One
It really has been raining almost every day since the flood and every time I chance to drive by the river I'm appalled by how high it is. Enough with the rain! Although my worry about the river has caused me to forget, sort of, about the leaves not changing into glory. Most them are just falling off in a soggy mass. Its just too warm and too wet.Two
FEMA checks have started to arrive and people are getting work done or moving into new places. One of the families sheltering at church will be able to move into a real place this weekend. Its been a month! Can you imagine living in a fellowship hall for a month? And they're all so nice and unintrusive and friendly. Given my overall complaining level when tiny things don't go as planned, I so doubt I would be as gracious and happy looking as our shelterees.Three
Marigold's screaming, shouting and grunting is getting really old. She finally learned to say 'please' this weekend, sort of. It's more like 'sssss' and she will say 'yes ma'am' which is more like 'yeah maaa'. And she says 'Daddy' no problem. Oh, and 'NO', of course. But that's it. Shouldn't she have like fifty words by now? She'll be two in a month.Four
On nights when Matt is late at church we all get in my bed and watch Mr. Bean. Besides it just being really funny, its so interesting in terms of moral formation (a la Catechesis of the Good Shepherd). He's such a bad bad man, so selfish, so inconsiderate, so spiteful. My real enjoyment is watching the children watch with horror at each new sickening act of destruction (the library episode comes to mind in particular). Can cluelessness be a sin?Elphine cried out when we turned it on last week, "Not the Christmas episode! I'll get nightmares!"
"Nightmares? Why on earth?"
"He just gives her a picture and a nail, instead of a ring! Its so horrible!!!" she screamed.
To which I replied, "Heh heh heh."
Five
So I cook actual breakfast every morning now. Eggs and toast, pancakes, french toast, oatmeal, cream of wheat, muffins. Its crazy. And then the children read quietly until school starts. After cleaning it all up and doing their chores. And then we memorize Bible verses and stuff. And then do like an hour and a half of math. I blame it entirely on God. There's no way, if I was really handling everything, that our days would look like this. I'd still be in bed at ten. They'd be smeared in paste and rooting for food in the back yard and hitting each other. Six
I have family coming to visit next week. SO Excited. SO much to do to get the house ship shape. We're going to get to meet a new new baby. Training will start today: DON'T SIT ON THE BABY!! MARIGOLD. STOP STOP STOP. DON'T PICK UP THE BABY MARIGOLD!!! STOP!!!!! If you have a minute, pray the new lovely baby survives our homicidal maniac toddler.Seven
Elphine is finally growing into her adult front teeth. I must say I'm relieved. I'm constantly startled by how big her teeth are compared to her face. Alouicious is on his way to enormous teeth. Every day I see them growing and his face appearing to get smaller. So weird, the way God has organized the whole teeth thing--all the pain, from infancy to death. For those of you who don't believe in the Fall, try to explain that one to me.Have a Great Weekend! Go check out Jen!
7 comments:
My great-niece (toddler) desperately wants to be nice to her cousin, but she can't help but try to poke his eyes. No eye poking, Marigold!
I'm generally loathe to give advice on blogs but I'll put on my developmental psychologist's hat for a moment and say that yes, Marigold probably should have 50+ words. It might just be that having older siblings she doesn't need to talk as much b/c there is someone else there to figure out what she wants. Your pediatrician should check it out when she has her 2 year appt.
I wouldn't worry too much about M., as the good Rev said above, it could just be because she has so much talking happening around her. Also, we have a cousin who didn't start talking until he was three. NOT A WORD. Then one day, his mother was singing to him and he said "Mommy, STOP IT! I don't like it when you sing!" Go figure. He's now one of the smartest people I know.
P.S.~ Your morning sounds wonderful. The version with them rooting around is much more like what we have here!
My brother didn't really talk until he was 3- when I went off to kindergarten. Since you aren't going to have that kind of end to the sibling "helpfulness" ;) I'd try to enlist the older one's help, instead, in encouraging and helping Marigold to talk, instead of accommodating her grunts.
Of course, my brother still doesn't talk much. My cousin, an only child, didn't talk much until he was almost 5. He's one of those with the insanely high IQ. So maybe you are just raising an introvert or a genius. :)
Another Dr Mom piping in-- my son O had almost no words at two and was unbelievably frustrated (although he's now the most laid-back of my 4). He as still acquiring baby sign language isntead of words. I was looking up the signs for armor and heliocopter. I begged my Pediatrician for a referral, and when he got speech (the therapists come to YOUR house until they're three, and then after that you have to put them in preschool to get free services) he became this happt child... it was kind-of a miracle.
And amen to the teeth thing.
Hmm, with the shouting and other things, I think it might be worth it to have her ears/hearing checked.
A friend's grandson is about Marigold's age and she, too, was worried about the lack of words and the odd pronunciation. It was an ear problem. Once treated, his vocabulary started to expand quickly.
The child is quite well developed intellectually...already manipulating both us and her siblings without uttering a word. She gets her way. And she is even managing to be sarcastic--in a quiet way--about it. So, I'm not worried. In fact I am more worried about what she will do when she begins to speak and how the world will cope. I do not think this is a development issue. Her pediatrician (whom she saw last week) says that she is doing very well too and that she is perfectly healthy.
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