Life is so busy

I have been super busy with Anslem and Basil all week. Anselm put together his first string of letters today and wrote his first word: book. It was very exciting. Now if he could just remember the difference between j and g I'll feel like he is going to learn how to read okay. Science has been fun: measurement, states of matter, etc. Its not quite as much fun as the astronomy we were doing last Winter, but Winter is almost here again and now we have binoculars! We'll be able to see some cool stuff in the heavens this Winter.

I think Basil broke his nose today. He fell face first onto concrete. It was pretty gruesome.

Both the boys and Athanasia are still sick with colds. I feel so sorry for them. I've had a bit of a runny nose, but except for that very mild symptom I've been fine. But Athanasia, Basil, and Anselm have had it pretty bad.

No swimming last week because of illness. THough on Friday morning I took the boys on a long walk to Deer Hollow Farm. To get there one has to walk 1.1 miles through the gorgeous foothills of the Santa Cruz range. THe hills on this side or the San Anrdreas Fault are covered with brown grass (its the dry season) spotted with large green oaks. We saw many deer, wild turkeys, and quail. One ground squirrel poked its head out of its hole as we wee walking by. Basil talked to it and it talked back. Anselm wanted to hold it and when he bent down to get it it ran back underground. The walk there was okay. But when you have a 2 year old it takes a very long time to walk 1.1 mile. The return walk took even longer. The whole excursion, including the 30 minutes we spent at the farm took almost 4 hours. Exhausting. I miss being able to buckle Basil into a stroller. Oh, well. It won't last for ever and then I'll wish he was 2 again. I already miss when Anselm was 4. Life zooms by too quickly.

In other news, I began taking classes from UMass Boston this week. We'll see how it goes.