How Do They Do It?

I am in awe of how families with a large number of children do it. To all of you, my hat is off - I couldn't do it, I would end up in an rubber room. I think kids just feed off of each other. When my two oldest get going - teasing me about something they tag team & it can get pretty funny. When the two little ones encourage each other to do something naughty, sassy or laugh at actions that weren't appropriate it can get a little trying. I can't imagine keeping a whole gang of kids under control. It is very different also having kids from birth that grow up knowing the rules instead of coming into a family setting never having lived in one before with a whole new set of rules in a foreign lanuage. Some days I look forward to bedtime.

Now I don't want to sound so negative here. They are great kids, I love them completely & I can't imagine my family without them. They have so much to learn but they have learned so much already. Things will keep getting easier the more time & experience they have here. Both their lanuage skills have improved dramatically.

C speaks English so well, she can communicate quite well already. I worry as she is overly friendly with strangers so that is worrisome. We have had basement renos going since the kids came home & C wants to be carried, hugged & played with by all of the contractors as they walk in the door. There is not appropriate personal boundaries with strangers. At the park she will go sit on another Mom's knee & cuddle. So this a sign of an attachment problem & sometimes she also will not make eye contact - especially when she is grumpy or being disciplined. I am not overly concerned at this point as she has not been home long but it will be something I will monitor more closely. Basement is almost done - so we will lose the parade of strangers through our house too. She seems pretty on par with the rest of her development though except she can not do her colors - at all. I am going to book an eye test & find out if she is color blind. I will tell her there is a yellow school bus - What color is the school bus C? her answer will be green. UGGG over and over - she will get the color correct for a while & then revert to another color. So we have started doing a color a day. Today was red day - so as we drove around or at home we would point out anything or have her look for anything red. This is a new experiment yesterday was yellow so I will let you know how it goes. We will see tomorrow if she can remember the last two days colors. Anyone have any suggestions? She should definitely know her colors at this stage. She can be such a joy & has the best laugh. She really just wants to be loved & have your undivided attention but she can cop an attitude be very sassy.

D came home with very little language skills, even kreyol. He spoke mostly baby talk & unfortunately for him we didn't understand that anymore. Already he is speaking so much better but possibly that is because we have learned to understand his baby talk better, but at least we can communicate. The doctor said he should have a vocabulary of about 50 words so I think he has that. We are still toilet training him but with having our washing machine unavailable during the week while the contractors are working, I can't keep him in underwear all the time. I think when we can do laundry consistantly & keep him in underwear all the time he will be completely trained in no time. He is pooping on the potty about 95% of the time so that makes me very happy. He learns other skills very quickly & has a great belly laugh. He loves anything with wheels - cars, trucks, trains, trikes etc. He is very easy to love even if he is a little whiney at times & throw those two year old tantrums.

Both kids eat amazing & still large portions for little kids. They eat absolutely everything - all fruits, veggies & meats - if I put it in front of them they are game. How lucky am I? My oldest two kids were never picky & had hearty appetites & now my youngest aren't picky & are good eaters. In fact I am the problem child in my family, fortunately I'm the cook most of the time so I can cook stuff I will eat. ;) Don't tell my kids.

I took the littles to the library this week & they were so amazed. They were just screaming Mommy look books! over & over, they were so blown away. We took a bunch of books out & borrowed some Sesame Street DVD's & they are loving it. When they first came home they had no attention span & only wanted to view a couple of pages & then move on to the next book. Now they will sit through several small books. They couldn't sit through a full length video so the Sesame street DVD is short segments & only last half an hour or so they can sit through most of them. They sometimes watch Big Comfy Couch (not my favorite) at night for half an hour at bed & I try to get them to watch tv so I can catch a few more zzz's in the morning in my bed for maybe half an hour or an hour max. I don't think they know there is tv available all day. If they wake up early (ok I am getting spoiled) before 7am - I tell them it's too early for tv & they have to lay in my bed quietly until 7 & then I will turn the tv on. I don't want them getting up too early to watch tv. I don't want the kids to be sitting in front of the tv so we try to stay busy during the day doing other things. Yesterday I took them to two different pet stores - my favorite place to shop without a doubt. Don't worry Mom we were just window shopping & haven't added any new critters. Heck that little field trip was like a trip to the zoo for kids with short attention spans & it's free & warm. They just kept asking me Mommy what's that? They liked the fish tanks but they weren't too keen on petting any of the little critters I love.

When we brought the kids home we weighed & measured them & yesterday I had them to the doctors for a check up. C has gained 4lbs & grown 1". She is still on the 25 percential for both height & weight. D has gained 3lbs & grown 2". He is on the 25% for Height & 5% for weight. I have had to buy one size up in pants for both kids already as their other pants were getting too short. D was wearing 18 month, size 2 are way too big so we just moved to size 24 months. C needs a size 4 but with a small waist. She is slim & D is shorter & stockier.

I thought once I was home the days wouldn't fly by as quickly as I would have so much leisure time. hahaha - I can't believe the weeks are flying by. No I have not accomplished much either. I just want this snow to leave & for the weather to warm up so we can enjoy the days more. I hate having the kids cooped up in the house as they are used to living outside. Nothing else new in my life.

Hugs, Laur