Anyone need their floors mopped?

Bitty is your man, as long as you don't mind puddles all over the floor. We have one of those Swiffer Wet-Jets that spray and then you mop. He LOVES the spray.

He got the idea from one of his books (he likes to act out scenes from his books, not entire sequences but one little snippet repeated over and over and over). This time, it was a mopping scene.

He grabbed the mop from the closet and went to work. At first, I was happy to let him. Who am I to argue with a child who wants to mop?

But as I heard him spraying over and over, and realized he was going to use up the entire bottle of cleaning spray if I didn't put a stop to it, I told him "Good job, 'Bitty,' all done with the mop." He ignored me and kept on, leaving big puddles in his wake as he was more interested in spraying than actually mopping up.

I took the mop away.

He went ballistic.

I had to hide the mop in the garage to keep it away from him. And then stand guard by the door to the garage while he raged on about the mop and tried to forcibly move me away from the door. No attempts to redirect worked. He eventually started to settle down and I went on to other things. As soon as he figured the coast was clear, he snuck into the garage and the next thing I knew, there's that spraying sound again!

Bitty - 1, Mama - 0

I put the mop outside on the back porch. He can't open that door so I didn't have to stand guard. He went ballistic again.

After a while, seeing that I was not going to give in, he came up with Plan B.

Plan B involved throwing his sippy cup around the kitchen in an attempt to leave little drops of chocolate milk all over the floor.

Little drops that would need to be... wait for it... mopped up.

Which would force me to bring the mop back in, right?

Ah, I'm impressed with your logic, Bitty. Impressed, but not fooled ;).

Instead of going for the mop, I grabbed a paper towel and started wiping up the spilled milk. (Well, first I tried to get HIM to wipe it up but you can imagine how that went over *snort*)

Oh, he was not impressed. He grabbed my hands trying to force me to stop, shouting, "No NA-KIN, NOOOO NA-KIIIIIINN!" (no napkin).

The mop spent the night outside. As I type this, it has been brought back in but is hiding in the garage. Add this to the list of chores that must be done when Bitty is either at school or asleep (also on the list - laundry because he is forever turning the washer off mid-wash).

I know his mile-wide stubborn streak came from ME, so I guess I have no one to blame but myself... But at least that makes me a somewhat even match for his stubborn self, right? (Oh, who am I kidding?) ;).





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2nd amendment, 3rd grade style :)

This past week, Cuddlebug was studying for his social studies test, which was on our form of government and the very basics of the U.S. Constitution. I take issue with some of what is in his textbook but I make a point not to contradict it (at least until after the test, lol) because I know that would just confuse him and not help him on his test.

But I couldn't help myself when we got to the question about the Bill of Rights, because while it said "Bill of Rights" it really only mentioned the rights contained in the first amendment. Important as the 1st amendment is, that's not the only one in the Bill of Rights! So I was sharing some other rights that are part of the Bill of Rights (figuring that's not contradicting the book, just adding to it, right? they can't count it wrong if he puts an answer that IS part of the Bill of Rights even if it's not one of the ones from the texbook).

Anyway, so after we went over the 1st amendment I started telling him about the others. As I was explaining what the term "right to bear arms" means, he looked at his arms (he was not wearing a shirt) and asked, "so we have the right to 'bare arms'?" He cracks me up. I said, well, yes, but that's not what it means. I explained it again, and he looked at his arms again. "Ok... but we DO have the right to 'bare arms' right?" lol. Yes, we do. It's not technically in the Constitution, but we do have the right to go sleeveless wherever and whenever we choose. ;)






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IEP's and other updates

It's been a crazy week. Crazy couple of weeks really... I think I've averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night. Finally got some rest last night but my brain is still fried, so here are some random updates:

2 IEP's down, 1 to go... both Cuddlebug's and Bearhug's IEP's are done for the upcoming year. Not a whole lot of changes there. Bearhug's issues at school seem to have subsided for the time being and he is doing well although he still has the occasional blow-out at home. I think all kids probably go through things like that as they get older, but his difficulties expressing himself and sensitivity to certain situations can really exacerbate things at times. And I wonder how much is actually biochemical and perhaps not entirely in his control to begin with? We've noticed that he tends to be more likely to have outbursts when he hasn't eaten in a while, so we wondered if it is low blood-sugar or something like that affecting his behavior. When we mention that to him and offer him something to get his blood sugar up that seems to help him calm down, not sure if it's actually the food or psychological (or maybe just coincidental?) but we will ask the doctor about it at his upcoming appt (we have an appt for him scheduled w/ a specialist next month).

