mathmom's blog

I've been taking a break from blogging for a while, although I hope to be back with short blog posts for a while. The problem is that the longer I think about a post, the longer it gets and the longer it would take to write... Also the longer I'm away, the more things I have to write about and the more overwhelming the whole thing seems... I suppose I should call the 6 people who are following the blog and tell them I'm posting again =)

Luke likes to clean more than either of the girls ever did. This evening, after Luke and Amanda's shower, Michael asked Amanda to dump some water out of the toys that the kids were playing with. Luke heard this, dumped the water out of the toy that he was holding (he didn't even dump it on the floor!), put it in the corner where we keep the toys, and then collected all the other toys and put them away. He really enjoys putting dishes away when the dishwasher is clean. I just ask him to come over and help and he busily puts all of the kids plates, bowls and cups into the drawers that they belong in---I don't need to direct him, he does it by himself. The only time that this creates a problem is when he tries to put dirty dishes from the dishwasher into the cupboards. He really loves using a broom. So much so that he will take his bowl of (dry) cereal and dump it on the floor, run to the closet, get the broom, and start pushing the cereal around on the floor. I hope tha...

Eleanor lost her first tooth September 15 th . It was hanging on by a thread, the permanent tooth behind it was poking up, and Michael noted that she probably didn't want to go to sleep with it like that. Now she has the second loose tooth, right next to it. Her permanent tooth is not quite as tall as it is, but the old tooth is not coming out and the new tooth is coming up pretty far back on the gum. I hate to think that she has my crooked teeth instead of her Father's, Aunt's and Grandmother's straight teeth, but there you go. I called the dentist. He told me to tell Eleanor that she has a homework assignment: wiggle the tooth as much as possible. Silly me, I remember doing that without any assignment. Could it be that the tooth fairy is really just encouragement to get the baby teeth out sooner? I had never thought of that before. Luke has an extra tooth popping out, right between the incisor and canine. Sigh. Couldn't they all just have beautiful, strai...

We have an excellent recipe for sausage, black eyed peas and rice. I like it. Michael really likes it. The kids, however... Luke will actually eat it. With a spoon, he manages to move the rice from his plate to his mouth. Somehow when he is done eating, his plate contains only tomato pieces. Amanda loves eating the sausages (my little meatatarian !) but isn't really excited about the rest. She spent much of dinner gathering the black eyed peas into a pile and saying that they were sheep, gathered in a cozy bed, snuggling up next to each other. I wanted her to eat them, but she informed me that she didn't eat sheep. She would eat it if I put spoonfuls into her mouth, but only if they contained no tomatoes or onions. Eleanor dislikes the entire dish. Finally, after about 35 minutes she managed to choke down one small sausage round (about the side of a quarter). She puts it in her mouth and chews for about 5 minutes (does she realize that she is prolonging the agony?)....

Yesterday I had Luke at home while his sisters were both at school. He was supposed to take a nap, so I could get lots of work done (organizing the closets that are starting to burst, wiping the table, dealing with the humongous pile of paper that counts as our filing system, making the books straight in our bookshelves, etc.) However, Luke did not get the memo, so instead we had to play. We went outside in the light drizzle and down to the puddle at the end of the driveway. Luke was so excited he stamped his (bare) feet in the puddle, which made big splashes and led to more splashing. He moved mulch from the garden to the puddle. He moved mud from next to the puddle into the puddle. He went down the road to get some different mud to put into the puddle. Then he noticed the manhole cover in the middle of the road. He had to stamp in that, move some mulch there, and stamp some more. There was a big stick that made good splashes too, and was good for mixing things and for general...

The other day after gymnastics, Amanda announces from the back seat of the car, "I want a sprout!" I think to myself, "OK, she's interested in gardening now? Or maybe bean sprouts?" (Actually, my first thought was What!!??? Those were my second thoughts.) We get to the Wendy's where we eat after gymnastics (otherwise Luke falls asleep without having lunch, a bad thing). I order the usual hamburger with only pickles and no bun for Amanda, with a side of mandarin oranges and a Sprite to drink (preferable to the Hawaiian punch or the sugar free lemonade). We pull away from the window and she asks, "Can I have my sprout now?" I finally understand that I had been talking about going to Wendy's, and she knows that they don't have juice so she gets a sprite. Except that she can't remember the name. At least she knows what she wants. Addendum: After Amanda said that she wanted a sprout, I told her that she could have one when we got hom...

Eleanor has a loose tooth: "The first one on the right," as the Jack Pearson song goes. She let me wiggle it yesterday. It has certainly been a long time since I experienced that feeling. Of course, now she is saying that she can't eat anything because her tooth is loose. I won't give her carrots for snack, but surely she can manage a sandwich. In other news, McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for vice president has transformed at least one Clinton supporter to McCain. In fact, as soon as I told Eleanor about Palin, the very first thing she said was "If something really bad happens to John McCain, then she would be president!" She has apparently learned some civics somewhere.

Well, we made it through tropical storm Hanna (it wasn't a hurricane by the time it got to us) . I don't even think the power went out. There were 10-20 knot winds this morning, along with driving heavy rain, but it wasn't dangerous so we went out onto the porch to eat breakfast. Amanda wasn't sure about being out there in the storm (she also thought it was a bit cold) but she eventually agreed to stay out there. She needed some comfort hugs every once in a while. Every time Luke heard the wind roar he would yell loudly, imitating the wind, we think. He liked it pretty well. I think Eleanor was convinced it would be much much worse, and she had trouble getting hold of the idea that it wasn't so bad. She said that she had watched "a tree branch swinging in the wind like a chandelier." She thought she had stayed up all night...I think she was probably asleep. It does not compare to Hurricane Fran, which drove right up the highway to the triangle in 1...

Mama: "There's a saying, Eleanor, silence is golden." Eleanor: "What's silence?"

On getting into the hot car: "Mama, could you turn on the warm conditioner?" When it starts raining as we're driving: "We need the wind whiskers!" When I offer her a t-shirt to wear for her first day of school: "Well, it might not be pretty enough..." While getting ready for gymnastics: "I need to wear my leotart." There was one more I meant to tell you all, but I forgot! I should have blogged it right away, I suppose. We're all waiting for Hannah to come, we've taken the porch furniture off the porch, moved the garbage can inside the garage, found all the toys that were outside and brought them in... Eleanor is convinced she will be terrified, but I suspect she won't even wake up. We'll let you know how it goes.

I would like to register a complaint. I am trying my best to put things away, keep things in their proper places, be organized, so that when I need something I know where to find it. My son thinks it is his job (perhaps his calling) to take things out of their proper places and scatter them throughout the house. Today I needed the lime squeezer (I made chicken chili). As I looked in the utensil drawer, I had a vague visual memory of Luke carrying the squeezer around, gleefully opening and closing it. I have no idea where it is. A few days ago I got out Luke's monitor (we haven't had it on for a few weeks now) so that the babysitter could sit in the basement and watch TV while still listening for Luke. I kept careful track of it for most of the day, until it was time to put lotion on Amanda. As I did that, I heard Luke laughing and running around. When I was done with Amanda, the monitor was gone. I still can't find it. Luke loves playing with the ladle. Usually I l...