Dropping on the Charts

The boys went to the doctor today. I overlooked the 15 month appointment Evan was supposed to have. And Joshua had to have an MMR shot and a TB test for public school. Plus I wanted to talk to the doctor about Joshua's eating habits.

So, Evan weighed in at 22 lbs, or the 9th percentile. He is 30.5 inches tall, or the 12th percentile. His head is still big, in the 70th percentile. At  his year appointment he was in the 36th percentile for length and the 25th for weight. Other than needing to bulk him up, he's doing well.

Joshua weighed in at 39 lbs. Again. He has weighed 39 lbs for a year. Which is better than I thought since I thought he had actually lost weight.

We have to do an overhaul of the way we eat. No more catering to Joshua's pickiness. I know it's my job to provide healthy food and his job to eat it, but sticking with that is difficult when he has refused to eat all day and giving him a hot dog would at least mean there was something in his stomach.

This plan will cause some initial difficulties. Hopefully though, it'll get us out of the trap we're in; hopefully it'll pay off in the long term benefits.

An Exceedingly Difficult Week

Hello readers. Inspired by my sister, who is blogging at www.diegosirius.blogspot.com, I will try to post here more often. Because the task of blogging about the past few months seems daunting, I'm just going to start here (again) and see what happens. Besides, if you know me or we're friends on facebook, you're pretty much up to date anyway.

 So this week has been really difficult. I am normally extremely patient with my kids. (I'm not bragging but even strangers have commented to me how patient I am when dealing with my children. ) This week I have had no patience; I have found myself yelling at my kids and I hate yelling. I have known too much yelling in my life - as a child and young adult I was both a yeller and a yellee (is that a word?)- and I have strived to not be that as a parent. I don't know what it is about this week that has caused me to lose my cool. Maybe it's Evan's incessant crying as he cuts three teeth at the same time; maybe it's the four-year-old whininess; maybe it's that Brian has been working 12-14 hour days. It's probably a combination of all those aforementioned things.

 I hosted a baby shower for my sister last Sunday and my advice to her as a mother is to breathe. And really, when patience is worn thin, that's all that one can do in order to make it through. I know that a few days of me yelling at my kids is not going to change the security they have in my love. So, I forgive myself for being human and continue to take it one breath at a time.

A conversation about love

Joshua: "Evan's heart is in my heart. And my heart is in your heart, Mommy."
Evan smiles and kind of laughs.
Joshua: "Evan thinks that's silly."
Me: "I think that's sweet."
Joshua: "I think that's love....Evan thinks love is silly but I think love is very nice."
Me: "So do I."

Mini eruptions

Coming up with simple projects can be hard. There are tons of bloggers out there with great ideas, but they often use things I don't have on hand. One day, when I couldn't figure out anything else to do, we decided to pour some baking soda on a baking sheet, dye some vinegar and then use a medicine dispenser to shoot the vinegar onto the baking soda and watch the reaction.

Joshua loved it. He did it until all the baking soda was wet with vinegar and there were no more eruptions to be had.

Sometimes it's the simplest things that are the most fun.

Mermaids and Pirates

Back in August, our friend Lucia had a mermaids and pirates birthday party. We took that as an opportunity to do an art project. Inspired by Red Ted Art (http://www.redtedart.com/2012/08/08/clothes-pins-mermaids/), we made these:

We painted the clothespins, cut fins and hats from foam, drew on faces, and used yarn for hair.

We affixed some to Lucia's gift and Joshua kept some for himself. He has played with them multiple times since. They came out super cute, IMHO.

To be a better mom

Since we moved to San Jose (more about that in a different post) I've been full time stay at home mom to both boys. Recently, I've found myself getting more upset at smaller things. I've found myself needing mom timeouts.

I love my boys to death, but 24/7 is a lot to take. Joshua has been whiny since turning 4, but even more so since we moved. Evan is mostly happy, but he's still a baby so he has his moments. (I think we all have our moments, actually.)

Anyway, we have found Joshua a preschool where he'll attend two days a week. I'll still have Evan all day every day, but at least he naps so it'll be quiet and I can get some things done around here for a couple hour each day.

Sometimes I feel like a failure for needing a break from my kids. But then I realize I'm human. Being a parent is hard. I'm better at it when I have a bit of time for me, a bit of recuperative time.

Birthday party

Joshua had a spooktacular birthday! He was so excited for his Halloween party, it was unbelievable. When I picked him up from school the week before the party, the teachers all told me that he was talking about it. I ran into one of his schoolmate's mom at the grocery store and she told me that Amelia woke up in the morning saying she had dreamed about the party.

The week before the party, we went to the dollar store to look for decorations and to our great surprise, they had a bunch of Halloween stuff out already. So I bought about $40 worth! We put cobwebs all over our bushes and fences, strung ghosts across the patio and taped up Halloween cut outs. We got some awesome table centerpieces and strung some coordinating crepe paper. We supplemented with some homemade egg carton spiders and glued our coffee filter pumpkins and ghosts to our sliding glass door. The place looked festive.

The morning of the party, the jump house was delivered, we set up the tables, put out the food, set up the two different art tables, and sent Brian to pick up the cake and pizzas. And then we waited for the guests to arrive.

We ended up with about a dozen kids and 25 adults.
The food, besides pizza, were fruit skewers in Halloween colors; snack mix consisting of homemade caramel corn, mini oreos, candy corn, and goldfish; homemade marshmallow pumpkins; veggie stick chips; and jello worms.

 

I think everyone had a good time. When picking up Joshua from school the following week, several parents said that their children were still talking about it.

Having gone overboard this year, I think next year we'll do a small, simple family party. There's no way to live up to this party every year!