Ten on Tuesday

1. I'm going to try to post a little more regularly again. The easiest way (I've found) to do that, is these 10 on Tues. posts. I may look up some prompts etc. for other posts, but we'll start with this. And alongside that, I'll be cleaning up a little too. I've already fixed the birthday tickers in the sidebar, and there are a few other things that need to be removed/updated. In the same vein, I'll probably be removing the connection to Facebook, so if you use that to learn when there's a new post, you may want to find another method.

2. As I sit here, Curtis is playing Wii Lego Star Wars with Zachary, and Daniel and Eli are entertaining each other in the office with me. One is sharing my chair (against my will) and they are giggling infectiously. They can get away with anything when they're giggling like that.

3. Daniel's potty training is going very well. It's almost easy. I cannot discount the importance of waiting until a child is ready! We'd tried with him a few times before and they were always a disaster. But this time he's ready and it's completely different! I'm really pleased to say that he had no accidents today!! This is huge. Not only did he obediently sit on the potty each time I lead him to the bathroom, but there were a couple times that he took himself! I'm so happy. Now, he didn't take care of his business, if you know what I mean, today, so he should have one tomorrow. Hopefully his teachers at MMO tomorrow won't have to clean him up like they did last week...

4. Our church offers "Summer Mother's Morning Out" to members and Sunday School attenders. It is such a blessing! As long as we reserve a spot a week in advance, we can drop our kids off for four glorious hours - for free! They even feed them (sack) lunch! Tomorrow's MMO will be cut short due to a funeral and visitation taking place at the church, which means I won't be able to eat lunch with Curtis like we usually do on Wednesdays. I'm planning to sew all morning. I have two skirts for me and an overalls for Eli lined up. We'll see how much I can accomplish!

5. I made 4 Hawaiian shirts for Father's Day this year. Before this year, the most I'd made was three. Curtis is willing to go all matchy-matchy to the company picnic on Friday, so I'll get a picture of them and post it for you. I'll probably go into all the gory construction details too, since I like rereading those posts the next time I use the pattern.

6. We're selling our futon. Do you get nostalgic over furniture? I do. It's hard to let this one go, though I won't miss the eyesore or the way it overpowers a room. When we moved from California to Nashville, we built the futon frame (with help) before we left. Then as we drove cross-country, we made a little detour in Phoenix to visit a particular futon store to get a nice, high-quality mattress. This was our couch and space bed for a long time. When we moved from Nashville to Huntsville, we sold the frame but kept the awesome mattress. After moving into our house here, we bought a frame and kept the futon in the office as an extra spare room (the "real" spare room is my sewing room). But it takes up too much space, we don't need the extra seating, and we don't need the extra bed. At least, not for the amount of space it takes up. And the boys crawl all over it and cause it to slouch down. So it needs to go. But I'm still sad about it. I keep asking Curtis, "If we need another futon, we'll get another nice mattress like this one, right??" His affirmative is the only reason I'm willing to part with it. And all this is only on my mind because the buyers are on their way and will probably be here in about 15 minutes.

7. I'm having trouble thinking of things to post...This past year I taught both Sunday School (the 4s - Zachary's class) and Mission Friends (the 3s). It was a little much to do both, but then I signed up for another year of both. We're going to change things up a little though. Curtis was my co-teacher this year, but in August he'll go back to the adult SS and be the assistant teacher there while I'll be teaming up with another teacher and we'll take on the 3s - which will be Daniel's class. She's actually staying in the same age as she taught, while I'm dropping down an age group. But I'm staying with the 3s in Mission Friends, so I'll be getting a double-dose of Daniel and his buddies each week (the class is based on the child's age on or before September 1st, the school cut-off date. It gets confusing 'cause all of my kids have fall birthdays!)

8. (Actually 7.5) So the gal I'll be teaching SS with next year is the wife of the guy who teaches our adult SS. So two couples are teaming up, which I think is really neat. I'm also Curtis will be back in the adult class because we've missed getting to know people and hear about what's going on. FB helps, but it's not the same. There were a few faces at the SS Memorial Day party I recognized from church, but I didn't know them very well. 

9. Curtis is trying to put boys to bed and I'm trying to finish this. I think I may need to just give it up though. Good night!

Well now, look at that. It's been more than a year - a year and a half! Since I last posted. I knew it'd been a while, but geez. The funny thing about that is I read other blogs on my RSS reader on my phone, and there are a couple that I constantly check "When is she going to post again??" and then I let my blog sit here, covered in cobwebs.

Anyway, I just read that post from Jan 2012 and feel compelled to update you, despite the fact that I did not plan to spend this much time on the computer and there are other things that I should be doing and I only have so much time before I need to load up 3 little boys AND 2 large cats and take everyone to the vet. FUN!! But this is more fun, so I'm going to do this because it's summer and that's how I get myself in trouble, by making decisions in this way.

Many things are still the same, but the children have grown considerably and that's where I feel I need to update you the most. Exhibit A:

Zachary is now 5.5 and will be starting kindergarten in August. Daniel is 3.5 and, well, we'll get to him in the next paragraph or so. Eli is 20mos and he'll have his own paragraph as well.

