Gremlins

Okay, not giving up, but has anyone noticed that a to do list around the house is like a gremlin? Okay, those of a younger generation may not remember, geez I am having a hard time remembering the rules, don't feed them after midnight, ummm, when else do Jack and I have time to sit down and talk about what needs to be done?, don't get them wet, obviously impossible since Gwen is the amazing paper eater. And don't allow near bright light, I think that was it. Hmm, bright light... hmmm, well our house isn't exactly bright, but I think it is bright enough. The to do list from hell seems to multiply every time we talk about it. Jack did get two whole days of getting to work around here. Matt has been here since Saturday working. Heather and family came over to help also. Without family and friends I would need to be on serious drugs to keep me sane. Who am I kidding, me? Sane? Not a word I use to usually describe myself... But work is getting done and I can almost see an end in sight, almost.
But for other more exciting news. Ya'll should see Gwen go. She is getting up on her hands and knees every once in awhile to rock and sometimes crawl. She can sit while propping herself with her hands, and she has a love of power cords. You can imagine the fun I have sitting here on the floor typing on the laptop, Jack's that needs to be constantly plugged in, keeping her away from the power cord. She does have toys I swear. But for some reason, like the mysterious way that cats gravitate towards string, Gwen goes for all things plugged into electrical outlets...
Layla is, well, Layla. She amazes me also. She is starting to look like such a little girl. I think that part of it is the hair that is finally growing on her head, and the losing of baby chub. Okay, also there is the fact that she talks better than Natalie sometimes. She comes up with these amazing stories, that she acts out while narrating. It is just so sweet. And probably the biggest reason, is that when I see her doing these things it makes me want to sweep her up into my arms and squeeze her tightly, I guess trying to hold the baby from going away, and more often than not she squirms to get out of my arms to go play.
And Natalie. Ugg, out of all of this I feel the worst about Natalie. She needs my attention more than any of them right now. She is in uncertain times. She is having nightmares, and is really picking up on the stress in this house. And she doesn't understand it. She knows we liked Hawaii, she does not like it here, she told me that she was ready to go once we saw her first snow. She gets upset that the weather says that it isn't going to rain and then does rain. Our park day on Friday got rained on. And then there is the homeschool part of it. She is going through one of her step backs before she makes a jump. Natalie has always been like this. And every time she does one of her step backs it scares the crap out of me thinking that I have failed to teach her basics. She was writing her letters so well. We have been putting them together has words. And now she has stopped being able to write nicely. In fact she is making her letters backwards, upside down and everything. But just a few days ago a conversation we had,
Natalie, "Bark, bark starts with R doesn't it?"
me, "Well, there is an R in bark, but let's sound out the word to see what it starts with, b a r k, so a b sound, what makes the b sound again?
Natalie. "B makes the b sound"
And we went through many other words. Some she needed more examples, like T, hmm, tree also makes a t sound, tires, train, but she gets it now. She gets that those letters make sounds and those sounds make words. Really this is an amazing thing. To see her mind working. I want to work with her more, she really has a short attention span, so we can have a conversation like that one for about ten minutes and then it is over. We can do that a few times a day, but then it is me finding time to have these conversations with her. I have to stop myself from becoming impatient with her to read. I know that most people I have talked to say that unschoolers usually start reading at 8. And we are taking it slow. I would much rather hear her stories and see her imagination grow. And see her amazing abilities to remember the oddest things. Umm, I think it was in December when we talked about different religions, you know to explain why some people celebrate Christmas, some Hanukkah...We talked about a few and just yesterday she came down with one of her time life books, it had a picture of Vishnu in it. And she asks me, "Is he a god just like Kali Ma?" So we ended up talking about Hindu gods and goddesses for awhile again. I am sure that people think we are odd for adding this to our homeschooling, but it was what Natalie was interested in. Talking about religion and her love of Indian food, well, we ended up talking about Indian religion:)
Okay, this was long, but I feel like I haven't been able to keep in touch with anyone and this way I can write all this at once and everyone can read it.
Oh and by the way, I get the new keyboard on Thursday, so pictures on Thursday!!!! YEA!!!