Wordless Wednesday: Sleep

My tired boys.

Birthday love

Happy birthday Papa. We miss you!

Shoes

Now that Ellie is walking everywhere, we got her some shoes she could wear outside. It still amazes me that in February all the "winter" shoes are basically gone and the majority of the selection are sandals. We managed to find a pair of pink shoes, but they had a buy one get one deal. Of course they didn't have anything else in her size so we headed to the boy section. They had the same pair of shoes we already picked out but in tan. I grabbed those as Ellie spotted a black pair with drums on them. She lunged forward, grabbed them and wouldn't let go. I like a girl that knows what she likes!

Less drama please

We took Zach to the doctors today for his four month check up. He is 14.8lbs (just under the 50th percentile) and 25.5inches (75th percentile). Overall he is fine, but we have 2 issues we need to work through.

The first is his tear duct. It still hasn't popped open and he has a build up of yellow junk inside. When we push on the side of his nose it oozes out. We have to put drops in his eye to help clear some of it out. He has until his 9month appointment to get it popped open. They say if it isn't open by then, it wont open on its own. She also said with the amount of blockage she is seeing, she will be surprised if it opens on its own. That means he would have to go to an eye doctor to have it popped open. Everything I'm finding about the procedure says he would have to be put under general anesthesia. That is the last thing I want so we're really going to to be working on that duct.

The second issue is his neck. While it has got a bit better, he definitely still favors one side. She wanted us to start physical therapy with him now, but after talking, she agreed to wait until his 6 month appointment to reevaluate him. The concern is if he is consistently looking at the world with his head tilted, it will actually cause his vision to adjust to the tilt. I asked her if the tilt would adjust back once his neck straightened out. She implied it wouldn't, but didn't give a yes or no. So we have to get him on the floor much more often that he is now and we have to take the neck stretches up a notch (more like 5 notches).

We also asked the doctor to check Ellies ears. She had a double ear infection last month. Then the flu went through the entire family then Ellie got sick again Saturday night. She woke up Sunday with a fever of 101.8. She is slowly getting better, but just isn't herself. Sure enough, she has another ear infection. We're headed back to the pharmacy for more antibiotics. Thank goodness everyone else is relatively healthy because these babies are wearing me out!

I wake up to this every day. Doesn't get much better than that!

Oh, and notice the leg kicked out from under the blanket---he is so my kid!

Happy 5th

Happy 5th anniversary to Cross Point church from the kids.

School friends

Liam has become one of Bens favorite friends. It works out well cause I really like hanging out with his mom, Becky. She home schools too and has taught me a lot about classical home schooling. She's been great about listening to my concerns, offering advice when Ben is driving me crazy and reminding me what is and isn't normal for a five year old.

Ben and I got in a home school rut not too long ago. Partly because I'm a bit paranoid about the whole thing. Our typical routine was reading, calendar review (what is today, how many weeks in a month, year, what date is x amount of days/weeks from today etc), math, which ranged from making pictographs to "buying" things with change to tangrams and writing/copy work. I tried to throw in something fun so we did a lap book each month. We did Curious George, The Giving Tree and holiday related books. Then I started to stress about the state standards and if I was doing enough "real" teaching.

We took a break from the lap books and each week we would go over a different standard the state thinks a kindergartener should know. It quickly became monotonous and frustrating. Ben wasn't having fun and was shutting down. I was annoyed he wasn't participating and it started the day off on the wrong foot.

After stepping back and remembering all the reasons I want to home school, I decided to revise the routine. Right now our routine is reading and what ever comes up next. Last week, we were reviewing continents and Ben asked what was in South America. I said Rio, like the movie Rio. He responded with, "Oh thats in Brazil. Argentina is by Brazil." When I asked him how he knew that he told me he learned it from his Cars (the movie) map. Lightening McQueen has races there. He is learning about South America from a movie! We spent some time looking at a map of South America and the different countries there. Then we listened to a few of Beethovens symphonies. Ben can now tell me some basic Beethoven facts.

My favorite change is a mini co-op Becky and I have started with ourselves. We are discussing science, art, learning french and last week we spent some time talking about nature. We checked out animals, talked about bugs, drew some pictures, read some books and had fun learning with friends. Sam even enjoyed discussing ants and checking out some owls. For a kid that rejects basically all things learning related, it was really cool to have him ask questions. We still make time for math and writing, but we no longer do the same subjects, the same way every day. I'm trying to relate the topics to things Ben likes. He is much more excited and willing to write about a video game than he is a Bible verse--although we still do those too.

While I do expect to have a (tiny) bit more structure for first grade, I have realized Ben often knows more than I think he does, he really is a smart kid when he puts forth the slightest amount of effort, learning can be fun and (school) rules are meant to be reevaluated, bent, adjusted, moved and often broken!

Last day

Swimming ended last night. They loved every second of it.

Ben jumping in:

Ellie did a good job of amusing herself:

Zach was a little bored:

Update

Last month I posted about 3 goals (not resolutions) for the new year. The first was striving to be a more peaceful parent. I'm happy to say that, for the most part, I've been doing better. With everyone getting sick, we developed a bit of cabin fever and had a few tense moments. However, we took some time off school. Swimming has helped the boys get out some extra energy and Jon has done a great job of reminding me Ben is 5 and its basically his job to not listen and drive me crazy! I still have work to do, but every day is a step closer to a happier family.

The second goal is reading my Bible every day. I admit I haven't kept up with reading it every day. In my defense my Bible study is now meeting weekly instead of bi-weekly. Since I'm leading it, I am spending more time reading the material. I'm spending a lot of time figuring out how to get the main points across, starting discussions and applying the outcomes to our daily lives. While I haven't done the best job of keeping up with my Bible reading, I am definitely spending more time in His word.

The third goal is the half marathon. Training has officially started. I am running 4 times a week with 2 amazing women (with 2 more potentially joining us). It absolutely sucks starting over, but I'm excited to know we're getting better and stronger each day and we are one step closer to the finish line and our Mongolian BBQ reward dinner. On top of the running, Jon and I are doing Insanity. Its a workout program heavy on the cardio. Its supposed to be a great plan to help increase your endurance. Just what I need to help in half marathon training! We are on day 4 and lets just say it lives up to its name!

Tonight is the last night of swimming in this session. Ben is considering soccer for the spring instead of swimming.

Zach is still working on his neck muscles and spends most of his day showing off his sweet side!

I think we can officially call Ellie a walker. She isn't 100% stable yet, but she is walking everywhere and loving it.

Old

We celebrated an important event last Friday. Jon had a birthday. He got to celebrate his big day by leaving work early to come home and take care of a sick wife and dealing with 4 kids on his own. We (he) did have a nice dinner of crab legs and some cup cakes made by Gram. He got a couple fun presents, including a home made card complete with a bad joke by Ben. I think the best present was a sick Sam at 4am. After 2 pj and bed changes, Jon was treated to a sleepless morning on the couch with Sam while holding his bucket. We followed that up with a sick Ellie just before lunch on Saturday and then the birthday boy himself got the bug very early Monday morning. At least we got to enjoy a fantastic Superbowl game (I'll try not to rub in the Giants winning too much mom) in the middle of all the craziness. Happy birthday baby.

We love you and are sorry for the unwanted gifts!

Wordless Wednesday: Hot chocolate mouth

Yum!!