Back to the Mundane

Today we finish our second full week of school. We've had some partial weeks earlier in Sept and late Aug, but it feels good to have a couple full weeks in. Aliza continues to be excited about school and high strung about getting everything finished in the time frame she wants to have it finished in. Josiah and I are finding a rhythm. He enjoys his reading assignments. I am waiting for him to read right now and it's taking him forever...and he just admitted that he didn't want to stop and is reading ahead. Anna is doing well with school. She doesn't like the discipline of having to keep at her lessons, but her reading is coming right along and she enjoys writing for the most part.

BUT let's talk about Isaiah. Do toddlers get more ornery when they have older siblings!? He's learned that if he chases the big kids with anything they think he might throw or hit them with, they will scream and run away and carry on. He employs this tactic especially during school time. Isaiah can make the biggest messes: I have found trails of lotion through the entire house that happened in a matter of minutes. He systematically peeled an onion on the floor (imagine the peelings all over the floor) and then put half a roll of toilet paper in the toilet while I was cooking a dish that I couldn't leave for supper. Anything that can be dumped will be. I'm finding myself putting toys up high that I constantly seem to be picking up. He's just generally messy, ornery and inclined to test limits and my patience at every turn.

And naps are another whole issue. I have always said that no 2 year old should be giving up naps. I think 3 year olds should still be taking naps! Isaiah has been skipping naps a couple times a week. It drives me crazy! It doesn't matter, though, whether he takes a nap or not, he is almost always the last child to fall asleep at night. I stay in the nap routine and most days I rock him for a long time and if he falls asleep, he falls asleep while I'm rocking him. Most of the time, I can remember that these are sweet times that won't last much longer. (I have wished, though, that we had bought a nicer rocking chair! lol)

On the other end of the spectrum, there is nothing like making the first orthodontic down payment that makes one feel like a parent of a growing up kid. Aliza had her scan and xrays for her expander this morning. She LOVED the whole process complete with smiles and giggles. It made the staff happy to have a happy patient. =) I'm not sure what it is that makes Aliza so excited about this process, but excited she is! I'll take it! It's a lot easier to dish out the dollars for a kid excited to participate in the process.