A table Full

There's actually one 3 year old in the playroom too

I made a friend last spring. She let go of a brilliant lucrative career to stay at home with her four children. She breastfed her twin girls for 17 months. She has a very spirited 3 year old, yet never use the word "time-out". She's busy and organized yet is able to look relaxed and carefree when you speak with her. She also listen. There's all sort of other things that as we speaks, made me feel like we shared the same values. There's something that made us click, and she, at one point, as we got to know each other, almost muttered, a real confession not to be told to everybody:

I think I will homeschool Emilien next year.

Her big boy, she felt, was not in his best place in public school. The little guy is a genius, but dixpraxia make him trapped in his own body. She simply wanted to eliminate some frustration, and most of all, keeping the fire of appetite to learn alive. Because, you know, kids can be so mean. ( I resumed something so complicated in so little sentences)

So the adventure is started. The mom's a scientist, so I offered her something in my lines; arts!

Today we made finger paint (1 part corn starch, 3 part water, heat in a pot, add coloring) and it was really thick. Yes, Merrick ate some. With the spoon.

Emilien ended up making something really cool when he realized he could spread the whole thing with his whole hand.

And I love having so many kids in my house. I love chaos.

Wenesday is Painting day

I'm trying hard to follow the little daily activity rhythm I've created. So far it's going great. We do get some baking done on Monday, handwork on Tuesday (even if it's just play dough), painting on Wednesday and crafting on Thursday. They are usually enjoyable and Mariann gets thrilled when I mention "activity". On Friday, we don't have Lili, but I try to get out of the house and we eventually do something on the afternoon, going out of the house and all.

We tried stamps today. Mariann actually did the action of stamping unto her paper.
She also had to do her hand too. I wouldn't have resisted either.



Lili took her stamp as a paint brush.



Merrick ate some paint. Then he ate the stamp.



He also manage to stamp himself while giving it a hug. (see the sun?)

They all had great fun. They actually cleaned the stamps afterwards. And then I cleaned the mess. And them. Skin is my favorite product in terms of getting it back to clean state.

Autumn colors decorate well the room. Merrick's finger painting skills are actually quite good! Mariann did the huge red thing, you can actually see some flower stamps textured on all that paint. Lili's (not pictured) is full of yellow and red. Tomorrow is craft day. Not sure of what we're going to do... I have an idea, I'm missing one supply to do it. Activities take some planifications. I guess it's good practice for homeschool.

Intense

That's my keyword for this week: INTENSE.

Not as in, we did so much stuff... Intensity is in ourselves. It's the word I've been given to describe Mariann and my own self, and our relationship. We are so very much intense. We are so very much the same. We live our emotions so deeply. We can both be hugging and laughing to find ourselves yelling at each other, blood rushing in our ears the next second.

We are strong willed. Oh, we know what we want, and what we don't. And this week, there was a lot of " I don't want to share!", "I don't want to eat!" and mostly, "I don't want to sleep!!" that piled up to give us a sleep deprived 3 year old that, in the end, didn't really knew what she wanted (but she wanted it NOW!).

But having an intense daughter, when you are yourself intense, is not the worst scénario. Add another sleep deprived baby PLUS an over-working sleep deprived Papa PLUS a whole week of body telling you that those evra stamp (hormonal contraception) is doing the same thing than regular pills (getting you sick, like vomiting and fever and muscle pain) and you end up with a pretty bad week (and weekend).

This little Élie contrasts so much with my kids. She's my little earth whereas Merrick is pure fire and Mariann, just like me, is the water that can sit still under the sky, and suddenly start purring down, with no warning, making sky and ocean undissociable.

I need to learn to myself to calm down in order to learn to Mariann how to do it. Else, we're stuck in this huge tsunami that never ends.

Today was handwork day

According to my new established routine, today was handwork day and I took out the chuncky beads I found at the thrift store.

It was Elizabeth's first time, and with some help from Mariann, she learned how it worked and managed to make a really pretty necklace for herself. She's 18 month old. Her mama is a great friend of mine and had a really hard time trying daycare places, with all them stressing her and her baby in some way (to far so too much car time, close by too crowed, not sharing parenting values, etc). I offered to take her in and integrate her in our daily routine. So far, so good, and both mama and baby seems a lot happier.

You bet Mariann loves to have another playmate. She can get bossy and she loves to be the chief. On snack time, they are all 3 sit on the floor, with Mariann distributing the food. There's a lot of cooking going on in the playkitchen, a lot of babies being rocked, cuddled and craddled.

There's a lot of hugs and kisses going on, too. Mariann calls her "My love". There's a lot of sippy cup exchange as well, and a lot of food on my floor.

The proud girls. It's now time for bed-in to get Merrick to do his morning nap. The after-noon naps are still to be figured how. Any suggestions?

We tried all in bed with books, all on the couch with a movie, all babies in separated rooms....

Rhythm Annalisis

Summer seems very gone now. We sure will have some more days of good weather, but September is coming so fast. Soon I will loose Papa on lunch time, and won't expect to come home before late in the evening. And that, 7 days a week, for a least a month and a half.

Our new home rhythm is pretty much well established now. We eat our breakfast with Papa before he goes to work, have some free play time while I tend to the dishwasher and washing machine. I nurse Merrick in our playroom and take him upstair when he's asleep. We have our day's activity (Baking, Painting, Handwork, Crafting....) then some toddler appropriate Yoga. I start to make dinner after Merrick wake from his nap.

Papa comes for lunch and go. We have some more free play time, and when 2 o'clock hits we all get to bed for a relaxation period. Hopefully they all get asleep, if so, I sleep with them, if not I remove the non-sleeping child and s/he come with me downstairs and "help" me with the chores. Sometimes Mariann get to sleep by herself on the couch or on the crib mattress there is in my sewing room.

Wake up time means some more free play, outdoor if possible. I usually sit with a book or a ongoing doll on the floor and let the kids. Sometimes I start souper and sometimes I wait for Papa to be home to do so.

That's how our day looks like most of the time. The weekend are pretty hectic and unplanned.