Shannon Yee

Thaddeus and I have started on the more intention weaning path. Now, we are winding along very aimlessly most of the time, but every so often I am more determined and we make a little progress. Very early in the morning, Thaddeus silently climbs out of his crib, opens his bedroom door, leaves and closes the door behind him. Then, TJ comes into my room and climbs up in the bed with me and says very sweetly. “Dis. Mama, I want dis. Puweez. Puweez. (while signing please)” And, every morning, I say “Not until morning.” or “Fine.” It all depends how early and how tired I am. For me, morning is not until at least 5am, but we don’t get up until 7am, if we can help it. Thaddeus has been taking it in stride pretty well with a few whines and screams about how he really wants “DIS!” and then he settles back into his bed and sleeps for another hour or two until he repeats his wake up routine.

When we started nighttime weaning a few weeks ago, he woke every hour with this routine and returned to bed to sleep for exactly one hour until he awoke again…

Nursing a chid to sleep has many, many benefits, not the least of which is sleep for mom and baby. I still nurse my little one to sleep for naps and bedtime, but now he is going back to sleep on his own and I am sleeping soundly through the night, which also has many benefits.

It is sort of strange to recognize that the end of something that has been such an integral part of life for the last 6+ years will soon be coming. I still remember the very last time I nursed Eila, which is crazy as she had been nursing in the morning once every few days for a couple weeks and I asked Brian to take a picture since she probably wouldn’t nurse too many more times… well, that was the last time she did. With Josiah, things were different. He didn’t adjust his nursing as well as I would’ve liked when I got pregnant and I was going to be out of town for a few days, so I knew that the end was coming as I was taking lots of steps to ensure that the break was indeed the end. It could still be a while with Thad, but all good things must come to an end eventually. It’s nice to be able to appreciate it, even in the process.

Here is one of the amazing gifts that I received for Mother’s Day this year.

I also got a wonderful song and several other thoughtful things from my beautiful daughter. The boys had good intentions…

After a fabulous week in Los Angeles, visiting my sister, we are enjoying some serious home time. The overnight flights were great for us and the time in the sunshine was just what we needed to survive the rest of this winter, which apparently is still going strong as we got another inch or two of snow last night…

Well, we are back home. Thaddeus is still pretty sick with his second case of stomach flu in two weeks. We are in quarantine mode and it actually suits us just fine. Eila is still going to school, which gives the big ones a much needed break from each other every afternoon. I’ve re-discovered the wonders of the Ergo and am very much enjoying the cuddle time with my sick baby. I am trying out some new – and very delicious – bread recipes from a book that Brian got me for my bday. Now, I just have to order my grain mill and I’ll be in the real bread business.

I mentioned today to some acquaintances that we are taking a family vacation soon and that I’m hoping that all three kids will sleep as we are taking a red-eye flight. The responses were many variations on the same theme. Some more sympathetic than others, but mostly just shock and horror at the prospect of flying overnight with three little ones. Maybe they are right and I really have fallen off my rocker, but it seems like a better plan that trying to entertain my wee bitty baby for five hours in my lap… Those older two will watch movies til their eyes fall out, so they should be fine no matter what, right? I pray these are not my famous last words.

My firstborn now has two adult teeth and an extra set of molars growing in her mouth. Before I can even accept this information, she’ll be getting her wisdom teeth pulled. She turned six a few weeks ago and asks every day to get her ears pierced. Despite being sick, she competed in her second gymnastics meet and was determined to stick it out even though it was really hard – because it seemed like the right thing to do. We’ve had to institute parent controls on the computer and time limits on the Wii. She can’t say or understand anything in French. What happened to my baby?

Tonight, we cuddled and looked at the American Girl Doll catalogue. She still asks me to lay down and cuddle with her for a few minutes each night, but she doesn’t need me to sing anymore and she says her own prayers. We have a dance party at least a few times a week and I’m still told to follow her lead. The highlight of her day is often “Tickle Time.” And, every morning she needs a few minutes of mom-time before her day can begin. I hope that never changes…

yeesite.com

I love the idea of neighbors helping each other and people coming alongside to support one another. I just hate to be the one to need the help. More accurately, I hate to have to ask for that help. I don’t like to inconvenience people, but mostly I don’t like to talk to people that I don’t know really well. I especially don’t like to ask acquaintances for favors.

Today, though, I did it. TJ was sleeping and I really didn’t want to wake him up to take Eila to school. So, I ran over to my neighbors house and asked her to come over and stay at my house while I took Eila to school. She was more than happy to oblige and it was a huge blessing to me. Maybe she’ll be more inclined to ask a favor of me now… for some reason that would make me feel better.

Thaddeus is starting to talk and all his words end with glottal stop or vowels. He uses several different initial consonant sounds. The linguistics nerd in me cannot help but wonder why and if this is typical for early language acquisition. I know that English, especially my particular brand of English has many glottal stops. I also recognize that perhaps these sounds are slightly easier for my little guy to make when compared with the fricatives and lateral sounds of English.

Eila and Josiah both were exposed to a great deal of English and French as infants and had a some words from each language in the early stages of speech acquisition, but I don’t remember or didn’t notice if they followed this pattern as well. Maybe I’ll research it further, but for now Thad is up from his nap and wants down. “Mama, I wa duh. Bah! Mama!!!”

Today was one of those rainy days where I just wanted to stay in bed all day, reading a good book, neglecting all the things that I had planned. The boys had been fighting a bit of a cold and I had been prepared to miss BSF this morning if they weren’t better. So, after finally rolling out of bed, everyone ate and was determined to be in good health. We had about 2 minutes to get dressed and drive to the hosting church about 15- 20 minutes away.
Needless to say, I was hesitant to go as it was raining hard and we were going to be pretty late. But, I felt like there wasn’t really a good reason not to, so we went. Of course, we got stopped by a train and at every red light on the way. Eventually, we pulled into the lot and I felt a little better as there were lots of other people still walking and driving in. The parking situation is a little crazy each week, but I decided to try an aisle right by the door and you wouldn’t believe it, but there was one spot right there – with a sign saying “Reserved for Moms with Young Children.” Well, we fit the bill and pulled right in, unloaded and started traipsing in through the rain. A woman in the parking lot came up and asked me if I was the one who had gotten out of the minivan. It seems that people had been driving all over looking for spots and no one had seen that one. It was saved for me. I couldn’t argue at all. God was indeed raining down his goodness on me today and I thank Him that he cares enough to save me “a parking spot right in front. That’s a good omen.” (LOL – that’s a line from one of my favorite movies of yore…)

We are now two and a half weeks into the school year. I am struggling to adjust to all the changes in our family life. The amount of homework for parents of Kindergartens is astounding. I had no idea that teachers and schools needed so much documentation from parents. I am glad that Eila’s teacher keeps us informed, but really can’t believe all the things that need to be acted on and sent back by the deadline.

One of those things is fundraisers. I am drowning in fundraisers between the PTA and LGA, there is no end in sight and this week there are four separate fundraisers going on. I know that I don’t have to participate in them all, but I feel the pressure just knowing about them.

Eila, of course, loves school and gymnastics. Josiah, of course, loves being a big four year old. Thaddeus, of course, is only napping during lunch, but he is happy and doing well on his new schedule. I, of course, am working hard on being the calm, loving mom who has it all together – at least some of the time.