Random little snippets

No more nursing
Aeron has now officially weaned himself. I am sad. It was one of the last vestages of babyhood and my childbearing years that I have been clinging to. Really, the only times I would nurse is in the morning when he woke up and right before bed. We have been slowly cutting it down to shorter and infrequent periods. And this weekend after our whirlwind trip to Sacramento, when I didn't have the time to nurse, he put his foot down and refused.

Granted, Aeron is 18 months old and has joined the ranks of cranky toddlers full of attitude. He would rather have a bottle on the go than sit and snuggle. I don't blame him. There is so much to see and do. 

Now I must say goodbye to the end of my nursing cuddles and snuggles. Kids grow up regardless of our efforts to keep them young. I have enjoyed nursing my kids, especially Aeron because he has enjoyed the cuddling and quiet time the longest. It has also forced me to take a break from the everyday chaos to sit down and be with him. I will continue to cuddle him, except with a bottle now. Breaking the bottle habit hasn't gone so well. Maybe in a month we'll try it again.

Jonathon and Bus 21

What can I say about Jonathon? He is such a boy! His is dirty and messy. He is the middle child and thus struggles with his position. He isn't a baby and he's not a big kid either. He will turn 8 in August. I worry about him. 

Yesterday, he got a bus ticket! No child  of mine has ever gotten a ticket before. He got it for writing on the back of a seat on the way home. What was he writing? Well, that's the funny part (although I can't tell him). He was writing, "I don't like you bus driver." When I was alone and thinking about it, I laughed. I can't help but smile. That boy was just trying to make his feelings known. He struggles with that. His older siblings tend to ignore him. The younger ones aren't old enough to understand yet.

So, yesterday after we lectured him about the importance of respecting other people's property and talked about how riding the bus is a privilege. We punished him by not letting him play on the computer or his Nintendo DS. He also lost out of the chance of going over to a friend's house to play. We also talked about the need to voice our feelings. I believe we will be revisiting this topic continuously. When he gets frustrated, he will physically lash out in anger, start to scream, or break down in tears. I really feel for him. It must be hard to be 7 and feel stuck in the middle and misunderstood. We're trying to teach him responsibility and how to appropriately express his emotions.

He had to return the ticket with our signature on it in order to ride the bus. Before I sent it back, I made a copy of it and plan to write a note to the transportation department. This particular bus driver is always SCREAMING at the kids. I think I will write that while I do not condone his behavior, maybe if there was less screaming and hostility towards the kids behavior would improve. I doubt it will accomplish very much, but I do want to make the effort. I can't excuse his behavior, but I do find it humorous. I'll can't let Jon know that I think it's funny. Jonathon just struggles to express his feelings. We'll be working on that.