Moving Forward: Birthday Girl, WHO, and "Pee Pee"

Happy 4th Birthday Shayna!!! Nahum and I took Shayna out for dinner on the 27th. Of course she chose the Sake House where she can get Ikura (salmon roe). (That's the only sushi she'll eat, yet.) She was quite well behaved and loved having Ima and Aba all to herself. Poor girl got strep on her party day so we postponed the party until last Saturday. She loved it. Lots of bouncing, running, and princess playing. Plus, her favorite pizza and a strawberry ice cream cake.

Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of things to gush about this year as it's more like the year of frustration. I love her continued growth and development and it's so fun, when she's nice, to hear her talk. She's got a great imagination so keeps herself busy around the house with all her daughters and animals. Sometimes her "son" is involved too, this means Elijah gets bossed around a lot. Luckily she also still loves running and jumping so it's not all bossy-pants time. The frustration comes because she has been busy asserting her independence for the last few months which includes lots of yelling at me ("Fine!! Then I won't like/listen to you!!", "No!!!", or "I'm never going to talk to you again!" to say a few.) or hitting, kicking and the occasional full body slam if I'm not naturally in hitting/kicking range. Then there's the peeing in her bed before she goes to sleep to get attention thing. It's just another attempt at social manipulation but I got so sick of doing laundry that once she pees now she just sleeps on the plastic mattress. At least, after months of struggle, we figured out and implemented a, currently, working solution. She was moved into the guest bedroom, so she won't disturb Elijah's sleep, given a laundry basket, a pile of clean shirts, pants, and towels (so she doesn't have to lay on the plastic) and one sheet, told to take care of herself and we don't want to see her until her clock light comes on in the morning. She hasn't peed awake in 1-1/2 weeks!! The asleep peeing is still an issue but at least most of the time she takes care of the situation herself. Now, if only the yelling and slapping me and shoving Elijah when he won't listen to her directives would lessen, I would be a very happy mama.

Two-years-old, now that's an age I love. There's growing independence and communication but there's still innocence and he listens so much more than my 3-now-4-year-old did/does. (Plus, if he doesn't listen, I can still physically make him rather easily.) The communication thing has been the star for him in the last 2-3 weeks. The crown jewel of which is he tells me, and others, when he needs to potty without any dribbles in his pants, even in the middle of an engrossing activity. He's also working really hard on helping get his pants off then on. It's so nice to finally have a break through on that front. He seems to add 1-2 new words to his vocabulary every day too and he's started to "read" books to himself, not just look at them but tell himself out loud the story of the pictures. He also loves to tell people he's 2-years-old. He goes around asking himself, "howyou?" then doing his best to hold up 2 fingers he shouts, "two!" Whenever we go up and down stairs, we have to count them and he gets a thrill when I, or anyone else, hold up my fingers for counting.

The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding until the age of two and I am so excited to have made it that far with Elijah. We made it 2 years, 1 month, and 3 days until I decided that I was done. He would have gone on for who knows how long but has been content with the new situation as well. He loves reading the "car" book before bed and having me sing "Visit the Moon". He actually runs to his room before nap and night saying, "car, car, car?!" because he's so eager for me to read to him. He has a few other favorites too. It's been a week and, after the first 1.5 days, he's only asked to nurse 3-4 times. I'm so happy that he's happy with the new rituals and that I don't feel bad at all for stopping nursing.

Nahum has been in CA & Vegas for the last week visiting 3 universities there. He's had a good trip and we've done fairly well but will be so happy to welcome him home tonight. I have a sitter with the kids this morning so I can have some time to myself at my favorite coffee shop. The weather is so beautiful here that, as long as it doesn't rain again, I'm going to take the kids "hiking" this afternoon. "Hiking" because I doubt they will walk far but at least we'll be outside in the forest/hills.

Last but not least, Shayna's latest labs (last week) were awesome again!!

Feb 24th: Visiting Aba at work during his 10-days-straight of work on 2 proposals. The next generation of Professor Aravs is already hard at work too.