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Cool School
We survived our first week back at school. Avey enjoys her new teacher and classmates, but is not very excited about making lunches and doing homework every day. We hope to get back into a routine with it so that it doesn’t seem like such a hassle. It turns out that the third grade can participate in orchestra, so we are going to get Avey signed up for that. She’s been taking sporadic lessons on violin from a high school student we know, but it will be nice to have her more regularly working on it. She’s been a little more motivated to practice since she picked out a song to learn (rather than just drills). Ever since hearing her great aunts and uncle play Pachelbel’s “Canon in D,” she has wanted to learn to play it.
I am back in full swing at school, too. I have a strange schedule this semester, teaching only two days a week, but three courses. I spent a lot of this week meeting with students about dissertations and other projects they would like to do. I am looking forward to the courses this semester, and was surprised at how many students I recognized from my courses last year – they must be glutton for punishment. I am even doing an independent study with one of my former students.
Kira has continued to keep the children fed (despite all of their efforts), and alive (despite all of their efforts). Their appetites seem to wax and wane like the moon cycle. They have also had a surprising number of tumbles recently. Hakan is a climber and a runner, but lacks the experience to keep his body where he wants it. Too often the result is that he scrapes or knocks into something, but it’s nothing that a few hugs, kisses, and a little time to heal won’t solve.
Carver is working hard to make sense of the world. A few days ago, Hakan was singing the ABC song, skipping over a few letters here and there, and then struggling through the “LMNOP” hurdle. Carver, who was listening, decided to correct Hakan, and carefully enunciated each letter in the alphabet until putting extra emphasis at the difficult part, stating “MLNOP.” Kira and I chuckled to ourselves as the “expert” bombed it. Twenty-five out of 26 isn’t bad.
We’ve enjoyed a few days of gloriously mild temperatures and low humidity, so yesterday I took the kids to the park, and Carver wanted to play “Magic Schoolbus.” He asked where we should go, and I suggested we visit Mars. He steered the spaceship, and when we “landed,” he told me to be on the lookout for Martians. He said, “They are green and have three eyes. They are kind of like aliens, but not really.” I wondered what an alien looks like.
Merritt is adorable as ever, but we are running out of things to do to keep him entertained. There is only so much stuff for him to look at and chew on in our home. Most of the time the solution is to have someone smile with him, but he often wants attention at the same time as everyone else in the house. Without mobility and language, he struggles the most to stay occupied. Still, he is a generally very happy boy, and usually enjoys rolling around on something soft as long as there is something he can hold and something else upon which to fix his gaze.
That boy will be chasing his older brothers around before we realize.
Happy Labor Day!