Hallie and Travis

Hallie had a minor meltdown after dinner this evening. She was worn-out, which was most of the problem. She finished dinner first, and I asked her if she wanted to feed Rocket. She declined, which was fine. But a bit later, when Rocket clearly needed to be fed, Travis asked if he could do it when he was done eating and we said “sure.” He continued to finish his dinner and in the meantime, Hallie decided she really DID want to feed Rocket. When I explained that she’d given up her chance, she got really upset. Read the rest of this entry »

We’d gotten spoiled by the recent string of pleasant weekends. Yesterday’s sunny-and-70 didn’t stick around to continue the trend. Instead, we got cold and rainy. But we made the best of it.

Hallie’s basketball game was at 8:30, so we scrambled to get there on time. Despite not a single basket in warm-up, Hallie got a solid one early in the game. She was beaming! The kids all did a lot of hustling today. The gym was pretty cool, and Hallie was super-sweaty — and quite proud of the fact. For several hours after the game, she kept repeating “That was so much fun!” Read the rest of this entry »

Travis is starting to get really excited about reading. It’s so fun to watch this happen. He’s been working on sounding out words, and Hallie’s been an enthusiastic and supportive teacher. Travis still relies too much on context and guessing. He’ll see a picture and a word and immediately guess a totally different word — one closely related to the picture. But when you get him to slow down and pay attention he’ll often work things out.

I’m not sure he’s 100% on all the sounds each letter makes. And I’m reminded once again of all the crazy exceptions in our language. “Well, I know I told you it makes that sound but when it’s next to this letter it makes THIS sound . . .” But he’s getting really enthusiastic and I’m jumping on his momentum.

He’s also getting excited about math. He’s been asking lots of questions about what certain numbers make together. This morning he pulled out some Spider Man flash cards he got as a party favor ages ago. He and Mark spent a while with them and Travis didn’t want to stop. From what I overheard while helping Hallie clean her room, Travis was cruising right through them. He is going to be a force to be reckoned with when he finally gets to kindergarten in another 17 months!

You non-feedreading folks might notice the Hallie and Travis page is sporting a new theme: the Dum-Dum theme from the folks at WP Glamour. It’s pretty sweet, I think. Makes me wonder why I didn’t switch it a long time ago.

Feel free to let us know what you think of it by dropping us a comment.

7-8:45 Get kids breakfast, dog and tadpole fed, everyone dressed, house semi-straightened, missing shoe located, head out the door.

8:50 Drop Hallie at Oskar’s house to walk to school

9:00 Stop by Costco to take care of “empty” light. Take phone call from Mollie asking if I can cover a short childcare gap for Beckton. Say “Sure.”

9:15-11:00 Get Travis to school. Drive him, his teacher, and three classmates on their fire station field trip. Return everyone to Travis’s school.

11:00 Realize I have more than 90 minutes before next “engagement” and head home to walk Rocket.

11:30 Head out to walk Rocket.

11:45 Get cellphone call from Conn: “Hallie spilled her drink all over her clothes and she says the spares they gave her in the office are too tight and can I bring her a new outfit?”

11:45-12:00 Speed through the end of Rocket’s walk.

12:15 Get to Conn with new clothes for Hallie. Thank office staff and return loaners. Race out again to head to Shelley Lake.

12:50 Get to Shelley Lake in time to meet Julie and Aidan (an old buddy of T’s) so I can watch Aidan during Julie’s meeting.

12:55 Head with Aidan to MBK to pick up Travis. Return to Shelley Lake for boys to play. Realize I forgot the promised sand toys. Donate my lunch tupperware container for sand castle mold and use pocket knife to transform my empty Coke bottle into two scoopers.

2:45 Return Aidan to Julie and head home.

3:10 Arrive home.

3:25 Receive Beckton.

3:30 Head out with Rocket, Beckton, and Travis for walk to Conn.

