Grayson

There is just so many things that happen during my day where I say, oh I have to remember to blog this. Then I get here once the kids are asleep and my mind draws a blank.

I think tonight I will spend the time chroniclers Grayson.

It is amazing how much and how fast Grayson is growing. Often it is hard to remember that he is only 4. He is such a bright little kid who is constantly in pretend play. Some time it is hard to keep track of who he is at any given moment, even though he will gently remind you if you forget. Today we stopped off at a park on our Sunday walk. Grayson took off to the swings so he could get first choice. Once there he told me he was ALL of the Disney characters ("except the princesses" - our kids for some reason just can't relate to the princesses). While swinging he proceeded to have a conversation with himself, among his characters. "Hey goofy, no pushing", "But I like pushing", etc. It was too cute and fun to see how his mind work. However it was a little hard not to think that I was pushing Sybil.

He has his letter's down pat, and all their phonemes. He is sounding out words, and it has been magical to see through his eyes how the world opens when one is able to read. The first day he realized he could read. He looked at me with a shocked expression, and immediately ran to the book shelf and pulled off a random book to try and read it. Of course with in seconds after opening the cover, his face grew long and he said "I just am not ready for this one". Not yet anyway Grayson.

He can be the most loving of brother's, and it's funny because even when he is most frustrated with his sisters and the attention they get, instead of acting towards them aggressively he generally turns his attention towards them instead. I guess he learned early on that he gets more attention for giving his sister attention than any other way. Everyone is a sucker for a big brother who looks after his sister.

He still spends hours pouring through books, remembering every detail in particular he is into puzzle books right now and other educational animal books from Usborne publishers. He will do just about anything for a story, and consequently when necessary this is what we take away as punishment.

Speaking of punishment, we have had to deal with a lot more of this as of late. I read somewhere that children are generally at there worst before some big change in environment or big developmental growth. I sure hope so, and try to keep in mind that in the next few months, Grayson will be changing schools, schedules, not to mention Rosie will be having her first baby. On top of this Anna is getting more mobile and opinionated and demands more attention, which means less for Grayson. Oh I forgot to mention he is giving up naps, which he could probably still use but we don't want him going to bed at 10 like he does on the nights that he has a nap. All of this has meant a lot of teasing of Eme, defiance towards us, moodiness, and frenzy. Sometimes I wonder if he is just finally starting to go through hi terrible 2's now. He has reverted to sucking his thumb (after giving it up for 6 months) and sometimes is just really difficult to be around. Paul and I had a good talk with him yesterday morning and are trying to find him incentives for not teasing (a special outing with mommy or daddy) and it seems to be working well. We are also trying to get him to tell us best that he can what is going on. We know that he is tired, and he tells us he is concerned about all the school stuff. So we are going from there.

Other than that I could spend many pages and many hours talking about all the nuances that make Grayson who he is. We are so proud of him and love him so much, and feel lucky that for our first child (the pioneer) we got a kid with the right kind of understanding,forgiving, and patient personality that allows us the leeway to figure it all out.

one day in the life...

Today we had Grayson's farewell picnic for his current Pre-school. It was at a local park. Of course, like usual I was the only mom there with siblings, but at least noone seemed to mind - some actually commented that they wished they had brought there other little and big ones along.

I definately noticed that Grayson doesn't really interact with any of the kids. Which should come as no real surprise as he has told me numerous times that he doesn't have any friends there. However it was nice to see how well he and Eme watch out for one another - boy they sure make me look good :-). It's hard not to feel sad when your kid isn't the most popular kid in class, but at the same time I have to realize that part of this happens to be because most of these kids spend a lot more time together which leaves Grayson as the odd man out so to speak. This parenting stuff is tough!

Eme took a nap today, which generally means late bed time. A couple nights ago when she did this I set her up in her room with a stack of book and asked her if she wanted to keep looking at books while I go and work out. I told her if she could wait for me to come back I would read one of the books of her choice and lay with her until she falls asleep. When we have tried this in the past she's never lasted more than a few minutes before she is out roaming the halls. However it worked the other night so I tried again tonight (guess our little Eme is growing up!) When I came back in tonight she was laying down on her pillow, one yellow kitty in her arms, the other yellow kitty on her other pillow, and Eme was singing very softly a lullaby to them. It was cute beyond words! When I asked her about it she told me she read a few books to her kitties, then her kitties wanted to be sung to sleep. How cute is that. Someday Eme will be an amazing mother!

