Other than staying inside and spending way too much time on school, we had a run of cold/flu, which stretched into 3 weeks for me thanks to an accompanying sinus infection and a return of the cold (and now we're on round 2, since Sweetie came home from school Friday with a fever and is still in bed 3 days later). Also, Mister started football and, whoa, football is quite the serious endeavor, it seems, even when you're 7. He has practice for an hour and a half 3 days a week and has to earn his way into playing time on Saturday's games.
Speaking of football (my students would be proud of me at that fabulous transition of old/new information, which was the topic of today's revision tip), we've been doing a little (read: A LOT) of football watching now that the season is finally here. J, H, and I flew up to Utah to cheer our Cougars on to their first victory. Our good friend Matt got us on the field and sidelines before the game.
And before heading out, for family game night, we broke out the BYU/Utah checkers game. J and Mister were the Cougars, while Sweetie and I were forced to represent the Utes. We were nervous that the outcome of the game might be a foreshadowing of the match-up this season, but J and I argued about his cheating and we quit early. (See, he should have been representing the Utes. Someone please tell him that once you take your hand off your game piece, your turn is over.)
In addition to his football practicing, Mister spent 3 of his days sitting in for recess this week because drawing dinosaurs and white and red blood cells and sickle-back whales have been vastly more important to him than doing homework this week and there's only so much a mom can do before kids have to face up to their own consequences.
Also, Mister lost his first front tooth. Sob, sob, from me. I have been ruing the day because once those new front teeth come in, he will never look like my little boy again.
Sweetie has been insisting that her front tooth is loose, but it's been that way for 8 months now. We'll believe it when we see it. She starts soccer this week and has been loving school, despite the fact that her homework involves recognizing shapes, counting to 10, and coloring. She loves coming home and tattle telling on all of her poor classmates who are not present to defend themselves. Here's a recent Sweetie funny: When we went shopping for discount school supplies to assemble humanitarian kits, Sweetie told me that we didn't need any pencils for the kids in Pennsylvania because they must have plenty already.
And both Sweetie and Mister have been obsessed with silly bands, which they pile on their wrists and trade with friends for different shapes.
Meanwhile, H has been ruling the roost while the kids are gone. He loves it when they come home, but while they are gone, he has been intent on learning new tricks, like bringing me his shoes all day because he wants to go outside (Note to H: IT'S STILL 111!); and like climbing on top of the couch, where he sometimes takes scary tumbles off and sometimes sits nicely reading the hymn book; and like removing his diaper and leaving little Desitin marks around the house; and like throwing or pulling everything off of every height he can reach. The latest object to bite the dust was my huge glass Ikea vase with sticks in it that stood by the door. I thought it was too heavy for him. Guess not. I did decide to put his love of the vacuum to good use. You're never to young to work in this house.
Mostly, I feel like I am not keeping my head above the water of life right now. But I'm still swimming so hopefully someone will throw me a rope or a huge floatie here soon. And hopefully I'll be better at keeping my blog updated . . .
