Greetings from the Couch*

*No longer with al pictures!

So I’ve been a crappy blogger lately. I keep wanting to blog. There’s so much to say, so much going on, so many wonderful things I want to look back and remember about my wee three. They’re growing up so incredibly fast. But then I just don’t find the time at the end of the day, instead just enjoying hanging out on the couch watching television shows that have finally made it over here, like Glee and The Good Wife, and the new seasons of How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory.

So, yes, I like trash tv.

Anyway, I have a bit of spare couch time this week, so I thought I’d recap how the trio is doing.

Ramekin.
Ramekin won’t be five until May, but he can’t wait. He tells everyone that he’s almost five. He’s already inviting everyone in his class to his party … which apparently means we’re going to have to suck it up this year and let him have some kind of a party. sigh He’s a very sociable boy and is always inviting friends over after school. Once or twice a week he has at least one friend over straight after school to play and stay for dinner. While this might drive some parents nuts, frankly, I prefer it to sending him elsewhere.

In spite of his self-professed ‘almost five’-ness, after much thought over the holidays, I decided to keep Ramekin on his part-time schedule at school, so I continue to pull him out for two half days a week. I’m the only parent in his class doing this. But I don’t care. He’s one of the youngest boys in the class, and I see no need for a four year old to be at school full time, no matter how confident and independent he is. And it hasn’t done him any harm; quite the contrary. He’s one of the best behaved children in his class, even though he’s also one of the most active. He loves learning. And being creative. And he’s the top reader in the class, in spite of his age and shorter schedule. He’s a number of books ahead of the next couple of readers in the class, well into the ‘third’ set of color coded books, a tier no other child in his class has yet reached. So I do feel rather vindicated in my decision to let him come home and essentially run wild a couple of afternoons a week with his brother, at home or on one of our ‘adventures’ at local parks and national trust properties.

BooBaaa.
What can you say about an almost three year old who is convinced he can do anything his brother can do? BooBaaa won’t be three until next month, but you’d be hard pressed to convince him he’s anything but a Big Boy. And, physically, he is. Tall, solid and extra-coordinated, with a huge amount of cleverness to boot, BooBaaa is going to be a force to be reckoned with. And he knows it. He could care less what other people think about him; he just goes about being BooBaaa.

BooBaaa is thriving at his nursery. Moving him up to the three to five year old room in September, when he was just two and a half, was a stroke of genius. He might have been the youngest for the bulk of the last six months, but it didn’t phase him in the slightest. He just goes about his BooBaaa business, and knows exactly what buttons to push to rile up those who might get in his way. Yes, a button pusher, but also a lovely cuddler who loves to snuggle up with a good book and someone to read with.

The only thing lacking in BooBaaa’s repertoire was to bite the bullet and complete potty training a few weeks ago. So we did. I say ‘complete’, because he was already half way there. Late last August, when Lambchop was about eight or nine weeks old, after watching Lambchop being lugged off to the changing table regularly, BooBaaa suddenly decided that only babies pooed in their nappies. So he stopped. Seriously, he just stopped, just like that. And since his declaration, he has only pooed on the toilet (save or twice when I was completely stuck, had no place to take/send him, and he was not pleased). The amusing part is he was a ‘naked toilet user’, insisting on completely stripping down every time he used the toilet. (A hassle in its own way, since he couldn’t redress himself without help, but a minimal hassle when compared to dealing with pooey nappies on a two year old. But he can now redress himself, so…) Anyway, three weeks ago we decided to finish the job. He picked out his ‘big prize’, the much coveted item he would get for five straight days of dryness, the same way we trained his big brother. In the interim, he got a sweetie for every wee on the potty. And then, after five straight dry days, he got his prize –a much desired Ben 10 watch like his brother’s—on Day 7. And that was it. He’s done.

Needless to say, it’s nice having only one in nappies again.

Lambchop.
My lovely Ms Lambchop turned eight months old today and seems pretty determined to leave babydom behind, even though I keep telling her I’m not ready! She’s babbling away, and adores singing. She’s crawling everywhere, meaning the stair gates are back in operation. She’s pulling herself up on anything and everything she can a grip on and trying to cruise.

Nothing fazes her, and my friends remain in awe of her happy, easy going, sociable personality. It’s probably because of her loud, boisterous brothers; she’s just used to chaos and noise. Which translates beautifully at the playgroups I take her to: I can put her down in front of a dollhouse/farmhouse/cars/whatever, and she’ll play happily, watching all the other little people play around her. Often a handful of little toddlers will seat themselves around her to play with her - she really is just that cute.


So that’s the news on the trio.

As for me, as I said I’m getting some time on the couch this week as G herds the little monsters around. Back in November I tore some cartilage (again) in my knee, so after much foot dragging and grumbling, and intermittent horrible pain, I finally caved and scheduled knee surgery. A quick scope to clean it out. Yesterday.

Yes, yes. I had knee surgery yesterday morning. My sixth one overall, I’ll have you know. But it went really well. The new anaesthetic drugs are fantastic: I didn’t feel at all sick when I woke up, and I was sitting up and eating a sandwich and drinking tea just a couple hours after having it done. And I walked out under my own power a couple of hours after that, no crutches necessary. They really have come a long way on these things. So I’ll be hanging out here trying to give it some time to heal and stop bleeding while I watch the wee three drive my husband bonkers for a change.


hahahahahahahaha