comfort brother

Babs was invited to a birthday party. A lot of it was at the local bounce house, which is loud because of the air machines for all the air slides, an odd mixture of bright colors and dim lighting with lots of shadows, and basically overwhelming to my children. (Last year, Kiddo finally broke down inconsolably for the last 20 min of someone's party. Silly me to think my children would be happy in a high stimulation environment.) Babs wouldn't go down slides unless I was with her (and I mostly had a baby strapped to my front), and as the time progressed her behavior showed more and more of the subtle distress signals that I rarely notice until too late.

Finally she looked at me and insisted that she hold the Boy. At three months old, in a public place with few places to sit on, I wasn't sure how to handle it. But she persisted, so I had her sit on the floor, then had him sit with her. See how happy he is? But it calmed her down, and then we left soon after.

Some children have stuffed animals, mine has a little brother.

goldfish in bed

Kiddo left during scripture/prayer time to get a kleenex. She took a long time coming back. I could hear her in the hallway, so I finally called out "What are you doing?"

She shuffled into view and explained that she had stuck some goldfish crackers in her footed pajamas to save for later, and now couldn't get them out.

primary program

Kiddo has now been involved in four primary programs, even though by her age it should only be three.

The first time, at age 2 in our  unbelievable branch in NJ, she had multiple speaking parts, which she had all memorized. She also filled in for a few absent children.

The second time we lived with my parents, in a primary that was about the same size as our previous branch. There was no place for the Sunbeams, so Kiddo had no speaking part. But, the Sunbeams did have a song they sang just by themselves (all 15 or so of them). If Kiddo had not been singing, no one would have heard them.

The third time, now she was 4 and in our current congregation, she gave a three minute talk on a family history story. She did an amazing job. (Although by then she could read, we're pretty sure she had it memorized too.)

Last Sunday, she had a small part, just a quick line: I am a child of God, and He has a plan for me.

BUT, she carried the entire primary through her enthusiastic and soulful singing. She knew all the words, and sang louder than the rest of the primary combined. I have been told that she also scrunched her eyes shut and looked joyous the whole time. Many adults came up to me later to tell me how wonderful it was to see her singing with such abandon.

It's just who she is, I kept thinking. She loves the Gospel, she loves to sing, she loves to participate, she loves church. She is joyful. I'm grateful that others were able to share that too.

sucker

The boy likes to suck, although for sure he's not so good at it yet.

He treats a pacifier like my other two kids have: with a serious look of distaste, acting as if he may choke to death, and not looking for it again. (Two of my kids have also acted that way sometimes when I tried to feed them early on; it makes nursing frustrating to say the least.)

He mostly sucks on his lower lip, or his fist, now that he can finally get it to his mouth. He has tried to suck on his palm, like Babs used to, but is still struggling with the method. It's really easy to poke your eyes while sucking on your palm.

And today, I noticed, as he was sucking his fist, that he is working on finding his thumb. (Of course one time, he made the choking face again, so who knows.)

more thoughts on kindergarten

I know many people who homeschool their children. I admire them, and sincerely hope I never have to be one of them. But maybe I will. I just can't forsee the future; often life presents you with situations you never expect.

Yesterday I was driving in the neighborhood of a friend who homeschools her first grader and kindergartener (with a preschooler and toddler at home as well). I thought, maybe I should ask her if I can observe her one day, just to see what she is doing...

And then that thought was cut short by the realization that homeschooling Kiddo is completely unnecessary. The blessings of school for her are the things I could never provide for her at home: friends, knowledge in art, expertise in various child-friendly subjects, friends, independence, and friends.

She is learning, she is enjoying, and her favorite thing each day is an experience I couldn't recreate at home. Kiddo loves kindergarten. (which I always type "kinderfarten" then have to correct...)

homework

Kiddo is in kindergarten. Every day she has a short homework assignment. Yesterday she was asked to find the letters in her sight word "like" three times, then glue those letters into her notebook. I anticipated this would take her about five minutes. I gave her an old Ensign, and left her to her work.

30 minutes, 45 minutes, later she was still not done. What was going on? She was reading the Ensign (a magazine from our church geared toward adults). I'm glad she was learning about church history. I wish she would have finished her work.

Does anyone else see the absurdity of her reviewing the word "like" while getting lost in catching up on her adult-level reading?

(But, she is learning other things, and really enjoying herself, so kindergarten is OKAY.)

priorities

This is my boy. He weighed 14 lbs at his last check-up, two weeks ago. He is 97th percentile height and weight. So the fact that he refuses to sleep in his crib, except at night (thank goodness for that), and needs to be rocked to sleep either in my arms or my new Ergo carrier (thanks to my grandma for the money for it!) cramps my style. At least he smiles like this at me. And coos a lot. He likes me, but I think I deserve it.

In addition, I have two girls. One is largely self-sufficient, especially since she is at kindergarten for most of the day. But, there is an intense hour in the morning trying to get all of us out the door so she will be on time, and then a rigid end time where I have to be there again to get her home. (Whoever said 'never wake a sleeping baby' clearly only had one child - possibly two, but definitely not three.)

The other refuses to potty train, and two mornings a week attends preschool. For reasons that can only be described as personal revelation, it is a preschool I am running. (Although thankfully I only teach every three weeks. There is a reason I am not a preschool teacher.) 

In addition we have this house. I spent all my free moments, and many of my non-free moments, for two weeks cleaning it, in preparation for the visit of family for the Boy's blessing, then a semi-annual brunch we host. My visiting teacher and friend even came over two days to help me clean. You cannot tell that I did that... Well, maybe if you squint you can, we're slightly better organized, and thanks to my dad the good will stuff we had is gone.

My point is that I have no time. My "free time" is spent nursing a baby, or playing dolls with my three-year old, or perhaps sleeping just a bit, or feeding myself, so I can feed my baby. Am I poorly organized? Am I unrealistic in what I should be doing? Have I forgotten that all I really should be doing with an infant in the house is cooing back at him? I think so.