Week in Review 2016: #8 and #9

Life

We are getting much closer to signing a contract for our new house. Once we sign, we have to pay a non-refundable 5%, and while the building company wanted us to sign before going to the design studio, we refused to do so, as we have heard from a few people that the cost of the house can go up drastically. They weren't kidding! I picked mostly basics with very few upgrades and our price went up by about $13,000, and that is not including a few other things the estimator has not priced out yet. So we will be eliminating a few more things I think, to get closer to our goal price.

As for the children, Bridget has another loose tooth, this time one of her top teeth. It's barely loose at this point, so I do not anticipate another gap in her smile for another couple of weeks. 

George (now 4 years old) is quite the handful. Sometimes I don't know if it is because he is the middle child, if this is simply a "boy thing", or if I am just doing something completely wrong in my parenting (he is the polar opposite of his big sister). He is getting in trouble a lot lately, getting into verbal arguments (which escalate into physical ones) with his sister or in a hitting fight with his little brother, who is now learning to hit back. Every time I try to correct his behavior and talk to him about it, he shuts down. He closes his eyes and pretends to be asleep, and is unresponsive. Or he screams so loudly and continuously that there is no way that I can be heard. I hope that I can figure this out soon, as some peace in our household would be nice. His doctor said that this behavior is not too unusual for his age, so I am holding out hope that he will soon grow out of it.

Liam is as cute as ever. The other night after family prayers, I had to take a few extra minutes in our living room to discuss with George that grunting and growling throughout the prayer was unacceptable. Liam, sticking to his routine, took his own teddy bear and blanket to his room and climbed in the rocker. When I got in there, he was rocking himself back and forth while humming one of our lullabies to himself.

I did not intend to vent about my frustrations with George here, but I guess I just needed to get it out. I am one tired and worn out momma. It has certainly been a trying past couple of weeks.

Homeschool 

We finished reading Little House in the Big Woods and started and finished The Happy Hollisters at Pony Hill Farm. I had never read or even heard of the Happy Hollisters until reading a couple passages from our Writing With Ease book. We were able to find a couple of the books at the library (even the librarians did not know what they were and had a difficult time finding them on the shelf, as no one had borrowed them for years). They were written in the 1950's, and I have to say, my daughter absolutely loved the book. Our local library has 3 more of the books in the series, which has 33 books total. I don't know what we'll do after we read all that our library has.

We are going back and reviewing what we have learned in history and science, as a couple of months ago I stopped both to focus on writing and reading with Bridget, as she was having a difficult time with both. Now that it has been resolved, we're playing catch up. It is going quickly, as she has retained much of what she had already learned. She is still in no way wanting to talk about mummies. Every time they come up as we study Egyptian history, she refuses to listen to anything I read. That does not stop me from reading it and expecting a narration from her (which she does, mostly unwillingly), though I have promised not to show her any pictures of mummies.

George is learning his alphabet and I am having a hard time getting him to pronounce "L-M-N-O-P" as individual letters and not some jumbled noise. He is also unable to say the letter Q. He pronounces it like "tew". We have done some letter recognition, but not much. With him being only 4, I'm in no rush to get him to read on his own. He loves being read to, and at this age that is more important to me.

I already have been planning for next school year, starting with a schedule for history. We will be studying the Middle Ages, and the Story of the World book has 42 chapters, and there were a couple of other topics I wanted to cover more in depth (like Polynesia and Ireland) so I am just trying to make it all fit. Just like this year, we will also be studying history through the summer, as that is the only way I will have enough time to cover what I want to cover without cramming it all in to a short amount of time. We are also switching over to a 4-day school week, leaving Fridays open for field trips, catch-up days, reading days, and special time with Daddy, so while stories related to what we study in history will be read on Fridays and over the weekend, I only have 2 days a week for a structured history lesson (alternating days with science). That is the plan at least.

Linking up to:

Little Man is One Month!

Our sweet baby boy turned one month old yesterday. I cannot believe he's been here for that long!

As his personality is still developing, he'll just be going by the nickname "Little Man" for now.

Some facts about Little Man:

--He eats well.
--He rarely spits up and has never had to wear a bib.
--He sleeps almost through the night, waking just once or twice to feed.
--He's very mellow.
--He naps better when the older kids are being noisy and won't nap if they're quiet or gone.
--He has the deepest and darkest blue eyes ever.
--We still don't know if his hair is blonde or red.
--He hates car rides.
--He loves his swing and the music it plays. When the music stops, he makes a small fuss until I restart it, then he's happy again.

