Seriously Mom?

Jack's bed had become cluttered with blankets, so I put two of them up on a shelf.

Jack: "But Mom, won't they get cold up there?"

Me: " No, they have each other to snuggle with."

Jack: "Mom , blankets aren't people. Seriously Mom?"

When did I go from funny to crazy? Does that really happen when they're only four?

Maisy Logic

I recently bought the game Just Dance Kids, I highly recommend it. As I was picking the older girls up from school leaving the younger two in the charge of dad, it became apparent that they needed some cheering up, so I promised we'd play when we got home.

We arrived home to find that the newly opened game was missing. Evan confessed that he remembered Maisy bringing it to him, signing, "Please." He was on the phone and set it down somewhere, but the places he thought he might have set it turned up no game. We spent the better part of two hours looking for the game before Evan suggested we use "Maisy logic."

Maisy logic involves thinking like Maisy and trying to figure out, without her telling us, what she would do/need/want/like. So, the conversation went something like this:

Evan: "She brought me the disc and wanted me to turn it on for her. Suppose she picked it back up after I set it down."

Somer: "You didn't do what she wanted so she would have tried herself. We checked the DVD player and the Wii player. Its music, so maybe a CD player, but Jack's CD player is too high."

Evan: "Sadie and Ella's?"

Sure enough, there it was. Maisy logic is pretty logical.

And now, why I love Just Dance Kids:

Miss Patty

We lost a good friend yesterday. I told the girls as we were driving home from school and we spent the drive sharing stories about Miss Patty. That's Miss Patty on the blanket in the background with her sweetheart Steve. Most of our memories of Miss Patty involve sitting on that same patch of grass or on their porch.

She always had a treat for the girls when they dropped by and many evenings, after the kids were in bed, I would see her from my kitchen window. Patty would sit on her porch and look at the night sky; I imagine she was missing her daughter.

I remember one Sunday when I couldn't find Sadie anywhere at church. I had waited outside her class and then wandered the building in search of her. I was in tears and had many people looking when I asked that they make an announcement from the pulpit. That's when Steve said, "Isn't that Sadie, curled up next to Patty on the pew?"

Miss Patty has been a good friend to our whole family and we will miss her. I find comfort in knowing that she is enjoying a wonderful reunion with Allison and I know she is grateful to be with her again. We miss you.

Magical Morning

After we dropped the Sadie and Ella at school we quickly stopped at the Farmer Station for gasoline (you know the kind where there is no attendant and you need a key or a credit card to use it.) As we stopped a train was going by and I was surprised by how much louder it was outside the car. So I hurried and opened the door so Jack and Maisy could hear the train and the whistle in all its glory. Maisy squealed as the whistle blew and Jack covered his ears and tucked his head into his lap. The train was gone and Jack lifted his head, "Mom, where did it go?"

"It was really fast, Jack and it disappeared down the tracks."

Jack: "Mom, that was magical."

Between the sunrises and the trains, he's right. Morning is pretty magical.

The last few weeks have been difficult. Every time I drop my little one off at school I just want to scream, "Love my daughter!" When I pick her up from school she is the first one out the door. One hand on the door knob, one hand on the jamb, she jumps up and down when she sees me. I swoop in and pick her up and I get a big hug. She leans back and looks at me with a "don't ever leave me again" look. (It's amazing how expressive a non-verbal child can be.) And I know she feels loved again.

At her last school I knew her teachers loved her and she loved them back. Since the move, we are more limited in our resources and our choice of schools has narrowed to one. I want to explain to her teachers that they have to be honest with her because she will know how they feel. I want them to see her abilities instead of dwelling on her inabilities; to see her dynamic personality and strength not the fact that she gets tired when she walks for too long. I want them to realize that the same determination that makes her fall on the floor when she doesn't want to do something can be directed towards learning and working.

Before the move we discovered that she can identify her entire uppercase alphabet. We were talking about lowercase alphabet and sight words, the prospect of beginning to learn to read was looming ahead. Now I feel I am just trying to make sure they don't leave her in her wheelchair all day.
I know my feelings aren't any different than any parents, because I feel the same way about my other kids. I think the difference with her is that she is easier to ignore. This move has been most difficult for that reason. Each day, for all my kids, I want to take them to school in the morning knowing that they will learn from someone who cares about children and not just a quota. I want their teachers to be happy when they do well and excited to see their smiles. I used to feel that, I hope I will again. Until then I will silently plead as I drop them off for school, "love my child."

Come see me...

Over at A Little Great today.

Options

I think the most trying part of living in a small town for me has been the loss of options. For instance, we can go to a pediatrician who is bright, but has a dumpy, dingy office and who's wife is a witch, literally. Or we can go to a doctor who has a clean office, but not much in the way of experience. I realize that it may not seam like a big deal, but Maisy is truly complicated. I have described her health history to medical professionals before only to watch their eyes glaze over or worse, had them brush it off as nothing. I need to trust her doctor.

(The Riverwalk in San Antonio)

Then there is the teacher issue. Ella would love to have a different teacher, I would love to find a different teacher for Maisy. We don't have any other options. There are fifteen third graders at Ella's school, they only need one third grade teacher. I feel bad that she can be mean and I'm sorry that the emphasis is on timed multiplication tests, but in the long run it will serve her well and she will have stories to tell her kids.

(Ella in the Christmas pageant.)

I asked another mom the other day, trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about, "So, which park do you usually take your kids to?" She looked at me kind of funny and said, "There's only one park in town, the one on Main St." I thought that might be the case but I was really hoping I was wrong. The town park has only big kid swings and the sand underneath it is as hard as concrete. Too dangerous for Miss Maisy.

(Sadie in the Christmas pageant.)

We do however have one grocery store other than Walmart and it is a nice store. There aren't any fabric stores within fifty miles, but I hear there is a good one in a town about seventy-five miles away. There are a lot of antique stores and if I could keep little hands in check I could spend hours wandering in all of them.

There are six different stores that sell cowboy gear and the options of camouflauge are amazing. We can get homemade tortillas almost anywhere we go and the refried beans are wonderful. Jack sings like Gaston, "I use antlers in all of my decorating." every time we walk into the outfitters store/restaurant in town.

I also have the option to spend countless hours in the car, I can't opt out. We have interesting conversations and I spend a lot of time talking and teaching.

To School We Go

This is our drive to school in the morning as seen from the car.

Most mornings we get to see the sunrise.

Some mornings we are fogged in.And one afternoon we saw an armadillo (I think I was the only Texan pulling off the highway to take a picture of an armadillo.)
Every morning we see trains...
and goats.
It is quite an adventure, not as quiet as our morning walks to school once were, but very entertaining. (Sorry the pictures aren't great. I used my phone from a moving vehicle. I wouldn't recommend it.)