Pretty Successful Week

 Last week I mentioned that my phone and computer were not recognizing each other.  I'm not sure what happened, but yesterday, the computer decided to acknowledge the presence of my phone and I was able to upload my pictures.  Lucky you! 

A couple of weeks ago, Molly requested to paint. So naturally, John wanted to also paint.  Luckily, he was pretty happy with the water doodle pads.  And, Molly impressed me with actually painting a picture and not just mixing all of the paint together which had always been the finish product of previous forays in painting.  I also realized she will soon surpass my artistic capabilities.

 Dom and Will have continued to exceed my expectations in their work ethics.  Sure there is plenty of wasted time and refusal to do any sort of writing (ahem...yesterday Will's sentence using a vocabulary word was: "I grow weary of Mom's yelling." We discussed how one might avoid my yelling and agreed to each work harder) but in the end, they complete more assignments on a daily basis than they did last year.  Will continues to excel in his math, while Dom has developed an interest in creative writing and actually enjoys writing briefly in his journal each day.  Something I gave up on last year due to absolute mutiny at the school table.

 Both boys are reading up a storm.  I keep them well stocked in books from the library.  Dominic picked up The Hobbit one day a few weeks ago...naturally, William also decided to read The Hobbit.  Fortunately, we have several copies of this novel and were able to convince Will that all copies were identical.  Dom finished it last week and Will is a few chapters shy.  Today, I walked in to check on their progress on school work and Will immediately looks up and cries:"I just couldn't help it!" He had his copy of The Hobbit out and was reading instead of writing his paragraph about favorite holidays.  Not unlike Anne reading Ben Hur instead of doing her geometry. My empathy was great.

 Speaking of reading, John has a fascination with letters.  I credit his hours of 'Super Why' consumption for a lot of this.  We go on walks around the neighborhood and look for "Super Letters".  He recognizes several, and if he doesn't, he says it is a "Yo Yo" to which I reply, "You're a Yo Yo".  We are quite the comedic duo.  And it is something the whole family gets into.  Will wanted to make sure it was ok to give John a pass if he mistook an upside down W for an M.  We discussed it for longer than necessary, but both agree that would be an acceptable answer for our 2-year-old.  And Will's opinion that John is the smartest 2-year-old ever remains unvarnished.

 Dom and Will in their usual Sunday attire.  They sang in the choir on Sunday which meant we traded in their khaki shorts from the summer for the long pants.  Will has finally grown out of the size 5 pants he wore for 2 years and is into Dom's old size 8 pants.  We had to roll up the pant legs, but pretty good fit. Probably get another 2 years out of them.  Having multiple children is really quite economical and environmentally friendly.  And now I need to find a second pair of pants for Dom...but, what is the point?  He chooses to wear the exact same thing to Mass every week no matter how large a selection I provide.  Though, I probably should get him shirts with sleeves that go all the way to his wrists.  The rolled up sleeve look will not pass muster come December.

 The first day of school, I was afraid that I would have to sit John in front of the television in order to get any meaningful lessons taught.  Turns out, he is actually a very easily entertained little boy.  He will spend a couple of hours if not more playing with trains, marble works, or little figurines in the office. When all else fails, I hand John our ancient iPod touch from 2008 and he does puzzles or practices writing letters.  Because those are the only two apps I could find that were compatible with our dinosaur of an iPod.  He really enjoys them, though, so...#winning.  Now, this does not mean I actually use those hours meaningfully, and he will definitely interrupt our lessons with monkey like hijinks when he is through with his quiet time in the office.  But, still, we are on to something.  I just need to get in line.

Finally, this last picture is really bad, but Dom was so proud of his new shoes.  His feet grew two sizes from last spring to this fall.  Or from whenever we last measured his feet.  One pair of shoes were worn through, others he couldn't even get his feet in.  Using my keen Sherlock Holmes skills, I deduced it was time for new shoes.  These looked so big on his skinny legs, but he was thrilled.  And I suppose I would be also, if I had been wearing shoes a couple sizes too small.  Who knows what his toes will do with all that space to stretch out?  Probably grow...