Better Late than Never

Yes, I know. I have not been blogging much lately. I've done a pitiful job of maintaining this log of our family happenings to be recorded for prosperity. Fifty years from now I will look back on the winter of 2009/2010 and assume we just sat around in our pajamas eating popcorn for about four months with little to no activity of any import.

Which is not the case, of course. I'm not a person that likes to overwhelm myself with activity... I don't belong to a book club or a scrapbooking group or a softball league. I'm much more content with my low-key life and minimal schedule fillers. Right now weekly speech therapy, workouts at the gym, Fun Fair planning committee for our elementary school, and Travis's upcoming Tball practices are enough for me. With spring coming on I might start some occasional playdates again. Anyway, I'm kind of rambling here, but my point is that although I don't have a lot of organized activities that I and my family are involved in, we manage to keep fairly occupied.

Travis had his Kindergarten assessment test last week. We don't have the results yet but his teacher said he did well. Academically we obviously had no worries (I don't want to brag but this kid is on the road for mathematical stardom), but his extreme reservedness is something we want to consider when determining whether he's ready for that next step. He's an odd hybrid -- he's shy, doesn't necessarily initiate a lot of conversation, but participates in class, answers questions, gets involved. Its not like he's totally withdrawn, so that's a good thing, but he does need to work on his assertiveness.

Noah is going on three (although he insists he is five if you ask him...and no other answer will do), about four months until his third birthday. His terrible twos are subsiding somewhat, he's a little more amiable when something doesn't go his way, and at the very least his temper tantrums are getting shorter, fewer, and farther between. He's not yet potty-trained, I probably need to start that back up again, but I'm a firm believer in not pushing that process, purely for my own sanity. I don't have the energy to bribe my kid to use the darn potty, if he's not willing to do it himself that's his loss. Diapers are annoying, but more annoying is accidents at home and accidents in public and I just don't have the desire to deal with that. Thus, I'm waiting.

Sophie is still growing, still exploring and getting into everything, still melting hearts left and right. She is about as lovable as a toddler can get, she's got the absolute sweetest temperament combined with a stubborn insistence that people adore her. Plus, she's sweetly sensitive...gets her little feelings hurt when the boys don't want her to play with them (read: take their stuff and slobber on it) and melts into a puddle of Sophie on the floor when I tell her that no, she cannot chew on the iPod charger or eat that quarter.

As for me, I got back last week from my much-appreciated vacation in Italy. Ben practically qualifies for sainthood for agreeing to let me go (or more accurately, arranging for me to be able to go) on this trip with an old friend, while he stayed at home and handled single dadhood for 10 days. All survived and appear to be none the worse for wear. Ben might appreciate me slightly more, and I certainly am grateful for the whole lot of them. Sometime in the middle of the week I got a little emotional about being away from them for so long, and it was difficult to be on that fabulous vacation knowing that Ben would have so loved to have been there. Every so often as I was skiing down a mountain I would think, "if only Ben were here, he would totally love this" -- and that was tough to deal with. But, we'll have our chance. The trip was organized by the Ohio Valley Ski Council, most of whose members were in their 40s and beyond and had regularly gone on these trips for years and years on end. There was one couple in their late 60s, had learned to ski when they were 50, and had been going on these Europe trips ever since. They were such a fun couple, I just kept thinking, this will so be me and Ben.

Work remains a challenge, but for the most part a welcome one. Still loving my part-time schedule. Looking forward to camping season coming up... now that Sophie is another year older I think some parts of camping will be better -- others harder, but I'm ready for it nonetheless.

Well I guess that's it. See you in another four months.

Holy Crap its March

Well the month of February has come and gone. No blog updates in February, sorry about that, I'm just not sure where the time has gone.

So, for an update on the family, Travis is doing well in pre-Kindergarten, still somewhat shy but has developed a friendship with a couple kids in the class, and I think overall its going okay. He's sharp as a tack and reading like crazy (he read "Multi-Purpose" on my contact solution bottle the other day, I'm pretty sure that's above Kindergarten reading level), adding and subtracting easily now (the other day he told me if I had $100 in my bank account and bought something that cost $2, I would have $98 left..... he is SOOOO ready for those stupid story problems in elementary math textbooks) - he's fully grasped the concept of negative numbers, his vocabulary is just insane (last night he told me he heard some noises that "distracted him from sleeping" -- I mean, what 5-yr old says that?). So, I just need to get him a little more comfortable with interacting socially; I plan on getting him together with his little buddy Evan from school, and hopefully that will develop over the next few months or so. His eating is improving, he still struggles but will try new things more frequently now at least. Speech is still developing, vowels are still his primary issue, so jaw and muscle development are the primary focus.

Noah is mid-way through his terrible twos and on his way to being a seven-year-old. (By the way, he will not admit that he is two, he INSISTS that he is five just like his brother. "NO MOM I'M FIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!") He's not quite reading yet but I think will be an early reader like Travis was... he's very in tune with letters and all. Noah is my jokester... he is constantly trying to find ways to make people laugh. He's also perfecting the art of the temper tantrum. Last night, for instance, he was mad because he wanted me to read the book he picked out for bedtime story before I read the book Travis picked out. So he lay square in the middle of the floor, screaming. Now, my parenting philosophy is, as long as you're not hurting things or people, feel free to throw a tantrum and I will happily ignore you. So I did, and read Travis his book, and Noah starts screaming "MOM! You're making too much noise for me to cry!" In other words, I'm only crying because I want you to hear me and feel sorry for me. Talk about giving up your strategy, kid.

Sophie, bless her heart, is desperately trying to be one of the big kids. Her little feelings get so hurt when the boys won't let her take their puzzle pieces, or steals a checker from the checkerboard. She's very dramatic, tears streaming down her face, full open-mouth wail, melts on the floor in a sad little pile when she feels she's been slighted. The boys do a fairly good job of trying to include her, but she still slobbers on stuff a little too much for their liking. She's now big into dancing, she loves music. The sound of anything remotely resembling music (Noah banging on a few keys on the piano, a TV commercial in the background, the dishwasher) causes her to start nodding her head and bouncing up and down in her little dance-y way.

Ben and I have been enjoying the winter; went on our annual ski trip to Crystal Mountain last month which was a blast, a weekend minus the kids (who I love dearly but make quality ski trips a little difficult), excellent ski weather and good friends. I'm battling through the guilt of leaving him for about 10 days while I go on a fabulous trip without him -- one of my best friends and I touring and skiing in Italy. It was his idea that I go, his birthday present was to me was to pay the deposit for the trip, and he insists that I'm not a horrible person for going. You see, we are not the kind of family to vacation separately. In fact, Ben is my favorite person to go vacationing with. So, this is difficult for me. But, I'm moving past that, the trip would have been nearly logistically impossible if we were both going and having to worry about leaving the kids for that long; so now I'm just thankful that Ben is so unselfishly letting me do this and I fully intend to have a super-fabulous trip. I leave in three days. I should probably be packing.