Measuring Up....

Jonathan had his belated 18-month well-visit today... all looks fantastic, even his ears which I was ever-so-slightly concerned about because a) he has had a cold and b) he jammed that DS stylus in there a few weeks ago. But, thankfully, they are good too. ;)

I was curious to see how much he weighed because he has felt heavier to me lately, but,turns out, he hasn't gained anything since the last time we were there for a sick visit. He's 25 pounds and 32 inches long. (31st and 26th percentiles). As per usual for our kids, his head is enormous at 19.5 inches and in the 86th. HAHAHA... sheesh.

Always fun to compare to big brothers, so here's the lowdown. At 18 months, the other boys were --
Ben -- 23 pounds and 31 inches. (15th percentile and 25th percentile)
Simon -- 28 pounds and is 32 inches long (75th and 26th percentiles)

So he's hanging around right in the middle! Interesting that, at least for now, it looks like he's going to be pretty average height-wise, instead of on the shorter end like Ben... I say that only because Simon holds pretty steady in the 50th range these days and his height is exactly what Simon's was at the same age...) I think the weight difference between J and B is that J actually eats you know, like food... LOL.

The doctor was happy to hear I had looked into the speech thing. Like me, he doesn't think there is anything developmental to be concerned about, but that he definitely, at this point, could use some therapy to get things moving. So YAY! :)

No shots today and we don't have to go back until fall. :)

Mischievous Monkey....

THis Just In...

Just figured out that Jonathan's declaration of "Ah ha" when he's finished eating something translates to "All done." Why he can't say a closer approximation of the phrase, I don't know because he says, "da da da da" plenty. Very strange how this child is going about learning to talk... his 19-month doctor's appointment Thursday can't come soon enough!

Jonathan is 19 Months (and one day) Old!

Dear Jonathan,

Yesterday, you were 19 months old. This is an easy monthday to miss because your March monthday falls a day after your oldest brother's birthday. Birthday trumps monthday... soo....

Anyway, this month... Not a whole lot happening, really. We are communicating well lately, you and I, even without words, which is helpful. You still love yourself a good temper tantrum and I have a feeling we will battle that for a few years.

Your favorite toys this month are your shape sorters, your Laugh and Learn house and your puppets. You love the puppets and will bring them to me to put on and make them talk to you. You love to feed them and give them your sippy cups and laugh and laugh when they nibble on your belly. Often, you toddle up to them and lift your shirt up waiting for them to tickle you. You have also taken quite a liking to the various baby dolls we have laying around the house. One has a bottle and you dug it out of the toy box and spend a good bit of time yesterday feeding her, laughing every time she burped. It was very entertaining to watch. ;)

You love fingerplays and songs now and will ask to do Pattycake, Wheels on the Bus, Five Little Monkeys and Where is Thumbkin and you love to act out Five Little Monkeys, especially!

You are almost exclusively down to one nap a day. You are flexible about it too, which has made life pretty easy, especially since our schedule varies depending on whether or not both older brothers have school. Thanks for being a team player!

No more consistent words, though you have added to the ones I have heard once and only once. You said "car", "that", "yeah", and "juice" all in the last week or two.... only once, mind you... which is SO VERY very annoying and always makes me second guess whether I heard them at all... someday you'll talk though! Someday!

A favorite game these days is to climb into one of your brothers beds and get under the covers. Won't be long before you are begging to nap there like Simon used to do. Don't get used to it though... you're staying in a crib as long as I can stand it.

My laissez-faire approach to eating seems to still be working, either that or we just hit the jackpot with a much less picky palette this time around. You still eat everything and have now added caesar salad to your neverending list of foods you enjoy... It's weird to see a baby wolf down salad, seriously.

We'll find out how big you are at your very VERY late 18-month well visit this week. My aching back says you are a pound or two heavier than you were at your last visit... but we'll see!

So that's 19 months... inching ever closer to the terrible twos! :) Will be interesting to see what those bring seeing as how some days it feels like we are already there. Yikes!

I love you!
Love,
Mommy!

Birthday Party!

