Is It Still May?

The month is creeping by.  It's going a little too slow for my taste.  On the other hand, children grow up so quickly that I should just relish each day.  I was thinking about how my kids are doing, and how they are changing.  This, is pretty much copy/pasted right out of my journal, which obviously hasn't been updated much:

Demetri has been a huge help lately. He's done a lot of chores and helping with the baby.  He's getting great at baking bread.  He has been holding the baby for me at night after the other kids are in bed, and putting him to sleep while I clean and fold laundry.  It helps that I've let him watch old (1940's) movies with me while doing so.  He is pretty interested in magic tricks right now.  He has several magic books that he was given for various birthdays, and is starting to get some of the tricks down.  He showed me two this evening that were fairly decent.  He wants to sew a cape, and make a magician's hat.

For the last few months, Olie has been insisting that he doesn't like to read, and hasn't been looking at books during quiet time.  This week he decided to read the Book of Mormon from start to finish (as did Teddy a few weeks ago) and today he lamented not being able to read chapter books yet.  I told him he could probably try out a chapter book, so he grabbed a random one that was too hard, and was upset at all the words he couldn't read.  I found a couple of our easiest, explained that if there were more than 5 words on a page that he didn't know it was probably too hard, but 5 or less was fine.  He settled on The Boxcar Children and read 51 pages today (well- he was grounded and couldn't play outside so he read while all the other kids were playing in the neighbor's kiddie pool).  He was so excited that he told everyone about how he can read chapter books now.  Hope it doesn't wear off!  On the flip side though, he usually does his chores very quickly but when I tried to get him to this evening he was too busy reading.  He also took his book up to bed and started reading in bed.  I had to turn lights off and take it away.  He told me when he was finished with it he was going to read it over again and again, but I told him there are many more in the series that he can read.  Then he wanted to make a reservation at the library, right now.  Maybe tomorrow.  I'm sure he'll remember.


Teddy is trying to keep up.  He wants to do everything as well as his big brothers, which is probably why he can read so well, and why he is already working on multiplication tables.  He still has some work to do in addition, but he just doesn't want to get left behind, so he's jumping the gun a little.  So he's doing well in school, and I don't even have to do anything- he just does whatever his brothers are working on.  He loves to cook, and really doesn't like it when I try to help.  He reminds me every Friday that it's his turn to make dinner.  He's not so great about getting chores done, but plays so well with Xander right now that I'm trying to let it slide a little and do some of his chores while he entertains the 2 year old.  Some days that is quite the trick, and worth more to me than cleaning the living room and emptying the dishwasher.

Xander has moved from “I wuv oo mommy,” which I loved, to “I luff you mommy.”  I love to hear the way their language changes as they grow.  I'm always sad when it stops being cute and so little-sounding.  He loves to play outside.  In fact, whenever he talks to anyone on the phone, that is the first (and usually only) thing he tells them.  “How are you Xander?”  “I'm trying to go outside.”  “I want to see if Tuti (his best friend) is home.”  He adores his baby brother, so much that I have to be careful where I set him down.  Xander will try to pick him up.  Whenever Lorenzo cries, Xander runs to him and says “Don't cry Renzo!” or “Don't be a sad baby; be a happy baby.”


Lorenzo is 4 months old.  I forgot how many llbs.  15?  Bigger than any of the others at this age except Teddy.  He props himself up on his elbows when you put him on his tummy, to see what he can see.  He laughs at himself in the mirror, or talks to himself.  He laughs delightedly at his brothers when they try to entertain him, so one of the sounds that makes him laugh is a snarl.  Oh brother.  At least it doesn't scare him.  He likes to be tossed in the air, and he loves people.  He doesn't cry much.  UNLESS you put him in his car seat.  Unfortunately, he ends up there all too often.  I thought about quitting gymnastics because of it, but gymnastics has been so good for Demetri that I couldn't bring myself to do it.  So we just switched our routine up a little so we're not driving home in rush-hour traffic.  That helps.  He bats at toys and grabs at everything he can get his little fingers around to stuff it in his mouth.  That's only happened in the last few weeks.  I have separated the hair of many a young woman from his hands recently.  Someday they'll learn.