Glitter, Prunes, & Naughty Children {7 Quick Takes}

--1--

The only homeschool-y stuff I've gotten this year was signing John Paul up for this Magic School Bus science club - it comes once a month and is great because he gets a bunch of experiments that he can do with relatively little help, but with fairly satisfying results (if you look it up, DO NOT pay full price - I got it for 50% off on an Amazon Local deal, so it comes out to $10/month.  The deal has been repeated at least twice since I got it over the summer).  

One of the "experiments" we did yesterday was basically just putting glitter in a bottle of water and shaking it up to show kids how the liquid in their inner ear keeps moving when it's shaken, which is why they get dizzy:

And then I remembered seeing quite a few ideas on Pinterest for "calm down bottles" and I've been having John Paul use this for the same purpose and it's actually working somewhat!  

But it's been a day, so take that with a grain of salt...

--2--

Speaking of calming that kid down, I've got a whole stack of parenting books to read in order to help find some strategies to make life more pleasant for all of us. But I'm really bad at actually *reading* those parenting books when I have them...  So Shannon suggested doing some sort of online book club/accountability group or something - would anyone be up for that?  Right now I've got:

How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk (which might be #1 on my list)

Parenting With Grace

Have a New Kid by Friday

Love and Logic

And some others on hold at the library...

Have you read any of those?  Did they help you?  Want to read one with me?

--3--

Prunes.  Who actually likes them?

John Paul and Cecilia do, and I have no idea why.  Well, probably because they're sweet.  John Paul has taken it upon himself to make snack these days (I was trying to phase it out because then they barely ate lunch, but it was leading to rather cranky kids so as long as he's taking the reins, I'm okay with it), and requested a Costco-sized bag of prunes a few trips ago (when I wasn't with them).  So I have to make sure he does NOT give any to the twins, because I don't want to deal with those diapers.  And he and Cecilia are limited to no more than 5/day.  

Blech.

--4--

Speaking of diapers, we had a lovely incident last week that I considered blogging about but decided not to because, well, I didn't think anybody wanted to read about all that poop.  Suffice it to say, Mary Claire's shirt was cut off her body, and the entire incident was similar to Abbey's girls last year.

Twin naughtiness has been at an all-time high, and the tantrums have been nuts, too.  I finally decided that it MUST be due to sleep deprivation, because they haven't been napping due to Mary Claire climbing out of the crib and into Elizabeth's so that they can play together...  And John Paul and Cecilia were fighting way too much during that same time, so I've implemented a new nap protocol (everybody in separate rooms, basically) that has gone REALLY well the past few days - both twins have slept and John Paul and Cecilia have been quiet and things have been SO much more peaceful during that time in the middle of the day!

Although I'm pretty sure poor Mary Claire ended up asleep on the floor in front of her door today because she was so annoyed that I wouldn't let her out of her room...

--5--

Obligatory cute baby shot:

He's just as fascinating as you can imagine a 2-month-old would be - sucks his fists a lot, is just starting to grab toys when they're handed to him, super-smiley during his awake time.  I don't know what it is, because he doesn't *seem* like a remarkable baby, but he makes me so, so happy even though he's rather a lot of work...

And I've really never been a baby person...  I always looked forward to the toddler years & beyond, but goodness I'm enjoying this baby stage!  And, in turn, appreciating & loving the other kids a lot more - is this why people keep having babies in big families?  Does it just keep getting better?

--6--

I used PicMonkey to make our Christmas cards and finally mailed them out a couple weeks ago - honestly, it didn't come out to much cheaper than using the card designs they have on different websites, but nobody had a layout that I liked, so I just used the basic version to make our own.

And honestly, that might be the way I go in the future too, just because I spend WAY too long every year searching through every. single. card on Shutterfly, Snapfish, Tiny Prints, etc...

--7--

Battery's about to die on the computer, plus I'm tired!  Linking up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes - go check out more bloggers!