The birthday party was a success. There were only three minor injuries, a kid who was kicked in the leg, a head bump for one of the girls, and another kid who freaked me out with "so-and-so kicked me in the face and now my tooth is loose!"... everyone was fine though, thankfully.

The kids all seemed to have a blast and it was neat to see most of Ben's class all together. I don't get to volunteer at all this year because of Jonathan, so I am only now just figuring out who they all are. Nice class though, for the most part... although the kid who is from Ben's preschool class who I found unsavory when he was four, is still a troublemaker. He was responsible for two of three injuries and they were not accidents. Note to self: he does NOT get invited to any future parties.

Also to be noted -- the crowd ate an entire 22 oz. barrel of cheeseballs...

I found out rather recently that Ben has a little thing for one of the girls in his class. I knew her name, but not which child she was until I visited his class during library a couple weeks ago. Here's the amusing part... she kind of looks like she could be his fraternal twin sister. I got lots of pictures yesterday... I actually wanted to see if he asks me for a copy when he sees them. ;) Evil mommy, I am. (also, from the videos below... it appears the feeling is mutual)

He left with the most giant trashbag haul of presents ever... downside for me of having invited so many kids... major upside for Ben! He has been very systematically choosing one thing at a time, writing a thank you note for it and then playing with it. It's mostly Lego sets, so lots of quiet building has been going on around here since yesterday afternoon. ;) YAY! The most interesting and unusual present came from his classmate Nivi, who gave him a beginning Harmonica set. There was a duplicate Lego building set that he gave to Simon without hesitation, and he was thrilled with this, of course!

Here are a few pics and some video from the big day! :)

Today You Are 8....

Dear Benjamin,

Today you are eight years old, which I'm pretty sure is not actually possible. Weren't you just born like, yesterday?

I remember when you were born and you didn't really cry. Instead, you made this soft mewing sound like a kitten. In the hospital, after having known you for a mere 12 hours or so, we told everyone what a great baby you were. "He never ever cries!" we bragged.

Then we brought you home and all heck broke loose the first night.

Between the horrible colic you had as an infant and the night terrors you had as a toddler, none of slept all that fantastically well for probably a solid two years. Then you got a little more normal, but have always remained our night owl. Now, at 8, you outlast us just about every night. I will go in to check on you at 11, figuring I will cover you up, turn off your radio and kiss the top of your head. I will often open your bedroom door and find you sitting up in bed -- light on. You are usually reading, writing, building Lego men, or playing DS. I don't understand how you are a functioning person in the morning for school, honestly... but you rarely complain.

Yesterday morning, I got a glimpse of the teenager that will all too soon inhabit my house though, when you would NOT GET UP. I had to strip all the covers off off of you and send Jonathan in to smack at your face and sit on your head. You are so good-natured about this, by the way. "Hi Jonathan! Good morning, buddy!" you always say as he tries his best to poke your eyeballs out and stick his fingers up your nose. "But there is no other place better than bed in the morning!!!" you replied. Then you got yourself up and dressed and that was that.

You have fared well in second grade, despite having a teacher everyone is supposedly afraid of. You never complain about school, except in the typical boy way -- i.e. "School is boring and gym is my favorite subject Boo reading! Yay recess!!" So either your teacher doesn't bother you or you've figured out how to thrive in her world. Either way, it has been a huge year of growth. You've learned cursive and you are SO proud. Your handwriting is beautiful too! Your teacher even asks you to write everything in cursive now because your cursive is better than your printing. :) You still love math and have done well all year. You started bringing home papers about fractions last week and I thought I might have to get myself a tutor... you know, like, for me. Not for you... you can explain it upside down, inside out and backwards.

You've made lots of friends this year, as far as I can tell and are well-liked by everyone in your class. You have two friends you talk about a lot -- Justin and Christian. The verdict is still out on how I feel about one of those boys... thankfully, I still have a say in who comes over to play and where you go. So, yeah... sorry.

You played basketball again this year and you shined! You weren't the best on the team (yet!), but played well you really look like you know what you are doing out there. It makes me so proud to watch you play! After school most days, you are out in the driveway dribbling and shooting and talking to yourself. If it's raining, you do this in the basement. It's all basketball, all the time around here with you!

