Yeah.

What she said. 

I just have a long way to go. 

Be afraid!

Simeon has recently started relishing scaring his siblings.  And his parents.  And, really, anyone else who is within a few feet of him.  He likes to be tigers, dragons, and other dangerous and frightening beasts and make snarly, growly noises. 

After the 3,000th time, this does get a bit old.  However, Sim doesn’t mind if I do a pro-forma “Aaaaa,” which leads to things like this:

Sim:  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!

Me:  [Sounding somewhat distracted and not very convincing]  Aaa. 

Sim:  [Runs off, perfectly happy]

In my defense, I had done a more convincing scream for the times before that.   

Happily, his sisters are usually more obliging, sometimes even bursting into tears and running to find me when he growls at them.  I have made no headway explaining to them that he WANTS them to run and cry, and he’ll continue his scary efforts if they do that.  That doesn’t make any sense to them. 

This afternoon, though, he’s the dragon that belongs to his sisters, so we’re having a relatively pleasant game of Dragon and Owners.  Sim hasn’t yet figured out that this really just means that his sisters tell him what to do.  I don’t really want to explain that to him.  It would change the game, and right now I can’t take the screaming of a game of Dragon Turns On Owners. 

5 months!

Tess is 5 months old today.  It’s incredible how quickly babies grow and change at this age.  There’s singing, smiling, laughing, foot grabbing, gaining lots of motor control, rolling over, and generally getting cuter by the moment.  Oh, and there’s the pottying, too. And chewing on anything she can get her hands on, but most especially people’s fingers.  That is quite painful, since she’s gotten her two little sharp teeth.  She loves to have people talk or sing to her.  She’s almost always happy and content and sweet.

Babies on the potty

Tess has caught on to the use of the potty.  It’s really, really, really cute.  I mean, who wouldn’t think that a nearly-5-month-baby on the potty is cute?  Especially when it turns out that one doesn’t have to change poopy diapers nearly as often?  There’s a whole lot of cute in not changing poopy diapers.  But even so, it’s just funny and cute to see her being held on the potty. 

I won’t be providing pictures of her on the potty, because I just don’t think that’s a good plan.  Take my word for it, though.

Now, in the elimination communication literature, authors assure you that you can decide your level of commitment to having your child on the potty.  You can catch (their word) one or two diapers’ worth a day, or try to catch them all.  Or you can even do one or two times a week.  You can do nighttime e.c., or you can skip the nighttime. 

Turns out, though, that it’s not entirely up to you.  You see, that cutey pants little baby that I’m putting on the potty actually, well, LIKES going on the potty BETTER than going in her diaper.  Especially poop.  She doesn’t mind the odd wet diaper here or there, although she does seem to prefer the potty, even for those.  But she really, really, really does not like to poop in her diaper any more. 

Okay, at this point I have to say:  I don’t blame her.  I don’t want to poop in my pants, either.  Ever since I discovered, many years ago, how to go in the potty, I’ve been hooked, too!  I mean, I tried to convince my parents that I preferred my diaper when potty-training began, but since I got the hang of it, I haven’t looked back.  It seems to be true for most people.  So I am not anywhere close to saying that I blame Tess.

The thing that makes this tricky is that she prefers to go in the potty when she needs to go in the middle of the night.  Hah!  “You can decide if you want to do nighttime E.C.”  Well, no, I can’t.  Because let me tell you, I did decide.  I don’t want to do nighttime e.c.  I want to sleep peacefully through until morning, half-waking occasionally to feed the baby.  Never stirring from my warm, cozy bed.  (Preferably until well after 8 a.m., but that only happens on Saturday morning and isn’t Tess’s fault at all – turns out Michael has to work and I have to get food for the rest of the family.)

Tess, though, does want to do nighttime e.c.  She decided this two nights ago.  I had NO IDEA why she was awake.  I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t go back to sleep…for an hour.  She wasn’t upset, but she wasn’t sleeping, either.  Now, 2 a.m. isn’t the my best time for thinking.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that…it’s 2 a.m.  I’ve been asleep.  However, I finally thought, “Maybe she needs to go potty.”  Lazy person that I am, I asked Michael to take her. 

