Update: It's Spring Now!

I'm passed due for something like an update. I think I may need to just change the focus of this blog a bit so that I can have something specific to keep up with, say, funny comment of the day or one interaction or something.

Anyway, while I cogitate on that, here's what we've been doing:

Kwamai and I have dug up a portion of dirt where our garage used to be and we intend to have a garden there. Kwamai chose carrot and corn seeds to plant. The soil is almost solid clay, so I don't know how the growing will go, but we have plenty of leaves to dig in as mulch. I'm thinking of adding some beans, just because it is one veggie we all like. Kwamai is willing to do the work in theory, but muscle man though he is, he has some trouble digging up huge shovelfulls of dirt. We need to wait for that frost threat to go away so we can plant. Then the fun will begin. And hopefully our neighborhood groundhog will leave them alone!

Felicity likes to go through her days singing. So does Kwam, for that matter. She and I have started singing morning and bedtime prayers together, just simple little songs. She likes to do things in set routines, the same thing every day. That's obviously not from my genetic make up. But perhaps she will help me in that department.

Felicity right now has a little wheeze. We took her to her doctor today, and he said he's not worried about it, prescribed a homeopathic remedy and albuterol if the former doesn't take. She at least is sleeping, which hopefully will be an all-night trend.

We've been doing more read-alouds. I've been reading a book on the value of reading aloud to kids of all ages, and I think I'm becoming truly addicted! I just feel so much better after we read several chapters of a novel together. We finished The Great Turkey Walk, a story of a teen who becomes a turkey drover and we are currently reading the first of the Doctor Doolittle books. This along with lots of picture books and story books.

For awhile we were on a Rogers and Hammerstein kick. We watched The King and I and .. what was that other one... but then Oklahoma was not such a big hit. We saw Meet Me in St. Louis. Both Kwamai and Felicity like the dance numbers. Kwamai is considering trying out for a part in a local production of Beauty and the Beast this summer, with the production in the fall. He has to get over the idea that it is too girly, however.

Kwamai still likes his nightly audiobooks. Right now he is listening to an historical fiction book about Bull Run. He seems to like historical fiction or dramatizations about historical figures quite a bit.

He also is showing interest in piano. He used to just bang on the pianos of friends, but he treats them respectfully these days and likes to spontaneously compose little tunes. He wants to take lessons from the father of a friend who teaches using the Suzuki method. We'll see. We never did get around to karate lessons, although I think he gets a lot out of doing his own freestyle work in that department.

Felicity is very concerned with counting things, often starting the first moments after she wakes up. She also has a very good grasp of phonetic sounds and will randomly say things like "Thomas starts with T." Her grammar is going downhill the more she imitates Kwamai however. She no longer says "We went to the store" but rather "We goed to the store."

I never realized how easy parenting becomes at the point where you try to teach the older child how not to aggravate the younger child. "Don't try to force her or you'll lose all hope of getting her cooperation!" It's a great two-fer. But the trick comes in trying not to force him to not force her!

Kwamai has a very busy social life. His circle of friends has expanded beyond just the next door neighbors to include several families round about us. Even among kids close to his age, most of his friends are older, by about two years. (He used to gravitate only to the neighborhood teenage boys.) And while I'm certainly open to him making all sorts of new friends, it is a good thing at this stage that I know the families of all of his friends, most of them quite well. And yes, the girls are starting to try to give him hugs and kisses, especially our goddaughter Lucia, who is 5. She has already decided that she and Kwamai are getting married. Kwamai just rolls his eyes!

Ok, I'll try to get on task with a few "things of the day" here soon.