Autumn

It's November and I am so completely unprepared for the holidays. I am barely keeping my head above water with school right now (is there a course for how to manage all the stuff that comes with your children being in school so that you're not behind in EVERYTHING or is it just that much easier when you start with one in Kindergarten that people "catch on" faster?)

We're still here, we're getting by. We've done 4 birthdays in the last 3 months and have one to go. Being a scrooge, I asked if we can pick a significant birthday and just let people have parties on the significant birthday - like only for turning 10, 13 and 16 or something. I didn't manage one a month very well. I think the answer was that Daddy will take care of birthday party planning next year.

Her Royal Highness has grown a lot this last year, and only someone who has adopted an older child from a place of malnutrition can understand the fullness of what I'm saying. When you compare her and princess, and princess is wearing her clothing from Jan/Feb, if the waistband is elastic, Princess has a small waist, it's very difficult to comprehend that a person can grown and change that much in such a short time.

Little is on the rampage. It was driving me to despair, but I'm feeling more in control. The nutritionist suggested that it was the terrible twos come late... "Praise the Lord!" because it's healthy and normal. I was so miserable, I wanted her to say "I have a supplement that makes them stop raging like a possessed person." "You're right, he's taking eating too much _______." (You know, blame it on refined sugar, or red dye 40 or something). This couldn't be normal, this must be the result of intense emotional issues and I don't know how to discipline it. I finally googled "terrible twos" and it is descriptive of what we have - the name calling, the toy throwing, the tantrums, the hitting, biting (he bit my thigh yesterday!) the disobedience is described as part of that developmental stage where you realize your own ability to impact the world and your competence to do some things for yourself.

Ai-yi-yi. He would have been much easier to contain and discipline when he was the size of a one year old. But we didn't have terrible twos... there was nothing terrible at all about two. So normal development is necessary and I guess..... this is a .... good.... sign? I suppose at least I can make a plan based on this... terrible twos are a stage that doesn't last forever and there are techniques for dealing with it (although I don't see the advice for when they are breaking the siblings things... or throwing shoes at your head... most 24 month olds don't have the aim that Little does).

Mr. Clean is doing well at school, 1st grade is a good fit for him and the worst he's brought home so far was Halloween stories, which .... would have been nice to skip but at first grade were tame...

Princess forgot her glasses today. I'm partially inclined to believe that there may need to be an "on purpose" after that. Both girls are convinced they don't really need them and try to get out of wearing them. She's fine with 2nd grade math and 1st grade reading/language arts. Social Studies and Science is hard, with vocabulary and "______ dead?"... the concept of the flow of time is not quite there. Regal Highness also has an incredible amount of vocabulary that makes those subjects difficult. We are planning on partially enrolling them for the spring and doing social studies and science at home.

Royal Highness is painfully aware that she's the oldest child in the school... something we didn't expect when we enrolled her. Her classmates are Princess's age mates - at the field trip yesterday Princess "fit" in size wise (although I'm afraid a lot of the information was lost on her... "James mother dead?" Regal Highness replies "George. George Washington." Princess is concerned about if he's dead and how many brothers and sisters he had... I was hoping we'd learn a bit more about the first President of the United States. I think Mr. Clean's learning experience was that Anne's classmates are fun to play soccer with... I guess I should be glad we didn't invest a lot of money in the experience and when we revisit George and his mother Mary there may be a glimmer 0f recognition (like hatchets are a fun birthday gift?).

Tangenting... in our current society, would it even be legal to give a minor a sharpened hatchet as a gift? The toy aisle in Target... sharpened tools with warnings on the packaging saying "Contains sharp parts, not suitable for children under the age of 13." No way I'd give one of my boys an object of destruction to be their very own any time in the next several years... the tour guide asked the student actor what he thought he'd say to his son when he presented the gift... my answer was "Don't use it on the furniture. - oh wait, I'd never give my kids that gift in the first place." Augustine Washington... you definitely lived in a different world than I did. "George, remember you can't take that hatchet on school property, or you could be arrested."

More later... hopefully you won't have to wait 2 months. I thought Daddy was going to be posting to HIS blog in October...