Time for an update...
Guillame had his report card a couple weeks back. His best subject is reading - no big suprise there - and his worst are phys ed. and art. He's not a terribly coordinated kid and he does best with more structure and fewer distractions, I guess! He's a pretty average student overall, with the exception of his stellar reading. He has an on again off again friendship with another boy in his class - the sort of thing where they have a hard time staying away from each other, but squabble when they do play. Right now the other boy is 'not talking' to Gui, but I don't expect that will last long.
Gui turns 7 this thursday. He lost another tooth last week, and has several more loose ones - soon he'll have a mouth full of big choppers. My friend Jen is bringing her pile of boys over to celebrate with us so we should have a pretty rollicking birthday party! He is looking forward to March break - he tells me often that he misses me when he is at school, and to be honest I miss him too. Though I do like the quiet stretches I get during the day when Aetheline is sleeping and Pascal is playing quietly, somehow we never have that much peace when both boys are around. :-)
Pascal just had another visit from his best buddy Daniel. My brother and his fiancee (Daniel's mom) had marriage prep this past weekend, so I babysat Daniel for them. I planned a few things for us to do together to keep all three boys more or less occupied, since past experience suggests that the little boys WILL make a gigantic mess - or break something - if left idle for very long. Though I do not suggest deciding to do papercrafts with two kids with deficient scissors skills when you also have a cranky baby who wants your attention! They managed to glue together their lion and lamb pictures (see, a march theme! yep, that's as mom-crafty as I get), and Gui had fun with the word games I printed out for him.
Pascal is also learning to love words. He's taken to asking me to read every combination of letters he sees, and we've been playing with letter names and sounds. I have a box of Alphabits that are available for snacks, but only after we play with them and make sounds and words out of them. And I printed some gorgeous flash cards off of Jan Brett's website. My mother told me about it, and gosh there are a lot of beautiful printables available there! Jan Brett is an artist and children's author who wrote and illustrated "The Mitten," about a group of animals who one by one find an abandoned woolen mitten and squeeze into it for a winter nap. The kids love her books and the website is a great resource.
Aetheline continues to grow and learn. She's become proficient at that rolling over business and can twist and roll herself into all kinds of positions, though she hasn't really tried to use it as a form of locomotion - yet. Her days have fallen into a sort of rhythm, though I am not so foolish as to expect it not to change again shortly, as baby habits do. :-) Right now though she has been waking fairly early for an early 'breakfast', and then catnapping while I get Gui on the bus, and then she takes two more naps during the day - one in the late morning, one in the late afternoon. It's remarkably convenient since it often works out that she is sleeping during lunch prep and then again during the rush when Gui gets home from school, and then awake for her favorite part of the day - dinner time! Ever since her first taste of applesauce last month Aetheline has been a huge fan of the taste, texture, and fun of solid food. I have a pretty laid back approach to introducing foods, so she has had all sorts of things - mashed potato, rice, beef, chicken, tomato, pasta, melon, bell pepper - and has liked all of them.
Aetheline laughs out loud more now, and at more things. She's developing a sense of humor that appreciates Opa's funny faces, Pascal's jumping around, Gui's silly sound effects, Uncle Ben's baby juggling, and being worn as a hat on Oma's head. Oh, and Mama's tickling. She watches her favorite people intently when they are talking - often rolling and angling her body around to get a good view - and then smiles hugely when they look at her. When Daniel was visiting he brought her toy after toy and she bestowed little princess smiles on him with every one.
I am so grateful to be able to spend this time with Aetheline while she is small. I am unbelievably blessed to have supportive family who believe that a baby needs her mother - and, I believe, a mother needs her baby too. My children will grow and become more independent - as am I - but right now they are young, and I am so glad to be able to make them know that they are safe and loved.
