Six months!

Sooo....our girl turned 6 months on Saturday. And as always I'm behind on her update. Actually, I'm behind on her 5 month post, too, since I never got to it. Anyway, here's what Evie's up to:

• She's had some growth issues, but we seem to be overcoming them. Last we checked, she weighed not quite 12 pounds (I think that was about 3 weeks ago). She has an appointment on Friday, so we'll see then. I'm hoping she hits 13 pounds.
  

• She's still wearing size 1 diapers and 3-6 month clothes. The 3-6 months clothes are just a tiny bit short but she's still too small for the 6-9 month clothes.

• No teeth yet, but she GNAWS like crazy on my hands and toys and such. I'm surprised she doesn't have teeth yet. No sign of one even.

• Evie's really coming into her personality. She's SO.MUCH.FUN. She laughs and giggles and screeches to get our attention. She still wrinkles her nose when she smiles, and she acts like she's going to eat me when I play with her. She grabs me with both hands and lunges toward my face with mouth wide open and act likes she's trying to bite me. I love it.
  

• She's fascinated with my hair. She loves it when I brush my hair against her face and she reaches out and lets it go through her fingers. Sometimes she grabs and shoves it her mouth, but then realizes that's no fun and lets go.

• She's sitting on her own now. Only for a few seconds and that's far less fun than standing, but she can do it and she looks so big and grown up when she does.
  

• She started food a few weeks ago. I posted that video. The girl LOVES to eat. She loves everything we've given her...she wasn't too sure about the oatmeal, but I had just made it, so it was still a little warm. It wasn't hot, but it was definitely warmer than the room temperature or cold avocados and sweet potatoes she had had so far. Now she loves it. I am making as much of her food as possible, and so far, I'm enjoying it as much as I did when I did it for the boys. All she's had so far is avocado, sweet potato and oatmeal. We're taking things kind of slowly, obviously. Not for any particular reason other than I just haven't had time to make more food and I'm trying to feed her avocado as often as possible for all the good fats. The next food will be butternut squash, then maybe green beans and then possibly banana.
  

• She's getting on her hands and knees a lot lately. She's not scooting or actually mobile yet, but she rolls everywhere and I think she scoots very slowly, because if I leave her on the floor for very long (which admittedly, doesn't happen very often), she winds up far from where she started pointed in a totally different direction.

• Hrmmm, what else?? Ever since she started gaining weight again, she's been in such a really good mood. Just fun. She's a pretty easy baby...doesn't cry much and when she does it's easy to fix. Feed her or put her to sleep.

• Speaking of sleep, she's doing pretty good. During the process of trying to get her to gain more weight, she started waking at night again. I love the whole nights of sleep, but I totally didn't mind waking up to feed her in the night because I know she needs it. The last week or so, she's started waking only once a night and it's been getting later and later. I'm hoping that she's gained lots of weight so that if she starts sleeping through the night again, I can let her. Naps are pretty good, too. Not always great, but a lot of the time she'll take a couple 1.5-2 hour naps a day. Sometimes shorter, but only if I didn't give her a good awake time (like if I put her down early for a nap because the boys are getting ready to take their quiet time and I want her to sleep at the same time).

To the tiara pics....I'm adding the 5 and 6 month pictures since I missed last month's post. I took the pictures, but never wrote the post.

Five Months

Six Months

One to Six Months

Three

Marc-Adam~

You're three now!! You've grown up so much in the last year! Such a big boy now! You really understood the concept of turning three, because when I asked you how old you were you yelled, "THREE!" and when I asked you how old you were yesterday, "Two." You are convinced that this additional year has opened all sorts of doors for you because when you wanted to do something today, I told you to wait. You insisted you COULD do it (I knew you could, it just wasn't a good time) and you pleaded to me, "I can, Mama, I can! I'm three!"

(Marc-Adam at 3 years old)

This past year, you moved from your crib to a toddler bed, and now you share the bunk beds with Zachary. You love sharing a room with your brothers, and I can hear you talking or whispering to them when you are supposed to be sleeping, or at least being quiet.

You are still our little firecracker, and I'm convinced that if I look close enough, that one gray hair on the top of my head has your name on it. You had your first ER visit this July when you fell off the bunk bed ladder you weren't supposed to be on. No stitches, thankfully.



