I am missing my peeps.?? I am a pretty home bound person but enough is enough already.?? Preemie lock downs are NOT fun.???? Jim and I haven’t decided when we will come off lock down status.?? The $1300.00 in medical bills that came in last week that resulted from a cold (and that was just our 20% portion and probably not all of it) have us second guessing everything.?????? He is doing great today though.?? Still vomiting a lot but hopefully not aspirating.?? I am still coughing (seven weeks later).?? Not sure what is up with that but it’s starting to make me just grumpy now.

Troy’s due date is TODAY – AUGUST 15th!!!???? We are no longer in negative time.?? :)???? I suspect he is just over 9 pounds if I had to guess (based on an 8.12 weight last week).

As I type this, he is sleeping on my chest wrapped native style.???? I love baby wearing.?? LOVE it.?? I am cherishing every minute of these early days.?? I ran into my friend Julie in the grocery store this week and she made a comment that has stuck with me.?? I was telling her how in love I am with my baby boy and she suggested that baby bonding likely came so easy for me because it was so obvious to us that God handpicked this child for our family.???? I thought about her words and realized how super accurate that is.?? I am a natural bonder anyhow but Julie is so right.?? When you have such a profound peace about God making a very deliberate choice in your life, I think you just embrace that gift on such a deep level.?? I know that Jim and I (and the kids too) look at our youngest and see the fingerprints of God at work and we are just so in awe of that.?????? I look at my children and feel so humbled that God would choose me for them.???? The second He places His choice in my arms, I wonder how I ever even breathed without them.???? Just this overwhelming sense of “oh yes – you were always supposed to be here and who were we without you?”.???? I am pretty emotional these days.?? Guess it isn’t just pregnancy hormones that alter a woman’s emotional balance.???? Good tears though and lots of them.???????? I wish I could share more of him with my family right now.?? I hate that they are missing out on these early days.?? I also hate that I am missing out on some early days of Quinn’s life.?? I am missing her especially because, like Troy she is changing so fast.

I am going to enjoy this one aspect of being home bound though.???? Hours and hours of cuddle time.

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I start school with the kids in September as opposed to August so we have a bit more time left.?? We start the day after labor day.?? I have decided to switch from Saxon this year because?? I am not sure it is the best pick for either of my boys.?? Ty struggles a bit more in math and since handwriting is still a challenge, saxon doesn’t work right now.?? In looking for an online solution for Ty, I investigated www.TeachingTextbooks.com.?? It is pricey but I went through the sample lessons and REALLY like how it works.?????? You purchase the CDs and then each day the child listens to a computer based lecture with graphics and then does sample problems that the instructor demonstrates.?? Then they have a workbook where they can do their work for the day BUT (and I love this part), they type in their answers and the program tells them what problems they missed and then demonstrates to them how to arrive at the correct answer.?? It is very intuitive.?? It goes clear through pre-calculus and the reviews from college students looked great.?? I think it is a tad behind Saxon though so I am starting Tanner in six grade Math.?? (Which means pre-algebra will be next year already – creepy).?? Two more years of this and I will have one grade school graduate.?? :)?? Unfortunately, the program doesn’t start until Grade 3.???? I think many 2nd graders could do the grade 3 but not in Ty’s case because he needs to take it a little slower in this department.?? I think I will stick to the Flashmaster and then RockinMath online for him this year.?? I am also going to start some geography and keyboarding for Tanner.?????? Jim has started a 15 hour gun safety course with Tanner and Tanner has his first little presentation tomorrow night.?? I was a little nervous for him because of his shyness but he has been practicing with us and I have been pleasantly surprised.?? We’ll see how he does when he “goes live”.???????? This fall Tanner might do some BMX racing at the local track and we are considering starting him in Skeet shooting at Ben Avery.?? I am trying to think of something fun for Ty but since he struggles with motor skills, many outdoor challenges are not particularly enjoyable to him still.?? He DID manage to climb to the top of Tanner’s bunk bed today without assistance and this has been a long time dream of his.?? He was so excited.?? (Jim removed all but one of the steps so it was a little more difficult than it sounded).

Tori and Ty are BFFs these days.?? They had a “sleep over” last night in the playroom and watched a movie until they fell asleep on the trundle.?? They both love to pretend together and are well suited for playtime activities.???? One thing that has me baffled though is the way that they tell on one another.???? It goes like this (I will use Tori as the tattler for this example but it often happens the other way around too – same dynamics).

Tori:?? Mommy!?? Ty just hit me with a pillow!

Me:?? That doesn’t sound like too big of a deal to me (or maybe the incident does and we discuss discipline).?? I address Ty.

Tori:?? Come on Ty!?? Let’s go back and play!

Ty:?? Okay Tori!?? What should we do?

At this point, I want to interject “Hey Ty.?? She totally just threw you under the bus.?? Your okay with that??? Your just going to go right back to playing with her without saying a word?”

But…I say nothing.?? Saying anything would be quite counter productive.?? I just shake my head in wonder at it.

I have learned this one thing though and that is that Tori is absolutely relentless.?? You MUST acknowledge her.?? If she is acknowledged, she will let it go and move on.?? If she thinks you are not acknowledging/validating though, she will not hush up.?? Nothing you can do will get her to be quiet.???? She will repeat it over and over endlessly until you do something.???? Sometimes I get frustrated with telling her to hush because she can’t quit.?? She’ll be yelling it from her bedroom or whispering it or mouthing it from the hallway.?????? Stubborn little person.?? She got that from her Dad.?? 😉