I have BIG EXCITING NEWS to share ‼️
Asher is finally weaned from breastfeeding ððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧððŧ
I had lots of feelings while he still nursing, but I wasn’t sure how I would feel once we were done. He’s my last baby, so I thought there could be a small chance that I would be sad/miss it/feel something other than joy, but I couldn’t be happier! I had gotten to where I hated nursing. It almost made me resentful that I wasn’t in charge of my own body because I continued to do it, even though I didn’t want to.
I wish I could say I found some clever way to wean that was relatively painless and easy, but I can’t. I just cut him off after an excruciatingly long night where he practiced his new grinding technique ð. I woke up sore and tired as hell, feeling as though I didn’t sleep at all from serving as a literal human pacifier all night. Luckily, this happened on a Thursday night, so I woke up with determination on Friday morning, which was the best day of the week for me to do it. Doing it on the weekend allowed me to nap the following day because Philip was off work and could tend to the boys while I slept. I started Friday at nap time and told Ash my milk was all gone. He didn’t always nurse to sleep for nap, so that one went down easily. He had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from Playgroup, so I only had to put him back to sleep after I got him out of his car seat. While I was relieved to have gotten through nap with no issues, I wasn’t optimistic for bed time, and for good reason. That first night was brutal. Ash cried and said, “Mama,” and “Night night” (what he would say for nursing) in the saddest voice possible, over and over again. If I didn’t hate nursing so much, I would have easily caved. He fell asleep after a while, but he was up several times during the night. One disadvantage to bed (room) sharing, is that I had to try to avoid waking Quinn and Philip, so when Ash woke up crying, I removed him from our bedroom, and took him to the living room. However, this set a precedent for the next week, where anytime he woke up, he would immediately get out of bed and go in there ðĪĶðŧ♀️. Luckily, by the next weekend, he was waking less and less every night, and began falling back to sleep shortly after each waking. I was able to just hold or pat him, and he would go back out. On the ninth night of weaning, he even slept the entire night without waking at all, for the first time in his life. It’s unfortunate that I have such terrible sleeping habits or I would’ve been the most rested I’ve been in the past 2.5 years (pre-Ash pregnancy).
It’s crazy how much easier he falls and stays asleep now that he’s not breastfeeding. He wants to lay on my chest while going to sleep, but that’s the only requirement. He rarely wants milk from his cup, a habit I’m happy to not encourage anyway since it’s terrible for his teeth. He experimented with a bink a few times, but never for long. I tried fostering an attachment to a lovey (a stuffed animal of his choosing), but he didn’t care for it too much. Fortunately, things got easier with time, despite none of my tricks working. It’s a good thing, too, because those first few nights were pretty awful. Aside from the pleading, Ash has an impressive temper, and just like his dad (ðĪŠ), he refuses to be comforted until it’s on his terms. There were (and still are, just for different reasons) many tantrums where he just screamed “No,” to everything I offered, and cried for what felt like forever. Maybe weaning before the tantrum phase hit full force would’ve made it easier.
Ash and I had a power struggle at the park the other day when I told him we were leaving. I was carrying him and he opted to get down, but then laid himself down on the ground (his go to), and cried for me to pick him up ð. I refuse to entertain that nonsense, so I always tell him when he stands up, I’ll pick him up. He refused to stand up, so I waited him out. In the meantime, my doctor’s office called with instructions for the new medication I needed to begin taking, and needed me to schedule a follow up for it in a few months. She asked if I wanted to be transferred to do that then or if I wanted to call back. I told her I was waiting out a one year’s tantrum, so I had time to do it then ð .
