A Very Good, Well-Written Sensory-Related Link

This blogger really hits it on the head....


Follow the link to read what she has to say:


http://lemonlimeadventures.com/5-reasons-to-ban-fidget-spinners-from-every-classroom-in-america/


And, for the record, since I am still not burdened by most social media including Fakebook, I wasn't even aware that pinheads all over the place had time to take to the interweb to complain outwardly about fidgets in the classroom.  But apparently, some have.


A regular update post coming soon.

Till next time,

Your toe-tapping, leg-wiggling, pen-chewing, doodling, cover-your-hands-in-glue-and-then-rub-it-off, daydreaming blog author, who just happened to get fantastic grades despite all that fidgeting, or perhaps, because of it...

One Joyful Baby

Baby Shelby is 9 months!!


We really don't know what we ever did without her.  She is well-named and truly a Joy!


Here's what Shelby can do now (before I forget!):

Sippy cup long since mastered!  We prefer getting water from regular cups, though.

Going up steps, check!  Going down, working on it.  

Observing the many, many (many) needles coming off the tree from a place where she can't eat them.... check.

"Helping" with Christmas decorations...

Pretending to be our best present... yeah, that didn't go so well... 

Learning by Osmosis still...

Eating messy... 

Crashing on the couch.... 

Being a Joy.... 

Being a Homeschool Helper... 

Bundling up for the cold... 

Opening our Christmas Stocking... 

Getting a Christmas Fever... and then popping a New Year's Day Tooth!

Helping with laundry...

Riding wild animals... 

Doing "So Big!" 

Standing up without holding on, pulling while standing, standing up from sitting without using hands

Shelby's first step was to Daddy, sometime before Christmas.  I meant to write it down... but... well, we know it was before Christmas!!    She can also wave by opening and closing fingers now, and her babbling is changing into actual, meaningful words.  She puts her hands together to sign for "more" while eating, nods "yes" when asked if she wants a drink, and says, "Mom" when trying to say "more."  It's without a doubt paired with the attempt at signing and mimicking our teaching for "more."  We have been using baby signs for "eat" and "more" since birth.  She can throw a ball, pretty darn impressively for her age, and loves to throw a ball back and forth with someone.  Just 3 days ago, she said, "ball" for the first time.  She apparently knows she's low on the sibling hierarchy, and fights for her rights.  She growls, charges at and tries to gum (now it's a bite) anyone who takes something away or gets in her way.  If completely thwarted, she throws herself backwards in protest.  She is so fast at grabbing things off the floor to eat. and with this many people in the house, there's always many things available.  Oh, well, build that immune system, right?  She loves taking things out of bins and baskets and now can put them back.  She created a game of sorts, where she points a finger at someone, and they make noise, dance around silly, or sing a song.  Oh, they give her so much power!  When told, "No" for something, she stops, but makes protesting noises, and sometimes turns around to take a whack at you.  And no, she doesn't discriminate parent or sibling!  And then of course, she tries it again.  She loves to climb up and over things.  Human sitting legs and basic toys are good for this.  Tables and things are not.  She is still learning how to drop her legs first to get off a couch, bed or chair, headfirst hurts a bit.  Shelby takes 2 naps, one starting around 10am and the other around 2:30pm.  Bedtime is variable, as it is in a family our size with events and concerts and things to do.  Overall baby Shelby is an exhausting little explorer who keeps us on our toes every day!  

A Few Things of Note

Two posts in the same month?!?  Perhaps it's a sure sign that things are starting to normalize around here.  Last August was full of me trying to hide the fact that I felt nauseous and gross all day and still make tiny, feeble attempts to connect with the world (which usually failed) while also hiding the fact that I was pregnant.  I actually remember very, very little of last August...

But THIS August is proving to be busy, and fun.  And busy.  Did I mention it was busy?   Oh, what's in a word anyway.... we're always busy!

So, we started homeschool August 1st, a slow start, to get us slowly acquainted with our materials and schedule.  I occasionally blog about our homeschool here.  We did a week or two strong, then we loosened up a bit, and of course we made sure to have lots of friend time in the last dear days of summer.  These last 2 weeks we have scheduled a ton of friend time, jamming it all in before most of the friends go back to school this Monday.

