Catching Up

It has been a long time since the last post.  Between having to replace the computer and then updating our iPhone operating systems and being sick and -- it never ends and this last couple of weeks has been the never-ending-est of weeks.  So let's catch up.

We will start with Anders. His daycare has fallen in love with him. He deal is he smiles this huge smile at anyone who talks to him and it charms everyone. So they crowd around and coo at him when he arrives. It is interesting. Because he smiles so much, everyone who knows him makes it heir mission to get him to smile. I find myself pushing for more and more smiles the more I get.

He is working hard at sitting up and getting quite good at it. But besides one day when he flipped from back to front twice, he hasn't shown much interest. We did start him on solid foods and he liked it. He wanted to hold the spoon and do it himself, but he really really liked the accolades he got for eating it. But then he stopped being interested, so we are taking a break.  Ellis did the same thing.

The sleeping? Bad.  He is sick, Ellis is sick, they trade off coughing, he wants to lubricate his throat because it is sore and dry, it never freaking ends.  I have had very little sleep for 10 days, averaging about 3 hours a night.  Even last night, when I got almost 9 hours of sleep, none was more than 3 hours together.  And that doesn't work.  I'd like to sleep train, but we can't get healthy enough to start.

He also really wants to be held these days. And this morning, for the first time, showed a strong preference for being held by me. Flattering but also trouble. Lastly, he has started to burrow in my shoulder and snuggle a bit when he gets tired and I *love* that. 

 

Ellis has taken on the big sister role with gusto. If Anders fusses and I start to get frustrated or overwhelmed by it, she announces that she will take care of it and runs to talk to him. He responds immediately with smiles and giggles. I was in the kitchen the other day and he was getting very unhappy and then all of the sudden everything went totally silent. When I walked into the living room, he was staring wide-eyed and big-grinned at Ellis, who was holding his hands and taking to him. 

Ellis is doing well at school but it isn't without it's challenges. She looooooves her teachers, Ms. Oliver and Ms. Fernandez (which she always pronounces properly as /fer-NAHN-des/). But after care continues to be a source of stress because Ellis hates change and he unexpected. Don't we all, you say. But she hates it more than most. If she has a substitute teacher at after care, it upsets her so much she worries about it the next day too. But the thing is, once she spends 5 min with the sub, she always loves them and is *super* happy when we arrive. Nonetheless, the possibility that tomorrow may be different stresses her out.  

Ms. Fernandez is working on Spanish with Ellis and says Ellis has a good accent as is doing well picking up the language. But I am glad we didn't put her in a Spanish immersion program this year. It would have overwhelmed her. Ellis has a bad habit of not trying things until she is sure she can do it right, which creates a bit of a problem as new tasks get more challenging. We have to work on that. But being in her current class that teaches everything in English and Spanish, she is picking up more and more. And she is trying Spanish words now and even asking how to say things in Spanish. So next year might be the right time for an immersion class. I plan to talk to the principal about it. It also gives me an excuse to brush up my Spanish, which it is getting a little better.  

 

We had our first parent-teacher meeting and heard great accolades.  Both teaches said they had so much fun teaching Ellis that they had to remind themselves that they had 10 other students to teach.  They also said she is way ahead of her level and might be bored next year because she is almost ready for kindergarten now.  I don't want to skip a grade because I think that usually ends bad on the social development side, so we are going to have to discuss ways to keep her challenged.  And the teachers had ideas on that.

An observer came to class one day recently and saw Ellis doing what she often does, playing alone and singing to herself.  The observer told Ms. Fernandez that Ellis seemed to be a very happy child.  The singing to herself she does get from me.

Ellis adores drawing and is pretty sophisticated about it.   Ms. Oliver showed us pictures that a developmentally correct 3-year old should draw and it is worlds away from what Ellis does.  Ellis is drawing pictures of people with the right hair color and eye color and clothing and jewelry.  It is quite amazing -- more like you'd expect from a 5-year old.  She did NOT get this skill from me.

Ellis is fantastically sweet and loving. She tells me she loves me all the time, and that never gets old. She loves to hug and snuggle. In fact, we snuggled all through an hour long nap last weekend. She also is very imaginative, loving dress-up and weaving elaborate stories.  Often times she just acts out a seen on her own or tells a story to herself.

Finally, I have to say that the way Ellis talks is so interesting.  She has these great turns of phrase.  She'll hear a word she doesn't know, repeat it and say, "I don't know what that means."  Then we explain it, she repeats it and says, "Oh, now I get it."  Freaking adorable.