I know I talked about increasing my depression medicine a few months ago and said that things were getting better, however, the benefits didn’t last long. I started noticing side effects that I eventually attributed to the medication. I always research potential side effects before I start taking a new medication, but I don’t bore them into my brain because I’m afraid of that causing a placebo effect, if I’m constantly on the lookout for something. I like to make notes of my experiences and then see if I can find the cause. Well, the double dosage of Cymbalta (which worked so well for many years ð), began causing sleep and vision issues, fatigue, and increased anxiety, to name a few. I was also taking Buspar, which is used to treat anxiety, along with it. However, I started noticing that every single time I took it, I would get a sore throat, which is my least favorite symptom of being sick. Like, I would rather blow gallons of snot out of my face than have a sore throat. That is such a weird side effect that I didn’t even attribute it to the medicine at first. I thought it was the reason I was feeling so tired all of the time. That could also have been a contributing factor, because it can cause fatigue, but I don’t think it was acting alone. Anyway, I decided to start the process of switching to a new depression medicine, even though it’s not something I like doing. Detoxing from one and waiting for the other to build up in your system is miserable, which is one reason I waited until I had weaned Ash to do it. I exclusively pumped for Quinn and when he turned 12 months old, I switched him to cow’s milk immediately. Pumping was so much work and I didn’t want to continue. His transition was easy, except for the engorgement and pain that came for about three days after I stopped. I thought that was going to happen with Ash, so I wanted to be over that discomfort before taking on weaning from my meds. However, I never really had any of that this time. I wore a bra pretty much 24/7, partly to signal to Asher that my boobs weren’t available, and partly to cut down on any pain associated with moving while engorged. There were some moments when one of the boys pressed against my chest while trying to snuggle me or things like that that caused slight unpleasantness, but that was it.
After about a week, I decided to go ahead and cut my dose of Cymbalta back down, and then I reached out to my PCP to let her know I was interested in switching to something else. She told me that Cymbalta is an SNRI, which differs from an SSRI in that it increases both serotonin and norepinephrine levels in the brain. Since Cymbalta had worked so well for me, I wanted to try another SNRI, and I chose Pristiq. The other option she gave me was Effexor, which I had taken before and hated. If you’ve never experienced the trial and error process that comes with depression meds, just know that it’s exactly that: a process. And not a fast one, either. You start with one (usually one of the ones that have been around forever—Zoloft or Prozac, in my experience, and take it for a few months to see if it helps. If it doesn’t, start over. Rinse and repeat until you find what works for you. And then maybe find another one several years later ððĐ. This will be medicine number five for me, since I began taking them in 2015? Maybe? I’m not sure exactly. It might have been the following year because I think that’s when Philip first got health insurance through an employer because he had started working at BHFCU and they are wonderful to their employees and offer it for free. Or did. I guess I don’t know if they still do. We only had to pay for mine, so it was actually affordable for us.
Anyway, weaning off of an antidepressant sucks and 0/10 would not recommend. However, many others were much worse than this one was for me. I get a really fun withdrawal symptom called brain zaps, which is accurately named. It literally feels like jolts of electricity to your brain at any given moment, with no way of knowing when they might happen. I did have some, but they weren’t as bad as I feared. I mostly had brain fog and extreme tiredness for about 3 days. Depression medications don’t work right away, and require time to build up in your system. Day 4 was fine physically, but mentally was a mess. I was overly irritable and frustrated with the boys. I felt guilty about that at the end of the day and tried harder the following day to be more compassionate. It will take a few weeks, maybe even 6-8, before I’ll feel significant improvement. I have discontinued use of Buspar for now, so that I can accurately attribute any side effects. Wish me luck in the next few weeks. I hope this will be a one and done deal and I won’t need to try anything else for a long time.ðĪðŧ
While I obviously took these medications that I and my PCP deemed necessary for my health while pregnant and breastfeeding, I was hesitant to introduce a new medication to both of our bodies. Having weaned Ash presented the perfect opportunity to switch them up. It was coincidental timing that I started having the additional side effects just a few weeks prior to weaning him.
Aside from necessary meds, I was conscious about every other type of potential harmful substance I used during those times. I don’t smoke but I enjoy drinking occasionally, and I rarely did that while breastfeeding. I know that it’s possible to safely drink while doing so (limiting and timing your consumption with feedings), but I just didn’t feel like it was a necessary risk to take. It’s not like day drinking is a responsible thing to do while being the sole caregiver, so it would’ve had to wait until the boys were asleep. But sometimes Ash would wake up unexpectedly and he would always expect to be nursed back to sleep. So that alone made drinking near impossible. Now I can consume whatever I want ðĪŠ. Cheers ðŧ!
