Thursday, August 31, 2017

Thursday: work

Isaac joined me at work for an hour or so before dropping him off with Aunt C.  We stopped by Dad's office to say hi and he finally got to see the robot wheel, after asking on and off for two months.



The day did go better than Tuesday.  It was still busier than (hopefully) normal but not quite so crazy.  Hmm, I feel like there was something of note that I was going to mention.  Oh well.  It was an exhausting day though and I'm glad for the weekend.

We were driving home and Joshua suddenly asked, "Why are there bathrooms on the train?" while Isaac was trying to concoct a plan that would give us a legitimate reason to stay at the hotel by Joshua's school.  Then Joshua saw the Ferris wheel at Dutch Village and switched to how he would keep Ben safe next time they go.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Wednesday: school visit

Today was the kindergarten class visitation.  We had a scavenger hunt in Isaac's classroom...find his cubby, find his desk, find the trash, etc.

The last one was to find his teacher.  Now, to be fair, we had met her for about one minute a half hour before.  I told him the item to find while standing right next to his teacher.  He turned around and went the other way, looking for her.  It was cute.


Isaac's favorite part of the day was playing on a new playground while the parents had the parent meeting.  He loves new playgrounds, but I'm running out of them.  It's what he wants to do on Friday too with the last normal day of summer, and I do have one more up my sleeve.  After that it might start to get a little harder.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Tuesday: first day of school

Joshua and I had our first days of school today; Isaac got to hang out with Cheryl all day.

Joshua was not excited about going to school.  He seemed especially nervous about nap time for some reason.  I didn't get a huge report when picking him up, but the teachers said he had a good day and Joshua seemed happy.


I knew I was going to have a busy day, but it ended up a bit crazier than expected.  One of my transitions had less time than I wanted so I felt a bit rushed.  Also, my second class was about fifteen minutes shorter than my first.  They're supposed to be the same...did I miss something important or was I just sick of talking by the fourth hour that I got rid of all the extra stuff?  Maybe I talked way too fast?  Who knows.  Beyond that though, the first day went pretty well.

Monday, August 28, 2017

Monday: Joshua - 37 months

Joshua is 37 months!



Growth: We had his three year well child check up this month and he's doing great.  He actually increased a bit in height and weight percentiles (to about 14% and 11%, respectively).  He is still in 2T clothes, which annoys me as I'm ready to move to the next set, but guess I'll just wait a bit longer.  All the other things the doctors checked out - motor function, talking, etc. - checked out fine.  The first thing Joshua said to the doctor was "No shots!"

On school: Joshua is not looking forward to the toddler room tomorrow.  There were tears at lunch time.  I'm hoping that once he gets there and understands that is the only option he'll be ok.

On the alphabet: He has J down!  He can recognize it in different contexts.  He might have I down too, but Isaac usually chimes in quickly for that one.  There might be a few more too, I haven't really checked lately.

On playing: He loves to play.  He especially loves to play with Isaac and will pretty much copy anything Isaac is doing.  He loves Legos and Duplos.  He likes bike rides and playing in the sand.  He like books.

On emotions: Oh, it's been a hard month with Joshua's emotions.  There are tears all the time, and sometimes I don't understand what's going on as the smallest things can set him off.

On sleeping: He is sleeping from 8pm-7am pretty well.  Some days he takes a nap and some days he doesn't.  I'm wondering if some of the emotional problems are due to not getting quite enough sleep, but it's just an awkward time.  He will sometimes put himself down for a nap during quiet time instead of playing.  (But sometimes we make him stay in the bed and sometimes I think the nap just happens where ever he is.)

On food: He's slowly starting to eat a little bit better, but still not a ton better.  He is starting to understand that in order to get a treat he needs to eat all his food, and so sometimes manages to do so.

On cuddles: He still is oh so cuddly, but really only when he wants to be.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Sunday: cleaning time

This afternoon was our house cleaner's last day, as she is off on new adventures next week.  However, the past...year and a half?...I loved having her come.  It gave us a time that was blocked off as cleaning time.  Most of the time the house looked incredibly better after she left.  (The times it didn't weren't her fault...it usually meant that something weird was going on that I needed to take care of.)  I also enjoyed not needing to do some of the monotonous chores all the time.  Anyway, it worked very well and so a new high schooler is starting next week.

During this time Isaac needs to clean his bedroom.  Hmm, I should rephrase that.  Isaac is strongly encouraged to clean his bedroom, as there are consequences if he doesn't.  (No screen time or playing with parents until it's clean.)  Joshua is starting to clean his room.  He still gets some help and a lot of guidance, but it's coming along.  Today the boys decided to play together instead.  I regularly reminded them of the consequences, which helped them clean for a few minutes, and then they starting playing together again.

It was almost dinnertime and they realized that they wouldn't get to watch Ben and I play our ten minutes of video games because they hadn't cleaned their rooms.  Needless to say, the rooms were clean within about fifteen minutes.  Oh!  Isaac got some new dressers.  I have a few plans for rearranging Joshua's room too, as his current set-up isn't working well for me.  Isaac's dressers are still mostly unfilled, as we haven't moved the stuff back into his room yet.


Saturday, August 26, 2017

Saturday: Laura Ingalls Wilder

I've read the Little House on the Prairie series a dozen times or so.  I just finished Pioneer Girl, which was the original basis for most of the stories.  It is geared towards older readers and has more truth and less fiction.  It is also annotated, which was lovely.  The annotations gave glimpses of what really happened or just a little more information that modern readers wouldn't know.

It kind of makes me want someone to write up my life.  I've kept journals on and off from around eighth grade, when we were required to do it.  Readers wouldn't get everything that happens in my life or some of my deepest thoughts, but sometimes the most interesting things are what happens in a normal life.  So if you know of someone looking to write an endearing biography (semi-fictionalized or not) about a normal person, send them my way.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Friday: opening

Today was a day of openings.

Joshua opened the fridge by himself for the first time.  So I now have a separator in the bottom shelf, and they can both put their own drinks away.


Isaac opened the rear hatch of the car by himself.  (He got it all the way up, not just unlatched.)