Bitty's IEP meeting is scheduled for next week. His teacher mentioned we will probably discuss transition to kindergarten when we meet. I'm not sure what kind of kindergarten placement will be best for him... the only options I'm aware of are (1) typical class with resource support and (2) self-contained class. The class he's in now is sort of a unique setup which includes some NT peers (a year younger than he is) and some special needs peers. It's a smaller class than the pre-k classes and has three teachers, at least one of whom is a special ed teacher. It has worked out really well for him. I think he's ready for kindergarten from an academic standpoint (he's a great reader and a fast learner) but his delays in social/communication skills are pretty significant relative to his peers (and getting more so the older he gets, despite all the progress he's making). I guess I'm rambling, and I should just quit worrying about it until we can sit down and discuss what kind of options are available...

In other news, Cuddlebug has started having some difficulty with school, not so much with the work but with being motivated to do the work. When he complained to me about school and asked why he needs to learn things, I told him part of the reason is to help him in whatever job he chooses as an adult. To which he cried, "but my WIFE's gonna do that!!" lol. I informed him that if his plan is to be a full-time dad he also needs to "learn things" in order to be able to take care of his kids. How else does he expect to be able to teach them? He wasn't impressed, but stopped arguing with me (a miracle in and of itself, haha).

Later that week, his teacher emailed to tell me he was not participating in literature circles, not that he was in trouble but to give me a heads up that he had some low grades due to that (still has a B overall in reading though). I asked him about it and realized I never should have mentioned future job as a reason for studying when he informed me that the reason he doesn't participate in literature circles is because, "I'm not going to need that for my job." Really? Um, you can start specializing when you get to college, dude. In 3rd grade, you still have to do all the subjects. Sigh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some recent Bitty-isms:

"Issa wi-uhl werm" (sounds like "worm," but it's his way of saying "it's a little warm," so cute!)

"BIG bit" when he wants more than just a "little bit" :)

"bunny miwk" his latest name for chocolate milk, so named for the rabbit on the Nesquik package.






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Christmas 2009

Still catching up on pictures, lol. Here are some pictures from Christmas :).

We let the boys open one present on Christmas Eve. Bitty actually fell asleep before that so he missed that part, but he made up for it the next morning :). (that's Bearhug on the left, Cuddlebug on the right). The presents are all spread out because they sorted them into separate piles... might as well be efficient and have everything ready to go for Christmas morning, right? ;).




We had been telling Bitty for a month, "you have to wait until Christmas to open presents." He got a little confused on Christmas Eve and opened one that he wasn't supposed to, but that day we kept telling him, "tomorrow is Christmas, tomorrow you can open your presents."

So the next morning, he woke up and promptly started helping himself to the presents, lol. We forgot to tell him to wait for the rest of the family... luckily Cuddlebug and Bearhug were up too, they caught him and came running upstairs to tell us, "MOM!!! DAD!!! 'Bitty's' opening presents!!!!" So he only opened three before we got downstairs. Oops. I guess next year we'll know to be more specific... and tell him to wait for the rest of us so we can open them together :). Honestly, I was just thrilled that he cared about the festivities at all, this is the first year he has really been "tuned in" to what's going on and interested in participating.


Bitty liked to stop after each present to check it out before moving on to the next one.



Christmas for Bearhug and Cuddlebug was a regular Poke-palooza, lol.



Lining up Pokemon cards...



Cuddlebug made this dream-catcher for me at school :).


One of Bitty's presents from his grandparents was this Thomas play tent.





In case you're wondering - yes, it is big enough for 8-yr-olds to fit inside too ;).


Even Orion got into the Christmas spirit with his light-up bandana and a present from his stocking ;).








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Pack meeting

Bearhug and Cuddlebug had Pack Meeting this past Wednesday. They have each completed three achievements, which means they each earned a progress bead toward their Wolf badge. We convinced Bearhug to go to Scouts that night so he could get his award.

You wouldn't know it from this picture, but it didn't exactly go well... Bearhug was so overstimulated I had to take him out, but we came back in long enough for him to get his award (and then had to take them both out). I missed Cuddlebug's award since I was out in the hallway, but he came up to help me with Bearhug's. Bitty actually managed to stay the longest in Scouts (and he is not even a Cub Scout yet) but only by a few minutes, ended up in the gym trying to keep all three of them in visual range... kind of exhausting! This was our first pack meeting, next time I'll know to take something for Bearhug to do and make arrangements ahead of time for him to go in just long enough to get his award.

Cross-posted at Everyday Photography.




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SEW & WW: Down on the farm

Bitty loves farm animals. He has a birthday coming up in a couple of months so I think we're going to take him to a local petting zoo to see the animals.




More Special Exposure Wednesday here. More Wordless Wednesday here and here :).





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