Random Kid Update

- Sam's first day of preschool was last week, and Jacob started back at preschool last week, too. Sam cried for the first five minutes and then was fine.
- Elliot slept thru the night for the first time EVER two weeks ago, at six months. He did it once more this weekend. Here's hoping his nights of waking up to or three times to eat are finally at an end, because Mama's tired, kid.
- Yesterday, Lily finished "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" - phew! And last week, she finished the first Handwriting Without Tears book (it's orange). A couple weeks ago, I had switched her from Explode the Code (ETC) book 1 to book 2 before she finished book 1 because I thought it was too easy for her, but then she was making too many mistakes in book 2, so I'll have her finish book 1 before moving her on now.
- Two weeks ago, Jacob finished "Get Ready for the Code" - the first ETC primer. Now he's on "Get Set for the Code." He has absolutely no problem with the phonics in this book and should probably be on book 1 with Lily (he's on lesson 36 of "...100 Easy Lessons). I'll probably skip "Go for the Code" and put him right on book 1 when he's done with "Get Set..." The problem is he's sort of able to properly form letters with lots of help and concentration, but still prefers scribbling and very quickly loses focus, so the two required skills for this book are so far apart from each other (reading and writing) that I feel strange advancing jumping him ahead for one reason when the other is so far behind.
- Samantha is still an excellent color-er.
- Elliot has now tried rice cereal, bananas, applesauce, avocados, broccoli, pancakes, whole milk yogurt, and I'm sure lots of other things, but he still HATES it all. Except for this one random night, he was very happy with all the broccoli Ryan was finger-feeding him off his plate while holding him during dinner, but I was not happy with him waking up ALL NIGHT because, HELLO? broccoli?? Actually, food usually makes him throw up. Literally. First the avocado and then the yogurt. He gets it anywhere near his throat and he gags so hard he pukes all over. So what do you do with a kid who won't take a bottle and won't eat?!?!
- Lily's self-proclaimed favorite subject is math. She's currently doing addition and uses her fingers to add (I need to start drilling her with flash cards soon). It's very rare that she gets one wrong, though her 7s and 9s are frequently backwards.
- On that same note, Lily has had a lot of trouble distinguishing between b's and d's the last couple of months, which is kind of strange because she didn't used to have this problem. Can a child develop dyslexic tendencies with certain letters/numbers AFTER not having any?
- Jacob's favorite school book is his Kumon Tracing book. He could care less that he's already done each page at least twice and is happy to continue tracing over what he's already traced before. I'm just happy that he'll sit and properly (and eagerly) hold a pencil for long periods of time, regardless of what he's doing.
- Sam hates pooping. TMI? She could hold it in forever, but as the days wear on and she becomes increasingly, obviously more uncomfortable and therefore crabby, we have to force her to sit on the potty until she poops. (Fortunate for us she's a little delayed in her gross motor skills and can't get off the potty herself, so she has no choice.) There is much screaming - half in anger at us, half in pain/fear of the poop. But she is always sooo happy and relieved the minute it all comes out. Though her poop stops up out toilets. Seriously! No matter which one she uses, we have to unclog it after every time she goes, because she holds it in so long, it's like trying to flush a baseball. There is much prune juice and fiber gummies in her every day life. She's doing great with potty training otherwise...
- At his 6mo checkup, Elliot was in the 2nd percentile for weight. Argh.
- Lily has a super loose tooth. We discovered it almost two weeks ago and it's now hanging on for dear life. It's on the bottom amidst three other not-as-loose loose teeth. She's afraid to just pull it out bc it's the first one and she's not sure what will happen, but I don't see it staying put thru tomorrow. I'm so excited for her! Better get my Tooth Fairy pennies ready...
- Elliot sat unassisted for about 10 seconds today.
- Jacob is restless and frustrated. I'm wondering how to better boost his morale and encourage him more. And how to ultimately stop.the.WHINING. Sometimes I think he's just bored, but when I give him things to do I think he'll like, he just complains or quits or finds an excuse to get mad about it. I'm not sure what to do with him...
- Elliot rolled over from belly to back at three weeks, from back to belly at 4 1/2 months, and started rocking on his hands and knees two weeks ago (at six months). I finally caught it on video yesterday. He's so desperate to get moving and get into everything! I'm not looking forward to having to use the baby gates all over again, having to remember to keep the basement door closed, keeping all the little Barbie shoes and hair ties and broken crayons and everything else out of harms way, etc.