update on the kidlets
Isaac (9 years and 7 months) has been sleeping in our room lately (on a pallet on the floor.) I'm not sure if he just doesn't want to clean off his bunk bed, which is covered with Legos and Knex, or if he is craving the extra closeness, probably a bit of each.
He is wearing size 12 pants which are a bit long, and have room the waist, but size 10 pants are a bit tight and just at the bottom of his ankles. Size 10 shirts are fine. If it's size 8-10 though forget it! His feet are just my size (5 in mens) but he prefers to wear at least a full size up whenever possible. He is humongous.
Lately he is very into comic books and chafes at the library book limits I've been putting on him. He is allowed one non-fiction, one fiction, and one classic of his choice. Classic is defined as a chapter book which mom counts as a classic. This time he came home with a comic book, a rather extensive book about clowns and how to be one (that Peter pulled down off the library shelf, first he pushed a chair over to reach it, typical Peter) and "The Two Towers" my suggestion when he was complaining that the the "classic" comic book he'd selected was not accepted as a classic by me. He then picked up some selected Sherlock Holmes stories in paperback on our way out as I told him that it would count as classic literature and it had caught his eye. I am reluctant to let him pick out paperbacks at all -one of the main reasons for the limit on non-classic fiction, is that he was checking out oodles of 7th-9th grade pulp fiction in paperback and not taking care of the books- they were getting lost, torn and damaged. Hopefully he will take care of Sherlock Holmes.
Elisabeth (6 years and 9 months) is into playing school lately. She packs her backpack and walks up and down the street to get to school, spends lengthy amounts of time at her desk pretending to do work, and brings me home her "assignments" which are graded A or F. In the course of a pretend conversation with her teacher I found out the F grade was for supposedly putting a tack on the chair of a fellow student. I reminded her "teacher" (Elisabeth as "Ms. Butterby") that the grades for behavior and work were supposed to be separate, and that Elisabeth was supposed to get an A because she had an A on the test, so she changed her grade.
In reality, she is doing very well- we are in a 2nd grade math book, and I am trying to help her learn about carrying. She is reading to herself for fun. Last night she spent a good bit of time reading herself "Bedtime for Frances." She enjoys reading to Peter and sometimes to Abinadi as well.
I need to work with her on memorizing her address, phone number, etc. I don't think she knows them at this point.
She is my late sleeper as usual, everyone else is up now but her and Patrick.
Abinadi (4 years and 5 months) is weaning himself. He only asks to nurse once or twice a day, and I usually only nurse him once. He is also only asking for both sides about 50% of the time, and again I usually only say yes to both sides half the times he asks. Not only is frequency down, but duration is as well. Sometimes he will barely even latch on before he is done.
We have had to set firm limits on watching "Lord of the Rings" as he will ask to watch it every day and he will persist in asking until we give in. Now it is Sundays only. So this morning he woke up crying on his pallet next to our bed. I went in to get him and asked him if he'd like to nurse. Lying in bed with a nipple in front of him he asked what day it was. Sunday, I said. Do you want to nurse? No, he said. I want to watch "Lord of the Rings" first. So he went to the potty and is watching "The Two Towers." But he doesn't have the attention span to watch much at a time, he usually only makes it through the first 20 minutes or so.
He is also obssessed with parties and birthday parties. He is always telling me what kind of party he is going to have and asking when his birthday is. So I've started telling him about weaning parties and how you don't have to have a birthday to have a weaning party. We shall see! Maybe a LOTR weaning party will happen in the coming months.
While his articulation hasn't improved much his sentence structures and vocabulary are much more complex and I think beyond the average 4 year old. I've got to get on the ball and type some good ones in the next time he says them- my retention is not good.
Peter (22 months) has been going to sleep with Elisabeth in her bunk bed (bottom bunk) at least once a week. He is much more accepting of the times I refuse to nurse him. His latch is good most of the time, but is still excruciating every now and then. It's hard to tell if it's him or breast sensitivity though. He still refers to himself as "You" which can be a bit confusing.
"Ar-ter bite you hand!" (Arthur our puppy was foraging under the table and nipped him on the hand when he got too close.)
"Lee-beh you mar-ter mama" (He brought me an uncapped marker, evidently Elisabeth said to take it to mama.)
"You see air-pane!" (An airplane is flying past overhead.)
Peter is wearing 18 month-2T clothes. The full on 2T are too long in the leg, but since we are still using cloth diapers he is pretty much in 2T unless it is an older 18 mo that has room for cloth diaper butt. He has been doing better about using the potty. In the past three weeks or so he will sometimes take off the cloth diaper and go pee on the baby bjorn, and he has been ok with being put on the toilet for poops a few times. He has pooped once in the baby bjorn. I am also noticing him pooping and more often, and calling his attention to it. He has always been anti-poop and wanted to poop standing up, so I am very excited about him learning to poop sitting down/squatting. I hope that he'll be using the toilet exclusively by the time baby comes, but it's a very iffy thing. I definitely would not refer to him as an EC baby. Elisabeth was completely done with diapers at this point. Maybe with the next one... Patrick will most often put pull-ups on him, and it is always tempting for me as well. I am making a point of staying caught up with laundry though, so that I have no excuse. I know the pull-ups are not helping him get with the potty learning.
24 weeks tomorrow, and starting into the third trimester. I'm feeling a lot more movement and baby should be be blinking now and seeing light and dark as well as hearing. I've been having a lot of heartburn and some acidy nausea lately- I really need to eat better. More meat, less carbs.