The Yacht Club

Evidently, my children are boaters. One small problem.... we do not, nor can we afford to, own a boat. The pictured boat belongs to my brother-in-law and his father. While a modest income can certainly afford a boat (we grew up with one), the additional costs of maintaining, storing, and using one can be far outside the limits. In my mind, I would imagine the only people who have boats and use them more than once or twice a year are either (a) fishermen or (b) people who use the names of seasons as verbs (e.g., "We shall summer in New England this year").

Siblings on Uncle's boat 

Meanwhile, the babies are no babies. My, how they've grown! My girl is now a five-year-old who has completed a year of pre-K at a lovely school in our area. She moves on to kindergarten this fall. Her aunt (wife of the boat-owner, and my sister) is pregnant. So, now my darling daughter pretends to be pregnant as well. She has no idea how much the prospect of her becoming pregnant (like EVER) terrifies me. Of course, someday this fear will vanish, I'm sure. There will come a time when grandchildren will seem like fun (rather than the death knell of my youth).

Five years old - the Skipper

We experienced our first (ever) fracture. During soccer, she had an avulsion fracture of her right fibula after tripping over a soccer ball. Never mind that it occurred because I might have allowed her to wear inappropriate shoes. She's taking it well, and is allowed to walk around with an air-cast. However, I should clarify that this child does not walk. She hops. She skips. She jumps, dips, dives, and does pretty much everything her doctor said not to do. And why not? She's five.

Two years old - the First Mate

My boy is two, and not the terrible kind. I'm convinced two is "terrific" and three is the "terrible" one. We'll see, come this time next year. Potty-training will be on the agenda for this year (hopefully this summer). He already senses the bodily urge and knows how to use the toilet, but his interest waxes and wanes (or, more appropriate to the theme, ebbs and flows like the tides).

He speaks rather well, but we've learned that his adenoids are enlarged and may be impacting his speech and breathing. While he gets sufficient oxygen, his sleep is likely impacted from snoring, and his speech is affected by the poor airflow during specific lip and mouth movements. We have a follow-up otolaryngology (ENT) consultation to determine if he will need surgery. While I try to wrap my mind around surgery on my baby boy, I have heard from other moms whose children managed to survive adenoidectomies.

Finally, we consider for a moment the possibility of expanding our family. What might that do to our great dynamic? How will the first two react to a third? They each have selected a same-sex sibling, as well as a name - the daughter wishes for a sister named Daisy Sunrose, and the son wishes for a brother with the same name as he has (because it is SO EPIC). And then, there are the financial considerations of how to manage upgrading a car (a must, to fit in a third child seat), where we'd all sleep, and how to pay for child care (which already costs more than our mortgage). So much for the yacht club.

A time for milestones

My six-month, 24-day old son has now learned to clap his hands. He's about 2 months ahead of where his sister was on this development. He has also (for about 2 weeks now) been rolling over from back to front. Unfortunately, he hasn't quite learned to roll the other way consistently, so he frequently rolls over in the middle of the night and gets frustrated because he cannot roll back. Persistent grunting turns into crying, and that means I get to leave my warm comfy bed (sometimes SEVERAL TIMES) during the night. Part of that could also be teething-related; something he's also doing a couple months in advance of his sister, who got her first tooth at 8 months.

We've also begun trying solids. Apart from the oatmeal and rice cereal the pediatrician recommended for iron supplementation, he's now tasted squash (and LOVED it), carrots (which stain worse than blood - I recommend getting Shout! or another stain remover), peas, and green beans (which he equally detests). He has also had applesauce (and I'm not sure if he really likes it because he makes the same "yuck" face he makes with green veggies). Still, he's a super kid and continues to eat it despite the "yuck" face. Unfortunately, with solids comes the end of those cute breast-fed baby poops. They aren't horrifying yet, but they will be getting worse and worse as the consistency of the foods he tries increases.

My three-year, 8-month-old daughter can write nearly all the letters of the alphabet on her Magna-doodle. She talks herself through the process, which is not only adorable, but also lets us know what type of learner she is. Saying things aloud while doing them means she is an auditory learner. Just like her daddy! "So the P is a line down, and a loop on the side!"

Naps continue to be a struggle with her, but she managed to take one 3 days in a row at our daycare provider's home. The provider did a mock-phone call to us as a fear inducer. She really wants to please us, so she went right to sleep. I think this only had to be done once, with reminders the next two days ("Remember, I will call Mommy and Daddy to tell them you aren't sleeping..."). Of course, she knows that if she DOES sleep, she gets to watch one of her favorite cartoons when she gets home, before dinner. As parents, we actually HATE it when we can't reward her for making good choices. The cartoon thing is also a way to keep her occupied while we make dinner in the evening. Of course, our little girl does love to help. And helping is perfectly okay for a 3 1/2-year-old to handle.

She can set the table (one dish at a time), place out the silverware, take empty cups over, etc. After dinner, she helps with clean-up. Now that she is no longer terrified of our Dust-Buster, we let her use it to get the crumbs off our hardwood floor under the table each night. Usually it's her mess anyway. She also helps clear the dishes (she's still too short to place items in the sink, and letting her throw them in has already ended in 2 broken dishes) - she brings them to one of us, who is already sink-side.

Starting them early on routine house maintenance and the concepts of cleaning up what we mess up will help keep us from having an infuriating teen-ager who does nothing. At least, that's the hope!

E is THREE!!!

Yesterday, my firstborn turned three.  It is absolutely impossible to imagine the road we've taken over these past three years (nearly four, if you include the pregnancy too).  Today we will celebrate with friends while enduring even more of her obsession with Thomas the Train.

She says things that embarrass us, cause us to laugh hysterically, anger us, surprise us, and sometimes all of that happens at once.  She does things that infuriate us to no end, and she does other things that just melt our hearts.  Her smile sends us over the moon; her (real) cry breaks us into a million pieces.  Her fake cry annoys us.  Her secret language baffles us, as does her command of vocabulary in English and even a little Spanish.

We just never know what each day will bring us, and we're reveling in this short period of time we have left with just her before our world changes again with the arrival of our son in (more or less) a month.

Pre-school?

I got two notes when I picked my daughter up from daycare today.  The first one was an injury report - she had scratches on her face from a little boy in her class.  The daycare center is not permitted to name the other child in the incident, but E totally ratted him out.  She pointed at him and said, "He did it!"  Luckily, I'm not one of "those moms" who tries to wait out the parent of the offending child so I can say something to him or her.  No, because I know my own child is the instigator.  And of course, she was today too.  She tried to take away his toy and was successful.  He tried to get it back, so she hit him.  Then he scratched her face.  End of scenario.

The second note I got was about putting her in the all-day pre-school class starting next week.  She's been doing much better with her potty training, so they decided that for her own development, she should really go to the pre-school class instead of the toddler class.  She will be in a room with three- and four-year-olds.  She turns three in January.  I am delighted at her intelligence and social development because this means she can engage the rapidly-growing part of her brain where language and math are emerging.  I'm also sad because my little girl is definitely no baby.

Pre-school!  Wow.  We're really moving up.