Merhaba, As It Were

Hello!  I miss you.  How are you?  You could tell me.  I would listen.  And respond.

Oh.  As I reread that upper sentence I wondered if my subconscious psyche was revealing the shallow sadness and loneliness I sometimes feel in this space because most of the time this is a one-way conversation.  Wow, that's pretty deep for a rainy Saturday morning.  So let's make this Say Hi To Stacey Day.  Fab ideas you have.

In other nonessential news...

My hemoglobin is up to 13.5, which is cause for a jog around the block or a dusting off of the workout videos because that's back in the normal range.  I should be feeling great!  But I'm not.  But one day I will.  Let's say... Thursday.  Thursday will be the comeback day.

This day, in one point five hours, we will drive north one hour to a university town to meet up with some manti-cooking Turks.  I have a pic of actual manti I saw once...

Peter and Reuben have their Turkish soccer jerseys on, Paul is walking around speaking random Turkish phrases to himself, and I... I am looking forward to making new local Turkish friends and eating their delicious food.

But first I must go dry my hair.

And tell you that, although it is 40ish today, it will be in the 80s by Wednesday.  Aha!

What's Going On

Reuben lost his second tooth last night.  First one has almost grown all the way in.

Will put one-year-old Charlie in the toddler bed today since he refuses to stay in the crib.  Exhibit A: Charlie sleeping in my bed right now.  Not because we put him there, but because he stealthily maneuvered his way in while we were unconscious.

Oops.  Awake now because he heard me hit the computer monitor.  It's old and wiggin out.

Bought a new camera, thanks to the Consumer Reports magazine Paul's dad lent me.  Now I have to buy a new computer with an up-to-date operating system to support it.  Back to Consumer Reports.

Charlie has about ten words now.  Let's see... Tractor and car are by far his favorites.  Down, no, Mama, Dada, bye-bye, juice, Nana, thank you, more, ball, and baby are other essentials.

I am not at the Homeschool Event of the Year this weekend.  I'm too tired.

Paul is handsome.  And I like him a lot.

Peter did a poetry recitation last night at the school's Rockin' Writer's Theatre.  It was cute.  I served refreshments.

I've been eating a Greek gyro 2-3 times a month.  For the sake of my iron.  And because they're so tasty.  Made by actual Greek man in C'ville.  I know, who knew?

Peter recently purchased a safari vest.  For adventuring.  It has 26 pockets and he would like to show you what he has stowed in each one.  Got an hour?

We are munching on our spring garden.  Radishes, spinach, lettuce, and arugula.  Carrots and peas will be ready soon.  Fresh green smoothies with spinach picked just moments before.  Lovely.

Reuben started a family joke about his "bucky."  We all laugh when he talks about it because none of us, including Reuben, know what his bucky actually is.  He just randomly says things about his mysterious bucky and we all crack up.  I suppose Paul and I are laughing because of what his bucky could be, you know.  Which takes me to this last bit of news...

Reuben's three o'clock playground injury yesterday:  He fell off a structure and was not getting up and was crying pretty fiercely.  As I ran over I called out, "Does your arm hurt?"  His arm was hanging all limp and awkward and I was sure it was broken.  But he yelled out, "NO, MY PEE-NUSS!"  Oh.  Now all the parents who were also there waiting to pick up their children from school are aware of the issue.  Then he lowered his pants to get a visual.  No shame here.

Charlie has brought me his shoes and is ready to go out.  Reuben has requested a trip to the Children's Museum and when I turned him down he gladly changed his plans to going to the store to buy candy to fill a pinata.  So...

Chase and Carly AND Reuben and Candy

Once upon a time my cute sister and her manly man came to visit.  And we went bowling...

 

A natural

So sad my sister is blurry here.

Soon-to-be-a-dad Chase chillin' with Charlie.

I think he's bowled before.

Here I go...

I could not find a ball light enough with finger holes big enough.
So heavy.

Thumb up! Thumb up!

The stealth bowler, giving a silent shout-out to Encinitas.

Valentine's Day snuck up on us while they were here.

Chase, Peter, and I put together pixi stick cards during breakfast the morning of.

Valentine's Day is what led me over the edge to declare No Sugar March.  It seems like we have had a constant stream of candy since Halloween.  Reuben is a sugar maniac and pesters me constantly about wanting to eat candy.  No mas!

No Sugar March was so fabulous we are extending it to all the other months.  Welcome to No Sugar April.

Paul's mom created a very fun candy-filled egg hunt for all the kids yesterday.  I told my boys that they could eat all the candy they wanted before we left Nana's house, and then leave any that's left at Nana's to eat when they visit her again.

So this morning what does Reuben ask?  "Mom, when can we go to Nana's again?" Ha.

Foggy Brain

In case you noticed my error in the last post, Gigi is not actually five yet.  I thought her birthday was February 7, but really it's May 7.  So we'll welcome her into the Five-Year-Olds club next month.

That's all.

