Back in September, Travis stayed home from work with a fever and chills, then had a lingering cough for almost a month after that. Near the end of that, we both came down with a stomach flu, and then I caught the cough. That's almost done, but earlier this week I caught something else and my head has been congested, my sinuses were on fire. After a chiropractic adjustment and a good night's sleep (that took me 3 nights to achieve, no thanks to my girls), I'm finally on the mend. I think it's gotten into my inner ears, so I'm all woozy and still very weak, but at least I was able to function today. Will I ever feel good again???
Emily has been a handful lately, asking WHY to absolutely everything I say to her, whether it makes sense to ask why or not, and sometimes just flat-out saying No. I usually ignore those and that seems to work well, but the Whys are really grating on me. She's also really getting tired of Audrey being in her space. We have time-outs almost every day for taking toys out of her hand, knocking her over, pulling her legs, or excessive hugging. Yes, I'm that mom that you hear in the grocery store, hollering at her kid to stop hugging her sister. Audrey generally doesn't protest that one much, but I'm suspicious that it's only because Emily goes right for her windpipe and there's not much she could say if she wanted to. And with everyone in our house sick and overtired for one reason or another, I'll admit I haven't handled it as well as I could. But, I'm learning as best I can, and we've made good use of the portable jail and other deterrents to keep the girls happily playing. Emily is just so earnest and clever that I sometimes can't even get her attention to change her actions at all. A new rule in our house, though, is that she cannot ask Why if i say Stop, Let Go, or NO!! Anything else, I'll try to explain if she really wants to know why, but those she has to just do immediately. Gah! so annoying!!
I challenged Emily the other day to stand on one foot, and she really did pretty well for only trying it for her first time. Audrey can pull herself to standing using just about anything now, and I've seen her let go in order to concentrate on whatever treasure she's found, so that's pretty cool. Nice that my girls have some balance even if I'm too dizzy myself!!
And Audrey is babbling so sweetly now. Her "Mom Mom Mom"s are more purposeful and she tells me stories: "Shzuzzzshuzzshuzzshuzz, dju dju dju dju..." It's funny to think that that's what we sound like to her!
Emily surprised me the other day, on the way to the park, by singing along with me all the way through "Mr. Sun." What a good singer she is!
My neighbor has gotten me interested in the Montessori school in Des Moines. Usually the most common factor to Montessori schools is that they are prohibitively expensive, but this is actually a public school, a part of the Des Moines Public Schools. I sent in Emily's application already, so hopefully the waiting list for 4-year-old preschool in Fall 2012 isn't too long to include her! (I would hope not, but they said they'll accept names as soon as the child turns 1. yikes!) My neighbor has sons in 1st grade and 4YO preschool, and she has spoken so highly of her experiences there, I figured I'd throw my name into the hat. One of the biggest advantages, I think, is that the Montessori philosophy is to play off of the child's inherent love of learning, and not try to mold them all into the same kind of learner. They will put kids into whatever age of learning group they're ready for (Kindergarteners reading with 1st graders if they're ready, etc.), and focus on student-discovery over teaching memorization. I can remember learning about the multiplication table in 4th grade, and studying how the numbers added and looking for patterns and figuring out how multiplication was related to addition, groups of numbers and such; and then I failed the multiplication test because I had been essentially deriving the table instead of just memorizing it. In Montessori, that's good learning; in traditional methods, that's failing. Since both my girls will be on the older end of their classes, I'm excited to think that this might keep them from feeling like they spend their days waiting for other kids. It sounds really arrogant of me to say so, but that's how I felt all the way through elementary and junior high. Spelling tests were just agony, waiting for the next word... and then I'd miss words completely because I was trying to entertain myself while waiting. I read novels under my desk, I practiced fingering for pieces I was learning on piano or violin, I bit my fingernails, and I daydreamed a LOT, all day long. Wouldn't it be great if my girls could learn what they're ready for, when they're excited about it? And I know that it's not fair to assume they'll be like me (or Travis; he's said he felt the same way), but still, isn't that a great way to learn?
This past week of daycare dropoffs and pickups went just fine, with no tears. Emily was a little apprehensive on Tuesday, but she got into it just fine. Travis was gone in Dallas on Tuesday and Wednesday, and for some reason I had a really hard time with this trip; lucky for me, he was able to come home on Wed instead of the Thursday that he'd planned on. He switched his flight, and surprised me by showing up with a bottle of wine and a few other treats that we enjoyed after the girls were in bed Friday night. (They weren't asleep; they didn't konk out for good until almost 1 AM. Little stinkers!) Anyway, Emily's class is giong on a field trip in a few weeks to a local gymnastics place, so that's going to be pretty cool! I'm tempted to go along with them, but, if I wanted to do that, why don't I just take her on a day I don't work, right? I thought it was nice that it was scheduled for a day when Emily was there. And Audrey gets lots of 1-on-1 snuggles with one of her afternoon teachers, who is thoroughly smitten with her (but really, who wouldn't be, right? have you seen her big blue eyes??) This place is going to be just fine; not ideal, but since that doesn't exist, this will work.
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