Stream of Consciousness Post about Montessori, The Kid's Development, And Moving

Saturday was a crazy day. We went everywhere. We were in and out of the car like crazy. All in anticipation of a rain storm that never happened. But we were able to pick up a lot of new tools and supplies for our Montessori-fying the apartment quest. Between a 'liquidation sale' on the edge of DC's bad side, Ikea and Home Depot, we were able to get some serious deals on some makeshift Montessori stuff.

The most important thing we purchased this weekend was by far the kid-sized table and chairs from Ikea. The kids are loving it so far. Saturday and Sunday were both full of test driving some of the new stuff. I'm starting to feel more confident that this idea is going to work.

And in order to facilitate the New World Order in our family routine, I've kicked off a mad Ebay/Craigslist sell-athon. With the move to NYC fast approaching, we've been meaning to downsize anyway, and the sooner it happens, the better, I think, because this belly isn't getting easier to deal with.

Speaking of which, I have got the worst heartburn in the history of the world. It is bad. It starts around 4 o'clock and doesn't let up. Doesn't matter what I eat. Doesn't matter how I sit or sleep. There's nothing I can do but deal with it and pop the Tums like candy.

Mission 1 with Karol is going to be teaching her some preliminary skills - basically teaching her the Montessori Method procedure for approaching (school) work. This is stuff like, how to get out and unroll your mat before you start an activity, putting an activity away before taking out a new one, carrying trays properly so things don't topple, etc, etc. She's very quickly picking up on practical life skills like pouring water or milk from a pitcher into a cup. She and Patrick are both drinking out of a regular cup at dinner time (teeny tiny ones). They are also obsessed with tasks like handwashing and teethbrushing because it means they get to stand at the sink and 'play' with water.

Patrick's big lessons are going to be things like stacking blocks, nesting blocks, and beginning to learn to count. He's in an amazing language boom right now, picking up words faster than I can keep track. Just this weekend he probably said five or six words we hadn't heard him say before, completely out of the blue.

He's starting to show an interest in the potty too, although it'll be a while before he is even tall enough to sit on the training potty. He totally gets that the word 'pee' is associated with it (that's one of his new words!) and likes to pretend-pee by sitting on the edge of the potty and bouncing.

Speaking of bouncing - Patrick has a hilarious morning ritual. Typically Karol will wake up and be talking to herself or calling for Mommy or Daddy in the morning when Matt and I walk in. Inevitably we hear a bright "Good morning, Mommy/Daddy!" from Karol and Patrick starts jumping/bouncing on his bed, with a smile from ear to ear like he's so thrilled to be starting a new day. It really is a great way to start the day and puts a smile on my face every time.

Meanwhile, on the apartment hunting front, Matt is scouring the market for the (probably impossible) perfect apartment. It's almost hilarious that he's trying to find an apartment that would be cheap even here in the most expensive neighborhood in Manhattan. I have a feeling we'll be living in a shoe box at this rate. Which brings me back to the need for downsizing our stuff.

So far I haven't had a whole lot of success, but this is just the end of Day 1, really. Still, when I posted like 8 things on Craigslist this morning, I was hoping to have at least 1 less thing by the end of the day. Although there have been a couple of bites, nothing solid yet.

And books! We've got more books than the closest branch of the public library, I think. I looked into donating them to the library today, and - it figures - they just had one of their bi-annual book sales and therefore aren't taking new donations until May 10 or so, so I have to stare at these boxes that much longer, I guess.

My next downsizing task - which I plan to attack as soon as I'm done with this post, since Matt's at school until late tonight - is the White Thing. Really it's a white Rubbermaid rolling 3-drawer filing tower that I've had since college. But we've always just called it the White Thing. And now it's in our bathroom. Pretty soon it will be empty. It's already for sale on Craigslist, although Matt thinks it'll probably have to be given away (guess I'm okay with that), but it's worth at least a shot at selling it. I'm checking my email like mad, just to see if there are any new takers on our unwanted stuff...ugh.

Montessori Mommy?

I'm back to reading Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three and back on a Montessori kick again.  I think I wrote in an earlier post that we found exactly the right school for our kids - it's a Catholic Montessori preschool - and last month we were finally able to go there for observation.

I'm even more convinced that this is where I want Karol to be next year, but alas, there's no space available.  Well, Sister Lucy, the lady that runs the place, said they may have an opening depending on if one family moves...so we're keeping our fingers crossed, but won't be surprised if it doesn't happen until the 2011-12 school year.

