I’m actually attempting to blog again. I know, I’m crazy! But it’s 1:00 and so far Artist and Boo have actually been playing completely nicely together, ALL day! Yes there are tiny pieces of paper everywhere…because Boo is obsessed with cutting paper…and she’s currently soaking in a bath to see if the ink from the stamp pads that stained her entire hands will come off. BUT, there hasn’t been a single exclamation of “MOOOM, she’s not sharing!” Or, “MOOMMYY, she wants to play mermaids and I want to play princesses and there’s no possible way we can play mermaid princesses because that would just be way too easy, so instead we’re tackling each other to the ground and saying we hate each other!” Or even shouts of “NOTHING” the second I walk into the room. (That’s always the best, isn’t it…when there’s something so bad they feel the need to deny it even before you ask). 😉
To top it off, Ice Cream has been either all smiles or asleep almost all day…no bouts of un-soothable screaming, or even episodes of projectile vomiting. (If you don’t know about her track record, just ask me about my great idea to take the family to see Frozen, and how I got to watch nearly the entire movie completely covered in the puke that had soared from her mouth towards my face over and over in a rather Exorcist manner, causing me to feel sheer terror at the thought of ever taking her anywhere ever again!)
Anyway, my idea was to summarize my year…but I spent way too long explaining why I’m able to actually write a post right now, so at this point I’m going to have to just hit the highest points…or at least the ones that come to mind first.
Artist can read now…at probably about a first grade level!!!!! “Wait, isn’t she in first grade?” You ask. Why yes, yes she is….but last year reading was just not happening for her. So I practically gave up. We stopped having any official reading lessons whatsoever. I called it unschooling, because that sounds way better than, “I have no idea what to do, and my Mom says not to stress about it, and she ought to know since she homeschooled 5 kids, and she asked a teacher friend who agreed that not reading in Kindergarten isn’t a big deal, so I’m just giving her some time.”
Also, she’s dancing with the kids worship team at our church on Sunday mornings, and came home from church yesterday telling me all about the group she started called “Super Girls” with her two BFFs. 😛 She even made friends with a couple girls at the park on Saturday!
These are all HUGE accomplishments for her, because at the beginning of the year she was in therapy for Sensory Processing Disorder and went through a few months where she was SO anxious at the thought of simple things like church that she wouldn’t even go into her class. And she used to sit by me at the park if there were too many other kids, or if anyone tried to talk to her, or got too near, or looked at her. So these seemingly mundane things are great victories for us, and I am overjoyed!!!
I’m having trouble coming up with any big achievements for Boo this year…which probably makes me a pretty terrible Mom…and doesn’t say a lot for her chances of avoiding the plight of the middle child. Let’s see…um…she can count to 10 now…except that she skips 5. And I think she recognizes about 4 letters…A, E, O, and X. But she can spot an X hiding anywhere, and loves to make an X with whatever she has at her disposal.
She has an incredible imagination…and trust me, don’t bother trying to get her attention when she’s in the middle of a made up adventure (which is most of the time) because it’s nearly impossible to get her to come back down to earth.
And she’s a natural born cheerleader…she fills my day with encouragements like, “Good job changing that poopy diaper, Mom!” and “Thank you so much for letting me take a shower, Mom! Thank you, thank you thank you! You’re the best Mom in the WORLD!” And occasionally, to Ice Cream, “You’re the last baby, because Mommy’s tummy was big and then you were born, and now Mommy’s tummy is big, but there’s nothing in it, it’s just mushy!” Oh wait, maybe that last one isn’t so encouraging…unless I’m looking for motivation to start doing crunches. 😉
And of course, Ice Cream was born this year!!! She’s an incredible blessing…but as I hinted earlier, she’s not always the easiest baby. In fact, let’s just say, thank God for wraps to wear her in and spill proof coffee mugs! If one more person says something along the lines of “Oh the 3rd baby is no big deal, it’s just more water in the soup!” or anything along those lines…well, I won’t actually say or do anything…but I’ll feel very irked.
Speaking of which….FYI well meaning friends and family…I HATE the word “chunky.” If you use that word to describe my baby girl’s cheeks, or any part of her, it will take ALL my willpower to separate the use of the word from the fact that apparently you were trying to compliment her…so just stop saying it.:)
On another note, OHMYGOODNESS she is the most smiley baby EVER!!! She may not always seem happy, but don’t be surprised if she stops crying long enough to give you the cutest grin in the world!
It’s now been two and a half hours since I started this post, and I’ve only had ONE fight to break up. Of course I may or may not (but definitely do) have poop in the tub waiting for me to clean…and the ink on Boo’s hands didn’t come off, so they may be red and blue forever! All in all, I’m calling this an excellent day around here so far! We’ve had a blessed year and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in 2014!
P.S. You can find my follow-up post about unschooling here! 🙂