You are still such a very serious kid, especially in contrast to Simon, who you often don't find amusing. Nevertheless, he is one of your best friends and I know even though you two fight you miss him a lot when he's off at Grandmom's or Nanny and Pap's house!

Your interests continue to be full-throttle and total and completely obsessive and then dropped like hot potatoes. We are just now coming out of a very long and somewhat painful 24/7 Ninjago phase, prior to that was Pokemon and before that, Super Mario Brothers. Now we seem to have cycled back to the brothers Mario... which of course happened AFTER I purchased all your Ninjago-related birthday gifts. Anytime you'd like to stop doing that to me would be fabulous.

You are a nice little boy, kind to others and kind to your brothers. You and daddy go at it sometimes for various reasons... this often results in you stomping off and slamming your bedroom door with dramatic flair. For the most part though, you just sort of breeze through life, doing your thing and following the rules.

I love that you are still so innocent. You still love to watch the Disney Junior shows with your brothers in the morning and you still play with toys and aren't caught up some in too much of the "cool kid" influenced stuff that is already making its way to the second grade. You like most people and accept everyone as they are. I hope you stay like that forever.

So there you are. I can't believe you are EIGHT. Gosh that sounds old. But then again, so did 4,5,6, and 7 when their time came. Here's hoping eight is your best year yet.

I love you!
Love,
Mommy

Tada!

Birthday boy in birthday shirt with birthday button and birthday sticker he got at school. Just in case you didn't get that it's his birthday (almost).

Night Terrors and Birthday Parties...

ETA: Barrel of cheeseballs, animals crackers,pretzels, juice boxes and water purchased. I'm also thinking some grapes and strawberries (plus the cake)... is that enough for 20-some-odd kids?





Jonathan had himself another lovely little night terror last night. Mercifully, it only lasted 20 minutes. I kind of saw it coming. He took a longer than usual late nap and then, because of that, we put him to bed an hour and a half late. So we were asking for it.
Good times.

Gearing up for Ben's 8th birthday on Saturday! He has a birthday shirt and button to wear to school tomorrow and a bag of pencils to give out to his class that all say "Second Graders are AWESOME". (can't take in food treats....yada yada blah blah ).

His presents are wrapped and on the dining room table, which thankfully, he hasn't noticed. From us, he is getting a basketball hoop for over his bedroom door, a University of Kentucky shirt and matching shorts, and a MarioKart K'nex track. There were a couple Ninjago items in there too, but I am going to pull them and put them aside for either Easter for both boys or save them for when Ninjago makes another appearance in Ben's obsession-world. (I would say I would save them for Simon's birthday but as soon as he realizes Ben's not into it anymore, he won't be either... sigh...) I saw the Ninjago thing fading last week and yesterday, he mentioned he was into MarioKart again now. OMG. He does this to me every. single. year. From now on, please remind me to shop no sooner than two days prior to his birthday.

I ended up nixing the Lego cupcakes and ordering a Safeway cake. It's just easier given that I have ZERO time and there a fazillion children coming. Also nixed the Ninjago cake pops because umm.... why? Instead, he is getting a brightly colored generic cake and fairly generic goodie bags... the only thing that hinted of a Ninjago theme in the goodie bags anyway were little rubber Ninjas I found at Party City. ;)

Still have to go buy the party snacks and fruit. Other than that... we're good. Super simple. Simple is good these days.

Sunday we are having a cookout with my family, at Ben's request. :) Excited about that too but can't really think about it until sometime after 3p.m. on Saturday. LOL!

Hrm.

I was just lamenting to Facebook that I am horribly exhausted today. My SIL chimed in that she was too and that it must be the weather... I think it's a combination of weather and allergies. At any rate, apparently, I am not the only one who is having a hard time staying awake today! Shortly after my Facebook post, I went to take some things upstairs and check on Simon, who I realized had been completely silent for at least a half hour. This is what I found! Poor buddy! Jonathan's passed out too.

