A Week

We enjoyed a quiet weekend at home with our usual activities like visiting the park, library, playing in the backyard, Sunday School/church, and catching up on home life. Saturday evening was movie night, so we watched "How to Train Your Dragon". I don't think the boys blinked the entire time...it is for sure their new favorite movie and I've been listening to all sorts of dragon activities ever since. Justin and I also enjoyed it (Hiccup just might be my new favorite move hero), and I'm all for movies highlighting that being different is ok and pretty special. Jacoby was the only child out of the two that ended up wounded again--this time it was his knee, and the fact that he bled all over didn't help with the hysterics. Ah, the joys of having little boys who play hard and crash hard. (:

The boys are doing great. Jacoby's class is doing an in-depth study of each letter of the alphabet this school year. They work on a letter for two weeks, doing all sorts of art, sensory, experiential stuff before moving on to the next letter. They're finishing up "A" and took the bus to the Boulder airport to watch airplanes land and take-off. Next week they start "B" and I get to share our egg-free banana bread recipe with them during a cooking session. I also volunteered to be a room parent in Jacoby's class, and so I'll sort of be the liaison between the parents and the teachers and will help coordinate some things like Teacher Appreciation Week, etc. I thought it would be a good idea since this is Jacoby's last year in preschool...sigh. I should also mention that he grew another inch over the past 3 months and gained 2 pounds. The endocrinologist is very happy and so are we.

Morgan's class is focusing on themes from "Quick as a Cricket" which is all about animal habitats and movement. He loves his new class and feels quite proud that he's getting to be a big kid. They're going on a field trip to the zoo in a few weeks.

The boys and I are also adjusting to being on our own in the evenings now that Justin is teaching four evenings during the week. I got really spoiled having Justin at home in the afternoons because he took over all of the dinner cooking and usually had a meal on the table for us when we walked in the door. I cooked dinner all by myself Sunday to make sure I still remembered how to do it. Now when I'm scrambling to get the boys fed, Morgan wanders in the kitchen to inform me that he's hungry. I explain that I'm working as fast as I can and that it will only be a few more minutes. His reply to me is "But I'm hungry right now, Mommy!" and then he asks where "his daddy is". This coming from the 2-year old who eats like a teenager.

Justin is enjoying his classes and I think is really looking forward to working with the students at Iliff this year. He's also plugging away at his dissertation proposal.

Work has been busy for me and filled with some unusual things like mice (i.e., a mouse running across the ceiling light in my office, then later peeking from underneath my door..eeww!), mediating some misunderstanding between staff members (so don't worry, the counseling skills are always at work around here), corresponding with folks from the Clinton Foundation about a former administration reunion which includes my boss, and meeting planning for our board meeting coming up in 6 weeks in Hawaii (the time zone difference and general non-hurry approach of island life is causing me grief). At home, I'm trying to stain our outdoor furniture and I also hope to create some sort of "mud" area by our entry way from the garage. I shudder to think about how much time I spent looking for hats, matching mittens, shoes, and boots last year because we just don't have a great set-up at the moment. We'll see how it goes.

So, that's some of the latest news from our neck of the woods. We hope you all are well!

Learning how to train their dragons