Julia: Mom, have you ever had to write an essay NOT online?
Mom: Julia, you're precious. There was no online until I was in college.
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Petra: Stop bossing me around!
Julia: I'm not bossing you. I'm just telling you what to do.
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Paul: My teacher said I definitely thought outside the box. Sometimes I'm so far outside, I don't even know that there is a box.
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Petra: Mommy, these are my new Rock Star shoes. They make me look like a rock star. Huzzah! Huzzah!
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Paul: Mom, I mixed up some lemonade. It's half lemon juice, half water and some sugar. It's so sour, it will make you forget there is gravity.
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And because we can't have a list of quotations from my house without some toilet humor -
Nathan: Mommy, I had a big hot dog poopy.
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Mom: Nathan, why is the front of your pants wet?
Nathan: I went potty in the weeds.
Petra: Nathan had to go potty, and we couldn't make it in time, so we went out in the wild.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Saturday, March 05, 2016
Nathan's crash and fail
Nathan and his bed are having a rough week.
In the wee early hours of Thursday morning, he fell out of bed, a rare event for him. It took me a few minutes to get to him, and his crying woke Paul and Julia. I went into his dark room, held him for a few minutes, and once he had settled down a bit, I tucked him back into bed. When he came down stairs in the morning, we realized he must have hit his bedside stand on the way to the ground, because the side of his face was scratched and puffy. Oops.
His other troubles have a lot to do with outgrowing nap time, but still needing some extra rest. Nathan either needs a 26 hour day so that he can take a nap and still be tired by bedtime, or he needs a 22 hour day so that he is not a terrible mess by bedtime. The 24 hour day is just murder. Yesterday, he managed to sneak in a late 1 hour nap and still be a terrible, cranky, irrational mess by bedtime.
One of his favorite bedtime evasion tactics is to change his mind about what he wants multiple times. He wants these pajamas. Now he doesn't. He wants to do it himself. Now he wants help. He doesn't like the picture on his pajamas, so he wants you to turn his shirt backwards. There is a lot of fussing and crying to go with the fickleness. It is high time we pull in the reigns on these tactics. Last night I decided that I was the one to start pulling.
I asked him to pick out a story for bedtime, but he told me to pick one out. I did. Then he wanted to pick out his own story. I told him no. He started wailing so loud that I couldn't read the story I had picked for him, so I tucked him in without a story and turned out the light.
He cried.
And cried.
I didn't last very long before I went back into his room to help him settle down. (I wasn't capitulating. Really.) I knelt beside his bed to talk to him, and realized that the bed was wet and smelled bad. "Nathan, did you throw up?"
"Yeah."
Nuts.
He had cried so hard that he made himself throw up on his sheets.
Steve helped me through another round of trying to change pajamas on a tired, irrational, sobbing toddler who doesn't want anything. I got his sheets changed out. He still didn't get a story, but I stayed beside him until he had settled down a little.
I don't think I won that round.
In the wee early hours of Thursday morning, he fell out of bed, a rare event for him. It took me a few minutes to get to him, and his crying woke Paul and Julia. I went into his dark room, held him for a few minutes, and once he had settled down a bit, I tucked him back into bed. When he came down stairs in the morning, we realized he must have hit his bedside stand on the way to the ground, because the side of his face was scratched and puffy. Oops.
His other troubles have a lot to do with outgrowing nap time, but still needing some extra rest. Nathan either needs a 26 hour day so that he can take a nap and still be tired by bedtime, or he needs a 22 hour day so that he is not a terrible mess by bedtime. The 24 hour day is just murder. Yesterday, he managed to sneak in a late 1 hour nap and still be a terrible, cranky, irrational mess by bedtime.
One of his favorite bedtime evasion tactics is to change his mind about what he wants multiple times. He wants these pajamas. Now he doesn't. He wants to do it himself. Now he wants help. He doesn't like the picture on his pajamas, so he wants you to turn his shirt backwards. There is a lot of fussing and crying to go with the fickleness. It is high time we pull in the reigns on these tactics. Last night I decided that I was the one to start pulling.
I asked him to pick out a story for bedtime, but he told me to pick one out. I did. Then he wanted to pick out his own story. I told him no. He started wailing so loud that I couldn't read the story I had picked for him, so I tucked him in without a story and turned out the light.
He cried.
And cried.
I didn't last very long before I went back into his room to help him settle down. (I wasn't capitulating. Really.) I knelt beside his bed to talk to him, and realized that the bed was wet and smelled bad. "Nathan, did you throw up?"
"Yeah."
Nuts.
He had cried so hard that he made himself throw up on his sheets.
Steve helped me through another round of trying to change pajamas on a tired, irrational, sobbing toddler who doesn't want anything. I got his sheets changed out. He still didn't get a story, but I stayed beside him until he had settled down a little.
I don't think I won that round.
Tuesday, March 01, 2016
The vicissitudes of Paul
One morning last week I
got a note from one of PJ's teachers saying that he was neglecting to get some
of his work done. I spoke to Paul about it later.
In the evening, I got
this note from his science teacher:
I’ve noticed that Paul has been really focused the last few days and has participated more in class than he normally does. We did a hands-on activity on Wednesday where we were analyzing a soil sample and Paul was engaged in the activity. In fact, as soon as he came in to the classroom he came right up to my desk and was examining the soil samples and making observations about them. Soil is not always the most interesting thing in science for kids to learn about, but Paul seems to really like it.
I’ve noticed that Paul has been really focused the last few days and has participated more in class than he normally does. We did a hands-on activity on Wednesday where we were analyzing a soil sample and Paul was engaged in the activity. In fact, as soon as he came in to the classroom he came right up to my desk and was examining the soil samples and making observations about them. Soil is not always the most interesting thing in science for kids to learn about, but Paul seems to really like it.
My
response:
Thank you so much for this word of encouragement.
Thank you so much for this word of encouragement.
We've always known
Paul had a special affinity for dirt.
This morning I told
Paul about the praise he had been given. He said, "Yeah, there were
insects in the soil, so that kept me going."
----------------
On Friday I came home from work, and Julia burst out to greet me with the news that Paul had missed his bus stop coming home. He had to transfer buses and arrived home an hour late.
Grandma had been understandably anxious, because transportation never called her to let her know where Paul was. She had texted Steve and I. Steve had gone to Paul's school to search for him amongst throngs of children at an after school social. I was blissfully unaware that anything was wrong because I had lost my phone.
Grandma sent Steve another text to let him know Paul was home safely. Steve didn't get the message for a long while because there is virtually no cell coverage in the school.
Steve came home grumpy and frustrated, and Paul was strongly advised not to get so deeply engrossed in a book during the bus ride that he missed his stop again.
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