Zachary is so ready for kindergarten. And not just because he can do everything he needs to be able to do before starting K. He's been asking when school will start? Will he have homework? (and excited when the answer is "Probably") Can he have a desk in his room for his homework? With a light on the desk? Repeat ad infinitum. A couple months ago I took him to the school for his kindergarten placement test. It took all of five minutes and it was child's play to him. I mean, really. The teacher was asking him about colors, shapes, numbers, etc. and he's known this stuff for two years. He's asking complicated questions about the universe at dinner and the teacher asks if he can point to the circle. He could have started K last August and be heading into 1st, but he was born 9 days after the cutoff and so he's one of THE oldest in his class. I just hope he isn't bored!

Daniel has made huge leaps and bounds in so many ways. For one, he's talking! He completed a year of therapy with Early Intervention and then transferred to the speech therapist at the elementary school. Leading up to the transition, the EI case worker explained that his case may not be accepted by the school since they have different requirements at that level (something like the child has to have a 30% delay, not 25%, and something else), but when we actually met the school therapist (after lots of paperwork and couple "useless" meetings to make sure I as the parent was aware of my rights - they have to jump through so many hoops so the parent doesn't feel like they're being forced to help their child!!) where was I? Oh, when we met the school therapist, she barely glanced at the paperwork, talked to Daniel for two seconds, and said she'd take his case. Again, it was weird to want your kid to perform poorly so he gets the help he needs, but I guess he was so far behind that it didn't take a professional long to determine that he qualified for services. So every week during the school year I trucked three boys to the elementary school for 30 mins (Z, E, and I hung out in the library) and then took Z to PreK just a little late. Oh I forgot to mention in Z's paragraph that he graduated from PreK last month! He went to "school" at our church for 4 hours 5 days a week. Daniel went to "MMO" (Mother's Morning Out) at the same place for the same 4 hours, twice a week. Next year Z will be at full day Kindergarten, Daniel will be at MMO 2x/wk and Eli still has one more year at home.

Speaking of Eli. No, wait, before I move on, one more thing about Daniel: As of this week, I can say that he has finally said goodbye to diapers! Yes, you're glancing back up the page to check his age: he's 3.5. Well past time for potty training, you say? Perhaps, but the speech delayed him and he simply wasn't ready each time we tried it before. Now he's got it. There are still plenty of accidents, but the part inside his head that had to mature is finally there, so we're going for it. We've got all summer to make it happen and then he'll be all ready to go upstairs for MMO. They don't change diapers upstairs.

Okay, on to Eli. But I need to get the cats to the vet on time, so I'll have to save this and come back. To post now and update later or save to drafts? That is the question...

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Well, it's about 4 hours later. The vet only took about 30 minutes, but then we went to Walmart and met Daddy for lunch. I mean Curtis. One of our cats (Beau) has a "rodent ulcer" on the roof of his mouth. We've been dealing with it since March, taking 1, then both cats in every 3 weeks. Cha-ching! The thing hasn't cleared up yet and today the vet recommended that we switch out all food and water dishes to stainless steel, to reduce possible allergens. (Cats are often allergic to plastic, and sometimes the paint in painted ceramic.) I didn't find exactly what I wanted at Walmart, but that didn't stop me from spending $80 there. Over lunch we found one on Amazon and I read the description out loud: "Simply sanitize the stainless steel bowl at high temperatures in your dishwasher to eliminate potential bacteria that can cause your pet harmful infections from micro-organisms, allergic reactions or skin and nose irritations." Huh. Well now. Maybe we should be cleaning their dry food dish a little more often...?

In Daniel's paragraph(s) above, I didn't mention Daniel's specific speech problem now, did I? He talks all the time, but he leaves off the initial consonants. It make him very difficult to understand and we have to use a lot of context clues. He still gets super frustrated, but he can eventually get his point across, so things have much improved. But that's why the school speech therapist accepted his case so quickly: leaving off the initial consonants is very worthy of professional help.

Okay, so finally on to Eli. Eli will be two in September and is starting to try on tantrums for size. But he's such a tender-hearted little cuddle-bug, that they only consist of him hiding his face. There's no screaming or yelling, foot-stomping, or head-banging. He just lies face-down on the floor for all of 3 seconds and it's over. It's a good thing his face is hidden and he can't see the expression on my face when he does this, because it is the cutest thing EVER and it makes me smile every time. He's got a mouth full of teeth, minus the two canines on the bottom, which are close to the surface and will probably break through this summer. He started army crawling at 5 months, "real" crawling at 8 months, and walked at 11 months. He nursed until about 9 months. He hated formula, loved baby food, except for the stage 3 stuff, and if I hadn't read in the previous post that he took a binky at naptime I would have said he never took one after we left the hospital. He also hated bottles and went straight to sippy cups. Currently he consistently out-eats Daniel. He can say Mama and make a few other sounds that sound like words, but every time we encourage more, Daniel reminds us that Eli can't talk! Actually it's more like "E-yi an't alk" Haha, here's a funny: try saying "castle" without the "c". Yeah, that was a fun one to figure out in public!

Well that's probably enough update for now. Maybe I'll try to be a little more consistent again. To tell the truth, I'm regretting that I haven't been on here much. Rereading that post I realize there are so many little things I've forgotten (like the binky) and there are probably so many more from the last 18 months, but they're lost because I didn't record them anywhere. Never too late to pick back up though, right? Actually many of them are probably recorded on Facebook. I'm a lot more active on there, mostly because it's so easy to do from my phone. But it's only good for short little pithy things. I've also got a tumblr, but I'm as sporadic there as I am here. Oh and Twitter too.