While I am beyond happy to be done with breastfeeding (forever! ð ), it has made me reflect on the past 19.5 months. Depression is such a thief. Ash seems so big now and I feel guilty that my struggle with mental health didn’t allow me to properly enjoy his babyhood ð. This second go round was incredibly harder than the first and I often felt as though we were just surviving through the days. I know hindsight can absolutely paint a rosier picture, and that there were struggles when it was just Quinn, but I can’t help but feel like I could’ve done better these past 19 months, if circumstances were different. I can’t change anything now, but I hope this new medication will help to make the future brighter for all of us.
Now that I’m not breastfeeding, I love cuddling with Ash. Aside from his unreasonable (age appropriate) tantrums, his complete hatred for teeth brushing, and his refusal to allow anyone who isn’t me to tend to him, he is so much fun. He’s cute and funny and so, so smart! He surprises me all of the time with what he understands. There was an incident involving hot chocolate that made me realize he’s always listening to what’s going on. Hot chocolate is Quinn’s “coffee,” and he asked me to make him some one evening. He always tells me he needs some to help him wake up ððĪĶðŧ♀️. Anyway, I made some for him and when Ash saw me give it to him, he started saying, “Drink!” It was close to his bedtime, so I got him a cup of milk. He threw a fit and refused to drink it. When Quinn sat his cup down to go use the bathroom, Ash went and got it and took a big drink. As he lowered the cup, he looked at me and said, “Good!,” with a big smile on his face. He also said, “Coffee,” a few times. He knew exactly what was in that cup and that he wanted some ð .
He is such a stubborn little bean. Don’t even bother talking to him when he’s mad, just leave him alone and wait it out. However, he thoroughly enjoys making Quinn mad, and truthfully, Philip and I think it’s funny, too. We were riding home from Kroger one day when Quinn was yammering on about some made up bad guy named Rooster Man. I’m not sure why it started but Ash began saying, “Nice,” whenever Quinn talked about Rooster Man. Quinn was adamant that Rooster Man is not nice, and got really worked up when Ash kept repeating, “Nice,” and laughing ð. He then started telling Quinn he was “Punny,” which also enraged Quinn. He started yelling, “I’m not funny, Asher! Stop saying that!” ð ð ð
He definitely understands what constitutes something being funny. He also grasps other abstract feelings like hurt, hungry, and tired. He woke up from a nap yesterday, sat up in bed, and said, “Mama.” I asked what he was doing and he replied, “Tired,” and laid back done and fell asleep ð. He had a sudden, severe diaper rash a few weeks ago that appeared during a bout of the poops. It was red and painful, and he cried every time I changed him. I was sad when he told me, “Hurt,” during one of his diaper changes ðĐ.
He has come to me a few times and said, “Poop. Change me.” He has also said, “Ash pee,” after peeing in his diaper. I like to keep him distracted while changing him by asking him questions. Sometimes I ask who pooped or peed in his diaper, just to see who he’ll blame. Sometimes it’s Dada, sometimes it’s Quinn or Soph, and sometimes it’s “I did.” We also talk about what might be on a bus, since his favorite song is The Wheels on the Bus. His first guess is almost always a zombie, which sounds strangely like ‘daddy’ when he says it. I used to get it wrong, but when he makes his zombie sound effects, I know what he means.
Ash is really good about adding context clues if we don’t immediately get what he’s saying. Aside from his zombie grovel, he adds an ‘awhoooo’ to werewolf, a siren noise to ‘police,’ and ‘he he he’ after witch. Whenever Quinn is being a werewolf and hiding from Ash, if Quinn howls, Ash will say, “Werewolf,” and then point to his ear and say, “Heard him.” His pronunciation of werewolf sounds oddly similar to “I love,” so we’re often left wondering if he’s professing his love for us or acknowledging his brother’s imaginary alter ego. I’m thankful he helps us out because you absolutely have to acknowledge that kid when he’s stuck on a word or he’ll just keep repeating it like a broken record. One of his favorite words to recite is, “Carlowe,” his BFF’s name. Another is, “Maggie,” from his favorite show, Steve and Maggie. I hate that he has a favorite show already because that makes for arguments over what goes on the tv now ðĪĶðŧ♀️. He was engrossed in an episode one day while Quinn was at school. Philip came up for lunch and he noticed there was an excavator in the field below our house. Thinking Ash would be interested in it, he called his name. Ash replied, “What?,” and we laughed about that because he had never said that before. Philip told him about the machine and asked if he wanted to come look at it out the window. Ash said, “Maggie,” with some attitude, making it clear he had better things to do ð. Philip took him to the window to see it anyway, and when he returned him to the couch, Ash said, “Boom,” as he landed back in his seat ðð. He says that every time he is sat down somewhere.
