Here is Cassia's shark aquarium.

My kids are fairly obsessed with guitar time around here.

I miss you, Timber!  I have this placed where I think of you often and smile!

Roo is in a phase similar to his newborn phase where he prefers to be held at nap time.  I held him almost constantly for months.  It's what I did.  It's when Edison and Sir Smiles learned that they could get away with mischief if mom was trying to keep a sleeping baby sleeping.  Roo now sleeps for very short periods of time and then wakes up screaming bloody murder.  When we go to get him, his face is streaming with tears, and he is very upset.  I'm no longer used to holding him for hours at a time, and he's no longer really able to sleep in the same room where all the other kids are playing or doing their school work.  That means he really only gets a good chunk of sleep in the car or when it is nap time for the other kids.  I read my book and hold him until it is time to get the school kids.  It is a lovely time of day, but I do wish he was comfortable napping on his own.

Today, though, was really nice.  Roo made up for all the short naps this week by sleeping in my arms all afternoon.  He would wake up, see that I still had him and close his eyes.  If he were in his crib, he would have screamed, but he felt me there and could go right back to sleep.  Jon was home so he had charge of all the just waking kids.  I finished a book and just soaked up the baby and me time.  He turns one next month, so I have to take it while it lasts.  

Basia spends a lot of time outside.  She takes walks and rides her bike around the neighborhood.  She is starting to break the ice with all the neighbors in a way that only Basia can.  She found a lost dog for a neighbor last week.  She knows which dogs belong at which houses (I haven't the slightest clue), and she saw a dog in the wrong yard.  The owners were frantic about their lost baby, and Basia made their day when she could tell them where he was.  Yesterday some neighbors asked Basia if they could have some of our pomegranates.  We really are horrible and don't know what to do with all of them.  Our tree is huge, and the crop was amazing this year.  Basia handed over enough to let them make some jam.  Today she dropped off even more that she had picked.  I love this girl!

Brishen took a test today for Physics.  There was one question that was math related and was giving him problems.  He reworked it many times and then found out he got it wrong.  After getting it wrong, he tried and tried to work it in a way that would give him the right answer but never was able.  He finally emailed his teacher for some help.  She looked at the problem, saw that the entire rest of the class also had missed it, and realized there was an issue.  Brishen was sure other students probably also told her that there was an issue, but I'm not too sure that many other kids worked the problem 12 times to try to figure out where they went wrong.  That kid has some determination and dedication and gave his whole class some extra points on the test.

Lest it seem that I only know how to brag and not be real:  1. Edison is once again wetting his pants when he doesn't feel like going through the extremely difficult task of pulling down his pants.  Outside, though, he does just fine.  He pulls them down and waters the grass with regularity.  Even at public playgrounds.  2.  Baby Roo can now climb the stairs of our bunk beds.  I was letting him explore the bedrooms and thought he'd be fine since I closed off the doors to the danger zones.  When I checked on him after a few minutes, he was sitting on Edison's top bunk.  I'm so good that it happened a second time today, as well.  3.  Tobias is a fashion star in the making.  He rolls his jeans up in creative ways, loves long socks pulled up over his pants, and tucks shirts in very, very snugly.  Today he even rolled the waistband of his pajamas in a very fancy way.  4.  We let the kids skip school today.  They each asked to stay home, so we kept them home.  It's National Student Day.  They are allowed 18 absences.  We are going to be in big trouble before the year is over.  5.  Parent/Teacher conferences are supposed to be voluntary for the pre-k set.  I was planning to pass for all three kids.  I quite frankly am not too worried about how my kids are doing in preschool.  Even if they are doing horribly, I feel they have some time to get better during the next 13 years.  I was told, however, that it's a good idea to meet with the teacher about Soren.  Uh-oh.   6.  Jon took Brishen to get his learner's permit for driving today.  I forgot to send an important piece of paperwork.  I sent the other 83 forms of required identification, but I missed one.  Now Brishen waits until Jon has another free day.