Fair warning

A few nights ago as Zach was heading off to bed he cheerfully announced,

"Good night everybody! I'll be back when it's daytime."

We can't say he didn't warn us!

4 Months

I find it hard to believe that Eli is already 4 months old. He is a really sweet little guy and spends most of his day smiling at anyone who will talk to him. I say "little" guy but he is actually quite a moose! For his 4 month check up he weighed in at 18 pounds,1 ounce!!! No wonder my arms ache.

Eli is grasping toys and trying very hard to sit up, although he still ends up with his head between his feet when he tries. Elijah is starting to enjoy big brother entertaining him but only before brother starts shaking the chair or squeezing his hands or pushing on his belly! I started back to work this month treating about 5 patients a week. It has been a struggle trying to squeeze visits into Steve's time at home but thankfully my work can be very flexible. Which is good because Eli does not like to be a part from me for more than 2 hours, even if he's not hungry!

Confession

I have a 3 year 1 month old boy who, as of Tuesday, was totally and completely NOT potty trained! For those of you wonderful parents who accomplish this task long before your child's third birthday I commend you. But for us....

I have heard over the years, both as a parent and when I worked with children, that when your child is ready potty training is very easy, no struggle. So I have been plugging along waiting for Zach to be ready.

He's not.

He continues to poop and pee in diapers (both disposable and cloth) and then he hates to be changed. So on Wednesday when Zach awakened there were no more diapers.

We are now on day 3 of potty training and I hate to brag but MY training is coming along nicely. Wednesday we had lots of accidents because I didn't realize I should set a timer to make sure we are trying often. But yesterday I learned this little trick and Zach only had 2 accidents all day. I went to bed thinking that perhaps I'm not accomplishing anything because Zach is only going to the bathroom because I bring him every 15-30 minutes. This morning I have continued to set the timer but today I am only asking him if he has to go potty when the timer goes off. So far he has said, "no" every time, however, one time after I walked away from asking he ran into the bathroom and started pulling down his pants! Perhaps all my dancing, chanting and candy giving is working after all?!? If it does I will kick myself for not trying it sooner.

Cornerest Farm

This weekend we traveled up to see our friends who own a dairy farm. They have 4 boys and the youngest is only 1 month older than Eli. Becky and I were overwhelmed by boys, being outnumbered 8 to 2. Zach was introduced to true rough housing because these farm boys are tough. Steve played basketball with them in the morning and he said it was a combination of basketball, rugby and ultimate fighting. Zach watched with wide eyes and tried to "take some shoots" without getting mugged!

On Sunday afternoon we went sledding. It was Zach's first time and he was very cautious about it. Pete's kids were diving down the hill and bailing out of the sleds without fear. Zach preferred sliding down on his bottom. The next day while Steve and Pete went skiing, I took the boys back to sled and this time Zach was ready to tackle the hill. He went down by himself a few times with me running alongside to stop him from going in the ditch or hitting a tree. (Pete suggested that I let him go completely and he would learn to bail out before hitting these things but I wasn't quite ready for that! It does make you question whether our children learn their cautiousness and fear from us or if it's there naturally.) Zach never did warm up to climbing the hill, but then again who does?

Meet Joe

Today at lunch, Steve and I were trying to teach Zach his full name. The conversation went something like this...

Steve: My name is Steve Miller. What's your name mommy?

Me: My name is Marcia Miller.

Steve: (to Zach) What's your name?

Zach: (says nothing)

Steve: Is your name Zachary Miller?

Zach: Um, no. Me name is Joseph Miller.

Who is Joseph Miller?

Christmas, birthdays and snowmen

I've been sitting on this blog post for quite a while writing and rewriting in my mind to try and capture our Christmas. It is much easier for me to write about one specific event then to try to coherently put together little snippets from over a week of celebrating...but here we go.

We all had a wonderful Christmas full of family, food and gifts! Our celebration started a week early with a snow "storm" on Saturday (we received a whole 4 inches in this blizzard). For those devoted blog followers you will remember that last year I rushed out into the snow with Zach and he mostly cried while I endeavored to show him how much fun snow could be. One year older and Zach was very willing to embrace the snow experience, in fact even though all the snow has melted Zach still asks if we can go outside to play in the snow. This storm marked our family's first snowman, first snow angel and first snow ball fight!

After the nor'easter the Christmas eating began! For about eight days we had one family gathering after another where we opened presents and ate and ate and ate. Of course Zach loved being the center of attention and he enjoyed opening everyone's presents. He was a full service Santa because he would not only hand deliver your gift but then he would unwrap them for each person. (As a cute little side note, Zach called Santa, "Sofa" this year, we're not sure why.)

In the midst of everything my little baby turned three years old!!! And my other baby turned 3 months! Zach is at such a fun age because his language has really taken off. He was fully aware of it being his third birthday and he wanted cake and presents. I made cupcakes for the big day and we enjoyed them while celebrating Christmas at my grandmother's house on the 26th. Zach's cupcakes were topped with a big number "3" candle that he had found and had been carrying around all week!

I'm glad to be getting back to our quiet routine and detoxing from all of the sugar!