As for this little piggy . . .

On the way home from Wal*Mart today, the girls and I were singing This Little Piggy, as modified by Joe Scruggs:

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef,
and this little piggy, well, he had none.
And the last little piggy, our favorite little piggy, the one that we all know . . .
Said, "Hey, it's no biggie, but I don't play a piggy, I'm just a little baby toe!"

and the second and third verse only get better.

After a couple of rounds, Dixie said, "Hey, wait a minute. My piggy is talking to me." She takes off her shoe and listens to the bottom of her stockinged foot.

Remember, the girl is in a car seat with a five-point harness, so this takes talent.

"My foot says it's ready for a different song," she says, then pauses to listen, "It is ready for the ABC song."

"Okay," I say, and start to sing.

"WAIT!" she interjects. "My foot wasn't done talking . . . it wants me to sing by myself!"

I haven't forgotten about you

It's just been crazy. I've been working a lot of hours at a lot of jobs, since Dowlan's unemployment has run out and the economy still, well, sucks.

My temp project that was consuming most of my time ended yesterday and I have spent today recovering from those long days (and working the other two jobs, of course). Tomorrow I will start cleaning and baking for Thanksgiving, at least that's what I'm telling myself. Dowlan's really tried to keep up with the house and has done a decent job, but the deep cleaning things need doing.

We spent the weekend working on Charlie's room and it now looks like an actual little boy's room and not The Room of Doom. He's been so content to play in there for the last few days. It helps that we moved out everything he doesn't play with. Now that we're down to Little People, cars/airplanes/trains, Veggie Tales and balls, he isn't as overwhelmed in that room. (And if you're buying Charlie a Christmas present, please note the categories--it's all he will play with at this point.)

He's also started occupational therapy, finally. It will be interesting to see how it helps.

Dixie is getting in less trouble at school and just seems so content these days. Melody, just like her mommy, had a perfect report card except for that pesky area known as penmanship. That one always got me, too.

My latest kitchen concoction

I boiled down what was left of a rotisserie chicken for broth and chopped up the meat that was left (about 1 cup, white and dark, no skin). Stuck that in the fridge. Then:

1 butternut squash, peeled and chunked (and straight out of our garden!)
1 pie pumpkin (small), peeled and chunked
broth from the chicken
kernels from 2 ears of corn

boiled for an hour or so, until the squash was soft. Added in the chicken and pureed in my food processor. Added a tiny bit of nutmeg, salt and pepper.

It is sooooooo good. Really rich and smooth flavor that could benefit from being thinned out with milk, but Charlie can't have milk and he's my pumpkin-eater. From my rough calculations, the whole pot is only about 900 calories, so there's an added bonus.

Hm. I bet I could do this with leftover thanksgiving turkey!

It's been more than a little crazy

I'm skipping the morning at work because Charlie has a reevaluation for occupational therapy this morning and, even though it's not til ten, I'm tired and happy to have any excuse to not be at work right now.

I had a day off my tutoring job so after scoring tests and providing afterschool care and cooking dinner and cleaning and and and . . . my friend came over with ingredients for me to make and decorate six dozen cupcakes for a carnival this weekend at a school neither of us teach at anymore.

It was really, really fun, though.

I woke up this morning with Melody just snuggled into me, asleep. I snuck out of bed and, not wanting to leave it a mess, made it with her in it, just like I used to do to my mom's cats. She's so tiny that she made no lump under the covers and it looked like I had this porcelain face of contentment laying on a bed of wild hair on my pillow.

Dixie's tooth hasn't gone anywhere, btw.

Charlie

Charlie talked to Dowlan today! He came and sat on the park bench and said "Let's talk." Dowlan started talking toy-to-toy and Charlie said, "No! Daddy talk to Tchawhie!" While the conversation was not reported to be all that impressive in content, the fact that it happened at all has me ecstatic!

Later today, Charlie had a glass of water and was running towards the cat saying, "The cat is on fire!" but Dowlan, to the relief of the cat, intercepted him. His imagination clearly works.

Now it's Dixie's turn to grow up a little bit

I came home for a few minutes between jobs today and she about knocked the door down trying to come tell me the coolest news from Kindergarten--she has a loose tooth!

She wobbled and wiggled it, asked for apples and crunchy foods and her tongue worked overtime all evening. When she grew wiggle-weary, she requested that I take a shift shifting her tooth.

It's still holding strong, but I'll make sure and get a pic once it is gone.

Gretchen: How was school today?
Dixie: Thumb's up!
Melody: Thumb's u--well, I had to write my name in the book in P.E. today.
G: What happened?
M: Eh, I don't want to talk about it right now.
G: Fair enough.

Later that day . . .
G: Are you ready to talk about what happened in P.E. today?
M: No. I really do not want to talk about it.
D: But you HAVE to talk about it. I HAVE to know what you did.
M: I just really don't want to.
G: Did you learn the lesson you were supposed to learn?
M: Yup.
G: Fair enough, then.

It is KILLING me to not know what happened in P.E, but I am resisting the urge to email the coach or call the teacher. Knowing Melody's personality, whatever happened will never happen again, she will give her actions and choices the weight of thought and consideration necessary. She already figured it out, the teacher handled it, why do I need to get involved?

It's strange having the girls in Kindergarten so many hours of so many days. It is odd seeing them do things and having them know things that I did not teach them. I think the hardest part is knowing that there are entire friendships I do not know about, feelings I am not privy to and thoughts that I do not know the origin of. They have experiences that I do not share in and it is so strange to me.

I am pretty sure I did the right thing, not pressing the issue. Not circumventing her decision to not tell me by asking the teacher, not nagging her or forcing the issue. She's such an autonomous creature, that girl.

Charlie's thinking this through

We were coming back from Target tonight and he gestured to the girls, saying, "Hey, Kids! It's time to come inside!" As I was turning off lights at bedtime, he insisted, "Don't need more dark. I need more light."

He says more and more these days, occasionally original in construct, but more often a direct quote or filling in the blank on a pre-fab sentence. I can completely hear Dowlan telling them the first quote and the second follows one of his common speech patterns, of "Don't need ____. Need _____." He also will exert "I'm ready to _____." or that "I do not like to ________."

It's amazing how well he communicates within these constraints, and we practice new phrases quite often.

Today, the girl we watch after school had changed into dress-up clothes when my girls did and I had sent her into their room to change back into her regular clothes. I could see Charlie looking at her, head cocked, thinking about how to put his thoughts together. He looked up with me, amazed, saying, "She has a button! She has a bee-button!"

It just seemed like it had never occurred to him that humans all have the same basic construct.

She thought it was silly that he seemed so impressed by her navel, answering, "Yeah, most people do."

I'm not around much right now, with all these crazy jobs, but I think the distance is giving me a different perspective on the boy chick.

Best part about it? I think he's starting to appreciate me in my absence. I have gotten two hugs this week, initiated by him.

Charlie's appointment

didn't go. Stupid insurance.

Charlie's Affinity for A's

So far, the boy has been diagnosed formally with Airway Disease, then Allergies, then Asthma. A diagnosis of Autism or Asperger's is in the works. You'd think he'd run out of ways to be defective that start with the letter A, but he's trying Amblyopia on for size.

His appointment is tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes.