Big Gaps

Wow, this is the longest I've gone without writing anything. I suppose I should be thankful that while there are big gaps in my writing, there are not big gaps in my life.

Recently, life has been filling up even more than usual. Doctor's visits, park outings, family is coming into town. The weather has become so nice that it's hard not to be out and about. And both of the boys love to be outside.

Christopher is still doing home school, as he's happy to point out to anyone who asks about his education. And he tells them he loves it, which makes me happy. I'm not the best homeschooling mother ever, I don't set aside a specific time each day to do a specific thing (although I'm hoping to get to that point!), but he's learning a lot. He still loves his numbers, and his grasp of mathematics boggles my mind. And he is learning to read. Just last night be brought me a young readers book and read me half of it (around 100 words). Yay! But I'm starting to realize how ridiculous the English language can be. How on earth do you explain to a learning reader why we pronounce "Picture" and "Eye" the way we do?!? And why is there only one "Read" but it's pronounced differently in present and past tense? And a thousand other oddities that just *are*. It's something I usually just shrug my shoulders at and say "I really don't know honey."

Alexander, as much as he is my little troublemaker, is my little doll. He comes running up to me in the kitchen while I'm doing the dishes, throws his arms around my legs, squeezes tight, and makes a happy humming sound. Then he runs off. It's adorable, and it makes my day. He has thankfully outgrown a lot of things that worried me. For a while he went through an "eating everything" stage. That's over. Now he has gotten to the part where he knows where I hide the treat he wants, and he knows how to maneuver the chair to get it. I'm debating the importance of more cupboard locks. He also had a head-bonking stage, where any object, mobile or imobile, was attracted to the front of his head. Sometimes, before we had much furniture in the house, he would run back and forth between the walls in the living room, never stopping until he smashed face-first into one, only to spin around and run to the opposite one, laughing all the time. And every table was *just* the wrong height. I'm very, very thankful that stage has moved on. The day I realized it, I was somewhere that he'd bonked his head badly before, and when he passed by the offending object unharmed, I realized the stage was over, and I laughed in relief!

Both boys have spent a lot of time this summer in the back yard playing in the water. I'd turn on the hose for them and I'd have a good hour's peace. And they've had a blast. Alexander especially loves water, any water, anywhere, at any time. He doesn't care that it's getting cold, if there's water, he wants to be in it. He's gotten himself wet in places like park water fountains and been so cold his fingers were turning blue and clammy, but he just won't stay out of the oh-so-beloved water. We do a lot of baths at our house too. I've even given him three in one day because he found water to get into (and thereby mud) so many times.

There is another way in which Alexander is very different from Christopher that I don't quite get. Christopher was always very accepting of anything and clingy to nothing. He never had a "favorite" toy or blanket or song or anything. He just took what there was, and didn't worry if it wasn't there next time. Alexander, on the other hand, LOVES certain things, and you DON'T mess with them! He has a blanket (Blankey) that MUST be with him or he will not sleep, and half the time it has to go to Nursery or he will cry enough that Bryan has to take him back. He is also a pacifier child. That I can take away, especially if I want him to be talking, but he's a much nicer child if you give it back, especially when he's tired. And there are favorite toys, and favorite movies, and interestingly enough, favorite and unfavorite people.

When he sees Ben, he cries out "BEN!" and runs to hug him. And he Loves (with a capital L!) his "Grandma" (my grandmother, my mom's mom). There have been times when he's gone to her over me when he wants comforting, he loves her that much. And he does NOT like my mom, his Grandma DeeDee. When she comes to our house, he runs for me and clings on tight. I don't think it's that he doesn't really like her, since he'll be sweet to her if he knows she's not trying to take him away from Mommy, but if that's questionable, he runs. Why he doesn't care when Grandma takes him, I don't know. Who ever really knows what kids are thinking!

