Christmas Morning

We're Still Here!

It's just that it's hard to keep up with two blogs! And with 3 boys and a dog. Here's some highlights from our life lately...

On Monday, we were singing "Amazing Grace" during Bible time. I sometimes forget how much Aidan understands that Gresham doesn't. I was realizing that Gresham probably doesn't have much of a clue about what the hymns we sing are about, so I asked him, "When it says 'I once was lost, but now I'm found,' do you know what that means?" "Yes. I do," said Gresham. "It means he was lost in the desert, and then he came out of the woods, and THERE was his house! Right there! And so he was found!"

On Tuesday, we went to the doctor for Gresham's foot. He has a plantar wart on the bottom of it. The doctor said we caught it early, and we can treat it with over the counter stuff. Unfortunately, Gresham won't leave a band-aid on it. Or throw the band-aids away. (Remember that little tidbit.)

On Wednesday, we took Owen to the doctor for a well visit. He got two shots. We also had his blood drawn to test iron levels and lead levels because of his obsession with chewing on anything that isn't food (Toys, paper, the dog leash, sticks, cork that he scrapes off my coaster stones with his teeth...). Apparently, eating non-food items can be a sign of anemia.

Today, Owen ran a fever from the shots. This is our first shot reaction for any child. I had to teach today, and hated to leave him, but I couldn't really justify staying home. We went to pick up the babysitter. We came back home and I was giving her some instructions for the day, and had to stop to fish something out of Owen's mouth... it was Gresham's discarded band-aid from earlier that morning. So now my son is having a shot reaction, and is ingesting salicylic acid. Lovely.

Tomorrow is Friday, and I'm pretty sure we are going to take the day off from school...

Moths...

Gresham: Watch out, Mom! There's a moth that lives in here!!
Mom: It's okay, it won't hurt us.
Gresham: Oh...
Mom: Did you think that moths sting?
Gresham: Yes
Mom: Aidan, did you know that moths don't sting?
Aidan: No, I thought they sting you 'till your dead!
Mom: (laughing) No, who told you that?
Aidan: Next-door neighbor boy...

More Puppy Pics!

Happiness is a new puppy!

We did change his name... He is now Tucker! He has an ID tag and collar, so it's official.

Aidan has been doing a lot of the feeding and taking Tucker outside, and Gresham wanted a turn to feed the puppy. He was very "hands on..."

Are you drinking your water, Puppy?

So far things are going well! Busy, but well. Housetraining is a slow process. Our carpets needed cleaning before Tucker came, but now they REALLY need cleaning! We were planning for that, though, so it's okay. We had a few rough nights at first, but now Tucker is settling into a routine and not whining/howling so much. The weather has been beautiful and much cooler than it had been, so I am very thankful for that!

Puppy!

Our puppy is here! We have had him since Friday night, and he is doing well so far! We took him to the vet on Monday, and they declared him to be healthy. That was a huge relief...

He definitely has more energy than our sick pet store dog, and so he is a lot more work - but also a very fun puppy, and once we train him, I think he'll be great. He is already very attached to the family and wants to be wherever we are. The boys are having a lot of fun playing with him. He is a very frisky dog, but doesn't bark much and settles down easily.

We decided to name him Scout, but I'm not sure that name is going to stick...

Monday was our hardest day. Well, and yesterday was pretty rough too. It really wasn't my plan to have this dog arrive just as school (homeschooling as well as my teaching job) were starting up! But this is what we have, so we'll make the most of it! Owen has been very sick this week, so we had an appointment for him Monday morning and then an appointment for the puppy in the afternoon. In between appointments, I was cleaning up a potty mess on the floor and heard the phone ringing. I decided to let the machine get it. I could hear the automated voice of the public library announcing that we have 22 overdue book...

This is a temporary stage. One day, we'll look back on this and laugh... it's just a stage...

Bedtime Shenanigans...

So, Aidan was always easy to put to bed. He has two speeds: on and off. He is so active during the day that falling asleep is never any problem. I was hoping that we would escape the bedtime stalling that seems to plague most houses with small children...

And then we got Gresham.

Gresham was recently potty-trained just shy of age 3 1/2. I thought the day would never come! Now that he is wearing underwear, even at night!, he likes to get up to go potty about 47 times before falling asleep. Seriously, he can get up 5 times in 30-45 minutes and sometimes he is still awake at 10:00 p.m. He's very quiet and goes right back to bed, but we are worried about how much sleep he is getting.

This week, he is also giving up his afternoon nap, so we decided to get serious about putting a stop to the bedtime potty trips.

Monday night: Gresham got up. Gresham got up again. Daddy told him that this would be his very last potty trip. Didn't hear from him again.

Tuesday morning: Gresham informed me that his bed was wet because the night before, Dad had told him to only go potty once, and after that to potty in his pants, so he did. I was fairly certain that that was not Dad's intended message. Turns out I was right, and Dad set the record straight after he got home from work.

Tuesday night: Gresham got up. Dad told him that this would be his one and only potty trip.
A few minutes later, I was working on the computer and suddenly sensed the presence of a child standing right behind me. (Gresham does this in the middle of the night, too. I'll be sleeping and then suddenly have this sense that he is standing right next to me. I wake up, and there he is...) Gresham was naked from the waist down. He informed me that he needed clean pants because Dad told him not to get up anymore, and so he had no choice but to potty in his pants. Since it had been about 7 minutes since he last went, I found this hard to believe. Sure enough, he had squeezed out about 3 drops into his pants, and we had to find clean underwear...

Wednesday night: No nap today, and a long day at my school... No potty trips, and Gresham is asleep!!!!

We have a 2nd Grader!

We have successfully finished two days of second grade!

I don't know about him, but I'm totally worn out! Maybe we can call it a year... just kidding.

We are doing some new things this year, and I really like them so far. We're doing Sonlight Core 1+2, which is world history in one year. Our favorite so far, though, is the Apologia science book that we got. It's zoology - birds and insects. It's good stuff with lots of experiments and activities.

Now we just need a nanny to keep Owen out of trouble while we do school, and a maid to do all the cooking and cleaning!