mathmom's blog

Eleanor's grandparents put her to bed last night, which means that some things went differently. They wanted to watch "Dancing with the stars," so Eleanor got into her PJs before the usual time, so she would be able to watch with them. "I don't usually get to watch TV after 5 o'clock," she says (although Word Girl is on at 5). She got to watch "a quiz show where you get money by answering questions." It was on "the ABC channel." She didn't understand most of it, she said, but she did get the question about Star Wars. She thought that there was a lot of money involved...maybe 16 million dollars? or maybe 16,000. I think probably Jeopardy was a bigger highlight than the dancing, since she didn't mention dancing. But I think that the biggest fun was sitting with her grandparents, spending time with them doing something that her parents don't let her do. And I'm fine with that. As long as she doesn't want to ...

(I realize that for trademark reasons I should call it "disc golf". As Michael points out, however, "disc golf" does not slide off the tongue. And we all know what it really is.) A new park opened up nearby recently, complete with a frisbee golf course. There are signs near the road: "Watch out for flying disks." There are goals along the road. And I wondered when it opened whether 6 year olds and 4 year olds could play. It turns out they can. We have gone a couple times over the holidays. When my family plays (at least when the kids and I play together) frisbee golf turns out to be more a walk in the woods, with occasional throwing and chasing of frisbees . Amanda has gotten it into her head that she needs to hit the trees, which she does with some success. Eleanor tries to throw the frisbees long and straight, with some success. Even Luke knows what to do: he drops the frisbee in front of him and says, " yay !" He also knows th...

On Sunday, Eleanor and Amanda started talking about their cousin Anders. They both wanted to be his cousin, but it was important that the other one not be his cousin. "I'm Anders' cousin!" "No, I'm Anders' cousin!" I tried really hard to explain that they could both be his cousin (and in fact, if one was his cousin, so was the other one). Eleanor thought she was more his cousin since he was born just after her (actually he was born almost precisely in between Eleanor and Amanda). I suggested that Amanda had been his cousin for her whole life, so maybe she was more his cousin. Or that maybe Luke was more his cousin because he was a boy. Eleanor and Amanda remained stubbornly unconvinced. Unable to cut the Gordian knot, I passed the buck. In a few days, Anders will get a package containing pictures from Eleanor, Amanda and Luke. He then gets to pick who is his cousin. I'm hoping my sister will be able to come up with something good to te...

Last night Luke woke up at 11:30, 12:30, 1:20. Each time he was up for at least half an hour. Not a good night for sleeping. The main problem is that I have no idea why he was awake. It is likely to have been his cold---he had a lot of phlegm in his throat, was coughing some. On the other hand, it could always be his tummy---one of my great fears is that I ate something that traveled through his system and is making him sick. He also puts everything in his mouth, so he could have eaten almost anything. It could be his teeth, which as ever are trying to poke through. It could be his newfound standing ability, although he was whimpering in my arms last night, and that doesn't seem like his being excited by a new ability. Poor baby, he was so very sad. I have long wished for babies with indicator lights: wet, hungry, tired, fever, etc. For now we are stuck with mother's intuition, which does not always work when needed, and all I can do is hold him. In other news, my sis...

One of the problems with writing a blog is that you never come up with your best ideas sitting at a keyboard. For example, I have written brilliant blog entries in the middle of the night, while I'm up with the baby, but you'll just have to take my word for it, since I forget all of them as soon as I go to sleep... For example, I wrote several entertaining accounts of our trip to Florida to see my grandma, but you'll just have to settle for what I come up with while I'm awake. Grandma hadn't met Luke yet, so we decided to make the 4.5 hour flight in Michael's airplane to see her. I didn't know when I went to sleep the night before when we would be leaving, if we would be leaving after Eleanor's school, at noon, early in the morning... When we woke up Michael checked the weather and asked how soon we could leave. We didn't get out as soon as I hoped, but soon enough. 4.5 hours in a 6 seat airplane is long. I remember when we first got the airpl...