Mom Remembers

SVEN:  I want more water. ME:  OK.   [I get him some water.]   SVEN:  There. ME:  The polite thing to say is "thank you". SVEN:  You're welcome, Mommy.

Leif Solomon Duede January 10, 2015 at 10:00 pm 6 pounds, 1 ounce and 19 inches

This Christmas found me eight months pregnant and closing fast on my due date.  And with the break in normal activities afforded by our vacation in Illinois, I finally found time to prepare for my fourth son's impending birth.  It seemed like an appropriate focus for my own inner work during the season.  After all, Christmas is about the birth of a very special child. In my pondering, Mary's story became a potent allegory for my own situation.  Although she was unique among women, we have much in common.  The baby she carried was the Son of God, Himself a diety, with a sacred mission to perform.  The baby I carry is also a son of God with divine potential, one who has also been sent to earth with a purpose.  Is it sacrilege to compare my experience with that of the virgin Mary?  To feel like the birth of my son will, in some lesser way, grant our family the gift of " god with us "?   I am sure that, like me, Mary anticipated the good w...

I just wanted to make a quick update about potty training: we are still doing it! I wasn't sure how I wanted to handle potty training on our long car trip to Illinois and during our stay with my in-laws.  But Sven obviously wanted to keep at it.  Even though I put him in a diaper for the trip, he kept it dry and used the big toilets at every rest stop we made.  I really wasn't expecting that but it gave me the confidence to keep working on it during our vacation. He did have quite a few accidents while at me in-laws house, and he really has no idea how to take care of #2.  He also had a couple of days of telling me he wanted to pee every 5 minutes and then not actually needing to go. So this is where things stand, now that we are home: If i take Sven to the bathroom every hour or so, he does a pretty good job staying dry.  He will usually have an accident a day, though, and he still needs to wear a diaper for naps.  I feel that I can trust him to stay...

December!  It's been a busy month and it's not over yet!  But we have put homeschool away to enjoy our Christmas vacation.  I will probably do a few read-alouds to catch up for the crazy days in October but other than that, we are off the hook!  So I thought I would update early, to record what we did with our fraction of a month of school. This month I started something new with Sven, in an effort to make special time for him, prepare him for school someday, and keep him from interrupting our homeschool time.  I have instituted Circle Time again.  Before he starts Room Time (and I start school), we take five or ten minutes to be together.  I sit on the rocking chair with Sven in my lap.  We start by singing "Happy Family".  Then I tell him a nursery rhyme (preferably one with actions).  After that, he gets a book, which I read to him.  Then we are done and he goes to get his toys for Room Time.  It is very short but sweet a...

Soren is seven!  Whoa! Because his birthday was the day before we left for our long car trip to Illinois, I thought that it was pretty stressful and probably not much fun for him.  But he seemed very pleased to have reached the austere age of seven.  Here is what we did to celebrate: 1.  I offered to take him out for donuts for breakfast but he informed me that he didn't want any sugar, that a normal breakfast would be just fine.  This has been a thing on and off with him for the past couple of months: he refuses the idea of sweets but is usually perfectly happy to eat them when they are actually there.  I took him at his word; we didn't go out for donuts but had leftover cake from Scott's birthday. 2.  Scott stayed back from work for about 1/2 an hour in the morning while we ate, which was more special than donuts anyways.  He gave Soren his birthday present: measuring tools!  There was a balance, a set of beakers, and a tape measure. ...

Sunday Number of accidents: 3 Number of successes: 2 Monday Number of accidents: 4 Number of successes: 4 Tuesday Number of accidents: 8 Number of successes: 7 Wednesday Number of accidents: 1 Number of successes: 7 Thursday Number of accidents: 2 Number of successes: 3 Friday Number of accidents: 2 Number of successes: 7 Saturday Number of accidents: 1 Number of successes: 5 I really couldn't be happier about the results of my two-week potty training experiment.  Sven really seems to be getting the hang of this.  Well, at least the peeing part.  Since Tuesday, he has had no pee accidents!   So I think I will keep him in underwear and call this a success.