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 Its not like he's totally withdrawn, so that's a good thing, but he does need to work on his assertiveness.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.
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