Recovery

Pollen:



Tag brought home a toad:


Things here have been getting better by degrees. Thank goodness for antibiotics, but everyone is exhausted. We're clinging to the basic routine we started into once the kids got into school but it's a fragile thing. Last night I experienced the stomach bug that Princess and Man had last week and now, tragically, I'll never be able to look at a peanut M&M quite the same way again. Today I'm sipping yogurt and water and wondering, wondering what it would be like to have college courses on top of our daily adventures. Pebbles' toe is almost back to normal and the lab results came back negative for MRSA (hallelujah!!!).

I've planted a small herb garden in a washed out, foam egg carton. If I can't plant much in the ground, I can at least have a couple of potted things. The tomatoes and peppers should be small enough for a larger pot and a small harvest is all I want anyway. My family rolls their eyes every time I tell them it's time to start saving the yogurt containers again, but Princess and Tag both loved helping with the dirt and seeds. Which reminds me... I left another bag of potting soil in the van! Hope Man didn't mind a good whiff of that this morning.

Freida, my littlest girl (can't call her baby much longer) is getting her canines in. Funny how we were in such a rush to get the first two kids off of bottles and pacifiers and into big kid underwear and school. Now Freida is almost 17 months old and still uses both and underwear is nowhere in sight. HOWEVER, Pebbles has voluntarily given up her nighttime diaper, and she no longer wears one on shopping trips, so I can safely whoop that she is potty trained. The next step would be to get her to wear underwear, which she still wets when given the chance. At her dr's visit I was informed that she is now in the 90% for height, which was flabbergasting to us since she has always been the petite one.

Princess continues to do well with reading and has mental blocks in math very similar to mine. We try to make it fun and interesting, and try sneaky ways to get her to do math and surprise her afterward with revealing the sneaky. She's getting outside a lot more nowadays, using Tag's scooter to keep up with the neighborhood kids on their bikes. The weather here has been so mild that the kids spend every moment they can with outside friends.

Tag, of course, knows everyone on our street, the names of all of the teachers and kids he comes across at school, and is learning his way around the neighborhood by gradually figuring out where all his friends live. His bike has given him a tremendous amount of freedom and confidence (you know, even more than he had before). He's starting to read a bit now, as well, and his fierce sense of independence is carrying him pretty far in this arena. He worked hard this past weekend to earn some of his money back. It was fun to see how eagerly he accomplished his assigned tasks when the incentive was right.