Tag Archives: Lex

Shirt update

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I know everyone is concerned with Lex’s shirt situation! Lex put up a royal fuss last night because neither of his two “favorite” shirts were clean for this morning. Alan and I stayed firm and survived the fight. Lex eventually settled down and went to sleep saying he would try a new shirt in the morning, with the condition that he could wear his PJ shirt to school if he didn’t like the new one. Alan and I went to bed expecting the battle to continue in the morning. Lex woke up and, with minimal convincing, TRIED A NEW SHIRT!!! And he even liked it!!! Imagine that! Then he said, “I bet my teacher will be surprised to see me wearing a new shirt.” He wore the new (new to him, actually purchased from a thrift store in my attempt to get something already worn and comfy for him) shirt to school and his teacher was duly surprised. :) This afternoon his shirt got dirty and he went upstairs and came down with another NEW shirt!! He’s wearing it now! Crazy boy :)

Water confidence

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After today’s swimming lesson I noticed a marked change in Lex’s water confidence. Until now he’s been very happy in the water, eager to play, but clings to me like his life depends on it (it does!) when we are in deep water. Eve will put on a floaty and happily bob along in the current pool, but Lex clings. He loves it, but maintains that death grip! Today he was much more relaxed in the current pool. He still refused the floaty (bummer!) but held on much more loosely and even let go of me once or twice, as long as I was still holding on to him! :) He was also very eager to show me a trick they learned in class to dive for rings at the bottom of the pool. We went into a small area with bench in the water and he happily dropped the ring and then “swam” to the bottom to retrieve it. Very cool. I helped him find his way back to the bench a few times, when he needed it. Overall he was so much more confident in the water than I’ve seen before. Yay!

Dry nights

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I’m a little nervous to write this and jinx us, but Lex has now gone six nights in a row without wetting the bed!  Could he possibly be done with diapers?  He has been marking D on his calendar each morning that he wakes up with a dry diaper and Alan told him that when he gets four Ds in a row he can try sleeping with no diaper.  This week that happened!  And then two dry, diaper-free nights followed!  Yesterday Alan promised Lex a trip to the playground today if he had another dry night.  This morning Lex was dry but the weather outside was most certainly not.  Somehow, in Lex’s mind, that reward trip to the playground morphed into a trip to the “ice cream store” (the village store) and then when Alan woke up the plan became lunch at Friendly’s with ice cream to follow.  I suggested a trip to the science museum afterwards to burn off the ice cream!  The boys went out and had a great time!  Eve wanted to go, but Lex decided this was his special treat (which was fine because she really needed a nap anyway).  She was sad to see them go.  Here’s  a little video.  Sorry again for the sideways.

Saying goodbye

Eve watching the boys drive away. She decided she need to wear Lex's hat and mittens to wave goodbye :)

We had fun, somewhat, at home without them.  I was pretty tired so we ended up cuddling in the big bed and taking a nap together.  Morning sickness and exhaustion both hit this week and I’ve been happily napping with the kids each day.  I love naptime!  I woke up and exercised and Eve woke up an hour later in tears because I wasn’t in bed with her anymore.  Oops!  A few cuddles later she was fine.

Anyway, back to Lex… done with diapers?  I’ll keep you posted!  (and I’m sure I’m ruining it just by writing this!)

Reading

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Lex has started reading out loud again. That makes me happy. He has been shy about it for awhile now, even going so far as to tell me that he doesn’t read in school, he only looks at the pictures. I’m curious if he’s starting to notice that other kids his age can’t read. I was happy this morning to hear him reading to Eve again. They were supposed to be getting dressed, but reading is so adorable I grabbed the camera and let them keep going.

After school Lex got in the car and said, “I’m not very tired from school so I think I’ll read Eve a story on the way home today.” He grabbed a book (we ALWAYS have a stack of books in the car) and read to her the whole way home. Notice how he holds the book so she can see the pictures? He did that in the car too :) Such a sweet big brother.

Crazy shirt dilemma

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We have a funny (I’m trying not to let it be annoying) dilemma in this house. Lex is a quirky kid, right? We all know this. We’ve been through some odd wardrobe situations here, like the 24/7 PJs for about a year, last summer’s pants/long sleeves only wardrobe, and the well known 4-season blue sun hat.  Now it’s a shirt thing.

A few months ago he had a variety of shirts that he would wear, but as he outgrew them or they got holey, he refuses to replace them with new ones. The boy is down to just two shirts that he will wear. He has a drawer full, as I had to explain to his teacher the other day when she commented on how he wore the same two shirts over and over. Really, he has plenty of shirts. I even bought one from a thrift store (soft, gently worn) that is the SAME as one he wears only a different color.  Will he wear it?  Nope!  Last week I even removed a bunch of shirts from his drawer thinking maybe it was just overwhelming. I left four shirts that are either a) almost identical to one he will wear with just a difference in color or something or b) a character shirt (Thomas the Train) that he likes. Any luck? Nope!

He had a total meltdown a few nights ago when he went to pick clothes for the morning and found “no clean shirts!” (except all the clean shirts in his drawer that he won’t wear!) He threw a fit and said he would not go to school in the morning. Sigh. I made sure there was a “good” shirt clean by morning. This afternoon his shirt got dirty and the other one was dirty too, so he went shirtless all afternoon! He even started the laundry to wash his shirts, checked in on it often, and switched it to the dryer. Eventually he was freezing so I proposed an early bath. He happily accepted and put on snugly PJs after that. He keeps telling us that he will wear new shirts when he is a 5yr old. We’ll see. One of the two he wears now is too small for him, but I’m debating whether or not to put it away. I’ll have to choose a time when I’m up for the battle. Or just let him wear a too small shirt until the weather warms up and HOPE he’ll wear t-shirts this summer.

