Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

You can tell what he's learning in school lately based on the following conversations... "Daddy, do you know what another name for a diamond is?" What, honey? "A rhombus!" "Mommy, look, I cut a triangle!" That's great, Ro! "I will cut out a trapezoid next." And here's proof of his strategical planning skills: "Mommy, you have 2 of your (lowfat) yogurts left. I am going to eat my blueberry now, and my strawberry tomorrow. So when you run out of yours in 2 days, you won't eat my yogurt, because I will have already eaten the ones you like." Can you believe that?! Doug laughed so hard, and Roman was so pleased with himself. I was a little shocked at his very detailed reasoning...and pretty shocked that he knew how much of his yogurt I snuck!

Today is a nice day at home. We all lounged in our jammies until about 11am, when Ro and I had to get ready to go to a birthday party at a local park. While he partied, I graded 4 sets of papers. It took me 1.75 hours, not bad. I already had done 2 sets on Friday afternoon. Anyway, got back home and we all lounged some more in the living room, football on. Decided to take a quick video of Charlie's attempts to crawl, when Roman decided to get in on the action too. Since my posts have been all doom & gloom lately, thought it'd be fun to share. We've been doing a lot of research and talking to lots of people about Roman's potential issue. I'll answer the FAQ here: Yes, we trust the teacher. No, she's not just trying to hyper-control him. Yes, we've seen these issues ourselves (I've verbalized and blogged about it 2-3x before this). Of course we will talk to an outside source & not just take the school's word. Of course we're going to check ...

I guess Morgan Freeman (I truly believe God looks like him) had me stay home for a reason today. I received a phone call from Roman's kindergarten teacher. And let's just cut to the chase - she's concerned about his apparent immaturity (one of the more immature in class, she says, and was surprised to see he had a June birthday), and she is suspecting an attention issue. We agreed to have a teacher-consultant observe Ro in class. I know I blogged a few months ago about suspecting some ADD in Roman (I can't find it in my archives, though) and the more research I did today, the more I'm pretty sure of it. ADHD, specifically. When looking at the generalities, Roman exhibits everything under "Hyperactivity" and "Impulsivity." Hyperactivity: Individuals who are hyperactive may appear to be in constant motion, perpetually “on the go.” They have difficulty sitting still and may squirm or fidget. They often feel restless, may talk excessively, and disp...

Even with the help of antibiotics, I had a horrible night last night. Barky cough, made my chest and throat hurt. I woke up on my own around 1:30am. Awake until 2:20 or so, just fell back to sleep, and then... Charlie was up. Over. And over. And over... we're not sure what his problem was - too cold, ear bothering him - but it was hands-down the worst night we've ever had with him. Doug finally plopped him in bed with us at 5:30am (screaming!) and once we could calm him down, the stinker slept straight through until 7:30am. Woke up in a fabulous mood, all smiles. When I first went in to check on him, he was trying to get up on his knees; he would hold the position for 10-20 seconds and then collapse, making frustrated sounds. Which is a good sign, but I'd rather him not practice crawling-position at 2:45 in the morning! We did everything we could think of... soothing, rocking, bottle, new diaper... nothing helped. Weird. Needless to say, I'm home today sick AND tired. ...

I was just thinking as I typed that title - I sure wish I had a book of good poetry. I have some sonnets, but they had a feature on NPR the other day that the Library of Congress is recording poets reading their own poems, and I liked quite a few. I could have some pithy titles of my blogs, then, too. I am sick. I also received antibiotics today. I don't feel good at all. So the diet is out the window now. Have you noticed I've been typing that too often lately? I am holding steady, "maintaining" as it were. Three of the four of us went to the doctor today; Roman is just starting his sinus problems, Charlie has the start of an ear infection, and I'm in full-blown sinus infection mode. Again. Every Fall. So the boys also have scripts but doc asked that we wait a few days to see if they get better on their own. Had a great weekend. My Grandma turned 90, with a big party attended by lots & lots of relatives, including a few I don't see very often. Very cool. ...

Avast, me hearties! Friday is International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Let the festivities commence.

Roman & I were playing lightsabers this evening, and I was Darth Vader. We tease-threaten, quoting lines from the movies & such, when Roman said - "You're the Soviet." I just about fell over from shock. He then said, "Isn't that what you call it?" Call what, sweetie? "The bad guys... Soviets?" Oh man. I'm not quite sure where he picked it up - perhaps the news, perhaps Doug and I talking. So we had to take a break from the lightsabers so I could explain the following: "Russia had a leader who turned them into "bad guys" for awhile (eyes went wide!), and they were called Soviets. But then they had a leader when Mama & Daddy were young who said, "we're not going to be the bad guys anymore." And they stopped being Soviets and became Russians again. And that's when you were born, honey - when the Russians were the good guys again." Satisfied with this, we continued our battle. Of course later in be...

I still have to Photoshop Doug's arm out of the way, but isn't this wonderful? I took it at the end of August, and came across it this evening while picking a couple pictures to go in the "Brothers" scrapbook. This one's a keeper.