And I looked up plane tickets to California last night.  So that's fun...

Rambles

Really?  You don't have any camera suggestions for me?  This blog is quite dull due to the lack of photos, which is a result of needing a new camera, which I'm going to fully accredit the blame to you because you haven't told me about your camera.  "We came here to meet girls and dance.  And we can't meet girls until we dance!"  You know what I'm saying?

I want one with a viewfinder and a rechargeable Lithium battery.  It doesn't exist.  Except for the one I currently own that is not for sale anymore because I bought it seven years ago.  Most just have a screen on the back, but it's impossible to see what you're taking a picture of when it's sunny.

But maybe they have fixed this faulty feature.  Maybe you have a camera with a screen that doesn't go black with the sun's glare.  Maybe you should tell me which camera it is so I can buy it and thus improve your life with photos on my blog.  See?  Win, win.

In other news... I am sitting at home with a fevered baby whilst Paul, Peter, and Reuben are spending the day in The City.  Oh, I love going to the city.  I've been looking forward to this Spring Break Day of Family Fun... visiting with friends, exploring the new exhibits at the Children's Museum, holding hands with my man, going out for dinner, and a little clothes shopping.

Instead I've done laundry and dishes, wiped Charlie's nose twenty times and given him Tylenol, picked up the mail and eaten leftovers for lunch.  Ho hum, twiddly dum.

Next topic... I enrolled Reuben in school for fall.  It's my backup plan in case I never feel the opposite of tired again.  Then last night I wrote out what our day of homeschooling would look like with Peter doing 4th grade and Rube doing Kinder/1st grade.  It can be done, of course... by a mother with full stores of iron.  So we'll see.

Peter is going to take part in a summer science enrichment course sponsored by the Gifted and Talented program in our school district.  It's led by a high school science teacher and includes a trip to Chicago.  I'm not convinced that Peter is "gifted and talented", perhaps he was just given an excellent academic foundation by an extraordinary teacher in the perfect educational setting.  Ha ha ha, I crack myself up.

If I don't keep writing, what will I do next?  Get a drink and watch the latest episode of The Amazing Race, I guess.

But first, a Happy Birthday to Riley!  Welcome to the Five-Year-Olds club.  Current members are Reuben, Samuel, Gigi, and now Riley!  I would show you cute pictures of them all, but, you know... that whole camera thing.  And to be fully truthful, these cousins live in four different towns in three different states and have never actually all met each other.  But you can imagine how cute they'd be playing ninjas and princesses all together.

Okay, good-bye.  Hope you're having a more thrilling, less lonely day than I am.

To School or Not to School

It's Kindergarten Roundup!  And I have a future kindergartener who may or may not need rounding up.

This is the week to go down to the school and fill out the stack of papers to enroll Reuben for the fall.

But do I do it?

I don't know.

I keep going back and forth about the pros and cons.  So I'm going to lay them out here to clear my brain.  (But I don't have a lot of time.  I've got a date with My Man to do lesson ten in our language learning.)

Send the Rube to Kindergarten
1. That whole socialization thing that everyone and their mother-in-law is so worried about.
2. I'm a recovering Anemic and am so tired and maybe I'll be this tired always.
3. I'm used to this whole send-your-kid-away-all-day-and-let-someone-else-educate-him and I like it.
4. It's what everyone else is doing.
5. A lot of Rube's friends would be in his class and he'd love being with them, including his future wife, Kelsey, with whom he plays several times a week.

Keep the Rube at Home
1. He doesn't want to go to school.  Which surprised me.  We don't talk negatively about school.  Peter goes to school.  Rube is super independent, but also easily scared.  Like, everyday he is scared of something.  So maybe that has something to do with it.
2. We quite possibly could be moving to The Place in the middle of the next school year.  This would just mess up switching to homeschool midyear and midcurriculum.
3. We love LOVE the flexibility in our lives that homeschooling gives us.
4. Homeschooling is awesome.
5. And that whole socialization thing.  I want him to be socialized by me, not his peers.  Unlike Peter, I think Rube will be easily influenced to follow the wrong crowd.  He shows tendencies to be dishonest and to want to fit in.  I want to build up his moral backbone a bit, no, a lot more.

Okay, that's it for tonight.  Do talk amongst yourselves and send me any thoughts, pro or con.  My brain is only functioning at a third of it's power due to the lack of hemoglobin circulating in my veins.

And I haven't mentioned it, but we've been doing No Sugar March because I'm tired of Reuben always wanting candy and desserts.  All day, everyday sugar, sugar, sugar.  But, I uh, really needed some chocolate tonight, you know, so I snuck out to the gas station on my way to the PTO meeting and bought a pack of M&Ms and now I'm going to go eat them.

And I'm not really digging this blog layout either.  It's so green.  I do like that it's wider and the pictures are larger.  Prepare for another change.

Water

I've got boys who love to play with water.

Another day

Another day

Mixing colored water

Hair design by Paul