Goodness - it's time for another "Week in Review" post. Good news - no more meetings with the school district. Bad news - there's apparently another boy in Joshua's class who has singled out Joshua for attacks. Joshua came home 2 days in a row with bad scratches on his face. The first day we were thinking "Okay. Things happen." Now we're thinking "it's time to take this little menace out." I have little doubt that Deren will be at the school if Joshua comes home injured again.

I'm already having homework battles with Rachael - at the tender age of 3. They incorporate new skills into music a lot in her classroom. For example, she has songs about yellow, red, orange, green, and number 1-3. So, the basic idea is that I'm supposed to be singing these songs with her at home so she's learning these new concepts. I start singing a song to her and she flips. She yells "No song!" and will start singing her own song at the top of her lungs. So here I am sining "R-E-D I can spell Red" and Rachael's belting out "Frosty the snowman, la la la la la.." (she doesn't know the rest of the words). Her teacher has asked me twice already if I received the list of songs. At this point should I make her sing her songs each day? Do I sit her down at the table and say, "no playing outside, no horse movie.. until you sing your songs." Is this what it's come to?

It's now 11 days until my due date. And NO, Rachael is still not potty trained. So it will be 3 in diapers. Although we are getting hopeful about Abby. Yesterday she wanted to pull her pants down and sit on the potty. She was pretty proud of herself. Unfortunately, Rachael is not one to succomb to peer/sibling pressure. The boys have been potty trained for what, 2 years now? And Rachael could care less.

Maybe one of the Grandma's will want to take her on at their next visit. Deren's parents are planning to come on the 27th to help. We'll see if the baby is here then. I was originally thinking I would be early. But I think that ARD meeting set me back. I've actually read that if your jaw and neck muscles are tensed your body will resist labor. So I'm thinking a Thanksgiving baby at this point?!

Jacob has become our resident George of the Jungle. He has taken to climbing the tree out back. No sense of danger there. He will try to climb up a branch that's about 6 inches in diameter.

Joshua is still not sleeping. He has an appt with our autism doc this Thursday. I'm hoping Deren can take him so I don't have to go with all the kids. That trip would push my due date to around Christmas!

Joshua is 5 YEARS OLD!! His birthday was on Tuesday. He played with waterpaints, had some sprite, went a little bit psychotic after all the sprite.. I'm excited about the present we ordered for him with his birthday money. There is a lady in a nearby town that makes weighted blankets. She's going to make Joshua a blanket, a bit smaller than twin-sized, with Thomas the train print on one side and a soft chenile on the other. Joshua loves to burrow and the feeling of weight over his body. He tries to climb in between the mattresses on the beds here. He's tried out the blankets in the occupational therapy sessions he used to have, and always enjoyed them. It should be done in a week.

Deren has been doing a lot of walking around the neighborhood with Joshua in the wee hours of the morning. I'm afraid he's getting as cranky as his pregnant wife is. I know the conversation is going downhill when we start comparing and competing about who got more sleep, and therefore who should get up and feed the kids breakfast. A couple times we've sent the boys to school with their breakfast in their bag.

Well it's past seven now, and I've been dreaming of bedtime since 5, so I'm signing off. Rachael has a field trip to a local pumpkin farm scheduled for Wednesday. I am hoping to meet her there. Who knows, maybe I can try out a couple school songs with her while we're there so her teacher can see that I'm not fibbing about her homework!