updates on the little ones; sleeping,talking and schooling

My 2 month old Samantha
For some reason she is having issues sleeping! Day or night she hates to sleep on her back.  It's not that big of a surprise, I have had this issue with all three of my kids.  She will sleep in her swing which doesn't work for me at night, her rocking chair (which again doesn't work at night because it sits up to far) and finally the car seat.  Now we did this with our first because we had a living situation that had us all in a very very small room.  So last night in an attempt to get some sleep I tried it again. Took her car seat and padded it so the buckles weren't jabbing her, and put her down. Yippie I got some sleep!  I re-iterate some, at 2am I got up to make the hubby breakfast, at 3 and again at 6 she woke up to eat.  But it was much better than the night before.

My 2 year old Veronica.
There are words forming.  It's a slow process but there has been a recent ray of hope.  I know I need to pray over her more and hopefully righting this out will help me.  So here is her vocabulary list so far; Stinky, 'ungrey (meaning for both thirsty and hungry), mine (thanks to daddy), me, Harley (our puppy),'ease (please), no, k (ok), baby.  She signs 'more' (a baby sitter taught her) but she has come to the conclusion that if she can use her hands to speak she doesn't need to use  her mouth.

My First Grader - Jannel
We have finally got a schedule that I think we can stick to and it incorporates both her need to do her school work and the little ones play.  This has been a challenge in the past because she has a NEED to keep to a schedule but so often things slip by and we are off it because the day revolves around 4 people not just 1.  So now we have generalized it a little so that we have room for oopses.  This is what it looks like so far.

Time                 Little Ones                Jannel
6am -8am         Get up and going      Can start on your lessons as soon as your done getting ready.
8am - 10am      Free Play                  Written Work: Writing Language Arts, Math
10am - 1030    Snack                       Snack & Recess (if done with written work)
1030 - Noon    Art                           History, Bible Study, Reading (Art if finished early)
1230 - 3pm      Quiet Time               Outside play or self reading (anything quiet)
3pm - 330       Snack ------------------------------------
330 - 5pm        Outside Play             Help clean up and play
5PM                Dinner -----------------------------------

We did this yesterday and she was able to get done and stay on task much easier.  She is doing wonderful in most of her studies, is getting a distaste for Language arts which she has loves mostly because she has to write and she HATES writing.