Riley and Avery

I just had to get rid of that old post. Not that I have anything interesting to say that hasn't already been said. I think I've told everyone by phone about the cops coming to our house for Riley, and no more excitement has really happened.

I am starting to feel a little bad about the school painting. I mean, Riley's tuition is $5000+ and I certainly don't feel like I've done that sort of work. School starts in about two weeks, so I have more time. Even if I were being paid $20/hour, that's still 5 weeks of 50 hour weeks to earn $5000. I guess I could continue to do work while school is in session, just on the weekends. The furniture is just about all painted, just a few shelves remain. I painted the cabinets in the kitchen, so I think walls will come pretty soon.

Oh, I started school Monday. I have two classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, American Environmental History and Humanities: Early Civ. The history teacher seems to be a really popular one in the history department and she thought my interest in the environmental impact of formula feeding and disposable diapering was interesting. The Humanities class seems really fun, although I am the oldest in the class. At least my hitherto useless knowledge gleaned from hours of History Channel programs will come in handy. She had a reproduction of a portion of a bas relief work and asked us if we knew what it was. I said "It's a frieze from the Parthenon!" She held up another that was almost the same and I said "It's Persian." And she had a bust of Michelangelo's statue of David, which was, in my opinion, super-easy to identify. She said that the Renaissance was outside the scope of that class, but what is similar in antiquity? I'm like "Uh, the Colossus?" Yup. I don't think I'll have problems in these classes.

I have two paralegal classes on Thursdays. Civil Litigation (dry as bones) and Business Organization (drier that bones). The director of the paralegal program is the teacher of one of them, so I guess it's about time I met him. The other is by the same teacher I had for Contracts last semester. These classes are half online and half in-class.

So. Avery is into primping herself. One night I was getting ready to go to class and I told Avery that Daddy was going to take them to the Mall. Dumb thing to say to a girly-girl right before dinner. I couldn't get her to eat. She was too busy getting ready. The best was when she was putting on chap-stick. I said "Avery, putting on chap-stick?" And as if I were the dumbest human on the planet, Avery said "Well, I can't go to the Mall without Chap-Stick!" Duh. This was after I had to do her hair in a particular way at her request. And then she checks herself in the mirror to make sure she looks "beautiful."



I made Montessori sound bottles for Avery. I made them too easy. It's really remarkable how acute a toddler's hearing is. I spray painted eight glass salt shakers to that four were red and four were blue and filled them with four different things so that a blue and red one matched. I put lentils, beads, dried beans, and dried corn in them. Avery had no problem matching them up right away. I think I'll have to make it harder.

I also have started having Riley teach Avery some of the work, in true Montessori style. They both really like it and it gives Riley the chance to be the "teacher" and she is really gentle and patient (so far) with teaching Avery, which are not natural traits of hers.

Little Sweetheart is starting to get all sorts of random white hairs all over her. It's like she's salt-and-pepper. And yet underneath it are the tabby-stripes. She's just a mutt. And a turd. She's getting spayed next month on the 18th. And getting the indoor-cat shots. I don't know why I always get stuck with the stubborn life-forms in my family. Rudi, Riley, and Avery are all incredibly stubborn and Little Sweetheart is no different. I take her off the counter, and as soon as her feet touch the ground she is back on the counter. We can do this about a dozen times.

So, Rudi wants to go on a solo camping trip for a couple of nights at the beginning of next month. I'm totally cool with that. I have plans to turn the third bedroom into his "man cave" so that's the perfect time to do it. He knows that I am giving him the room, but I want to decorate it and arrange it to surprise him. Right now it's a storage/sewing room. I sew downstairs anyway. The boxes can go in the garage. The only other problem is that I had bags and bags of old toys to get rid of in that room and the sneaky little kids found it and now they are scattered around the room. So bad, in fact, that I can barely get into the room. So I have my work cut out for me. We did agree to bring the loveseat from the garage into the room, so I'll have to clean it up a bit and get him to help me with the loveseat before he goes, but I still don't think that he'll have a clue. I'm planning on building some really simple shelves and such and putting up pictures and setting up his easel and organizing his art supplies. Ooh, I'm gonna have fun!