Thursday, June 5, 2008

Barf Fest 2008- A week-long event

We had a blissful puke-free day on Tuesday only to have Wednesday dawn with more puking, this time from Jesse. His first one was just a dribble down his front, I caught the next one in a towel, and the last one was in his crib- gotta love those plastic mattresses! He did have some very loose stools, but at least that gets caught in the diaper every time! So, if the pattern continues, we should have a day off before the next kid starts barfing. Who will be next? It's like a game at the fair. Where do I place the puke bucket?

I would also like to Officially Declare that my four year old son is completely potty trained. We are not offering bribes- er, rewards, anymore, we don't have to ask him if he has to poo, we don't have to force him to sit on the potty as he cries, he just DOES it, on his own. In fact, he had pooped yesterday but at bedtime he told Lincoln he needed to go again. Lincoln, thinking it was a delay tactic, told him he didn't have to go right then, he could wait until morning. (Yeah, a month ago we would NEVER have said that!). But Devon told him, "I need to listen to my body, Dad." Glad to know we got that through to him. He sat on the potty and did some toots. Anyway, yeah, he's doing it. He's even learning to wipe himself. I know, I know. He's 4 and you're not that impressed, but it's been such a long struggle in our home, we're rejoicing.

And in other milestone news, Julia learned to ride a two-wheeler yesterday! She has been very reluctant to try, but lately I guess she decided she was ready. I think she got sick of running behind all the other kids on their bikes. The girls have several neighbor friends and they all get together to play. The entertainment of choice is to start in our driveway on their bikes, ride down ours, across the street, up the neighbors driveway, back down theirs, across and down the street to the next driveway, zigzagging back and forth all the way down the hill. I'd look out and see them snaking down the street with Julia in the rear, on foot. Sad, really. But she picked it up quickly. By the time I got to the cul-de-sac with the three little ones to watch, she was riding on her own. Lincoln suggested we just wait with all of our kids to teach them when they're almost 7, they pick it up fast at that point! Kennedy was the same age when she started riding. Speaking of Kennedy, she and Brandon, a boy from Julia's class who lives next door, came to watch Julia learn too. I was so proud of both of them. They were very supportive and encouraging, clapping and telling her she was doing great. They never laughed at her mistakes and they didn't try to coach her or tell her how THEY do it. She really appreciated them, I could tell.

Last night we had a doozy of a storm. A huge clap of thunder woke me up at about 2:45. Cheyenne was freaking out and had managed to push open the door from the garage and was heading to our room. Lincoln got up and put her back in the garage. He crawled back into bed and we could hear her throwing herself against the door and scratching. I remembered that all the garage windows were open so I got up to close them, thinking it might shut out the noise a bit for her. As I walked out of our bedroom I met Renie heading in for comfort. I put her in with Lincoln and went to the garage. I closed the windows and then stayed with Cheyenne for a while. She was frantic and I was pretty convinced she was going to have a heart-attack. I stayed with her for 15 minutes, until the storm subsided a bit. I went back to bed and about 45 minutes later, as I was finally drifting off again, another flash and deafening crash sent Kennedy running to our room. She was almost as frantic as Cheyenne had been. I took her back to her room and decided to just crawl into bed with her, you know, since she had me in a death grip and there was no escaping anyway. So I spent the remainder of the night in bed with her clasped tightly around me. As I lay there, trying to fall asleep, I thought, "Where did these long legs and arms come from? When did she get to be almost as big as me?" The last time I slept with her she was just little it seems. Time flies, that's for sure.

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