I think Ben's downstairs playing Wii... but maybe I should go check on him...

Simon and School....

I'd say just about every other time I pick Simon up from school, his teacher greets me with, "JUST the person I need to talk to." which typically means that Simon has done something not so great or with a ton of shock value -- like the time he pulled down his pants and peed off the slide on the playground. (O.M.G.)

Another recent one was when she told me that Ava, one of his classmates, told her mother she didn't want to come to school because Simon said mean things to her. Ava is the little girl in his class who has leukemia.... she has no hair and often has rashes on her face or is bloated from chemo. So, as you can imagine, a hundred thousand horrible HORRIBLE possibilities raced through my mind. Thankfully, the mean things Simon says to other kids are never the kind of mean where he is making fun of people or mocking them. and double thankfully, he remained consistent with this with regard to Ava. I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief at that small ray of light. Apparently, they get into tiffs where she knocks down his block buildings or takes toys and he yells at her. NOT fantastic either, but much preferable to him making fun of the way she looks. We had lots of talks about being nice to Ava and he went to school the following week and did all sorts of nice things for her.

Yesterday, Tom was home unintentionally disrupting our routine and so Simon didn't want to go to school. He screamed all the way out the door into the car and into the school parking lot. He was actually FINE though when I dropped him off and scampered off to play with his friends. When I went to pick him up, however, I got there a good 20 minutes early and was greeted with, "JUUUUST the mom I need to talk to." once again. Apparently, he had been grumpy and defiant ALL day. When given a worksheet to do, he refused and crumpled it up and threw it on the floor... TWICE. She said he refused to participate in anything. He hadn't been mean to anyone, just difficult and surly. She told me Kindergarten is really going to be quite the adjustment for him and that she's worried he may be a child that needs to get sent to the office once or twice before he really gets that he is going to have to sit and do things he doesn't want to do sometimes. I could cry. I can't get over how he doesn't fear authority. Ben would act like that with ME but NEVER would have dared do it at school... and Lisa, the teacher, said that's how her kids were too... but Simon is just different. She is hopeful that having the summer to mature some will help... but still a bit worried about him... as am I.

I'm getting a little concerned about how he is so one extreme or the other. He is either 100% pleasant and wonderful and loving and cooperative. Or he is the Simon from yesterday who is just awful to deal with. Is there some kind of chemical issue? Is he really just this up and down? Is it when he's tired? (yesterday, when I arrived on the playground, he ran up and jumped in my arms and just curled up with me yawning and saying he wanted to go home) And if it's when he's tired, we are REALLY in for it the first couple months of Kindergarten because those first months of going all day every day are BRUTAL on kids. Ben was a disaster for awhile there....

Oh my.... I just don't know what to do. I don't want him to end up in the school office all the time next year. Not to mention, I don't even know what to DO with that.... I've never had anything but positive interactions with principals and teachers, really... until now....

There are consequences, of course... he got some things taken away yesterday and we had a long talk about his behavior in school. The consequences don't seem to have much effect in the long-term though...

I'm also wondering if there is something bigger at foot.... either chemical, as I mentioned before... or behavioral... I've noticed he is really REALLY sensitive to chaos and loud noises.... like actually can't handle it. He'll cover his ears and bury his head or just run away. Is this some kind of red flag? Or is he just quirky?

What to do... what to do....

Jonathan and Speech...

The speech people were here yesterday to get me to sign off on the paperwork to start services for Jonathan. These two ladies reallllly rub me the wrong way for some reason. Maybe it's that they do not get my humor... ? I'm also bothered by the fact that they are so ridiculously black and white about everything. They backed me into a figurative corner yesterday when they got me to say that Ben was a late talker and also took a pacifier but that Simon was an early talker and didn't. Seriously. They were all like this was proof positive, cased closed, end of story. We are killing our child's desire and ability to talk because he has a pacifier. I do not at ALL think the binky or lack thereof has anything to do with when any of my kids talked. But they were relentless...

