Tuesday - An incredibly warm mid November day! We hit 60!!! However today was ice skating so we spent the first part of the day in an ice rink that was colder than it was outside!! Jossy is really coming along in her skating. What is exciting to me is that she also is aware of her progress. She was a complete novice at her first lesson and has made measurable improvement with each class. Today she even wanted to stay late to practice. Of course I let her, although it was killing me, knowing how gorgeous it was outside!
Interesting sidenote: Zeff has quite the thing for older girls!! He is absolutely full of adoration for an 8 yr old girl in Jossy's class. He follows her around like a puppy dog the whole time she is off the ice. When she said hi to him he ran up to me to tell me, "Emma said hi to me, she's my friend!" My guilty conscience tells me that this is due to the fact that I was extremely busy with school and work when he was born, therefore he missed out on that bonding time with his mother and thus has a thing for older women! :) Boy, 1 year of General Psych is a dangerous thing! Seriously, I do feel kind of bad about that, but I am able to be home with the kids most of the time now, because of the sacrifices we all made while I was in school.
Since the weather was so awesome, I offered Jossy the choice of doing her school work when we got home, or playing outside till it got dark and doing it after supper.
*Dang! I just got done adding a ton of stuff onto this and I lost it, well, here we go again, just the high points!*
Anyways, we got home, threw supper in the crock pot and headed out on a walk. We had a lovely walk and sang the whole way there. I realized that I have them so trained to hold hands at the corners that all I have to do is put my hands out and they grab them and wait for me to lead them across the street. Go mom! If I had a nickel for everytime I said Hold Hands!!
We sang Old Mc Donald on the way there and just had a really good time talking with eachother. We practiced reading Jossy's most dreaded of sight words: The! on the signs. We talked about directions North, South, etc. Then the kids had a blast of course playing at the playground for almost 2 hours!! I was shocked when I realized how long we had been there. I also put in a little plug for homeschooling, reminding Jossy that all the other kids were still in school (the playground is at a school) and didn't have the option of doing their school when it was dark like she did. I never bash public schools to Joss, but do provide her with the occasional commercial for homeschooling to counteract all the books, movies, etc where everyone goes to public school.
On the way home we sang all ten verses of The Ants go Marching. We saw a full size poodle and Jossy remembered to politely ask the owner before touching it. She then asked "May my brother pet your dog, too?" he didn't want to but my motherly heart filled with pride when I overheard the people commenting on how polite she was as we left. We also spotted a recently chopped down tree stump and sat down (Zeff needed a break) and counted all 63 rings. We talked a little about how the tree made a new ring each year and that's how we knew how old it was. Next time we are in that situation I am going to help them understand how long ago 63 years is. Later I realized it would have been neat to tell them that that tree was a baby when their grandpa was a baby just like our baby!
I was so pleased that Joss got right down to work after supper and we had a very nice school session. She has a tendency to get wild and wound up in the evening, but stayed calm and on task very well. Since it was going so well I pushed it and did a full Language Arts lesson with her (We frequently do 1/2 or 3/4 of a lesson) She really did nicely, I think it helps her and I that I am learning to skip assignments that are total review.
After her school I read to Zeff who is becoming a much better listener then sent him to bed. Joss then got to have 1/2 hour playing a reading game on the computer and then we read more from Little House in the Big Woods. I am sure we will have to read this one again as she usually can't explain to me what's going on. She still likes it, though, so I am trying to slow down and explain things and encourage her questions (I am guilty of shushing her questions during stories I like or when I am trying to get kids to bed!)
Well, here's hoping I don't lose this post! Also crossing my fingers I can keep us on our good streak as I am still awake at 2am with a sniffly, fussy baby. Brief commercial for mother's milk tea <- This is probably the first day of his life that I haven't had any mother's milk tea and he is the most colicky today that he has ever been! Also, I broke my 1/2 cup of coffee rule and had a large cup this AM and we are all coming down with colds which I am sure is contributing to his hard time, as well.