Just thought I'd do a little update on all the kids.
Zoe. She's so good, but definitely a moody pre-teen. It's so annoying. I hate the rolling of the eyes. The big sighs. The looks of "are you kidding me". It's all happening way too often now.
KC gave her his old iPod and set up a free texting program. Almost all her friends seem to have their own phones. We were told by a friend that his daughter basically only texted her friends. So hopefully this will keep her happy for a while.
And it gives me something to take away from her when she's being impossible : )
She went to her first middle school dance. She told me how she just had to go, basically compared it to social suicide if she didn't go. On the way home, she told me her friends decided that they would have their own get-together during the next dance, because there was too much adult supervision and they weren't allowed to be where they wanted. I guess they wanted to stand in the hallway? What?!? Who is this kid? Whatever. I'm sure when the next dance is scheduled, they'll happily go back.
In school, Zoe did a report on Ida B. Wells for Black History month. She had to put together a poster that showed a summary of who Ida was. She happened to be the first person that looked into the statistics of lynching.
I watched her tear up trying to find pictures for her poster. It's something that I struggled between protecting her from the images and teaching her about that ugly period of America's history. She cringed at the images, as did I . . . and as the tears came, she insisted that none of that was going to go on her poster. Which I agreed it was way to much. The image of the noose hanging from a tree was bad enough. We kept it at that.
It's so hard to figure out what to shelter her from at this point. This time I chose to cringe with her and then teach her something at the same time. It was a "we can't change the past, but we have to learn from it" teaching moment.
I love seeing Zoe sweat. Zoe is a sit, read a book kind of girl. She is rarely running. So for her to be all red-faced playing indoor field hockey, it's sort of surreal. But she enjoys it. She was in a 7 week clinic and was taught all the basics. I was so happy when she said she wanted to stick with it. There is a summer outdoor camp that we'll be signing her up for. So happy she found a sport she enjoys.
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Audrey has started reading the Harry Potter series. She just finished the second book. She has resembled Zoe lately, relaxing on a patio chair, enjoying the sun, with her nose in a book. I think that she's proud of herself because they are such big books, she's always announcing "I'm on page 266 mom!"
She announced that she want to teach the twins to speak in the third person like Dobby. She thinks it would be cute. The girls get talking in the third person. Kind of cute, kind of annoying.
The girls have a 'on again, off again' kind of relationship. They seem to be getting along a little better these days. Audrey happily came down all ready for school with her hair all pulled up cute. I told her that she looked adorable and told her she did a great job on her hair. "Zoe did it for me."
That's definitely a first, and I hope there is a lot more of it to follow : )
Audrey has to make a pinball machine over Spring Break. She seems a little frustrated about the project and I told her it was supposed to be fun. I assigned the job of creation to KC, it'll be good for the two of them to do the project together, and he is better at the practical.
When I help with things like that, the project always gets to elaborate and pretty, which Audrey doesn't have the patience for. I don't blame her, she's a just get it done kind of girl.
But I'll have pretty paper and Mod Podge ready and waiting if she wants it.
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Cameron is at that age where he talks way too much and say things that he shouldn't.
No secrets are safe. Nothing that is said around him is safe. Nothing that happens in our home is safe. He just spews all. And feels the need to talk to everyone. Ugh.
It's so bad that I'm starting to fear him talking in public. I want to just place a big piece of duct tape across that mouth. I've started just telling him "That's too much information Cameron!"
And at the same time, he brings so much laughter into our lives right now.
Example of his unpredictable 4 year old mouth: He was drawing a picture of me with crayons. He was making sure that he was getting everything right. He checked out the color of my eyes and found the right crayon. He told me that he didn't want to use black for my hair, so he asked if it was okay to give me red hair. And then he didn't like the "skin" color because it was too light, so he asked if he could make me purple. He wanted to count my teeth, but said he didn't have enough room for them all and asked if 10 were enough. He got done with my face and then was staring me down and said "clothes are really hard to draw, can I draw you naked because circles are so much easier." LOL, I told him that I would prefer that he put clothes on me. "Okay" he said, like it was no big deal.
I can only imagine what he says all day at school . . . I don't even want to know.
School is going great. He is finally enjoying his pre-school. He is making friends and talking about them. We had to force him to go all first semester. The teacher said "wow, he's really talking now."
cringe, I told her that she finally had the real Cameron then, because he never stops talking : )
And he is loving speech class. He adores his teacher. He has the "K" sound down and has moved onto the "G" sound. He was so excited to be on "G" because it's for the Packers . . .
