Random Update

I haven't been very cohesive in my thinking lately and I think it shows in my writing -- and lack of it -- in this blog. Rather than fight it I'm just going to go with the flow here and write a very random list of updates and thoughts. Here goes:

-- Add Baby Beluga; The Wheels on the Bus; Row, Row, Row, Your Boat, and The Good Morning Song (by yours truly) to Oliver's repetoire of songs. The Wheels on the Bus is something I haven't sung to him for probably two years and tonight I started singing and then stopped mid-way through the first line and he just jumped in and finished it off for me. He has also been sitting down at his piano more frequently and tapping individual keys rather than just banging it like he used to. Makes me wonder if I should be doing more with music.

-- Sam is SO incredibly verbal and I think it is because of Oliver's verbal behavior program. He is only 18 months old but is already speaking in complete sentences. Short but complete. Of course Oliver was too, at that age, but I don't remember him being so darn persistent in his desire to communicate, which is something entirely different.

-- The playgroup that I organized met for the first time on Saturday and only one other Mom showed up with her children. I wasn't disappointed with the low turnout though because I had only finalized the details two days prior. I think others will try to make it in the future. Our kids played for an hour and we chatted, then we left and I called her up and we talked for another thirty minutes. It kind of reminded me of when I lived on an island in the Philippines where there was only one other ex-pat couple. I craved talking to them and during the times when we could get together none of us could get a full sentence out without someone else interrupting because one person's thoughts could take you places, could send your mind off reeling in another direction, in a way that can only happen when two people speak the same language and know the subject from the inside out. That's the way I felt on Saturday.

-- If I had a TV I think I would have -- at one time -- really liked to watch This Old House. Because I like to do things with my hands. I like to fix things. I like to say: "Wow! Look what I just did." But now I live in This Old House and after four years and two children what I mostly do is sit around and say: "Wow! Look at all the stuff I should be doing!" I love this house. It is a 102 year old Victorian with incredible light. But it needs work.

-- The fish tank that I bought for Oliver's birthday was probably a mistake. I'm the only one who really ever watches the fish and every chance Oliver gets he climbs up on the table where it sits, takes off the top, reaches all the way to the bottom and creates a mini tsunami by swooshing around all the pebbles at the bottom. The fish, however, are miraculously still alive.