Updates

We decided to keep Porter at our neighborhood school.  It was agonizing, but in the end, not really a difficult choice.  He was assigned to a second grade class with the first male teacher of his life, which I could tell was both exciting and a little scary.  School supplies were bought, everything was ready.

And then all three kids and I came down with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.  Which if you don't have children, you likely haven't heard of.  A very much not serious illness, but one of the more completely annoying ones on my list.  And I'll leave it at that.  But it caused Porter to miss the first two days of school, which ended up making the whole thing a bit of a let-down.  After his first official day yesterday though, things seem to be going well, and I have high hopes for this year.

Cedar is continuing with more infrequent speech therapy, and is really improving.  I still can't understand a lot of what she says, but it is coming in leaps and bounds.  She seems more willing to try, which is a big deal.

The bears are still around, eating chickens in the neighborhood.  Fish and Game had to put one down in the touristy area yesterday for chasing people.  We still have on turkey left though, and we are protecting it fiercely.  And also looking forward to hibernation season.

Molly is still herself, my feisty one.  She has become really, really interested in weddings and being married, which seems normal enough for a little girl.  She likes to look at my wedding pictures, and she asked me if she could wear my dress someday.  She wonders if she has to get married in Oregon (like I did), will she be able to change clothes afterwards, will Grandma cook the food, and who will take care of Cedar after she doesn't live with us anymore.  She is also enraptured by love scenes in movies, the kind where the princess kisses Prince Charming at the end.  While Porter groans and hides his eyes, Molly swoons.  She seems too young to really care about that kind of thing, and in a lot of ways she doesn't, of course, really understand it, I think it's more about pretty clothes and princesses and fairy tales.  But then the other day she asked me if, after she married Thalen (a friend up the street who is her current fancy), could she put her mouth all over him?  Ahem.  The answer was no.