Phew.

I might qualify as a slacker mom this week. With Todd in San Jose, I had thought we'd do lots and lots of school, so that we'd have something to do and be distracted from missing him. Instead, I find myself hiding upstairs a lot playing Safari Scrap on Facebook. I've made them do math and handwriting, we did read a little history, and we even did spelling today. Woo hoo! Tomorrow and Friday, we will be getting out THE LISTS so we make sure we get to everything. I can't ignore school just because I miss my sweetie.

Isaac has been so funny this week. As I watched him in the bath last night, he reached for his bar of soap. I said "No, no!" because I didn't want him to eat it. He didn't pick it up though. He just rubbed it, then rubbed his hands together. He rubbed the soap again, and rubbed his tummy. He was washing himself! It was adorable.

Also, when I unpacked the big box o' diapers and put the extra packages under his crib, he dragged the box over and proceeded to pull them out and put them back into the box for me. Wasn't that nice of him? He's so helpful.

He also likes to play with the dishwasher. If one doesn't pay attention while one has the door open, one might find him standing on said door. He loves to get his little spoons from the silverware basket, and lately has taken to pulling the entire basket out so he has better access to it. He loves to put things into and out of it.

And, wonder of wonders, he's started saying "Mama" all the time! He has been able to say it for a while, just wasn't terribly interested. He is so not a show-off yet. He *can* say lots of things and has several cute tricks - he just won't do them on demand. It's no fun to be able to tell people that he can High 5 when he won't play!

Last week and the week before, the girls took a creative writing class with author Carol Crane. She is such a neat lady! First of all, she is from Michigan, which makes her fabulous from the get-go. Also, she has an amazing way with children. She helps them see how much fun it is to put their words in writing, and really encourages them and makes them feel so good about their work. She spent a lot of time with each of them, and gave them each a book she'd chosen out for them at the end of the class.

I'd wanted Emma to take the class, particularly, because she is my perfectionist who doesn't want to write anything down ever in case she makes a mistake. I hoped that working with Carol would help build her confidence. It really did! She got to write about the things she loves - horses and ballet - and found it to be fun, too. She's been willing to write in her "journal" - one good thing each day. I have to remember to remind them to do that, come to think of it...

Abbie took the class too. Originally I didn't think she would, because it was supposed to be for ages 8 and up, but really, she's the one who loves to write. She's already written a book about a snooty butterfly who got turned back into a caterpillar for being snarky. She *loved* the class, wrote copiously, and was so proud when I typed out her story and poem that she was to read at the presentation. Interestingly, she was quite sad after the readings. She felt that she didn't write as much as some of the others and didn't think Mrs. Crane called on her to read as much as the other kids. I tried to explain that she was one of the youngest in the group, and of course the older kids wrote more! She did excellently for a 7 year old and I'm so proud of her! I am not sure what the sadness was about. Maybe just letdown from the class ending? She did tell me she wished it could be all the time.

We're looking forward to Halloween. Emma's costume is finished and I need to get Abbie's cloak sewn in case it's cold. Isaac's costume is snuggy and warm so he should be good, if Daddy is brave enough to take him out for a bit. We'll see.

All right - I am DETERMINED to make it to bed on the early side tonight so I'm going to sign off. May the force be with you.