Then, the whole time they are here, they observe, which I understand is their job and all.. but I feel like I am under a microscope. Things I naturally do when they are NOT there watching me, I forget to do and then they criticize me for. For example, while we were talking, Jonathan toddled up to the table and reached up for me to put him in my lap. Now, NORMALLY, I would say, "You want up?" and wait for him to motion "up" and nod "yes". But yesterday, in the interest of keeping him quiet so I could listen what these women were telling me, I just picked him up.

Record scratch sfx here.

They stopped MID-SENTENCE.

"No, no no, mom! You have to make him communicate what he wants! Ask him if he wants to get up and wait for a response. If he doesn't give one, take his arms and do it for him."

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. 40 times the whole time they were there. Thanks also to Jonathan who refused to acknowledge his name when they said it. I keep refusing the hearing test because I KNOW there is nothing wrong with his hearing. (he can hear a pin drop in the other room and comes running to see what he's missing) But, the fact that he wouldn't listen to them at that moment was all the proof they needed.... the one lady smugly slid the phone number for the hearing evaluation place across the table.

I HATE THIS.

Just talk already, child! I know you can! Why must you make me jump through these stupid hoops!

So that's that. He starts services after Easter!

Remind me to write about....

1) Infants and Toddlers being here today for Jonathan...

2) Simon and school -- Lord, give me strength.

Ben's Birthday Party....

OMG. Only three kids from the class can't come. THREE. Sheesh. I was thinking MAYBE half the class would make it. Apparently not as many of them play lacrosse as I thought. The three we lost were due to family first communion commitments.

So, figuring in the 18 from the class, Simon, Trey, Quinn, Anastasia and, of course, Ben, there will be 23 kids at this party. Holy heck.

Oh boy!

In light of this, I have opted for total simplification. Cupcakes with lego man toppers (if I get around to finishing them). Goody bags are already put together. The place provides the paper goods, so I'm going with that. And I'm picking up some fruit and cheeseballs and whatnot for pre-cake snacks.

It also occurred to me that Ben will never let me get away with NOT throwing a party ever again once he figures out that his 18 classmates will all come bearing $10 Target giftcards, most likely. LOL! (that's always the go-to for class parties) GAH!

Stay tuned for the recap next Saturday. ;) Should be interesting, to say the least.

Birthday Weekend! Random Fevers!

My birthday was Friday, opening day for birthday season in Graff'ville. The day before two of my friends brought over lunch, which was so perfect and fun. My mom brought over lunch on Friday. Lots of lunch! Lots of quiet. My kind of birthday!

Friday morning, when I got Ben up for school, he looked off. Dark circles under his eyes and pale. He said he felt fine though, so I thought maybe he had just stayed up late after we had gone to bed. I put my hands on his shoulder to sort of prod him into the bathroom to brush his hair and noticed he was warm. 100.6 said the thermometer! What the heck?! He runs kind of warm anyway (99.4 or so is actually a pretty normal temp for him sometimes) so I sent him to go lay down for a half hour and figured I'd check back in. Thirty minutes later, he was still 101. No school. Birthday treat for me! I didn't have to do any dropoffs or pickups! After some Motrin, he was completely fine and he and Simon played all day.

Then, somewhere around 2:00, he wandered upstairs and collapsed onto the couch. Fever was back up. Right behind him came Simon, who also collapsed on the couch. His fever tell is always pink rims under his bottom eyelids... he looked awful. Temp? 101. Seriously?!

I dosed everyone back up with Motrin and tucked them in on the couch with Nick Jr. By the end of the day, Simon was 100% fine with no fever. Ben's continued to come and go all day yesterday. No other symptoms.

I can only figure we picked it up at the park on Wednesday. I think that's the only way they could have possibly gotten sick at the exact same time. Usually it's one or the other bringing something home from school and then giving it to the other, so it's more staggered. Figures. The one day I go out of my way to do something fun after school and they catch something. Stupid germs.

At any rate, it didn't slow anyone down and there were never any other symptoms, so I should be grateful. But SHEESH.

Tom and I were able to go out last night for my birthday. We had dinner at a really nice place downtown and people watched while the St. Patrick's day crowd stumbled by our window seat. I'm glad the fevers didn't get in the way of our date because it had been a LONG time since we had been out alone!

