The ups and downs

Of the lovely pregnancy hormones. It is now affecting my sleep as I can't fall asleep because I worry about the silly things moms usually worry about. Like are my children feeling loved, did I yell at one too much, am I just ruining them? Whatever the thoughts are they keep me up and force me to lose sleep, that is already precious to me. It was also a long weekend with Thanksgiving and Tony spend 24 hours sick so when he napped I had to nap cause I was out of things to do.

The kids are doing fine in school, other than the constant fighting they do with each other. Last week Zachary "accidentally" hit Zavier in the face with a chair which left it super swollen for 2 days and for the last 3 with a bruise from is eye down his face and across one cheek. Getting them to keep their hands and actions in check is still a long work in progress. However I'm not sure it's any different than anywhere else.

Zachary has finally figured out that if he gets the teacher's book reads through the list of assignments and gets them done, he can be done for the day. He will sometimes pass the assignment info onto Zayden, who does most of the same foundational work. He then usually has the most free time to do as he wishes. Zachary is lacking a few hobbies to keep himself busy and out of trouble though so we'll have to work on that.

Zayden is the one I struggle most with. He absolutely flips out when given instructions to do an assignment, even if it is something he's familiar with. We have started a new reward chart so hopefully that will get us somewhere closer to controlling our reactions.

Zavier does well when he can focus on what his tasks are. He does better with things he has to interact with. He really wants to play on the computer so we're going to add that as his reward for completing work in a timely fashion. He also needs to work on keeping his hands to himself.

Zander still just does what he wants. He's been gluten free for several weeks now and that has helped his tummy troubles he was having. I now feel he needs to be milk free as a big glass of milk upsets his belly, but emotionally I'm not sure he can give up his chocolate milk routine in the AM. We have been using Almond milk for a while and he will drink some of that, just not sure he's ready for a whole cup of that.

Abbie is a very busy, naughty toddler. She is always doing something, majority of the time it is stuff I wish she wasn't doing. She is very verbal and is quickly developing new words and phrases. She for the most part won't let me give her a sippy cup, which is fine other than she likes to wander around with an open cup of milk. But she is the light to several of the bigger boys and to her parents as she's so cute when she "practices her naughty skills". She has been a real life changer. :)

Baby #6 is still baking and a very busy little thing. We hit our 3rd trimester this past week so it will be over soon. We still don't know what baby is, but Zavier and Mommy say boy and everyone else says girl. I don't care either way, I just like to give them a hard time so I call it a him and daddy calls it a her. We will see in March.