Wearing Me Down

I think things are shifting in our house. The boys are definitely getting older and we have moved 100% out of the wonderful 4's. We are fully into the 5's and I think the transition is that the second half of each age has always been a little more challenging for us. So that must mean we've moved into the second half of the 5's as we seem to have hit a rough spot.

The boys are still as cute as ever and on the most part are really well behaved. We just seemed to be having more moments. I think I am so worried they will no longer be moments but rather the norm and that the well behaved times will be the new moments. S especially seems to be getting sassy. Still working through how to handle it. N's new thing is to say I Hate You! each time we make him do something he'd rather not do (like clean up his Lego's) or don't let him do something he'd really like to do (like stay up). When I figure out how to deal with this, I'll definitely share it but not there yet!

In the meantime, we've transitioned nicely into the boys having the separate Saturday AM activities (N - music, S - gym). In fact, when we talked about maybe trying out karate, S said he really wanted to try it but separately from N. I was really surprised, but not in a negative or even a positive way. Just surprised.

Lego's are still the big thing around here. This last weekend, the boys went through their old toys and agreed to donate some of them and I agreed to give them a toy credit for an amount based on what they decided to donate. They did such a good job! I was really surprised at how many toys they were willing to let go of... just goes to show you the allure of the Lego! They each got $40 credit and bought the same Star Wars ship kit. I got a amazingly empty (not really empty per se but empty compared to before) closet. Win-Win for everyone.

Other new thing is that the boys have been watching the Clone Wars episodes. I bought the DVD of the TV series so they watch one episode a night. A couple have been too scary (I think) but they still want to keep watching. We just take a break every couple of days (I make them pick a different movie) to help keep it from getting too intense.

N's speech appointments seem to be going really well. He doesn't fight going which is great. He does fight doing anything and everything "different" lately though. He doesn't want to go to a friend's, he doesn't want to go to a b'day party, he doesn't want to eat whatever new is on his plate, etc. I make him do some of the things - he fights it and cries and carries on but once he is there he has a blast. I really hope this is a phase for his sake (and mine too, if I'm being honest... I really feel horrible when I force him to go and I've been torn about how hard I should be forcing things like this).