Waiting to see what today will bring. The little one is super cranky. Trying to determine if it's the pointy teeth he's getting still or if he's coming down with what the other two had.

It just never ends!

In the Swim of Things...

Today was week six of six for Simon's swimming lessons session. (in reality, it's week six of a zillion because I told the instructor I wanted to just keep going so as not to lose any momentum) At any rate, today was a big day because he LET GO OF THE TEACHER. It was only for about three seconds, but, be still my heart, one of my children *actually* swam.

He is also suddenly an underwater pro and is all cool about it, going under all alone when the teacher is working with his friends. Yes, this is the same child who didn't want to get in the pool six weeks ago. AAAAAA!!!!

Some pics from today!

Shorts! In March!!!

Just enjoying the beautiful weather today... you?

Cousins Picnic...

The weather turned GORGEOUS with the time change. We spent almost the entire day outside yesterday and it was sooooooo nice. :) Aunt Sarah and cousin Audim stopped by and had a picnic on the deck with Simon and Jonathan and I!

Jonathan stuffed himself with almost an entire bowl of strawberries!!! (hence the red juice running down his face)

My Outside Boy...

I think Jonathan would live outside if I let him. He bawls his eyes out and throws fits when I won't let him out. So, being that it is already 60 degrees this morning, when I buckled him into his carseat at Simon's school I said, "Do you want to go home and ride your bike outside?" He nodded vigorously. Then he cried because he didn't get that we had to actually DRIVE to home first. LOL.

But, when we got home, he jumped out of my arms and scampered off. First the bike, then the roller coaster, then the basketball... then he just tore around the yard for awhile like a caged animal that had been set free. Eventually he just plopped down in the grass and enjoyed the wind blowing through his hair.

Miraculously, getting him inside wasn't a struggle because at one point, he just decided he was finished and started waving bye bye to everything.

Trying to get him to nap now and failing miserably. Maybe he would nap in the yard?

Aunt Debbie at School!

Aunt Debbie came to read to Ben's class yesterday during their library time! Mrs. Dance, the school librarian invited her. So fun! They used to teach together and Aunt Debbie also taught with the school's principal at one point, so she stopped in to hear the story too.

Ben was SO excited about this. I took the little boys over too and Simon, with just a a little prodding, went and sat with Ben's class and listened to the story, "Enemy Pie". He even answered questions and when Aunt Debbie told them to talk to their neighbor about something, he would turn and talk to whoever was next to him. LOL!!! Kindergarten, here we come!

Jonathan, on the other hand, sat on my lap for awhile, then jumped down and started methodically removing books from the shelves. He would pick one, climb up into the rocking chair, rock and read for about 5.5 seconds, jump down, toss the book and go grab another one. So I spent about 30 minutes reshelving the books he took down, making sure he didn't tear pages out and chasing him around. GOOD TIMES!

;)

And We're Off!

ETA: Current RSVP count is:

7- yes

0- no

15 - not yet responded

We're on a major yes streak. And a friend of mine told me today that the lacrosse kids play in the MORNING, so they'll all probably be able to come. LOL. OMG.

--------------

Ben distributed his invites at school yesterday... all 22 of them. We got our first "yes" last night. I am rooting for at least a handful of "no"s to shave down the crowd a little and maybe allow us to invite some of his old neighborhood friends or some friends from his math class who were not on the homeroom list.

We have three "non classmate" slots open right now and two are spoken for by Simon and Anastasia. All 22 classmates can't POSSIBLY make it on a Saturday, right? RIGHT? It's lax season and I KNOW some of those boys play.

Hrm. I sure hope these parents are a little quicker about RSVP'ing than *I* am when we get a class invite. U

gh. Karma is probably about to come back and bite me on this... LOL!

All Registered!

This morning was kindergarten registration! It all well smoothly... except for the fact that I neglected to notice I was supposed to bring his birth certificate. As if I didn't look stupid enough forgetting that, I then proceeded to the table with the nurse and realized I had left one of the health forms at home. WINNER!!!