Shelby Joy is 4 months old and a nice, healthy 16 pounds and as cute as ever.  She is a grabby little girl, wanting to sit up and play all the time and getting held way too much, as usual.  But of course, there is no such thing!  Soon enough she will no longer want to be held, and so, for the fleeting moment, we will hold her.

Riley holds.

Indy holds.

Sometimes we put her down so we can stare at her. 

She loves going swimming with her family.

Sometimes she sleeps.  

And then she plays.

\

And gets grumpy at her toys.

And eats her toys.

And makes insanely cute faces at us.

So in other, non-baby news, Chase got a summer job.  Some neighbors noticed that he has been taught to mow the lawn and weed-whack, so they hired him to do theirs through mid-September.  A young man making money is a happy one, indeed.  Chase has some other, big news.  He is enrolling in the USNSCC, the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps, Liberty Bell Squadron.  He has attended orientation and the paperwork is in process.  He will have drill one weekend per month, and prepare himself for his TWT (two week training) next summer.  The Sea Cadets are a non-committal program, meaning he is not required to join the military upon turning 18, but he will get considerable life experience from the program regardless.  He is beyond excited to start, and I'm beyond proud of him for signing up.  Chase and his Fedora and his hormonal attitude are mostly absent from my picture roll... 

...but here's one.  He's holding.  And... take a long look at that fuzzy blonde hair and kiss it goodbye, the Navy requires a haircut...

Indigo is nearly 11, and continuing to learn to mow and take care of the yard.  Yep, that's our big thing this summer... we obviously need to get out more!  Which we will absolutely do once everyone else goes back to school.  It's our privilege as homeschoolers to get to avoid the crowds.  So, on her very first mow, she had hit a rock, which came up and bit her on the leg, so she developed a fear of hitting things with the mower, and shed a few tears over it and traded dish duty with her brother to get out of it, and begged and cried a bit about it.  But she got back out there like a trooper, one time in her pajamas, as they were long pants, and once more with long socks pulled up.  She and I recently crashed the 5th grade orientation at the middle school so that she could learn the building to get to Strings lessons.  We've also poked the district a bit about connecting it's Home Education students more through it's technology systems so that we can easily partake in some of the things we are legally entitled to.  I think it's a good thing, as a homeschooling family, to be connected and to be known.  So I introduced us to the principal (who of course knew my name from my email campaign for connection) and the guidance counselor for Indy's class.  We plan to maintain as many working relationships within the school as we can.

Mowing like a boss

Practicing violin along with the music on the computer

Riley bops to her own beat, as she always has.  Though she does well mixed in with her siblings, she also can often be found playing alone, with some in-depth scenario or scene.  We recently purged a bunch of stuff from the attic, and one of the small boxes contained some trinkets that I had as a kid.  She played with them on the side of the tub for hours.  

And in early July, this 5 year old..

Turned into this 6 year old!

Even at age 6, we still read her a book each night before bed.  We've had to get creative with the larger books she desires, or else we'd be in there all night!  She's now onto the Animal Encyclopedia, and we *try* to limit her to going over a 2-page spread at night.  But sometimes we get caught up with her.  It happens.

RJ loves to be outside and is having "swimming lessons" with Mom.  He can swim nearly all the way across the pool without "sinking" and really just doesn't tire out or give up when he has his swimmie off.  He just keeps going and going and going.  He can also ride a 2-wheel bike without training wheels, but since we live on a busy road with a crappy bumpy sidewalk, he doesn't get much opportunity to ride.  Mom still makes him ride his balance bike if we do go out, which makes him quite cross.  Playing for hours in the dirt pit or mud pit (when it rains) is also a favorite activity, and he MUST have his sun hat on.  DO NOT forget the sun hat, Mom!

This 3 year old...

Carefully marked the days on his steam train calendar

And turned into this 4 year old! 

He went with sibs to Jungle Wonder and opened his presents, Thomas rain gear and blinky sneakers, what else?

