Ten on Tuesday

1.  Funny (long) Story - We have three kids and three different soothing methods. B sucked his thumb, M was a paci girl, and E, well, he didn't pick either one.  He mostly just snuggles with his blankie or maybe chews on it.  Granted, he has been seen with pacis (not in at least 5 months) and does, on occasion, suck on a finger or thumb, but nothing like the true addicts his siblings were.  So, I set about to scrapbook a page illustrating this story and looking for a picture to exemplify each and their self-soothing method of choice.  It turns out that despite using a paci for 2 years I have maybe 4 pictures of M with a paci in her mouth (ok, so second year it was only around when she was sleeping).  B sucked his thumb for longer and again, very few pictures. E should be simpler, right? And yet, no particularly recent pictures of him with his beloved blankets.  So, I took the above photo when he woke up from his nap and you can see just the edges of his yellow blanket and Grandma blanket, but mostly his cute little grin (and need for a haircut). 

2.  It feels (ok felt) like summer or at least spring for the last few days. Lots of wind whipping through and temperatures near the 80s.  We did lots of playing outside.  We took walks to the pond to feed the ducks and broke out all of our wheeled contraptions.  This evening, temperatures plummeted by 30+ degrees in maybe an hour... still very windy though. 

3.  We finally found the bin with E's summer clothes.  This had been the building crisis around here as an entire season of baby boy clothes was MIA.  Happily, we discovered them in a weird place and E is busily looking completely adorable in his shorts.

4. Meanwhile, E is very hungry and so, actually, is B.  Already nervous about how much food these boys of ours are going to consume.  E prefers to feed himself if possible, and B, well, B loves carbs, as always, but is becoming more adventurous every day thanks to our massive spice collection. 

5.  Here they all are playing peacefully in the backyard.  It was adorable.  E realy wanted in on the big kids' soccer game and would crawl as fast as he could to get to the ball.  Sometimes he even made it!

6.  Sunday was just a mess with lady M.  It included briefly losing track of where she was (safely ensconced with the neighbors, but failed to mention she was leaving...) and then complete epic melt down when it was time to take pictures--- for the record, both events occurred after a long nap. It has been a tough week with her.  Today, we decided to follow Audra & Zane's lead and make a sticker chart to chart her going to bed and staying there quietly (not being noisy and bothering B or popping in and out of her room for no reason at all).  Want to know how long it lasted before she failed to get a sticker? Less than 1 second.  Seriously.  Meanwhile, the small bribe of getting to pick where we ate dinner did result in a lovely set of behavior for the family pictures and ice cream all around afterwards. 

7. The running is coming along.  I am mixing up my runs with some speed intervals now and then and maybe it is working a bit. The insane wind is requiring a fair bit of planning to always end the run with the wind to my back or at least not directly in my face. I do feel a bit more like a runner all the time, which is a nice feeling, even if  I still have trouble with the getting started part.  B is a great help and will turn to me and say "Don't think, just go" (the another mother runner slogan) when I'm dithering about whether or not to head out.  He also will just point to the magnet with the same statement as a reminder.  So cute and quite helpful.  I haven't weighed in since Friday, but as of then had lost a tiny bit more, which is progress given not so great weeks around Easter and Spring break.

8.  Does anyone remember F.R.O.G. Logs? These are the sheets we're supposed to fill in daily with all the books we're reading.  As this bit of paperwork falls near the end of our bedtime regime and seems largely pointless we've been neglecting it a bit.  Well, B did not get the highest mark on reading at home on his recent report card and we took that as a hint to do our paperwork.  The very day we decided to hand in several FROG logs he won lunch with his teacher in some sort of FROG log contest.  Message received.  Sheesh. 

9.  This weekend is the Princess Run and Dudes Dash.  Each is a 1.2 mile race for kids.  They may be accompanied  by an adult (ours will be, but it remains to be seen which adult will accompany B... ).  M and I have matching cute shiny skirts thanks to Chrissie. I don't know if the "dudes" will have a costume, but it should be great fun complete with a festival along the river.  The small caveat being that neither of our children have actually "trained" for the race, per se.  So, we'll see how it goes.  We're mostly hoping it is great fun and encourages ongoing physical activity. 

10.  How cute are these tiny flip flop feet?  E, of course, only tolerated these briefly, but it was so adorable while it lasted.  M loves to try shoes on him and needed to see both types of sandals from the summer clothes bin immediately.  Luckily, E was still mostly asleep and fine with it.  We're beginning to see a bit more temper from him about some things.  Little things like a small yip of protest or throwing his head back when he doesn't want to do something.  We also discovered last week that three new teeth have broken through, bringing the total to 8.  He is still generally easy going, but quite whiny when tired.  So sometimes in the late afternoon I just put him back to sleep even if it is near dinner time as he is too tired to hang out with.  He also has suddenly started "talking" much more.  I keep mistaking it for him being upset, as previously that was primarily when he would vocalize, but we're getting a much more consistent stream of sounds now.  My favorite is what sounds like him saying "Go, go, go." when he is crawling somewhere.  I have no idea if he knows what he's doing, but it is adorable to the rest of us.  He is mixing in some other things like "ni, ni" (at night night) and "No" (complete with head shaking) along with the dada/mama sounds.  Not all of these necessarily occur at the appropriate times, but it is great fun anyway.  We're currently trying to teach him "Hi" as it is great fun to hear from a little baby. I am snuggling him as much as he will allow me as he is already well into his boy on the go phase and starting to want to be "outside" eating dirt more than than snuggling on the couch with me.  Sigh. It goes so fast, but I suppose you knew that. 

It has been a bit of a roller coast week from the parenting perspective.  We're working on it, trying new things, and learning.  The good news is that the kids seem great, just the parents seem worn at the edges.  Here's hoping for the sunshine to return soon so we can run, garden, and play it all out together.