Verity: 8 Months

Age: 8 months


Weight: 18 lbs (roughly, it's probably closer to 18 1/2)

Height: 26 inches (yeah, I give up on this… Verity has gotten too mobile to get a good measurement)

Eating: Still just breast milk. Still nursing a lot. One more month and Verity will start solids.

Sleeping: This has been less than amazing lately. Verity had about 1 week of sleeping for only 1-2 hrs during the night and she had to be in bed with us. Finally realize it was just because she was ready to move into a bed of her own instead of the swing. Last night was the first night that Verity was in her pack n play (aka her own bed) and she slept a 5 hour followed by a 3 hour. Not amazing but I'll take it! Verity is also still swaddled; we swaddle for a long time.


Accomplishments: Lots of progress this last month, Verity crawls like crazy. She has a bit of the "zombie crawl" but she'll crawl normally if she wants to get somewhere fast. She can pull herself easily now and there's no stopping her. She's starting to learn how to get back down which is good because otherwise she just gets stuck standing up. More babbling, getting closer to actual "mama" and "dada" but not really associating anything yet. She's also started to "bounce" while sitting, sort of a dance move.

Other Random Stuff: Not much else to report. Verity is still quite happy and easy going. She seems to be taking after Logan a bit. It'll be interesting to see if she continues to look like him.

Our Curriculum for 2013-2014

Just in case you were curious about what the boys will be learning this year… here's our curriculum! I can't believe Logan will be in 2nd grade and Ransom will be in 1st! Logan's school is definitely going to be much harder this year. I've been getting all the lesson plans put together and wow! It's a lot more work for him compared to last year but he's totally excited!

Core Curriculum

We are using Sonlight as our “core” curriculum. Sonlight is an "open and shut" curriculum, meaning that I can essentially open the book and it has all the subjects planned out for me. We do not use all that Sonlight recommends however; I have a few subjects that we do differently and therefore, we do make a few changes. As my boys are only one grade apart, we are using the same core for both of them but with their own grade level books for the subjects that need it such as math and language arts. This year we are using Sonlight's Core C which is their second half of an Intro to World History, so we will travel through the fall of Rome all the way to modern history. For those curious, Core C is recommended for ages 7-9. Logan is 7 fits this recommendations fine but obviously Ransom, my 6 year old who is in 1st grade is a bit young however as he is using the core for the subjects that are not as technical; he does fine. This is why we still get him his own level of math and language art curricula.

1st Grade (Ransom)

Bible – Sonlight

Math: Singapore Primary Mathematics 2A & 2B US Edition

Science: Exploring God's Creation

History & Literature: Sonlight

Phonics/Reading/Writing: Progressive Phonics Advanced Books and a selection of emerging reader books.

Spelling: Selection of Grade 1 words based on Fry's word list 

2nd Grade (Logan)

Bible – Sonlight

Math: Singapore Primary Mathematics 3A & 3B US Edition

Science: Exploring God's Creation

History & Literature: Sonlight

Reading: Sonlight's 3rd Grade Readers

Grammar: Language Smarts C

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 2

Spelling: Selection of Grade 2 words based on Fry's word list

Those are our basic subjects. Other subjects such as art, health, P.E., and character building/manners I take more of an unschooling approach and just incorporate them into our lives as they fit in naturally.

We'll be starting in just a couple weeks! I can't believe summer has gone by so quick!

Stop the Insanity

I don't know why but the last few weeks has been one crazy incident after another. When you are a parent, it seems there are moments when life is good, nobody is getting hurt, driving you crazy and your house is miraculously clean.

Then there are the other moments…the moments when it seems that EVERYTHING is going wrong. You're kids are constantly fighting with each other, always getting hurt, and your house is now a mess because you are dealing with the kids or just too exhausted.

I feel like we are in one of those moments. The kids being insane and always bugging each other, I can handle that… at least I have in the past so I assume I'll survive this time too. The house is actually clean but probably only because we've had people over so it HAS to be clean. However, there is something that needs to stop.

The near heart attacks… No I'm not in poor health but I seriously think my kids might be trying to drive me to it! Shall we recap what's happened lately?

After searching the whole house for Everly, I find her outside, out FRONT, out of the GATE, walking the side walk of our BUSIEST street! It's a miracle someone didn't just stop and grab her or that she didn't decide to go into the street or that I found her when she had only just started down the sidewalk!