Bryan is still loving work. He's got great coworkers and he likes the work he does. None of us is crazy about the 45 minute commute each way, as that means we see very little of him at all, but sometimes there is just a time in life where that's the case, and things are good on either end of it so we don't complain much. I love being home, as always. I love being Mom to my great boys. I'm still working on unpacking when my back allows, and having finished up yet another round of physical therapy, it's been much more often that I can get things done, and I like that.

That's most of what I have to update the world with right now. There are a lot of fun things coming up in the next two months - birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, missionaries - and I look forward to enjoying all of them.

School goes on

Ah, education. I feel that the best educations come not while you're in chairs, but while you're in the thick of it. I've always tried to answer all of Christopher's questions about everything there is to be asked, and take opportunities to teach him about things when they come up. Doing "school" with him has therefore proved to be interesting. It can be 10 minutes of "Ok, I did it, I'm done now", or hours of "Mom, can you tell me about....".

Most of what I'm trying to do with him right now is round him out. With his love of numbers and distaste for letters, I mostly want to even the keel a bit. I don't really have to worry about doing what I think he'd be doing in Kindergarten because he's already beyond that. So what I try to do is each week is at least one of each of these things:

Read by sounding out words in a book
Memorize common words (the, and, for...)
Write words (to refresh ones he's learning and practice writing)
Do a page of math problems
Practice a song from Primary

How many lessons we do in a day depends a lot on him, how long his attention span lasts - and how long Alexander sleeps, which is when we do his school. But at the end of each week so far, I can see improvements, and I feel he's getting what he needs.

On reading, he's "helping" me read his books more, pointing out words he knows, or sounding out some he thinks he can get. When he writes his words, he's getting better about forming the letters and knowing which letter is which, which is great, since when we started he didn't know them all and he would write them in any direction and order and anywhere on the page that he liked. Now he's keeping them close together, facing them the right direction, moving left to right, and getting down the idea of making them all the same size.

On math... Sometimes I think I shouldn't talk about his math with other parents. I don't think they believe me. But I have the worksheets to prove it! Even Bryan shakes his head, and he's watched Christopher do it! The first week, I brought up the different kinds of basic math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I had NO IDEA what I was in for. He asked more about what each one was, and I explained that adding was putting things together, subtraction was taking things away, multiplication was putting together groups of things, and division was breaking things into groups. I illustrated one of each kind of problem. And we went on with our day.

The next day, I gave him a workset of addition and subtraction problems. When he was done, he asked if he could do some of the other kinds of math. "Sure, if you want to." I gave him some basic problems, showed him how to "read" it, and let him work them out.

"Ok Christopher, read these problems, and then figure them out."
4 x 2 = ("What is two fours, Christopher?") 8!
4 x 3 = ("What is three fours, Christopher?") 12!
5 X 3 = ("What is...") "That's fifteen!"
*Shake my head*

6 ÷ 2 = ("What number do you get if you chop six into two parts?") 3!
6 ÷ 3 = ("What number do you get if you chop six into three parts?") 2!
9 ÷ 3 = "Three threes!"

Since then, every day he wants some of each kind of problem, and I was planning to stay under 20, but I've had to change my mind because things like 20 - 7 = 13 are apparently "no grade", and 25 ÷ 5 gets an instant "That's five!" out of him. Somehow, conceptually, numbers make sense to him. Sometimes he pops out an answer I really thought he'd have to work on, and I ask him how he figured that out, and he just looks at me blankly and says, "I don't know, it just is."

Even though I know he'll get it with whatever process goes on in his head, I've also tried to show him other ways of thinking of numbers. We've worked off a number line, used our fingers, used batches of items, and someone gave him a calculator, which I let him use to check his answers just for fun when he's done.

A few days after getting the calculator, he asked me what the check mark was for. I said that was for square roots. He then went to Bryan and asked what a square root was! Bryan tried to explain, and Christopher apparently thought it was cool, but thankfully he hasn't asked for more of THAT!

