Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Ugh

2nd week of swimming lessons, and I'm so incredibly frustrated with my girls. Marissa has been getting progressively better, even though I know she can do more than she is. But Arianna is boggling my mind. Despite having almost one-on-one attention, the girl who is typically afraid of NOTHING is terrified to do ANYTHING in the water. She started out the first week doing pretty well, but suddenly this week it's like she's never heard of this thing called "swimming" before. I have tried every bribing, reasoning, and threatening tactic and nothing seems to be working. I really thought having someone else teach them would help much more than my previous attempts. But at this rate, neither of them will even do a thing on their own, no matter how much I tell them it's supposed to be FUN! Ahhhhhhh!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Remember this

I'm writing this because I want to remember every detail about tonight. Dan's coming home from work late (OISF meeting), so it's just me and the kids. We did dinner, baths, and bedtime. Roman was crying for some reason, after I had put him to bed and was finishing up with the girls. So I went in to see why, since he's usually completely happy to go to bed. I asked him what's wrong when I went in, and he said "kiss" - so what was I to do? I gave him a kiss and a hug and a long cuddle (on the big boy bed waiting for him in his room) and put him back to bed in his crib. A few minutes later he started crying again. He's got me wrapped around every single finger, and he NEVER cries at bedtime, so I went back to check on him. He said "kiss" again and pointed to the big bed. So I scooped him up and took him to the big bed, where he pushed me down so I was laying down, then he put both arms around my neck. Then he rested both hands on either side of my face, and just stared at me. We cuddled like that for a long time, then I gave him a kiss as I was getting ready to get back up. Then he started kissing my cheeks and lips over and over and grinning. I asked him where he wanted to sleep "baby bed" or "big boy bed" (he knows the difference and thinks it's a funny argument to have at every nap/bedtime. He always says "baby bed" but tonight he pointed to the big bed and said "big boy bed." So I got ready to get up (it takes me a while lately), but he kept pushing me back down for more cuddles! Then Marissa shows up in his doorway, so I ask her what's wrong. She said "you said to always tell you this if it happened again: I feel sad, like I'm gonna cry." So I managed to extricate myself from Roman, promised him I'd be back in a minute, and went to give the girls each a long cuddle in their beds. Then I went back to Roman, clarified that he still wanted to sleep in the big bed, and then said I'd check on him in a few minutes. As of right now, I haven't heard a peep from his room (over the monitor) and he hasn't tried to open his door (it has a child-proof knob on it, but I'd hear him try it). It's hard to believe that he might actually be ready for a big boy bed. But he was the cuddliest sweetest little boy on the face of the planet tonight, and I don't ever wanna forget that feeling when he's 5 and bouncing off the walls or when he's 13 and stinky all the time, or 18 and grumpy and moving away. He will always be my sweet cuddly little 2yr old who is finally talking up a storm and I'm loving every second of it.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Catching up

Time to play catch-up again! It's Sunday, and tomorrow I will be 27 weeks pregnant! I'm home from church this morning because somehow I got this awesome head cold/allergies and I need a million tissues every second. Dan has it too, but not as bad, and he seemed mostly better this morning. Not fair! Haha.

We finished homeschooling for Marissa's 1st grade year and I'm so proud of how it went. I didn't go crazy with stuff, but I feel like she learned a lot, and so did I. The hardest part was dealing with Arianna and Roman when we needed to do school, but we were able to do things during naptime too, so that helped. Marissa did great on the standardized tests we signed her up for, not that we were surprised. We finished the math book (and did extra math towards the end), finished the phonics book (exactly to the day!), learned each letter in cursive (her handwriting is amazing!), and did lots of reading. She had typing lessons on the computer, and watched several PBS documentaries about elephants, lions, wolves, etc. - she LOVES those types of things. Add all of that to our Classical Conversations curriculum (that she memorized like a pro), and I feel like she got a well-rounded education this year. I'm not sure I'll ever be the type of homeschool mom who does school year round and incorporates schooling into every part of our day. But maybe that's ok. I'm looking forward to a school-free summer, aside from daily reading time. I feel like it's an important part of a kid's life to have a break, and I need a break too! Next year will be extra challenging because Arianna will be starting Classical Conversations and I'll start doing more preschool stuff with her, AND the baby will be coming right when the year is starting.

