Starting Kindergarten

We got the package of books and materials about a month ago. Last year for Pre-K, it was a medium sized box, filled 2/3. This year, it was two large boxes filled to the brim with more books than I could fathom! I pulled out the teachers guide about a week and a half later, once I dealt with the shock of so much material, to be blown away by the literal size of the teachers guide! I brought it inside to show Caleb and he was like "WOW, that's HUGE!" I was so glad to have someone else with me who understood the magnitude of this guide, literally no one else would understand. We both knew at that moment how much work we had ahead of us.
I brought the books into the living room and there they sat, until I got up the nerve to go through them (due largely in part to my sister-in-law Janelle looking through them and telling me how fun it all looked!). So, the day we came back from Caleb's fifth birthday party, I went through all the books, organized them and decided to start TOMORROW.
So we have been doing this for a little over a week now. There is a lot to do everyday, but we seem to be getting it all done with no more than a decent amount of effort. Josiah has to entertain himself through part of it and we save some of the reading for Josiah's nap time. Once we started, he was all of a sudden able to hold a pencil correctly, amazing since that was definitely not in the cards just a few months ago. I love how surprising the development is at this age. They can either do something, or not, and if they can't, they may be able to a few months down the road. This is why I love homeschooling. I know when something is just not going to happen now and return to it a bit later.
Pray for us as we start this year. We will have some "school vacations" at odd times, hence the very early summer start. I plan to take off a few months when the baby is born. Caleb is really learning right now and it is so fun to see.

Putting children to sleep

I was just putting Josiah down for a nap and felt so grateful! He started entertaining himself too much in his crib recently (we keep our kids locked up in a crib until they are 3:) for his naps and kept waking himself up out of his sleepiness. So when one thing stops working with kids, you just try something else and break that "bad" cycle. I decided to just hold him and rock him until he fell asleep and then transfer him into his crib. This worked, so I have continued to do it. It takes about 5 minutes and is the most wonderful time of my day I think. I get to sit with my finally-still toddler in the cool darkness, hold him, look at him and just enjoy him in his sleepy stupor. If he starts talking to me I tell him to close his eyes and go to sleep or I'll put him straight in his crib, so he closes his eyes and goes to sleep. Josiah is at this age where he is so utterly predictable and lovely. It's so obvious when he's hungry, sleepy, excited, joyful, bored... I can read him like a book and I enjoy that.

Caleb doesn't take naps anymore, he hasn't for about a year now. He isn't as predictable as Josiah is, you will think he's fine all evening until something sets him off and then he just straight cries until he climbs into bed and gets his nighttime song and prayers. I'm sick a lot at night right now and Caleb is so gentle and sweet with me. He can tell when it's hitting me and just kisses me and tells me how he hopes I get better soon. He used to comfort me when I would throw up, but now he just kind of runs for the hills:)

Babies are sometimes hard to put to sleep, but I must remember that it isn't always hard. It turns into a precious routine that is paramount to their existence. I wish all my memories of putting babies down were easy, but it all turns out ok. It has taken all the ingenuity and wisdom we could muster over the years to successfully get our children to sleep as positively as possible. I appreciate my teammate who has been there to figure it out with me and will continue to be there with our new bundle, thanks Matt. Some women have to do this stuff all alone, but thankfully, not me:)