All in all, I'm thankful that he's learning to read and write, and impressed with his mathematically-inclined mind. Lately I've been very grateful for the growing up steps he's taken. I don't have to worry about him using the bathroom by himself, he's learned to shower (and thereby relieved me of battling him into the bathtub), he brushes his own teeth, puts on his own clothes, uses his silverware at the table, and so many other things that as adults we take for granted.

Speaking of growing up, sometime this week Christopher will lose his first tooth. It's been loose for weeks, and it's just about to fall out now. There's another one on it's way out too, but not so soon. I'm sure we'll have lots of toothless grin pictures coming!

Beds!

It's quite refreshing to have enough time to actually sit down and write something from time to time. Right now Alexander is napping and Christopher is out back playing. It's really fabulous to have my own house where I can make places for my children to go that aren't under my feet!

On that note, I bought Christopher a bed this week. His having a bed has been an issue since we moved out of our house on 24th Street. It was an uphill battle to get him to sleep in a bed at my grandparents, so he slept on the couch a lot, and once we moved in here I tried to get him into a bed, but he preferred to sleep in a chair! And honestly, I can't be awake all night being sure he sleeps where I want him to, so I just let him sleep in the chair. Bryan's been worried that sleeping curled up will ruin his posture or make him not sleep as well, so I've been hunting for a bed he'll really love, at a price we can handle, for a while.

I did buy what I thought was a neat little kids bed, and I made Christopher at least try it for a night. He obediently did so, but he was so tall (or the bed was so short?) that his head touched the top and his toes touched the bottom. That was the end of that idea. But Alexander loved it! So I got rid of the crib, and Alexander is sleeping in his own bed, and doing a great job!

I stumbled across a great bed a while back, but it was sold before I could get it. And then this week, on Craigslist, I found THE bed. Christopher saw one of these when he was three, and he LOVED it. But we couldn't pay hundreds of dollars for it then, nor did we have room for it. And now, years later, here is the bed again!

Here's the stock picture of it, and it really looks like this!


He's thrilled. He begged to help me clean it up and put it together. I started putting it together today - with his help - and the slide is a BIG hit with both boys. I'm almost certain that the ladder will be unnecessary since they both use the slide to go up as well as down. I love that it's very sturdy. They can swing and slide on it to their heart's content and I won't have to worry about it collapsing. It's a great bed. I'm really happy to have found it. Now I just have to hope he sleeps in it.... But seeing as how I'm banishing the chair, I have high hopes! =)

Starting school!

Christopher has been fantastically excited about starting school. Last week I ordered some 'learning games', and he was so excited about it! Every time we got one in the mail he did a little happy dance.

We started 'school' on Monday. The first thing he wanted to do was one of the learning games. He picked the math one (of course). The first game he picked, it started by asking him "How many of ___ are there?" Christopher raised an eyebrow and deftly clicked the right answer. Again. And again.

"This is kinda easy for you, isn't it Christopher?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Well, it's supposed to be for first through third grade, so maybe the other stuff is harder."
"Mom, this is like no grade."

HAHA! Just because YOU'RE smart you smartypants doesn't make it no grade! I laughed. Thankfully, we found the little ladder in the lower edge of the screen that lets you ramp up the difficulty. Although it was my turn to raise a questioning eyebrow when he ramped it up to fractions and he still wasn't flinching. And then in another of the games he thought pennies, nickles, and dimes just weren't enough, so he turned up the difficulty to include quarters and dollars, and still was bored with the ease of it. I'm a little pleased and a little nervous that I'll probably have to get the 4th-6th grade software...

On the other hand, Christopher has never liked letters, and man oh man, he still doesn't. The first day we had a bit of a tiff because he really would not cooperate with me on reading and writing. I set him in time out (he NEVER gets time outs), cooled myself off, and came back. I explained that if he refused to learn at home, he would have to go to regular school like all the other kids, and that would mean from 8-3 five days a week. He burst into tears. He absolutely hates to be away from me, and doesn't even like to leave the house if he can help it. (I blame Bryan for this tendency.) He was thereafter very agreeable. I know he doesn't like it, but at least he is obviously trying to work with it.