He is constantly picking up pieces of language. Since Quinn started school, he often sings the alphabet song and counts, and Ash can fill in numbers from 1-10, different ones each time but consistently gets 1-3. He knows parts of the alphabet, too. Like, if you start singing and then pause, he can sometimes say what comes next. He uses “thank you,” and “you’re welcome,” appropriately, too. They’re not completely enunciated, but the inflection in his voice, along with the timing (after receiving something or being told ‘thank you’), make it clear that’s what he means.
He doesn’t know what it means, of course, but he has picked up a popular response to the question, “why?,” and that’s, “Cause.” It sounds more like “toz” when he says it, though. The quickness with which he pops out, “No!,” followed by, “Cause,” when he’s questioned cracks me up.
Having picked it up from Quinn, Ash regularly uses the ending of the phrase “what the heck,” correctly. If he falls down, he’ll say, “Heck.” ð . Another saying he got from his brother is, “Watch me,” or “Guys, watch,” or even “Watch. Watch. Watch me, guys.” Boy, I love that last one ð. It’s not annoying AT ALL ð. He loves having an audience when he throws toys up in the air. He’ll go in his room and get a stuffed animal, bring it into the kitchen, and then demand either his dad or I watch him toss it up. He does it when he flips and jumps, too.
The number of three word sentences he has mastered is growing. He has said, “I love Da,” “I love Quinn,” “I get it,” and “Here you go,” that I know of.
Ash is living in his Shirtless Era and rarely wears one when we’re inside. He comes over to me and says, “Hulk. Me,” and then waits for me to take his shirt off. I always try to get him to wear one to bed because I think he sleeps better that way. I asked if he wanted a shirt one night and he said, “No, Hulk.” ðĪĶðŧ♀️. While he is Hulk smashing things less, he punches people and things regularly ðĪĶðŧ♀️ðĪĶðŧ♀️ðĪĶðŧ♀️. He’ll just randomly walk up to you and say, “Punch!,” with a fist to your butt, stomach, or whichever body part he can reach. It’s your safest bet to not allow him to use you as a horse because it will likely end with a punch. He was bouncing on Philip’s leg one evening, while he was sitting on the couch. Quinn was sitting next to them, so Ash climbed over onto him. He started neighing at him, and then gave him a hug. In his true reverse Sour Patch kid fashion (sweet + sour), when he released Quinn, Ash landed both fists on Quinn’s chest and told him, “Punch!” ððĪĶðŧ♀️. He’s a big fan of kicking things, too. I don’t remember Quinn being this violent this early in his life ðŦ .
He is starting to grasp colors and occasionally identifies some correctly. Oddly enough, he seems to know gray pretty well, and he sometimes gets pink, green, and yellow right.
He loves singing and dancing, and we love hearing him sing “Round and round, round and round,” to Wheels on the Bus. He often breaks out into a song we learned at the library from Miss Tella that is just a silly little rhyme. Whenever he’s walking, or sometimes when he wants you to walk, he’ll grab your finger and say, “Walking, walking.” He skips the middle verse and moves to running. It goes like this:
Walking walking. Walking walking
Hop hop hop
Running running running. Running running running
Now we stop. Now we stop.
