This week at home

And it truly has been a week at home. Kath stayed home from school Thursday and Alex Friday. Roger and I have been fighting off the sickness...still. Chris is sick, but at Bennington this weekend for Trustee's Weekend. He was chosen in June to be the newest trustee member. Unfortunately he's fighting off the ick too.

I kept Alex home on Friday because her cough still hasn't gone away...and actually sounded worse. And because she sounded wheezy Thursday night. No fever though. Not since last week anyway. But when we went back to the doctor...and Kath was fantastic this time...she knew SHE wasn't going to checked...Dr Schottler-Thal could hear that her lungs didn't sound right, could hear the wheeze. She didn't bother to do the x-ray since indicators pointed to what she thought and she would treat it the same....It's Walking Pneumonia treated with antibiotics, fluids, rest and love. Of course I keep putting eucalyptus and peppermint on her too....

Kath's nose is still running too. She is looking better though.

Nick is fighting off a cold at school too, but sloughing through.

Let's see...a couple of fun spots this week:

Before I go to school some days, Kath likes to slow things down and snuggle. She wanted to have a bottle and have me hold her. We sat on the couch as we do many times and just talked or sat quietly. Suddenly she pointed to the wood sign above the sliding doors and said, "Wasat say?" This is impressive on a couple of levels. For one, it meant she was scanning with eyes beyond her comfortable peripheral vision. For two, it showed curiosity. For three, she knew that letters meant something...said something. She wanted to know what the sign meant ...said. The sign was a wedding gift from a friend from school. The sign ironically enough says "And they lived happily everafter." :-D

At night when we read I try to have the girls participate in the reading. We found a Dora book "Animal Parade" (yes, titles should be underlined, but my computer here won't allow me). This book has the characters surrounded by the words/verbs they are doing. So Boots has "Swing, Swing, Swing" Dora has "March, March, March" a frog has "Hop, Hop, Hop" around them and so on. When we read that book, each girl takes a turn 'reading' the words. Alex is thrilled to really recognize some of her sight words in our books. Kath is thrilled to 'read' and will often wake poor dadda up (he lays at the end of the bed while we read, with little feet often requesting foot rubs in between his dozing :-D), "Dadda, look I reading...Mach, Mach...." And she has worked hard on saying the ending sounds, need some work on the middle r-sound, but wow, is she impressive or what?? Lots of speech improvements. This week we are going on a field trip--apple picking with her class (Kath's).

Alex has her second Tiger Jam, first one the parents can go to on Tuesday. The very same day and time as Kath's field trip! Of course. I think I will be requesting help to be in two places at once....Really wish our grandparents lived closer sometimes. :-)

As for my writing...I don't really talk too much about it...as much as I thought I would, considering that was my original reason for starting this blog, until the world turned upside down with Kath anyway...I actually have been writing this week. About 3000 words. I printed off all I have so far, 30 pages, with the hope of editing and finding a steady thread to continue with, I feel like I'm all over the place. I'm very excited. I'm finding that I think about my characters and story setting and such as I drive around town and just at odd times during the day--it's almost like they're leaking through into my real life. Or as if they are living friends and/or part of a story I have read by someone else. Sounds strange, but hard to explain. It is as though I'm living this quote :The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard, "Diary," February 1895.

Enjoy!