27 February 2009: update

Things haven't really slowed down much...long work hours mean less time to blog, to answer e-mail, and ... well, less time for everything.

That said, I am quite enjoying work. There is lots to do and it all feels useful, if not rivetingly interesting.

Things are going well here at home, too. Rod and Jack are enjoying their choirs, Rod has gotten the piano repaired and tuned. Of course, there is evidence that this is the first time since it was built that the piano has been tuned, so getting it to stay tuned has been an ongoing effort.

Jack has reached a new level with his awareness and maturity. When TJ and Corey were little, I kept thinking that the change *must* have been gradual and that I just missed it and that's why it seemed that every development came on full blown. With Jack, I am less focused on my own crises and I realize that while there are a few earlier hints that it's coming, these developmental changes often *do* turn on like a light-switch has been flipped. Of course, recognizing them is easier than explaining them.

I guess the best way to explain it is that with each leap, there is a new depth to the questions and a new sophistication in his understanding of the explanation. Oh, and I am seeing serious improvement in his manual dexterity. I commented last night as we stamped pictured for our Ostara cards that he was getting quite good at getting the stamp to come out, and he commented that "Yes, that's why I like it so much now" It's easier".

We are reading Selma Lagerlof's "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils". It was coincidental that I found it at Value World for 40 cents and that Jack picked it just now, as we agreed that the "Seven Little Australians" was perhaps "too challenging for five and three quarters" ...and as we are preparing to go to Sweden. It starts in Skane, where we will be staying, so I am wondering if there is any chance we can visit a few of the places Nils does...and perhaps get a map of Sweden to follow his adventures when we get home.

Yikes! Late again -- I'm not giving up, I promise. Eventually life will attain a "new normal" and I will have the time and intellectual energy to visit here again...