Back to School and Charlie (7 months)

Ok, I know, I know, where are the pictures I promised like a month ago? They're coming, really they are! I've been working and running around like a crazy person (wow, two kids is something!), and my laptop at home is almost kaput, so...excuses, excuses! I really will work on this tonight.

My big boy started kindergarten this year. I can't believe he's old enough for that. I can't believe a lot of things. When we bought our house we were on the 5 year plan. "It's a great starter house, but we'll be out by the time our kids start elementary school." Famous last words. What we didn't expect when we bought our house at the height of the market was for it to crash as hard as it did. So, now we're on the new 5 year plan-the "before Charlie starts elementary school" plan. I have an adorable Pin.terest inspired picture of Jack on his first day of kindergarten to post here, but as usual, I'll have to post it when I'm not at work. We picked him up from his first day on Monday and asked him how his day was. His response, "It was MAGNIFICIENT!" He was so excited and everyday since when we pick him up, we're told his day was magnificient (with a little less enthusiasm). This is a very welcome change as he didn't seem to really like preschool as much as he's liking the "big school".

His teacher seems really nice, she also goes to our church (he goes to a private Christian school, and we're members of the church there as well). She does a good job of keeping us up to date on what they're doing, and we really like that since sometimes getting that kind of info from Jack is a little difficult. But if we want info on how many times they went outside to play, or who he played with, or which kid didn't earn a dollar at school today, then we're full of info! The earning a dollar thing is what our teacher does to encourage good behavior. The kids can earn fake dollars (one a day) for showing good behaviors. If they earn green or blue (Jack says blue is better than green and means you've had excellent behavior), they get $1 for the day. If you are on yellow or red, you don't. When you've earned $6, then you can "buy" something from the teacher's treasure box (which the parents have supplied the goodies for). Jack has $5 so far, and he's looking forward to going back to school on Tuesday to earn another. And one last thing-I thought I was going to hate that they have to wear uniforms. I LOVE it. First of all, he is just so darn cute in his uniform. Secondly, I don't have to worry about matching outfits together-I only have to worry about making sure he's got a clean, neat uniform to wear the next day. It doesn't get any better than that!

I miss having Jack at home, and being able to be spontaneous about what we do that day. Or being able to decide to skip a day at school and do something fun instead because it's "preschool" not "real school" and by real school I mean that his attendance counts, where at preschool it doesn't. I miss Jack being able to help me with Charlie when I need to go get something from the kitchen or from another room. I miss Jack just coming up to my room when I'm napping for work and snuggling into bed with me and deciding that he wants to nap with me without being asked or talked into it. That being said, I like feeling for a few hours each day that I only have one child to worry about. I drop Jack off, and Charlie and I will go to the grocery store and walk around, we lounge around the house, and the only time I have to worry about what time it is is when it gets close to 3pm and I have to worry about waking Charlie up from his nap to go get Jack. That part is nice.

In other news, Charlie is 7 months old. Actually I guess he's about 7.5 months old now. He began pulling to a stand on his own about a week before the 7 month mark. We heard him on the monitor, and Jack went to Charlie's room to see what he was doing and I heard a gasp and then, "Mommy! You better come here, quick!" Of course, the first thing going through my mind is "Oh no!" Well, maybe not no, but that's cleaner to say. So I hightail it to Charlie's room, and look in, and the child is standing up in his crib and smiling at me. I had to run back to my room to grab my phone because I didn't think Archie would believe me and of course, I had to get a picture. I'll post that later too. Charlie started crawling 3 days before his 7 month birthday. It was only a couple of "steps", but he was doing it. He started while we were on vacation at our friend's house. I think he was motivated by the "older" kids being able to get around and do what they want. Since then he's been more happy. I have video of him crawling to me from last week that I'll try to post.

In addition to pulling to a stand, and crawling, he is now trying to walk if you hold his hands. He can take a few steps this way. He also likes to show off by holding onto furniture while he's standing and letting go and just holding on with one hand and smiling at you. The big boy also has two teeth now, and I swear he's working on more. Between the crankiness, and the way he bites my finger or anything else he can shove in his mouth, there's no doubt that more are coming in.

Charlie goes to bed at about 7:30 most nights, and for me, he usually wakes up between 3 and 4:30 wanting to nurse, and then sleeps until about 6:30 or 7. That said, he has nights where he sleeps straight through until 5:30am. He seems to sleep better at his grandmom's or for his dad. My suspicion is that if I put him to sleep, he knows that if he wakes up and wants milk and screams loud enough and long enough I will come and I will feed him. God love him, breastfeeding was the one thing I wanted to go right this time, and it has, but he thinks he owns these things! He cries any time that I leave his sight. The only time I can get away with it is if he's interested in something before I sneak away. And usually by the time I get down to the basement and start to load the washing machine, I can hear him crying for me. He's been more clingy the last few days and I'm not sure why. Maybe teething, maybe because Jack's back in school and it's disrupted the routine, maybe he just wants to know his boobs aren't far away, I don't know!

He does still spit up, but usually that's all it is, not throwing up. I did test the waters while we were on vacation and have some forbidden things, and initially he tolerated it ok, but the night before we left to come back home he had a bout of diarrhea, and then the night that we got back, he was up frequently during the night and screaming high pitched like someone was trying to kill him. And the other day I don't think I ate anything bad for him, but I must have because he was throwing up quite a bit for my mom. So, back to restricting my diet. We meet with the allergist again in October, and I'm interested in picking her brain about what to feed him yogurt-wise. At this point we were giving Jack that Yo-baby yogurt and he loved it, but I'm just not sure with Charlie. I eat coconut milk yogurt (only the mango flavored, or I'll get plain and cut up strawberries to mix in and that's good too), but I think coconut can be pretty allergenic so I didn't want to go there until we have an ok. Someone at work suggested goat's milk yogurt. I can't say I've seen that, but I wasn't really looking for it either at the place we usually go to get my "special" butter, yogurt, etc. We see the GI doc again in November or December.

I feel so much pressure this year. I don't know what it is. Jack had talked briefly about playing a sport this fall. He either wanted "real" football (he played flag football this past Spring and loved it, but now wants to play "real" football-yikes!) or baseball. I hate to say it because I think that it would be great for him to do, but I just feel like I can't handle it. Charlie's a handful-he's very busy, much more active than Jack was at this age, and he wants to be into EVERYTHING. Jack has school all day, and 2-3 weeknights I have to work which means we get Jack from school then we're making dinner/getting ready for work, and I'm rushing around to get stuff ready for work and for them to go to their grandmom's house, and that's chaotic enough but to add in a sport at least one night a week and maybe a day on the weekend? I just feel like that's too much right now. Not that it will be better when Charlie is actually walking and I've got to chase him around when Jack's trying to play a game and I want to be watching him. Do any other parents feel this pressure or is it just me? Either way, I haven't signed him up for anything. I just don't have the energy to try to keep up with all of that right now.

That's my update for now. Hope all is well with my bloggy friends out there!