News Flash

I almost don't want to write this because I'm afraid I'll jinx it, but Fellan read a book last night.

As the kids were in bed and getting settled down, he picked out a book and read it. Even sounded out some words! My husband came down and relayed this information to me while I was cleaning up the kitchen. The husband had tears in his eyes, he was so happy!

Of course, Fellan then woke up at 3:00am and wanted to come into bed with us, which caused all sorts of agony and anger on both sides of that argument. The husband wouldn't relent, however. He just spent the next three hours sleeping in bed with Fellan...

Nothing escapes him

Fellan has a great love for learning and he surprises us many times with the observations he makes and with his ability to remember things that he learned last year or even three or four years ago.

Last year, they studied the planets of the solar system in his science class. They made bracelets with beads representing each of the planets - the first bead on the bracelet was the yellow sun, then Mercury, Venus, Earth, etc. He loved that bracelet and was so excited to tell me about it when I got home from work that day.

And then he took it off and all the beads fell off and that was it. He was done with it.

So, a couple of weeks ago, he was talking about the planets and describing something to the husband. He said, "Let's call this Venus, the farthest planet out there... did I say Venus? I meant Pluto." (I guess being a "dwarf planet" still counts as being a planet in the Science curriculum for kindergartners.)

And the other day, we happened upon a Miss Spider's Sunny Patch TV show in which there was an eclipse and he matter of factly said, "An eclipse is when the earth, the moon, and the sun all line up." And then he admitted that he had heard it the other night when we put their "Moon in My Room" CD on as they were falling asleep.

We've now decided that we're going to get all kinds of educational CD's for them to listen to as they go to sleep. At least we could then hope for him to wow the nannies with his random factual comments even if we're apparently doing everything wrong in the reading department...

Deconstruction Update

The husband finally reached his boiling point yesterday with the street deconstruction.

They provided him - at 4:57pm - with a metal plate on the day that they dug the 12 foot hole so that he could get out of the house. Just enough time to make it across the street to let the nanny go home.

Since that point, they've filled in the 12 foot hole with dirt, which is actually just mud since it's been raining over the last week here. So, it's still fairly difficult to get into his office.

During this whole process, the husband has been noticing that they're providing access for everyone else to their houses, but they really haven't been very worried about providing access to the husband. So, he finally got mad enough to call the construction management company yesterday afternoon.

He told them that he was annoyed that they dug a hole in front of his office and then filled it in with mud. Couldn't they at least provide some crushed rock like they have for everyone else's driveways? And speaking of driveways, it sure would be nice to have one! They've provided one for everyone else, but not a driveway to the alley, which provides access to the office's garage. We have some stuff over there that we'd like to get out of there, but can't.

And speaking of garages, he told the guy, "As I'm talking to you right now, there is a worker over there peeing on my garage door." *silence*

Apparently, the magnitude of his discontent was finally understood by the manager - the nanny reported that some of the men were being given a talking-to later in the afternoon.

You know how I said that I didn't really mind them doing this construction? It's only been three weeks, but I'm beginning to get tired of it already...

Of

Last week, one of Fellan's spelling words was "of". The first time we asked him and Marxo to spell it, they both wrote down "uv".

The next day, the husband asked him again to spell "of". He was determined not to get it wrong this time. After much thought, he said, "F U!"

(By the end of the week, I think he finally got it right on his spelling test.)

Slow, quick, quick, slow

This past weekend was kind of like a dance class, but instead of slow, slow, quick, quick, we were able to divert one of those "slows" to the end, which was quite nice.

Friday morning started off with a relaxing morning of taking the kids to school and then going for a bike ride with the husband. It was our anniversary (and also my mom's birthday - Happy Birthday, Mom!), so we decided to go for a nice lunch at one of the best restaurants around, Churrascos. We both got the lunch special of the day, lump crab meat in some kind of really great sauce, over a churrasco steak. We split a bottle of wine, too, and finished with some extremely good espresso.

By the time we got home, we had just enough time to get the bags packed for the evening's activities. We picked up Fellan from school, had him try on his soccer cleats from last year, they didn't fit, so we rushed to Academy and picked out new shoes for him in less than 15 minutes. We ran from there to Tae Kwon Do, and then to the craft store to get supplies for Marxo's birthday party, then on to Fellan's soccer practice.

