vonRoeschlaub Family News

The kids had their first day of school.  Avery was just a half day, but Claire not only had a full day, but some homework too.  Fortunately it’s mostly review to ease her back into the schoolwork.

Back to work for me.  The kids had a morning of adventure, and then visited their classrooms in teh afternoon.  Avery was excited, and Diana was happy his aide was the same one Luke had.  She’s feeling a bit more positive about that.

Yesterday we went to the pool for the last time this year.  It closed for the winter, but Claire and Avery had fun and Luke came with us.  Sadly, Luke forgot his bag and Diana went back to the house, spending an hour looking for it.  As it turned out, it was in the car.

I also spent some time in the morning trying to fix the oven knob.   It looks like the rheostat is completely frozen.  Very odd.  I think I’m going to have to unplug teh entire assembly and take it apart to track this down.  A replacement runs about $100.  Blech.

We went to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City yesterday with Melissa and Luke.  The kids loved it.  We saw the energy exhibit (which glossed over the issues of alternate energy production — like the places that generate wind power don’t have the ability to direct it to the places it is needed, so they run at lower power than they could so as not to destroy the national electric grid).  Then Claire and Luke went to see a special exhibit on fear while we took Avery (who really wanted to go, but we don’t need more nightmare fodder right now) to see the harbor exhibit.  Victoria enjoyed the fish too.

Afterward we went to see the communications exhibit (where you could learn Manderin, Spanish, or Cockney) and Claire and Luke took off again to see the Monsters of the Deep movie.  Avery and Victoria went to the kids zone where Victoria saw some little pika looking creatures and just stood, looked and laughed.  Avery played with an enormous ball ramp toy (as in two stories tall).
The giant Hoberman Sphere in the lobby (largest in teh world) entertained the older kids, but scared Victoria.  It’s interesting that she already understands enough to realize that the way it expands and contracts is unusual.

This morning Victoria woke up and romped a bit on our bed before Claire awaoke and sat with us.  Victoria got so excited she let out an ear-piercing yelp.  All three of us went “Shhh.”

She took a deep breath and let out an even louder yelp.  “Shhh.” we repeated.

She took an even deeper breath and as we all prepared she went “Shhh.”

Victoria knew it was a joke and laughed uproriously at our faces.  She’s quite the actress.

Victoria was still awake when I got home last night, so I had a rare opportunity to play with her in the evening.  She asked me to bring her to and fro, until she finally decided she wanted to sit at the computer.

I set her in the little chair and turned on the computer.  As it started up she kept waiting expectantly.  When the wallpaper came up finally she pointed at the picture of a heron and said “luch luch”.  It took a moment until I realized she was telling me to “look.”  Diana was pretty excited when she heard it too.

But when Diana went to Luke’s to get Claire Victoria pointed up the stairs and said “Mama.”  At the time I thought she believed Diana was upstairs, but it looks like “Mama” is her way of saying “I want that.”

I followed her up the stairs (she loves to do that) and into Claire and Avery’s room saying “luch, luch” again.  When she got in she pointed at the book shelves and announced “buch”.  (That’s a hard ch like “loch” by the way.)

Pointing at each book on the bottom shelf she named each one “buch” and then pulled herself up to the second shelf and pointed to the bookend.  “Bookend,” I told her.  She listened, and then worked her way along again “buch, buch, buch . . .”

At the end of the shelf was Avery’s bedtime sippy cup (he always sleeps with some water so he won’t wake up 12 times a night).  Without missing a beat Victoria went “buch, buch, milk.”

Well, it was water, but she knows what she takes to bed.

Went to the Brooklyn Aquarium yesterday.  Luke and Melissa came along, mainly to see the baby walrus.  The kids had great fun checking out the fish.  Victoria loved just looking at them, especially one tank full of colorful ones.  She was a little scared when anything big got too close to the glass, though.  Especially when I set her up leaning against the window and the Walrus came by.

Claire has a bit of a scare when she looked into a dark tank and suddenly focussed in on a nautilus.  Not a very pretty thing to come nose to nose with.

Luke was great with all three kids, even Victoria who seems to like him as much as Claire does.  We spent a bit of time in the new cafe, though.  Nice to sit for a while.

Avery managed to spill something at every meal, though.  We need to break him of this.  I’m still not even sure what it is that does it since I never seem to be looking at him when it happens, but Diana has seen it and says it’s just him flailing around like he normally does when he gets fidgity.

Oh, and I served in church in the morning, with three people running the service it was a bit crowded at the alter, but everything went relatively smoothly.

At 13 months Victoria still wasn’t putting weight on her feet, so we called in an expert.  At 14 months nothing had changed and he agreed she needed therapy.

The very next day she pulled herself up on her feet, climbed the stairs, and even went down the single step to the family room.  After a week she was cruising (walking while leaning on things).  We cancelled the therapy.

I know we could have gotten it anyway, but with Avery we know just how much the people who need it need it, and it didn’t seem right getting social services we don’t actually need even if it was perfectly fine legally.

We are coming up on 15 months and she still isn’t beyond cruising, but she has become more interested in other activities and may have stopped trying to progress.

To encourage her, while we were at my parents house and she was cruising along their couch, I handed her my keys, which she loves to play with.  She continued to cruise one-handed, so I offered her my cell phone, which she also found fascinating.

She stood there for a moment with both hands full, and looked back and forth in a panic unable to decide what to do as she slowly tilted further and further back before finally tumbling to the floor.

At least now she knows the reason to walk.

The kids are getting ready for school, and Avery is very excited to start next week.  Claire isn’t as excited, but Diana is very frustrated because not one of Claire’s myriad of friends will be in her class.  Not a single one.  Not even friends from Kindergarten.

It’s almost like they singled her out to make sure she didn’t share a class with any person she has ever been in a class with before.

On the bright side, the teacher apparently went to Japan recently and is excited to teach the culture to the kids.  She will have a leg up on the rest of the class on that (unless someone is actually from Japan in the class).  I’ve been trying to teach her some phrases to get her started, but she isn’t interested.

Meanwhile, Avery has been given a teacher we know very little about.  Hopefully that will work out, but Diana was really hoping for Claire’s old teacher Mrs. Keogh since she specializes in the field.
Victoria is being prepped for day care for the days Diana teaches.  Yup, Diana is going back to teaching T-Th.  She can’t teach Monday because she has classes at the PRC, but that is a guaranteed steady pay which substituting won’t offer (plus free/discount classes at the PRC above & beyond the pay).

Should be an interesting year for all the kids.

Well, meeting for Avery. The upshot is he will be getting a full-time aide, pull-outs for treatment, and a full behavioral analysis. We are relieved.