School had packets to be picked up on Monday and now we're homeschoolers, but without the benefits of field trips and play dates. I had each of the girls pick something extra to focus on while they're home, so Gretchen is learning to sew and write in cursive and Olivia is learning to sew and make video games. We're writing letters every morning for the handwriting practice and the address practice. They can access some of their computer class programs through the school website as well as a weekly music module. We have a lot of books and kindles don't need in person interaction, so our library is well stocked. We're also watching videos by Mo Willems (of Elephant and Piggie fame) for art class. Donna sent me a link to some science activities that the kids tried on Friday and loved. Dance classes are virtual which means everyone takes ballet now if they want to. Matthias will be such a great dancer at the end of this. :) I think the most annoying part so far is gathering stuff from all the different sources and keeping it together. I don't want to have to check six different places every day for updates.
Theodore can sit up, albeit in a little nest of pillows for safety reasons. He can also roll any way he chooses, though he still doesn't choose to as often as some of his older siblings did. He mimics sounds back at people in the same range that they are made to him, which is probably normal but is something I didn't notice with the other kids. My Music Together might be showing.
Pictures:
22 March 2020
15 March 2020
March 1-15
Matthias recognizes one letter, X. Technically he also recognizes O, I, S, E, A, and P, but he calls them 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6.
School has been canceled due to the coronavirus. Maybe we'll go back April 6, maybe we won't. As of this writing, I have yet to hear whether we're doing distance learning or just tacking extra weeks onto the end of the school year.
Theodore had a well check. 15 pounds, 14 ounces, 27 inches long. Oh, and an ear infection. I thought Theodore was the shrimpiest one of the kids, but I must have found Gretchen's wrong stats when I was first looking. Her appointment was a week earlier than Theodore's, but I think she still would have had him beat. Here is everyone at 6-ish months:
Olivia - 17 lbs, 14 oz, 28 in.
Gretchen: 15 lbs, 7 oz, 27 in.
Kaitlyn: 17 lbs, 6 oz, 26.75 in
Matthias: 17 lbs, 7 oz, 27.25 in
Theodore: 15 lbs, 14 oz, 27 in
Finding all of those stats reminded me how much I used to write. Gone are the day by day synopses of our life. At this point, we're lucky if I remember the amusing bits long enough to write them down.
Theodore tried a little bit of applesauce and was not impressed. He tried beets a few days later and liked those significantly better.
We got a new roof. The old one was leaking and, according to the two different roofing companies we had up there, installed in an unorthodox and less than ideal way. The new roof is installed correctly. We have plans to fix the water damage in the ceiling next.
Matthias's potty training is... going. We're pretty sure he had fissures for a while there, so between that and the constipation we ended up putting him on a regular dose of Miralax. The good news is that the Miralax works. The other good news is that it doesn't hurt to poop anymore. The bad news is that he associates pain with pooping specifically on the potty, so he tries not to do that. The other bad news is that he can poop without screaming now, so I don't hear him when he hides behind the curtains and fills his underwear. Our white carpet in front of the baby toys became a casualty the other day when he managed to get his pants and underwear off and then left little piles of poop all over the house. I was able to clean most of them, but unfortunately he tried to clean some up himself and mainly succeeded in grinding it into the carpet. Some things are so demoralizing they're funny.
Ode to Motherhood
Spit up and crying and pee on the floor,
Dirty old underwear back in the drawer.
Whining, complaining, and moping around
White clothes so grungy they look almost brown.
Refusing to nap till we're half out the door,
Then peeling a toddler off the kitchen floor.
I thought, just this once, we might not be late
But now there are three shoes missing their mates.
These years go so quickly, they say wistfully,
But each day sure feels like a decade to me!
Pictures:
School has been canceled due to the coronavirus. Maybe we'll go back April 6, maybe we won't. As of this writing, I have yet to hear whether we're doing distance learning or just tacking extra weeks onto the end of the school year.
Theodore had a well check. 15 pounds, 14 ounces, 27 inches long. Oh, and an ear infection. I thought Theodore was the shrimpiest one of the kids, but I must have found Gretchen's wrong stats when I was first looking. Her appointment was a week earlier than Theodore's, but I think she still would have had him beat. Here is everyone at 6-ish months:
Olivia - 17 lbs, 14 oz, 28 in.
Gretchen: 15 lbs, 7 oz, 27 in.
Kaitlyn: 17 lbs, 6 oz, 26.75 in
Matthias: 17 lbs, 7 oz, 27.25 in
Theodore: 15 lbs, 14 oz, 27 in
Finding all of those stats reminded me how much I used to write. Gone are the day by day synopses of our life. At this point, we're lucky if I remember the amusing bits long enough to write them down.
Theodore tried a little bit of applesauce and was not impressed. He tried beets a few days later and liked those significantly better.
We got a new roof. The old one was leaking and, according to the two different roofing companies we had up there, installed in an unorthodox and less than ideal way. The new roof is installed correctly. We have plans to fix the water damage in the ceiling next.
Matthias's potty training is... going. We're pretty sure he had fissures for a while there, so between that and the constipation we ended up putting him on a regular dose of Miralax. The good news is that the Miralax works. The other good news is that it doesn't hurt to poop anymore. The bad news is that he associates pain with pooping specifically on the potty, so he tries not to do that. The other bad news is that he can poop without screaming now, so I don't hear him when he hides behind the curtains and fills his underwear. Our white carpet in front of the baby toys became a casualty the other day when he managed to get his pants and underwear off and then left little piles of poop all over the house. I was able to clean most of them, but unfortunately he tried to clean some up himself and mainly succeeded in grinding it into the carpet. Some things are so demoralizing they're funny.
