Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!

the action shot

This has been a pretty crazy week.
We're still doing the potty training and Sally seems to be getting it...mostly. Around the same time we started the potty training Sally started having an insane fear of her bedroom at night/dark, so that has been a huge struggle. I'm not a "happy to share my bed with all my children" kind of parent, so every time I notice that Sally has climbed into bed with us I get up and take her back into her own bed where I have to stay until she falls back to sleep. This, with the normal sleep interruptions of a nursing baby have made for a mostly sleepless and very exhausting week.

Then in the middle of the night on Monday/Tuesday Shule started vomiting due to what has finally been diagnosed by his doctor as an "abdominal migraine". If you've seen the movie Joe vs. the Volcano then you'll understand why his condition originally sounded like a "brain cloud" to me and why I almost laughed out loud at the doctor when she gave us the diagnosis. He's had these seemingly random boughts of vomiting 3-6 times a year since he was four, they only last 12-24 hours and aren't accompanied by any other symptoms. Now we know they are associated with stress and with Shule's overly sensitive disposition almost everything is stressful for him. Of course, Shule was lying in bed feeling ill but not sure if he should get up to go to the toilet until it was too late and he wretched over the side of his bunk bed and rained vomit all over his sleeping brother. Poor Shazer! He'd been sleeping so peacefully. Poor Jon and I! It was a huge, disgusting mess for us to clean up. And, of course, poor Shule! Not only did he feel physically sick, he felt horrible for making such a big mess. Which is kind of a cool thing for us, as parents, because we've been recognizing that Shule has been having more and more feelings of remorse when he's done something bad/wrong than he ever used to in the past.
waiting in anticipation for a new belt

And yesterday I had to take Shule to get a regular vaccination which is always extremely stressful for both of us and involves much screaming and freaking out on his part and usually ends with bribery on my part (this time, a swirl ice cream cone at McDonald's did the trick).
Needless to say our home has not been the fun, party house lately. Jon will probably be more than happy next week when school starts up and he can have good reason to be away more. It has been really nice having him around to help with all this craziness.
Anyway, the main reason I'm posting is to share some good news. We got the boys' report cards for last semester and they were awesome! Shule had A's and some B's and Shazer's marks were all Excellent, he was even recognized for getting the highest score for his grade, at his school, on a district writing assessment, ( he was super impressed with himself for being able to out score his friend from India who he's in tight competition with). And they're both reading way above their grade levels! So nice to hear. Also, last week was the first week that Shule got a green (the highest level) for behavior.
Last night Jon and I had a blast watching Shazer at his karate class' Parent Night Presentation and Award ceremony. He did such a great job and was so serious, it was so cute. He was hoping to promote to the next belt:Yellow, but his name wasn't called with the Yellows during the ceremony. He was starting to feel so disappointed but then his name was called with the Greens! They let him skip a belt because he tested so well. He was ecstatic! So fun and a really nice end to a crazy week!