I spent a lot of time cleaning the house and washing sheets and so on Monday morning so the boys pretty much played by themselves, but we went outside for a little while and then packed up in the car for a drive down to Fredrickson for some piano lessons.
Tuesday began our second week of classes, this session, at the YMCA and then I dropped the boys off at my Dad's house and taught lessons for the rest of the day. I have a good group of kids this year, both in terms of their emotional maturity and their work ethic, but I love days when one of my students has obviously practiced so hard and we get so much accomplished in our lessons - but to have all six lessons go so well in one day? That's certainly more than I hope for every week.
The hardest part of Tuesday (which then affects the rest of the week) is that Isaac really struggles to nap when he sees Grandpa and knows that if he sleeps Grandpa and Ezra will still play. So then he hits a wall around 5pm ish and sometimes takes a nap... and then wakes up arond 6-7pm and wants to play for another 6-8 hours. My dad struggles to keep Isaac awake instead (so that Isaac falls asleep around 7pm, without a nap), which I of course understand. I don't like keeping Isaac up when he doesn't nap either. So that is a very huge kink in my Tuesday plan that I really need to figure out.
One of the things I want to figure out soon is a good phonics curriculum for Ezra. He is almost constantly asking me about letters and their sounds and I do not remember anything I learned in phonics!! I'm not entirely sure if we'll try to follow a program consistently at this point in time (probably wait another month or so) but I need to hurry and learn my vowel sounds, especially!
We had a rough morning, Wednesday, partially because I let Ezra watch a show in the morning so I could get a few things done (which I knew was a bad idea...) and partially just because he was having a bad attitude anyway. The drive to BSF was full of tears, but thankfully Ezra went to class obediently and then, as an "extra boost" of encouragement for me, Isaac practically ran into his class.
Isaac cried for a few minutes at the beginning of his class for the first few months of class. He was just starting to get acclimated and not cry in December, but then of course we took a break for Christmas. So the first class or two in January he also cried, but for about the last four classes he's been excited to go! Ezra's class is downstairs, as is mine, so we usually drop Ezra off first and then I take Isaac up and drop him off (and then go back downstairs to my class). It helps for Isaac to see his big brother go into class and then we get to talk about "Isaac's class" the whole walk up the stairs to his class. Two weeks ago when we dropped Ezra off, Isaac said "my class now? my class now?" before I had a chance to say anything! I thought it was a fluke, but he kept talking about it and the closer we got to his classroom the more he was visibly excited. Then last week he reached out for his teacher and said "bye Mommy" and this week he hardly even looked back at me. I'm so very happy he loves his class and is thriving in it. His teachers say he is super cheerful and participates well, which seems to be the case every time I go to check in on him. But... there is also the part of me that is a bit sad that he is growing up and becoming more independent. I know, I know - that's my entire job as a parent, to to help him learn to become independent. But my baby is growing up and it does make me weepy now and then.
The plan for Thursday was to go to the zoo but Seth had the day off, unexpectedly, and went to the Y with us to swim a bit (which was mostly a flop because the water in the main pool was sooo cold and we didn't have much time anyway before gymnastics) and then shoot hoops. We stayed longer than we'd planned and all needed naps so we just came home and played and did chores (yeah right on those naps).
Friday morning Ezra woke up with his eyes crusted shut with what we thought might be pink eye, so we had to cancel all our fun plans for the day (play date and curriculum planning!). His eyes weren't ever red, just swollen and crusty so we didn't take him to the doctor. And then he woke up Saturday morning with completely clear eyes, so we're not exactly sure what the problem was/is. Still, we're keeping him quarantined for few days just in case. We did go outside and cleaned up our flowerbeds and planted some primroses, though!
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