Both boys seem to be going through an emotional phase right now. The timing is terrible, given my own self regulation struggles with the medication changes. There have been a few days that stand out as being worse but many have been hard. Ash spent a few days pulling on my clothes and holding onto my legs or screaming anytime I wasn’t holding him ðģðĐ. Quinn has had several meltdowns, two of which happened in public, making them extra fun ðŦ . Both boys have been sensitive to being told anything resembling “No,” by Philip. This includes things like, “Don’t mess with that, Buddy,” and “Hey, what are you guys doing?” ðĪĶðŧ♀️ð . They cry and come running to me. So, if their dad upsets them, you come imagine how Quinn reacted to being told, “Quinn, stop,” by Miss Tella when he was being too loud and crazy at the library. She told him before I got the chance to. He immediately started crying and came over to me. He was HOWLING crying, which is the most annoying kind of cry. It went on for a full five minutes and I’m sure we were the family who everyone wished would just leave already. Once he got to place where we could have a conversation, I asked him why he was so upset and he said because he was scared. I asked what he was scared of and he said he didn’t want Miss Tella to put him in time out. He also said he doesn’t like when other grownups tell him, “No.” I assured him he didn’t need to worry about Miss Tella putting him in timeout; I’m the one who would do that ð . I also told him it’s okay for other grownups to tell him if he’s doing something he’s not allowed to do, and as long as he follows the rules, he has nothing to worry about. On the ride home, we discussed it more and he admitted he was doing things he knew weren’t acceptable at the library—yelling, running, and wrestling. The last two were the catalysts for Meltdown #2 (that day) because he ended up at the top of a 4 boy dog pile and Micah’s dad pulled him off. We left when that one started.
Quinn’s class had a Halloween party that included Trick or Treating and eating junk, with both morning and afternoon classes combined. He seemed to enjoy getting the candy, but once we got back to his classroom, he didn’t want to go into the kitchen area where his teachers had set up a plate for all of the kids and siblings. He wanted me to go in with him, but with all of the kids and 3 adults, I didn’t want to be in the way. Quinn had a breakdown, complete with crying and going limp noodle when one of the teachers tried leading him in by the hand. I was so frustrated that he was behaving that way, especially because Ash had no problem going in alone ð . He was seated and going full force at a full sized cupcake. That’s the reason I decided to go in, I didn’t want Ash to need hosing off before we left ð . Quinn went in when I did, but the seat next to Ash had been taken at that point and only the one behind him or diagonal were empty, both at different tables. Ash obviously needed assistance so I wanted to stay with him. Again Quinn was fighting me about sitting away from me. I’m really bad about shifting into unreasonably stubborn mode when I feel like he’s being ridiculous, and I wouldn’t budge on insisting he just sit at one of those tables. Finally, his teacher, Miss Dawn, who has more patience than me, obviously, moved a chair over to the end of the table where he wanted to be. He ate some of his snacks and then we left.
When I dropped him off the following week for class, Miss Tabitha told me that she was surprised by his outburst because he has never had any sort of behaviors during class. She said she thinks he got overstimulated with the amount of kids and adults and felt like he just wanted his mom. I told her this isn’t the first time he had social anxiety, so I’m sure she was right. It’s difficult for me to judge when he’s having a legitimate issue that he needs help getting through, and when he’s just being stubborn, because his MO is always trying to buck the system right now. Like, he said he didn’t want to wear his costume to his class party, despite the fact that he wears a costume constantly at home. I told him he didn’t have to, but we wouldn’t be going if he didn’t. He can choose what he wears but when the point of going Trick or Treating is to dress up, then he’s not going if he won’t. He doesn’t have any reason to not do it other than his stubbornness. With that being said, he was invited to wear a costume to gymnastics this week and I wouldn’t have made him do that. He said he didn’t want to, and I told him that was fine, but did tell him his friends would be wearing one. He decided to wear his police outfit. That is also what he wore to the class party. That is what he wears every single day, which you’ll see in pics further down. He even wore it for his school picture. I allowed it because it’s the perfect representation of him in his current phase of life.
His police obsession is obnoxious because he loses his handcuffs 97 times a day and always expects that I know where they are ð. He literally went outside and played with them with his friends and them came inside, where I had been the entire time, and asked me where they were ðĪŊ. He drives me crazy. I know his police craze is due to the imagined power trip it gives him, but he also believes they eat donuts constantly, and that’s something he says he would love ð.
