Helpful

We went to the science museum last week because we just haven't gone often enough. Our membership expires in March and I don't think we'll be renewing because of a probable move this summer. The kids always have fun there. Since it was a weekday without a field trip we almost had the whole place to ourselves. Cora's favorite part was running away from me. We left a little earlier than I anticipated because Cora was getting tired.





Our first big snow finally came. We had maybe a quarter of an inch. The next day we had a little more but it was still less than an inch. Beggars can't be choosers so the kids enjoyed it. We had a snowball fight and tried to make a snowman family. The snow was kind of dry so we ended up with snow blobs that were about four inches high. Cora was not able to go out much because she refused to wear her boots. She wanted to wear her other shoes but they are not appropriate for wet weather.



Bohdin has been chewing on things a lot lately. Most of the collars on his shirts are hopelessly stretched out from all of the chewing and sucking. This weekend Bohdin was chewing on the sleeping bag when something happened and he hurt himself. His tooth that had already been loose became a lot looser. The picture below was taken about 10 seconds before the tooth came out after a nudge with his tongue. Bohdin wanted to save the tooth instead of giving it to the tooth fairy. I'm not sure the tooth fairy will ever visit Bohdin.



At storytime two weeks ago a photographer was there from the local newspaper taking pictures. He showed me this picture and told me he would put it in the newspaper the following day if space allowed. None of the other parents believed it when I told them because apparently it usually takes weeks for a picture to show up. I forgot about buying a paper the following day to check. The next week at story time one of the librarians gave me a copy of Cora's picture that was in the paper just as the photographer had said it would be. I'm glad she saved me a copy. Nyla is in the background in the right of the picture. Bohdin no longer likes to attend story time so he goes to the children's section of the library and reads while Nyla listens.



Bohdin has been complaining about his schoolwork and trying to put it off every day. I became very weary of fighting with him about it and was really close to putting him in public school. After seeing how serious I was he came around. The past two days have been awesome. He does his work quickly and we are done by lunchtime. In addition Buddy is going to start teaching one of five subjects each night on a rotating basis. I think this is good for everyone. I get a few minutes of my day back, Buddy gets to stay involved in Bohdin's schooling, and Bohdin gets another teacher with another point of view and teaching style.

There is some rule that only one child can be behaving well at any given time. Since Bohdin has been giving me attitude about everything, not being helpful, and deliberately trying to incite Nyla, Nyla has to step up and be the better behaved child. She has been awesome lately. Normally she refuses to help around the house. She either has an excuse or just says no and walks away. This week she has been incredible. She is being really helpful playing with Cora, she is cleaning up her messes, and she has started doing the laundry. She loads the washing machine without me asking, unloads into the dryer, and then puts the clean clothes in a laundry basket. I hate to lose my sweet Bohdin but I'm really enjoying my sweet Nyla in the meantime.