Bad Backs and Good Grades Cancel Each Other Out

Well, it was my turn. As Jack’s back starts to get better, mine is starting to bother me, so much so it’s been hard to pick up Baby B. But she’s remarkably intuitive. She said the other day at Sibley when I was struggling to get her boots on, “Mommy’s back is owie.” I told her that yes, Mommy’s back was very owie. Then she said, “But Daddy’s back is not owie now.” I told her she was right. It could be that we grumble about it all the time, or moan and groan and walk like old folks needing canes and walkers. But she’s very quick to pick up on things. She is also quick to pick up knowning her left from her right, which Patricia has been helping her with. She'll have a leg up when she's in Miss Nancy's class in the fall.


She’s also been a bit of a goofball lately, making funny faces and noises, sticking her tongue out in a goofy way – class clownish behavior. It cracks us up, but it also cracks her up, too. And, as is the case with most toddlers, she has transformed herself from an adorable child into a sniffing, barking dog. She crawls around growling, sniffing and licking things. I can’t get it in her head that she’s not supposed to do the licking part, that it’s yucky. She’ll want to lick me – my face, my arm, my hand. Doesn’t matter. When she’s a dog, she’s a licking dog. Even the thread of getting carpet fuzz and dog hair on her tongue from the carpet hasn’t dissuaded her from her canine behavior. I don’t remember Margaret being a dog; she was a horse or a dinosaur for a long time. Patricia was often a cat. So, we’ll have to contend with having two dogs in the house for now.


Our true-born canine, Tessa, is still not faring well on the digestive front. Poor baby, she’s had continual problems. We’re not sure what else to do for now, so are feeding her rice and boiled chicken. Any time we add dog food, even the more expensive stuff, she gets loose again. She’s such a good dog – a real winner. I just hope we can figure out what the problem is. Aside from the fact that we have to keep her sequestered because we don’t know if she’ll be sick in the house, she can’t be enjoying this all that much.

I don’t know if I blogged about the girls’ (Margaret and Patricia) scholastic success with their most recent report card, but it’s hard to improve on perfection. We told both of them that this straight-A-Plus thing has to stop. We have nothing to pick on, unless they’re slacking off in the extra-credit category. Margaret’s been concerned about some projects in her classes that are group-managed. I hate group projects because you always have a handful of slackers on whom the entire grade is based. I wish they’d just allow you to do your work and earn your merits (or demerits) on your own accord. With group dynamics, someone (usually someone like Margaret) ends up doing the lion’s share of the work to stave off a poor grade because the slackers couldn’t care less.


We did try to reward them, both by taking them to dinner (our usual celebration) and by doing something special during winter break. It wasn’t a good break for them; with Jack’s back out, he couldn’t do much with them. Then Brigid got sick so they had a couple days of baby duty as well. So for the last night of vacation, we went to Burlington for an overnight at a TownPlace Suites (a Marriott property) with two bedrooms and a kitchen. We did some shopping, played in the pool, watched some cable TV. It was nice, although Brigid was a maniac when it came bedtime. I think it might have been a combination of being in a strange place and some caffeinated tea she drank earlier, but we didn’t sleep very well. The girls said it was a nice way to end their vacation. The photos are from Church Street in Burlington, Vt., the requisite photos on one of the Church Street rocks.