Thursday: Pokeball

This morning, as with most mornings, the boys were playing in the basement before school.  It was time to go, so I called them up.  Neither of them like turning off the lights, so they go pretty quickly.  This morning Joshua was the last one, and so had to turn off the lights.  He is allowed to turn off the basement lights and turn on the hallway light, so I don't really know what the big deal is.  Anyway, I started telling both of them that if this is how they are going to act I might not let them play down there in the morning.

Joshua proceeded to cover his ears and say, "I'm not listening!"  I proceeded to tell him to grab Pokeball, who hadn't made it all the way into Joshua's backpack.  (It's Joshua's responsibility to make sure he's there.)  I tried again.  Joshua just pushed his feet in his shoes, grabbed his coat, and went outside.  Hmm.  I stuck Pokeball in my coat.

We got to school and Joshua realized he didn't have Pokeball.  Immediate tears.  We had a bit of a talk about how it's usually a good idea to listen to Mom before Pokeball came out and the tears stopped.

Wednesday: freezer

Yesterday the freezer stopped working.  It still cools, just not enough.

Luckily we have a second freezer.  Everything fit in it, although just barely.

Luckily the dryer is working again after we hired someone to come clean out the dryer duct.  Apparently the DIY cleaner didn't work at all.

But seriously, it's been feeling like just one thing after another lately.

Grey Bear

Some old pictures were scrolling on my screensaver and I noticed how many had Grey Bear in them.   He went everywhere with us.  He doesn't come everywhere with us anymore, but is still well loved at home.

I am sad to report that Grey Bear's paws are both currently broken.  They've been broken for a few days, but are slowly getting better.

I'm happy to report that Grey Bear seems to like me more lately, and will often give me a hug.

In other news, I tried to convince Joshua that I was a ghost today so that the ghost Legos would stop bothering me.  I put a blanket over my head.  I did my best ghost voice.  I was in a ghost competition...and declared the loser.

Sunday: loud

The boys were loud today.  And rather crazy.  It was a bit trying, but they were at least having fun.

Saturday: relaxing

It was a pretty relaxing day.  The boys played well with their assorted toys.  Isaac made a cube semi-outlines yesterday (similar to the video) and rearranged them in all sorts of different ways today.  Joshua did a lot of Legos and some play-doh and I think some other things too.

As part of the assessment at Joshua's school he had to describe a few things that were used in a story.  It's pretty cute.

Thursday and Friday: conferences

This week we had conferences for Isaac and Joshua.

Joshua's was last night.  It was the first conference we've ever had for him, so I was interested in how it would go.  In the end, about as expected.  He's surpassing all the 'necessary' requirements in regards to letters and numbers, but still has quite a bit of learning to do with them.  His pencil grip needs to get stronger, although that assessment was from the beginning of the year and I can already tell that it's better.  He loves all the science things.  He interacts well with the other students, although sometimes stands on the sidelines when not required to do something.

Isaac's was today.  Again, no issues.  He's getting his work done on time this year, so that's an improvement over last year.  He is often the last person to finish, but he finishes.  His teacher loves his sense of humor.  He got all the points on the last math test and it was a hard one.  He is implementing the concepts that they're talking about in writing, even though it isn't his favorite subject.  We talked a bit about the social side of things.  There's still not one really good friend, but we also don't see anything alarming.  He sometimes plays with people at recess.  He interacts well during group work and people talk with him/he talks with people.

In other news, Joshua was in my office for a while today.  Oh, he made such the drawing!  It has people and chains, dinosaur prints, prints with lots of toes (some up to 15!), a ghost, and a mummy.

well, I had a few pictures for today but they're not uploading.  Maybe tomorrow.

Wednesday: scary

Today I brought Ben's car in to get the winter tires on.  The trip - drop off Isaac, drop off Joshua, get to the place - was one of the scariest drives I've had.  The car didn't have all season tires on, it had summer tires on.  Summer tires don't work well at all in the (partial) snow.   They don't stop.  They don't turn.  They barely go straight. I told Ben I am never doing that again.  If the snow surprises us next year he can drive to the shop and I'll follow him and switch cars there.

I made it though!  I was only about ten minutes late, but late enough that all the people had started on a car so I needed to wait a bit longer than expected.  After the winter tires were back on driving went so, so much better.

The snowman keeps bending over more and more in our front yard.  I've made lots of snowmen that have done this, but usually there is a heat source on one side that barely melts the snow before it bends and refreezes.  I'm not really sure why this snowman is bowing so low.