Lately

Things are going well for us here in Iowa. I finished another semester successfully, and given the events of the past few months, that was questionable at times. I am so relieved to be done. Part of me wishes I could do the semester again, a little more plugged in, but I'm glad to have it behind me. I should have taken the semester off, and it was a difficult decision, but I need to be done by next May so that J can start his program, wherever that might be. I have about 7 weeks off from classes and two weeks in, it's everything I hoped it could be and more.

I don't feel less busy, but my house and kids are getting more attention. That makes me happy. A couple of weeks ago Danyo was hounding me to take him on a bike ride. Every time he'd ask, J would stand behind him, shaking his head with warning. Finally J confided, "He's totally crazy on his bike, don't do it." Usually we throw him in the bike trailer with AJ. He can ride a bike without training wheels (it's every bit as cute as you think it might be) so he really wants to ride with the big kids. I finally relented. One morning I strapped AJ into the bike trailer (it's precarious at best, she can't sit up just yet) and set out with Danyo on his bike.

He is crazy. He weaves and peddles like a mad man and I think he looks down a lot at his feet, so no consideration for what's 5, 3, 2 feet in front of him. I spent the entire ride "reminding" and "coaching" him to slow down, watch where he was going, stop weaving, get out of the middle of the road, move over for the other bikes, etc, etc. It was kind of funny. I had the time, and I had been warned, so I was okay with it all. But I see now why J was always shaking his head!

Some of you may not know that Danyo got glasses in February. I set all the kids up for an appointment on a whim, actually. Avee had complained of not being able to see things and headaches, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to get them all checked. I was in Missouri with my mom and had only taken AJ with me on this trip. I got a text from J, "It's a good thing you set up these appointments, Danyo is freaking blind!" I am definitely prone to exaggerated speech, and perhaps I've rubbed off on J, but turns out, he is practically blind in one eye. The optometrist was hopeful we could strengthen it, so his good eye is patched. It's ridiculously cute. He also has taken to putting on the patch himself, which is a whole 'nother level of cute and funny. He looks like this...

You'll notice the patch also covers his nose and comes quite close to covering his other eye. That's my boy!! It's working, his vision has gotten much better in the bad eye, so we keep patching.

Anyway, as we were riding to the park to meet up with friends, I thought that all things considered, Danyo was pretty amazing. 4 years old, 3 mile ride, 2 wheels, 1 eye. That's impressive!

I sat down to blog because I was reading through a composition notebook Bo just brought home and I started laughing so hard, tears were streaming. Bo's work often gets a hearty chuckle out of me, but this one hit my funny bone.The notebook is from his science club. I remember him telling me how they were testing the strength of paper towels by putting washers on them and seeing how many a particular brand could hold, when wet.This is what he'd written: "Exparament: Step 1 wett the papter towels Step 2 put warshers on...I realized as I read it that his teacher very much has the midwest accent and I couldn't stop laughing. He knew they were called washers, but when she was talking, he wrote what he heard her say. I will truly cherish this notebook as the treasure of our Iowa lives that it is.

Last night, Avee was jumping on the trampoline with Danyo and another 4-year-old friend. They found a moth and Avee helped it up and set it free. I actually don't know what they are, but there are THOUSANDS of them flying around right now. Maybe there are moths, I just don't know why there are so many so suddenly. Anyway, she found another one right after that was dead. I wanted to say "good riddance" but didn't because she was so caught up in it.

Unbeknownst to me, she gathered Danyo and his friend and went into the playroom and planned a funeral for the moth. She got each child to contribute a "eulogistic" sentence, and combined, they had a lovely eulogy for the moth they never knew, 15 minutes before.

She put each child's initial after the sentence they contributed. At the end, it was a joint effort, so there were two initials. I love this girl.

I have more stuff, but don't want to run out the attention span of some of my readers. :)

Off to prepare for Bo's 9th birthday. 9 years ago today, I woke up with a back ache. My mom had to tell me I was in labor. Oh what I've learned in those 9 years!