As always, September and October were gone before we saw
them coming.
September actually began in August, when we started potty
training Lucy before her second birthday because 1) I was NOT going to take on
potty training the same week I attempted Betsy’s first week of kindergarten,
and 2) I was NOT schlepping diapers around Disney World even one more time, and
Lucy was going to need a good head start if she was going to be good enough to
go by the second week of September.
Thankfully, as with childbirth, I’ve managed to blank out most of that
time period.
This may be due in part to the fact that around about then
Jim said, “Hey, you wanna renovate the downstairs bathroom?” And over the next
few weeks I swept up dust, peeled plastic off the back of tile strips, picked
up trash, and furtively pounded my head on the wall when Jim wasn’t looking
(these are my tasks, and I excel in them); meanwhile, Jim demolished walls,
ripped through concrete to move the toilet plumbing over maybe two feet, built
a new shower stall, installed new lighting, laid tile floors, tile walls, tile
ceiling, grouted (in the process grating off all his fingertips), trimmed out
the walls with bead board and chair rail, installed all new fixtures, and a
massive custom glass door. I’ve included pictures. I think "we" did a good job.
And then there’s school.
Whenever I think I’m getting the hang of it, something happens, like I
get a new student. Betsy’s kindergarten
has been a challenge because … well, because she’s Betsy, who (as she has
informed me) already knows everything.
So I don’t know why she begs to “do school” every morning, as I’m trying
to get the boys started. Then, when I
sit down with her, and pull out her alphabet strip and crayons, she slumps down
and sighs, and says, “Awww, how long is this going to take?” Sometimes, to keep
the ball rolling, she also inserts useful asides like, “I can’t take this
anymore!” or “I’m never, EVER going to get done!” I think she’s getting something out of it,
though. She now knows all her letters
(“only not their sounds”) and also told me the other day that she had seen one
of our AWOL rabbits, “two twicet times.” I'm about ready to go back to Plan A, which was to let a little 4-year-old boy at church, who CAN read, teach her.
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| Bets |
Like all the other kids, Lucy has been a late talker. Even now, I’m not sure she has any real
words. Being on the receiving end of
her conversations is a lot like listening to Charlie Brown’s teacher, only Lucy’s
not quite as intelligible. As I recall, Betsy’s first word (and only
word for a long time) was, “Mommy,” but Jim said she used it so frequently like
a swear word when she was mad, it may not really have counted. Woody's first word was "Bah" (which stood for ball, bottle, balloon, and also sippee cup), and Jack's first word was, "May I help you with that difficult task you are attempting to handle on your own?"
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| Lulu |
Jim, concerned that the boys’ doodling contained so much
violence (heads getting chopped off, knives in the back, bombs exploding under
cartoon stick men) introduced them to Dungeons and Dragons. It has expanded their horizons. Now they kill off meticulously crafted characters
(who possess a full backstory and in-depth personality analysis) but much more
slowly since they have to do it in steps, at the roll of a dice, and only after
much deliberation, to ensure the grisliest end.
In other news, Jim brought home a stray Holland Lop Eared
bunny on Wednesday. It was hopping
around lost on the dirt road, on our way home from town. It sounds all innocent, but this is the same
way we ended up with Brown Dog. I am
beginning to suspect Jim has a system here.
I guess that’s it for now.
Hope you all are having a wonderful fall.