Saturday morning, Fellan's soccer game was at 9am, and from there, we ran to Arne's Warehouse, where we found plates, napkins, and party blowers for Marxo's birthday party, as well as Halloween costumes for us all (we're going to be a vampire family!). Then on to Marxo's soccer game. Quick lunch at home, and we were off again to a birthday party for one of Marxo's friends and finally a birthday party for one of Fellan's friends!

Yesterday, we had nothing to do. We went for a family bike ride and then hung around the house for the whole afternoon and evening. We made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, carrots, and salad for supper and then told the kids stories about what they were like when they were babies. A nice finish to the weekend.

Where the sidewalk ends

The street deconstruction has now become deconstruction of the sidewalk, landscaping, and access to the huband's office! He's currently trapped inside his office because they dug a 12 foot hole in front of it. He says the picture doesn't do it justice...

MY bread

Since we started trying to get rid of artificials in our food (following the Feingold diet), I have been making bread instead of buying it. I have had a bread maker for years, so I'm happy that I'm finally using it with regularity.

Lately, however, I have noticed a disturbing trend regarding my possessiveness about the bread. I get really annoyed when anyone else (really just the nanny) cuts the bread because they just can't do it as well as I can! I'll come home and the bread has clearly been hacked apart by someone with lesser bread-cutting skilz.

Last night when I got home, I took a look at the bread and was, once again, annoyed. For one thing, it was nearly gone, and for another thing, it was cut so that one slice was normal at the top, but thin at the bottom and the next slice was thick at the top and thicker at the bottom! Argh! Show a little respect for the bread, lady!!!

This morning, just to taunt me, the husband sent me a picture...
A picture of my poor, disfigured bread with its crazy angles juxtaposed against the clean lines of the toaster.

I love Vitamin C

I continue to avoid the crap that the rest of my family has. I'm going to give credit to the Vitamin C that I've been taking every night and every morning. 1000mg each time.

Quite awhile ago, I worked with this crazy guy who ate raw sprouts on everything. (I don't really like raw sprouts and I don't trust them because of this.) But, aside from grossing me out all the time, he told me that his brother takes 10,000mg a day of Vitamin C and hadn't been sick for something like 5 years. So, as cookie monster says, "What the heck. Me give it try!" (Except 10,000mg seems a little excessive... so I'm opting for only 2000mg.)

This morning Marxo had a pretty bad cough, but Fellan's was getting better. My husband is still sniffling a lot, so I'm going to be spending the evening covering my face to deflect the errant coughs and sneezes and washing my hands frequently.

If all else fails, I'll just get some of this.

Homework Failure

Ok, we forgot to copy the calendar with all the homework for the month, so this weekend we weren't able to get a head start on homework. So much for that!

Instead, we had my husband's 20-year high school reunion activities to attend and a birthday party on Saturday evening.

By Sunday, we were all really tired and I think we've all come down with some kind of illness. The kids are both coughing and my husband was moving pretty slowly yesterday. It caught up to me today - I have something that feels like it's going to turn into a runny nose. Not quite yet, but soon...

So! I made sure to go work out at lunchtime today! And I took some extra Vitamin C this morning. Maybe this year I won't end up with some kind of chest/head cold that sticks around for 2 months. I'm making a concerted effort this year and trying to stick to the plan.

On the other hand...

Marxo is still in Pre-K. She loves reading and doing all of Fellan's homework with him. We've had to start separating them when we read or do homework together so that Fellan doesn't get so frustrated all the time with Marxo answering all the questions before him!

BUT, we think we've figured out a pretty good plan for getting Fellan's homework done without the bickering - while also inspiring him to learn it better.

The teacher this year is giving us a monthly homework sheet. So all of the nightly homework is spelled out for the entire month.

Our plan is to make a copy of this sheet before we have to turn in the folder this coming Friday and have Fellan do the homework on Saturday and Sunday so that he's a little more "fresh" for his homework time.

Then, on the weeknights, we'll have Marxo do the homework - with help, of course, from Fellan. He LOVES that. He really does enjoy helping her to learn something - and not in a mean way, he's just a helpful little boy.

I'll let you know how it goes.