Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Catching Up Update

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written a blog post. I guess we've been busy. And once I get out of the habit of blogging, I tend to take a while to get back into it.

We went to Disneyworld at the end of September, to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.


A year or so ago, when we were discussing what they'd like to do, they picked a trip to Disneyworld with the grandkids as their favorite choice. So we went! We weren't sure we were going to make it a few times, what with my dad's health issues - coming down with mysterious physical and mental issues (soon after making the Disneyworld reservations a year ahead of time), being diagnosed with NPH, having brain surgery this past January, the slow recovery. But things seemed to be improving so much by this summer that we got our hopes up again. We made it to the week before, started getting out suitcases, started packing - and then my dad had some suspicious heartbeats during a physical therapy session and ended up in the hospital again a few days before the trip was to start. They did so many tests, but (thanks to so many prayers, most likely), they found nothing wrong, and released him from the hospital 1 day before our flight to Orlando!



Fortunately, they had already packed. We left on time, and had a great time! This was the first time for all 3 grandkids, and they absolutely loved it. We all loved watching them love it, too.


My son (3 years old at the time) cried every time a ride was over, and I had to pry his hands off the handlebars and bribe him with another ride to get  him out. The Speedway was his favorite, where you get to drive your own car around the track. I had to carry him away kicking and screaming when that ride was over.


The girls loved everything too, and a couple nights we took them back out to see fireworks after leaving their little brother sleeping in the hotel room with the grandparents. They felt like they owned the parks.


They really loved everything. The hotel (Old Key West resort), the buses, boats, and monorails we took to get to all the parks, the rides, the shows, the walking (or strolling) around, the rides, the food, the characters (well, only the oldest was brave enough for them), the rides, the music floating in the air everywhere, the princesses, the lines (mostly short, but they still liked the lines too), the rides. Did I mention the rides? We got 6-day tickets, and went early most days and went back later most days too.


The kids were amazingly good. And my parents, though tiring more easily than they wished, had a lot of fun too, getting wished happy anniversary everywhere we went.



Anyway, after all that excitement, it was time for annual and bi-annual doctor and dentist appointments, which are always tricky to schedule. And then I've been having more and more shoulder pain, and am now in the midst of physical therapy for tendonitis and extreme range of motion limitations. I did physical therapy 2 years ago, and it got better, but the past 3-4 months, it has gotten much worse than it ever was before. So this is putting a damper on our schedule too, going 2 times a week to therapy.

But school has been plugging away. Ryan is loving his preschool classes, 3 mornings a week, and has already gotten better with his alphabet and counting than he had been doing with me. I think he likes to flirt with his teachers.

Reanna has already learned many of her addition facts, and even some multiplication facts, mostly thanks to computer programs and games. She is also reading some 3-letter words, and sounds out everything she sees. Now that she's 5 (and Ryan is 4 - their joint birthday the beginning of this month was another big deal) - anyway, now that she's 5, she said she's ready to go to "big school" and wants to ride the bus and have a classroom full of kids. She doesn't seem daunted when I tell her that she's already doing some 1st grade work, and she wouldn't be able to start public kindergarten until about 9 months from now. Actually, I think she'd really like going to kindergarten anyway, just for the social aspect.

Rebekah is still doing great with CLE Math, and is ahead of schedule there. She is reading her CLE readers and Sonlight books more and more easily, and is always eager to narrate them to me. Her artistic and musical skills are expanding rapidly, and her spelling is actually improving (we've switched to Rod & Staff spelling 2, which I've had for over a year sitting in my bookshelf). Her handwriting still needs work.... She's learned about the government, listened to me read Hillyer's history, experimented with pulleys and studied Einstein, and done all sorts of Bible story projects. So far, so good!

And now we're taking a break for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I'll blog some more before our Christmas break!

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