a whole week

i am not sure where it has gone. we seem to have blinked and it has gone by!

it has been a mixed week. we have been busy as the end of the semester draws near. i think the cold weather and getting ready for an irregular spring semester is also on our minds.

k has been pretty fun. her language is just exploding and she makes all kinds of comments that catch me off guard. off course i can't recall a single one when i get to the computer to blog. nevertheless, conversing with her is fun. she is also a mynah bird and repeats faithfully whatever her brother says. unless of course she is in a contrary mood and then she repeats it in the negative. she has seemed tired as well and has been coughing.

the kids seem to be transitioning. for some reason, r is just overwhelmed when he gets home these days and by friday night we know things are going to be hairy. it is predictable. monday is a little rough transitioning back to school. tuesday and wednesday are not too bad. by thursday he is tired and excited and doesn't eat well. friday night is fine in the car. as soon as we step through the door, the kids lose it. this has happened several fridays in a row. yesterday he was hysterical and she was incredibly clingy. being overwhelmed by school and the fact that he does not eat enough or sleep enough during the school week means that friday nights are just beyond his ability to hold it together. so he loses it. and yesterday this was much screaming and hysteria.

additionally, r is testing a lot and having a hard time complying with requests/demands. this morning we asked him to close the garage door behind us and he just ignored us. he would not return to close it and the resultant consequence triggered a massive meltdown. clearly there was some fatigue and perhaps some hunger there, but his ability to regulate and to hold it together seems to have deteriorated lately. i wonder if it is the food and sleep or the change in seasons and the lack of gross motor movement.

anyway it was just painful for a good hour as we got home from the library. ruskin was irritated, the kids were fragile, and the phone was ringing. finally we were able to put both down for a nap. post-nap everyone seemed better. we ate vegetable soup (yes r too, just not the liquid). and then we tried to go to the store to buy slippers. r put in a request for star wars slippers and k asked for elmo slippers. we got to sears and they did not have any lands ends slippers so we were walking to look for a few more items. but r could not seem to listen and dad had to scoop him up and carry him to the car. he was hysterical.

we have not taken them to many stores (besides grocery shopping). but it was not even the standard tantrum of "i want this." he tried a little of that earlier in the store and that was stopped. but it is really unpleasant and he can't seem to comprehend that he needs to listen to us and do what we say. or more accurately, he ignores us and then seems surprised that there are consequences. i guess i need to go read the dr. brazleton again -- is 4 all about autonomy and challenging?

there was a nice part on the way to the store when he was telling us about the moon -- he told us it is the beaver moon. the last moon was the hunter's moon. they learned about a lunar calendar for a native american nation (not sure which one) and the different names of the moon at school. he remembers! he also was doing a computer program -- magic school bus -- and could answer (more or less) almost all of the questions about mars and the earth.

k is a curious toddler. she likes to be involved and is at the same time interested in her own toys, puzzles, and books. she likes to sing and makes requests: ABCD, baa sheep (baa baa black sheep), farm (old mc donalds), etc. whenever i sing baa baa black sheep, i substitute family members for the people who get 3 bags of wool. and she always makes sure that i include everyone in the list. tonight she reminded me -- masee-tom? and i said yes masee-tom too.

we are trying to wean r away from his 3 cups of water, 4 trips to bathroom routine. so ruskin is downstairs right now, ignoring r's chanting daddy over and over. r has a lot of stalling tactics but eventually he does give up. k falls asleep pretty quickly. let's hope he is asleep soon.