Odds and ends

Except for this sentence, I will not type "Sara" in this post.  Believe it or not, there have been other happenings in our family.

1.  David and Mary have been ice skating a couple of times.  The first time was when I was in the hospital, and the next time the kids brought their two grandpas who were in town.  This winter was their first experience ice skating.  But David's school does a roller blading PE unit every year, so ice skating was a breeze for him.  And Mary caught on quite quickly too.

Mary's first time on ice skates

David's first time ice skating

Grandpa Mike on ice skates!  Grandpa Steve was there too.

2.  Speaking of winter sports, one afternoon David and Mary had a blast sledding on the hill that separates our house from the chocolate factory. Actually, it was more like free falling than sledding.

Mary faces down the cliff.

David climbs back up.

 3.  Mary lost her first tooth last night!  Hooray!  (And the Tooth Fairy even remembered to come ...  at 5:00 am this morning.)  That first lost tooth really seems to mark the beginning of being a big kid.  The end of being really little.  I am glad we have another tiny kid in the wings, otherwise I would be feeling pretty sad, I think.


4.  Greg and I are in charge of the science fair at David's school again this year.  Now that we have done it once, it's pretty much a breeze.  But it probably couldn't come at a worse time in our lives.  Oh well.  At least this year we remembered David's science project.  Helping him do his project was literally the last thing on our science fair to-do list last year.  Isn't that sad?  This year David is growing crystals, and we didn't start too late.  I don't like science, but I am very glad David does.


5.  Valentine's Day came and went.  Thanks to Amazon 2-day shipping I did get my act together and get nice little gifts for the kids.  I did not, however, manage to wrap them in pink and red tissue paper or hide them at the end of a trail of paper heart cut-outs or attach Valentine-themed candy.  I presented the Valentines's Day gifts in their cardboard Amazon boxes.  This was a huge let-down for the kids.  I guess presentation is everything.  And I thought I was doing so well!  Oh well.

Mary with her loot.  Greg asked me, "When did Valentine's Day turn into Halloween?"  Good question.

Mary wrote about Valentine's Day at her school.  She drew a picture of her class in a circle passing out valentines.

She wrote:  I love valentines because I get to celebrate at school and I love valentines because we can put up hearts.

David was very sweet this year about Valentine's Day.  He was thoughtful about which kids got which valentine.  Then when it seemed he might be sick and miss the party, he was sad because he explained that the whole point it to watch everyone open their valentines and see how happy they are.  (He wasn't sick, so he didn't miss the party, and he got to see everyone's happy faces as they read their valentines.)


6.  We are getting ready to put our house on the market.  It is a lot of work!  And everything is harder with a baby, even an easy one.  We are super busy!  I guess the busy-ness keeps me from feeling how sad I am to be leaving.  Yesterday I was in the car and a rebroadcast of Garrison Keillor happened to be on the radio and he said this thing about the beauty of new snow and a neighbor snow blowing your sidewalk for you without wanting to be thanked and suddenly out of nowhere I burst into tears.  I felt so sad about leaving Wisconsin.  I always describe myself as a Westerner, having spent most of my life in Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, California, and Utah. My roots are definitely in the West. But I think Madison might actually be my home.  It is difficult to leave.


7.  I am very worried about Mary's school situation for next year.  The Montessori school we like in Dayton is not accepting new students for next year, because of her birthday we cannot register her for first grade, and she will simply die of boredom in kindergarten, especially half-time kindergarten.


8.  Speaking of school and situations, I have been talking a lot with David's teacher the past couple of weeks.  Talking a lot with your child's teacher is generally not a sign that school life is problem-free.


9.  At the beginning of the school year David drew this awesome picture of Schoolhouse Beach on Washington Island in Door County.  It looks just like it!  The water in Lake Michigan was super cold.  But he was brave and swam out to the diving platform.  And then he was even braver and jumped into the water.  (Really, it took a lot of guts to do it.)   I love that he remembered that experience and created this picture in art class.

To me, courage is jumping in cold water.  Here I go!

Grammy used David's picture in a recent workshop she taught on facing challenges in our lives.


10.  Sara--oops, I mentioned her name--has been to visit both Mary's and David's classes.  Last week we visited Mary's class twice.  Anna, Mary's teacher, stopped everything so the sweet little kids could come see Sara.  Mary was so excited she couldn't even stand it!  In fact, she bawled when I left because it was so emotional for her.  And today I took Sara for a special Sara Show and Tell in David's class.  The whole class gathered around while David, beaming with pride, talked about his sister.  Oh, Sara, you are so loved and adored.