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Emmitt is so stubborn, but so lovable at the same time. He is loving the weather and being outside. He has figured out that the sidewalk in front of our house slants slightly from left to right. He goes to the left on his little push-n-go rider, turns it around and goes as fast as he can and then lifts up his legs and coasts down. He gets going so fast. It made me really nervous at first, but he seems to know what he is doing.
After I took this video, we worked on boundary rules.
The twins and I brought dinner to KC at work and ate with him there on Saturday night. He's been swamped selling lots of bikes because of all the beautiful weather. In Springtime, we see less of him because it's his busiest season.
We gave the boys their first taste of Shamrock shakes. Emmitt's mouth clamped onto the straw and he didn't want to give it up. He sucked down at least a half of a large shake all on his own. We hung out there for a little bit, but then we had to get out of daddy's way, so he could come home at some time that night. The boys thought differently and didn't want to get off the trikes to leave.
Emmitt took off around the other bikes in the showroom. He clipped one bike that tipped over and started tipping over the next bike . . . and would have if mommy wouldn't have saved it. As I was straightening the bikes, I told Emmitt that we were leaving. He giggled, sat down and ripped the Crocs off his feet, stood up and toke off toward the back of the store barefoot. I had to laugh, because he was aware of the fact he would never outrun me in those oversized, handy-down shoes. He's really too smart for his own good.
He is seriously naughty. But he does naughty so dang cute : )
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Castiel has been shooting hoops. We have one of those little basketball hoops on our back patio and he just shoots and shoots and shoots. Sometimes he asks me to raise the rim, but if he misses too many in a row, he get frustrated and tells me to lower it back down. It's so cute.
He still acts so much younger than Emmitt. He's a whiner. I have to constantly tell him to use his words, because he usually chooses to cry instead. The words he does say are so clear. He is actually much easier to understand than Emmitt, when he chooses to talk.
He is still my little comedian. He enjoys being funny. If he trips and falls and somebody laughs, he'll through himself back on the ground another twenty times. He giggles when I say "That's not funny Castiel" and does a sassy dance and says "Ha, Ha, Ha-ha, Ha". He sticks his tongues out a lot and thinks he's hilarous when he does . . . I'm trying to stop that one.
Totally random, but he loves putting socks on his hands like mittens. He always seems to have a pair on. I don't mind, except for the fact it's usually a dirty pair that were pulled off the girl's feet after a long day at school. Yuck! He screams when I take them away and hand a clean pair. When I'm doing laundry and find a pair of socks shoved full of toys, I know who did it : )
I think the kid is lacking some sleep. All my kids have been sleepers, except for Emmitt. Emmitt wakes up with the sun. Many mornings when I go to get him, Castiel is still laying in bed, but he's too young to roll over and go back to sleep. Instead he'll rolls out of bed. I figure that poor boy would get a couple more hours of sleep if he wasn't Emmitt's twin. I'm sure at some point, he will just roll over and sleep longer.
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And I'm happy to announce . . . I have two potty trained boys.
They are not perfect yet . . . that'll take a little while I'm sure. But they've been going on the potty for four days now. At about 4pm on day two, I heard "I have to go potty" from Castiel. YAY! It's been all uphill from there. And I did use Castiel against my stubborn Emmitt a few times, which was extremely helpful.
Day 1: I pumped them full of Apple Juice and taught them the difference between wet and dry. I attempted to get them to go potty on the potty as often as possible. We went through 7 pairs of undies and washed my kitchen floor constantly.
Day 2: Drank regular. So peed less often. Still had them on the potty every 20 minutes, unless they peed successfully, then I put them back on at about 40 minutes. It seemed to click for them both about 4pm, and then I just gave them reminders. "Does anyone have to go potty?" We went through 3 pairs of undies.
Day 3: Boys both woke up dry and went right to the potty and went. I was shocked. Then they figured out the candy reward system. They were barely going, getting a piece of candy, and then going a little more and getting more candy. I had to change the reward system at that point. But I figure that showed pretty good bladder control.
We also ran an errand and I put Pull-ups on them. On the way home, in the middle of nowhere, Castiel "I have to go poopy"... nothing I could do and he cried. That was the first tears shed over going in a diaper, so they are aware that it is wrong now.
Day 4: Going on the potty all day. A couple dribbles here and there, but no puddles.
I couldn't tell you how many times I've said, "Do you have to go potty?" and "Push it down!" in the past four days, LOL.
And I know that this is long from over, but so glad that I've made it this far. I'm hoping that by the time the girls are out of school, I am trusting them : ) It'll make summer so much nicer for all of us . . . and so much cheaper.
Words learned this week: wet, dry and flush : )
