Keepin' Busy to Stay Warm

So it's the 17th of this month, and I've only posted twice so far? Part of it is that January isn't all that exciting. But we must be doing SOMEthing, because I feel so busy I'm exhausted. This coming week is cah-razy with activity, so here's what we've been up to before I forget:

-The biggest time-suck is that we are getting attic and wall insulation installed this week. You may remember our ice damming problem from last year, which was fixed partially by a new roof, and will now hopefully be completely prevented in the future with this insulation. We're getting a smokin' deal due to rebates from the gas company and the government for making our home more energy efficient. The reason it's making us busy is that Brian was forced to hurry and complete 5 minor home improvement projects before the attic insulation makes them much more difficult to accomplish (bathroom fans and venting, adding electrical outlets to all 3 bathrooms, building a box around the attic fan, etc). So I've been doing my best to keep the kids busy and out of his hair for the past 4 days.

-I came home from church with the kids on Saturday evening (LOVE Sat. church, by the way) and found a human sized hole in the ceiling at the top of the stairs where Brian had lost his footing and stepped through. I am so thankful that he didn't fall, because he could've been badly injured and he was home alone. He had such a good attitude, too, my husband, because he was really frustrated for about 10 minutes, and then he was laughing about it and noticing how he could now get his supplies to the attic more easily. And now, 48 hours later, new dry wall is up and mudded. He's an amazing worker.

-January would not be complete without a little school fret. This year I'm fretting about two kids and two places. Of course there's kindergarten for Katy. When we moved here we assumed we would send her to the little neighborhood school, and I still hope to, but I have heard very concerning reports about the kindergarten teacher to which Katy would be assigned. And it's not just one disgruntled parent, I've now heard it from 10 people who don't know one another. So we've been thinking about the options and we definitely plan to meet with the principal in March.

In addition, it's time to think about preschool for David. (I know: WHAT?!) Again, a decision to make. I really have no complaints about Katy's current school. She's been happy there, I like the teachers and they have a lot of amenities like enrichment classes and fieldtrips and the option to stay for lunch for an extra fee. But there's another school just down the street about which I've heard great things. It's smaller, with fewer bells and whistles. But maybe that would be nice? We haven't really gotten to know the people at Katy's school because it's so large. There's also an option to be a typical peer for a Special Needs Preschool classroom in the public school system. I've heard great things about that program in our district, and I could see David doing well there (and it's, ahem, cheap). But it's four mornings a week, and I'm not sure I want to do transportation for him 4 mornings a week plus Katy 5 mornings or afternoons a week (we'd walk to our neighborhood school or drive in bad weather). So there you have it: fret.

-Katy's doing a ballet class, and it's going really well. Last year when we did the informal class at the church, her behavior was a struggle (she just wanted to dance around, for heaven's sake). But in this class through the rec center, she's taking it very seriously, which is about as cute as it sounds. She is hand-on-the-bar, eyes-on-the-teacher, feet-in-position at all times. It's hilarious.

 -David is getting so mature. He's currently obsessed with letters and their sounds, and he can quote Letter Factory from start to finish. He picks up a box of cereal and tells me all the letters on it and what sounds they make. He got fridge phonics for Christmas (but not for $37, holy cow, Amazon!), which was timely. Of course, he still plays with cars all day long, he just stops every couple of minutes to talk letters.

-Oh, Luke. Where to begin? He wants to move. NOW. He's getting really close to crawling, I might even think that we're days away. But no matter where he is, he wants to be somewhere else. Feeding him is a wrestling match that I did not sign up for. He'll nurse for 30 seconds, arch his back and scream, climb over my shoulder while I try to burp him, jump out of my arms trying to get to the bottle, but chew on it and squirm away when I try to feed it to him. I'm nursing, pumping, bottle feeding, formula feeding, solid feeding (even tried my hand at making my own baby food in the food processor) and it is exhausting. One good sign of progress is that he's only gotten up once the past few nights, which is a big improvement over the past several weeks. All of this could be different tomorrow, though, they change so quickly!

So...how is your January going?