Ethan - This guy is into his third week of preK and doing well with it. Compared to his sisters, I think he may have transitioned to preschool the most smoothly, even though there were more tears and outbursts from him at home in the past few weeks than we would normally expect.
I don't think preK has quite lived up to his expectations ... yet. He's been looking forward to going to school like his sisters for so long that I think he built it up in his mind to an unreasonable level. But, he's happy to go in the morning, enjoys seeing his friends in the hallway and outside of the classroom, and always has something to tell me about his day.
Outside of school, we have done a variety of things together in the afternoons. Once a week or so we have met Matt at work for lunch; Ethan loves this. We also have gone on a few bike rides just the two of us, and of course cuddled and read books together. Plus, Ethan wanted to start piano lessons, just like his sisters ... so we're trying. He's very proud of the songs he has learned.
Too bad Ethan came down with his first preschool cold at the end of last week. Hopefully his healthy summer immune system will kick this one quickly.
Kate - Sweet Kate seems to be hitting her stride with some friends at school, after a little anxiety and uncertainty to start the year. She is continuing with piano lessons (with mom) again and picks up on the concepts quickly, even if she doesn't want to sit down to practice. Kate has also been working hard at cartwheels and jumping rope in the last couple of weeks. It's fun to watch her grow and blossom.
When I ask Kate what is good about school, she says lunch, recess, library time, gym, art, and music. The regular classroom stuff has always been low on her list of preferred school activities.
As of now, Kate is our roughest morning kid. We had a dinner discussion about this tonight and she came up with a couple of ideas that might help. Matt and I are just tired of nagging her every morning to get moving.
Anna - Again this year Anna is exhibiting her ability to work hard and be self-motivated at school. We are so glad that the challenges of school are enjoyable to her and that the community around her every day is supportive and caring. Life would be a lot harder for all of us if school were not a good place for her.
Anna has been using her walker almost exclusively at school this year so far. Fridays have been reserved as "wheelchair Fridays", if she chooses. She usually opts for the comfort of her chair for the second half of the day on Fridays. When asked, she will tell you that she really likes being taller when standing in her walker, then it's easier to talk to friends.
Anna is continuing with piano lessons this fall (with mom). She picks up on the ideas very quickly, but it is SO hard for her to make her fingers do what she wants them to do. It's a good thing she is one determined kid.
Unfortunately, Anna caught Ethan's cold. It hasn't been too bad yet, but she was encouraged by a long-standing member of her team to use her wheelchair today. Good choice. We are hoping, hoping, hoping, that any residual congestion and/or cough is gone by the weekend so she can still have her surgery on Monday. But, we are also well versed in flexibility, and will make any necessary adjustments.
Mom - The idea of having Ethan in preK three mornings a week sounds really nice in theory. But in reality, that time goes by very, very quickly. Granted, the first couple of weeks included several extra appointments for Anna and so not much happened besides the basics.
In spite of the heat, once a week I have chosen to ride my bike home from McFarland and then back again when it's time to pick Ethan up. I don't really remember the last time I have ridden my bike by myself this often. It's kind of nice :)
The garden season here has slowed down in the last couple of weeks to the point of only getting the canner out once a week. We still have a drawer full of honeycrisp apples in the fridge, even though the machintosh ones are gone. We also are harvesting about a cup of raspberries a day, mostly for fresh eating. This last week we were able to start harvesting our second crop of peapods and broccoli ... such a nice addition this time of the season. Otherwise, the cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and pole beans are only trickling in now.
Matt - Work is work for the bread winner in the family. The company has experienced quite a few managerial transitions in the last several years causing morale and security to be low from time to time. We have learned in Matt's tenure at GE that the workload and enjoyment there ebbs and flows.
For better or worse, Matt has been kept busy with things breaking around the house. We're not quite sure what it was about September, but many things needed his attention. First the TV (which Matt fixed, even though it took a few weeks), then the tiller (which Matt should be able to fix once he gets the time), and then we discovered that something chewed a number of holes in our pool liner just above the water line (Matt patched these the day we discovered them). Our best guess was that some critter got stuck on the pool cover and was trying frantically to get out; we never found the critter, thankfully.
Right after that the vacuum died, as did the thermostat, and the van's radio. The vacuum needed to be replaced (but only after everyone took it apart to see how it worked).
Our mechanically-minded son enjoyed the dismantling of the old vacuum and was almost more excited than me when the new one arrived.
The thermostat and the radio magically came back to life after a little bit of a reset. Somewhere in there the girls' smoke detector went haywire as did our basement carbon monoxide detector. Like I said, weird month.
For the family as a whole, we thoroughly enjoyed playing in the pool again this last weekend.
We have had record heat for a week or so and took advantage of the warm weather to play in the pool as much as we could. Fun times!
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