Sunday: instead of cleaning his room...

It's Sunday, which means Isaac is supposed to clean his room.

He didn't.  Or at least, barely did.

Instead, he did this.  (That's his bed sheet, by the way.)

It inched around on the floor, saying things like, "Mom, what's this big thing on the floor?"  I didn't respond, but it was so hard not to.  He was so cute and it would have been fun.  But he really was supposed to be cleaning his room.

We're going out for FroYo tomorrow afternoon.  If his bedroom isn't clean by then he, and one lucky adult, won't be going.  Stay tuned.

Saturday: Free media day

Today we did something new.  We let the boys have as much screen time as they wanted.  Well, almost.  Quiet time was screen free and we didn't watch TV while eating like normal.

I told Isaac yesterday afternoon, but he was thinking about something else and it must have gone in one ear and out the other.  Ben told him again in the evening and he was super excited...which is what I had been expecting to happen.

The main reason we did it was because of the WoW expansion, and Ben and I wanted to play a bit more.  But it is also fun to do something different.

Joshua only did ok with the whole concept.  He did have several times where he would watch something, but he didn't play the IPad at all.  While I was hoping he'd do a bit more, it didn't really surprise me at all.  And it was probably a good thing.

Isaac wanted to be on his robot quilt.  He took his shirt off mid morning "to be more comfortable" and it never got back on.  To be fair, Joshua didn't get pants on for the whole day either.  Isaac hung out on the laptop and loved it.  Nickjr.com ended up being the best place for him.  We stopped by PBSKids.org for a short time, but the game or two that he looked at didn't catch his interest.  I was a bit surprised that he had such an easy time with the mouse.  I know that he can use it a bit, but he really did a pretty good job with it.  (Nickjr gave good verbal instructions.  So we had to help him a few times, especially when he pushed the wrong mouse button, but for the most part he could navigate himself.)

Thursday: conversations

Isaac, in a sing song voice: I have a surprise for you!  But first you have to lay on the bed.
Ben/Amanda: ok...[and continue talking about something else while going to the bedroom]
Isaac: you have to lay down!
B/A: ok, what is it?
Isaac pulls something out of his pocket.  It's small, yellow, and looks sphericalish.  It looks a little bit like poop from some animal.
I: Look what I have!
A: What is it?
I: I don't know!!!
B: Where did you get it?
I: In the sandbox.
I: Do you want to feel it?
A: No.
I: It won't hurt you.  You can do it!
A: It's probably a seed.
Ben feels it.
B: Yeah, it's probably a seed.
I: Your turn Mom!
Amanda reluctantly feels it.
I: do you want to hold it?!?
A: sure.
I: See, it's not so bad.
I: Dad, do you want to hold it?
B: Sure.
I: And look, I have more in my pockets!
A: You do?
Isaac proceeds to pull out about six more.  He was so excited about them.

****************
Isaac: AAA-choo!!
Joshua: AAA-choo!
Hysterical laughter.
Isaac: AAA-choo!!
Joshua: AAA-choo!
Hysterical laughter.
Isaac: AAA-choo!!
Joshua: AAA-choo!
Hysterical laughter.
Isaac: AAA-choo!!
Joshua: AAA-choo!
Hysterical laughter.
Isaac: AAA-choo!!
Joshua: AAA-choo!
Hysterical laughter.
******************

Joshua sees me put Elephant in his bag for school and starts to cry.
Isaac: It's ok Joshua, it's just for school.  So you can have it there.
Isaac: You get to learn at school!
Isaac: As you get bigger school gets funner and funner.

****************
Joshua is crying.  Something is wrong with his fingers.
Joshua: kiss?
Joshua calms down.
Joshua starts crying.
Joshua: kiss?  here?
Joshua calms down.
Joshua starts crying...
...
Isaac: maybe Joshua would like some of the water I made him to help him calm down.
Ben: yeah, maybe that would help.

Wednesday: lawyered

Today went...fine.  I kind of felt like no one wanted to do the same thing at the same time until the very end of the day.

Then it was time for Isaac to do his chores, and he was asking what he had to do.  I told him feed Flurry, S blends, and water the plants...

I: I don't want to water the plants.
A: If there wasn't an X in the box from yesterday, you need to water them.  [Note: between school and bath he only fed Flurry last night.]
Isaac goes to look.
I: There's an X in the box.
A: Did you just put it there?
Isaac just smiles.

