My report

It might have been a crazy day: a broken air conditioner, leaking solar panels on the roof which dripped down into the apartment below, a jammed garbage disposal, a tenant calling to complain about ants in her parking space (!), and a plumber coming to work on rusty pipes.

However, the day started nicely at the boys' school and continued very well. I was helping Booster Club at the new family breakfast and was treated to bagels and pulp-free orange juice. Scott got to play on the kindergarten yard for over an hour with kids his age and was extremely happy. He has no fear and makes friends naturally. When we go to the school, he tells me, "Mom, there are no strangers there." He loves wearing his assistant manager badge when we go out so everyone will know his name.

Back at home, all the vendors who came to deal with the problems listed above came during their scheduled windows and none of them overlapped. Scott read me a silly story that made us both laugh; I got in a quick nap before running to the bank, picking up Ethan from school, and vacuuming. The boys played nicely on Mr. M's computer during my one violin lesson of the day, and I got the pork chops in the oven before the boys' last swimming lesson with Tyler.

Ethan's freestyle is much-improved; his arms are consistently coming out of the water and now he just needs to master the headmotion of breathing. Scott had a momentous lesson today, swimming 3/4 of the length of the pool freestyle (5 strokes, 1 breath, 5 strokes) and diving to retrieve a torpedo from 7 feet. Both boys cited swimming lesson as their favorite part of today.

Ethan ate everything at dinner (!) and cut his pork chop with a knife, rather than spearing it whole on his fork and biting off chunks. He even said nice things about the food. Scott declined a pork chop, but ate lots of mashed potatoes studded with peas. They listened to our after-dinner Book of Mormon chapter without wiggling or jumping on each other and then read quietly on the couch from the same Asterix and Obelix book. Ethan also practiced standing on his head. His record, which he just set tonight, is 1m 27 seconds. (My record headstand from my teenage years was 6m 32 seconds. Is he my son or what?!)



Tonight after the bedtime ritual, I'll do some tidying and probably read some more of Beethoven's Hair and Blessings of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children. Last night I finished Wild Swans, a very intense book about 3 generations of Chinese women from the not-so-distant past. Or maybe I'll just go to bed. I'm sleepy.

My little man and random thoughts

Scott has become the man of the house for much of the day. This morning we took out the recycling and stopped at his favorite climbing tree on the corner to test out his new sneakers. (Thanks, Grandma Gail!) Halfway up the tree, he pronounced that the shoes were "great and effective". He says he will teach Elizabeth how to climb trees and will keep pebbles away from her because they are a choking hazard.

On our walk around the block, he collected 4 twigs and a pebble. "This is manhole territory," he declared. On top of each manhole, he dropped a twig, presumably to identify it as a manhole. At the last manhole, he dropped a twig and the pebble. As we turned the corner, he announced, "This is tree territory now," then spying a manhole, "but we are still in manhole territory, too."
I love this guy!

I love our peaceful days now that Ethan is back at school. Ethan is happy, too, although he says he hasn't learned anything yet. Last Friday, he received his first homework packet, which he is supposed to turn in this Friday. He did it all in about half an hour on Friday and Saturday, even the 3 extra credit pages. I hope there is something there that will challenge him. He complained on the first day that there was no hard math, but that he hoped there would be hard math on the state tests that happen in the spring. I told him to give it some time, that they were probably still reviewing and getting going. I suspect that academically, he'd be fine in 2nd or 3rd grade, but physically and socially, he fits in just right with the 1st graders. I imagine we'll be dealing with similar issues with Scott once he starts his pre-K class in a few days. He is reading me silly poems right now from a book called Laugh-eteria.

On the topic of Ethan, I'm trying to be a "strength detective" and really notice the good things he does. I tend to be critical of him, and I'm not sure why. I left him a note on the breakfast table this morning telling him how much I appreciated the quick and quiet way he went to bed last night. (I also included a scripture for him to work on memorizing; he loves to memorize!) The usual scenario is that he gets out of bed about 5 times, and there is usually a lot of giggling and roughhousing that goes on with Scott before they settle down. Last night, no giggling, no getting out of bed, just straight to sleep after my lullaby. They must have been worn out from playing with the friends we visited yesterday afternoon.

Elizabeth must be getting uncomfortable because she is VERY squirmy. Her motions are visible and my belly sticks out in strange ways as she moves around. 2 more months. I do not remember feeling so ready to give birth this far ahead of a due date. However, I think I've already topped my maximum weight with Ethan and I'm close to reaching the maximum weight with Scott. That may have something to do with it. Sigh.