I am off to sleep, I have some make-up to do in that department.

The joy of siblings....

Okay after so much lag between postings I thought I would make up for lost time :-)

I just had to share Anna. You can definitely tell she is blessed to be a third child in a chaotic household with siblings similar in ages.

For instance(s):

She has shown no interest in crawling, it's walking or nothing.

When she doesn't get her way, or one of her siblings tries to take something away from her she either hits or tries to bite, remember she's only 12 months old not 2 (needless to say we are doing our best to nip this behavior in the bud).

She will only eat food that we are eating (when she eats any food at all)

One of her first words was "mine!" (it is not hard to imagine where she learned this term).

And the funniest yet, has come as a result of Grayson and Eme in the process of learning their phonics (Grayson is actually starting to read!!). G and E are in love with a particular video (from the very limited library and TV watching allotment), called the "Letter Factory", by leapstart. It teaches the letters and their sounds to the tune of farmer in the dell. The 'A' says 'ah', etc. etc. Grayson loves to watch and then reenact as the characters. Eme loves to watch and sing the song over and over and over and did I mention over again? Any way where this long story is going. Yesterday I had the song stuck in my head and in the car asked Eme (in the sing songy tune): "hey Eme, the 'A' says ...? " and Anna out of the blue says 'ah'. My first thought is there is no way she really is answering, it must have been just random. So of course I ask again, and lo and behold she answered 'ah' again, and again, and again. And now it appears our littlest Dawes apparently knows the phonetical pronunciation of her first letter, not to mention her first vowel. We couldn't be prouder, and hope to remember to catch it on video for future prosperity.

anna

anna
Originally uploaded by janiedawes.

Here's Anna enjoying one of her favs..strawberry

Eme & Anna Nap

Eme & Anna Nap
Originally uploaded by janiedawes.

The girls get a little shut eye..together

Eme

Eme
Originally uploaded by janiedawes.

Here's she is with her big blues...

Grayson

Grayson
Originally uploaded by janiedawes.

Here's a photo of the G-man

okay missed a few days (weeks)

Well I am struggling to keep up on this like I am with all my other good intentions...next step is to send invitations to the families to join this blog.

Last night the kids seemed to sleep about their best. Grayson and Eme after all night in their own beds even got up by themselves and went into the play room (a first!). Anna slept from 11-5 without waking once! I hesitate to say it for fear of jinxing ourselves but maybe our sleepless nights are on the wane? The only thing we did differrent was with Grayson and Eme we gave them extra "mommy" time before bed, and I made an extra effort to give some personal attention to each of them. With Grayson he got a massage while I appreciated 10 things about him (one for each finger). With Eme I laid with her in bed and appreciated her, while rubbing her back until she fell asleep. Anna has just been overall sleeping better and better, however she seems a little under the weather (teething?) so the last couple nights (and day naps) have been all over the place.

Grayson's last day of school at Serendipity is next tuesday. I really feel good about taking him out of school there, especially since it led to the discovery of The Nest. Grayson and Eme are slated to start in July after the holiday. I hope we haven't jumped into something new too quickly, but after our visit it just seemed like the absolute perfect fit - if such a thing exists.

We have a free day today with no planned activities, and the kids seem relieved and want to play with Rosie ("no, mommy!") so I am taking the opportunity to clean and organize my desk, and write this blog.

well that's it for now....

great vocabulary, etal

So Paul reports to me that in conversation today Grayson actually used the word "bizzare" . We have been constantly amazed on the vocabuarly our kids have. From words like "miserable" to Eme playing her word game and started singing "I am a mouse and I like to crouse" (whatever that means) it makes us laugh.

On a second topic, their pretend play is amazing. They constantly slip in and out of character, and ask "remember who I am?" if we happen to call them by their given name. Today Grayson spent a good 30 minutes crawling around on the floor because he was a "drragonlizard", a character that Paul made up in his on going story that he has been telling Grayson. Eme often says she's the same as Grayson (which amazingly doesn't bother him), but she also will spend time being her own "characters" as well. Today she was mostly "pickles". a cat from a book I read to her at the doctor's office.

Anna, shunned her second nap today and poor thing fell asleep in Paul's arms as I was preparing dinner. She is really starting to let go when it comes to walking, especially if what she wants is only one or two steps away.

Life is good and all is well

here we go...

My first attempt to start recording a day in life of our growing family. Hope this help keep those that can't be near by up to date.