I told him that was lying and to go water the plants while I decided if he should be punished.  I didn't punish him since he didn't say the X was already there and I think he understood the threat.

Tuesday: school starts!

Today was the first day back at school.

Isaac got right back in the routine, barely glancing at me when I left his room.  When I picked him up he wondered if we could come back tomorrow because he was having fun playing with the new toys.  Of course, in the next breath he asked when he was going to be in kindergarten.  He seems quite excited for that step, and I haven't even told him there are no naps in kindergarten yet.  :)

Joshua did ok.  He was sad when I left, as normal.  They said he played well by himself and tolerated the group activities.

My classes went fine.  The first day I always feel like I'm throwing a ton of information at them and it barely sticks.  But, if I skip saying it then everyone is really confused.  So lots of talking and lots of standing.

When we got home the kids where loud.  They're never quiet, but they seemed louder than normal.  We finally calmed Joshua down by putting on some music, but then that was loud too.

Also...WoW expansion day!  I didn't play that much; my favorite play style is to just do a little at a time.  I like to quilt too.  But I did get my new weapon and did the first quest chain.

Monday: 56 months

Isaac is almost 56 months!  (I know, it's a day early.  But I took the pictures because the quilt goes to school and I figured I could balance out the late posts.)

Sleeping: Isaac decided to take some naps this month and it was always a problem.  He can't go to sleep if he does that.  We're slowly working out a good method to deal with it (as he'll probably take a nap at school), but it can still be annoying.  (Tonight he came down, said that his extra awake time was done and that he was sick.  He wanted yucky medicine for a headache.  I told him sleep was good for a headache.  He asked how many minutes could he come back down.  Ben said thirty and he waffled.  I suggested setting his time (sixty minutes) and he jumped at it.  Five minutes later he seems to be asleep.)

Crying: we had some huge bouts of crying this month...longer than he's ever had before.  I think what he's crying about is rather silly...usually the routine changes and he doesn't like the change.  (He knows that the routine is going to change...it isn't a surprise.)  It slowly seems to be getting better and yesterday he only cried for twenty minutes and didn't scream.

Activities: Although we had the few issues mentioned above, they really have only happened a few times.  Most of the time he is still our silly puppy dog.  He loves being silly (and Joshua encourages it a lot).  He loves playing, still usually defined as Castle or Bucky, with us.  He also likes Legos, going to the beach, baking, and taking his time while eating.  He is not all that excited about school starting again because he doesn't want to nap or color.  He still runs a lot, often with his arms waving as boosters or jets or rockets.

Chores: chores are still going pretty well, although they usually get done right before bed.  He is in charge of putting his clean clothes away, and likes to use pants hangers to clip them.  I decided that was fine, but that there should only be one shirt per hanger.

Sunday: 25 months

Joshua turned 25 months today.

Eating: Joshua has started eating a bit better.  He wanted seconds of pineapple today, which he hasn't touched before.  He still eats an apple piece and then spits it all out.

Talking: Joshua can communicate quite well now.  I'm still not sure that others would be able to understand him all that well, but he can get his point across to us.  It's nice to say, "Do you want to go to the grocery store or on a stroller ride?" and get a response.  His favorite phrase is "I got it."  It comes up when he actually has an object or when he's done something he wanted to do.

Toilet training: We haven't pushed this very hard, but Joshua does like to wear underwear.  If he poops he knows that he's supposed to go to the toilet, although he usually does it in the wrong order.  When he gets to wear underwear it's been a bit of a struggle to have him sit on the toilet, but I found that if I start counting he calms down (and often counts with me).  We count to about twenty, sometimes taking long breaks.  A lot of his toys are pooping right now and EE got to wear some underwear this week.

Activities: He enjoys dancing and music and running.  He likes to color...much more than Isaac does.  He still loves to play with circuits and Legos/Duplos.  He likes to read, but doesn't like to sit on your lap while reading.  This often means that books only get half read.

Misc: He realized that he can move chairs/stools around to get to light switches.  He likes getting Isaac's shoes for him.  He still carries Bear and Elephant around all over the place.  He loves robots and thinks that most things are robots, including the stand light in his room.  He says he's "scared" easily, but besides running to Ben or me he doesn't seem very scared.  He still listens for bears and sometimes makes bear noises.  Today at church he remember the place where we go on bear hunts.  He likes going down big slides.  He adores his brother.