Double-Dog Dare

Luke and I called each other's bluff today. We went to an UofL basketball game and did alot of driving. On the way back he kept complaining about being in the car. Finally when we were on Maple I pulled over and told him to knock it off because we were almost home. He did it again, so I said, "If you're going to keep complaining, you can walk home." He said......... "OK." So he walked three or four blocks home in the cold in a sweatshirt, with me creeping along behind him in the van. I kept waiting for him to ask to get back in the van and instead watched his skinny little body bopping along in the wind and he did, in fact, walk home.

He was very pleased with himself. I'm going to have to remember to pick my threats carefully so I can follow through!

Bob the Yo-Yo keeps the sandbox in order

(Bob the Yo-Yo, otherwise known as Aaron's alterego Bob the Builder)

Valentine's Dance and big owie's, again

Raha had his first "real" job at the Valentine's Dance at church, serving drinks. He was so excited about how great the gym looked with all of the decorations and had a great time working with Leonard.

Loved this picture of Jenny and Mitch! I didn't go because of the painful tooth, so Rich documented the evening.

Scary end to the evening.....as Rich was bringing in the boys he closed the sliding door of the van on Aaron's left hand. He started screaming for me because he couldn't get the door unlocked and opened, so Aaron was trapped in the door. It took 30 minutes of Elmo, ice, and Advil to get a good look at his hand -- very swollen and some bruising on his pinky, ring, and middle fingers. The pediatrician recommended not taking him to the ER at night if we could avoid it, and based on how he's using the hand the morning, I don't think any fingers are broken or hurt beyond bruising. Unfortunately this follows Friday when he cut his right ring finger on a moving treadmill so I'm a little testy with Rich's attention span and he feels awful and guilty about Aaron being hurt.

Luke, TV Critic

I tried to have a nice, drug-induced evening on the couch following the root canal this afternoon (fine now, lots of throbbing).

While I'm watching ER, Luke says, "Mommy, I don't like this, but it attracts me. Turn it off."

Aaron's night time routine

It's getting constantly more complicated!

* Put on PJ's
* Brush teeth (learn to spit)
* Read one or two books in the brown chair, preferably about trucks
* Ride the bouncy horse - point out all four springs, it's mouth, nose, eyes
* Tell mommy and daddy to sit in the brown chair during the horsey ride
* Cover up, then say good night to each stuffed animal
* Maybe go to sleep. Maybe fuss and fume. Maybe demand mommy or daddy.

Luke in church

Today in children's church Bill was talking about the soup collection for Super Bowl and building a community together. He had a prop -- two pieces of wood, a hammer, and nails. Luke was sitting right next to him, so Bill asked Luke, "Have you ever hammered anything." Luke said, "Yes, but the nail went sideways." Bill let him whack the nail several times until it was in, then Bill let the two pieces swivel apart and asked, "Will just one nail keep it together?" Luke quickly responded, "No, but it will make an L." Just before they left the front of the church for their class, Luke looked at the soup & money donations in a basket by the pulpit and announced, "There isn't enough money in here." Bill piped in, "Say that a little louder!" Fortunately a couple of choir members handed in some cash. I'm not sure at this point if Luke should be a stand-up comic or a minister.

Luke and Aaron at All About Kids

Photos from Friday - Aaron would definitely rather play than eat.

Boys at play

We had a fierce Mancala tournament. And Trouble tournament. And Uno tournament. And the dinosaurs help!

Luke and Aaron need to eat

A nutritionist from First Steps, Anna, assessed Aaron this week since he's tiny. For both height and weight he's at about the 5th percentile for boys his age, and he weighs 25 pounds. Luke is about the same. She said the real goal is to make sure they're eating enough to fuel growth in addition to running around, and to get them over the 10th percentile so that if they get sick or go on a food strike for a few days their weight doesn't drop to a dangerously low level.

What Meghan and I both liked is that she doesn't want us to make any big changes in our routine. The biggest change is fortifying the whole milk they already drink with dried milk. Luke says, "It doesn't taste yummy." I haven't had the nerve to try it. We're also adding butter to vegetables (instead of just olive oil), and encouraging things like extra cheese, avocados, and nuts. Tough life. She's going to weigh him again in a month and see if it's working.

Proof that middle school hasn't killed all of my brain cells

I took the GRE this morning for the 2nd time. Last time I was 25, single, and spent a month studying regularly for it. This time I spent about 3 hours reviewing for it, but I've been teaching middle school for 5 years. Overall my scores went up by 50 points.....whew!

We don't have Internet at home, so I can't update this blog or do any number of other things at home. The ice storm tore a piece of equipment out of our cable line and it apparently is complicated to fix. Meghan says it will probably be about a week before services are restored.

Odds and Ends

Meghan pointed out something odd. I started a second blog about a work project (www.westportmathgirls.blogstpot.com), and it the "About Us" section I describe the group and labeled myself as its sponsor. Well, apparently the "About Us" section is the same on both blogs. Hm. Meghan is working on separating them, somehow.

Still no power. The neighbors have had power since yesterday. A line is down that leads directly to our house. Raha has school in Oldham County tomorrow, but Jefferson County is still out.

We had our group trip to get haircuts today. When I stretch out Rich's curls our hair is almost exactly the same length. The boys look very tidy in their little surfer-boy haircuts.

I don't feel like studying for the GRE. Everything else has been more interesting. I take it on Saturday.