Tuesday, April 29, 2008

April 29, 2008

So, yesterday was such a beautiful, wonderful, fun and loving day with the boys. I think I wrote something like 'it doesn't get much better than this' in yesterday's post. I guess I should have expected things would take a nose dive today:).

Actually it was not that bad but we did seem to have a lot of whining, crying and 'mine, mine' type of fighting going on this morning. Nick and I did not get enough sleep last night and I would guess that Ben was probably impacted also.

I heard Nick crying around 3:00am and he sounded pretty upset set ("mommy, daddy, mommy, daddy!"), so I ran upstairs and rocked him for a bit. When I told him that we both needed to go back to bed, he wanted to get into his new bed (the boys are still sleeping in their cribs at night). He has slept in his new twin bed several times now and I was thinking that maybe he had had a bad dream and felt he needed a change of scenery so I tucked him into his twin bed and I went back to bed.

Fast forward about thirty minutes. I had not been able to go back to sleep yet and was laying in bed awake. The dad was asleep, never knowing there had been an issue. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, BOOM! (that's what it seemed like), the lights in our bedroom were on, right in our faces. Now that is a rude awakening, even when you are already awake. It took the dad a minute to wake up and realize something was going on. Since I was already awake, I sat up and looked towards the light switch. Standing in the doorway next to the light switch with a big smile on his face, was little Nick. He seemed quite happy with himself.

After a quick explanation to the dad as to what happened, I turned out the light and took Nick to the living room to rock for a few minutes and explain to him how this is not a good thing to do:).

For some reason, he had a really hard time sleeping last night and I'm not sure why. I heard him again around 6:30am and he again sounded very upset. I had finally gone back to sleep and was sleeping later than usual, trying to make up for some of the sleep I had lost. I went up to him again and calmed him down....calmed them down, since Ben was now also awake and they both went back to sleep for another hour or so. You would think with all of the time they spent outside yesterday playing at the park (the dad took them again yesterday afternoon so they ended up going to the park twice yesterday), that he would have slept really good. NOT. That's the first time I have ever had to get up with one of the boys during the night when there was no fever. I hope this is not going to be a regular thing. I really don't do very well without my sleep.

I guess it is not surprising that we are all a bit tired and cranky today. Plus, I took them shopping today, which is not how they really enjoy spending their morning, and I was late fixing their lunch and getting them down for their nap. As the boys are all too quick to say these days, oh well.

I went to the Christian bookstore today and bought a DVD that has children singing and doing hand motions to some of the old Christian children's songs that we used to sing when we were kids. I think the boys will really enjoy watching it. I was singing some of them with them yesterday, from memory, but I knew I was missing a bunch of the ones we used to sing and I could not remember all of the hand motions that went with the songs. I will probably enjoy this DVD as much as the boys do. So the next time they get their hair cut, they will have something new to watch, although we should probably not encourage the hand motions while they are in the barber chair:).

I also got some small pencil grips that put the kid's fingers in the correct position to hold the pencil. I am hoping it will help the boys learn how to hold their pencil better and maybe give them more incentive to try to hold it the correct way. We'll see.

I also got a couple of books. One of them is A Survivor's Guide to Home Schooling which was recommended in one of the seminars I went to at the home schooling convention last weekend. I am looking forward to reading it....which I am going to start now. Bye.

2 comments:

kate said...

1. Don't start worrying about how they hold their pencils now. Give them big, fat pencils and crayons. Wait until they're 4 or 5 to teach grip. (I'd say wait for kindergarten...) Gross muscles need to develop before fine ones.

2. Have heard lots of good things about Tapestry of Grace.

3. Do you have the Steve Green "Hide 'em in Your Heart" cd's? I LOVE them!! There are three--two of Bible verses and one of kids' praise songs.

musicmommy3 said...

Hey! Sorry this is kind of after the fact but I've been really busy.

Don't don't worry about your boys' pencil grip at the age of 2. Basically as Kate said, around 4 or 5 is a good time.

Also, this is just my personal opinion...you don't HAVE to use a full cirr from any one company. Most people tailor their kids' education to their learning styles, indiv needs etc. What works for one child sometimes won't work for another. Plus, most companies have strengths in certain subjects but are weak in others. It can be overwhelming with all the info out there. It's good that you are taking your time and slowly researching. :)
This is a GREAT site for reviews

www.homeschoolreviews.com


Have a great weekend!