Meet the Teacher Breakfast

 

The boys had their Primary meet the teacher breakfast and the incoming Sunbeams were told to bring a toy.  Adam couldn't decide between his Power Ranger gloves, his Batarang handcuffs, his Robin mask and his stethoscope, so he just brought them all.  Thankfully, his teacher helped him remove his gloves so he could eat his donut, but they were back on his hands when I picked him up an hour later. These are his favorite things right now and he carries them almost every time we leave the house. I guess they are his accessories. Haha

Time Out

Hunter set his own timer for time out. Not sure if it was an accident or if he feels like that's an appropriate time to serve for his naughty behavior on Christmas Eve. Haha

Binky Withdrawls

Adam has done a great job at avoiding the terrible twos. He is such a happy kid and so sweet and loving. When he turned 3 last week, we reached the end of his binky. He happily gave it to me in exchange for being a "big boy". He has only asked about it a few times and seems to be handling the separation maturely. The problem we are now having is, no binky means no naps. And no naps means multiple meltdowns daily. My happy little boy has turned into an emotional nightmare. I have asked myself more than once during his screaming hysterics, "is this really a better alternative to him having a binky?" With a binky, he will take a nap. With a binky, he will go to bed and stay in bed at night, instead of getting out of his bed multiple times for various reasons before he finally stays and falls asleep. With a binky, he will go back to sleep when he wakes up at 6:30 am after no nap for days and going to bed late because he won't stay in his bed. Sometimes growing up is not that great. Tonight, after he calmed himself down from his latest screaming fit, he told me, "I'm glad you took my binky away."  That made me so sad because I know it's been rough on him to learn how to sleep without it. Hopefully he will adjust soon because his demon screaming is kind of scaring me! I might miss his binky more than he does!!

Still Cute

I'm not quite sure when kids stop being as cute, but thankfully, Adam is still holding strong on that cute title, despite what he does (not that my older kids aren't cute anymore).  Today he called to me, "Mommy, come here!" I reluctantly stopped what I was working on and came to find him.  He pointed to the Christmas tree and said, "Look!" I found the tree falling over, thankfully being stopped from falling to the ground by our recliner.

"I didn't do it," he offered. 

Maybe I am just getting more relaxed with each child I have, but I didn't freak out, it just made me smile.  Or maybe it's just because I'm getting older & more tired.  If Jacob had done that when he was 3, I probably (definitely) would have overreacted a bit more.

Earlier today, he was playing with his super heroes and I snuck off to get some laundry started. He tracked me down in my closet and asked, "Mommy, why aren't you watching me play??" Oh, if that were all I had to do during the day..watch him play with his toys! He makes me laugh!

 

The older boys are still cute, just in a different way. Yesterday, I overheard Hunter and Jacob talking about girls at school.  I didn't hear the first part of the conversation, but apparently Jacob was saying something about how Hunter liked a certain girl.

"No," he told him, "I found a new girl.  She's hot."

I had no idea my 6 year old knew to call a girl "hot." We are still waiting for Jacob to come home and think a girl is "hot." So far, they are still gross and freaky to him.

Potty Training

I have a love/hate relationship with potty training. I love to see the kids master a skill and it makes me so proud of them. I hate the hours I have to sit with them on the floor of the bathroom while they sit on their potty chair and wait for the potty..sometimes endlessly. Adam has been ready to potty train for a while but has angrily fought me about using the potty. He insists he does not want to wear underwear & is perfectly happy in his diapers. The few times I have forced him to sit on the toilet, he has cried angrily and even taken a few swings at me. When I told him I would be so happy if he went potty in his toilet, he informed me in a bitterly angry voice that he did not want me to be happy! So we've been approaching the issue of potty training very lightly around here. We've talked about it a ton but I'm nervous to push it too hard when it makes him so upset. The other day he asked where his underwear was. When I showed it too him, I asked if he wanted to try wearing it the next day. I was shocked when he told me yes. I was even more shocked when the next morning, he hadn't changed his mind and he allowed me to put them on him. He wore them all morning and told me when he had to go the first time (it still took about 45 mins for him to produce). I was so excited for him. We left to run a few errands, I brought along a change of clothes and his potty chair, just in case. He lasted the whole time we were gone, but came home and had an accident right on the floor. I was happy to return him to diapers at nap time for a break. Since then, I have been giving him a little more pressure to spend some time in underwear each day and go on his potty. It's still not his favorite thing but at least he's complying. We have yet to reach the #2 milestone so that will be interesting. This morning I woke up at 5:45 to him crying. I went to his room and he told me he had to go potty I asked him if he wanted to go on his potty chair or in his diaper. I was too tired to push the potty chair if he wasn't interested. He said potty so I got him out of bed and took him to the bathroom. I was instructed to go get daddy so he could announce that he was using the potty, luckily Trevor was already awake. He asked for books, games, toys...I was like its 5:45 in the morning and still dark outside. Go potty so we can go back to bed! That never happened though. He did go potty after about 20 mins. He was eating his reward if a chocolate bar by 6:15 and then snuggled on the couch with daddy to watch TV. None of us have been able to go back to sleep. It's going to be a long morning and long day for Trevor who doesn't have the luxury of taking naps like I sometimes do. 

Penny Muncher

Adam had an interesting rite of passage tonight (sadly, it wasn't giving up his binky). He swallowed a penny. He was sitting on the couch next to me, playing while I checked my email. Both of us were enjoying a relaxing Saturday evening when he told me, "mommy I choked." I didn't even notice he had choked but instantly knew the penny was the culprit. I knew he was playing with one, but of course I never dreamed it would end up in his mouth. "Spit that penny out of your mouth!" I told him. "It went in my belly" he said. Ahhhh!!! Trevor walked in the door just as I was saying, "The penny went to your belly???" We looked up online what our next step should be. It said as long as he wasn't having any difficulty breathing the penny should pass on it's own in the next 24 hours. It's such a helpless feeling waiting for this foreign object to make its way through my 2 year old's body. I've never been so anxious for him to poop!!!

Library Trips

For the past few summers, we have been participating in the library's summer reading program. This year, Adam has wanted to bring books home just like his older brothers. I tell him to go pick out some books and he brings a few back. Well, I didn't realize what book he chose to bring home until it made the trip. 

It is called "On The Day His Daddy Left" and it is a book about divorce. Hahaha! I won't be reading that to him for his bedtime story! Poor kid would have nightmares. I told Trevor that now if we ever do get divorced, I will have a resource for our kids. Hahaha!