Sleeping update

When we returned to the doctor for little man's shots we discovered that he had a mild ear infection - so that could be the cause of all his crankiness in the middle of the night. It seemed like something more than usual. Yet again - somehow I picked the one week that he's sick since he's born to try and do something new. I have moved his yogurt meal to the evening and I am now just doing what the Baby Whisperer calls a "dream feed" around 10:30 pm or so. I still am not sure if it is working - he slept until 5:30 yesterday and was up for the morning. This morning he did his "normal" wake up around 3:45 or so - but he did go back to sleep. Who knew this would get so complicated?

My whole life does not revolve around sleep (okay, well, it almost does). We are getting things ready for the co-op. That's actually my goal for the next few days (and has been for the past few days) to figure out what lessons and materials we will start with and go from there. There are soooo many! We plan to start in less than 2 weeks.

Warning - do not try this at home

Recently I got in my head that little man is a year old and I should probably wean him. I had read about this once upon a time - but not recently. He was already down to about two feeds a day anyway. Of course, last week, when he was sick, I fed him four times a day. In my brilliance I decided that right after he started feeling better I should go cold turkey! What a fool! Feeding him four times a day for two days of course increased my milk supply and then I was in pain and huge. I decided I should probably read up on this again so I pulled out my copy of "So That's What They're For". I glanced over the section and found key phrases like "don't go cold turkey", "consider why you are stopping" and "breast infection". So, I decided to reassess my strategy.

So now I am going to move to one feeding a day. Lots of people talk about their children having a favorite feeding. Well, little man doesn't care about the day feedings and the two days we went cold turkey he didn't miss the bedtime feeding. The only one he seems to care about is the 3:30 - 4:30 am feeding that I started before summer camp this summer. We tried to break this habit on Saturday morning - 2 and 1/2 hours he was up and MAD. Finally, we fed him - with a sippy and milk - and he went back to sleep. So, I guess this is my next issue - how can we get him away from getting up so early in the morning? The Baby Whisperer talks about accidental parenting and I think I have fallen into a bad pattern here.

Success!

Yesterday was the big fundraiser. Although I have had my doubts that this would be a success since March - I have to say, somehow - not by me - it all came together. We ended up with 30 silent auction items (as of Wednesday I knew we had about 12)! We served about 75 plates or so (as of yesterday we had 36 confirmed attending). So once again God was bigger and brought it all together. I actually took little man with me to help set up for a while in the afternoon and he stayed in his stroller for about 2 and 1/2 hours just watching us (and eating pasta some of the time). He barely fussed at all - although he was looking pretty tired at some points. His chill attitude is SO helpful to mom.
So now we are on to the next adventure - the preschool coop. It actually is scheduled to start in about 2 weeks so I need to GET BUSY! I think we will have about 8 kids to start with which is a pretty good number. We'll see what happens from there. I was able to purchase some curriculum materials this week. From the little I've read they are wonderful and exactly what we need. However, I was busy gluing fish nametags together so I didn't have much time to browse through them. That's my goal this week. One of the albums has over 40 lessons on "grace and courtesy". Who can't appreciate that?

Murphy's Law

Well I think someone gave little man a very nice birthday gift - a little virus. So he has had a high temperature for the past few days. No other real signs of sickness - a little lethargic but other than that he seems okay. This of course is his first real illness - which messed up our well baby appointment today (it became a sick baby and we'll have to go back for the shots). The other issue is that tomorrow I am helping to host a fundraiser. Well I had planned to draw on the generosity of my friends to watch little man while I took care of business - but I can't do that when he's sick. So, here we are. His first real illness comes in the midst of a key time. Dad also isn't available because they are down two or three people at work. So, that's the way it goes. I do hope he gets better quickly for his own sake. With some tylenol in him he barely acts sick at all (although his temp is still around 101).
Such is life with a small child - never on your schedule are they?

A special thank you

Well today is little man's first birthday. He decided to get up early but that gave me some time to fix muffins before dad left for work. The muffins that had chocolate chips in them and he wasn't quite what to think of them at first.

We were taking the slow approach to opening presents and we opened the last of the ones that we have this morning before daddy left for work. I would like to extend a special thank you to regular reader RMH who has graced our home with noise . . . um music. Just kidding - he loves banging on the drum and the other musical instruments that came with the set. I am sure that this will entertain him for quite a while and it's not that loud.

I'd also like to thank my parents for the puzzles. My hubbie and I were on-line about to order a bunch of puzzles on Saturday- then the sale ended and it wasn't quite as good a deal. The ones you got are two of the one's we had chosen. Actually just before we opened the presents my husband was hoping aloud for puzzles.

I was hoping we'd get to go out some today - but it's been raining pretty hard all day today. If I remember correctly it also rained last year on his birthday. So I guess we'll just stay inside and play with our new toys! :)

Another Quick resource

I have been looking through Charlotte Mason and other lists of "books you should read" to your little ones. On this list was a series of books that had fairytales from around the world. Well as I researched it further I found a website that has all of the fairytales on it! So, if you are looking for fairytales or stories from other cultures this is a great resource. I think I already posted a site that had many of Aesops' fables on it.

My women's group has started reading Safe People by Cloud and Townsend (our favorite writers). Today we talked about character discernment. One of the reasons people often recommend reading fairy tales and the fables are because they help kids learn more about good and evil if the adults with them can break it down to a level they can understand. Obviously the traits are a little overstated in these stories - but they can help children begin to grasp the concepts. Of course, you really can't beat the Bible for great stories of messed up relationships!

In case you wanted to know . . .

I am continually amazed at the range of articles that the Reading Rockets people put together regularly. They are truly excellent at condensing articles about preparing kids to read and encouraging them to read. This week they have a review of some of the most popular reading programs used in preschools and elementary school. I am happy to report that Reading Recovery (a very popular program) overall got great marks. So if you are thinking about homeschooling, concerned about the approach your preschool or elementary school is taking - this might be worth reading. They also reviewed early childhood programs in six domains related to reading and math. These are just a few of the areas it appears they review curriculum. I can't comment on their educational bent or politics - but it seems that they take their assessments from studies that meet certain requirements.
Additionally, Reading Rockets links to a website that provides a checklist for parents as they consider their child's preschool options. Overall this checklist looks good - although a Montessori school might not meet some of the standards because of their different approach to teaching. But if you are looking at a Montessori school I hope that you realize the reasons for the differences between this school and the typical preschool. These are pretty stringent guidelines - but you do want the best for your child!

Christmas in September!

Last week my friend and I decided to take the plunge and buy a whole boat load of Montessori materials for the co-op. Today the materials arrived in three huge boxes - all of her children were very excited about the boxes. After they were all in bed we began to open and open and open the boxes. I didn't realize just how much stuff we would have. It is all well made (it seems) and I know what to do with most of the materials - so that's good. Now we just have to figure out how to hide . . . ummm. . . store everything for the kids.

Co-op plans are coming along. We decided to do a "trial run" this fall for about 6 or 7 weeks to work on the kinks and to allow people to go through the holidays without extra stress. After this time we will evaluate how it's going and see what we might want to change. Our target first day is October 2nd - so it is coming up pretty soon.

I am now trying to decide if I should participate in an on-line very loose Montessori "training course" starting in October. I think it would probably be worth it. I am also taking the gifted and talented program development course this fall from UNT. I am not sure what to do for my major project because I don't work at a school - I think that will be next week's challenge (oh
plus the fundraiser I am pulling together).

Receiving all of that cool stuff was like Christmas in Spetember. I am really excited about actually using it. I think our kid will love it!