Little Man had one major milestone this month: his first bath! It went well. He enjoyed most of it. We put the tub on the floor in the bathroom so that the older kids could watch and help bathe their baby brother.

 

 

 

The older kids also think Little Man is the cutest thing ever! They love him so very much, and we all love having him in our family.

Our Newest Little One

We welcomed our newest little one into the world on July 22, 2014 at 3:37 p.m. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I went in to be induced. I was nervous about this because I had already had a previous cesarean and a VBAC, and really wanted to do another VBAC, even though being induced could increase my chances for another cesarean. We got to the hospital at around 6 in the morning and by about 8, I was on the Pitocin. My midwife was going to be coming in later to break my water but it ended up breaking on its own (yay!). Around noon, I was only about 4 cm dilated, so I sent my husband home to see the kids for awhile (we live about 5 minutes away from the hospital). Shortly before 3 p.m., I was finally measuring at a 7. I called my husband to let him know to go ahead and come back after he got Snuggle Bug to calm down (I could hear him fussing in the background). No more than 10 or 15 minutes later, I felt a lot of pressure and a strong urge to push. The nurse immediate got my midwife who checked me and said that I was all ready to go and baby was coming. My husband hadn't gotten back to the hospital yet so I called him again to let him know to hurry up. After calling twice with no answer, he walks through the door. My midwife finished getting prepped and it was time to start pushing. Just 15 minutes later, our baby boy was here!

 

 

He weighed in at 7 lbs., 14.7 oz., and measured 20 inches long. He's perfectly healthy and is sweet just like his older two siblings. He also has quite a bit more hair than they had at birth. 

 

This pregnancy has been my easiest (I did not throw up even once). The birth was also pretty easy (epidurals help, but I'm also glad I wasn't pushing for an hour). And while this little man is only 3 days old, he's been very easy to take care of. We had a very good first night at home. My husband went in to work this morning for half a day and things went very smoothly with all three children. A part of me is waiting for my luck to run out.

This sweet boy has made it very easy for us to fall in love with him.

 

 

Jenny

 

Last Day as a Mother of Two

It's now official. Today is my last full day as a "mother of two". My due date for baby #3 was last Thursday, and I am now 4 days overdue. I had an appointment this morning with my midwife and she had mentioned inducing some time next week, as that would be the furthest they could let me go. However, after the crazy weekend we had it is just time to get this baby out (an illness that I'm not going to get into has hit the family which knocks out one option of childcare and my other source of reliable childcare will not be available next week---so my reasons for wanting baby out now are not entirely selfish, as I feel pretty good physically and could keep going).

I am scheduled to be induced tomorrow at 6 a.m. Honestly, I'm a bit nervous. I was hoping not to be induced as it could increase my chances for another C-section. I had a C-section with my daughter, and even though it wasn't what I had desired, it still went well. But then with my son, I attempted a VBAC, and did really well with that (and healing was much better!). I really hope I can have another successful VBAC, and that my decision to be induced doesn't come back to bite me.

I've been spending the remainder of my day at home with my two sweet children as I get in my last really good snuggles before their world gets rocked. Sugar Plum should be fine, as she's gone through this before, but Snuggle Bug may have a hard time. He knows there is a baby in my tummy and he snuggles it all the time. I just don't think he understand that baby will soon be outside of my tummy and making a lot of noise and needing a lot of attention. I've spent a portion of my afternoon on the couch with this little guy and had to get some last shots of him loving on my tummy. It's been an amazing few months as I've grown and got to experience Snuggle Bug's tenderness and his love towards his unborn baby brother.

I adore his big blue eyes.

I told Sugar Plum as soon as I got back from my appointment this morning that her new baby brother will be here tomorrow. She's so very excited. The picture doesn't show it, as the movie Alice in Wonderland has her attention. Just for the record, I love her big green eyes too.

As far as everything else goes, I feel prepared yet very unprepared. My house is not how I'd like it to be. I'm good on my everyday chores like laundry and dishes, but everything else is chaos. Not extreme chaos, but I wish I had more motivation to get some other things done. I've accepted the fact that the house will never be completely ready, especially with a 4 year old and 2 year old destroying it.

