Baby Wyatts: April 2012

Saturday, April 28, 2012

11 Months and a Doctor's Appointment

Our little baby turned 11 months old this week. It's hard to believe... Remington now has 5 teeth (2 lower, 3 upper). And he's WALKING! He normally goes around 8-9 steps before falling down, but sometimes it's only a couple and sometimes it's across the entire room. He loves to laugh, wave, and eat anything Mommy's eating. He and Southern like to play "bumper cars" with him in his Jeep walker and Southern on his tricycle.

Our other baby (It's hard to believe how old he's getting too!) had a doctor's appointment yesterday because he was feeling a little under the weather. The doctor prescribed some ear drops and a little Robitussin before bed. He's back to his happy self today. And, at the doctor's, we saw his current height and weight. Turns out it's 38.4 on both accounts. The nurse had to do a double-take. She said in all of her years working there, she's never seen that. He's 38.4 inches tall (3 feet, 2.4 inches) and weighs 38.4 lbs.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

150th Union Pacific Anniversary

We recently attended the New Braunfels downtown celebration for the 150th anniversary of the Union Pacific. They shut down the road, and everyone gathered to witness the train pulling into New Braunfels. It stopped there for maybe 15-20 minutes, and then it was back on its way. Next stop: San Antonio.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Do We Send Our Child to Kindergarten or Do We Wait: Redshirting

I recently attended a webinar given by a professor at TLU. The topic was very interesting to me as Southern is getting to the age where we need to start thinking about school. If he were to attend Pre-K, he would start a year from this August. We would need to register him in less than a year. Wow.

Here is what I learned from this webinar –

It’s not in our state’s law for children to go to kindergarten. Legally, children must start attending school at age 6 for first grade. I didn’t know that! Apparently there are parents out there deciding to keep their kids at home until they’re six years old for various reasons. Interesting, but I don’t think this applies to our family.

Once your child starts school, he or she should have these skills –

Social/Emotional Development:

· Be largely independent

· Know right from wrong

· Be able to make friends

· Be able to share

Cognitive Development:

· Know the basic colors

· Know his or her phone number and address

· Realize that stories have a sequence (beginning, middle, end)

· Be able to tell stories

· Know that books are read from left to right, from top to bottom

· Be able to tell jokes

· Be able to draw [somewhat] recognizable animals, people, and objects

· Know some letters and numbers

· Be able to count 10 objects

· Understand the meaning of more, less, and some

It makes me proud to know that at just 3 years old, Southern can already do most of these!

There is a state sponsored pre-k program in Texas that starts for kids at age 4. It is for low income, special needs, military, and orphaned kids. I had heard about this but heard that it has a negative association. Like, if your child is in this program, then they are started on the “special ed” path that follows them the rest of the way through school. I’m not really sure if that’s the case or not.

Some people choose to send their kids to a private school for pre-k and then public school for kindergarten on up. I would love to have our kids attend private school up to high school, actually. Sadly, it doesn’t look like we can afford that. Attending a private pre-k would be a wonderful opportunity. It would be so much fun for Southern. It would also help ease the transition to kindergarten 5 days a week as it would just be 2-3 days a week. But, again, it would cost money… around $3,800 I believe.

Be sure to look at the curriculum – things have changed a lot from when we were in kindergarten. Reading is not mandated for 1^st graders.

As far as redshirting goes, it may be a good option for some people, but research suggests that attending kindergarten with other children helps cognitive disabilities.

Grade retention is not always a good decision even though it is widely practiced. It’s normally less effective on older children. Do not make this decision lightly!

What to do now? Prepare your children for kindergarten!

· Expose them to all sorts of activities

· Help them gain vocabulary constantly

· Read to them daily – fiction and non-fiction

· Talk to them, not at them

· Expose them to others reading aloud - go to Storytime at your local library or have someone other than their parents read to them as well

All good information. We are preparing!

"Read me?"

The boys and I made a trip to the library this afternoon. Southern picked out a few books and DVDs. Remington picked out one book, and I got one as well. We made it back to the house, and Remington finally took his nap. Southern and I settled down with a book apiece, and I thought ahh, some peace and quiet and started reading.

About a minute later, I hear "Read me? Read me, Mommy?". I look at Southern. He's holding his book out to me. I tell him that I want to read my book and how about he go ahead and read his book. "Okay." Then about a minute later, I hear "Read me? Read me, Mommy?" again. I remind him that I was going to read my book and that he should read his book. "Already", he said. Sigh. So I ask him if I could read my book for just a little bit longer, and then I would read to him from his book. "Okay." Then... about a minute later, I hear "Read me? Read me, Mommy?" once again. Double sigh.

I set my book down and reach for the Lightning McQueen book in his outstretched hand. We read. The ending is funny. I say, "that was silly" when it's finished, smile, and hand him back his book. He looks down at it and grins. He says "so silly" and chuckles a bit. Then he looks up at me with his big grin and says "you best, Mommy". Aww... I lean in and give him a big hug and kiss. I tell him I love him. "Love you too, Mommy." I'm so glad I read him that book!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

4 Years Ago

This morning over breakfast, Remington was squealing and waving at Southern as he drank his milk. Southern swallowed and then told him, "no baby, no my milk, never". I then tried explaining to Southern that yes, he was right. Remington can't drink Southern's kind of milk because he's too young. But soon he will be a year old - in a little over a month - and then he'll be able to drink it. Southern just kind of shrugged and continued eating his breakfast.

Southern may have taken it in stride, but after my explanation, I was kind of shocked. My baby will be one soon! Really, really soon!! That means he can have cow's milk and will depend on breastmilk less and less. That means we can start "weaning" soon. Wow!

Southern stopped nursing at 16 months old. My goal with him was 12 months, but by then it had gotten easy, and it was so good for him, that we just kept going until he was ready to stop. By that time, we were down to nursing once a day - at night before bed. But one night, we had gotten home late from out of town, and Southern was already asleep in the car. He stayed sleeping, so I just carried him up and put him in his crib. The next night, just to see what he would do, I put him to bed again without nursing. He was fine and fell asleep. So that was that.

I only hope it will be that easy with Remington. Really, I am in no rush and will be fine going longer than 12 months with him as well. I will just continue until he is ready (so long as he's not over 2 years old!) so that it will be tear and pain free like it was with Southern. But there was also a little, teeny tiny part of me that was thinking I've had enough. And that part of me did some math... I realized that I have been pregnant or nursing (with the exception of about 4 months) for the past FOUR YEARS. My first pregnancy started this month exactly four year ago! It's hard to believe.

photo by Cindy Edwards, January 2009 (tweaked a bit by me)

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Our Models

To prepare for an upcoming photo shoot in an unfamiliar location, Dustin decided to test his photography skills out on our boys. He took many pictures in different spots, in different poses, and with different settings on his camera to see what he liked best and what worked for the area.

I stayed up after my boys went to bed to check them out. They turned out amazing! I was so excited, I decided to edit them right away. So, here I am at 1am not getting the rest I need. But, boy, was it worth it!

These are my top two favorites...