continued going.

The whole state shut down for Covid-19 quarantine the week before his driver’s ed course which meant that he had to take the classroom portion online. The ranging part was modified so he drove the course one day with his dad and the second day all by himself in the car and he’s still waiting for the state to approve the part where he drives in the car with his instructor. You can check this site out to find one.

The other new world that opens up with his 16^th birthday is dating.  Our church recommends waiting until 16 to start dating, at which point group dating is encouraged.  Although when pressed, Isaac will admit to liking several girls in his classes, he’s very reluctant to elaborate on the issue. Considering the pandemic, organizing a big group date seems inappropriate, so for now the issue of dating is on hold.

Some of Isaac’s favorite foods are hamburgers, Pasta-Roni which he makes himself, and Butterfinger Blizzards. He enjoys riding electric scooters around, going on adventures, building things, and playing computer games.  Some of his favorite games are Kerbal Space Program, Terraria, and Scrap Mechanic.

Isaac’s favorite books are nonfiction and science fiction. He enjoys science fiction movies and TV shows. He recently watched the entire Star Trek Voyager series and read all the Star Trek books he could find. Isaac’s favorite music includes Pet Shoppe Boys, Belle and Sebastian, Journey, and The Planets by Gustav Holst.

Isaac enjoys cats, particularly when they do something amusing or strange. He loves to find the cat doing something ridiculous and take a pic to share with the family. The cats also like him and one cat in particular can often be found sitting on his mouse pad or in front of his computer.

He was excited to work out a system for playing jackbox games with all his cousins in other states.  He created a live YouTube stream (click here to see it) with a really low latency in order for them to collaborate on one game together. He’s also been brainstorming ideas for creating something useful using robotics.

Isaac is a genuinely good son who is often helpful and kind. I’m fortunate to have him as my son for the last 16 years! Here is what I wrote about him last year.

Ila is in 4th grade this year and doing well in school. She excels in every subject to the point where her teacher suggested having her take the accelerated placement test for next year.

Ila has been a varacous reader this year. Once she finds a book or series she likes, she will read every spare minute until she has read through every book in the series. Her teacher let her borrow a Land of Stories book over Thanksgiving break and now Ila has read all 6 books and moved onto another series (each books is about 500 pages, the whole series is almost 3,000 pages long).

Ila’s best friend, Cecily moved to another town over the summer. Ila was devistated and has struggled to develop the same deep level of connection with any other friend. Ila says the girls are boring at recess because all they want to do is walk around and talk. She has taken to playing with the boys at recess every day because she says they’re more fun. She has reported that she eats lunch and plays with the same two boys every day.

Ila was adament that she wanted to be part of the elementary school ballroom class this year. She has really loved participating and looks forward to every dance class.

Ila is my sweet sensitive child. She always tries to do the right thing and follow all the rules. She never wants anyone to be unhappy with her so she rarely gets in trouble. Occasionally she will be caught in a minor infraction and at the slightest rebuke, she will crumple and start to cry.

She continutes to nurture relationships with beloved adults. She’s quick with a hug and a smile for all her special people.

She also still really loves babies. She takes every oppertunity that she finds to play with babies. She was particularly fond of her baby cousins who came to visit over the summer and she spent every spare moment holding, feeding, and loving those babies. After they left she missed them terribly and told me she would dream at night about playing with them.

Ila is kind and genererous to all her siblings. She has been an especially good to her big sister, Nicole who has in tern become a little obsessive over Ila. Ila has spent her allowance money more than once to buy things for each of her siblings. There are times when her siblings are more easily calmed after an upset by Ila than by me.

Ila loves all things kitty. She likes to play with toy cats and kittens and is always excited to recieve or wear anything with a cat on it.

She continues to be particular in her food choices. Salmon and chicken with lots of salt are her favorite foods. She likes vanilla ice cream, pumpkin pie, Lays Wavy Original potatoe chips (she will accept some generic brands in a pinch, but not un-wavy chips or chips with any other flavorings), and apple cinnomin oatmeal.

Ila is a greatful child. We gave her an electric scooter for her birthday and every time she rides it, she thanks us profusely and tells us how much she loves it.

Ila loves to swim and play in the water. She likes to do any kind of art project or play at a park. She likes to play on the computer and experiment with computer coding. She even devised a way to communicate with her BFF via coding projects posted on scratch. She likes to bake and watch shows with the family. She is a delightful, obediant, loving child and I am super lucky to be her mom!!

Here is what I wrote about her last year.

Thomas turned 7 at the beginning of February, but I’ve had a hard time figuring out what to write and remembering to write about him at a moment when I had some time to do it.  

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Ila loves people and wants everyone to feel happy and loved.  She continues to nurture her relationships with adults in her life.  She searches out her previous teachers at church and school and gives them hugs every time she sees them. Some of them she’s been searching out and hugging for many years.  She hugs her grandparents every chance she gets and makes sure to tell us all that she loves us everyday.  Since her dad has been traveling to Portland every week, Ila has figured out how to send him messages from her computer.  Sending messages to beloved adults has become a favorite activity of hers.  She’ll send loving messages, emojis, and memes to every adult she has access to then sit at her computer excitedly awaiting their responses.

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I wrote some things on Facebook for Autism month in April that I decided I wanted to Save somewhere else so I’m posting it here:

I love that they added the word understanding to autism awareness month! I feel like most people know autism exists, but few understand it well.

When my daughter, Nicole first got her diagnosis, I was careful to say she has autism and never call her autistic. I saw the word autistic as an all encompassing label and there is so much more to my girl than that label. She’s bright, beautiful, creative, funny, energetic, loving, and joyful. I thought that calling her autistic meant that autism was the most important thing about her. It’s been a few years since her diagnosis and my understanding of what that label means has changed completely. I see autism as an important part of her identity, but not a bad part. It’s not something to be cured, it’s something to understand and embrace.

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Here’s what I wrote about Ila last year when she turned 6.

Ila has blossomed with the whole school experience.  She was worried that she wouldn’t love first grade as much as she loved Kindergarten, but she has found that first grade is great too!  I don’t have as many opportunities to volunteer in her class this year, but everytime I come in she is always thrilled to see me.  She eagerly anticipates the days I am coming in and she jumps up and hugs me as soon as I enter the classroom.

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