Today was much better. I have a few basic words (things like: the, or, and, so) that he's supposed to memorize by sight. Instead of refusing to even look at them, he tried a lot harder today, and I used pictures to build sentences for him, which seemed to help his comprehension a LOT. And he did better on his writing, which is another thing he's always hated. But I'm glad to see him trying, and we were both happy with his success (we made it to O!).

Now, of course, this is three days in, and there's still hundreds of days to go. And obviously, this is kindergarten; it's not like I'm planning for him to go to college next year. So of course these are just little things to be happy about, but I'm hopeful that they are good omens of lots of good learning to come. I know that we'll both bumble along together, seeing what works for him, and hopefully enjoying the process of learning together. I'm glad I have the opportunity to be home with him, and that he has the opportunity to learn at his own pace.

Numbers

Christopher LOVES numbers. He loves counting, adding, subtracting, and more. If he can make it be about numbers, he often will. There have been times when I've asked him to read me something, and he counts the letters instead! He just loves numbers.

Last week we went to Phoenix to visit his cousins. While at their house, he found an abacus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus) I didn't realize he had it until he brought it to me and said, "Mom, this has one hundred beads on it."
"Oh really Christopher? Did you count them all?"
"No. This row has ten, and all the rows have the same number, and there are ten rows. So it has one hundred."

Ooooookay! That was definitely multiplication, and certainly beyond what I was expecting out of him! But it didn't stop there. He set it on the floor, sat down beside it, and started moving beads over. He moved three beads from every row. Then he pointed to the side with seven beads left and said, "Now that is seventy. There are seven here, and there are ten rows, so that is seventy." I just shook my head in amazement.

Now, that said, I did know he could do basic multiplication. A while ago he was playing, and he had three groups of three. "I've got nine. Three sets of three is nine." Sets of small number he can sum up very quickly without counting them individually, so I suppose I should have known that the big numbers (on an abacus nonetheless) were on their way.

About two weeks ago I realized that he was using estimates when he was counting. He was playing Monopoly Junior on the computer, and a few rounds in he stopped counting his move each time he rolled and started just clicking. When he would make a mistake, instead of counting it out, he'd glance from his current square to where he thought he should be again. Occasionally he would have to stop and count it out, then he would start estimating his distance again the next round. I asked him if he was estimating, and he asked what that was. I said, "It's where you guess what to do based on what you know. Like you would guess how far to go because you know about how many squares it is." "Oh, yeah. See mom? It's ten squares on this side, and five in the middle here." Yup, he's definitely got it figured out, and was estimating.

Then yesterday I was washing his hair in the bath, and he hates baths and getting his head wet. So he tilts his head back, squeezes his eyes closed tight, and as I pour the water over his head he says, "Twenty." (I pour another cup of water on his head.) "Fourty." (Another cup.) "Sixty." I stop.
"Christopher, what are you doing?"
"I'm getting points. Every time I hold still for the water I get twenty points. When I get a hundred, I win the game."

My kid is counting by twenties. I knew he could count by tens, but twenties? I rubbed the soap into his hair, then it was time to wash it out.

"Thirty. Sixty. Ninety."
"Christopher, are you counting by thirty?"
"Yeah, on this level I have to reach two hundred, and if I count by thirty I'll get there faster."

Yeah.....

PICTURES!

At last! I feel such a sense of relief! As I've mentioned before, a while back my old camera broke, so I bought a new one. But the new camera is so new and my computer is so old that the two technologies were not compatible, and I couldn't get the pictures off the camera.

Now, I'm still utterly swamped with house/moving stuff to do, but during a "break" I dug up the camera's paperwork, visited the manufacturer's website, downloaded some software, and VOILA! PICTURES!!!!

Starting time!

Time to start over! Kinda.

Thanks to Bryan's fabulous new job (which he is still loving), we have a fabulous new house! I still haven't gotten a way for my camera to talk to my computer, so I can't put up pictures, but I will eventually.