You are learning SO MUCH. You seem to soak up a lot of the lessons that I gear towards your brothers and you can say your ABCs, count to 20 (although occasionally you leave out 5-8 and throw in a few extra 15s), you know most of your colors and can even recite the planets for me! You LOVE to work in your workbooks for school and right now your favorite is the Thomas the Train book with the flashcards....I don't know if you ever actually seen the Thomas the Train show.

Speaking of shows, you definitely have favorites. Being the third brother, you've never really gotten to enjoy the toddler shows like your older brothers did. Your favorite show is Phineas and Ferb and I could listen to you say "Perry the Platypus" all.day.long. Arthur is another favorite that you watch because of your brothers. But if given a choice to pick something to watch when no one else will watch it with you, you'll pick Wow! Wow! Wubbzy. For a long time it was Yo Gabba Gabba and can I just say how glad I am that you're off of that kick now? :)

You're at the age when you want to do everything yourself, and you can not be deterred even when you do it wrong. You think which ever way you do it is right. If I tell you you're doing it wrong, you say in a sweet little voice, "It's okay, Mama, it's okay." You also pull out that cuteness when you get caught doing something you shouldn't. It makes it really hard to fuss at you when you say that to me. But I can fuss at you when you are being hard-headed, which you are. A lot. When you get it in your mind that you are going to do something or that you want something, you will not let down...and a lot of times will just keep doing what you want until I either raise my voice or physically stop you.

You are speaking wonderfully now. You talk in normal sentences, about 5-8 words, but I still have to translate for you once in a while, and sometimes even your brothers have to translate for me because I don't understand (but usually only when I can't get the context of what you are saying). One of your most used phrases is, "Mama? Can you come here for a second?" And if you keep saying it so sweetly, I will follow you where ever you want me to go! You have the same language challenge Stephen did at that age and you can't say a hard G or C sound and replace those sounds with a D or T (so you would say "tootie" instead of "cookie"). But you'll grow out of it, I know....hopefully before Evie starts to pick up on it!

Speaking of Evie, you became a big brother this year!! You love having a little sister, and you try to take good care of her. You are a little rough with her sometimes, though, but I don't think you are ever trying to be malicious. You are just curious. Many times, I have to tell, "Please don't make your sister be a pirate" because you think it's funny to close one of her eyes and yell, "Argh!! I'm a PIrate!" She's not so amused. You also like to pull her ears out and make monkey noises. Again, she's not so amused. One of these days, my dear, I think you are going to get payback. ;) Your brothers love playing with you now. You have finally become fun to them. You make them laugh and play right along side them during their pretend play. You'll run through house yelling, "I'm Hulk! HULK SMASH!"


You are still my most daring, and I HOPE we can get you into gymnastics sometime after the first year. You would be so good at it! You also LOVE to play games and can beat any of us at Uno! You are really good at Memory, too. You like to read, but rarely sit still long enough to finish a book and when you do sit still for a while to read, it's because you want to read to me. Your newest favorite book is your storybook bible and you read it to me almost everyday. You think every grown male character on every page is Jesus. And every other character is either happy to see Jesus or sad because he/she misses Jesus.

For a long time, you weren't very affectionate or cuddly, I had to sneak in my hugs and kisses when you weren't paying much attention to what I was doing. But lately, you've loved having me hold you and snuggle you. You give fantastic kisses complete with little growly noises. I think I do something similar to you, but I didn't know you paid that much attention.

My baby boy. I am LOVING getting to know who you are and who you are to become. You are so much fun and even on the days I think I could put you on the curb with a "Free to good home" sign, you still make me laugh and make me thank God that I'm your mom. I love you, boy.

Love,
Mama

(Marc-Adam at 3 months)

Look! A post! And a video!

I know. It's been a while. But I've been thinking about you all and my little blog here. I'm going to be back to blogging real soon, but in the meantime, here's a clip of Evie having her first taste of food. Avocado! (Doesn't it seem like just yesterday when I was posting pics of Marc-Adam's first food?)

SCHOOL!

We finally started school this week. Wednesday was our first day, and so far things are going well. It's still a lot to juggle...the care and feeding of Evie, keeping Marc-Adam entertained, and squeezing in everything we want to get done. But we still get everything (or at least the important things) accomplished.

As much as I enjoyed the curriculum we used at the end of last year, I knew we'd have to do something different this year to better fit our needs. I just don't have the time to plan and go into lengthy projects right now. So we're sticking with the basics and hoping that next year we can dive in to curriculum that's a little more in depth (and fun!).

