Milestones

It's a busy month for us. Sam graduates next week and his family is coming in starting on Sunday. Add that to the school year winding down for Nathaniel and my junior high students and you have one busy family. But, I still thought I needed to jot down some thoughts about what's going on with the family because this is kind of my "my children are growing up and hitting new milestones" journal as well as a way to keep people updated with our lives.

Aaron is growing like a weed. He had his 15 month check up last week and has hit 28 pounds and 31 inches. Luckily his car seat is large enough for him to still face backwards until he hits 34 inches (apparently the new guidelines want kids sitting backwards until they are 2). He got a vaccination at the doctor's office and it was pretty cute. He cried for about 2 seconds and then, as the nurse exited the room he smiled and waved and said, "byeeeee!" in his sweet little voice.

He doesn't say much. He can say "Hi" and "bye" but he doesn't say much else. He signs A LOT but his verbal skills consist mostly of pointing and giving a tribal yell. We're working on getting him to be more verbal. He does shake his head yes and no a lot, so I know he is completely understanding everything we say. He is also really good at following simple instructions, I just think that Nathaniel speaks for him most of the time.

Nathaniel is winding down in school. His one day a week preschool co-op ended a few weeks ago and Cubbies ends next week. I'm not sure when his school year ends since his preschool is more daycare and goes year round. We also haven't decided whether or not to keep him in the program through the summer. It all depends on Sam's job situation.

The other day Sam and I were talking about my job and some of the difficulties I've been facing. Nathaniel was sitting at the table with us and he turned to me and said, "Mom, why is it hard for you?" I was taken aback because this was his first question where he actually showed empathy and interest in someone else. I almost cried, but then I answered his question. He really is an empathetic child, which I love. I love his heart for others and the sensitivity he has towards others. Whenever something sad happens in a movie that he's watching he cries, even if it's the 15th time he's seen it. I hope that he can continue to have empathy towards others. Although, yesterday he was talking about different friends at preschool and he said that he played with "J" this past week. Then he looked at me and whispered, "Mom, I thought that 'J' was a girl because of his curly hair, but he's actually a boy!" I think it was his first encounter where he wasn't sure of someones gender. I thought it was cute.

That's it here. We went camping last weekend with the junior high students and had a blast. Sam graduates next weekend and after everything I will be able to blog a bit more and post pictures.

Quick updates, list style

Well, Sam is finishing up his final semester here in Talbot land. That means a lot of us sitting in the living room on our laptops in the evening rather than watching movies or hanging out. I can't wait for him to be finished!

Here is a recap of some of the stuff I've mentioned in the past few weeks on this blog.

• Nathaniel was continuing to not tell the truth, so last night Sam gave him a teaspoon of vinegar. He cried (Nathaniel, not Sam) and said it tasted yucky. So, we explained that lying was yucky and that he needed to tell the truth and that if he told the truth he would get into less trouble than if he lied. Today was good. He started to lie about a few things (mainly, hitting his brother or flushing the toilet or washing his hands, little stuff like that) but I gave him a look and asked him if he was sure that he wanted to lie and he thought for a second and told the truth. *whew* Hoping that it worked.

• Aaron used the toilet for about three days, and now he'll go to the bathroom to use the toilet, but usually he's just peed. He's more interested in playing than going. But, at least he's connecting it!

• Work is cranking up for me. I've got a camping trip in two weeks (woot!!) and eighth grade promotion is coming up as well. I'm co-teaching a sex respect class at the Academy for 7th graders which is amazingly awesome. It's funny how it's not awkward when you're in the teacher's shoes! It's fun to make the kids squirm. I'm terrible. But, it's going well overall.

• We made it to Disneyland two nights ago. It was great and we managed to ride on 5 rides in two hours. We basically walked on every single ride and, for the first time, Nathaniel did not cry when he got wet. He laughed and said, "Oh man, my pants are wet!!" Silly boy.

• That's about it here. Just finishing up May (even though it just started). We went over budget so I'm trying to be creative with the food we have in the house (we have a lot of frozen meat, but not a lot of other food so I'm figuring out what we do have so I can use it up before going grocery shopping). I figure we can always eat pancakes. We have two kinds of pancake mix so we're good.

Hope people are well. I'm going to bed!