His planned Halloween costume wasn’t a police officer, it was Thor. I asked if he wanted to wear Thor to his class party and he said, “No, I’m saving it for real Halloween.” ð. Whenever someone would ask him what he was going to be for Halloween, he would say, “Thor,” but his ‘th’ sound isn’t very pronounced and comes out like an ‘f,’ so it sounded like “four,” and confusion always followed. I did my best to jump in with a translation, if I was around.
The boys got a huge collection of candy at his class party trick or treat, so I didn’t take them to Boo at Bruce. Waiting in line for long periods of time and even just getting more candy, both sounded like a bad idea. Especially because trick or treat hadn’t even happened yet in town, which was on Halloween, and they already had too much ð ð. Halloween was the day that the Library Meltdown™️ happened, and things did not get easier when we got home. By the time Philip got off work, which was an hour before trick or treat, I still hadn’t decided if they were going or not. Ultimately, I said that they could, but I didn’t have high hopes. We usually go to Lori’s house to go with the kids, but I decided to go in our neighborhood this year because I had a feeling they wouldn’t last long, and that would make things easier. They made it exactly 29 minutes before Quinn wanted to go home. I can’t relate to that at all because when I was a kid, I never would have wanted to quit early. Granted, I also had an older brother who would’ve told me to stop being a baby and keep going ð . Sometimes kids don’t like things we think they should like, and that’s okay. Truthfully, I’m glad they didn’t get more candy. We have so much, it’s ridiculous. It’s a daily fight now about eating it. Quinn wakes up and asks if he can have some. We have to have a one to one negotiation of “real” food to candy. It does work to make him eat, but at the same time, I don’t want him to eat if he’s not hungry just so he can get some candy ð. I honestly don’t believe he does, or we would have to reevaluate. If he’s not hungry, he just whines about how he wants candy vs. when he is hungry, he volunteers to eat something else first.
I said earlier Ash is stubborn, but Quinn is far more stubborn than he is. He gets it honestly (from his dad ðĪŠ), but damn is it annoying. He refused to wear a jacket to school this week. He argued with me that it wasn’t cold out. I said, “Fine, be cold, but I don’t want to hear about it.” When he started fussing in the car about being cold, I reminded him about what I said. I even brought a jacket for him, but he still refused to wear it. When I dropped him off, I explained why he wasn’t wearing one, and Miss Tabitha said her boy does the same thing and agreed stubborn boys get to be cold ðĪ·ðŧ♀️.
Quinn missed his first day of school two weeks ago because Ash was doing his favorite annoying thing, which is closing doors, and he smashed Quinn’s fingers right when we were getting ready to leave. I had to pee, which is a family activity ðð, and they both came into the bathroom. I told them to get out, but as Quinn was doing that, Ash closed the door and somehow got Quinn’s fingers. He was so upset when his pinky started bleeding and was having a hard time calming down. I finally decided to let him stay home, mostly because he had been having a rough day anyway. He ended up taking a two hour nap that day, something he rarely does anymore.
I have also been having a hard time calming down, and I told Quinn one morning when we were leaving to go somewhere that I was having big feelings and needed some quiet time. He said, “Okay,” and didn’t say anything else until I asked him a question several minutes later. Instead of answering, he said, “I guess we’re not doing quiet time anymore.” ð .
He knows when my tone of voice isn’t friendly and I’m frustrated. He has told me many times after we’ve had negative interactions, “Don’t talk to me like that. It makes me think you’re still upset with me.” He said this one day and I realized I was still annoyed, but it wasn’t fair to keep taking it out on him when we had made the repair for what had happened.
While he might’ve felt the slight injustice in that situation, he feels imagined injustice all of the time. Because he doesn’t nap anymore, he has an earlier bedtime than he used to. However, the days that Ash naps for two or more hours, he usually stays up a little bit later. Quinn doesn’t agree with this arrangement and is very put out by having to go to bed before Ash. He protests about it being unfair because he’s older, but then falls asleep within minutes of his head hitting his pillow ð. Just another thing to argue about.