So, this year, we are sticking with Math-U-See for math. We're doing the Alpha book and plan to take it a lot more slowly than we did the Primer. Math-U-See teaches concepts to mastery, not the spiral approach like other curricula and public schools use. So, this year, we have to make sure that Stephen masters each concept before we move on. That wasn't so important last year. The Alpha level teaches single-digit addition and subtraction, skip counting by 2, 5, and 10 (which he's already pretty familiar with) and even has a lesson for "solving for the unknown". There's also some appendices for telling time, which I've been lazy about teaching. Stephen's concept of time is fantastic. He can tell time from a digital clock and gets that when it says 12:30 that it will be 1:00 in 30 minutes and he knows what time something will happen if I tell him "10 more minutes". There's really nothing else I need to teach him about time other than how to read an analog clock (with the arms and all that). He's actually been asking me to teach him that. I might take a few days to skip ahead to the appendices so that he can learn how to read a clock.

We're also sticking with Handwriting Without Tears for handwriting. This year, Igot Zachary the preschool book, which he's excited about. We didn't work much on handwriting over the summer, but I can already tell that Stephen is picking it up much better than he did last year. I think he just needed a little more time. I've read that some kids just can't write well until they are closer to 7 or 8 and I think that's the case with Stephen. It's too early to tell with Zachary.

For reading, I've worked in more independent reading time for Stephen while I'm working with one of the other boys. Then I ask him questions about the book or ask him to tell it back to me so that I can assure that a) he actually read it and b) he comprehends what he read. I personally have issues with comprehension sometimes, so I want to make sure that's not a problem with him. I'm also starting Scaredy Cat (our version is different than the one in the link) with Zachary. Actually we touched on it last year, but I intend to actually finish it with him. He's doing really well with it so far, and is reading many many "consonant-vowel-consonant" words and is fantastic at sounding words out. He's very excited because he gets to get a library card this year (our rule is that you have to be able to read before you get your own library card, before that you have to use Mom's). We also a couple of Explode the Code books, too, that they enjoy doing. We use those to take a break from our normal books and to enforce what they've already learned. In addition, I'm also using First Language Lessons to start learning grammar and parts of speech and such. Those are easy 5-15 minute lessons that we do a couple times a week.

This year, we're using a separate science curriculum. I found out about Apologia Science several weeks ago....I looked into it and thought that it might be good for us, since I didn't want to take the unit study approach this year. I gave the kids their choice of the different science subjects (they could have chosen from botany, zoology, astronomy....and something else I can't remember) and (of course) they chose Astronomy. We did a little bit of astronomy last year, and they loved it, so we're doing it again. For the whole. year. But this curriculum also has short lessons that we do a couple times a week, so it's just small bites of info. I was thinking about getting Stephen a telescope for Christmas (he's been asking for one), but a friend from church offered to let us borrow theirs. I think I'll take them up on it.

I e-mailed our Children's Director at our church and got a list of the bible verses the kids' are covering in Sunday School each week, and it's my intention to go along with those for our bible time each day. And I got Stephen an awesome devotional bible a couple weeks ago, so we've been reading out of that, too, the last couple of days.

As for Marc-Adam, well, he's welcome to sit in quietly on any of the lessons we're doing, but since nothing is quiet about Marc-Adam, he's usually playing, coloring or playing on the computer while I'm doing the other kids' lessons. He also insists on having a workbook of his own. Last year, I just sat down with him with a coloring book and a fat pencil and he was happy with that. But this year, I got him his own workbook about shapes and colors. I also intend on making sure we cover letters and letter sounds with him this year. But really, I think 3 is much too young for a formal curriculum and that kids that age should just be allowed to learn through daily play and interaction, so I don't want to do too much formal work with him yet. I just give him 5 minutes of "workbook" time, so he doesn't feel left out when the boys are working on their handwriting or math.

So. I guess that's it. Even with all that, we still have lots of time for free play and to play outside. I worked out a schedule for us that I wrote up and hung on a wall, and we have yet to stick to it, so I may have to re-work it. And Stephen (being the classic first child he is) is obsessed with it and gets a little upset if we aren't following it. I just did it so we would have an idea of what we should when and to make sure that we fit everything in. But it might be more trouble than it's worth.

