Spring

The pictures won't upload right now but I'll go ahead and post the words.

Today was a beautiful spring day finally. Last week there was a bitter cold spell and it even snowed. Nyla wanted to take advantage of the weather with a picnic so we headed to the pond after dinner with a basket of strawberries. It was very pleasant until Cora decided she was tired and wanted to go home by herself. She can be pretty fast and it took a while to catch up to her. That ended our nice picnic because we were over halfway home by that point.

Last weekend was the post yard sale. Apparently it's a really big deal and people come the night before to camp out. It starts at 6am and goes all day. We didn't get out there until 8am. Buddy put a few things out and Nyla decided to sell Pretty. Pretty joined us last year from the neighborhood yard sale. She has seen plenty of action and looks a lot worse than when she joined us. Cora even drew on her back. Nyla wanted to sell her for $5 which is more than she paid. I thought it would never happen but it did. Neither Buddy or I were there because we had both stepped inside for a moment. When we came back out Nyla had $5. I don't know how she did it. She spent a little of her money on one of the three new things. I know she got a new doll for free. She also has a toy computer and a bunny backpack. She paid for one of those two items and the other was free. We should have had her sell all of our stuff.

After the yard sale Nyla attended a birthday party. She wasn't feeling well so we left early. She came home with a cough on Friday and she was feeling poorly on and off all weekend. Buddy and I caught it almost immediately. Bohdin started feeling bad Sunday night but he was better by mid morning on Monday. I kept Bohdin and Nyla home on Monday. It was nice to have a few hours of rest while the kids played with each other. Days are a lot less hectic when they don't go to school.

On Tuesday Nyla had her class field trip to the zoo. I didn't volunteer but thought I would go if nothing interfered. I was feeling a little sick but Nyla really wanted me to go. I was late showing up due to construction and was incredibly lucky to spot Nyla immediately. If I had come just a few minutes later I never would have found her. There were enough parent volunteers that everybody split up into groups of two. I spent the day with a lovely girl from Nyla's class and her mother. They are from Korea and I was lucky enough to be offered some yummy homemade sushi. It made me want to make sushi more often. It wasn't fancy but it was tasty. That day was actually the last hot day before the cold front came through and it was pretty hot. Cora did well up until we were waiting for the tram to take us back near the entrance. She became tired and was mad that she couldn't sleep. Tired and mad Cora screams a lot. She was really loud and I was getting a lot of looks. It was minutes before she calmed down. There was nothing I could do. By the time we got off the tram she wasn't as mad anymore and stopped crying and screaming. We headed back home and she fell asleep right away.

Cora's sleep troubles continued on Wednesday. She was tired but couldn't sleep. She tried multiple times that day. By 5:25 she was not happy. Nyla had dance class at 5:30 and I needed to walk her over. Cora screamed most of the way there. I didn't linger long in the building because the screaming was pretty uncomfortable for everybody. Cora fell asleep soon after we came home. I had a choice to make. Either send Bohdin across the street to get Nyla or leave a sleeping Cora with him for the three minutes it takes to get there and back. I sent Bohdin which was the right choice because Cora woke up very unhappy. She finally calmed down as Buddy walked in the door at 7. She stayed up until 10 that night.

It's been a rough week with her sleep and her behavior. She is acting like a three year old and not in the good way. Last week at breakfast she wanted three meatballs. She can count up to three so I did actually give her three meatballs. She looked at the plate and screamed at me "I wanted three not three.". She's at the point where everything in her life is wrong.

The science fair posters were due last week. We were able to check out some of the other ones. There were a lot so we couldn't possibly see them all. There were some really interesting ones and some not so great ones. The only projects that were really horrible came from the sixth graders. I don't know what happened. They were all identical in layout, were completely unimaginative, and poorly designed. Somebody taught them what to do and I can only assume it was a teacher who ought to be fired. The projects in every other grade varied widely. Some probably had a lot of help and had a better project to show for it. I was impressed with several of them. There were no prizes or judging. Everybody got a medal and a certificate. It was a good experience.