Well, I haven’t blogged much during the past two weeks, but at least I am not breaking my commitment to updating my blog at least once a month. Today is the last day of June, so today is my last chance to get a June post in.
Our big news is that we’re moving back to the East Coast in about a month(!). Specifically to Newark, Delaware. This all came about in the past six weeks, which is why I haven’t been blogging much. It’s been a whirlwind of job interviews, getting our hose ready to sell, looking for a place in Delaware, etc. We love Milwaukee (aside from the weather and the new Scott Walker regime), so we are sad to go in many respects. But we will be much closer to family, the weather is better, and we’re closer to lots of East Coast stuff that we have missed living in the Midwest.
Other than the new job and move news, I have lots of everyday stuff to report.
Sleeping: ZZ met a new milestone in early May–he started sleeping in a “big boy bed” in his own room! We weren’t planning on transitioning him so soon, but the owner of the co-sleeper we were borrowing needed it back. He’s doing great with his bed and room. He loves his bed, and he’s sleeping through the night most nights.
“School”: At the beginning of June, ZZ started “school” at our university’s children’s center. This too is going very well. He started going two half-days a week, and then we increased it to three half-days, followed by four half-days. Before he officially started, we visited there with him almost every day for two weeks. By the time he officially started, he had already developed attachments to some of the teachers, he knew which toys were there, and he looked forward to going. He gets sad sometimes when we leave him but he has a very good time there. He likes to play with the teachers, play in the tent, take his walker to the gym, paint, play outside, and push the toy airplane around. Last week, he was there during an afternoon shift and even went down for a nap on his own–he doesn’t even do that at home.
Walking: ZZ continues to make progress with PT. He can use his walker when he wants to. The problem is that he often doesn’t want to use it, LOL. The place where he uses it the most is school. So that is good. He likes to use it to walk to the gym and use it while in the gym.
Language: I don’t even know where to start with this one. He is so talkative! About a month ago, he discovered conjunctions. So now he uses them to tell stories. “We did this, and then…and then…and then..because…” He tells us how school went, what he did that day, what he did with us during playtime, etc. he talks to us about what happened in Ni Hao Kai-Lan, what he did at PT, etc. We ask him questions and he answers them. He’s also great at expressing his feelings. He tells us when he is sad, happy, mad, and frustrated (“I fustated!”). He’s also very much into telling us what he doesn’t like. Yesterday, when I was driving him around trying to get him to sleep, he wanted me to go directly home. I told him that we were going to drive around for a little longer. He said, “Mama, you’re not listening to me!” Sometimes when we sign along to a song that he likes, he say, “No singing, Mama!” (or Baba).
Now that it’s summer, we’re getting out of the house more. He loves going for walks (most of the time), and he likes going to Alterra and getting his own iced tea (tropical crimson herbal). We’re getting to the zoo more, too, which he still loves.
One of his new favorite activities is to “spray.” We’ve done a lot of cleaning in order to get the house ready for sale. He was very fascinated by all the spray bottles we used while cleaning. So I got an empty one and filled it with water. He would spend hours spraying a surface and wiping it up. This was a great way to keep him occupied while I did “real” cleaning.
So we have another month before we move. We’re hoping to do lots of good Milwaukee stuff before we leave.
