And those of you who have followed this blog since the beginning will be interested to know that I got to go to the dentist today to replace my brand new crown. The one that had to wait until I got back from China. Remember? The old one fell off just days before I left to adopt Cooper? Come on. You didn't forget my Ben-Affleck-look-alike-dentist, did you?
Believe it or not, the new one broke. And I actually looked forward to my visit today. Not because my dentist is cute. Unfortunately, "Ben" is gone and in his place is a dentist who looks...a lot less like Ben Affleck.
I was excited to go because for every day (so far) of our 2 1/2 week vacation from school I have been taking care of 3 children with diarrhea who are running temperatures between 101 and 104. Yesterday, Doug got sick, too.
And today, I got to sit in a chair for 90 minutes and rest.
We LOVE Our Yard
In between doses of medicine and trips to the bathroom we've spent a lot of time in our back yard. We've done tons of planting this year and it's really starting to be pretty. I'm trying my hand at gardening in the desert and have made friends with the Garden Guy at channel 3. We've gone all organic because of the tortoise and are working on ways to be more "green". My next project is to learn how to use "grey water". We're learning a lot and having a blast.
Today Emily and I planted a tree. We bought this Mesquite tree for the back yard over the winter and instantly had buyers remorse. Our back yard is shaping up to be very "park like". And the desert tree just didn't fit in. So the nursery said if we could keep it alive in a bucket for 6 months they would take it back.
For 6 months I've been trying to convince Doug we should plant it in the front yard which is desert landscape. He felt our front yard had enough trees, but for some reason, this weekend decided the tree would look good in the front yard.
It is now, of course, holding on to life by a thread. I felt guilty asking the nursery to take it back so while Doug was in bed with the flu, Emily and I planted the tree. Wish it luck. It looks like a big stick.
And poor, sick little Gracie got off the couch long enough to pick and eat 1 of our first 2 strawberries.
More Nature Fun!
Earlier in the week we found a limp, almost lifeless hummingbird lying on our back patio after having crashed into the big window. Emily insisted we bring him inside and I told the girls he was not going to make it, but we'd try.
He actually sipped some nectar I made him and we left him propped up in a rag on the counter. Thirty minutes later he was gone. He'd flown off somewhere in the house.
We got really quiet and followed his chirping until we found him sitting in branches in a vase on the plant shelf way up by the ceiling.
Emily had the honor of releasing him.
We LOVE Our School!
The girls attend a public charter school that we waited a year to get into. Each quarter, students create a summative project where they share what they learned throughout the quarter.
Kindergarten's 3rd quarter theme was "How the Sun Makes Our Day". All the curriculum is integrated each quarter around the theme. They started the quarter with lab coats and a trip to the Science Center (which I chaperoned - and I'm telling you...teachers are SERIOUSLY underpaid.)
They learned measuring in Math (time, temperature, length, volume, etc.), did tons of science experiments inside using flashlights and making shadows and outside experimenting with the sun and shadows, writing and reading were all about saving the planet, recycling, etc, etc.
The summative was AWESOME.
Emily's shadow portrait says, "I trn off the kumpytr to heop the kumpytr not waste lekchisudee". Not concered with spelling at this age. She writes complete sentences by herself simply sounding out words phonetically. No translation necessary, I presume.
Emily's teacher
And Grace can't WAIT for Kindergarten!