I can't believe that we're starting our second year of homeschooling. I don't feel like such a newbie anymore. I think we're really finding our groove, and again, I'm so thankful that we live in a state that allows us to homeschool in the way we feel best and that Sweet Hubby and I can afford being able to to live on one income so that I can stay home and teach our kids. We are so blessed to live this lifestyle. And I can't imagine doing anything differently.

4 months!

My girl is 4 months today. 1/3 of a year. Yikes. She's such a fun addition, and has really just fit right in to our family in the last 4 months. Here's what's up:

* We go to the doctor tomorrow for her 4 month well check, but I had to take her to the doctor 2 weeks ago (because I freaked out over something weird), and she weighed 11 pounds 2 ounces then. Tiny little thing, but still bigger than her oldest (eldest? whatever) brother was at this point. I'll be surprised if she's broken the 12 pound mark by tomorrow. *UPDATE* She only weighed 10 lbs 12 ounces at the doctor's appointment. The doctor wanted to weigh her again...she peed when I took her diaper off and then she only weighed 10 lbs 10.5 ounces. So we'll be working on getting her weight back up. I'm going to start out by trying to feed her more often and hope that she's actually hungry.

* Stephen made her laugh out loud spontaneously for the first time a few days ago. It's so precious to watch her watch her brothers. They are so in love with her.

* She's trying to turn from back to tummy. She mostly does it when she's mad, and she hasn't completely accomplished it on her own yet, but she's trying. It's still amazing to me that she can roll from tummy to back because the boys didn't start doing it till they were a little more than 4 months.

* Nursing is going great. I've recently started to extend the time between feeds to about 3.5-4 hours and she seems to be doing well with that.

* Sleep is fantastic. At least, night sleep is fantastic, and that's all that matters to me. Not long after her 3 month post, she started sleeping 12 hours at night. And has done it every night since. Naps aren't great. They're ALWAYS hit or miss. But I'm not going to complain. I can deal with whatever she does during the day as long as she sleeps well at night.

* It's clear that her favorite place to be these days is in the sling. When she's having a hard time napping, and I can't commit to sleep training in her room for 30 minutes or more, I put her in the sling. The other day, she was screaming when it was naptime, so I grabbed the sling and as soon as I picked her up and folded her legs the way I do just before I put her in the sling, she immediately quieted down and didn't make another peep for an hour until it was time to eat. Sometimes she sleeps in it, sometimes not, but she always snuggles in and sucks her thumb.

* Speaking of sucking her thumb, she's getting really good at finding it whenever she wants it. She doesn't prefer one over the other and she'll even suck on her fingers if they land in her mouth first, but mostly it's her thumb she wants for comfort. She's ALWAYS got her hands in her mouth and it's really cute when she starts sticking her tongue out and you can see it peeking out from between her fingers.

* Even though she's four months now, I have no intention of starting solids anytime soon. Just not ready.

* She's a sweet baby, but she's stingy with the smiles and laughs (but she has gotten a little more free with the smiles in the last couple days). And she's cranky if you take her out of her normal environment for more than just a couple hours. When we went to my parents' house last week for a little vacation, she was a crank for the first few days and by the time we left to go home, she had gotten used to it and was finally acting like her sweet self.

* We're still dealing with reflux and I'm so glad we go to the doctor tomorrow to get the new dose amount for her meds. I think that might be our problem with naps (well, besides the fact that she's spoiled rotten).

* Toys are getting interesting and she reaches out to grab whatever's there and tries to cram it in her mouth. Of course, she does that with pretty much anything within reach, not just toys (my hair, my shirt, the side of my face). But she loves to play on her mat and grab the toys to try to eat them.

* Still in 0-3 month clothes. Not much change there. 3-6 month clothes just hang on her.


Tiara pictures went much better this month...I even got some smiles!!

They wouldn't have made good pioneers

This afternoon, we had a heckuva storm blow through. It actually passed through pretty quickly, but it was strong. I was sitting in our bedroom nursing Evie when it first started to come through, and Stephen came in to show me (dramatically) how the tree in the back was blowing around (complete with sound effects).

When the thunder started, it was really loud. Normally, the kids (especially Marc-Adam) are afraid of thunder, but I've been trying to calm them down about it every time it thunders. The best thing I could come up with was to tell them that it was "just a sound". I told them it was a sound just like the quack of a duck is just a sound...don't ask me why I compared it to the quack of a duck, it just popped into my head.