It's a nice home in the same neighborhood we were in before, near my maternal grandparents and my mother and brothers. Christopher is very happy that we get to stay close to his cool uncles and his doting grandparents. I'm happy about the house! And, the same week as the house, I got a piano! I'm pretty happy!

We're working on making the house livable now, it had a family that wasn't very clean and they had tons of pets to which my boys are allergic, but slowly it's becoming more habitable and we'll soon be moving our things in. Once we're more settled I look forward to making blogging a more regular event, keeping everyone up-to-date on my two fantastic boys.

Christopher is growing up so well, I'm very proud of him, and Alexander is a troublemaker who'll hit you over the head with a bat any time you aren't watching him, but he's so lovable that I keep him anyway. He still isn't talking, just babbling now and again. It constantly amazes me how he can drive me nuts and I don't mind it because I love him. Whoever thought of that crazy scheme?? Several times in stores people have asked me if I need help with him, and I just smile and say "No thanks, I do this all the time." Then they look at me like I'm crazy and walk away. I am crazy. I'm crazy over my wonderful family! And my new house! Woohooo!!!

Holding patterns

For anyone who may still check in here to grab a glimpse at what my little family is up to, I just want to assure you that we are, in fact, alive and well. Very well. We're just in a bit of a chaotic holding pattern as we look for a place to settle ourselves. I plan to update you all when things get wherever it is that they're going.

Also, my camera fell and broke back in February, and I bought a new one, but the technology is newer than all of our computers and I can't get anything off of it! It's driving me insane that I have all these cute pictures of my adorable boys and I can't do anything with them! AH! But when more pressing things are worked out, I'll figure out what to do about that and start flooding the world with pictures of my wonderful boys!

Until then.... [continues on holding pattern]

Brief check-in

It's late after a long day, in which... can I even remember it? Um... let's see.... the baby choked badly on a nut he found, which scared me to death, and then he cried for a loooong time, I cleaned out my car, three freezers, and a refrigerator, I never got to the dishes, I went to the store and didn't come home for two hours (after the kids were asleep for the night, what a terrible waste of me-time!), made Bryan lunch, filled out and filed my grandparent's taxes, called the IRS 3 times, called the bank twice (and still don't have the paperwork I need!), and changed almost a dozen diapers. I'm pretty sure I did other things, like I think I ate something, and I know I fed my kids every two hours (I'm certain they're both on a growth spurt, I swear they eat more than Bryan and I combined!) because they whined when I didn't feed them soon enough. Christopher is enthralled with the fact that I bought food skewers in the shape of pirate swords, and he eats a LOT more when I put them into everything on his plate. I have pictures to prove this, but I can't get to the computer that has them at the moment. < This is a common problem right now. I look forward to having my own house again!

^That is mostly what life consists of. The boys grow and play, and when not involved in the whirlwind, I clean up after it. I am officially a mother.

New car... again

Seems like we have bad luck with cars around here. KNOCK ON WOOD! My little red car (and by the way, I noticed yesterday that we ONLY drive little cars, yay less gas!) is in the process of killing itself. While trying to figure out what the problem is - why the loss of power, the extra noise, the warning lights - we noticed flecks of shiny metal in the oil. For those not car-savvy, this means that the car is eating itself to death inside somewhere where we can't find it in spite of our best efforts. Short of a second engine rebuild (this car already had ONE, and that's just one too many in my opinion), it's over.

Thankfully, we were miraculously blessed to have my aunt call and say that her neighbor was selling a car. Before I'd even started to look for one! It had just one owner, a snowbird couple who gave it regular maintenance, kept it very clean, and it was a 1991 with less than 80,000 miles on it. She was asking a very low price for it, and I bought it the same day I saw it. It was so amazing because things just came together on it. We went to see it, decided to buy it, then we happened to run into the lady who owned it, she took us to the bank, signed over the title, and we drove away with it!

And I love it. It's a great little car. Another wonderful blessing added to the many blessings we have so lately been given.