He and Ash argue about 50% of the time and get super annoyed with all of the crying (Ash) and tattling (Quinn). Quinn told me the other day that Asher hit him five times in the face. I suggested he get away from him and to not allow him to hit him in the face. I don’t want to victim shame, but also, make smart choices, kid ððĪĶðŧ♀️. One of Quinn’s favorite things to ask us is, “What are you thinking?!” Maybe I’ll try that out on him next time ð .
His standard situation for asking that is when he has gotten hurt and we ask if he’s okay. He’ll respond, “No, I’m not okay! What are you thinking?!” ð Thus far he has been completely fine every single time. He has very little patience, something I can relate to ð .
Quinn especially has no patience when it involves waiting to receive something. After his recent meltdowns, Philip and I had a discussion about how we can help him work on some things he’s struggling with—like patience, following rules, etc. We decided to start playing games with him as one solution. I bought Candy Land for us to play together, and the first time went as expected ð . He didn’t want to follow the rules, and instead wanted to play his own way. He got mad when anyone else passed him. He was basically a sore loser when Ash made it the Candy Castle first. The second time he played with his friend Micah, but I gave him a stern warning beforehand that any whining or refusal to play by the rules would end in him not being allowed to play. He agreed and did a decent job during the gameplay. He didn’t even throw a fit when he lost, so maybe progress has been made.
They were excited Dad had to move backwards ð.
❤️
I’m happy to play board games with Quinn in place of the annoying things he always wants me to play ðŽ. Anything that involves answering a million questions or expending lots of mental energy first thing in the morning, or wrestling, are almost always a no. I like calm play, and even the inquisition game can lead to rowdiness because it always starts with a narrative involving a bad guy, or a superhero, or a police officer, etc. and there is always ass kicking to be done ð.
Another strategy we’ve implemented is reminding him of the rules before going anywhere in public (and reminding him of the consequences of breaking those rules ð). It seems to be working well, his behavior has been better since starting this late last week.
Keep your fingers crossed for us. It has been a longgggggg three weeks ðŽ
We’ve enjoyed these last days of summer weather. On the last night that was in the 70’s, we ended up having a neighborhood party in our yard ð . Every kid from our block was here, plus 2 more who were visiting. We had a fantastic time staying out late and playing ball. I was proud of Quinn for sharing tons of his toys and also his dad, because Philip passed football with some of the boys for about an hour ❤️. I love having so many kids nearby for our two to play with!
Ash is slowly learning to ride the scooter ðŽðŦĢ. That’s Quinn’s shirt he was wearing, and I have no idea where his friggin’ shoe ended up. They never seem to stay on ð.
Another of Quinn’s shirts ð. That boy loves chasing balls. Maybe he’ll play soccer in a few years ⚽️.
My camera was on the wrong setting and I didn’t notice until we were done taking pics ððð.
I love their gorgeous pumpkins ðð. The kids are pretty cute, too ðĪŠ.
Quinn insisted we take a werewolf pic ðĪĶðŧ♀️ð .
He had to stomp bubbles because his hand was too busy holding his phone that doesn’t work, but is still important to carry around ððð.
These three had the best time playing together ðĨ°ðĨ°.
I had a great time talking with my friends and playing with their dogs ððð. Dory is one of my favoritest girls ð.
The boys were surprised to find our tree decorated by our neighbors Tina and Jim. They were so excited! Ash kept pointing at everything and naming them ð.
We couldn’t pass up the huge box Tina and Jim put out for trash ð ð . They’ve played with it twice now, and the second time, Micah had some big plans of turning it into a treehouse, and Megan had to rain on his parade ð.
I love activities that force Quinn to look for things because believe me, he needs the practice! ðĪŠ
We were invited down to their house for pumpkin carving. That top left pic captured Quinn saying, “I am NOT touching that,” when Megan was trying to show them some of the pumpkin guts ð. Ash was super excited about me carving a witch into our pumpkin. He kissed it more than once ð.
We worked on our Fall alphabet letters, decorating the letter B with Blippi’s boot prints.
Quinn colored his C to look like a candy corn.
