So, April was good. Yes, I was still recovering from winter a bit, and I found it harder than expected to kick my negative attitude toward my city and my house, but when the sun comes out, things just look brighter.
Aaron kicked the month off with all manner of concerts. For starters, there was his choral concert, which featured his Chamber Singers singing everything from Renaissance to Romance, and his Concert Choir, which sang African-American spirituals and gospel music. If you closed your eyes you could almost imagine that you weren't listening to a bunch of white prarie kids! The following week, Aaron conducted the orchestra in The Magic Flute overture and Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. Then he brought in the combined choirs for Beethoven's Choral Fantasy. Wow. Sometimes when I watch him I just have to sit back in awe. The Choral Fantasy involves full orchestra plus a piano soloist, two vocal trios, and a full choir. That's pretty complicated. How did it go? Flawlessy. I'm not exaggerating--it really was a brilliant performance.
So did he have time for anything else? Well, only if you count finishing up and submitting his dissertation, getting notes back on it from his reviewers, making corrections, and turning in the final copy. Oh, and taxes. In all of that, he didn't miss Family Home Evening even once, made time for a couple of dates with me, a couple with the kids, and dealt with our basement sewer backing up without missing a beat. The man is a machine. A very attractive machine.
Right, so about that basement; we couldn't be more thrilled. We've been wanting to redo it for ages, but have been too busy and too poor (or at least too unwilling to pay the higher Canadian prices for all things home-renovationy). Thanks to a little (it really was only a little) sewer back-up, we just have to pay the deductible and then pay for any extras (of which there will be several). Yay! And then guess what? We're moving! Not out of Regina (yet). But we've decided that we've outgrown this house and that the cost of maintaining a house in this climate is not really worth it anyway. So we're going back to renting! I know it sounds crazy, but honestly, this house has been no end of headaches. With any luck we'll be able to fix stuff up and get out of here with some kind of profit that we can save for our next big move. We're just hoping we can find a nice place to rent without moving too far away from the kids' schools and such.
And now, for your reading enjoyment, may I present: Our Children! My last few posts have been way too self-absorbed. All kinds of things have happened with the kids in the last few months.
To start with, Theo has become some sort of cross between a genius and a tornado. That's not entirely fair, because he's actually doing better at keeping his room clean, but his teacher's main complaint at parent teacher conferences was the disorganization of his desk and his tendancy to bite all his pencils to bits. I tried to keep a straight face, but inside I was cracking up. He's my kid for sure. During the winter, his class had swimming lessons twice a week, which he did well with, and he learned how to skate during class visits to the rink across the street every couple of weeks. Thank goodness for that! I basically abhor skating (I'm awful), so he never would have discovered how much he loves it otherwise. By all accounts, he's gotten pretty good, although he hasn't talked me into hockey classes yet (lots of emergency room visits in that sport). He has also enjoyed our weekly science experiments here at home, he can kick it behind the piano, and he's gotten pretty good at cooking (when he can stop licking his fingers for long enough to mix the ingredients together). Addy, Emerson, and Sera all adore him, although I don't think it would kill him to be a little nicer to them. One thing he said this month: "Mom, you know what I love about daddy? His burps and farts." In deference to Aaron, I must add that he's not at all over the top in that category, but wow--that's a seven-year-old boy for you!
As for Addy, most of her conversations begin with the words "When I'm a mom . . . ." She has it pretty well planned out, but sometimes I just want to pick her up and squeeze her and say "no, no! Enjoy being five! Five is awesome!" In the mornings she helps Sera get dressed and eventually gets around to her own chores as well (although that frequently means stuffing things under the bed). Last week she started arts and crafts classes again, and brings home more projects than we can possibly display every week. She's not the world's biggest fan of reading, but since Sera has started lugging stacks of books over to her bed every night and insisting that she read them, she's definitely improved. This girl has quite the imagination too--she comes up with ideas for businesses left and right, recently informing me that she wants to open an art school when she grows up. She also suggested opening a Popsicle Stand in our front yard so she can make money off the kids who attend school across the street. It opens Monday.
Emerson cracks me up every single day. I'm pretty sure I've convinced him of his cuteness, because whenever I get that twinkle in my eye, he looks over and says "am I the cutest in the world?" Which, of course, he is. Theo continues to tutor him on all sorts of things after the lights go out at night. Some of this is good--he knows all his letters now, no thanks to me, and can do some pretty impressive arithmetic. On the other hand, he frequently worries about his relative "coolness." He is concerned that people will laugh at him over his fondness for Dora and the Wiggles. It makes me want to twist Theo's nose, but I guess everyone gets a different perspective on life based on their birth order.
Sera? She's into everything. But I kind of love it. How can I not laugh when I walk into the kitchen to find her shoving an entire chocolate chip cookie into her mouth? Or when she sets up the bathroom sink with bubbles and bath toys? Or when I find her snuggled up, blanket in hand, looking completely adorable . . . aside from the peanut butter or jam covered fist that she's sucking on? Her score on the "spirited" scale is only topped by her score on the "hugs" scale. She gives good ones. Especially when she gets out of time out for the fourth time after sneaking yet another cookie, and doesn't mean the "sorry" she says one little bit. Oh, the latitude granted to a youngest child!
Farewell to Winter (at last)
They can finally run again!
"What's that? Sun? What's sun? I don't remember seeing such a thing in the recent past"
