oops

Joshua received and oops-a-gram at school today. Seems as though he is listening there about as well as he listens at home. We are working on it though. After we got home from school today we made a chart, like on the tv show he likes 'Sid the Science Kid' and put a check in one box every time he listened and followed directions and in another box when he didn't listen and follow directions the first time I asked. He ended up ahead tonight and earned a treat for it. He did some great listening, such as when his ball rolled into the street, but there were several 'lessons', too. For instance, he learned that his not listening can also hurt other people. He was walking holding Mira's hand, I asked him to slow down when he started running, he did not and Mira fell and scraped up her knees. He felt pretty bad about that.

There are moments when Joshua is such an awesome big brother and really helps out. He comes up with awesome, creative stories and songs. But he is so strong willed and has so much energy! It is hard to remember those awesome moments when he is being a big booger. He tells me every day that he doesn't like walks but we go for one almost every day and he has a great time. He observes the clouds and bugs and other cool things we see, he runs and jumps and we have time to practice all sorts of skills: listening, reading letters/words, playing 'i spy', etc. As long as we make it out the door, walks are usually pretty fun (and they spend a little bit of that energy)

Evelyn is really changing now and looking more and more like her own little person instead of just a newborn. She has started cooing, smiling, reaching toward her light up mirror and focusing on people. She usually has three long awake periods every day and likes to go to sleep around 9 in the evening if I can keep her awake enough in the daytime.

Mira has entered the 'terribles'. She is torn between her role as big sister and still wanting to be a baby and sometimes she just screams. It is hard emotionally to be in such a place and as much as we can we are trying to help give her skills to calm down. She is getting over yet another cold (this is after a high fever a week ago) and fortunately not too out of sorts because of it. I love how she says, 'I DO!' with so much excitement when you ask a question such as, 'Who wants ice cream?' or anything else. She is adding all sorts of words to her vocabulary but most noticeably is 'UP' which she uses when she wants me to hold her or carry her around. Her potty training is going really well and we have moved away from her saying, 'pee-pee' just to get out of doing something she doesn't want to do. She is catching most poos and pees in the potty. We are working now on how to pull the panties down since the weather is turning cooler and running around naked all day is not as comfortable.

The playroom is mostly finished and the kids are enjoying time down there. On non-school days we usually spend at least an hour or two in that room. They ask to play there. There are enough toys that each time we go down they can play with something new.

Everyone is asleep, except me, so I guess it is my turn to 'turn in'. Good night!