Arianna has turned into a hilarious awesome 4 year old. We talked to her pediatrician and took some drastic measures with her digestive issues (enemas and LOTS of miralax), and since then she is happier and eating better and just all around more pleasant to be with. She's finally wearing underwear because she actually poops in the potty (this was a LONG time coming). For a while, she was positively soaking the bed every night, even through a pull-up. I changed her sheets every day - it was ridiculous! But suddenly, she was dry for a week straight, and now she's even wearing underwear to bed. I can't believe how much she has grown up. She's super sweet and plays adorably with Roman (most of the time). The girls are still sharing the purple room in their own twin beds. There will be lots of bed-shifting going on in the next year or so, but eventually the 3 girls will share a room, and we'll have to get another twin bed to put in there with the bunk beds.

Roman is 2.5 and graduated out of his speech therapy/Help Me Grow program. Just in the last few months, he suddenly has so many words and is speaking in 3+ word sentences. He thinks he's hilarious, and he is! He is still super sweet and cuddly, and most of the time so obedient too - but he's definitely 2! His little tantrums break my heart, and I have the hardest time keeping a straight face to discipline sometimes! He knows he can always ask his sisters for help with things, and it makes me smile when they help him out. He's starting to ask to go potty lately, and I can see that we will have to address that this summer - although I'm worried about him regressing when the baby gets here, so we'll see how that goes. A few weeks back he had been climbing in the girls' beds and asking to go to sleep there. So we decided to try him out in a big bed. The double bed has been in his room since he was born, so all we did was take the frame out so it wasn't quite as tall. He was super excited about it, but when we tried to let him sleep in it he FREAKED out HYSTERICALLY! It was pitiful, so we gave in and put him back in his crib. He's not climbing out or anything, so we're not in a rush. We're doing it gradually now, and usually just sing and play on the big bed before putting him to bed. I'm not sure why it was so terrifying, but now we playfully fight about "big boy bed" and "baby bed" every time it's nap or bed time. The other day in the car, he suddenly said "mommy, doggy bite me!" and started giggling like crazy. I don't know where that story came from (because it definitely didn't happen), but it was hilarious and I want to keep him this age forever. I just love 2 year olds!

After 9 weeks of "discussion" we finally settled on a name we like for our baby girl, but I'll probably wait to announce it when she's born. It's unique enough for me, but normal enough for Dan. And there isn't another name in existence (that doesn't start with M, A, or R) that we agree on. So it's not changing! I'm definitely much more uncomfortable in pregnancy this time around, but it's still wonderful and I love it. I get sore under-belly muscles a lot, but the worst is if I'm sitting strangely for too long (like slouching in bed, etc), I get the WORST feeling in my butt and down my thighs. It feels like I'm sitting on a tennis ball, and getting up doesn't help, walking on it doesn't help, and it hurts when I put pressure on that side AND when I take pressure off that side (like switching which leg I'm walking on). Aside from that though, I feel great and so blessed to have complication-free pregnancies. I'm a little overly aware of my water breaking early, just because of Roman's water breaking so early. But there's no reason to expect it to happen again, so I'm just being careful.

We've got a busy summer ahead of us, starting with our 8th anniversary on Tuesday! Hard to believe we've been married for 8 years, but we've packed it full of life! I'll turn 30 this month (holy cow!) and it seems odd to me that we'll probably be done having kids when I'm 30. Most people nowadays don't even start til 30 or later. It will be nice to be done with diapers and naptimes (Arianna and Roman barely nap these days, so it's a peek into what life could be like with older kids!), but I'm worried I'll have a hard time being done with babies, and then being done with 2 year olds. I don't think I want more kids, but I think I will always want more babies and 2 year olds. Lol.

We're going to NY to visit my side of the family next week. We usually go later in the summer so we can enjoy going to the pool with them, but this was the only time that would work. Once we get back, the girls both are signed up for 2 weeks of swimming lessons and hopefully someone ELSE teaching them will work better than me teaching them. Haha! After that we have a week at home and then we're going on vacation with Dan's parents, and after that is our church's VBS. That brings us to August, which I have left completely open and free just in case, and for my sanity.

Then it's baby time! I have no idea what I'll do with all the little girl clothes. It's getting a little insane already, and we don't even have baby clothes out yet! I'm so excited to see what she looks like and hopefully the seasons won't be too off and most of the stored clothes we have will still work for her. I got rid of TONS of baby boy clothes already, but that barely made a dent in our clothes collection. It's ridiculous, but we'll probably start getting rid of things as baby girl grows out of them. So sad!

Well, I think I'll go take a hot shower and try to clear out my stuffy head a little. I'm not enjoying being sick, but I AM enjoying the peace and quiet while Dan and the kids are at church. This better clear up fast for our trip to NY this week!