Piano too!

Talmage has been tinkering with the piano since we bought it two months ago. Somehow he figured out how to play the Winnie the Pooh song. He had one note off so Aaron showed him what it should be but other than that we didn't teach him to play this. I guess he has two variations to it- which you will see in the video. I didn't notice until I was recording it.



Talmage also can point to any of the white keys and tell me what the note is. And yesterday I heard him teaching Anya about how whole notes are round like a pie and you count to four and if the note is colored in and has a line then you only count to one for it. (Aaron taught him about whole, half, and quarter notes while I was at an orthodontist appointment on Thursday.) Talmage is still (for the past 2 years) asking for a violin-- to bad we can't teach him to play it at home. I have only found two people in San Antonio that teach kids younger than 8 to play violin. Both of these people charge a bundle.

Computer Programing

On Saturday Aaron started teaching Talmage how to do simple computer programing. Talmage loves it. He wanted to practice today and got a little frustrated with me for not knowing how to teach him "what comes next".

Anya's Poems

These videos are of Anya reciting the same poems Talmage did in the last post. She picked these up from listening in on Talmage's language lessons. She's a sharp girl and has a great memory too.



"Work"
Anonymous

Work while you work,
Play while you play;
This is the way
To be happy each day.
All that you do
Do with your might;
Things done by halves
Are never done right.

The Caterpillar
Christina G. Rossetti

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry;
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk.

May no toad spy you,
May the little birds pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.

Poetry

Here are two poems Talmage has memorized from his language lessons. I am using the text "First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind". It is a first and second grade curriculum. He is excelling at it and I usually combined several lessons because the lessons move too slow for him. Some days I wonder how I'll keep up with him. I need more chapter books that are "age" appropriate. We've gone through nearly all of the Beverly Cleary (Ramona, Henry Huggins...), Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach . . .), E.B. White (Charlotte's Web . . .) and many many others. Talmage averages at least two chapter books a week (being read to him). So does anyone have favorite books for younger kids?

Random

This picture is about a month old. The kids planted these sunflowers. Now the flowers are taller than the fence and look into other peoples yards.

When I got home from oral surgery Talmage grabbed his flashlight and little mouth mirror to come check out the work the surgeon had done. Good thing I was still pretty out of it.

More Fun Than Having Teeth Pulled

On Monday I got braces put on and then on Thursday I had oral surgery and had seven teeth removed. I lucked out with only growing 3 wisdom teeth (two top and one bottom) but also needed all four premolars removed to give me enough space in my little mouth for all my teeth. I had them all done at once under IV sedation-- very pleasant.

The surgery went well as far as I know but during post op they brought Aaron in to explain how to take caer of me and he could not handle it. He took one look at my gauze stuffed cheeks and had to sit down. The nurses looked at his white face and escorted him too another room, had him lay back in a chair, and insisted on giving him oxygen. Then they had to put a surgeons mask over my face so Aaron would faint and put me in a wheel chair and send two people (one for me and one for Aaron) to escort us to the car. Aaron was worried that I'd never let him live this one down. He says I was laughing and wagging my finger at him. Too bad I don't remember any of it!

After we got home Aaron was perfectly fine and was even able to change my gauze while I was so out of it.

Anya was hardly allowed in the room with me for the next few days because she's such a funny girl, she kept making me laugh and that hurt. One day after I finally let them see the teeth the doctor made us take home Anya started making up stories about them and would say things like. "Oops Mommy, you almost swallow your teeth!" and then she'd laugh and run out of the room.

And we can't leave Talmage out. Last night he informed me, "Mom, when you die and then are resurrected you'll have your wisdom teeth back!" (I'm thinking things like, oh what a pleasant thought, so why did I have them out and am going through all this pain, and he has is father's tactfulness) He saw my face and said, "but don't worry they wont have to take them out again."

So thanks to my family, I have been experimenting with ways to laugh without moving my face-- it's not easy and can cause more pain if not done correctly (especially with sharp braces!).

Also one more note on tactfulness. Do you think it would be tactful to rent the movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks" for your wife to see when she looks like a chipmunk after surgery?

Hurray for Anya

Well Anya had her follow up appointment with the doctor and her lungs were clear! Wow, it's been awhile since a doctor told her that. We also reviewed her RAST (allergy test) and she scored very very low on a wheat allergy and slightly higher on egg whites. No other allergies showed up and they tested so much (milk, soy, peanuts, mold, dust mites, . . .). Both the wheat and egg white scores were not high enough to constitute an allergy that could be causing the breathing problems. So she's clear to eat products containing wheat and baked goods with eggs in it but we'll shy away from hard boiled eggs and scrambled eggs (which she's happy about because she doesn't like eggs). So from here she stays on a maintence breathing medicine for two months and then is reevaluated and if her lungs are still clear she can stop the nebulizer. It was the most possitive doctors visit we've had in a long long time.