Today marks Zander’s 3 months in glasses and for the first time in a long time – no dilation. The wait was looong… too long according to Zander but there were a few in office emergencies I guess. The doctor is very happy with his progress and will have him back in in January 2012 for dilation. We are still looking at 5-7 years of glasses but with how much Zander loves his glasses that is not a problem. There is the occassional picture where I will see he has one eye slipping and he still does attempt to cheat and look OVER the glasses but we are seeing progress. (And for those less in the know with the twins the glasses HAVE made it MUCH easier to tell them apart… from the FRONT and SIDE… the back you are still on your own.)

Hanging with the big boys

This left me with the other 4 kids for the morning. We took advantage of our potential one on one time with Gavin and we went right to work on his math book… I think we did around 6-8 pages all the way up to dealing with symmetry and further pattern recognition. Then we started a new phonics book to try and reinforce his reading. The new plan is to have the twins watch at least ONE episode of Word World a day to push the phonics understanding. I am finding confusion with some letter sounds – e and i specifically.

Gavin and his workbook

While we workbooked it out we also rocked it out with Adele… Trinity loves the song Rolling in the Deep. So the little ones boogied while we worked. Well, Trinity and Emanuel, Echo spent her time trying to steal Gavin’s book, eraser and pencil box.

Dancing!

After doing so many pages I was more than willing to agree to Gavin’s suggestion he take his siblings outside. Great timing as Echo was running down (she had a rather sleepless night last night) and needed to nurse and get a nap in. Apparently the red and black ball (aka sparkly ball) is a hot number but they managed to share and rotate the toys enough to get a good block of time spent outside.

Out in the sun

Zander and Ken got home in time to make lunch and sit Zander down (be it VERY unwillingly) to do some more of the dreaded subtraction. I am not sure WHY he has taken it in such dislike as when he puts his mind to it he is VERY good at it, but he has. I am determined to break through his stubborn streak and make it fun and interesting. He keeps complaining that Gavin is SO far ahead of him in the book and I keep explaining well if he would take advantage of the one on one time we have together we could get HIM that far ahead too. Funny how so often they don’t care what the other is doing but other times it is CRUCIAL it be the same.

This afternoon the mail brought a happy parcel. Something from a friend in Ontario! She sent us a book for making stuffed critters, some sewing free appliqués, and the cutest little pink backpack for Trinity. I love it when mail comes that is not asked for and is craft related.

Thank You!!

Gavin did his second last page for his story! He is so proud of the work he has put into these. I am searching for a new project like this… semi independent and stretched over a length of time. He does NOT want to make a book again right away and the only idea he could come up with was making Valentine’s Day cards… a little out of season and something I would have to store away when we move and hope it did not get misplaced for next February.

Newest page

We had a bit of rain this evening, first of the season. Since it didn’t look like it was going to pass permanently we decided to hold off on our walk until tomorrow before Ken meets up with the guys for their online gaming meet up. If the boys can listen and behave our plan is to go to the park after supper on Friday. Today I had to confiscate their Gameboy Advance due to sharing issues and then Zander having a meltdown. This is one of the main reasons we have basically kept the kids off of the computers and other electronic gaming items. I would much rather they went out to the backyard and ran wild and free in there.

So the summary for today – good day. While we don’t have our appointments for Echo yet we have a plan for tomorrow to follow up and chase them down, Zander got a good report on his eyes, I got FUN mail, Gavin almost finished his storybook and the kids spent a nice chunk of time outside in the backyard. I am trying to look at things in this way – ok there is stuff to do in regards to Echo but all the tests, and appointments don’t do much more than put a name (or not) on things… the doctor is pleased with her otherwise and said her low weight is NOT hurting her at all. If he is happy to have our next scheduled appointment be August and trusts us to make our testing and dietician as they are scheduled then we are certainly doing well. But then again, anyone who knows us knows that our kids are our life. I think that is true of most parents. At least the ones I know!

While working on Tweets for Fat Sheep I came across a quote I really liked it is as follows: Tension is who you think you should be.  Relaxation is who you are.  ~Chinese Proverb. Isn’t that true???

Our Miss Echo