Calming down...

Things are getting a little better around my house as far as productivity is concerned, but not much sit-down schooling is occuring. Lily has been experiencing bad gas and has been more needy than my first 3 girls, so I haven't found much time to really get organized and back in the swing of things. I feel so disorganized and scatterbrained that I feel like I'm carrying a huge load of things to do, but I just can't get to them. Most days, I feel like resigning everything I do outside of the house and just concentrating on home and family. However, I help run a support group and that's just impossible right now.

That being said, Maisie is really blossoming. Her music class is going really well, even though we've missed classes here and there for baby and travel. She's learning the song "The Saints Go Marching In" and is having a great time with it. She's also starting to practice on her own--mostly her own experimental songs--but she's enjoying it, which is what I want the most. As for reading and spelling, we haven't done any "sit down" work, but she is trying to read and spell everything she sees these days. My mom bought the girls Shrek 3 and was trying to be sly about asking me if they could watch the movie the other day so she spelled it out...to which Maisie replied, "SHREK 3!!! Can we watch it mommy?" She also picks up books and finds words she knows--last night she found a book with FARM and came in and said, "mom, I can spell FARM...F-A-R-M!"

In January when we start to buckle down into routine again, I think she'll be much farther ahead than I think!

Dani is my creative one but has an analytical mind. She's been working on puzzles lately and shows an incredible knack for them. Most often she doesn't "hunt" for a place for a puzzle piece, but by looking at it she knows just where to put it. That amazes me as I was never very good at puzzles. In fact, I have a puzzle that DH bought me years ago that I don't even want to attempt (it's one of those collage puzzles where every piece has tiny little pictures on it, but they collectively make on large picture of Winnie the Pooh). She also loves to color and write, which is a collection of little symbols at the moment. She can write an A, U and a couple other letters, but I haven't taught her the true form yet--that will come in January since it seems her motor skills are rather advanced for writing and she really wants to write.

Katie is going to be 2 tomorrow. She seems so grown up now that we have Lily. She is potty training, though we're having our ups and downs, and is sleeping in her toddler bed for naps. We still haven't transitioned at night yet, but it will come in time. Katie also has an eye for puzzles and is very physical. She remembers the signs she used from 6 months on and we're all starting to use them more regularly again to teach the baby as she grows. Her favorite signs are "mommy" and then "milk" when I'm nursing Lily. We've been giving her mini m&ms for successful potty trips and she now knows all of the "m&m colors"--brown, yellow, orange, blue and green. At some point, we'll branch out and make sure she knows the rest.

As for me, I'm starting on a journey of cutting out dairy from my diet. Lily has become so fussy and gassy during the day that I feel like I have to find out whether there is an allergy or problem, or just her immature digestive system trying to grow. I've been researching non-dairy diets on the web and it's going to be very challenging for me as I'm a milk-cheese-cottage cheese-cereal kind of girl. I'll have to switch to soymilk for cereal and avoid chocolate all together....*sigh* I'm such a chocoholic anyway, so it will be a good transition. I think that after two weeks I should see a big difference, if not, I'll try and find an alternative culprit in my diet. It's just not worth the hours of carrying her around the house in the sling, wrap or Baby Bjorn above and beyond the normal bonding.

My plan for January for the girls:

Spanish-1 day per week, 1 day of vocab
Sing, Spell, Read and Write-2 days a week
Sign Lanugage--three new signs per week
Math U See--2 days per week
Money Math--1 day per week
Writing--1 day per week
Reading--every day