Sometimes he picks his own outfits.

He rocks that tie.

And he still sleeps soundly in grocery carts. 

A well-timed Science Kit birthday gift from Avia and Coolpa happened to coincide with our Kinder Art lesson on the Primary Colors.  Boy, was this ever a hit!  

Building a machine for the "newseum" with his Tinker Toys

So with all the summer kid birthdays, we basically visit the doctor once a month for their annual physicals.  And I go in with my typed list and we go over everything and then she drops the bomb.  A question.  For me.  What do I do for "me time?"  Ummmm.  Uhhhh.  Well.  There's at night, after the kids all go to bed... for a little.  And... well.  That's it.  And I try to explain to her, that's okay.  I signed up for this.  I actually LIKE my kids and I don't spend all day thinking about how I can get a break from them.  I'm really actually okay with it.  

I enjoy when my nights and mornings look like this... 

And when my afternoons look like this.  

48 Days

So, it's been 48 days since Shelby was born.  48!!   Oh my G, as RJ would say.  I swear sometimes I still wake up wondering if today will be the day I have the baby... but wait... oh, right... this tiny thing lying beside me snoring a sweet tiny snore is our baby.  She actually, many days, sleeps in past the time when I reluctantly get up.

At the 6 weeks mark last week, I kinda looked at her and said to myself, ok, yeah, this is the point I remember, the point where you finally know them, you've learned their habits and cries, wants and needs, their little things that make them who they are.  The first few weeks of mommyhood post-pregnancy are hormone-driven and survival-based, with deep, deep natural instincts that must be as old as man taking over as you care for this little tiny human.  It's a bit like driving on auto-pilot, you're moving forward and time is passing, but then you get to 6 weeks and go, "Wha...?  Where are we? How did we get here?"  You're glad you took so many pictures, because it's all fading so fast and the last 6 weeks just mix together and you're pretty sure your bigger kids did some cute stuff, too, in that time frame.  And aren't you still waiting for something... like pregnancy to be over and the baby to come?

There are some shining and memorable moments in our recent life though, like when no one could tell just how there got to be gum on the baby.  Yes, you heard me... GUM.  On the BABY.  All the kids chew gum, and they all still had gum in their mouths, and, well, we just never really got past that point, as no would fess up but they did all hear a great deal from me about whether or not there should EVER AGAIN be gum on the baby...   Some days are smooth, others are so bumpy they're related to toads, and others are just so-so.  We work, some days we clean, some days we make messes.

Some days are spent with every task being Plus 1, a baby strapped to me while I cook, school, clean or even pee.

See her little ear and fuzzy head?

The Laundry-o-saurus is here again, and is threatening to take over the hallway.

Sometimes, our days are so awesome, we crash on the potty, looks comfy, don't it?

And the goal of every day is to accomplish SOMETHING and get everyone to bed before they start climbing the walls...

 We spend a lot of time lovin' on this little wonder:

Happy girl

Sleepy sisters

 

