what we're up to

Whoops. Here's a post I wrote a few weeks ago.

Everyone except me has been sick, and the kids are now on round two of coughs. The humidifier is working overtime these days. Ann Marie's first cough was bad enough that I took her to the doctor. She sounded kind of rattley when she breathed and I was concerned. It turned out it was all in her throat, so it ended up being one of those visits where it's nice to know nothing's wrong but at the same time you kind of wish you hadn't bothered coming.

I've been practicing the piano a lot more since school started. I think I generally practice 4-5 times a week. My piano has been a bit of a disappointment because every key has a different timbre and it's already out of tune again, but at the same time I feel blessed to have one. I've been working through a sonatina book that has been a good challenge for me, and it's been very rewarding to see how much I improve over time. It usually takes me 3-4 weeks to learn all the movements of a sonatina. I hope that when my kids start learning to play my example of practicing consistently will be a motivation for them to do the same. The girls enjoy tormenting each other while I practice in the morning.

Halloween is just a couple of weeks away, so I'm trying to get costumes made. Heidi wants to be Anna from Frozen. Other than some strings to tie it her pink cape is done. For the dress I'm making her a jumper with a black bodice and a blue skirt. I don't think I've done much sewing for Halloween in previous years, but this year I thought it would be a fun project. Halloween is really fun with kids.

Ryan finished the revisions to his first paper and resubmitted it, so we're waiting to hear back about that, and he's working on another paper. The two papers will be his dissertation. Postdoc positions are starting to be posted too, so he's working on applications. I don't think it's registered yet that this is our last year here.

Kevin's reading skills have exploded in the past few months. They're learning about the commutative property of addition at school ("flip-flop facts"), and when we were working on his homework he told me, "Mom, this is like that poem in our book that says from Wibbleton to Wobbleton is fifteen miles and from Wobbleton to Wibbleton is fifteen miles."

Heidi loves her preschool coop. She asks every day if she has preschool that day. On Mondays we do a letter from Frontline Phonics, which has been great. I feel like the little lessons really help the kids to learn the letter sounds. On Wednesdays we work on handwriting. I think what I'm finding is that for a lot of kids writing letters on the traditional handwriting pages is intimidating because of the lines. Heidi will trace the letters, but sometimes she doesn't want to write them by herself. She seems to do better if she's writing on a sheet of computer paper. I think she'll start to get it by the time she goes to kindergarten. We also talk a little bit about numbers, art, geography, and science, and we work on kindergarten readiness skills. The kids like to do cutting pages. We also end with lunch, which all the kids enjoy. Heidi loves the idea of having her own lunchbox and choosing what food she wants.

Ann Marie is at a really cute stage, even if she's also a little mischievous. She will poke me at dinner just so I will look at her so she can say hi, and she's trying to figure out how to give kisses.

(10/12) Heidi climbed up on the counter when I wasn't looking and fell off. She landed on her face. Her teeth were bleeding and one was a little loose. After debating and worrying for a few hours I finally decided it would be better to get it looked at. They asked me if I could be there in 45 minutes, and apparently it really does take over half an hour just to get out the door with three kids because I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off the entire time and I was really frazzled when we got to the dentist's office. It turned out that Heidi's teeth look fine, so that was a relief. For some reason I always feel bad when I take my kids to a doctor for some illness and it turns out I didn't need to worry. But it did get me motivated to finally schedule the kids' first dentist appointments. The entire day felt mostly like a blur because I taught preschool in the morning and then Heidi fell off the counter right after that, and we went to the dentist's office after Kevin got home. Then when we got back from the dentist a neighbor boy was playing with a spinning paint toy in the hall and invited the kids to watch, which was a mess. Ann Marie got a hold of one of his soggy papers and had paint all over her hands. The one great thing was that Ryan's lab got cancelled, so he came home earlier than I expected and was able to help me out.

Added a couple of weeks later: I spoke too soon and last Sunday I came down with a cough and a headache that won't go away. And Ryan was lucky enough to come down with it too so he can't pick up the slack. Those zucchini I bought last Saturday (when I was healthy and full[ish] of energy) to make into zucchini bread are slowly shriveling up. At least now the vertigo has mostly gone away--that was, um, fun. On Monday morning when I said my prayers I said, "Heavenly Father, I know I'm going to be pretty sick this week, but please just help me to get the bathroom clean this week." And I actually did manage to get it cleaned, although the house has been a disaster.

[Since I wrote this post Ryan's paper came back and he just had a couple more revisions to make and then it's going to be published. The cough and headache eventually went away. A few days ago it occurred to me that the kids have been living on go-gurts and crackers, I've been living on canned soup, and Ryan's been living on cough drops. But things are getting back to normal now and now that the Halloween candy is almost gone we're eating our regular foods again.]