So what do we do until then?  I really don't see the point in sticking her in a different preschool for a year and then switching.  That just seems like it would cause undue stress for all of us.  So I'm seriously considering teaching her (as best I can) from home, in the Montessori Method.

Of course, it doesn't seem fair at all to put that kind of time and effort into Karol and not Patrick, who's nipping at Karol's heels right now, developmentally speaking.  But he's in a totally different sensitive period, so the work he should be doing is totally different from what Karol is on.

Oh, and let's not forget little Max (that's Fetus Plomin's new name, now that we know he's a boy for sure)!  I have the chance to start from the very beginning with him.  But just taking care of the basic needs of an infant is enough work for one mom.  I'm already depriving the poor little guy of much needed sleep (for mommy) most nights in order to research Montessori homeschooling, apartments in NYC and preschool options.  Do I really think I'm going to be able to teach all my kids at the same time all by myself?

Well, yes.  I guess I do.  My plan?  Be prepared well in advance.  I'm going to have to tackle this 'stay at home mom' thing (makes me cringe to type that) with a strategic campaign plan.  That's why I'm so glad I discovered this awesome blog, Wanting What You Have.  It's written by a professional 'housewife' (cringe) who's come up with what she calls a Home Management Guide.  It is the greatest idea ever.  Not that its a new one.  Basically, it's a business plan for the home.  I've already started building mine.  I've got two whole sections done, and I'm totally stoked about it.

I'm doing mine a little differently, though, since, well, every household is a little different, and in our case, a lot different.  I'm planning for all my Montessori tools and research to be a huge section of this binder.  I think I'm going to come up with a different name for mine though.  Something like, 'Jillian's World Domination Strategic Campaign Plan.'  So far I've got all my work schedules done, pretty similar to how Heather does it, and a cleaning section.  I'm going to add a food section, but I still don't really know enough about cooking yet to put it together, and Matt's in charge of the groceries right now, so I'm at a loss for a price book (I'm just going to take over his).  The Montessori section I'm going to start building tonight right after I write this post.  As for the World Domination-specific sections, that's classified, sorry.

Happy and Healthy Babies - All of Them!

Today was a 'big' day for the DC Plomins.  Bright and early this morning the whole family trekked up to our old stomping grounds, Silver Spring, for a round of doctor's appointments.

Karol - not surprisingly, Karol got a gold star for verbal ability.  The doctor was floored that she was answering questions like "how old are you?" and "are you a boy or a girl?"  I guess those are questions a 3 year old may be able to answer.  She was also impressed with the 6-word sentences she was uttering -but Matt and I know she can easily do 15-word sentences and more!
She's an expert at jumping, but hasn't mastered walking backwards yet - although that's another 3 year old task.

Patrick - Patrick is right on track developmentally, and doing especially well in the walking/climbing arena.  He's off the charts for both height and weight and a very healthy growing boy.  Patrick's language is seemingly ahead of schedule, too, but of course he was too shy to talk to Dr. Fishman at all.  He did manage a 'high five' though.
Patrick got a whopping 3 shots, one of which being the chicken pox vaccine.  The good news is that he won't need any at all at the 18 month check up.  I'm hoping we can squeeze that one in before we have to leave for NYC in July.

Baby #3 - Mommy and baby got a check up today, too.  I'm doing fine, of course, and New Baby Plomin has all the major organs and limbs and whatnot that they check for in the 20 week ultrasound.  And of course we got the opportunity to find out what we're having.  And, as I've been predicting since day 1 - the ultrasound confirmed we're having a boy!  Karol and Patrick are excited to have a baby brother and Matt and I are excited to use pronouns like "he" instead of "it" when referring to "him."

Measurement-wise he is still on track with his original due date of Aug 10, give or take a couple days.  I'm betting he'll be quite an average size, weighing more than Karol did (7 lbs 9 oz) and less than Patrick (9 lbs 3 oz).  It'll be 'fun' to get to know all new doctors just a month before he's born to deliver him in NYC, but we're getting closer to figuring out who that will be now.  Or I should say, Matt is.  I've put him in charge of finding the doc, the hospital and an apartment in NYC.  We'll see how that goes.

The apartment search is still pretty passive - it's still early - but we've got some feelers out.  We're still pretty focused on the West side, hopefully somewhere in our between the West Village and Upper West Side.  I'm not really thinking about that now, though.  For right now I'm just looking forward to tying my shoes without straining and meeting my new little boy, and thanking God we are so very lucky to have such beautiful and healthy children.

So that's the update for now!