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The Middle Child Strikes Back
Avey is officially on spring break, and not a moment too soon. She’s seemed to have an especially rough time lately, which seems to be a combination of school, lack of sleep, and dealing with 3 younger brothers. Her homework is usually the last thing she wants to do after a day at school, so she just needs some time to unwind by watching a favorite show or reading a book. Naturally, this house is not exactly the place to be for some R&R, so Avey often secludes herself in her room. Interestingly enough, Avey spent a lot of Saturday on her homework, apparently enjoying the ability to do it on her own terms. When I asked her her plans for the break, she said, “Read a lot and avoid my brothers.” Too true, although I’m sure she will pitch in to help out when Kira needs.
Hakan has been our biggest pill to swallow lately. He’s been in a mood, and taking it out on both of his brothers. Perhaps we’ve been letting him get away with too much for too long, because he pushes buttons like nothing we’ve seen. He occasionally starts wailing on Carver for virtually no reason, and his tolerance for Merritt is near zero. If Merritt shows interest in something Hakan is doing or with which he is playing, Hakan shoves the poor guy out of the way. Luckily [?], Merritt does not seem to have associated Hakan with displeasure yet, because he still persists in trying to share toys. We’ll see if that lasts much longer.
Merritt is as curious and active as ever. He continues to take 2-to-3 steps at a time, but lacks confidence to keep working at it. He can stand unsupported indefinitely until he grows bored or sees something to which he’s attracted. His two little teeth are a fun sight, and he has gotten proficient at falling asleep with just his pacifier rather than 5 to 20 minutes of rocking. To my delight, he has gotten very good at saying, “Dah dah dah.”
Carver seems more mature with his 5 years under his belt. He is a great mentor to Hakan when they are not fighting. He was a little sick with a cold earlier in the week, missing his first day of preschool. We feared that he had caught Hakan’s strep, but the test came back negative, and he cleared up pretty quickly, so we sent him into preschool on Thursday. He had a blast, so we think he’s finally reaching a point of boredom at home that will pay off once school starts for him in the fall.
Kira got another client scheduled in, so we hope to have all of them keep their appointments and schedule regularly. She’s had trouble with some lately deciding not to show up for their times, meaning that I wasted my time coming home early and she wasted her time getting all dressed and ready, and we wasted money reserving the office. It’s frustrating, but we have learned over the years that it seems to come with the territory in her line of work.
I am busy as ever at work, but feeling pretty good with the weather warming and the semester drawing to a close. I think one enormous improvement to my outlook on life is that I finally broke down and purchased a bicycle that is built for a grown man. For that last 18 months or so, I’ve been using Kira’s very old bicycle to get to and from the train station. It is a functioning machine, but it is built for someone with Kira’s (much shorter) frame. Plus, it’s a mountain bike with wide tires and deep tread, adding to the friction. It also happens to be quite heavy. These features all combine for a perfectly miserable ride for me. My new bike was inexpensive, and is much more in line with what I need. It’s built for my frame, it’s about half as heavy as Kira’s bike, and the narrow tires seem to glide almost effortlessly on the roads. Now I wake up without dreading the commute as much, so that’s something.
We had a glorious day in the 70s a few days ago, and it’s been rainy since. We are very excited for the warmer weather and all the adventures that come with it.