List of things

[ailbhe]

Emer went to the dentist and the downward spiral has stopped - her teeth are fine and not deteriorating further, so it's just two more holes to fill (he knew about them before but wanted to leave them because he felt she'd had as much treatment in one go as was appropriate to her age at the time) - he filled one yesterday and will fill another in September.

Our printer died completely and we bought a new one. I'm pretty excited about this. It might even be good enough to print photos and send them to our friends and family. I might run off some Birth Announcements (which might help people to get the name right!) and birthday party invitations (Emer will be four in two weeks - she wants a cake EXACTLY like the last one).

Becky of Eclectic Games brought me food shopping and so there's enough food in the house to keep us going for a while. Things had reached a kind of crisis point. Yesterday I ended up not eating enough and not drinking enough and my vision went all weird and blurry with blank spots, tunnel vision of a sort, and moving coloured auras. Me and my legendarily low blood pressure need to take more care (memo to self: eat breakfast, dammit).

My next move is a home ed one - I'm buying a curriculum for Emer. I really am. I'm a bit scared of it, because I know what effect this would have on Linnea, but it's absolutely appropriate for Emer, because they are not the same person - also known as the common parenting mantra "Everything you think you learned from having one baby WILL NOT APPLY to the subsequent ones, HAHA SUCKS TO BE YOU."

Mind you, this also applies to swaddling. First baby, wrap her arms up, she breaks free like the Incredible Hulk bursting through the seams of things with great muscle-flexing roars. Second baby, wrap her arms up, she whimpered inconsolably and wriggled helplessly against the firm wrapping. Third baby, wrap her arms up, she smiles blissfully and goes to sleep.

Er. Did I get a sleeper?!

Comments

[pne]

the common parenting mantra "Everything you think you learned from having one baby WILL NOT APPLY to the subsequent ones, HAHA SUCKS TO BE YOU."

I used to think everyone should have a "practice" baby first (like a prototype when you're developing software), so you'd get some experience and do a better job with your first "real" baby... but unfortunately, I fear what you say is true, so the experience you'd get would only be of minor help when you try to "do everything properly" the second time around.

[ailbhe]

I tell Linnea she's "my poor practice baby" on whom I get everything wrong. Somehow she seems unscarred by this. Er.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Amazing how different they are.

*SO* glad to hear about the dental good news. And all your other improvements as well.

[the0lady.livejournal.com]

Given that she seems to be a sleeper, how soon before you're ready to be whisked into town for foodz and chatz, do you think?

[ailbhe]

I can't tell - I have no standard baseline for when *I* am likely to feel recovered enough to go out!

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

A sleeper would be great! :)

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Oooh! A sleeper! :) Wouldn't that be lovely!

N.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping!

[radegund.livejournal.com]

I have to take O&F for a dental checkup. There's a dark line I don't like on one of F's molars.

A sleeper, now, wouldn't that be nice? *crosses available extremities*

[pauamma]

<stage whisper>I think they're conspiring to keep you confused.</stage whisper>

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I need to write to you about the curriculum! Will try to do so tonight.

[ailbhe]

I found a website in the UK selling a package which includes all the books currently in print, so that seems ok, I think.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yes. What I was going to say about the curriculum is that much depends on whether you have access to the books. I bought mine at online used bookstores; the in-print ones were mostly available for about $1 and the most I paid for any single book was $12 for something out-of-print and hard to find. But that involved watching prices for a while.

I also have a really good library; almost all of the books, including the 5 of 6 that I don't own, are in my neighborhood library or available for interlibrary loan. People with bad libraries seem to get pretty frustrated by Five in a Row.

[ailbhe]

The US-based booklist I can see listed on websites does look like the local library might have trouble (though it's possible some of them are also published by UKian publishers and the websites just don't reflect that). But it seems like if I start looking to fill the gaps as soon as I receive the curriculum it should be fairly straightforward - and probably skipping one or two books won't be a problem, anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, you're going to do Five in a Row?

alison

[ailbhe]

I'm going to suggest Emer does it, yeah. I am not getting too attached to the idea of it appealing as much to her as it does to me, because that way madness lies.

[sierra-le-oli.livejournal.com]

Or, first baby, wrap her arms up, she breaks free like The Hulk and Houdini combined. First baby, wrap her arms up, she settles immediately and goes to sleep. Timing is everything, I guess. :)