He came back to say that she’d peed, pooped, and spit up.  She went right back to sleep. 

Last night, she got us up at 12:30 to pee.  She got me up at 4:00 to poop, although, since I was totally out of it at that point, I didn’t realize that’s why she was awake.  So it took me half an hour to figure it out.  When I finally did, I took her to the potty and she pooped.  Back in bed, she went right back to sleep.  Both times, her diaper was dry. 

If this goes on, I may wonder why I started e.c.  I might wish I hadn’t.  I might think I’d rather change all those poopy diapers and just sleep through.  But it’s not really my choice any more.  Tess has discovered that she prefers the potty, and I don’t see her going back.

The truth is, though, that I’m glad I did it, even with interrupted sleep.  The transition to underwear with Simeon was a breeze, and I can’t say that about Hannah or Naomi.  It won’t be that long before Tess won’t need to poop multiple times a day, so she’ll stop getting us up for that.  Even if she pooped in her diaper, though, I’d have to change her, and there’s always the chance of a blowout – um, yuck! – in the bed. 

Besides, babies aren’t babies for very long.  All the other kids sleep through the night most of the time with only occasional wakeups for bathroom breaks.

So I guess my thinking should be, “This too shall pass.”  And when one is discussing potty issues, it’s certainly true. 

Snippets

Hannah is working on her very first five-paragraph essay. 

Me:  Okay, with a new paragraph, start on a new line and indent.

H:  I did indent.

Me:  Indenting on the same line is hard to tell from just leaving a space, so we start on a new line.

H:  But that wastes paper.

She’s a serious ecologist if a waste of 3/4 of a line is that distressing to her.

***

I’m wearing a pair of pants from prepregnancy!  And they fit!

***

Warnings to Sim about outlets don’t necessarily sink in.

Naomi:  Sim, there’s ELECTRICITY in the outlet.

Hannah:  Yeah, don’t put your hand in there, or you might catch on fire.

Sim:  No I won’t.  The house might catch on fire, but not the kids. 

Hannah:  Yes, you might catch on fire!

Sim:  And be eaten by lions?

Ummm….turns out that getting eaten by lions is not one of the natural consequences of sticking fingers in outlets.

***

Naomi’s reading is progressing really well.  She’s starting the silent e with long vowel sounds rules now.  She thinks it’s great that there are some “disobedient” words, like have and give, that don’t listen to the rules. 

***

Tess’s two bottom teeth are through.  AND she’s pooped and peed on the potty more than once this week.  Also, she’s still really, really cute.

***

Michael has decided that getting paid for staying home on infant care leave is better than getting paid for actually working.  However, he’s not sure he’ll be able to convince his employer of this. 

Grocery shopping

with my four kids is actually not as difficult as it sounds.  I had Tess in the sling, and the store we go to lets kids have a free piece of fruit with each visit, which means that the first half of the shopping trip is beguiled for the kids by eating fruit. 

The hard part is staying on target.  It seems like roaming the aisles of the stores loosens up memories and questions and all kinds of commentary that my children have stored up.  Except for Tess.  She was content to chew on the edge of the sling. 

The others, however, had all kinds of things to ask, communicate, show, etc.  “Mom!  Guess what?”  “Mom, look at this!”  “Mom, do you remember?”  “Mom, what’s in Pirate Booty [which we weren’t getting, but was an Item of Interest]?”  With all of that, it’s very difficult to remember tomato paste – or anything else, for that matter.  It’s written on the list, of course, but between looking at the list and looking at the shelf, I had 3 or 4 other requests for my attention. 

Of course, the kids are also quite helpful, and they know where things are, what brands we get, and how to put things in the cart, it’s just that that much talking does make me forget what I’m doing, besides getting me home worn out and ready for quiet time!

Typos

can really affect culture.  For example, our kids sing this lyric in Drummer Boy:  “I played me drum for him.”  I made a typo when I was making song sheets, and apparently Michael hadn’t ever learned the lyrics, because that’s how he sang it to our kids, who will now correct him if he sings it with “my” instead of “me.”