3:45 Meet Mollie at the creek. Exchange Beckton for Hallie. Watch kids play for a while. Describe my day to friends at the creek. One says, “It takes a village.” Another says, “Today, you ARE the village!”

4:30 Walk/tow/drag/coddle/cajole/beg/encourage/nag (everything but carry, which is no longer possible) an exhausted Travis (and a pulling Rocket) for the walk back home.

4:45 Make a drink. Nag a tired Hallie through a mediocre job on her homework project.

5:30 Feel very grateful that tonight is Supper Club night and my responsibilities will soon be done for the day!

When I’m frustrated with Hallie and Travis not listening, I frequently fall back on the good ole “1. . . . 2 . . . . 3!” It’s not, as a rule, all that effective. But apparently it’s now ingrained as a discipline tactic for me. I’ve found myself trying to use it on the dog!

Rocket is not the world’s best fetcher. He’ll happily gallop off after whatever you throw for him. Usually he’ll grab it, bring it back, and keep on going right past you. The other day he was reluctant to turn lose his fabric Frisbee. “Rocket, drop it!” I said firmly. “Grrr,” said Rocket playfully. “Rocket, I mean it!” I said in an even more serious tone tone. “Grrr, grr!” said a delighted Rocket, galumphing in circles around me. “Rocket, 1 . . ” I stormed before realizing the ridiculousness of my approach. I was glad I was alone. Other than Rocket, of course. He’ll never tell on me.

I missed Hallie’s basketball game yesterday in which she scored her first game-time goal. Hallie was obviously proud of this so I gave her some good-natured teasing to have her prove it to me.

This morning, we spent some time on the driveway and watched as Hallie put the ball in the hoop seven times! The goal is set to the same 8-foot height as the ones at the Salvation Army gym, but still – she can make baskets!

She frequently gets too close to the goal and her shot bounces off the bottom of the rim, but she’s up there. It’s encouraging to see her working hard to get better and then being rewarded for that effort. She’s certainly come a long way!

Travis has been experiencing a lot of trauma lately. His bout prior to his jaw injury was purely emotional. But it packed a punch.

With the warmer weather, the kids have been loving the swings out back. If they’re ready for school with time to spare, they’re allowed to swing until it’s time to go. They know that when I call them, it means come immediately and head straight for the car. I haven’t been building in any cushion for dawdling. Read the rest of this entry »

Travis is making a full recovery from his Saturday tumble off his bike. I had thought he was doing just fine, but he gave me a bit of a scare on Monday. I realized that he was mumbling all his words and that he still couldn’t get his upper teeth to come forward over his lower teeth. I’d assumed his jaw was still sore the first day or so, but it seemed like it should be getting better faster.

When he first had his wreck, he complained for a bit that he couldn’t breathe. I thought this was just because he was so upset. But then (I’m sure much to the dismay of our dentist) I started googling jaw injuries. I learned that difficulty breathing can be a complication of a dislocated jaw.

Even by Saturday night Travis didn’t seem to be in any real pain. That made a dislocated or fractured jaw seem pretty unlikely. But by Monday, when he still couldn’t open his mouth all the way, I started catastrophizing. Fortunately Dr. Rich put my mind at ease yesterday. He said Travis had really traumatized the joint but that he would be just fine. He did insist on a constant stream of Motrin for a couple of days to keep the swelling down so things would settle into the right place. And he wanted me to be more aggressive with the neosporin on his chin

Altogether, it was the best I could have hoped for. Except, of course, to wish it hadn’t happened in the first place.

Both kids are doing really well on their bike riding. But Travis is (or at least was) a bit too fond of speed. I was tailing him yesterday, and he’d really get flying — far too fast for me to keep up even at a sprint. After our outing to Lions Park we did a lap around the neighborhood. He took off and wouldn’t slow down when I called to him. When he finally stopped, he gleefully announced, “I was going so fast I was out of control!” He was delighted by this. He immediately got a stern talking to about staying under control and especially about slowing down when I told him to. Read the rest of this entry »