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Cuddly Creatures
We had another busy week. With Avey’s pet-related attention directed entirely toward Gregor (and a little toward Merritt – let’s be honest), she turned responsibility for Scales, the fish, over to her brothers.
That’s been interesting, as Hakan mostly just wants to feed the fish all the time, and Carver lacks the skill to do much beyond feeding the fish. Mostly, it’s become my job to change the water, and their job to feed him.
Gregor, the hamster, has had an interesting first week at our home, also. He’s reportedly not kept Avey awake too much, so he’s still staying in her room most of the time. She’ll bring him out to watch movies with her in the evening, but he stays in his cage. She finally figured that he should get a little time out of the cage yesterday, after we’d cleaned it, so she brought him out to get more familiar with her.
The boys were really excited after that, and wanted to let Gregor crawl all over them, too, but we figured he was a little overwhelmed after all of the excitement, so they settled for a little petting.
We finally have a little break from the frigid temperatures that have plagued our winter. Things finally got above freezing yesterday, so the older boys made the most of it at a nearby park. Because of the cold, our snow has been far too powdery to be much fun. As it warmed, however, we were able to form it into snowballs. Hakan mostly enjoyed chucking them at trees and such, and Carver tried using the snowballs in nontraditional ways.
Merritt had a rough Saturday. He had not had any stomach problems since Tuesday, the ninth, so it was surprising when he hurled yesterday morning. He spent the whole day battling his tummy issues, and then suddenly got his appetite back in the evening. We cautiously gave him a few light foods and some fluids, and he kept them down for hours, with just one more incident around midnight last night. He’s not showing interest in food this morning, but at least he seems in better spirits.
I had a good first week back at school. This semester is different from the last in that my courses are all in the afternoon and evening, giving me some more time in the mornings to get kids fed and dressed. This is also the first time I’ve taught an evening course, which goes until 8:30. The first time went well, but we’ll see how I feel come May.
Kira had a tiring week on top of all the other nonsense. A woman our age in her ward died suddenly after an aneurysm, leaving behind her husband and three children, so that shook her quite a bit and got us thinking more about being prepared for our inevitable demise. We also learned that Kira’s dad’s cancer returned after his major surgery, and a small lump had to be removed again. We’re hoping that all is clear now.
Avey and Carver got their standardized test scores this week. Avey’s outstanding performance was no surprise, as it’s old news, but we were pleased to see that Carver is scoring just as high as his sister. He’s in the high 90s percentile for math, and the upper 80s for reading (a mirror image of Avey). We are excited for them both as they keep excelling!