Always time for books 

Tuckered out

Shelby's WTF face

Smiles for Mommy

There's times we go out for banking or grocery shopping or stuff like that and I have to try and think about when I've last had a shower.  I take stock and find hairy legs and slightly odorous armpits... but my hair feels okay, so it couldn't have been that long.  There's an unidentified brown smudge on my leg, and as all Moms in the trenches (I'm about to earn my 13 year MomTrench badge...woohoo!) are aware, the obvious thing to do is to touch it and sniff it, and make sure it's not poop.  We're usually pretty certain it's not poop, but you really can never be too sure.  We are in the car, and if it weren't for RJ being oh so helpful and yelling "Stop!" and "Go!" about 400 feet before the respective traffic lights, I'd probably have blinked too long already and fallen asleep.  It's good that he's paying attention, though, he's been to preschool, rode his bike around the back patio and made galaxy slime outside in the hot sun, so he's close to his melting point.  It will only take one tiny disaster to strike and he'll melt to the floor in some state of half-liquid upset-ness.  My train of thought is interrupted by Riley saying, "Hey Shelby," and my brain clicks on a little bit and goes - Shelby?  Did we bring her?   I quick take a look in the mirror, but it's hard to see as she's directly behind me and we don't have the First-Time-Mom backwards facing mirror.  I can't tell, and I am actually curious at this point as I have no recollection of carrying her out to the car, and right at that very moment Riley says, "I see you looking around, Shelby."  Okay.  Phew.  Shelby's in the car.  Not that I was worried.  Ok, fine, a little.  Just a little.  I don't have much time to ruminate on that though, because a car flies up on our right and cuts in front of us, and RJ starts cursing him out, in true Me fashion.  Yes, I still curse like a sailor, and my kids hear it.  I've had some issues trying to control it over the years, as curses just seem to fit so well in some situations, it's like I can't find replacements to show as much emphasis as they do.  It worked out really just fine with the first 3 kids, they just kind of automatically learned that Mom says these things when she's fired up and especially when she's driving or crossing the street at the crosswalk where people are supposed to be stopping.  And they also learned that they, as kids, are not allowed to say them, and they never really had an issue.  Until RJ.  That little sponge, in all of his twirling and hopping and crashing and bashing glory, is still paying attention, all the time, don't think for one second that he isn't.  And he just recently started cursing out ALL the cars at the crosswalk (he hasn't yet learned to discriminate which ones are actually being stupid) and most of the cars on the road, or at least whoever is around when I hit the brakes.  But at least he's consistent... so far everyone is a "Dammit...you...stupid...!"  Yikes.  So... we're trying to put a tight lid on that one.

Homeschool is going, we're winding down a lot of our bookwork and instead doing some unit studies and planning a buttload of outdoorsy stuff.  It literally went from 56 degrees 3 days ago to 85 today.  It's sticky and muggy and the heat is here as if it's been here for weeks, it's a bit hard to handle having not warmed up to it... (get it?  Haha...).

I've been incorporating a bit of sensory play things into our days, not school-related, just fun-related. Our colored rice bin and the lentil bean box are getting less and less use so we'll put them away for a while until the kids forget and then they'll be all novel again when we bring them back out.  We've done waterbeads, until they got rained on and sunned on and became a nasty science experiment, and the girls made Goop (corn starch and water).  RJ didn't like the mess on his hands, but the rest of us had fun!

Yesterday was Galaxy Slime (follow the link to the recipe we used... super simple) which led to hours worth of enjoyment with the slime itself, then the slime with Playmobil people and Toob animals.

At first, it was too stringy, so we had to troubleshoot

Then we got it just right

RJ made his black with gold and blue glitter

 Today we got the baby pool out and everyone but Chase has been in it, out of it, on top of it, pulling buckets out of it to take to the mud pit and refilling it all day long.  They've painted wood with paintbrushes and water.  Splashed each other with Barbies' whipping hair.  Dumped buckets of cold water on each other's heads.  Made mud pies.  Flung mud pies.  Drank Kool-Aid (the horror!), but I'd spotted the packets on clearance for 10 cents a piece, so I couldn't resist giving them a taste of the 1980's.  Of course, we made it with only half a cup of sugar and it still tasted like way too much.  :)

There was a glorious period of time where RJ had gone to bed (as he'd melted...), the girls were playing in the mud pit, and Chase was holding Shel.  I called out to him as I went outside, "hey, can you just hold her... until she needs me?"  That kid is the bestest, cause he knew what I was doing.  I was going outside, to sit.  To sit.  To SIT.  In a chair.  In the sun.

I pulled up another chair to put my feet up on.  I sat.  I convinced myself to relax my back.  I closed my eyes.  They opened for a second when one of the girls called my name and told me something.  I mumbled an "mmm-hmmm" sounding response and closed my eyes again, hoping they'd ignore me.  I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to focus on relaxing even more.  I could feel the sun, nice and warm.  It (the feeling of sitting, by myself, in a comfortable position) was so indescribably... foreign... and so, so good.  And then Chase was at my side, apologetic-looking, with a squawking, rooting, hungry-again baby.  I smiled at him and said thanks, and got up and went in to feed her.

But man, that was by far, the best 3 minutes of my day...