The biggest downside of potty training Henry almost a year ago, is that he wakes up every morning very, very early, because he needs to pee. We take him before we go to bed, but still, that's about 8 more hours he has to go without peeing and that's a lot for a little bladder.
My solution is teaching Henry a rudimentary method of how to tell time. He can recognize 1-12 so that was the first step and know he's starting to figure out what time feels like, in terms of seconds and minutes and hours. That's a pretty hard concept and I don't expect him to get it anytime soon, but he's becoming familiar. He has a giant wall clock and after I take him to pee sometime between 5:30 and 6:00, I give him the clock and he knows he has to stay in his bed until the long hand reaches the 5 (6:25). PBS Kids doesn't come on till 6:30 so that gives us a few minutes to cuddle before he glues himself to Word World and Sesame Street for an hour. He's pretty cute with that clock. It's really large so when he emerges from his room clutching it and saying, "Mom! It's on the 5!", I always laugh.
Eleanor is quite the party girl. She loves music just like Henry did as a baby. Always shaking her booty to the beat and flailing her arms around in joy when she hears anything musical. She'll laugh and squeal on top of that which makes the whole music experience pretty great. Eleanor, when not sick, has reminded us what an independent little girl she is. She's perfectly content for incredibly long stretches of time, without us. She likes to be busy filling and emptying just about anything she can get her hands on.
Eating and sleeping are pretty good. I'm guessing she averages about 15 hours per day--sometimes more, sometimes less. 12-13 at night and about 3 hours worth in naps. She is still taking two naps a day. Henry will sleep 10-12 at night and take a 2 hour nap if at home--he refuses to nap at school anymore. Only 2-3 kids in his entire class still take naps at school so he doesn't want to.
Henry has become confident on his balance bike. Yesterday we took the kids to an empty parking lot and he could go very far and fast balancing, suggesting that if we had a bike his size with pedals we could probably teach him how to ride by the end of the day. That bike has really changed everything for him. He rides it every single day and does not even get upset when he falls. Eleanor enjoyed walking for long stretches on her push alligator; stopping only to shove pebbles in her mouth. (Memory: The wacky hording lady stopping to shout that her ex husband John Howard achieved the land speed record back in his day.)
Uncle Karl and Aunt Rachel were here this past long weekend and he took a zillion pictures that I'm currently wading through. Stay tuned.
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