Busy times
One event that occurred in the interim is our car broke down. Alison was driving the kids to nature group three weeks ago and had just gotten off the freeway when all the dials on the dashboard suddenly dropped to zero. After pulling into a parking lot and ascertaining that we still had steering and brakes, Alison decided to try to drive home instead of trying to figure out a way to safely get five kids in carseats home from Sandy. It was rather terrifying, but the car worked the whole way home. Not only that, we managed to get it to start and more-or-less drive to the car shop the next day. (None of the lights or headlights worked, and it got harder and harder to start up after each stoplight, but we made it.) Apparently the belt that runs the alternator was too old, and it needed to be replaced. They fixed it quickly and it wasn't nearly as difficult as it could have been. The Browns lent us a car, so we could send one parent out for groceries or anything if needed. Mostly, it let us get to and from the car shop when we needed to, which was very nice.
Also, there was a major fire at work when one of the people in Mike's company deleted a ton for user data and Mike had to fix it. It took a lot of time, but we recovered the data, and everyone was very happy about the resolution. As the same time Mike's boss has been trying to convince him to accept a promotion, and Mike finally decided that it would be worth it since he made the company promise to not increase his workload or responsibilities (Alison notes that this means that Mike has already been doing the job, and he is just now getting acknowledged for it).
On Valentine's Day, the girls got up early and decorated, made muffins for breakfast, and set valentines at everyone's plate. They made very personalized valentines for everyone, with things they were interested in and candy hearts spelling messages. They want the younger kids to believe in a Valentine Fairy like Santa Claus; since we don't do very much to preserve the magic of Santa at our house, this is an even harder sell, but we all try to support them. (Well, Timmy didn't actually try, but the rest of us tried to squash him.)
This Friday (the 18th) we went to Peta Pun and the Pirates at the OBT. It was fabulous! It was one of those nights when the audience is perfect, and the actors played up to it, and it turned out to be hilarious and wonderful. We brought our kids, and there were lots of other kids in the audience, so it was a great family activity. The OBT's next play, in March, is The Drowsy Chaperone, which is not as funny to kids, so Mike and Alison will go to that alone. But next month the other company that shares the theater is doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat! We will have to get tickets for that; we love seeing it every chance we get, and this will probably be the first time Gideon remembers it.
Also this week we went to Timmy's pediatrician to discuss whether he has ADHD. She said that they can't make an official diagnosis if he's not in school or otherwise with someone other than his parents for lots of hours every week and the symptoms show up both places, but that we can treat him without an official diagnosis. He has been so excited to get a medicine that would help his brain; he's been starting to feel down on himself because so many things were so hard for him. So today he had his first dose of Adderall. Swallowing the pill was a mess, so we weren't sure if it would work, but he managed to take a shower with only verbal directions, not needing someone to physically help him, which he's never done before. So we're hopeful that this will help with him gaining some skills he really needs but his brain hasn't let him develop up till now (reading, life skills like getting ready for the day without being walked through every step, etc). We'll have a better sense of whether it's working by next week.
With Mike's masters program nearing completion the difficulty of the classes is ramping up quite a bit. Mike ends up working on homework all the time, which doesn't give him much time for other things. He is learning a lot of fun stuff, and is really excited about it, but on the other hand he would love to be done so that he could have more time with the family. He should be done with it in August, so here's hoping that it goes well.
This February we have been having really unusual weather. It has been mild and pleasant nearly all the time. We are not sure if this is the fault of global warming or what, but it has been nice to spend so much time outside.
We have also been watching more movies recently. We showed the kids Earnest Goes to Jail, The Princess Bride, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars. They mostly have been enjoying them. They really loved Earnest, and want to watch more of his movies. Perhaps we will find them at the DI some time.
Even though Mike has not had much time for it, Alison, Mike, and Timmy have started making a game for Timmy - to help him with his reading. It is a card based dungeon-crawl/RPG where you have to read things to damage monsters. Timmy is really excited about it, and Mike has tried to make the game as interesting and balanced as possible while Alison mainly focuses on the educational content and the pedagogy of the game. We have gone through a few iterations of the game so far, and it is getting to the point where Timmy will practice for long periods of time fairly easily.
Finally - Boo drew a pokemon card the other day. Here it is:
Comments
Post a Comment