Books

The couple weeks before Thanksgiving, I sorted books. Well, just the kids' books. I'll do the other books between now and Christmas (education, adult fiction, reference, adult non-fiction, teaching etc). There are 14 boxes plus multiple shelves left to do, and I'm pretty sure we had at least that same quantity in children's books and literature.

My goal was to go through them and cull out those we've outgrown, duplicates, and more. I wanted to pare down at least 3 boxes. As it turns out, I was able to get rid of FOUR full boxes. What a wonderful feeling. I look forward to how the house will look when I'm done with the rest of them! In the mean time, the kids were in 7th heaven with their "new" books to read. Nothing quite like having a library in your living room for a whole week!

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky.
My pile of books
Are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I”ll have a long beard
By the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel

Beloved Toys . . . and Children...

...
Some things just don't change.

December 2004

 

November 2009

 

H1N1 and Hibernation

This is a good article - just posted on flu.gov this evening (I am keeping tabs...). This would be why Papa Bear asked us to all but hibernate for five straight days back in October when almost 50% of our local middle school was home sick with what they presume was the H1N1 virus and it looked like it was coming down the pike at breakneck speed to the elementary schools. We didn't catch it, and now all four kids have gotten a vaccine (2 need a 2nd dose but 1 is better than none). With at least two with asthma, this helps us explain in words (and we also better understand) why we were so cautious and wary with our kids, esp. Patience with both diabetes and asthma. Now if only Papa Bear and I can find vaccine for us....

Raking Leaves

 

Here in VT it's just not fall if you don't enjoy some fun leaf raking, along with some rolling and running around.

 

As Patience and Dante get older, they are learning to help (begging actually).

 

And naturally Vivace and Constance want to join in on the fun.


Gotta love the outfits (especially the bare feet!).

Supernumerary

Back in October, we learned what this word means. Dante looked it up; it means "beyond the normal number." In layman's terms, "extra."

Well, Dante was born with a supernumerary tooth. He had an extra, rather strange looking, baby tooth, which fell out, and in October was followed by its corresponding permanent tooth: right through the roof of his mouth (ouch).

After a visit to the dentist (to confirm "yup - it's the supernumerary tooth") we went to the orthodontist. He did a nice panoramic x-ray and recommended which tooth to remove. Nothing deformed at all about these two permanent teeth - good strong roots (granted they were rather crowded), nice size (actually BOTH bigger than the mirror one on the other side of the mouth!), so the decision was made to remove the one in the palate (to minimize need for repositioning teeth etc).

And so we made an appointment with our "friend" the oral surgeon (who we know from visits with Patience and Constance over the years - a great guy, and how many people can say they see they have this kind of opportunity to get to know their oral surgeon?!). Our consultation was last week and finally the big day came....

Monday morning at 8:30, Dante's "supernumerary" tooth was removed. He was smiling from ear to ear right up until the moment he fell asleep (we opted for general anesthesia to reduce surgical complications). Everything went great, and he was back to school Tuesday, back to recess and PE type activities by Thursday, and we're almost back to most foods today. He's happy and healing up fine.

It was a good stretching experience for him and he was able to work through some fears ahead of time (the Lord was very good in that arena - Dante's learning to verbalize his feelings and we were able to pray together about it with him). I hated watching him fall asleep (my reaction surprised me and I got to practice what I preached by praying too!). I waited all of ten minutes in the waiting room while they extracted the tooth, and really didn't like the effects of the anesthesia on him. He was pretty awful afterwards in my opinion. Toothwise everything was ok, but he was really out of it from being put under and I didn't see a smile for hours. Quite a shock that was to me. He felt really awful too for a good hour plus, and very confused, weepy, nauseous.... Something tells me he doesn't remember it all the way I do but at least it was the anesthesia not the tooth pulling. Anyway, I learned a lot and am thankful it all went well and is over. Off to the next thing....!

Tooth Fairy Joke

Patience just made up a joke at dinner a few minutes ago. It's pretty good! Here it goes.

How did the tooth fairy climb Mt. Everest?



(scroll down for the answer....)





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Ok, so how DID the tooth fairy climb Mt Everest?
With a toothpick!

Busy Beavers

We have been busy. Chasing down flu shots (mission accomplished, both seasonal and H1N1), attempting to stay healthy (for the most part), keeping the house running, and so on and so forth. We had several days off from school in late October, ice skated some, had doctor's appts., done yardwork, sorted "stuff" and given it away, and so much more. And we've also been studying beavers. I do a monthly environmental science class for both Dante and Constance's classes and Beavers were our topic for October . They're really (really) cool to learn about and even Vivace and Patience got in on the fun. Check out this link is to a fun video I discovered online prepping for the class. We also got to see Beavers! (the Imax movie) on Netflix a few nights ago. They loved it and Vivace keeps telling me about it in detail whenever anything reminds him of it.

Below are a couple pictures of Constance and her class. They are chopping down trees (carrots), gnawing on bark (chocolate covered pretzels) , and reading stories in their beaver dams. We had way too much fun! We even built beaver lodges here at home!







The following picture of me was taken by Dante's teacher - I was being dressed as a beaver. Note the webbed feet, the "waterproof fur" (ok so it's blue...), the orange"ever growing" teeth for gnawing, the goggles to demonstrate their 3rd eyelid (clear so they can still see, but which protects their eyes from the water when they swim and from wood chips when they're gnawing down trees!). There are many other attributes and adaptations God has given these creatures to make them uniquely suited to their habitat and role in the animal kingdom. I was duly impressed!




Interestingly, I noted the fact that we call them "busy" but they know how to take time to play. It would seem they understand the appropriate balance between work and play. Perhaps we can learn something from them about working hard, yet not so hard that we "forget" why it is we're working? (to take care of our family, to be able to eat, so we can swim safely... ). Anyway, God sure knows what he's doing in how he creates all these creatures and the world in which they live. I love learning about them and sharing that with my kids (and anyone else who'll read or listen!)