Well, it’s another night in the Robisch household. A.J. just finished another game of Monopoly Here and Now on the computer. He rather loves this game lately and loves beating the computer. He finally branched out this week and is playing against entrepreneur level characters instead of just first-time buyers. We play together sometimes as well, although he really does hate to lose. J
Lily is sleeping on the couch nearby, and Gin-Bear is asleep on my lap on the Boppy. After our evening bath, I sat with them and watched the beginning of All the King’s Men with Sean Penn and Jude Law while they fell asleep. This works rather well when I have two kids to nurse to sleep (one on the Boppy, one sitting next to me). Later, Daddy will take Lily upstairs to bed. He’s working right now.
A.J. is now sitting next to me telling me that Daddy told him he’d never get better unless he started playing against the more difficult characters. Ah, I now see J
A.J. also had speech therapy today. His attitude was much better about it, even though he told me it took me a month to convince him that it wasn’t too bad. After speech today, we took a short trip to Wal-Mart together. It was a pleasant change for it to be just me and him. The girls were at home with Alan during his lunch break.
I worked for a little while before dinner and the girls bedtime, and now I’m futzing on the computer. Just another average day.
Tags: family, kids, tandem nursing
Posted by admin on Feb 17, 2009 in
Life at Home I’ve been thinking a lot about balancing life and working at home and unschooling lately. It’s a difficult task with unschooling because I’m always wondering whether I’m spending enough time with the kids. When they ask to do stuff, I try to be accommodating, and I try to engage them when I think of something in which they might be interested, although often that just falls flat and I wonder why I went to all the trouble.
One problem lies in when I am working and my 8-year-old busts in with something interesting and DH is busy with the little girls. Unfortunately, I can’t just stop working because I have to get enough hours in each week to keep the household going, so it’s tough. I think it will be easier when my littlest one doesn’t need to sleep with me all the time and I can get up and work early when DH is also working. In the past, however, when DS was little, I tried the whole getting up early thing, and the whole cosleeping/nursing thing ends up with me going in and out of the bedroom so much that I don’t get anything done, so I might as well get the sleep, you know?
It’s also a matter of trying to fit in things I like to do as an adult as well, such as reading, writing, and communicating with family, friends, etc., over the computer, and the things I should be doing more of, such as exercising J I tend to feel selfish/guilty when I just want to veg in front of the computer during the day or in the evening. The question is when is it too much? Sometimes, I think I should just leave some of my responsibilities and hobbies (photography/scrapbooking, volunteer work, writing) by the wayside for now to simplify my life.
Maybe I’m just thinking too much, but that’s just how my mind works.
Posted by admin on Feb 16, 2009 in
Life at Home,
Out and About So much has been going on recently, but with work and the girls’ bedtime schedule, I’ve been left with little time to write.
Family Diet
First, our experiment with the gluten-free casein-free diet came to an end this past week. We did not see any behavioral or physical changes that we might have expected to see if either of these was causing problems. It’s a bit of a relief because it was a bit of a pain and expensive to follow.
DS
DS has been doing a lot, taking art lessons since September and now guitar lessons since the new year. He’s been using his teacher’s guitar, but we’ll probably buy him his own soon since he seems to be sticking to it. I like his reaction to it. When I ask him how art class is, he says, “Good, but it’s harder than I thought it would be.” But when I ask him the same about guitar, he sounds very excited and says “Great!” He even wants to share that with others.
The only thing he doesn’t like is speech therapy (he’s taking that through the school system). We’re working on that, and I’ve instituted a reward system for him (yes, I’m aware of the controversy of this), but I’m just seeing if it’s possible to turn this into a positive experience for him and talking it to death was not working. The speech therapist has already helped him speak more clearly and loudly when he’s reading out loud. In just 3 or so sessions, he’s improved there immensely. The problem there was not in his ability to speak but rather in his ability to slow down his own thought processes (i.e., to read at the speed of his mouth instead of the speed of his brain) so that his listeners can understand.
We’re also contemplating signing him up for spring Little League. I’m on the fence about this. I’m pretty sure he will have a bit of trouble physically, at least as he gets used to it (he’s never really played baseball before). I want him to meet other kids (and he wants to as well), but I’m wary of the group environment for a kid with his temperament. However, he’s been doing better and better with our co-op and has done well in his art class, so we’ll just have to see.
Family
Well, DS has been asking for a fish since before DD1 was born, and last week, we finally did it. We bought 2 bettas, 1 male (which Lily named Blue) and 1 female (which A.J. named Crowny), and put them in separate tanks, which I’m still getting set up. Of course, to create optimum conditions for survivability and happy fish, they are way more complicated than you are led to believe (just like our hermit crabs). A friend commented that I didn’t need any more living things to care for. She’s probably right, but I’m a sucker for pets, even fish. They’re not too hard, and DS feed them once a day, and I do the other time. As soon as I start the weekly cleaning/partial water changes, he’ll need to help out with that, too, so once he gets the hang of it, I don’t think it will be too bad. Then, I’ll be ready for kittens. J
On another note, we made some pinecone and bowl bird feeders at our co-op Friday and hung them outside this weekend. It was in the 50s outside so we ended up staying outside for a game of kickball. We had the poor dogs on the run. DS even wore DD2 in the mei tai for a while 
Personal
I’ve also recently been turned on to Facebook and have connected with a lot of old friends and coworkers. I have been having more fun than I imagined I would. It’s also a way to keep up with fellow La Leche League members/Leaders and fellow homeschoolers. Some of my contacts have given me the itch to write fiction again; maybe I’ll follow that, maybe I won’t, but it’s weird to have that itch again…it’s been a while. I’d feel guilty if I did work on fiction as my nonfiction project on breastfeeding beyond the age of 3 is far from finished. So many projects, so little time.
Play by FoxSaver®
Play by FoxSaver®
Play by FoxSaver®
Tags: activity, Art, family, friends, homeschooling, kids, music, nutrition, pets, speech, writing