Ode to Motherhood
Spit up and crying and pee on the floor,
Dirty old underwear back in the drawer.
Whining, complaining, and moping around
White clothes so grungy they look almost brown.
Refusing to nap till we're half out the door,
Then peeling a toddler off the kitchen floor.
I thought, just this once, we might not be late
But now there are three shoes missing their mates.
These years go so quickly, they say wistfully,
But each day sure feels like a decade to me!
Pictures:
04 March 2020
Bonus Post: Sound Bites 48
Kaitlyn: Are you God?
Fr Joshua: No. But I'm a friend of God.
Kaitlyn: Can you turn me into a unicorn?
Gretchen: Mom, I just finished a book and the end was so funny. Want to hear the funny part?
Me: Sure.
Gretchen: *proceeds to tell me the entire unabridged story*
Kaitlyn: Mom, I was wrong. You are nice sometimes.
Matthias: ABCDHIGHIJKNOPURSPUZdoubleSPUZ
Kaitlyn: The cats and hill went up the hill and it's in all a flutter. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. The cats fought and they fit and they had seven kittens, instead of two cats there weren't any.
(This contains pieces of Jack and Jill, Two Cats of Kilkenny, As I Was Going to St Ives, and A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track)
Discussing the ten commandments.
Me: Have you killed anybody?
Gretchen: No! I don't even have a sword!
Bryan: Kaitlyn, your presence near people who are doing things always causes sadness.
Gretchen: I am going to drink a lot of milk so that I can be strong. And when I grow up I will fly into space and lift the world up on my pinkie.
Me: When's your birthday?
Matthias: July.
Me: July what?
Matthias: Blue birthday.
Me: Eleventh.
Matthias: Blue birthday.
Me: July eleventh.
Matthias: I love you, too.
Gretchen: *long rambling story about poop*
Gretchen: And then he drew a B-U-T. I had to spell it because I didn't want to say a potty word. So I just spelled B-U-T.
Gretchen: *continues rambling story about poop*
Fr Joshua: No. But I'm a friend of God.
Kaitlyn: Can you turn me into a unicorn?
Gretchen: Mom, I just finished a book and the end was so funny. Want to hear the funny part?
Me: Sure.
Gretchen: *proceeds to tell me the entire unabridged story*
Kaitlyn: Mom, I was wrong. You are nice sometimes.
Matthias: ABCDHIGHIJKNOPURSPUZdoubleSPUZ
Kaitlyn: The cats and hill went up the hill and it's in all a flutter. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. The cats fought and they fit and they had seven kittens, instead of two cats there weren't any.
(This contains pieces of Jack and Jill, Two Cats of Kilkenny, As I Was Going to St Ives, and A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track)
Discussing the ten commandments.
Me: Have you killed anybody?
Gretchen: No! I don't even have a sword!
Bryan: Kaitlyn, your presence near people who are doing things always causes sadness.
Gretchen: I am going to drink a lot of milk so that I can be strong. And when I grow up I will fly into space and lift the world up on my pinkie.
Me: When's your birthday?
Matthias: July.
Me: July what?
Matthias: Blue birthday.
Me: Eleventh.
Matthias: Blue birthday.
Me: July eleventh.
Matthias: I love you, too.
Gretchen: *long rambling story about poop*
Gretchen: And then he drew a B-U-T. I had to spell it because I didn't want to say a potty word. So I just spelled B-U-T.
Gretchen: *continues rambling story about poop*
01 March 2020
February 16-March 1
Ohio has decided that Thursday school in February is ridiculous. The girls only went to school one Thursday this month, and even that was a close call.
Kaitlyn had a doctor's appointment a couple of weeks ago because her tonsils are swollen and she can't hear out of one ear. They didn't find anything except a lot of wax and since she reports zero pain, they said to just keep an eye on her to see if she improves. Thus far she has not. We did get her weight, though, so we know that she's 41 pounds.
A Matthias thing that I think I have not mentioned yet: He likes to play CDs and dance to the songs. He will put a CD in the CD player, run into the empty space in front of the back door, and wait for his jam to come on. For a long time, his favorite song was the teacher track for a Music Together song called Hey Ya Na. What is hilarious to me is that this particular track is very simplistic. Three minutes of a steady drum beat with jingle bells. No variation in rhythm, no words or music. Matthias turns that on and happily bounces to the drum and bells for three minutes.
Theodore is six months old. He has two teeth, rolls front to back, and is beginning to sit up. He is a worse sleeper than I would like, so we've been working on sleep training and night weaning. His newest talent is grabbing a toy and hitting himself in the face with it. He hits his face on the first try 90% of the time.
Pictures:
Kaitlyn had a doctor's appointment a couple of weeks ago because her tonsils are swollen and she can't hear out of one ear. They didn't find anything except a lot of wax and since she reports zero pain, they said to just keep an eye on her to see if she improves. Thus far she has not. We did get her weight, though, so we know that she's 41 pounds.
A Matthias thing that I think I have not mentioned yet: He likes to play CDs and dance to the songs. He will put a CD in the CD player, run into the empty space in front of the back door, and wait for his jam to come on. For a long time, his favorite song was the teacher track for a Music Together song called Hey Ya Na. What is hilarious to me is that this particular track is very simplistic. Three minutes of a steady drum beat with jingle bells. No variation in rhythm, no words or music. Matthias turns that on and happily bounces to the drum and bells for three minutes.
Theodore is six months old. He has two teeth, rolls front to back, and is beginning to sit up. He is a worse sleeper than I would like, so we've been working on sleep training and night weaning. His newest talent is grabbing a toy and hitting himself in the face with it. He hits his face on the first try 90% of the time.
Pictures:
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