It is crazy up in here

Every 10 days or so we get an update from Jack's teacher about how things are going. They mostly say the same things: Jack stands up all during class, he never sits still, he doesn't pay attention, and he has to be reminded constantly to stay on task. I feel for the boy because none of it is intentional and he really wants to follow the rules but he just has too much energy. He is never bad or rude and luckily his teacher understands this because for his daily behavior chart he gets quite a lot of green stamps which means he hasn't broken any rules, but his inability to control his body, as we call it, is beginning to affect his school work. He skips problems on worksheets because he just doesn't notice them, he forgets to put his name on his paper, and he doesn't read the instructions all the way. As a lady who followed all the instructions/rules in class it is sometimes hard for me to relate to Jack's struggles in class. Pete says as long as Jack knows addition, for example, then just because he doesn't get an A on every worksheet doesn't matter and if he can learn addition while standing up then I need to let go of it. If Jack starts being bad and purposefully not following directions then we have a problem. It doesn't seem to bother Jack and he enjoys school so I am going with it.

Did you hear that I am having a girl?! I mean this is crazy. What am I going to do with a girl? I am so nervous. We have all decided that she is just going to have to be a tomboy. For starters I am not going to buy new baby clothes because it is really expensive to buy a whole new wardrobe for one child. She is going to be wrapped in blue blankets and people will be very confused when they see her. Secondly, Jack says she is going to have to love wrestling, throwing rocks, and riding on the John Deere. No matter what though she will be loved and Pete gets to have a little princess to spoil. She will definitely add a whole other dimension to our clan. It will be amusing to see how the boys react to having a little girl around. Pete has voiced concern about wiping a baby girl's bottom because you actually have to be careful and he wants to make sure she doesn't end up a stripper. I think those are his two main concerns at this point.

In other news we have decided to try and get out of the house and enjoy fall. We went to pick apples, we made apple butter,we rode on the Boilermaker Special, and went to Pappy's (on campus) to drink malts. We still want to go walking in the woods, visit a pumpkin patch, and do a few more fall things.We love fall around here. 

Boy or Girl? Criteria for new baby.

Wanted in new baby:
- able to wrestle
- able to wear super hero shirts
-able to be crazy
-able to put yucky stuff in hair
-able to draw on self
-able to be loud and crazy
-able to play monster games on the iPad


Well.....

Here's hoping little Miss Weigel is all the above and more.

My kids and my house are a mess, what about yours?

Recently I thought it was time for me to clean our glass door, it had been many months after all. Really, months. I wiped it, I cleaned it, and the smudges were gone. I took a step back to admire this amazing feat of house cleaning. At this moment my darling little Luke comes up and says, "It looks so good here, here, here, and here. It looks good in all the places." I wish I could say he said this while standing 10 ft. back but with each here, here, and here he was swiping his finger across the glass. Then for his final flourish when he said-it looks good in all the places- he used both hands to rub the whole glass, so I would know exactly where all the places were. Now I remember why I hadn't cleaned the glass in months. It took less than 10 seconds for it to look the exact same.

Yesterday I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, I put some laundry in the washing machine, and grabbed a few handful of toys threw them in a basket then grabbed a coke, put my feet up, looked around and said, "It is clean enough." That is my motto -it is clean enough. With three boys my house will never really be clean. All of our bathrooms smell like pee, every inch of carpet upstairs has sheets, blankets, pillows, and toys on it because our boys can't decide where they want to sleep but they know for sure it isn't in their own beds. My own room has cups, wrappers, markers, pens, old sucker sticks, and who knows what else because they treat our room as theirs. So if you ever come over you will probably not be invited upstairs because that is way too scary but if you come you are welcome downstairs so long as, it is clean enough, works for you, and if it doesn't you can stand outside.

Today I went upstairs to talk to Pete on the phone about his upcoming travel plans. The two younger boys were downstairs playing. I began to hear a lot of laughing, a little banging and knew I wouldn't love what I saw when I went downstairs, but I had no idea what it would be. I began to walk down the stairs when boom, there it was, I saw it. There was, and at the moment still is, glue, marker, and crayon all over all the walls, tables, and blinds. I was upstairs for like 10 minutes max. Oh my goodness. These kids are driving me bonkers. Here is a little sample of their artwork.

Naked Baby and Post Docs

With my tummy getting bigger the baby has become more of a topic of conversation with Luke and Thomas. I am asked everyday to lift up my shirt so they can see the baby. Then they begin to ask a lot of questions.After a couple weeks of questions a trend has emerged: Is the baby naked? Is the baby naked right now? Is it sleeping and naked? Is it naked when we go shopping? Is it naked in the bath? Is it naked at church? Does it have socks on?  Does it have shoes? Can you see his penis? To this I have to say, we don't know if the baby has a penis. If it has a penis then yes you can see the penis, and we can see it at the ultrasound in a couple weeks. If it doesn't have a penis that means it is a girl baby. In response to this I get a chorus of boys saying, I hope we see his penis. The boys want a brother, and I think they are quite jealous that they don't get to be naked near as often as the baby.

We have now entered the phase of Pete's schooling where he is applying for Post Docs. The first and main thing on his plate is applying for the NSF Grant. This would be the best opportunity for him. When applying for this grant Pete gets to pick who his supporting scientist would be. This gives him the chance to work with one of the top people in his area of math for 3 years with little to no teaching responsibilities. His top pick is a man named, Eliashberg, at Stanford. He recently got confirmation from Eliashberg that he would be willing to be his supporting scientist with the only minor maybe hitch being that he has also agreed to sponsor another student for the same grant. This shouldn't be a problem since the grant is awarded to multiple people from multiple institutions and there are no rules saying a supporting scientist is only allowed one student. Pete has very good references and has several talks at top institutions lined up over the next month plus his paper is being published in a well known journal, so things look good on paper and if it is meant to be it will happen. The next step is to apply to almost every university in the United States. There is a website dedicated to math jobs in academia where you can basically hit apply all. Once this is all done we wait. He should be done with applications some time in October/November and you find out the end of January or sometime in February.

The thought of moving to California is a bit overwhelming to me because of the cost. Oh my. Since it is the only university that I know is a definite possibility I have been looking up stuff online, and man it is expensive! We will still be students and the grant isn't for a lot of money, it is mostly the opportunity that you are applying for, not the money. Over half of that grant would go to rent with no opportunity to apply for students loans like we do now.  The thought knocks me down. Pete keeps talking it up, and I know living in California would do wonders for my seasonal depression, we would be near so many things that we aren't near now, and people who live there or have lived there talk about how much they love it, so it would be a lovely experience if we get the grant, I just wish it weren't so darn expensive.

Finally, I have ever so slowly waded into teaching Luke shapes with letters on the horizon. He is a very visual learner and learns in a slower and much different way than Jack. I have been looking online for how to teach visual learners. For shapes we are just doing 3 at time and have colored them, traced them, drawn them, and then made shape trees where he named, sorted, colored, and glued shapes onto trees. We are working on it. I am going to get around to making/buying shape bingo and shape memory. Then onto letters. The plus side is that Thomas is also learning things.