Look at you! Still all muscly and everything. How’s space?

Look at my budding scientist sporting his new glasses! Many months ago the nurse at his 7-year-old check-up suggested we have his vision tested.  He seemed fine to me so I took my sweet time doing it. When we went to the eye doctor a few weeks ago, they started throwing up those letters on the wall and they nearly had to scroll back to the giant "E" before he could see them.  "Oh no!"  I thought.  "My poor blind child has been bumping around, trying to make his way in life because his horrible mother hasn't had the sense to notice!"  Turns out it wasn't really all that bad, but he's a bit near-sighted and these adorable wire-rimmed spectacles bring the world into tighter focus for him.

 I'm happy to report that he loves them, and we've had them for nearly a week without them getting lost or broken.  Amazing.  He looks so old to me, full of deep thoughts and wisdom, not far from packing up all his Legos and heading off to college where he's destined to change the world.  Sigh.

And then we'll have a bona fide 7-year-old moment that brings me back down for a while.  I confess that I've saved this little disciplinary writing sample in his box of memories. *

Another thing I've been slow to do is getting these kiddos back into swim lessons.

Elsbeth thinks she can swim and has absolutely no fear of the water, but can't keep herself up for more than a couple seconds. A terrifying combination.  Andrew can keep himself up and slowly make his way around a pool, but his skills could definitely use some strengthening.  And they both adore the water.  Glad I finally got around to this, but I dearly love to be home, and leisurely afternoons of the two of them flitting around the back yard for hours while also having plenty of time for homework and chores is my idea of heaven.  So adding swim lessons PLUS piano lessons for Andrew feels like a lot!  And sometimes ... brace yourself ... it cuts into my tea time.  Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!  I mean, can you even imagine having such a loaded schedule?  (The world around me laughs and laughs as I wipe my brow.)

 Fortunately, even with this new frenzy of activity, we manage to squeeze in a little super hero time.

And here I am at 4 months.  I'm not sure where that crazy fuzz of hair came from - don't pretend you don't see it - but Phil was being particularly horrible that morning and wouldn't take another one.

I'm feeling this wee one kicking around in there now, my favorite.  The floor already feels very far away and I'm tempted to install one of those awesome chair lifts on our stairs, but I'm really enjoying the sweetness of the second trimester.  Apparently Wee Bairn is quite a savory baby and I've often  found myself opting for BBQ potato chips or (like today) a black bean burrito as my tea time treat while the Girl Scout cookies sit untouched in the pantry.  Odd.  I'm sure it just means that this baby is so unbelievably sweet already that my system just can't handle any more, right?  :-)


* "Bicks" is our family word for "bottom"