Update on Potty Training and Sleeping

Since we've done nothing productive this week, I figured I'd just write a post about how my boys are doing. Bumblebee is 5 months old now and is an angel! He's been sleeping through the night for a while now, maybe since he was 3 months old...? He is the happiest baby ever. He'll wake up in the morning after sleeping for 12 hours and he'll just lay quietly in his cradle sucking his thumb. He gives the the most wonderful smiles and his laugh fills my heart with joy. He'll stay awake a few hours, eat, then fall asleep sucking his thumb while laying on his little floor bed. Link will run through the house like a crazy person, but usually Bumblebee will sleep right through it. He sleeps about an hour, then he's awake for a while. I love to lay down beside him and talk to him, or take him around the house with me while I clean up or make lunch. He likes to sit in his little bouncy chair outside while Link plays. Mostly, he sleeps a lot. He most often falls asleep by himself, though sometimes I like to rock him just because he doesn't demand it often enough. He takes a 3-5 hour nap in the middle of the day and still sleeps at night!  (I'm so amazed because Link was the opposite as far as naps go)  He's starting to be awake a little more, and is holding his head up great.

Link on the other hand, requires quite a bit of attention. In my Turning 2 Update post, I mentioned that Link was sleeping in his bed and doing well with his potty training. Well a lot has happened in the last 4-5 months (besides Bumblebee being born). We moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Johnson City, Tennessee, out of our little bitty apartment in the city to a larger house that seems like its in the country. Link caught me with Bumblebee sleeping on my chest at night when Bumblebee was just a few weeks old and decided that he wanted to sleep with Mommy and Daddy too. So, even though Link has his own room, he is back in the bed with us.  And we've been on a potty training roller coaster! The course of that has gone something like this:

1. One week with no underwear while at home, he almost always made it to the potty, which was out in the living room
2. One more week with no underwear, he had a few accidents. 
3. Started with underwear, but I had to constantly take him. At this point, he didn't care too much about going to the potty and had tons of 'accidents'
4. Changed underwear to the kind he can pull down, but he still didn't really care. At this point, he had peed on just about everything: the bed, my rocking chair, my ottoman, his stool, the couch, I don't know how many times on the floor, his car seat, his Daddy, his Daddy's computer chair, while playing, while eating in a restaurant, while standing in front of the potty... it got to the point where we put a diaper on him while visiting other people's houses because we couldn't take him often enough!
5. Now he runs off by himself and its working great!

There is more detail there that I'm sure isn't very interesting, but the point is, I think we're finally there.  Ever since he's gotten into his "big boy" phase, he doesn't want me to run with him to the bathroom to help him pull his underwear down, he can do it all by himself. Now he very rarely has accidents, once a week or less. All of this makes me wonder if I would have done better to wait until he was in this phase to start, then I could have changed a few more diapers, and cleaned up a lot less off the floor. I got tired of taking him to go in the middle of the night once I stopped waking up with Bumblebee, then I got tired of pee in the bed, so I put him in a cloth diaper at night. It's dry 5 out of 7 nights.

Bumblebee has outgrown his cradle and is sleeping well, so we've decided to move him out of our room. I had originally wanted him to sleep on his floor bed, but I like it in the living room and I don't want to move it. So we're going to put up the crib in Link's room, and hope that Link will want to be in there too!

Oh, and it looks like Link is getting his appetite back.  He'll actually eat something now, though I am still unsure of how to handle meals :)  

Well, that was one exciting post if you like reading about the eating, sleeping, and potty training habits of other people's kids!

**edit**
of course about three hours after I posted this, Link pees three times because he's too busy to go... why do I curse myself?

Week Review - Why do I stink at this?

I sometimes have serious doubts about whether I'm going to make it as a homeschooling mom.  I set very reasonable goals (in other words, LOW) and I didn't come close to meeting them.  I just wanted to do one small activity a day, and I Spy.  Instead, I didn't do any I Spy and I hardly did anything you could call an activity.   Here's my (sad) rundown for the week:

Monday - If you're happy and you know it
Tuesday - Sidewalk chalk & walking on a line
Wednesday - Rain day (watched movies all day)
Thursday - Library
Friday - Classification cards

See what I mean?

If you're looking for a blog where someone does not do Montessori, you've found it.  If you want a good example, look elsewhere!  You're probably thinking, "If you're happy and you know it, that's not an activity!" and you're right, but I wanted him to get used to doing things like that because they do it at story time at the library.  He didn't want anything to do with it, he just kinda smiled at me and looked like he thought I was loopy.  Sidewalk chalk was a super hit though, and he did enjoy walking on the like with me.

