Kid Report
School starts tomorrow. (Cue "The most wonderful time of the year" song.) Elder Son has been on a different non-stimulant medicine for a while, which, while it had a great effect of getting his appetite back, turned him into the lightest sleeper in the world. He was waking up 4-5 times a night. He got so tired he actually took a nap for the first time since he was about 3! We seem to have fiddled enough now that he gets the good effect during the day, and can still sleep at night. We'll see how it works out when he's in a classroom.
He loses shit a lot. His Nintendo, that he loves so much, he has lost the charger twice (it's missing right now), and someone stole his favorite game, Classic Star Wars lego. [sigh] And he seems totally unfazed. It's so weird. If we threaten to take it for a certain amount of time, as a punishment, he freaks. But when he loses a part that is essential to make it work, he totally doesn't even care.
And we've been really getting on him about how a lot of the things that he does that he says "It was an accident," really aren't accidents because he was doing something that wasn't sensible in the first place, like "accidentally" smacking his brother because he's spinning around, swinging something, and whooping like a madman; or "accidentally" spilling a full cup of lemonade because he was reaching all the way across the table and then set it down on top of something.
I have been paying attention, lately, and have come to realize that I do a lot of the same stuff he does, though. I have attention problems, patience problems, especially with stuff I don't care about. Hubbie thinks it's funny that occasionally I'll interrupt a particularly long-winded story he's telling with, "yeah, I'm sorry, I don't care." I just figure I'm being honest.
Baby's definitely not a baby any more, so we'll start calling him Younger Son. My little toddler is getting taller and smarter, so there are whole new vistas of things to get into, now. He's strong enough to drag chairs and the stepladder around, and he's realized that means he can get to things he couldn't reach before. Oh, I wish our kitchen had more cabinets.
Charming stuff, let's see. He says: bye-bye, night-night, mine, all done, more, ball, bubbles, and, of course, mama. Mama still means more "gimme that" than me, though. He does a cute little hugging to his neck gesture for "I love this thing." He also uses the gesture to argue when I want him to give me back something he shouldn't have. He flushes the toilet and says bye-bye when we get rid of poops. He puts his dirty laundry in the hamper when instructed, puts his diaper in the diaper thing after he takes it off himself for bathtime. He goes into the bathroom cabinet (if the lock is loose enough) and gets the bubble bath when it's time, and puts it back after we add the right amount to the tub. He turns light switches on and off. He loves to wash his hands and feel the liquid soap, but hates to rinse it off - he got some in his eye the other day when he rubbed his eye, and frantically rubbed his tongue with a washcloth when he got some in his mouth. He has his own toothbrush, that he likes to kinda brush teeth with, though he is getting quite uncooperative when mom or dad use the fingertip one to do it right.
He loves books. We switched ownership of all the board books from Elder to Younger son, and he's got a few of his own that he got new, and he MUST have stories before bed. LOVES IT. Like reading 8 or 9 in a session. My niece will be greatly gratified, because his favorite is Goodnight Moon, which she got him for Christmas, because it was her favorite. He has also finally bonded with a stuffed toy - the little rabbit from Goodnight Moon. He also loves his blankets, and is bonding with the sippy cup of water, which kind of adds up to quite a lapful when I am nursing him at bedtime. Yep, still doing that.
The coolest thing about Goodnight Moon is this. We had a balloon in the house for a while (mylar), until I killed it by accident (not paying attention!). In Goodnight Moon, there is mention of a red balloon. Now, when I read to him, I point to the things the text is talking about, and we talk about the pictures. He has made the huge cognitive leap that connects the words "red balloon" and the picture, and can point to it.
Still can't reliably pick out his facial features, though. Though he sure knows where his penis is. He really resents having to wear clothes, and diapers are just plain evil. The other day when he had just shorts and diaper on, he became frantically determined to expose his penis. He was digging around, pushing them down, and finally ended up with his little wang peeking out his waistband. He loves to run around the house naked after his bath, but I just can't feel comfortable with it for too long. He's already peed on the living room rug. He's got a potty, and he knows what it's for, since he knows that toilet is Mama's potty, and that's his, but he hasn't done anything on it yet. (No biggie, I didn't start toilet training, or whatever, with his brother until he was 3.) BUT, he seems to want to pee in the toilet, standing up. When he's naked before bath, he'll sometimes walk over there holding his penis, just like he sees Brother and Daddy do. Of course, he's not tall enough to get over the edge, and has not even the vaguest idea how pee comes out on command, but he's got the idea that that's how people with penises are supposed to do it. Yay for open-door bathroom policy.
He's had a mohawk since BayCon, when Daddy decided he couldn't deal with a little mop-top any longer. And everyone says how cute it is. Total strangers turn into goo. But I'm getting a little sick of it. And Daddy keeps taking the boys to get their hair cut. I must confess it's getting me a little cranky.
Okay. I think that's it for the kid report. I think I'll write more about me in another post.