Terrible toddlers.

My my what this toddler has turned in to. I read an article on Monday about changes in toddler behavior between about 18-21 months. Well that same day it kicked in with little Zander at 17 1/2 months. Nap time was crappy for 2 days and bedtime last night he was a pill. I know he lacks much communication he does have a handful of signs he can use to communicate. Guess we will have to look up some more signs to teach him. He does like to nurse still and he acts much better after some quality time with mom. He is overall much better for daddy. He loves to run to the door everyday looking for his dad. He has taken up hitting his brothers and making a horrible noise when he doesn't get what he wants which is often since he doesn't always know what he wants either. He better get his baby self together since he is going to have a sister in about 9-10 weeks.

Plus one

While I am still working on getting Zayden situated in a learning environment for him to thrive in, I am glad to see that I am not the only one that sees Zachary thriving this year. Not sure if he tested in or was nominated by his teacher, but he's able to apply for the Highly Capable Program through the school. Not sure what all in entailed other than a once a week after school service like project, but will certainly be following up and looking in to it.

This is slightly annoying

Periodically Zayden will come home with a paper or stack of papers labeled "not listening" or something else just as "informational". What the heck is the point of writing that on there and sending it home to me? All it tells me is he's either really distracted or totally bored and can't pay attention to what the goal is. I usually just blow it off after briefly expressing my disappointment.

I think I want

A homebirth. I looked it up more when Tony was going to deploy before baby was born so that I wouldn't have to leave Zander to go have a baby. However when we were racing the clock a bit I wanted an induction to be an option do that he could be there when his baby girl was born. It seems though now that we're pretty certain he will at least be here for delivery and possibly his 10 paternity days. Well the midwife that I contacted before contacted me this morning to check to see if I was still interested and I said no to begin with, but the more I think about it I do want to deliver at home. Deliveries are rather smooth and midwives are very well equipped today. I am totally scared to give birth because it is so painful. However I will be drug free either way. I have wanted one since I had Zayden but never had the support or the funds. Today I found the cost of the midwife here is totally reasonable and affordable for us. I do want to talk it over with Tony, but even he mentioned a few weeks ago how convenient it would be to deliver at home so we don't have to work out childcare for during the delivery. I do know he is wierded out if I was to deliver in our bed, but I don't have to. Hopefully he'll give me the ok to meet the midwife and see that she would fit for our delivery. This is something I would love to experience since this is my "last".

Finally got the call

from the Principal. He seemed to be in such a hurry to take care of this (eyeroll). We did have a snow week last week, but still today is Wednesday. I have already come to the conclusion that he doesn't like to deal with me after our encounter or lack there of in May.
He called and I explained the situation and how I didn't want it to happen again. He didn't have much to say other than that was out of the ordinary for that "teaching team" meaning the 1st grade teachers. He said that wasn't normal practice, possibly a few minutes to finish up a few problems. He did say that he would go down and talk it over with them.
I guess I'm satisfied because there isn't much to do after the fact and I really don't think this could be a reoccurring problem at least I hope not.
I am planning to e-mail the teacher to request a meeting with her. I don't feel like Zayden is being challenged at all and therefore is bored. I think that was part of Zachary's problem last year. He just didn't have enough of a challenge that he would often get in trouble for silly stuff like talking, being out of his seat, messing around.  And this year I feel like his teacher is really challenging him and I haven't had the same problems coming home as last year. Hopefully I can meet with her and make sure Zayden is having some sort of challenges besides "neat handwriting in reading".

Beginning to get ready for baby girl.

I'm slowly getting ready for Baby Girl's arrival. While many keep telling me I need all things new in girl colors, I'm not feeling it. While I do prefer she have mostly girly clothes, I don't want more towels, bibs, diaper bag, diapers. I have bought her newborn diapers (cloth) but they are mostly boy or gender neutral colors. Since she'll have clothes covering them I don't think it matters too much. I am having fun buying girl clothes, but I still haven't bought more than I will need. Even having 4 boys go through things some were hardly worn and since we're pretty sure she's the last I plan to get by on minimal stuff. I already feel like our house is busting at the seems sometimes just fitting in all 6 of us. And with no real plans to move...
We have got her a crib, Zander's old one and got him a different one. I rearranged the boys clothes so that Zander's stuff could go into one of the dressers we already have and baby will take the dresser that Zander used.  We have 2 bouncer seats, one for up and one for down. I kind of want a swing, but I'm afraid with a toddler and so many areas in the house that can't be seen from others I may not want to leave her in it. I'm planning to just wear her around all the time. lol It is the only way to keep her safe from some brotherly love. ;)
I did go through all I have bought so far to see what I still wanted since I had a 30% off to kohls and receive kohls cash for any purchases. I grabbed her another dress and 3 more newborn outfits so that between the 5 outfits, 3-4 onsies, and 8 gowns I should be all set for newborn stuff. Then for the next size up I have a few more. I am going to run to the goodwill on monday since it's 1/2 off all donated items and see if they have anything I need. lol
We have bought a few pink blankets and I decided I don't want a crib set, I'm just going to use a sheet that I got and one of the blankets for her bed set. I did get a new mobile so that she doesn't have to look at mickey mouse and the sporting equipment that Zander had. lol However what I got her isn't girly since I couldn't find one I liked that lit up with a remote that was girly.
We're going in a few weeks for a 3d/4d ultrasound. I hope we get some good pictures of her. While I feel like I have a long way to go, I know it's not really. I'm 27+ weeks now.

Zayden's "messy" work

This is the original work that was deemed sloppy by the reading teacher and that he didn't complete during class time. He completed this in the 25 minutes before lunch. (While I was with Zachary.)