Parenting, never a dull moment.

Games

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Lex has a new hobby. He has taken to creating games. Often with marbles and cards. He makes them up as we go, but then he remembers the rules and we play the games over and over. So far they aren’t very challenging (or exciting) but he loves them and Eve likes them and I love Lex and Eve :)

Today he found a washed out peanut jar and said “Oh, that’s just what I need for my project!” He proceeded to wrap it in tin foil, tape two straws to it, and fill it with marbles. The project took up a good part of the day. We haven’t played the game yet because it doesn’t make much sense, but I’m sure it’s on tomorrow’s agenda. Maybe I’ll post a picture of his project tomorrow.

He did it!

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With a week to go, Lex finished all of his Valentine’s Day cards. Eagerly and happily! He is very excited to give them to his classmates next week.

Valentines

See his teacher's card in the bottom, right corner? I wonder who taught him to hyphenate words when they wrap to a second line?

Lex has been super crafty and artsy lately. Check out this picture he drew yesterday. He started it at school, added on during lunch time, and finished it in the afternoon. It has three houses (each with striped-door garages), an office building that had an afternoon addition, and a very tall tree. He is VERY proud of it. I am VERY proud of him!

Drawing of houses and tree

Three houses, an office building, and a very tall tree.

Sometimes it does work out

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Today was Lex’s show and tell day at school. It comes around about once a month and he’s usually very excited about it. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. They get to count kids, check the weather, lead the line, etc. in addition to doing show and tell. He loves it. Normally he decides weeks in advance what he wants to bring in. Not this time.

After being unable to decide for awhile now, the day finally came and he had to figure it out. Or throw a giant tantrum. Guess which option he chose?! Alan was home and between the two of us we spent about 45 minutes dealing with the boy. He was tired (overtired from swimming yesterday, maybe?) and just plain obstinate. I gave him choices, he cried and yelled, spent some time in his room behind a locked door, he broke the baby gate at the top of the stairs (no one was hurt!) and it was just a miserable morning for all. I have to say that Alan and I did an excellent job keeping our own tempers in check and being very calm with him. It helps when there are two parents around and only one tantruming child. I finally got him settled down enough to decide that he did want to go to school (instead of staying home and taking a nap), but did not want to do show and tell. Fine. I told him he could discuss it with his teacher and I’m sure she would be fine with it. I AM sure she would be fine with it. I also gave him some food in the car because any energy he’d obtained from the the meager breakfast he ate had surely been used up in the tantrums. He even wanted to bring his blanket in the car to help him settle himself. I let him.

When we got to school (Alan stayed home with Eve, which was nice for everyone), Lex was much calmer. I reminded him about the item I had put in his bag earlier, during the tantrums, and told him it was there in case he decided he wanted to do show and tell. He said he did not. Fine. I also told his teacher about our morning and gave her a heads up that he may not want to show anything. I left him happily playing with the other kids.

At pick-up I brought his blanket along again, just in case. Imagine my surprise, and joy, when his teacher said he had an AWESOME day! She said he eagerly did show and tell. I had packed a few of the melted crayon cakes we made the other day and she said he explained to the class how we had made them and all the steps and how much fun they were to use. He passed them around with paper and let all the kids color with them. She said he participated in all of the activities, even a finger painting activity which he usually doesn’t like, and was super well behaved. Whewh!!! I was really hoping I made the right decision about sending him to school and it seems I did. Sometimes it does work out. Now he is taking a much needed nap!

PS. They sent home a Kindergarten registration form today. Eeek!

Off to a good start!

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Lex making cards

He woke up this morning eager to make Valentine’s Day cards. Sadly we had no time this morning (because they both slept late, yay!) but this afternoon he came down and went right to work. Happily and all on his own. I helped cut out more shapes and find markers that write well. He made 5 or 6 cards today. Not bad for one afternoon!

Crystal blocks

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Lex came home from school yesterday and told me that his favorite toy that day was the crystal building blocks. I asked why they were crystal and he he said, “I don’t know. They look like our blocks except they are lots of colors and you can see through them.” Hmmm… ok. I asked what he built with them and he said a house, a dog, and a person. This intrigued me because he normally builds cars and structures like towers and bridges. He’s built a house once or twice, but I’ve never seen him build a block dog or person. I was impressed.

This morning at school drop-off his teacher started telling me how great he is a copying things. A good skill, I hope! As an example, she showed be a bucket of blocks (called “Crystal Building Blocks,” of course) and said he was playing with them yesterday. She said she was admiring the house he built and then noticed that it was identical to the picture on the bucket. She showed me the picture and sure enough, there was a house, a dog and a person. He had just sat down and built everything he saw in the picture. She was super impressed :) I’ve seen him copy like that before, but I was impressed that he made a dog and a person :) He never fails to impress!

He is also getting really good at building his own ideas (without copying). His Lego vehicles are getting more advanced and yesterday afternoon he built a cool train layout. I think it’s cool anyway.

Train tracks

Train tracks

Block bridge

A block bridge. The top part is a covered bridge for cars to drive on (fitted for his largest matchbox car), but he is still thinking about how to get a road up there. I love the creative process.