They Eyes Have Been Having It

Brigid had a very good day yesterday despite the fact that her nose is running again. Don't know if she's coming along on round two of her cold or what, but it was runny. Also, the other day she was in her room and fell, striking her right eyebrow on the side of the changing table. It's bruised and the bruise and swelling moved over to her entire eyelid, giving her a pugilistgic look. Last night I noticed that eye was teary, so we're keeping a collective eye on it so to speak. Hope it's nothing to worry about. She goes for her well-child one-year (!) visit next week.

She took a very long afternoon nap, which means the evening sleep schedule was off somewhat. I didn't get her down for the night until after 9 p.m. but she went down awake without a wimper. That's a plus. But then she woke and came in with us about 5 a.m. It took a long time to settle her back down and when Jack got up to get the girls going about 6:45, Brigid was ready and willing to get up as well. That's very unusual for her. By 8:15, she was ready to come back to bed for another nap and that was OK with me because I was so groggy from this medication I'm taking -- amitriptyline -- for chronic stomach pain. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to manage on it because it really does make getting up in the mornings difficult.

Margaret is worried because her guidance counselor called her in yesterday to tell her she's now in the band. She passed all the qualifications on the flute and is ready for band. She doesn't think so. She thinks she's not good enough, but I told her her music teacher ought to know what he's talking about. She'll see him today for a lesson and can talk to him about it then. Being in band means her schedule changes somewhat, and she's worried about that, too. But she has several study halls that can be swapped. We've been really proud of how she's been handling the responsibilities of being in middle school. She's blossomed this year from someone who didn't want to make a move on her own to someone who takes charge of her own responsibilities and requirements. This move to public school was a good one.

Today I go over to Patricia's school where I'm teaching a scrapbooking club every Thursday during the month of March. It's 12 kids in grades 3-5 with varying degrees of attention span. I don't know how teachers do it, and I give them all the credit in the world.