Chatty

One thing that amazes me is E's ability to comprehend every single thing we are saying despite his ability to communicate in a well versed fashion with us.  He is at the point now where he can follow through a string of commands.  For example, "When we get home, I need to you take of your jacket, shoes and socks, then put your socks in the hamper!  Ok?  What are we supposed to do when we get inside?"

He will respond, "Jacket.  Shoes.  Socks."  Good enough!

He will run up to you, grab your finger, pull and say, "Mommy/Daddy, come play.  Come play.  Come play cars."  He will lead you to the toys, then say, "Sit down mommy/daddy.  Right here."

He responds to questions like, "What time is it?"  If it is after dinner, he will say, "Vitamin!" or "Bath time!"  Both are correct.

We had ants coming into the house through the floor vents.  The house is on concrete slab which cracks over time.  I am *so* not cool with this occurrence, but it is predictable and can be handled with Raid ant traps.  E's eyesight is phenomenal.  So, one day, he points to the carpet and says, "A is for ant."  Sure enough, there's an ant.

I feel bad sometimes because I've made my son neurotic about bugs.  I don't like bugs.  Don't care what kind.  We get wolf crickets which are super ugly and erratically hoppy during the cold weather.  I hate them.  We get stink bugs on occasion.  Rarely, we'll see a spider.  I make G catch and release, so we keep a quart wonton container and piece of cardboard to make the capture.  Now, E will see something on the floor, run and get the tupperware to catch it, then say, "Bug!  Bug!", in a worried voice.  Oh no....This is so my fault.

Recently, I found that that over the last three weeks his behavior has been digressing and he has not been listening at school.  He won't participate in circle time and wants to wander the room.  He pushes around chairs.  He pushed his best friend and refused to apologize even though his friend did.  I feel like an awful parent.  He is disruptive and setting a bad example for the younger kids.  He's one of the older ones, and I feel like he should've been moved up to the 2.5 yo room and is getting bored in this one.  The same thing happened in his previous room.  He's just NOT listening, even at home.  The time out chair is going to start real soon.

Part of me feels like it is my fault.  G has been doing almost all the E care since I can't pick him up.  He is too heavy at 30 lbs.  I can pick him up if he is already elevated.  For example, if I can get him to stand in his car seat and grab onto me, we're OK.  I just can't pick him up out of the crib.  So, I bought little stepstools and they are all over the place.  He likes them.  He likes having independence.

I'm sick.  G came down with the cold first.  It has been going around work. Then, E got it.  Then I woke up on Saturday feeling pretty awful.  My turn, YAY!  It's hard to go go go all the time between working FT, tending to E, making sure our food situation is handled, etc.  I think we do keep up pretty well, but at what cost?

I need to rest.  It has been go go go today, and I even stayed home from work to rest.  Will need to stay home tomorrow also.  Using up vacation, which i what I need to hoard in order to get PAID during maternity leave once disability runs out.

Without getting too political, the US is so far behind when it comes to maternity policies, and it seems like it will only get worse under this new regime.  God help us all.