January 16, 2007

I am sitting here in my computer chair, and all kids are supposed to be asleep. I can still hear C and A chatting in their rooms. They are getting along really well these days, it seems.
Hmm, and where is Lillian? Interesting question, that is. She has lately fallen into the habit of falling asleep on my back! Yes! She waits until I sit in my computer chair, and then climbs between my back and the chair's back. She plays with my hair for a short while, and then zonks out. Her feet are dangling at either side of me, and I can both hear and feel her rhythmic breathing. I kind of like it, but I'm also kind of stuck in my chair and I'd really like to get a drink. Oh well. I will finish the post, and then gently transfer her to the couch. I might even put her in the bed. It doesn't really matter.

We got a late start to our day today. Mike stayed home in the morning, so that I could go to the hospital by myself for my iron treatments at ATU (ambulatory treatment unit). The girls are still coughing, and I'm nervous about one of the nurses saying something, since "pre-op" is adjacent to the ATU, and they can be finicky about germs, understandably.
I made sure to drink 3 glasses of water before going to the hospital. But apparently I was dehydrated yet again. I must drink more water. Ugh. I thought I was good to go, but I wasn't. I had to have 3 people working on me to find a good vein. I got poked 4 times, and that was painful. The 3rd nurse, Mike, got an IV started in no time, without much effort. I wish he would have been the first one to try one! My usual "IV vein" is becoming more difficult, and Jan, one of the other nurses, says it now has scar tissue on it. What a bummer! Maybe scar tissue on veins eventually disappear? I don't know. I hope so, because I'd hate for the vein to be permanently "done in for". Oh well.

I got home and Mike rushed off to work.

The kids and I started on our math. Christopher learned how to multiply by 9 today, and he complained that it was much harder to multiply by 9 than 0, 1, 5, and 10. Well, yes! But 9 isn't so difficult once you notice the pattern with the digits (as the 10s place increases by 1, the units place decreases by 1). I pointed out the pattern to Christopher to hopefully make it easier for him. He'll be fine with it. Or, I told him you can just multiply the other number by 10 instead of nine, and then subtract just that one number. He'll just need to practise this.

He worked on his spelling again today, and also on writing cursive.

He added a drawing of South Mountain in his social studies notebook. I think that was it. We didn't get to do very much, because we had that late start.

Annika practised her handwriting with "Draw, Write, Now". She did the page on pigs today. Very cute.
We reviewed the rhymes for the letters A and B today. The A one talks about a taming a lame crane. The other one is a tongue twister about Betty Botter who accidentally bought bitter butter, and then she doesn't want to put it in her batter for fear of making the whole thing bitter, so in the end she goes back to the market to get better butter and is happy. Well, good for her!!! I can say this rhyme really fast without making a mistake. Annika still makes several of them, but that's okay.

We talked about the seasons again today. I mentioned the date, and talked about how it's still winter and that January is the first month of the year. The kids know this, but they have a tendency to forget, so I like to repeat it a lot.
We searched for the moon again tonight, and couldn't find the darn thing! Annika reminded me of this when it was almost time for bed, and so we quickly "snuck" out of the house in our pajamas, got in the car, and took a slow ride through the neighborhood. Sometimes the moon "hides" behind someone's house. We made up songs like "Moon! Moon! Where are you? We would like to find you!" But alas, we had to end our expedition soon after it started without any luck. Oh well. Annika already knows about the different moon phases. But she does enjoy looking at it and drawing it on her calendar.

I spent a little bit of time working with Annika on her knitting. She is learning to knit in order to improve her eye-hand coordination. She is getting somewhat better at it, but still holds her fingers very stiffly, drops over half of all attempted stitches. She is also interested in knitting for the fun of it, since she sees me have so much fun with it. I want to keep her from feeling frustrated, so I let her dictate when she wants to stop. I am extremely patient with her, and encourage her gently to keep trying. She will be able to master it, and she already knows how to hold the yarn very well on her own, without me telling her how. That's a step in the right direction.

I read her a fairy tale called "The Golden Key". The story was about a beautiful maiden named Sabrina who wanted to live by herself in a tower after a man broke her heart and married someone else. Lot's of men try to win her love, but she won't have any of them. Eventually this guy named Devon rides by her tower, and is deeply moved by her poetry which she reads aloud each day. And without ever seeing her, he decides to fall in love with her. A wise woman tells him he must find the golden key in order to gain access to the tower. So he goes on this mission to find the golden key and it's of course incredibly difficult but he eventually gets it, and when he meets Sabrina at last, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
Annika liked it, and Christopher wanted to listen to it as well. Tomorrow I will ask Annika to re-tell the fairy tale to see how much she remembers. It's a deliberate exercise in memory, but she doesn't really know she's doing it for a particular purpose. That's good. :-)

Both girls are really into this kids' Yoga DVD I rented through Netflix. It's called "Animal Yoga", I think. It's weird, and goofy, and silly. But they LOVE it. Annika mvoes my yoga mat in front of the TV, and makes sure both she and Lily have enough room to practise their stretches and movements. She is definitely the big, caring sister, and takes charge of the experience for Lily. She will say things like "Ok, Lil, let's get started. Can you stretch like a giraffe in the movie??" Or "Ok, girl, you did that so well. Get on your hands and knees now and stretch just like a cat. Like Geroge, Lily!" Or "Lil, do you need some water now?" Annika also provides her little sister with physical assistance, and will hold Lillian's leg high up in the air to copy the leg stretch on the DVD, until Lillian complains of leg pain. Lol. This is sooooooo funny to watch. Lily takes her Yoga very seriously, and tries to copy every single stretch and exercise. Annika does, too. And Annika is so sweet and caring towards Lily and helps her with suggestions and stuff. And Lily acts very compliant and completely serious the whole time. It's really funny. Today they worked through the DVD 3 times in a row. I am not kidding. However, they lost interest during the third time.
Christopher enjoys watching the DVD, but does not want to practise any Yoga himself. It's too bad, but his choice. There's a small part on the DVD that shows you step-by-step how to breakdance. Christopher likes that part, and wishes he could breakdance. But he hasn't practised it yet, so I don't think he will. It's up to him.

Hmmm, I think that's all the interesting stuff we did today.

Hah! I nearly forgot! The ants I ordered months ago finally arrived today! We bought an ant farm on sale at Target at least one year ago, and then in november I finally decided we should order those ants! They arrived in a box today. 3 little test tubes full of these black ants. I really wanted Mike to put them into the ant farm with the kids watching when he came home. But he worked late again tonight, and the kids are in bed already. He will need to transfer those ants into their habitat when he comes home so they can get all settled in. It wouldn't be fair to leave them in their test tubes another day just so the kids can see. I thought about just doing it myself, but I think I'd just be way too freaked out. I mean, they're ANTS! Living, breathing, crawling ANTS! I haven't read all the instructions yet, but I do know they need to be refrigerated for 15 min. before we can transfer them. It will make them sleepy and less active so they don't escape. I guess it's like inducing hypothermia! Wow, that sucks big time for them, huh? I'd hate to be one of those ants, suffering from hypothermia...... But I also don't want them to escape, so hypothermia it is!
Mike is home! I need to stop writing, get this baby off my back, and get that drink I've been craving! Oh, and also I need to eat something, since I didn't have dinner with the kids. I cleaned dishes while the kids had theirs.