Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Rambling Tuesday

Happy Day after Columbus Day. I knew it was a holiday yesterday, but it wasn't until later in the day that I asked Joseph what holiday it was anyway.

Yesterday I had my first quarterly parent/teacher conference. It went well and Caleb is doing excellent. His teacher said that he reads beyond the level of anyone else in the classroom and often reads to his friends during "free time". So cute! He also mentions that he likes to talk a lot. Hmmm...not even remotely a news flash for me!

Caleb has been driving me crazy lately. While I am thrilled with his love of learning there are more than a few moments in the day where it makes me nuts. He is in this spelling mode right now. He LOVES to spell out everything. When he calls for Joseph or I, he will spell out, "M-O-M" or "D-A-D". He will follow me around the house spelling things. Sounds innocent enough right? WRONG!! It is so annoying when I have one 16 month old pulling everything off the dining room table, another 16 month old armed with a marker, and a 4 year old sitting on the toilet yelling, "Mom, I went poop. Come wipe my bottom!" and he is following me around spelling, "m-o-m-w-h-e-n-a-r-e-y-o-u-t-a-c-k-i-n-g-m-e-t-o-s-k-o-l?" Inevitable there are a few words spelled wrong and then there is the fact that I can't concentrate on what he's saying long enough to answer him, so he will repeat it over and over. It's chaos. Maddening chaos!

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We were also supposed to go to the pumpkin patch yesterday, but the rain (that almost never happens in our area) thwarted my plan, so we began rearranging the playroom and too the boys to Chucks for lunch. They love going with Daddy and we all had a good time. Even the girls like going to Chucks. They haven't seen the big rat yet...

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We recently decided that it was time to move the boys out of the playroom and into their rooms. I'm tired of trying to patrol the Legos, markers, and million of other small dangerous pieces that the girls are drawn to like magnets. And now that all the boys toys are out, the playroom looks so bare! Poor little Darlings don't have much in way of toys. I can't wait to get them a doll house (or 2, or 10!) but for now it is going to have to remain bare since we are funneling all extra money to all the new storage that we will have to buy for the boys room. Have no fear though, my mom is coming this weekend and won't let her babies go without! Between this weekend and in two more weeks when she comes for our girls trip to the outlets, I have no doubt that the girls will have plenty soon!

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The weather here is finally getting cooler. And I am so thankful for that for many reasons, the main one being that my kids spend significantly more time outside when it's not in the 90's out! Yesterday afternoon they were out for 5 hours playing with the neighbor kids. My kids are outdoor children and I am definitely an outdoor mom. Except for when it's hot. The bad thing is that while I needed a nap, I didn't want to be sleeping with the kids outside. I got a lot done, but no nap.

But all that is about to change since the Darlings are back at school today. It's 12:38pm and all will be quiet in my house for another 2 hours and 45 min, so I think I'm going to take that nap. A long, long nap.

2 comments:

Dvans said...

I loved hearing about your chaos...I am so familiar with those sort of things. I don't have one that spells everything out but Skyler talks & asks questions CONSTANTLY and Chance is always sharing his newest video game knowledge about which I am clueless.

Cloughamily said...

The only one in my house who doesn't talk constantly is the baby - he just screams. ;) I guess it's his way of letting us all know that he's here. And when the youngest two aren't talking or screaming they are singing...yes, even the baby sings. M has sung himself to sleep since he was an infant. He will even sing while he's eating at the table (in his own world). The baby either repeats notes we sing to him or he sings his own songs. All-in-all, it's never quiet in our house, but I'll take blessed noises of boys over the quiet of not having them any day. They rock my world! I love 'em!!!!

Just a thought: Maybe you could ask Caleb to write out all the things he wants to say to you or ask you in a letter. Then he could "mail" it to you. This would allow for some quiet time while his thoughts are pouring out on paper. And then you could quietly read it and answer him. It would also give him a chance to work on his penmanship and spelling. Our boys write letters to me and to dad - they actually initiated this idea. They often decorate the letters with art work, and then I save them.