Thoughts for Thursday

Getting Audrey dressed this morning I dared to dress her in navy blue cordorouy pants. These have a little ruffle at the bottom and are pocket-less. They belonged to Izzie and are definitely girls, although I admit I've been known to sneak in the random white t-shirt and share socks, pants and jackets between the sexes before. Not with this child. I thought I'd made it because we picked out a "kitty" shirt to go on top, but when the pants came out I first got "NO ma-a-a-a-ah-m-e-e-e... they don't ma-a-a-atch my kitty!" I assured her they looked just fine and set her in my lap to put them on. Then the mumbling started "These are BOY pants, mom." Clear as a bell, every word enunciated perfectly. She's two. I can hardly wait until she's twelve. I will be sending her with money to do her own school shopping, I can tell you that much already. We compromised by putting on a pair of tights beneath the offending pants (at her suggestion), making them much more girly.

I've been called (unofficially) to teach Sunbeams in our ward until December, partly because there are 11 sunbeams, and partly because I've been attending weekly anyway. Izzie's refusing to go on her own, and has been brought in to my in Relief Society more than once since we've been back from Saint Louis. I don't know what's up, but she's really struggling. I don't think it's manipulative, I think she's honestly terrified and have considered asking around for some advice on panic attacks. She just completely falls apart. Anyway, but our class is cute and it should be a lot of fun. I don't know what we'll do in January, but hopefully by then she'll at least acclamate to the kids in her class and feel more comfortable in general.

So, we were sitting in singing time last week practicing for the primary program and the kids began the song "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet." Izzie turns to me and whispered "Mom, I LOVE this song!" Warms my heart. Then, she adds "I especially like the Bounteous part!" Peculiar... I'm racking my brain trying to figure out the association because I'm sure she doesn't understand what the word means. I didn't have to think for long. "Because it reminds me of Bounty Hunters!" Thank you, Lego Star Wars.

I can't believe how much homework is involved in first grade! Every night Erick comes home and we let him play for a little bit on the advice of his teacher, but then the work begins. 20 minutes of reading a night, plus spelling lists and math homework that require personal preparation on my part, like beans to count and stuff. Seriously, even on nights we have nothing else going on (almost never) his attention span suffers and mine is completely non-existent! I don't know how people do it, but I swear it wasn't like this when I was in first grade! The curriculum people seem to think I have only one child to care for, someone to run to church and school meetings in my place, a maid to fix and clean up dinner, to pick up the house and run the other kids around to soccer and other activities one to draw baths and get everyone in bed at an early hour so that I can sit and spend an hour counting beans and doing spelling lists with my child every night. And what's worse is my poor child is the one penalized when we don't get it done. Apparently he doesn't get that little sticker or mark in someone's folder that allows him to collect points for the class auction each term. He came home the other day devastated because he only had enough points for one item, and I sent no fewer than 4 to school as our contribution to the cause so I suspect some kids made a haul. We're trying, but seriously, there has got to be a better way! Am I being a big whiner and somehow missing the secret to doing it all here? If you know it, please share!

Pregnancy is going well - I actually hardly think about it most days, which is a huge shift from my first couple. With Erick I could tell you exactly how many weeks and days we were along at any time, and with this one I'm not entirely sure the ticker on this sidebar is accurate because I don't remember my exact due date. I keep meaning to ask. I don't look at the scale when I visit the doctor and I really don't get upset about being up throughout the night and downing TUMS as my daily source of calcium. Baby's head down and I have a bony butt resting comfortably in my ribcage, but even that hasn't bothere me too much yet. I think there's a certain familiarity to it all this time around and a "if you can't beat 'em" mentality that's made the whole deal much more low-key. I'm almost done Christmas shopping, the kids' halloween costumes are taken care of, so it's just one day at a time. The only thing stressing me out a little is our lack of names for the little guy. I had a long list last night finally of about 10, and Justin quickly cut it down to 2 from there, neither of which I really loved. Back to the books. If I thought naming our first was hard, I had no idea how much harder it would get! Here's my long list:

Tyler
Joshua
Zachary
Sean
Justin
Andrew
Isaac
Evan
Oliver
Aaron
Owen

Any other suggestions, or favorites?