We collected leaves around the yard and did some rubbings. This was the first time. He was interested for about 5 seconds. I did one on our tree and he wasn’t impressed at all ð .
He enjoyed it more when we tried again a few days later.
After our ghost hunt, we used the stencil left by the Cricut to paint.
It made colorful ghosts and we added them to our artwork display.
We did an experiment using static electricity built up on balloons to pick up tissue paper ghosts.
Earlier this month I brought the boys’ train table up to their room from the basement playroom. I made them a farm themed sensory bin using popcorn and paper leaves, homemade barns, and a silly ‘tree’ for color sorting. Ash thought he was hilarious when he pulled the top off of the barn (small oatmeal container) and put a skeleton inside ðĪĶðŧ♀️. We had a werewolf (Quinn calls that plaid shirt his werewolf shirt ð ) and Hulk show up to play.
I switched up our sensory table this week to dyed pumpkin seeds, acorns, wooden flowers, pieces of red yarn, and lots of different containers and tools to scoop, tweeze, pour and drop into.
I made the boys a candy corn sensory bin when we did the letter C for our alphabet.
I made another sensory experience using a ziploc bag with a ghost drawn on, hair gel, and cotton balls. The boys had to fill in the ghost by pushing the cotton balls around. We have another sensory bag that I gave to Ash to keep him occupied while Quinn was playing with the ghost one. He decided to use it as a pillow, so Quinn decided to lay a skeleton on him ð.
The boys decorated witches hats and were obviously thrilled with their outcomes ð ð.
Quinn practiced his writing by tracing around puffy stickers that Ash put on a piece of paper.
We made Halloween sugar cookies with the cousins ❤️. Kate said, “Hey Aunt Kim, remember ‘spooky purple’?,” and I laughed because I did. Several years ago they were here making Christmas cookies, and I had only made the standard red, green, yellow and blue colored icing for them. Kate said she needed purple, so we mixed some red and blue together to get it and she called it Spooky Purple and laughed since it was the wrong time of year. It was a fun memory, I hope she always remembers it. I have a favorite memory of making Christmas sugar cookies with my grandma when she tasted glitter, thinking it was colored sugar. I’ll never forget her reaction ððð.
We celebrated Link’s 8th birthday with him ð.
We met up with our friends Lil, Sully, and Niko at Playgroup this past month.
Ash was in his element when he found a Spider-Man suit to wear that was just his size ð.
Including the huge snowman, who is always a favorite with Ash ð. We actually went back to the library one afternoon while Quinn was at gymnastics, and Ash told the snowman, “Miss you.” ðĨđ
Quinn’s class had a Halloween party last week. They got to go Trick or Treating at the college, city building, People’s Bank, and the courthouse. Ash got to go, too. They received a ridiculous amount of candy ðģ. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but wow, less is best ðŽ.
They were Thor and Batman for city Trick or Treat.
We hit up the after Halloween sale at Walmart and found Quinn a Batman costume for 50% off.
The next day I needed to get out of the house, so I took the boys to the Moundsville Walmart to see what costumes they had left. We came home with Captain America and Superman. We have a whole friggin collection now ð.
Sophie PUPdate ðū
#1
#2 Almost. 
#3 ððĪĶðŧ♀️
#4 ðð―
#5 noogie. This one is my favorite
#6 encroachment
#7 As good as it gets ð ðĪ·ðŧ♀️
The day we were carving pumpkins at Megan’s house, Quinn ran home to get something, and when he came back, Sophie had followed him. He said, “Mom! Don’t be mad! I told her it wasn’t her turn!” ð. She just came to see what we were doing and was happy to go back home ð.
She can not come back on the deck if the gate is closed. Closed, not locked. She doesn’t know how to push it open. She’s so pretty ð.
Such a baby.
The progression of a rodent’s late night snack over the course of several weeks. It even ate my witch’s face after I carved it ð
We saw two mantises on our walk one evening. I had never seen a gray one and was intrigued! I googled it and apparently they can change colors to match their surroundings. They can be green, brown, gray, or red! I can’t imagine coming upon a red one, that would be wild.