While I was busy failing miserably on my end, Simon was hanging out with one of the kindergarten teachers having his little entrance screening done. He wasn't thrilled about this at first and just kind of shuffled his feet over to the table and then slouched down in his chair. After I wrapped up things on my side of the room, I walked over and got him (and his lollipop, his rubber monkey toy, his money eraser, his animal crackers, his coloring pages, his JES sticker.... MAN they gave out a lot of stuff!) and the teacher said he did great once she got him talking and that he knew everything he was supposed to know. Go Simon and Simon's preschool! ;)

I had to run home and grab his birth certificate and health form and double back, of course. But NOW, he is all registered and set. Bring on August!!! ;)

Thinking Cap...

Basketball Tournament!

Update: Well, Game 2 was a slaughtering. But, the kids played well and managed to score 20 points! It's just that the other team scored 34. Heh. Oh well, it was a fun season! Can't wait until next year!

Game 1 of Ben's basketball tournament was this morning. It was SO exciting!!! And the best part? They WON! We get to back back 2p.m. for game 2.

Unfortunately, Game 2 is against a team that only has one loss sooooo.... we'll see how it goes. But winning Game 1 was fun! ;)

Night Terrors Must Be Part of Genetic Package A...

Jonathan woke up last night around 11 ... it started with just a little fussing but quickly escalated into blood-curdling screaming. I assumed he was waking up with the cold Ben had last week and that, based on what Ben had complained of, that his throat hurt or maybe it had made its way to his ear already. I went in to dose him up with Motrin and assess the situation. Tom was sitting on the floor with him and he was flailing and writhing and screaming. His eyes were open but it was obvious he was not actually conscious of his surroundings.

Yep. The dreaded night terror.

Ben started getting these at the same age. It was terrifying the first time it happened but we eventually figured out what they were. Thankfully, we knew what to expect this time, so we just camped out on the floor and let him throw himself around. There isn't much more you can do. You can't wake them up. They can't be comforted no matter how hard you try or what you offer. You just have to wait it out...

They generally last about a half hour, so we waited and waited and sure enough, somewhere around the 35-minute mark he just passed out on the floor and we put him back in bed.

He has taken only one nap for the last three days or so and night terrors are usually brought on by not enough sleep. I'm sure that's what started it. And I'm sure this will be far from the last one. Sooooo... we're bracing ourselves for a year or so of occasional nighttime screaming fits. (sigh)

At least we know what to expect... ? LOL.

Looming....

Guess what Monday is?!

They had the sign out today when I went to pick up Ben, so we seized the opportunity to snap a quick pic! I actually have one where he is smiling better... but I liked the slightly apprehensive look in this one. LOL!

Getting Along Swimmingly!

Forgot to post yesterday! Simon is four weeks into swimming lessons and, considering he didn't even want to get in the pool the first week, has made AMAZING progress! Yesterday was the biggest breakthrough too. He went completely under water, as in, bobbed down and popped back up again... TWICE! HUGE... huge, I tell you. He has also graduated to the teacher holding him out by the hands at arms length and kicking across the pool that way and lays on his back like a pro and lets her hold him in the back float. Going to keep this up through summer and hopefully have a swimmer!!!

I want to get Ben in too, but with everyone trying to cram lessons in before summer starts, the teacher's schedule is REALLY packed. We managed to glom onto an every other Saturday private lesson that a mom wanted to change to semi-private and start splitting with one other child. So he starts in April, but only every other Saturday until something else opens up. (sigh)

Happy March!! :)

And cue, birthday season!!!

In order:
Me, Ben, my brother, my niece, Tom, Uncle Marc, Simon, Uncle Taylor

Hope I'm not forgetting anyone!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Birthday season is CAH-razy....

Ben wants birthday dinner in the dining room, with Grandmom, Poppy and Aunt Debbie, so I need to start pondering that because I know it's going to sneak up on me. His big birthday party is at the local bounce-till-you-drop place ON his actual birthday, which is fun. Which reminds, me. I need to get on sending out the invites!