Introducing

SADIE AND WYATT!!

Here's my little niece, Sadie Jane. I wanted to sneak her in my bag and take her home with me, but I think they might have noticed her missing.

I got to feed her and hold her first. She was perfect.

Because they're still so small, Silas wasn't able to hold or touch them. He really wanted to give them kisses and stroke their heads, like he does with Eli. They need to get a little bigger before they can handle Silas germs.

This is Wyatt. I got to feed him at their next feeding, and I got to hold him for a good long while. He'll be tumbling around with Eli before too long.

They both have lots of hair. It will be interesting to see if either of them get Shana's red, curly hair or JD's brown straight hair, as well as what color their eyes turn out to be.

Getting to feed Sadie. Poor Silas kept creeping closer and closer, trying to get a good look, instead of standing slightly back like he was supposed to.

Where did this giant come from? Only six weeks older than his cousins, he weighs more than them put together. No worries, I'm sure they'll catch up soon! Besides, with JD's genes versus Christian's genes, Wyatt will probably end up being a lot bigger than Eli.

It was a long day, trying to remember to stay a couple of feet back, having to use sanitizers on his hands, watching loads of cartoons while Mommy fed the twins. It's a tough life being the older cousin. I tried to make it up to him with a chocolate shake from Sonic, but he didn't get very far on it before this happened.

Shana and JD are holding up really well to the demands of newborn life times two. I'm so glad we moved up here in 2007 and I get to be close to Shana at this time in her life. She's always been the best big sister ever, and I'm so proud of her.

Manipulations

I'm just going to say it ahead of time - sorry for my rantings tonight. Journaling has always been a stress reliever for me, and for this blog to be a true preservation of Silas and Eli's childhood, I need to write about my struggles as well.

Sometimes I feel like Silas and I go around in circles. By definition, I'm not sure where it starts or how to end it. Does it start when he does something wrong? Or when I choose to react to his sin incorrectly? Does it end when he gets upset about my bad reaction? Or when he pulls on my heartstrings because of my guilt?

I hate manipulation of all kinds, intentional or not, subtle or "elephant in the room"-ish. I hate it when I use emotional manipulation because I'm at the end of my rope and need Silas to do as I say. I hate it when Silas pulls his best sad face to get out of punishment.


I've read about how generally emotions need to be removed from discipline and punishment. For example, if your child does something wrong, instead of responding either with anger or hurt, you give truth to the child without an emotional display. And on the other side of that, discipline is given no matter the emotional display of the child (i.e. just because they're crying doesn't mean they get out of consequential punishment). I want to show love to my child even in the midst of discipline, but that can easily be used against me to get out of punishment.


So my conclusion is: It's hard to control my emotions when caring for a newborn due to sleep deprivation and their constant needs, and therefore I need to pray for an extra measure of strength and self-control. I need to relearn how to have emotional balance when dealing with Silas, so that I don't become overly emotional, and so that he doesn't get his way just because he becomes overly emotional. I need to compensatefor our new lifestyle and regain that balance.

Stick Out Your Tongue

One of my favorite memories of Silas as a baby was when my mom got him to stick out his tongue. He was young, about 2 months old. Mom would stick out her tongue, and he would stick his back out in response. It was mostly so memorable because of how much my mother enjoyed it.

Eli has started doing the same thing now. He plays with his tongue in his mouth and makes funny shapes with his lips, just learning how those muscles work. When he's in a really good mood (usually when his tummy is full) he'll watch me stick out my tongue, then he'll mirror it. Last night when I was feeding him, he suddenly pulled back to look at me, then stuck out his tongue at me. I stuck my tongue back out at him, and he grinned really big. It was definitely a treasurable moment and worth waking up at 4:30 am to see.

Funny Conversations

Silas and I had a conversation at bedtime:

Silas: "Mommy, your shirt is beautiful." (It's a pink tank top...)

Me: "I think you're beautiful. I think your eyelashes are beautiful, your nose is beautiful, your chin, your hair."

Silas: "I think your head is beautiful. And this arm. And your other arm. I really like all of you, Mommy."

Me: "I really like you, too, Silas."

Silas: With a grin, "You know who I love the best, though? Daddy."

Me: "Why do you love Daddy the best? What about me?" (Don't worry, I'm just kidding with him.)

Silas: "Well, you're good, but Daddy's rubbish."

Me: "What?! Why is Daddy rubbish?" (The conversation has taken an unexpected turn.)

Silas: "He's really rubbish at making flowers." (We had made flowers out of construction paper the day before and Daddy hadn't done so well.)

Silas: "Can we make flowers tomorrow? Just pretend ones, though. Not real ones."

Me: "That sounds like a good idea. I love you, Silas."

Silas: "I REALLY love you, Mommy."

Tough Talk

"What are you looking at?"

"You better watch it, I could take you."

"That's what I thought..."

Cuddles

Some cute brother photos, just for the memories...

Eli's getting so big and moving out of his newborn phase. He's getting better at his naps, but does not like being out of his known setting (he likes his room that we worked so hard on).

My sister had her twins! I haven't been able to hold them yet, and Silas has a cold so it might be a little while longer, but I can't wait to squeeze them. They're so cute and doing better and better every day!

A-A-Apple

We've officially started teaching Silas his letters and their sounds. Every time we read him a book, he points to the words and asks what they say and quickly points out the letters he knows. It hasn't really been so much about whether he was ready to read or not, because I think he's been ready for a while, but more about Christian and I dedicating ourselves to the task.

We're going to take it slow, but the first 2 days of dedicated teaching have gone well. We take about an hour each morning, maybe a little longer depending on our schedule (and where Eli is at with his napping). He's shown a lot of interest, and he's definitely willing to work hard. When he wants to quit, he responds well to encouraging words and rewards for achieving goals (stickers and candy).

I try to keep the activities short and varied. We'll color a picture, then trace some letters, then circle the letter in certain words. I also try to find some fun crafts. We cut an apple in half, painted the cut side, then stamped it on a piece of paper and put a face on it using different things I had. This is in the picture above on the right with the green background. He also liked coloring the alligator and naming him Andy. I try to look up videos and pictures on the Internet as well, so we looked up videos on YouTube of aquariums.

We've also been trying a new approach with morning family worship. He loved the songs and stories at VBS, and he loves play acting, so we've been trying to put it all together and find stories in the Bible we can act out or sing. Today we did the account in Acts of Peter and John healing the cripple. There's a song that goes with it, and Christian and Silas acted the story out while singing the song. Then we went over the lesson of praising God and telling others about what He does for us. The song is still in my head, and hopefully it is in Silas' as well.

So I guess we've officially started homeschooling, even if it is a very slow and laid back approach. Once he learns to read and we start him on his full curriculum, then we'll be more structured about it. If you have any advice on how to teach a child to read, let me know!