Well, seeing as I'm STILL several months behind on capturing our lives in print, I best take the time to do some updating on our periodic "tidbits" - the little things I want to remember at this stage. Here goes:
Well, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the theme of illness we have had in this household since July. Like, I'm about ready to bring in a priest or something to rid this house of evil spirits. I promise we are clean - the house gets a thorough cleaning on a regular basis, we had our air ducts cleaned out last year, we have an ultraviolet light in our duct system, we wash our hands and use sanitizer when warranted, we don't eat our meals off the floors, etc. We have had, and I'm not exaggerating, 12 illnesses in this family since summer. Yes, TWELVE. And only 2 of those involved me and Jonathan. You'd think my children had no immune system going. I can imagine how much my friends are starting to avoid my house. Check it out:
Ellison had strep
Marek got strep
Marek's strep went into pneumonia
Marek got toxic synovitis while on our trip
Marek got a URI
Jonathan got a sinus infection
Ellison got a URI
Marek had 7 days of 104 fevers without a known source that had us in the pediatrician's office 3 times and the ER once per the pediatrician's recommendation (don't even get me started)
Marek got another URI
I got a sinus infection
Ellison got strep
Marek has strep
So. Over. It. Yes, I know it could be worse. Much worse. Doesn't mean I'm not frustrated beyond belief. All this, on top of MANY other arrows the enemy has been throwing at our family, has us anxious to get this year over with. Like yesterday.
Negativity aside, let's move on to some funny and sweet moments and stages...
Ellison has turned into a horse. Not appetite-wise (darn it), but she is constantly whinnying, drawing up on her hind legs, performing horse maneuvers I am clueless about ("Mom, look I'm sidestepping... Mom, look this is how I do a lateral move..."), galloping up the stairs on all four legs, performing jumps over various obstacles, and insisting we call her various horse names that she thinks are pretty at the time. Girlfriend is all about horses. She has watched approximately 247 episodes of Horseland off Netflix - we all know the theme song around here. She loves playing with anything that involves a horse, and her fave is always a white horse with white hair.
While one of our children has turned into an equine, our other has turned into windshield wipers. It is not unusual to see his arms moving frantically back and forth and random times, especially during meals. He is constantly talking about wipers, demanding we put on the wipers (and he wants them on "fast") even when it's sunny, requesting we put on the back wipers, watching other cars wipers, etc. Never thought I'd be arguing with my child that I'm not going to keep turning the wipers on. This conversation/argument occurs every single time we get in the vehicle.
Marek's new security object (besides Hit-ty aka Hippy) is an old BMW wheel cover that fell off Daddy's car. Er, Marek's beloved car. He still has his obsession with Daddy's car, and I can only imagine his disappointment when he realizes it will never be his at age 16 because we will be lucky if the sucker lasts another several months. When I'm rushing out the door to get my shoes on to get to work as Jonathan pulls the car in the driveway from work, Marek quickly sneaks in to play in it for a whole 20 seconds until we have to shoo him out quickly. He cries for Daddy's car. So anywho, he has taken to carrying "Cover" all over the place. To preschool. He has had a slightly tough time going to preschool, so he started clinging to Cover and begging to take it into school with him. When I pick him up his teachers say he never lets it out of his hands. (The two days prior to taking Cover into school, he was attached to his placemat and wouldn't put it down the entire time he was at school, and the other time it was his backpack.) I picked him up early one day for an appointment, and they were on the playground, and sure enough Cover was going down the slide with him. He takes it in the bathtub and in the shower. It sleeps with him.
Another love of Marek's is his cars. His matchbox cars, but more so his little model cars that have hoods that open and doors that open. He can't get enough of watching the wheels as he slowly drives them. I picked one up at a consignment sale for him, and he proudly told Mrs. Lisa and Mrs. Rosie (his teachers) that "My mom got me a car at a consignment sale." He calls it Consignment Car. And speaking of wheels and his love of cars, he HAS to watch our wheels go around as we leave the driveway (if one of us has to go somewhere). He begs frantically, "I wanna watch Daddy's wheels!" and stands there until the vehicle is out of sight. For comfort for him when I drop him off at school, his teachers have taken to putting a chair up at the window because he wants to watch the wheels as the vehicles come through to drop off the children, then leave. It was the only thing that brought him comfort one day at drop-off, and it has stuck. But he has taken it a step further. He now has to watch the cars go over the speed bump as they leave. Brother is completely taken with "bumpies". That's all he talks about the entire time I'm driving him around somewhere. He gets angry and can't understand why I can't just randomly go over bumpies while driving someplace. Like I have a choice. So he has taken to "drains" as well. Not only are street drains called drains, but so are the manhole covers. He likes it when I announce when we are going to drive over them (which I swear is every 10 seconds), and he begs me to drive over particular ones if he can spot them from his point of view. On his bike, or when on a walk, he makes a beeline for them, and has to step on them or slowly drive his bike wheel over them. Over and over. (Oh, I sense some OCD in his future.)