I think I'm prepared enough with food. I have two baked penne dishes and two lasagnas in the freezer, along with a bag of chili and a bag of Brunswick stew. I made a list for my husband of take-out options to bring me while I am in the hospital. While I am going to try finding vegan options on the hospital menu, I know it will not be easy so it's good to have a backup plan. As I experienced during our hospital stay last October for my sons surgery, the cafeteria does not offer hardly any vegan options. (Yes, they do have salad with one vegan option for dressing, but I, like many other vegans, have gotten very tired of salads as they are the only vegan option at most restaurants). While they did have hummus, it looked gross and dried out since hummus eaters in eastern North Carolina are few and far between.

That's about it I guess! My next blog post will hopefully be about our newest little one.


Jenny

Family Update for Mid-April 2014

After noticing that I have been posting way too many recipes lately on our blog, I thought it was time to make a non-food post! We eat a lot. Every day, actually. Delicious food, too. And I like to share the yummy recipes that I find. But, we are more than just food.

Homeschool Planning

I have been spending a lot of time getting ready for homeschool in the Fall. My daughter will be studying a kindergarten curriculum and I am trying to plan things so that my toddler son can be included in the lessons, and for the subjects that Sugar Plum needs my one-on-one attention I need to find something to keep him entertained (without using the TV, of course). It’s actually quite challenging. He’s more at a learning-through-play age right now while she’s ready for more actual instruction mingled with learning play (there’s only so much fun that can be put into practicing handwriting or learning to read, but I am trying).

There is so much that I want my children to learn and I just don’t have enough time in the day to teach it to them. That and having school for 12+ hours a day would not be fun for them! Planning an age appropriate curriculum that will keep the kids entertained and interested is hard work! I had thought about purchasing a full curriculum, but I am not satisfied with any of them at the moment and they are far too overpriced. But I did settle on a math curriculum. This is the only curriculum that I am not going to plan all by myself, because it’s such a crucial subject that I don’t want to leave anything important out. Now I just need to budget my money to be able to afford the curriculum each year (my husband and I set up budgets for just about everything, so yes, I also have a homeschool budget to go by). I can see how homeschooling can be very expensive, but I’m going to try to be as frugal as possible.

I have come across some great resources online to help me teach them both and some blogs with advice for mom’s like me that still need to teach but also need to take care of younger children. I feel ready. The only thing I am clueless about is the temperament of baby #3, who will not be born until mid-July, just 2 weeks before the start of school! There’s a lot that we’ll have to play by ear and take one day at a time.

Getting Ready for Baby #3

Something else we‘ve been up to is getting ready for baby. I still have another 13 weeks to go but I already want to start unpacking and washing the baby boy clothes. My daughter has completely accepted that she will have another baby brother. She has fallen in love and likes to give the baby (my tummy) hugs often. Bear finally understands that there is a baby in my tummy. If I am holding him and he starts kicking and throwing a tantrum, I tell him to be careful not to kick mommy’s tummy because the baby could get hurt. When I say this, he starts crying. Really, really sad crying. Like he thinks he already hurt the baby and he feels so sorry. Then it makes me so sad because he’s feeling sad. I assure him that the baby is fine and we sit down on the couch and he gives my tummy lots of love. I am so lucky to have two tender-hearted children. They have their moments, but they really are just amazingly sweet most of the time. How did I ever get so lucky?

Other than homeschool planning and daily life, we don’t have much going on. I suppose it’s time to end this update and get back to work!

Jenny

 

First Adventures in Potty-Training

When Bridget was getting close to turning 2, we started getting advice on how and when to potty-train her. She had just figured out what poop even was. But thinking we better start trying, my husband and I bought all of the 'needed' things for this latest adventure. However, Bridget showed little-to-no interest in it. She wanted to play with her little potty, not sit on it. She'd freak out every time I put 'big girl panties' on her, or even a pull-up. She wanted her diaper. So after about a week, I gave up and decided that I will let Bridget decide when SHE is ready to be potty-trained. Rather, I'd let her potty-train herself. The pressure was off and finally in mid-March, she got serious about it. Here she is using her potty for the first time:

It was not the experience we thought it would be. She was so thrilled with herself that she'd keep stopping to look at what she had done. Then, she wanted to see it as it happened. She made quite a mess on the floor. Daddy was a good sport and kept wiping it up, and she thought this was so funny.

After going potty, we felt a bath was needed. While Bridget bathed, my husband was nice enough to get the mop and really clean the bathroom floor!

Since then, she's gone on the potty a few more times (with no mess). She was very excited to let me know when she had to go, so that I could go with her to help her get her diaper off. After much progress, we had a little set back when she was feeling under the weather for a few days, and she has yet to want to sit on the potty again. But that's okay. At least I know she can do it and I'm glad she's taking her own initiative to train herself.