Long Overdue

I have been a baaaaaadddddd blogger. I haven't posted in ages. I am not really sure why. Sometimes, it is just tiring to think about. Max's illness at times feels like a lifetime ago. I have long periods where it just feels like a bad dream that is starting to fade from memory. It is nice not to think about it all the time. Plus, as much as anything, not much has been going on. Max is doing great, for the most part. He loves school so much that he was not happy to have a long weekend over MLK weekend. He seems to be thriving there, though we still get the same old could do a bit better at focussing comments. He is the best reader in his class and is reading like crazy around the house, which I think is so cool. We went to dinner a few weeks ago when visiting my father and I was going to do what I typically do, which is look over the children's menu, decide what if anything was on there that I was willing to feed my children (sometimes I will have them order off the regular menu and split or get appetizer size things or split meals with them) and as I started to read the menu, Max said "I want a hot dog and chips." I stared at him for a second, and then said "oh yes, you can read the menu, can't you." So much for that trick. :) Prefirst has been very good for him, I think. I don't think he is overly challenged by the curriculum, but he doesn't seem bored, which is what I feared. He flies through his homework most nights, often finishing the entire week's packet in a short sitting the first evening. I have compared this to the workload that our neighbor's first grader (who went to K with him) and it is much lighter, which is nice for both of us. However, sometimes he rolls his eyes about it and mutters that it is just like kindergarten. They did a great job at his school last year. He learned to ski this winter and just finished 6 weeks of lessons. He did struggle a bit with it, and his instructor said it was because he lacked lower body strength. I was pretty surprised by this, to be honest, and am going to try to do more activities that involve building up the strength in his legs. I suspect there will be a lot of bike riding once the weather warms and the days lengthen, especially seeing as James will be old enough to ride in the trailer this summer so we can go out as a family (I haven't been on a bike ride since I got pregnant with Max and am really looking forward to it). His swimming has greatly improved and he can swim independantly now and will even go under water willingly, though only with goggles on. He is going to take one last swim lesson series this spring and then I think we will be done with swimming with him. He likes to play around in the water, but doesn't love it like his sister, so we will see if there is another activity he would rather participate in. We got where we wanted to get, which is he can swim well enough to save himself if he falls in. He is also doing Tae Kwan Do at the school where I work. The instructor offerred free lessons to teachers' children and I jumped on it. He really enjoys it and even got to break a board. I will see if I can get Josh to post some pictures of that as it was pretty cool, though unfortunately I missed it as I was teaching. This may sound like he has a ton going on, but we try hard not to overschedule the children. We took the winter off from swimming so that he could ski. I think two activities is plenty. Last week, one of my students was saying that she and another student had the same number of after school activities, 6. These were second graders. I just can't imagine. That sounds like so much for a child. I know that doesn't make me a normal American mother in this day and age, though. Hopefully he will not regret that we didn't have him in more stuff later in life.

As far as Max's health goes, he has been mostly healthy, but seems to be struggling with ear issues this winter as he did last winter. It is actually affecting his hearing and he saw an audiologist on Wednesday. She tested his hearing and he had hearing loss in both ears (he had failed in one ear at the pediatrician's office) but said he had some fluid in his ears and that another test showed his hearing was fine past the fluid point so she was not concerned. I hope the ear infections stop. I have no experience with them at all as I have never had any problem with mine and none of the children had them until Max started having trouble last winter. We will play it by ear (no pun intended).

I guess that is about it. I will try to add pictures later. He has grown so much. He doesn't at all resemble a little boy anymore, though sometimes he still just wants to be snuggled with and held. He seems to big compared to Lauren and James that it is easy to forget that he is just a boy sometimes. I miss him so much when he is gone all day, though. And I am grateful that he still likes to sit in a chair with me or snuggle at bedtime. I know that will pass far too soon and I try hard to treasure it.

Oh, and the long ago promised CBC stats from January:

WBC: 4.9
HCT: 35.9
HGB: 12.8
PLT: 196
ANC: 255