Ransom comes up stairs to show me that he has a bloody hand. He's not screaming, he's not really even crying although the tears are welling up. You can tell this isn't a "I ran into something" type cut, it's more along the "I made a huge mistake, help me" accident. I had asked him to bring me the epi-pen that was still downstairs…well apparently he decided to try it out. Not smart. Thankfully he only managed to stick himself with the needle and didn't inject any of the medicine. Thankfully it was only his hand and not something crazy like his mouth or eye!

Verity has fallen off a chair and a bed. Both times landing on her head and I'm pretty sure if she wasn't a squishy, flexible baby her neck would have snapped. She's perfectly fine but it's not fun to see your baby fall on their head like that.

I'm sure Logan has had something happen to him… in any case he's been in fine form lately with his tantrums, boredom, and contrariness.

So I'm ready for a change. I've had too many accidents, too much blood, to many near panic attacks. Moms shouldn't have to deal with that. This mama is ready to clock out. When can I cash in on my sick days and vacation days? Oh wait…I'm a mom. I don't get those.

Ransom: 6 Years

Age: 6 years

Weight: 43 lbs

Height: 43 inches

Fun facts: Lost his first tooth. Finished Kindergarten. Began taking piano lessons.

Interview with Ransom 

Q: What's your favorite food?
A: Does that count candy? (no) Ice cream!

Q: What's your favorite subject in school?
A: Phonics

Q: What is something you are good at?
A: Unbuckling me buckle (he finally mastered unbuckling his car seat…and this is a good thing)

Q: What's your favorite color?
A: Black

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A Diamond Hunter

Q: What is your favorite book right now?
A: Ugly Duckling

Q: What are three words that describe you?
A:  Silly, happy, mellow

Q: What snack do you like best?
A: Candy

Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: Megamind

Q: What is one food that you do not like?
A:  Coconut (much to my dismay)

Q: What is your favorite toy to play with?
A: Twist

Q: What is your favorite game to play?
A: Puzzles

Q: What makes you laugh the most?
A: Tickling

Q: What scares you the most?
A: Monsters!

Q: What do you want to do next year?
A: Pick flowers

The Girl Who Grew Too Little

If you saw my post on Everly's growth a few posts back, you'll remember that she was tiny. Now she's always been tiny so it wasn't all that shocking to me that she was still tiny. The doctor was a bit concerned though and so we scheduled a followup height check for one month later.

This whole past month, Everly's height has always been on my mind. I wasn't worried that she was short but I was worried that the doctor would think it was enough to warrant tests or medication. The doctors had tried to get my mom to do that with me and I'm ever so glad that she decided not too. I didn't want to deal with that mess with Everly.

The big day came and I went to the doctor with Everly (and Verity in the carrier because naturally she goes where I go). We get called back immediately (must have been a light morning) and get Everly measured. Everly had grown 1/4 an inch in one month. Now by growth standards that's really not all that bad but it still meant she was short. The nurse got my height and Justin's height again so the doctor could compare to what Everly is. At that point, my mama mind starts to worry. Then I hear the doctor wants to double check with another pediatrician…more worry. Next, the nurse comes back in and says she wants to measure Everly laying down.

You see normally they measure babies and toddlers laying down. When they are young their bones compress (or maybe it's their bodies..something to do with bones and bodies…) and they really aren't good at standing up straight, so measuring them laying down gets a more accurate reading. Now when we first took Everly in last month, we measured her standing up. This was partially because she's a bit over 2 years old now and because she didn't want to be measured so it was easier to get her to be measured standing up (like her brothers showed her) than laying down.

Neither the nurse nor I thought about the effects that would cause.

You see, when we finally measured Everly laying down she grew…2 inches!!! Yeah, there's no way she actually grew 2 inches in 5 minutes so apparently when she stands up she compresses 2 inches! Holy Moley!

Needless to say we were all pleasantly surprised. We plugged in her new height of 35 inches and lo and behold she shot up in percentiles. Instead of being in the 2%, she was in the 22%!!! Right where she's always been and should be.

Moral of this story? If you have a toddler who is under the age of 3, make sure to have them measured laying down! If you suddenly have a height concern when your child is measured standing up for the first time, have them do another measurement with them laying down! We could have avoided so much stress and worry if we had just measured Everly correctly the first time!