here, there, and everywhere (an apologetic update)

So we haven't fallen off the face of the planet, just into the throws of a busy quarter. But we're all here and we're all happy.
The Monkey absolutely loves bananas...
and the mop.(he gets it out at least three times a day and tries to mop the floor. He also sweeps, and occasionally vacuums, though the vacuum is a little scary, apparently, and he mostly just watches it from a distance).
He also loves this chair. He didn't, however, fall asleep here. This was after a morning car ride that proved too much for him. We didn't want him to sleep for ever, so we plopped him here and let him get in a 15 minute power nap.
Not the best composition I've ever seen, but an accurate depiction of storytime at our house. The monkey currently has no less than three different bumps on his head from falling down from various high places around the house. You'd think he'd learn. Just yesterday he did a half-gainer off a folding chair and crowned himself pretty good.

Mr. Baseball and the Monkey love their new diggers.


and their new Sunday outfits.
And the Monkey has become increasingly interested in pens and writing implements of all kinds.
and forts, of course, are always a big hit. In fact Mr. Baseball is sleeping in one right now, courtesy of a little creativity on the part of the Queen Bee, who set up a full blown safari tent complete with kitchen cabinets in Mr. Baseball's room.


The fact that I really shouldn't be writing this at the moment, but should be working on two assignments for class, I hope sheds a little light on why we haven't posted much in the past two weeks. Sundays have come and gone for the past few weeks and it has been all we could do to keep up with laundry, let alone this blog. Things are well here, if a little busy, and we're genuinely glad for life in general.

I've started School again.

One Theory of Nonfiction course(lots of discussion on the purpose and function of documentary, the fallibility of memory, the origin of consciousness),

one Renaissance Humor course (lots of talk about foolery, Shakespeare, Erasmus, and body humor),

one pedagogy course (lots of verbal "group hugs" about how hard it is to teach freshman, though my class is actually a lot of fun),

one course that I'm teaching (the fun Freshmen I was just talking about)

In fact, I'm having all my students keep blogs this quarter and we have a class blog at getrhetorical.blogspot.com. Its not terribly exciting for people not in the class, but its an experiment that I think will go well). I've got about 60-100 pages of reading per day, as well as writing assignments, lesson plans, and somewhere between it all, I'm supposed to be continuing to work on my own personal writing. Oh yeah, and I'm a dad, a husband, and a disciple. Thank heaven I'm not in med school.

The queen bee has been helping a new couple in our branch a lot with getting around town. The wife is eight months pregnant and they don't have a car yet because they just moved from Australia, so Mel has been taking her grocery shopping and to the doctor and to a few other places around town. We had them over for dinner with a few other couples from the complex (there are now four in our building who all go to church with us). It's fun to have new neighbors.

The QB has also been getting revved up for the new year in Primary. We've been singing "I am a child of God," every morning and evening, and memorizing scriptures and doing all we can to give her plenty of practice for leading the music for the kids at church. The organ calling has been a challenge for her as well. I think she sounds great, but she is pretty hard on herself and worries a bit about detracting from the spirituality of Sacrament meeting. This Sunday, the Organ Performance professor in our branch told her she sounded much more confident, which I know she appreciated hearing. And it means a lot more coming from him and his trained ear, than it does from me.

Mr. Baseball just started Karate (pictures coming soon) two Saturdays ago, and a music exploration class at the University on Thursday nights. He also has play group at the Church every Wednesday, and art time at the library on Thursdays. Some Fridays he gets together with a friend from church who is the same age and as talkative and energetic as he is, which means they play hard, and occasionally fight hard. At home he spends a lot of time playing with his cars, which have increased in number since Christmas (a man I home teach gave him a bunch he'd been collecting in a box over the years), and one of his new found loves is a red basketball goal that attachs to his closet door. We play in there with the Monkey, passing, steeling, blocking, and "playing defense." Sometimes I have to remind Mr. Baseball to let the monkey hold onto the ball, but for the most part they play well together. Mr. B has also been keeping up with regular chores, like making his bed (he actually made it on his own this morning without being reminded), and setting and clearing the table, and an old Franklin favorite--soft squishies (this was a chore I had as a child and it involves picking up all the food that is dropped under the table during dinner. As a child I didn't mind doing it, but it wasn't until I asked Mr. B to do it that realized why us kids always had the job growing up. We're the ones who drop food on the floor. Heis realizing this too, and hopefully it will make him a bit more careful

The Monkey, as the pictures above witness, is into everything. And he's been pretty serious about trying to feed himself lately, though that usually means a few attempts with the spoon and then a free-for-all that leaves large handfuls of food smashed into his face, hair, and clothing. He doesn't say much yet, but we swear he's begun to try to say "ball," "spoon," and maybe, "Give me that apple and I'll feed myself, thank you very much," though we're not sure about that last one.