Today was the first day in well over a week that it got warm enough inside the house to close windows and turn on the A/C. And by warm enough I mean that it was just more comfortable to turn it on, not that it was terribly hot or anything. At night the temperature has dropped low enough that I go around before bed closing all the windows to just a crack, and I've been sleeping with a blanket on my side of the bed. Not Eric, though. He is a human furnace.
Yesterday was my birthday. We had lovely weather, and I had a lazy day at home and we went out to dinner so I didn't have to cook. The girls were especially sweet all day. Eric had taken them shopping on the weekend (also known as "Eric, please take the girls somewhere away from me so I can have a break from 'Honey-can-I-Honey-I-want-Honey-are-we-Honey-Honey-Honey' for just a few hours.") and as soon as they got home Peabody told me what they got me. Ha! The girls chose some jewelry with minimal guidance from their dad, and I must say they did a good job. I got lots of texts and phone calls and Facebook messages and all-in-all it was a very nice birthday.
We'll be starting school the day after Labor Day. I finally got motivated and finished ordering the rest of curriculum. Praise the Lord, I was able to find everything used except for consumables. It took several hours of searching around on eBay but I think I got some pretty good deals. Maybe I am my father's daughter after all ...
I really haven't been looking forward to starting school. I feigned excitement when talking to the Boogie about it, but her attitude hasn't helped: "Well," she'll say slowly, "I don't really like school ..." Getting all of the curriculum in has boosted my excitement, though, and I think she'll be interested in the history, science, and health readers I got.
Peabody will not be doing scheduled preschool this year. I know she will participate in some of our lessons like she did last year, and I have workbooks for her if she shows interest but I have no problem with her playing to her three-year-old heart's content while we have school. She has recently learned how to use scissors and LOVES to do that. I can give her a sheet of paper and a pair of scissors and she will entertain herself for a long time, cutting the paper into teeny tiny pieces. She opens and closes her mouth in synch with the scissors.
This is the aftermath of a Peabody/scissors/paper session.
Little tidbit about Peabody: she recognizes most colors but pretty consistently mixes up green and red. If corrected she'll get it right for a while, and every now and then she'll get it right on her own. But mostly she confuses them.
The Boogie has really been into crafting projects and in my biased opinion she is pretty creative. She has a vision for things and can often carry them out. Several weeks ago she spent a whole day constructing a boat and barge out of egg cartons. There were yarn ropes and paper tow-hooks and everything. Last week she made a paper parachute complete with little paper chair. She is constantly raiding the paper recycling bin for cereal boxes and scrap paper. Scissors and staplers and tape and the hole-punch live on the dining room table every day. She asks for every box that is emptied.
"Why do you want it?" I'll ask her.
"I just want to make something out of it," she replies.
"Make what?" I persist.
"I don't know," she shrugs, "just something!"
I want to make it perfectly clear that she does not get that creative gene from me. Apparently it skipped me and went straight from my mother to my daughter.
We birdsat Jack and Mr. Pickles last week. Mama Dog could hardly stand it. She would have spent the whole week like this if we'd let her:
At night or if we left her in the house during the day we had to set up the triple barrier:
Peabody had the camera last week and I discovered these gems on the memory card (among many, many, many more.)
But this one is my favorite. It makes me laugh every time I look at it.
We had some cousins sleep over one night. I honestly don't know how kids can sleep on the floor. We put lots of blankets down for padding but when I lay there it feels like I'm right on the carpet. It doesn't bother them, though.
O was so good. He never cried one time in the almost 24 hours they were here. He "talked" a lot though. He is a total ham, too, and his super-appreciative audience in the Boogie and Peabody really got him going. I wish I'd taken video of that.
We had some missionaries on deputation for Chile at church. Peabody was delighted when she was given a Chilean coin. "Dis is from CHILE!" she told us over and over. I'm pretty sure she thinks it came from a bowl of meat, beans, and tomatoes.
Last week I was trying to pry apart frozen hamburger patties with a butter knife when the patties suddenly separated and the knife went right into my other hand, in that crease between thumb and first finger. Did you know you could stab yourself with a butter knife? Yeah, neither did I. Now we both know. I kinda sorta freaked out when it happened. Thankfully Eric was on his way home. When he looked at my hand he said, "Oh babe, we're going to need to go to the hospital." I then burst into tears and protested that I didn't want to go to the emergency room and couldn't we just clean it ourselves and put a bandaid on it and I would go to our doctor in the morning? It really hardly bled at all and the ER copay is $100 while an office visit is only $15 and besides it didn't seem like an emergency ... so that's what we did. (It did not even occur to either of us to go to urgent care instead. Duh.)
The next morning when I went to our doctor's office the nurse practitioner took one look and exclaimed, "Why didn't you get stitches?" Did you know that there is a six hour window in which to close wounds in extremities? Yeah, neither did I. Now we both know. Her first inclination was to send me to a hand specialist but after conferring with one of the other doctors who said he didn't think sutures in that part of the hand would hold well anyway, she decided to tape it closed and have me come back in a few days. I got a tetanus booster just in case (holy sore shoulder, Batman) and started a round of preventative antibiotics.
Praise the Lord, there hasn't been any infection and it appears to be healing. I went for a follow-up today and the NP said it looks good. I've been keeping my thumb splinted to keep it from moving much and re-opening the wound, since it's in such an awkward place (the cut, not my thumb) but she said I can leave the splint off during the day when I'm at home. I have to keep it taped for a while longer -- she told me that it will probably take 2-3 weeks for it to heal completely.
I'm here to tell you, everything takes longer when you can't use your thumb or get your hand wet. Washing dishes is difficult. You can't hold a cucumber to peel it. You can't grip lettuce to rip it. Driving a stick shift is tricky. Taking twist lids off of bottles, cups, and jars is very hard and sometimes impossible. Texting is awkward. After a while you do get pretty good at gripping smaller things between your fingers without using your thumb. I'm grateful that at least it's my left hand and not my dominate right.
So let that be a lesson to you, people. Don't use butter knives to pry apart burger patties. If you MUST use butter knives to pry apart burger patties, make sure you aim them away from any part of your body. And if you stab, slice, or gash an extremity, get stitched up within 6 hours.
In other happier news, I have been feeling the baby kick for at least a couple of weeks now. That is my favorite part of being pregnant! Eric felt it last night for the first time. I'll be sixteen weeks tomorrow. I had a check-up this morning and all is well and the baby's heartbeat was 141. (For comparison, Peabody's heartbeat at 18 weeks was 145.) I'm still pretty determined to remain Team Green this time. I think it will be so fun to be surprised at delivery!
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| Baby bump at 13 weeks pregnant |
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