Silly things overheard:
"Because I'm a dult (an adult), not a kid."
"I just saw someone go through the fried rice door!" (As we drove past a Chinese take-out restaurant that Jonathan had recently taken him to. Marek adores "Daddy's fried rice".)
"Woah, that tree needs to be trimmed!"
"I'm just showing her (Reese) my car... (then quietly talks to Reese: "The doors open..." as his voice trails off). Smooth talker, this one.
"I'm assessed (obsessed) with wipers (you can also insert drains)."
"I want the Chinese restaurant rope (Sissy's Chinese jump rope)."
"Actually,..." (He says this all the time when starting some phrases)
"That's not appropriate."
"I'm a good manners!" (he like to say this when he's saying 'thank you' and such)
Marek happened to notice my nose hairs one day. (Side note: if you ever need to be humbled a few notches, just hang around a kid for a little while). He was utterly fascinated and was questioning me about them, then decided, "Ewwwww!"
Marek likes to often pretend to be Daddy. He walks around quite frequently exclaiming, "I'm the daddy!". So I play along and start saying typical Marek things like, "Daddy's home! Daddy hold you! I wanna go in Daddy's car!". Marek gets a big grin on his face and says, "Hang on, let me put my stuff down." Always. Ha!
Since returning from our trip up north toward the end of summer, we decided to put Marek in a big boy bed, since he had to get used to that for 2 weeks away anyways. It started off beautifully. He never got out of bed, would call for us when he was awake or if he needed something. Couldn't have gone better. Then suddenly it was like he realized he could get in and out of bed on his own. It was all downhill from there. Ugh. He would get up several times a night, be awake by 5am and would not stay in bed after that... It was brutal. After a few weeks of this, I thought we could try one of those sleep clocks. Pricier than I would have thought, but worth a shot. Sleep is so NOT overrated. So we bought a little bunny sleep/awake clock, and it has worked like a charm! He knows he has to stay in bed until the little bunny is awake. Once in a blue moon he has his own agenda, but the vast majority of the time it's been great. I love that bunny. Like, a lot.
On the potty training front. Oh, the potty training. Marek had a turning point a few weeks ago, and was doing awesome. He got to the point where he was wearing big boy underwear all the time, could go all day without a pee accident. Number 2 has been an issue. We caught him in time to go on the potty twice ever. I have tried every form of bribery. Chocolate pieces were good for training him to pee, then he didn't need them anymore. Poop? Not having it. I went to the dollar store and bought a big bag of prizes that he can choose from every time he goes poop on the potty, not having it. He is completely enamored with the dollar store monster truck, and asks to look at it and see me spin the wheels, while he whispers in awe, "Wow...". but actually earn it? Over it. Oh, he asks for it regularly and after peeing, but he will not poop in it. After changing his poopy underwear (God bless his preschool teachers) one too many times, we stuck to pull-ups. He was keeping those dry for a while and still peeing in the potty, but the last several days he is over that now, too. Ugh. Hate to go backwards, but so over this. So it's full-time pull-ups now, and now he gets downright upset if we even mention the potty. Two days ago when I was asking him why he no longer wanted to pee-pee like Daddy, he said, "Because I'm not a big boy. I'm still little." Little stinker.
Ellison is doing awesome in school - she's a great student, thanks be to God. But it's been a little bit of a rough year with little girlfriends. Ugh. I swear I need to buy stock in Tums. It's SO HARD when you have a sensitive kid who can't understand why close friends shun her and do/say mean things. We've had some big learning experiences with this all summer long (at the pool, at church, now at school). But like I said, it's been a learning experience for her, too. And it's made me grow as well, in ways that have been very uncomfortable. But it's getting better right now, and that's all I can ask for. I just keep praying, "Dear, Lord Jesus, PLEASE don't call me to homeschool!"
Ellison LOVES going to gymnastics this fall, loves riding her bike all the time, and watching TV or movies (grrr). She still has to have her Daddy ease into waking her up in the morning, and as long as that happens, life is good. But Mama shows up? Even to snuggle her awake? I get greeted with the grouchies and demands for Daddy. When sister is sick, and I long to snuggle her up? Not that into it usually, but will gladly do so with Daddy. ;-)
Well, that's enough tidbits for now. I"m sure more will come out as some photos jog my memory. Or not. I have no memory anymore...
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