Another Monday!

Wow, I am not very good at blogging lately! There must not be much going on, but in reality, there is probably too much going on!

We are just finishing our schoolwork up at the Ruwe house.  Mondays are the only days when I get a "full" day of school. By this I mean that we start about 9 and end about 3-3:30.  I guess Fridays are a "full" day too. Last week, we had half days every.single. day. I should have just taken the whole week off!! When we were doing Megan's English today, I looked at the date and the last time we did a lesson, it was October 10th!  A week ago!!We aren't going to finish our books by next fall at that rate!! I will be glad when the homeschool learning classes are over and we can have Wednesday afternoon back!

We also don't get a lot done because of Micah (still!!). This boy refuses to take a nap during the day. Actually his schedule has been pretty consistent lately, and today was pretty typical. He was up around 7-7:30 am. I nursed him and he ate breakfast with all of us. I got him dressed and around 9, we were in the living room starting school. He was in a pretty good mood and was willing to play on the floor for awhile while I taught the older kids. About 9:45-10 am, he started fussing, so I nursed him again. He usually goes one of two directions here. He will either fall asleep and won't let me put him down OR he will stay awake and just continue to be fussy. He chose the later option today.  The problem with this option is that I cannot teach when he is so fussy, so today I put him upstairs in his bed. I always hope that he will somehow go back to sleep, but that has NEVER happened! I let him fuss up there today while I finished up with Megan.

By about 11, he was still not happy and wide awake, so after I was finished with Megan, I went up and got him. I needed to teach Courtney, so we got him quieted down and he kind of snapped out of it. He spent the next hour either playing on the floor or in his walker. He did pretty well. Courtney gets very distracted with him though, so sometimes she has a hard time concentrating on school. 

He ate lunch with us and was happy for awhile. Around mid-afternoon, he was ready to nurse again. This is usually in the middle of school! (I am getting really good at nursing a baby AND checking homework and/or teaching a lesson!) By 3-3:30, we were done with school and he was pretty happy.

We went to the park today after school, which was good for everybody! Christian always needs to run around a little bit, Megan always wants some fresh air, and Courtney usually brings her basketball or her grasshoppers along. I put Micah in his stroller and we walked the six blocks to the park. It was great to get out and stretch a little. I feel like I sit around all day and teach school, which I really do!

When we got back from the park at 5:30, Micah was ready to nurse again and he fell asleep at this time. I sat in the chair and held him for awhile. If I move, he will wake up. And yes, I sometimes try to put him down and most of the time, he will wake up. Tonight the phone rang and woke him up.

After he woke up tonight, I was able to put him down, so I could make dinner. He ate with us again and by about 8 pm, he was fussing again and was ready for bed. Tonight he was sound asleep by 9 pm!  Honestly, he goes to bed early when he does not have a nap. For a couple days, I held him for over an hour and let him sleep. We were up until 10 pm! Honestly, I don't know what I would rather have. Would I rather have an hour or two during the day when he sleeps or have him go to bed earlier at night?? Hmmm.

I know this whole schedule will probably change within the next couple of months. He turns a year in a couple of weeks and my other three kids were weaned by 13 months. I wonder how long he will want to nurse. I will let him take the lead like I did the other kids. We have been trying some new foods lately, so he is ready to eat food full time when he is done nursing. He does a great job with it now. The boy loves to eat!! He will actually hunt you down and whine at you until you share! We are still being careful with some foods, so he can't have everything yet.