Some Changes

Okay, so you haven't heard from us in Arizona for awhile. We've had a few things change since our last postings, and if I fill you in, I hope you'll forgive us.

After finishing up their first soccer season, the girls have moved on to swimming. They are participating through the parks and rec program with the city. There are two week sessions, which run back to back from now through mid-summer. Katie just learned to swim at the end of last summer, and we are getting her on track to make swim team this year. (This means having an almost-discernable stroke and being able to make it from one end of the lane to the other.) She is swimming in Level 2 lessons, and Madeline is in Swim Team Prep.

Both girls have practice Monday through Thursday nights at 5:50 and 6:00 for half an hour each. Madeline is still in piano (Wednesday lessons at 4:10), and she is working on two recital pieces, one of which is a duet that I somehow became the partner on without my knowledge (so add piano practice to my daily list).
And let's don't forget homework. Madeline has reading and math every night and Katie has reading.

Jackson, the little stinker, is the truest reason for my online silence. He took his first steps while we were on spring break in Rochester. He is a super fast crawler whose repertoire has been expanded now with the upright position. He is opening all interior doors and trying for the exterior ones. He can climb up on the kitchen chairs, and then onto the table. The kitchen table, is now not a good place to hide things from him. He can open the screen door and let himself outside.

Thankfully he is starting to go downstairs backwards now, rather than headfirst, but we still try to keep him away from them. He has learned how to turn on the TV and XBox on the low table in the playroom and delights himself in turning them on and off repeatedly until dragged away kicking and screaming. I'm sure that is great for the electronics. His newest trick is climbing the ladder on the girls' bunk bed. So far he has only made it to the second step, but he understands how it works and is always ready to try harder the next time if he can sneak in there.

He discovered how to move the oval floor-standing mirror in my room and pulled it over on himself. I did manage to catch it just in time. He climbs up the hearths and can sometimes make it up on the couches, where he runs laughing and shrieking from end to end with no regard for the height, throwing himself down in the middle on every other pass. Then, he climbs onto the end tables in order to yank on the lampshades and reach the remote control. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture.

So, anything I do that requires concentration, time, or movement from room to room, has to be done during his naptime. Oh, and he is trying to take only one nap a day now, instead of two.

I finally started taking an Italian class. Wow, is my old brain rusty! In some ways all my Spanish training is helpful and in some ways it isn't. Apparently the old dog / new tricks rule is holding true. Italian is so similar to Spanish that I have trouble remembering to pronounce things correctly. For example, "please" in Spanish is "por favor" and in Italian is "per favore." My brain always defaults to Spanish. If I want to say something in class, I can think of how to do it in Spanish (usually), but not in Italian. Well, this week is class #3 on Thursday night. (Thursday nights Franz takes all three kids to swimming while I head to my class for 1 1/2 hours. Hopefully we have managed to get a meal in the crockpot that day.) I am trying to give it 100%, because what's the point of taking it otherwise, but sometimes it is hard to maintain concentration around here.

I am also sewing Katie a "pocket math" outfit. Let me explain. In her kindergarten enrichment class, every Tuesday, the kids play pocket math. They take one manipulative math cube per pocket they are wearing. They count up their cubes after taking them out of their pockets. Boys against girls, whichever team has the most cubes wins. Well, the boys always win because of cargo pants, etc. Katie has been known to take three jackets to school to layer up for pocket math. It is a really big deal. So, I am finally getting around to making an outfit for her that is covered in pockets. She is very excited. I have the shirt done. It has 5 pockets on the front, 5 on the back, and 3 on each sleeve, for a grand total of 16 pockets. She cannot wait to wear it tomorrow for the first time. When I took her to select fabric (a light pink double knit for the shirt and a hot pink with light pink polka dots for the pockets), she requested a matching pair of pants (out of the hot pink with polka dots). So, I am working frenetically on the pants to see if I can get them done in time for tomorrow, too, but I told her not to expect it. I am only going to put 4 pockets on these pants, but she will have a total of 20 once I get it all done.

Also, I am joining our church in an initiative to read through the Bible in a year. In practical terms, it means Monday through Friday, we have up to three chapters of Old Testament, a chapter of Psalms or Proverbs, and up to two chapters of New Testament. Again, what's the point if you don't give it your all, so I am doing this with my Life Application Study Bible and doing all the footnotes and book descriptions and extras, too. Thank goodness I just finished reading Tolstoy's War and Peace, a goal I'd given myself to keep my brain in shape, and because I loved Anna Karenina when I read it last year.

I'm considering starting the Count of Monte Cristo now. Anybody out there have advice on this book? I've never read it before. So, throw in the normal laundry, dishes, meals, grocery shopping, carpooling, and picking up and cleaning the house, and I just haven't been able to pull off my blogging. Sorry! Please don't hate me!