School

Lately, Henry has expressed great interest in school. He wants to learn and he really wants to play with other kids. I think part of him thinks that school is basically just recess. When we walk around our neighborhood, we always stop outside of the elementary school and watch the kids play for a few minutes. Henry is very insistent that he will be 10 on his next birthday. For some reason he has gotten it into his head that when you are 10, you get to go to school.

While Henry dreams of growing up, I like to play a little game where I guess which group of kids I would be a part of if I were back in school. Would I be with the small group of giggly girls hanging from the monkey bars? The boys climbing up the slide? Would it be the two girls deep in conversation on the swings? Or the  large group of boys and girls spinning each other around and around on the tire swing? For those of you who are wondering, I would be deep in conversation on a swing. But I digress.

I have never been one for organized entertainment. I prefer my child to be able to use his imagination and entertain himself, though I think that's just my excuse for being too lazy to come up with anything. But after Henry kept asking me if we could do school, I researched a few ideas and we now hold school a few times a week. 

Henry's favorite activity is "cutting." I got him a pair of scissors so that he could practice cutting in a straight line. Really what it turns out to be is Henry making confetti all over the living room floor. But he sure does love it. 

Yesterday we went on a walk and collected leaves and so Henry could glue them on a big piece of paper. Once again, this ended in Henry cutting the leaves to tiny pieces, leaving his artwork looking a bit like a mowed lawn. He was so excited the whole time. I tried to explain the idea of green leaves that change color and then fall off trees, but that went straight over his head. So instead we just listened to music and drank hot chocolate. What can I say I'm a pushover kind of teacher.

Oh yeah, I have a blog

Alas, I have been remiss. I thought I would be motivated and organized enough after having two children that I would keep up with writing. But when I comes down to it, and I have to choose between a nap or writing a blog, I choose nap. And then 30 seconds later one of the kids wakes up.

There's something about that second kid that doesn't just double the amount of time parenting takes--it increases exponentially. I don't know how they do it. I swore I would align their schedules perfectly, to have nap times line up so that I could still have my 2-3 hours of alone time every day. Oh ho ho, silly woman. As soon as I got confident that that would work out, Child #1 decided to forgo naps completely. That's what I get for thinking I could have control over my children.

I don't know what most people's houses look like on a daily basis, but mine is in a constant state of not-quite-clean. Bordering on messy, depending on the day. On any given day I think, I'll do some dishes, put away some laundry, organize the linen closet and rake the leaves. Then bedtime rolls around, and I have rinsed a few dishes and spent a total of four hours trying to put kids to sleep. And that's a productive day.

I'm afraid our house has gotten even worse over the past few days, due to a wave of sickness that has taken the whole family. It started with Henry, who had a cough and what appeared to be pink eye. Despite every precaution, I lost my voice soon after and Eleanor and I have both contracted pink eye as well. Because no matter how much you tell a 2 year old not to, he will cough in your face and wipe his hands all over you. Ben started to feel under the weather too, so we went in to urgent care on Saturday where the doctor told us that we likely have strep throat. In addition to pink eye and the ear infection she found in Henry. So we have quarantined ourselves in our home with lots of meds.

Personally, I think if you're going to be sick, it's best to make it a family event. Then you get to lay around together and watch movies and try to out-cough each other. Henry seems to be feeling a lot better (because he's the lucky one who gets to eat the yummy pink amoxicillin suspension), and he has been showing more interest in taking care of Nora. Yesterday I looked up from making dinner to find Henry spoon feeding Nora rice cereal. I am amazed at how much he loves her. He is always concerned with her well-being, and he likes to make her smile, especially if she is upset. He hands her toys, sings to her and gets so excited when she wakes up. Really, giddy. I hope one day she realizes how lucky she is to have such a wonderful big brother.