Several days ago: 57 months, 26 months

Isaac turned 57 months several days ago.

He is becoming quite the "project" maker.  Some tape, some paper, and assorted other things and he's a happy camper.  He's started saving bit of this and that for his projects.

His real name is Puppy Dog and his last name is Isaac.

Oh, I feel like I had all sorts of things I wanted to talk about this month, and now can't remember any.  He is able to get in and out of the car and do his seat belt all by himself.  It might take a bit, but he can get it.

This month is marked by an increase in tears.  Ben was talking to him about stuff and he started crying and remarked, "I'm crying and I'm not even trying to!"  It was actually an appropriate time to cry; having to walk over the grass in my flipflops is not a good time.

He's becoming more independent but still loves to have us around.  He and Joshua have started playing together a lot more too, so that's been nice.

Joshua turned 26 months.

He didn't really want to pose for pictures today.  The mark on his forehead is from a marker; he enjoys coloring still.

It's been a rough month for Joshua.  Sleeping issues were more or less solved by leaving the door open, but he still confirms with me all the time that I'll leave it open.  (So I guess the wall really was the problem.)  He just seems a bit grumpier than normal.  He is still happy often, but not as often as normal.

We started potty training more and it's been going very well.  Daycare said he could be in underwear, and Thursday went very well.  (Of course, once he got home it didn't go so well.)  Some days are better than others.  He still likes to get his treats from Isaac, who is inventive in what he calls them and in the delivery of them.

Joshua cares a lot about his food, especially the lack of food near dinner time, but still doesn't eat all that much.  Bother - I feel like I had a lot to say for Joshua too, but have forgotten it.  I'll try to put in little bits at a time instead of all at once.

Saturday: Cinderella

On Saturday Isaac and I went to see Cinderella.  He was a bit wiggly, but seemed to enjoy it overall.

Friday: made it

This morning Joshua had a last minute doctor's appointment; his ears are fine though.  So we all got our flu shots since we were there.

We got home at 9am and I suddenly realized that I had no plans for today.  And that it was raining, so some of my backup plans weren't great.

We started with making my mailbox.  Isaac posted another package for me on his door last night; it was three pieces of blank paper.  He sure does like to give me blank paper.  When I questioned him, he said it was for my mailbox.  So we started with that.  (He also noted that he used up all the tape.  The tape that I kept putting back in the drawer would suddenly be back in Isaac's room.)

Then we did miscellaneous things.  Isaac found things that he wanted to test for whether they would float or not as I realized one thing we could do was to have a big bath this afternoon.  It included this airplane.

It ended up not raining after rest time, so we went to feed the ducks.  It was good to get out of the house for a bit.  Joshua kept saying, "Eat!"  and "Get it!"  Even some sparrows and seagulls ventured close for some bread.

Thursday: thickness

I was bringing an exam from one place to another today.  The exam was two pages.  One the way I thought, "hmm.  It feels a bit thick."  I take a look, because what else do I have to do on my walk, and realized I had grabbed an extra exam.

It think it's crazy that I can tell the difference between two pieces of paper and four.  Sure, it's double the thickness.  But since a piece of paper is about 0.1mm thick it means I could tell the difference of 0.2mm.  It seems a bit crazy to be able to detect that with our fingers.

Wednesday: reasons my son is crying

1. I wouldn't turn his chair 90 deg for him.  (We talked about other options...he could turn it, a different chair, etc. but those weren't good enough.)

2. I wouldn't dress him.  (This might have been because he didn't know exactly where his pants were, but he never said that.)

3. I wouldn't give him his apple cake 15 minutes before dinner, when he was going to get it.  After I asked him to go cry in his room he had a secondary meltdown because he didn't want to go in the dark room and didn't want to turn on his light.  He didn't want to turn on any lights.

4. Joshua had some tears when he had to share the blender.  He saw it this morning as I was putting away dishes and was impressed by all the buttons.  Since I don't use it any more, I took it down for him to look at.  It ended up being the toy of the day (and by the end of the day they were sharing nicely).  Now I just need to remember to hide it away soon.

Tuesday: fever

Time: 2:53 - I'm getting ready for my 3pm class.

The phone rings.  Oops, I forgot to put it on vibrate...well, at least it's in between classes.  I'll just shut it off.

Oh.  It's daycare.  I bet it's about Joshua.

Correct.  He has a fever and needs to be picked up.

Dad isn't around.  Bummer.  (To keep it in perspective, he has been around all the other daycare crises and I count myself rather lucky.  It's especially nice because he can take my car with the car seat...if it wasn't for the car seat I would have called Ben.)

Quick change of plans for the class.  They can start the "in class work" first with the TA.  It's on something that we had covered a previous class period, so it shouldn't be too bad.  I'll pick up Joshua.  Quickly.

I pick Joshua up and get back in about 20 minutes.  My goal was 30 minutes, so I am rather happy with it.  It is a short lecture time, so Joshua could eat his snack while I talked.  Then he walked around with me as I answer student questions on their work.

Joshua is a bit loud - that ceaseless babble that comes with young children - but I also haven't seen the students smile so much.  So while the whole thing isn't ideal, it worked out.

Monday: toilet training and mail

Joshua did a great job with toilet training today.  While we weren't accident free, there weren't any urine accidents and he was able to go on the toilet easily.  Hurray!  Daycare said I could send him in underwear tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.  I'm going to have to let him start wearing pants soon.  Summer has been nice.

Isaac decided to make me a lot of mail today.  The first one he stapled all around a sheet of paper.  Then he opened it for me.  Since there were about twenty staples, it took a while.  It had a bunch of cut up pipe cleaners in it, as he recently realized he could cut pipe cleaners.  The second and third came together.  One was well taped in a piece of white paper...it was a folded piece of paper on which I could draw a map and return it to castle.  The second one was also well taped, but the outer layer was just folded in half so it was a bit easier to open.  It was a ball of pipe cleaners that I could use for Puppy Dog to fetch.

In other news, it was gymnastics day.  Joshua loves hanging on the bars, Isaac likes the balance beam.