A Few Things

I have had good intentions to actually blog some stuff, rather than just post pictures, but something always seems to come up. Or, more correctly, someONE comes by and distracts me. ;o) My distractions are in bed so I'm going to type while I have a minute.

Of course, just as I wrote that, Keats came down to ask me the burning, urgent question: Mom, which coloring page do you want? Batman or Robin?

*sigh*

We're having a really tough time getting Sullivan to sleep at night. He seems to be scared of everything and just cries & cries & cries until one of us goes in there. Mike has ended up sleeping on the floor next to Sully quite a few times lately. A month or so ago we had a pretty intense storm, even having tornado warnings flash on the tv screen. Sully was just going down for a nap when the storm hit and he and Keats removed the "black out" material from Sullivan's window and were watching the storm. Since that time, Sully will see his curtains move, just from the A/C or heater (the vent is in the ceiling just above his window) and he will start screaming, "It's winnie, it's winnie!" (winnie = windy). He won't calm down until I go in and explain what is going on. I've had to tuck the curtains into the window ledge to keep them from wiggling at all. What a pain! Then there is the issue of the monkey on his wall. He will stare at it with such a scared look on his face...never said anything about being scared by the monkey, but both Mike and I separately got the idea maybe the monkey needed to go. So, today I painted over the monkey. I always thought the monkey looked too much like George W. Bush, not joking at all...it really did resemble him, so I wasn't sad to see it go. Except that now I will need to replace it with something. Probably a big tree. A big, unscary, happy tree. ;o) I shall keep Bob Ross' voice in my head as I paint. Tee hee.

Otherwise with Sully, I think he is just a great, big thinker! I'm sure that is why he sleeps so little. If he isn't getting overimaginative with items in his room decor, he's in there counting or singing. He seems to have a difficult time stopping his brain long enough to fall asleep. He has somewhat of a photographic memory...except that I think his leans towards the verbal side of things. Like if you sing him a song, he can remember the tune and will sing it with you the second time, only he gets the last word of every sentence. Then by the third or fouth time he pretty much has it down. He can talk with his shows. He spends a HUGE portion of his life reading Highlight's Hidden Pictures Playground magazine. This is a kid 'zine that has items hidden within pictures and you try to find all the hidden stuff. Keats loved it but didn't start until close to age five. I never thought Sully would understand the concept so I never tried them with him. He got a hold of one of Keaton's old copies and was immediately hooked. I have a subscription for Keats and so we get two new magazines about every four weeks, so we have quite a few lying around the house. Sully goes nowhere without one now! In his carseat he will be reading one. That is very, very cute and I always mean to catch a picture of it but never seem to do that. So, at night, he will sing, count, or sit in there looking at a magazine saying, "Where's the ball? Where is it? Oh! There it is!" over and over and over. It is actually pretty entertaining but I wish he'd get more sleep! I want to buy him some new copies (you can buy a whole set at a time at the Highlights website) for his birthday but I also want him to sleep. Decisions, decisions.

Keaton just finished his three week stint at School of Rock. He absolutely loved it. He still says he wants to be a rockstar when he grows up...but he also wants to be a surgeon, a superhero, and a policeman. ;o) He always says he wants to be a superhero so he can save people. He's such a sweetie. In SoR, he was able to listen to lots of live bands in class and made some instruments. He also did a lot of sports and other activities. He will go back to the same summer camp for a week in August but it will then be all about being a doctor. I think it is called "Little Doctors in Africa". I wish I could put him in for the whole month but it is a lot of money considering I'm not working while he's there. Plus, the camp is across town and is just a lot of driving every day. This next Thursday he starts Safety Town classes which go for ten mornings. This is a program run through the school district that teaches road safety, bike safety, that sort of thing. It is only 2-1/2 hours a day though rather than an all day gig. Hopefully he'll learn lots of things though...he's so bossy with Sully that anytime Keaton learns something about safety he loves to share his knowledge with the baby brother. Fine by me!

Keaton is also getting really ready to read. He watches a show called "Super Why" that is on PBS in the morning and I think it has helped him turn a corner as far as reading readiness. I've worked with him and letters/sounds for a while but it seems like just the last two weeks he has done some amazing things with reading and spelling. Aside from the fact that he can get on the computer, open the Google page, type in "Batman Coloring Pictures", choose a page, add paper to the printer, and print his own coloring pages, he is just suddenly able to recognize lots of words and spontaneously spells things just out of his head. It is a fun transition to witness.

I had lots to write but am going to have to hit the hay. I seriously messed up my back on Saturday morning and the meds (steroids & pain pills) are making me too sleepy. Hopefully this post gives you a little insight into The Way the Moore Boys Work. ;o)