What Happens at Our House

In this time of establishing new norms as we Tappers adjust to living as six, consciousness usually begins somewhere between six and seven. Generally, I try to set my alarm for about 6:30, hoping that this provides me a few moments of personal quietness and the opportunity to start my day with my Bible and my journal. I may need to bump this time up a bit, as it seems that I have been hearing the tell-tale signs of awake children by about 6:40 or so.

Those bumps, patters, and calls signal the beginning of the crazy rush to have everyone washed up, dressed, fed, and generally ready to meet the day. Ethan, who now is a BUS RIDER (in this case, capital letter signify the necessary inflection required to express tremendous excitement), must catch the bus a few streets over at 7:44 sharp.

Okay, so we missed the bus this morning. It was our first try with four kids. Ethan has forgiven me, and I'm sure we'll do better tomorrow!

(By the way, yesterday we met with the principal and a department head at the elementary school to work out the details for Abu/Andrew to start school. The school has been very helpful. Andrew will start half days in an English 1st grade classroom after Canadian Thanksgiving. He is very eager to go. Today, after we dropped Ethan off at the school, he looked at me, pointed to himself and asked, "School?" When I said, "Not today," he kind of nodded as if to signify the wisdom of that decision and firmly stated, "School tomorrow.")

Given his enthusiasm for school (and the rainy weather), we started the day with some worksheets and projects. I introduced the spelling of "Andrew," and he practiced and practiced and practiced.

A little later in the morning, everyone joined in a game of Zingo. What a great way to learn new words, practice taking turns, and have fun together.

During free play time (while Mom cleans up a bit), the blocks were a hit today.

Before naptime, we always read a story or two or three.

After naps, it's time to get Ethan off the bus. One of these days, I'll actually remember to grab the camera so you can see Ethan's joy in this experience. Andrew was pretty impressed with it all, too. A snack provided the fuel for some crazy driving by the three boys. Despite the cold and wet, nobody wanted to come back inside.

After supper, we cleaned up and got out the puzzles. Each child completed their own, and there were lots of proud smiles!

Of course, all of the above took place within the context of the necessary establishment of boundaries for Andrew, the constant battle of reminding Jadon that he has to share, the increased volume of dirty dishes and laundry, the decreased longevity of any type of food in the frig/cupboards, the very deliberate management of spending individual time with each child, and the challenge of purposefully describing everything so that Andrew can learn language. So, that's what happens at our house!