Why am I just now discovering how awesome sidewalk chalk is?  Because we have never had a place where it was okay to use it.  We love it!

Ok, on to Wednesday.  Yes, I know, there are things to do on rainy days besides watch movies, but that's what he did.  We don't have a TV, but Link can watch movies on our computers, so he did that while I tried to make classification cards.

Thursdays are our library day.  This was a particularly fun day because it was community volunteer day, so there were community workers there with their vehicles.  Link go to sit in a mail truck, an articulated dump truck, and a mail truck, he held a real fire hose and checked out all the gadgets on the fire truck, watched the garbage truck pick up the trash can and dump it, and watch a guy playing in a bucket truck. Since he is totally into trucks right now, he loved it!

And finally, on Friday, he spent about 5 minutes doing the classification cards that I made.  I cheated a little.  I took pictures of things around the house and put them on some business cards that we had and will never use, and put the pictures of the living room, kitchen and bathroom on large index cards.  It worked, but I think it was too super easy for him.

I didn't do much I Spy because I could never thing of things to show Link that began with the letters I was working on.  I am planning on making some picture cards with (hopefully) about 5 items for each letter.  Then I can just doing the cards once a day and I know I'm not missing some.  I can't just do it randomly through the day.

When I come up with a plan for next week, I'll see if I can find the time to post it :)

Good Eating vs. Good Eating Habits

I would love to buy my son fresh, organic veggies, then wip up creative, nutritious meals, and have him devour three meals a day and a few snacks.  I would like for him to sit at the table while he eats, in his high chair or in a regular chair, I don't care.  Right now though, I'd just settle for him eating anything anywhere! I try to limit things like cookies and candy, in hopes that he'll eat healthier alternatives.  But I swear, nothing I'm doing is working!  I know, he's two, and two year olds don't eat much, and he'll eat when he's hungry.  Knowing these things doesn't make it any easier though.  And when it finally comes to a point where I think "I don't care what he eats, if he'll just eat something", then he ends up eating french fries from McDonald's for lunch and oatmeal cookies for dinner!

Ok, maybe I'm just venting a little (which I can do since no one reads my blog anyways) and its not that bad, but it is bad.  He eats fruit and yogurt, so at least there is something healthy in his diet.  I want for him to have good eating habits, regarding what he eats, when and where, but how do I balance that with just getting him to eat?

There are so many different schools of thought on this.  Some people have snacks available all day so that their kids eat when they want to.  So they are probably eating and playing, running around with food in their mouths and hardly ever sitting at a table.  Other people put their kids in highchairs, strap them down, and offer them food.  They make little airplane sounds to make it fun, and otherwise entice their kids to eat.  Then went they are finished, that's it, food goes away until next time.  And if you follow a Montessori approach, you let your child sit at a child sized table to eat, and if they get up from the table, the food goes away.  That way your child learns that when you get up from the table, eating time is over, so you'd better eat!  I've done it all.  None of these things seem to work with Link.

Granted, if I put the food away, and Link comes to me ten minutes later and actually offers to eat something, I have a very hard time saying no.  Heck, lately, if he does that, I jump for joy and make him whatever he wants.  Half the time he still doesn't eat it!  I think he really really doesn't like what I cook.  I have to admit I'm not creative.  I have a difficult time thinking of things to make for any meal without repeating the same thing every day.

So what do I do!?!  I figure soon enough he'll have his appetite back, then the eating thing won't be such a big deal.  Just the eating at the table without pitching a fit part...

**edit**
After posting this, I started thinking "how do parents deal with this when their kids are in daycare?" Teachers can't dote on every child the way a parent can at home... kids sit at little tables and eat at meal time or they go hungry!  They eat what is served, or go hungry! Are they healthy? I don't know.  Do they sit at the table at dinner time? I don't know... but it is something to think about.

Big Boy

I have been spending a TON of time trying to prepare for starting school with Link.  The main thing that has been holding me back is that I don't have a space to dedicate to school.  I finally decided that I was letting that and the lack of a full fledged plan keep me from starting.  So on Friday I decided to just start small.  Here's what I did...

First I made a small list of activities to pull from.  I used the book Child's Play by Maja Pitamic to get some ideas, others came from Gettman and a list I bought, or I just read about them somewhere.  This was my list:

• I Spy
• Guess the Sound Game
• Hard & Soft Game
• Sort Beans
• Walk the Line
• Bean Bag Throwing
• Traffic Lights
• If You're Happy & You Know It

There are several reasons I wanted to start with this list.  "I Spy" is of course the first language activity recommended by everyone and I'm very anxious to get started with language.  The next three would give me a chance to practice presenting an activity, and get Link used to sitting with me while I show him something.  The three after that I can do inside or outside, and since I often just want to play outside, it'll get me going while fulfilling that need.  And the last one will encourage Link to sing, listen and perform certain actions.

So, shortly after breakfast we have about a three hour period that works great for doing whatever I have planned for the day.  I chose bean sorting since there was not a lot of prep work involved.  I didn't really present it the way I should, I just said "want to help mamma sort some beans?" Since he said yes (he's back into helper mode) I got one big bowl and two little bowls, and some black beans and lima beans, mixed them up and showed him how to put one in each bowl.  He did great considering I put way too many little black beans in the bowl, and they were very very small.  Then he decided he wanted a snack, so he left, ate a little, then came back.  He got almost all the way through it before he decided he was done.  So I finished up and put it all away.  Not bad for our first activity.

After his nap (and snack this time) I decided to try pouring rice.  Nope, it wasn't on the list, but whatever!  I read in the Gettman book how I should present it, then I jumped in.  This one was a little more difficult.  Link didn't want to watch me demonstrate and he certainly didn't want me to help place his hands correctly.  This is where "BIG BOY" came in!  When Link wants to do something by himself he lets me know he's a big boy and wants me to leave him alone.  I handled it well I think.... He only fussed a little, and he ended up letting me show him.  This is where I think starting small and getting him used to the whole presentation idea is important.  He did well, and only dumped the rice out once, but was very enthusiastic about picking up the rice.  Then he was all done, and I put it away.

Those were the only activities we did.  I plan on starting the I Spy one on Monday.  I made a list of all the sounds to help me and Daddy keep track of the sounds and a chart for each week showing the sounds we're working on for the day.  Here they are:

It is very hard to think of things that I have to use for the I Spy game.  I don't have a ton of little miniatures, so I think I'm going to use the I Spy Phonics Book Set and Alphatales Book Set that MyBoysTeacher uses :)  I'm going to try to do activities at least two days next week and I Spy every day.

Starting again!

I've had 4 months to get settled in with our new baby (I'll call him Bumble Bee I guess) and now I'm feeling like I have completely neglected Link!  My goal was to start having 'school time' with him by the time he was 2 1/2.  Now I have only one month to prepare, but I think I can do it.  So this post is all about what I'm doing to get started, which is mainly reading.  

In addition to blogs, I'm getting ideas for activities and language activities from a few books recommended by My Boys Teacher over at What DID we do all day?  The first is Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under Fives by David Gettman.  This book was the most help in determining what activities to start with.  I tend to want to do the ones that look like they'd be a lot of fun, but then realize that they are too advanced.  Finding activities with instructions online is easy, but sorting them into the proper periods is not (for me at least).  So what I found the most useful from this book was the section where Gettman lists the activities for each Period.  So, my plan is to make a list of the activities he has in Period One, and introduce them gradually to Link.  Many of them are explained in detail in his book, and the ones that aren't in the book I think I'll be able to find online.  Once I actually start introducing them, I'll post more about that.

The Practical Life, Sensorial, Language and Culture activities are all described in Gettman's book, but I wanted more help in the Language area.  My Boys Teacher also recommended A Path for the Exploration of Any Language Leading to Writing and Reading by Muriel Dwyer and Montessori Read and Write: A Parent's Guide to Literacy for Children by Lynne Lawrence.  Both of these books have been helpful, but honestly, I think My Boys Teacher does an excellent job of summarizing the process, so anyone interested would do good to check out her blog because I'm not even going to attempt an explanation.  So I'm going to begin with the language games (I Spy) in earnest!  I hope that by the time I'm ready to start school time, he'll know the sounds well enough to start identifying objects by their sounds.  

I don't know how I'll ever fit school time in!  Now that we're out of the city with a wonderful yard to play in, Link wakes up every morning and the first thing he wants to do is play outside.  I just can't say no!  So our day consists of breakfast, playing outside, lunch, playing outside, naps, cooking/cleaning, dinner and bedtime.

