Ordinary Time

Phew, is it bedtime yet? I was probably asking this long around 1 pm today. It was not a good day. Not for R., and thus not for me. For whatever reason, R. has regressed nearly totally to an 18th month old level, complete with temper tantrums, pushing boundaries, inability to do self-care, and just general unpleasantness. I sat with her on my lap for over 4 hours this afternoon, because it was the only way I could stop her from following around siblings and animals in order to whack them. When she wasn't whacking, she was shrieking at the top of her lungs. The party started at 5 am this morning. That does play into my general fatigue. All day long there was the push-pull of disorganized and anxious attachment. I want and need you! The second she had my attention, I was the absolute last person she wanted to be near. Push, pull, push, pull, all day long. Even for most of those hours spent on my lap, she was not calm and content, but hypervigilant, and not relaxed against me. It wa...

I think that mistakes and errors in learning don't get the attention that they deserve, because I kind of love them. That sounds a bit goofy, I know, but it's true. We are in the midst of emerging fluent readers around here. For the most part, all phonics books have been dropped (hooray!!), and we are working solely from real books. You know, the whole reason we teach reading to begin with. K. is a fluent reader, but scattered, so he and I still read a chapter aloud together every morning, so I can help him practice focusing on the page. G. is reading the American Girl book about Kaya , and L. is reading Catwings by Ursula K. LeGuin. Both of these girls are just teetering on the edge of being completely independent readers. Y. is the only one still using a phonics book, but that is my choice not hers. English vowels are the ever troublesome equivalent of Mandarin tones. They are just stinking hard to hear, and it takes a lot of concerted practice and listening to begin to dis...

The trouble with being gone, is the amount of time it takes to dig out and get things back under control again. Between K.'s surgery and my trip, I have this nagging sense that I will never get things back under control. I know I will, but the process to get there is not a lot of fun. One good thing about being gone is that I got a lot of reading done, including knocking out a chunk of some of those non-fiction books that had been piling up. Since I'm not working my way through a different one, it means you get front row seats as I process the information. First read some of the things I found interesting. These are from Smart Moves: why learning is not all in your head by Carla Hannaford. Those of you who have been hanging out here for any length of time, might see a recurring theme. "When we play, dopamine is released which induces elation, excitement, and orchestrates nerve net development and alignment all over the brain. ... We [author and other researchers] are...

I'm back after my long weekend in Arizona. With the Chicago area's forecast for snow today, I did wonder if I would get in, but my plane was an early morning flight, so I made it with time to spare before the first snowflakes fell. It was a lovely weekend. I visited with my mom, judged many young pianists, and had three dinners with three different groups of friends. My mom and I also spent part of Sunday just walking around and enjoying the Phoenix Zoo. It's a gorgeous zoo, particularly this time of year, and it was great to just sit and enjoy it. I'm now unpacked, and ready to start back into our regular schedule tomorrow. I think. Phoenix Zoo: Scenes from the piano festival: My mom's dogs. The bulldog is the newest addition and is 8 months old... the same age as Olive. Orchid tree in my mom's backyard. I spent quite a bit of time out here. A good weekend is one where I can read and finish a 450 page book.

I am about to head out of town to Arizona to both visit my mom for a long weekend and to do a little piano judging in the process. So, I'll do some bullets now, and this will have to tide you all over until I get back on Monday. Our shed arrived, all 1000 pounds of it, disassembled on a pallet. Now all we need is some warmer weather on a weekend to start putting it together. Olive is 8 months old today. I don't have a recent picture, but she is big. Very big. And still a baby. Just a great big giant baby. Oh, and she's pretty cute, too. K. continues to recover quickly. He is still a little limpy when he walks, but he hasn't needed pain meds in nearly 24 hours, and I've noticed his speed picking up and he has stopped using Y.'s old crutches. I'm considering hobbles to slow him down. We have a large commercial greenhouse across the street from us. We are used to having the lights on in different buildings during the night, but recently we've noticed ...

K. is doing as well as can be expected. His hip hurts and he is truly hating the restricted diet he is currently on. He also is finding a completely enclosed nasal passage to feel a wee bit odd and uncomfortable. But let's talk about things other than unhappy children and surgical procedures, shall we? I'm ready for a change of topic. Last Saturday, J. and I loaded up whichever children wanted to come along (there were 7 of them), and we all headed out to the nearest Farm and Fleet store. This was our first time in such and store, and it was a revelation to the children. They loved it, and oohed and ahhed their way around. There was an actual reason we were there, though, and not just for the amusement factor, though that was pretty high. You see, we had to go and place our order for chicks and ducklings. On March 7, I will drive back out, probably with a lot of children in tow then as well, and pick up twenty chicks and five ducklings. These chicks and ducklings will then ...

Surgery, that is. I did some adding, and by my calculations, this was family surgery #12. That doesn't include all the surgeries my children have had before they joined our family. That adds at least another 6, if not more. K. is doing as well as can be expected after his bone graft surgery this morning. His hip is really hurting, but the next dose of pain medication is starting to help that, and he is not thrilled about the limited diet he has to endure for the moment. But it is over, he is fine, and I am very happy to be on this side of things. As well as this being our 12th surgery, this was also our chance to experience a fourth hospital for surgery. (And compared to some of my friends, this number is small potatoes.) I think I was almost as nervous about a new hospital as I was about the procedure itself. There is something reassuring about knowing where things are, how things are done, and at one point, we were even recognizing some of the pre- and post-op staff. This was ...