We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
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Blogs we read:
2006-02-01 - 13:14
Happy Imolg, everyone!
February is here, and with it, the light is visibly returning to the northern hemisphere.
Of course, the coldest part of winter is still to come, but at least we can see where we're going again.
We finally got the house
Whew! Buying a house is a complex, exhausting experience that whipsaws between tedium and high tension.
At least that was our experience buying this one.
But we did, indeed, finally, get the house I loved all along. The beautiful, 100 year old farm house on an acre, with a creek running by next door. I am so happy! Now...to think of a great name!
We'll be closing on February 24 and taking possession the following Monday. That may sound far away to you, but you're not staring at a huge heap of boxes and an apartment full of treasures to pack with the help of a cheerful, but not entirely reliable, junior assistant.
To me, four weeks sounds just about right. I'd like to move in sooner, but realistically, even if the place were vacant, I don't think we could. Especially because Rod is leaving for Belgium in two weeks and will return a couple of days before we take possession of the house!
Poor Jack has had more than enough, though. He has, several times, suggested "Lets not buy a house." After being dragged through dozens of houses, and driving past a hundred more -- mostly in the dark, after sitting patiently and quietly hour after hour as we discussed homes and signed contracts, and ...well, everything involved in buying a home, Jack is tired of it all. I can't say I blame him.
Fortunately, things are winding down on that front. Most of the contracts are signed, and there will be no more prowling around strange old houses trying to figure out whether we could shoe-horn our life into their confines. Now, we go back to the same place for various kinds of inspections. Jack can walk through and we can point out "We will eat here, and we will cook here. Dad's desk will be here and Jack's desk will be here."
Last time we were there together, Jack started to ask me where his toys would live and tried to lay claim to my office as his own. I think he understands that it will be our home soon. We've even discussed getting him a tricycle for his third birthday so he can ride it on the beautiful porch, and he thinks that's a great idea. I'm not sure he understands about this being *instead* of our apartment, but we can come back to feed the ducks from time to time, and I think he'll be OK.
School
Just as well that Jack is two and this home schooling thing is mainly for our practice, because the home buying and packing has really cramped our "schooling" style.
We intended to start at the turn of the year, but the flu shot down that idea -- so we've been working at this for three weeks and we have not yet quite completed week two.
Jack loves to "do school" and he encourages us to play many times a day, but finding time and energy right now has been difficult. We do something every day, and that's probably really good enough for now, but I'm also wondering if our "curriculum" may be a little too ambitious. Not for Jack; for Rod and I! Jack would happily "do school" for many more hours a day than we do.
It would probably be best to persevere with the lessons as written for now, and just take as long as we take to complete them. If we still have trouble keeping up once we're settled into our new home, then it might make more sense to revisit them.
I don't see the schedule as all that rigorous -- except that I had included baking cookies at least once a week, because Jack loves it so much. That's probably a bit much. Oh well.
And still he grows!
Jack has, nonetheless, made significant progress on his own. In the last few days, he has figured out that letter order matters.
When Jack "writes letters" he likes to put the recipients name on the front in foamie letters. A week ago, Jack was pretty random in his placement of the letters". Now he puts the letters in the right order when we hand them to him. He doesn't remember the order on his own yet -- but he recognizes that the order matters and puts them on the paper in the order we hand them to him.
He has also developed a sense of time. He understands that when we say we're going to do something "tomorrow" that he has to wait. He's pretty patient, too. He doesn't nag that day -- though he does sometimes wake up at 3 or 4 am and start checking whether we can go now. He also refers to things that happened "yesterday" or "this morning", though so far his choice of words has little relation to when something happened beyond "in the past". He told me at 5am this morning that he "had fun at Fantasy Forest this morning"--he was at Fantasy Forest yesterday afternoon.)
I'm fascinated watching his sense of the world around him expand and deepen.
Oh, and he's continued to hone his flirtation skills. Now he rolls his eyes and grins brightly at the pretty young ladies he meets. They never fail to tell him how cute he is and how well he flirts!
One disappointing thing about his current awareness is that it's been weeks since I've gotten a really good photo of him. He insists on rolling his eyes, sticking out his tongue, and generally goofing off for the camera -- and then he wants to see the photos endlessly. Ah, well, this too shall pass. Eventually he'll go back to ignoring me. Right? This is a stage, isn't it? (Maybe not. His Dad does the same thing...hmmm.)
Well, I'd best get back to work, since I have too much packing to do to stay very late.
I'll try to get photos attached later this evening.