Plus, the weather here is soooo wonderful, I just can't stand to stay inside either.  (We moved from GA to TN for anyone not familiar)  It'll probably start getting cold soon, so maybe that will help motivate me more :)  

So that's where I am.  I haven't actually started a thing yet!  First I have to find a place to have school that won't be distracting and a time that will be good for everyone.  Then I just have to cross my fingers and hope that Link actually wants to participate.  Wish me luck!

Baking Cookies & Other Fun

Since we've brought home the new baby (nickname is still under consideration, so for now, its just new baby) I've been trying to make sure that Link isn't feeling neglected.  It hasn't been much of a problem since I've got the sleepiest baby ever, except that we haven't been outside to play since we've been home.  Also, Daddy got Link this awesome Legos Fire Truck set and it has completely consumed his attention for the past week.

I put a ton of Link's toys away because they weren't getting much use, and they just tended to get spread around for me to pick up.  He has so much fun taking these things apart and putting them together in different ways.

In other news, Link has grown and eaten the first tomato from his plant.  He was quite tickled by it as you can see.

This past weekend he helped his Grandma and Grandpa pick cucumbers and tomatoes in their garden.  So he knows to only get the red ones.  Though to Link, a little red is red enough :)

He loves tomatoes.  They are the one vegetable that I can always count on him eating a ton of.

We also baked cookies today.  Emphasis on baked, since we didn't really make them.  Baking them consisted of the following:  Getting the bag of pre-made (highly processed/preserved) little squares out of the fridge,

finding the cookie sheet under the oven

and putting it on the counter.

Then he climbed up on his stool and posed for me :)

After I cut the squares out, he placed them on the cookie sheet.

I only had to take raw cookie dough out of his mouth once.  Then he sat down while I put them in the oven.  (I taught him from the time he could walk to always sit down far away when I had the oven door open, now if I open it, he'll run to a spot and sit)

After putting the cookies in the oven, he washed his hands and ate half a cookie. I'm including pictures of him washing his hands because he's finally getting to where he can do this on his own and I'm a little tickled by it.

And since he was there and could reach it, he always like to take his temperature.

I should mention that Link does NOT always have access to the sink (I don't want to pay any more for water than I already do).  We move this stool around the house for him since it's too heavy for him to move.

I really wish I had one with sides and a back so I don't have to worry about him falling off backwards.  But, it works for now.  He has a smaller stool that he can carry around that is only about a foot high.  Maybe Grandpa can make him a new stool by the time he starts doing more cooking in the kitchen (hint, hint).

Turning 2 - Update

Of course things didn't go how I thought they would, but they've gone great.   To recap, Link has been:

1. Moving from mom and dad's bed to his toddler bed (and room)
2. Spending 5 weeks away from home
3. Giving up his cloth diapers for big boy undies
4. Welcoming a new baby home

I'll start with the last one, since that's where things got all mixed up.  We welcomed our new baby home 4 weeks early.  Link has taken to his baby brother quite well.  It probably helps that he is a very sleepy baby, and you can almost forget he's here.  So, Link has not had to deal with sharing Momma too much.  He likes to hug his little brother, and bring him things that he can identify as his brother's.  I think Link will be a fantastic big brother!

Since the baby came 4 weeks early, we didn't spend the full 5 weeks away from home.  Link did have to be away from his Momma for the first time ever.  The first day I didn't see him for a full 11 hours, and I realized it was the longest I'd ever been away from him.  It just got worse from there, and I didn't  see him for a full day at one point.  He handled it well though, and he loved spending time with his Grandma and Grandpa.  But, by the end of the 4th day, we could tell that he needed to get back home and back to his routine.  He wasn't quite his normal, well behaved self, but he was still very good considering.

Link checking out Momma at the hospital.

I had hoped to have a full four weeks to work with Link on his potty training.  I only had four days, then I was in the hospital.  His Grandma and Grandpa were willing to work with him, and they all did great.  Link already knew what he needed to do, it was just a matter of practicing.  Granted, we're at 2 weeks with no diapers, and he still runs around the house with just a shirt on.  But, he does good going out, and he doesn't have accidents when we're home as long as he doesn't have to worry about pulling underwear down.  We'll get to that soon.  He sleeps through naps and (as long as I get him up once in the night) he sleeps through the night, with no wet bed.

Don't know why, but he liked to sit on it backwards :)

Link is doing great in his toddler bed, but it is still in our room.  We didn't want to bring him home and immediately put him in his own room.  We felt like it was important to get things back to normal, or as close as possible, before making any big changes like this.  So, we'll see how that goes when it happens.