Just can't party like a rock star as much as I used to. Oh, I tried, believe me. But I think the fact that my baby is just starting to sleep through the night and I'm still short sleep (and will be for the next 20 or so years) takes its toll. Bachelorette party was fun, though, and it was great to hang out with my old friends in the city I love... Yes, There Really Is A Kalamazoo! And the mayor partied with us, too. What a cool city. Anyway, I'm back to my "normal" life and I do like it that way. I was so happy to see my boys this morning, gaze upon my husband, & chill out at home. I had a great afternoon yesterday with my mom and grandma too. Because of the wedding I have to cut short our appearance at my grandma's birthday party, so I wanted to spend the afternoon with her to make it up. We three did lunch, a quick shop at the mall, a movie ("Mamma Mia!" for the 2nd time), and oh yeah... spent 40 min. in lockdown at the retirement home because ...

Well, for a moment in time, I'm going out like a single girl tomorrow night. It's a friend's bachelorette party. We're starting out calmly enough, with dinner at Burdick's (oh, how I love going back to Kalamazoo!) & then to a piano bar. But then, I hear talk of a wild "end of summer block party" and a mechanical bull. I suspect that's when my senses will leave me, too. The idea of going out makes me very tired, especially the hours I'm sure we'll keep. I'm normally in bed by 10:15pm! Let's hope I drink an equal amount of water with my beer, & I should be okay. But for now - woohoo! I'll party like a rock star one last time.

Just a quick and awesome weight update: Doug is down 35 pounds, with 34 more to go to his weight goal... I am down 25.5 pounds, with 10 more to go until my weight goal! Woohoo!

I'm going to say it. Here's the trouble: George Stephanopoulos told me in an interview how to choose a candidate to vote for. "Pick the top 3-4 issues that concern you most. Figure out how you feel about them. Then vote for the candidate that most closely aligns with your beliefs." Now that pretty much settles things. As one of my coworkers said, "I can't decide who to vote for - the person I like, or the party that I agree with." And that's where I have been. While McCain is just fine, I like the idea of Obama. I like his youth, his "change" theme, how he has gotten the young'uns interested in politics again. We needed someone to spark passion, & McCain doesn't spark passion in me. But I'm a Republican at heart. I drive down the middle most days, and I even cross the line into the left every few issues. And I'm apparently one of these people . It's not a fluke, people - I'm a white moderate Republican woman who ...

Some more pictures, of us eating s'mores! Clever, no?

I do know how many more weeks of school are left until mid-June, but only because my principal mentioned it in an email. 38. Not so bad, right? This first week back was great, hectic, crazy, work-intensive, & fun. It's been great to see Roman, especially, get to know names of new friends & get used to his kindergarten routine. Friday he began the afternoon "latchkey" program and as I had heard, he didn't want to come home. He was upset that I arrived right when "the people" (dolls) were going to go camping. He hadn't figured out where they were going to go, but they had a tent in the car & were just setting off. Isn't that awesome?! When I walked in the room he & another little boy were crouched in front of the dollhouse. I found it pretty humorous, until he explained that the people were leaving the house. Of course. :) My classes are going to be fun & challenging. 2 out of the 3 classes have a large majority of boys, which make...

While Roman was very excited to start school, the pictures show a little anxiety underneath the surface... He picked out his outfit, had his Clone Wars backpack on, and both Mama & Daddy (and of course, Charlie!) walked him to school. Roman was confident enough to not have us stand in line with him, so we stood a little way off. Of course, my insides were twisted with butterflies (nervous for him!) and tears (my baby boy!). And then out came his teacher to lead the class into their very first day of kindergarten. Roman's report after his half-day (which was an hour and 15 min) was that he wanted to go home, he wanted to stay & play, and his teacher is nice. "All we did was play," he told me. And that's how it's supposed to be. Today he was much more confident and looking forward to going. It's the full 3 hours, so he got to bring a snack in his (what else?) Clone Wars lunch bag. And the teacher asked that they all bring a stuffed animal to share the d...

Back in my second home. There is one great advantage to being on a cart. Every year I end up moving my "home base," and every year I get to organize all my stuff again. Books on a bookshelf. Reorder my file cabinet. This year I got to buy new colored pencils. Is there anything better than a box of new, sharpened colored pencils?! I didn't think so. And look at that whiteboard. I love clean & empty boards. Just think of all the learning that will be written there in the next 9 months!

We did a lot of nothin' this weekend, which was a nice change of pace. Roman played with our neighbor-boy all afternoon Saturday & today; we roasted marshmallows both Saturday & Sunday evenings in our new fire pit (thank goodness for clearance at Ace Hardware!). We got a lot of little things done; shelves in Doug's storage area, I sorted Charlie's clothes (he's growing again -now in 9-12 month sizes!), laundry, some restructuring of the basement. But then there's Doug. My domestic god. Got it in his head he had to make bread & butter pickles this weekend. And isn't he the coolest vacuumer you've ever seen?!