So now, anytime they start to freak out about thunder, I say "Quack quack!"

When the thunder started today, they all stayed totally calm, Marc-Adam came to me smiling and said, "Don't worry! It's just a duck, Mama!" :) Love that boy.

Shortly after that, we lost power. At first they were a little lost and confused. They kept saying, "Well we can watch a DVD!" (as opposed to being able to watch the satellite.) Or, "The computer might still work!" And they still attempted to turn the lights on in every room they went in....but then again, so did I. Finally they gave up and we started reading some books and playing silly games like singing everything we said instead of talking. Once they wandered off to play, they kept getting so excited when they found a (battery-operated) toy that worked. Then, when Marc-Adam went to the bathroom, he came out screaming, "The toilet works! The toilet works!"

When dinner time rolled around and the power was still out, that's when the whining and grumbling began. By that time, the storm was long gone and the sun was even shining and we were all starting to get a little sweaty with no A/C and no ceiling fans. I didn't want to open the fridge or freezer so we had to eat of the pantry. We ended up with peanut butter on crackers and a can of fruit salad (I could've come up with more/better, but I'm lazy when I'm hot). Stephen tried to turn on the dining room light and started grumbling about it when it didn't work. I asked him if he had started feeling grateful for all the stuff we take for granted every day. He said, "Yes, but I still want it to come back on now." I told him that there were people in the world right now that live without power every day. Zachary asked me what their names were.

When the lights finally came back on, they weren't even excited about being able to turn the TV or computer on. They were seriously happy that the A/C kicked on! And that they could eat something out of the refrigerator.

It was a fun little break in our day, but I'm so glad I live in the time with all our modern conveniences!

Cue the tight rope music

This week, at the boys' gymnastics place, evaluations were held (and YES, this post is kind of about the kids, but also about me). Every few months, the coaches evaluate the kids to see where they are skills-wise and to make sure that the class that each kid is in is still challenging for them. They last did evaluations in May, and both boys got promoted (they started their new levels in June). Then this week, evaluations were held again, which I thought was kind of soon since they'd just been promoted 2 months ago. But I guess they wanted to move up the kids that didn't move up in June so they could make room for the new folks that are signing up at the beginning of the school year.

ANYWAY, the point of all this is that my boys were VERY excited about it being evaluation time again. I tried to tell them gently that they were not going to be promoted since they've only been in their new levels for 2 months. They understood, but were still excited.

Lo and behold, Stephen got promoted. Again.

Zachary did not.

So began my tightrope walk of being super-excited for Stephen (promoted! again! for the 2nd time in 2 months! to the acclerated level! you're getting so good!) and trying to explain to Zachary that it's okay that he did not (you've only been in the "green" for 2 months. you're still learning all those tricks. you have another full year before the kindergym level and if you promote now, you'll be in the next level for a whole year. we talked about the fact that you were not going to be promoted. it's totally okay! you're are really good, but it's just not time to promote yet.).

Zachary was having none of it. He was totally fine with not promoting until we went to pick Stephen up and Stephen ran up waving his paper that told us what new class he was in. Z didn't understand why Stephen could promote and he couldn't. It was awful trying to contain my excitement for Stephen while being supportive of Zachary. I really am proud of Stephen and was so surprised that he promoted again. But I didn't want to make a huge big deal out of it because Zachary was already feeling badly. It was totally fine that he didn't promote. It doesn't mean he's not good at it. He really is good and he's a quick learner, but like I told him, he's only been in this level for 2 months and he's only got one more level before he starts the kindergym. And he's only been promoted once in the last year. But he didn't care. The fact that Stephen got promoted negated everything else that I tried to tell him. And the more excited Stephen and I were, the more upset he got.

Now, normally, I would just tell Z that that's just how things are and that it's not all about him and that his time will come. But this was genuine disappointment and I'm trying hard to not let him fall into the "middle child syndrome". But it was also hard because I didn't want to hold back our little "mini-celebration" in the car on they way home simply because Zachary was disappointed. That's not fair to Stephen. And we all have to learn to live with disappointment and we have to learn that sometimes other people get what we want.

Thankfully, things have settled down since then. This Sunday is promotion Sunday at church, so the kids will get to step-up to their new Sunday School classes. That helps. I'm just praying that next time evaluations roll around that Stephen will stay put and Z will get promoted (or at least that BOTH will be promoted).