Week in Review: Henry Reads, Three Little Pigs and I'm Really Trying Not to Throw Up

Ugh.  I am hanging on by my fingernails this week.  While I have blessedly avoided actually throwing up, I'm pretty much in a constant state of queasiness.  Add in the typical first-trimester fatigue and you can imagine what things are looking like around here.  Suffice to say, we've had quite a few pajama days and more than a few frozen pizzas for dinner.

12 more days until Advent break, 12 more days until Advent break, 12 more days until Advent break...

I'm looking forward to the break; can you tell?

So, this week did go well.  Henry made a big leap forward yesterday and has started to truly sound out words.  Or, as he put it, "I'm READING, Mommy!!!  I'm READING!!!"  On a whim, I brought up a blank Word document and began typing in simple words like rat, cat, bat, hat, etc.  He was able to sound them all out and read them all.  He is very, very proud of himself and, of course, we are too!  It's really an amazing thing to see that little light bulb go off in their heads.

My only question now is whether I should bother putting him through level 2 of the Hooked on Phonics pre-K program.  I don't think he really needs half a year of looking at capital letters again.  I think I will skip him to level 1 of the kindergarten program once we come back from our Advent and Christmas break and see how he does.  I will keep going with Explode the Code so he can work on his penmanship and increase his letter/sound recognition, though.

Math is still great.  Henry really enjoys the Saxon lessons and I'm really glad it's Angelicum's chosen program.

Art for today was the Three Little Pigs.  He was a little disappointed by the lack of the wolf, but he got over it.

Oliver's therapy appointments went well this week.  The therapist said he used the words up, in, open, and out appropriately during the sessions.  At home, he's been a bit more quiet as far as formed words go, although he did repeat close one time for me.  At this point, the therapist is very comfortable with saying it's most likely a processing/developmental issue and not a motor/apraxia type thing.  He is making progress so we will continue with the therapy, but it could be a long haul or it could be a sudden leap for him to really talk.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Jane is walking for real!  She still crawls when she wants to move quickly, but she can take a good amount of steps forward, some backward, and can scoot sideways and turn when she's feeling particularly motivated.  She's also got some molars coming in, poor baby.  I feel bad for infant/toddlers.  It's always something for those little guys.

Mystery Baby 5, as stated above, is doing its best to eliminate my appetite, but everything else seems to be going fine.  Since Matt is military, I got to go to the base hospital to do the mandatory new baby orientation.  I confess I rolled my eyes at the idea.  Here I was hoping that they were going to tell me about the completely new and exciting method of being pregnant and giving birth, but apparently it's the same as 14 months ago (and millennia ago, also).  At least I got all my paperwork filled out and all of my labs done.

10 weeks down, 32 more to go!*


* Yes, I said 32.  Henry was born at 40 weeks, Oliver was induced at 37, and Jane was 40 weeks + 3 days.  I'm just going to tell myself that I'm going to go to 42 weeks so I don't get despondent at the end.