Thursday, March 13, 2008

PBS Kids.org

Since my last post, Rowan got a double ear infection, I got sick again, and Andrew and I have been working non-stop. It's crazy around here.
I'm trying to grow my Kindermusik studio. We just got a new space that's totally ours downtown Oakland. No more setting up and tearing down before and after each class! That shaves 2 hours off my routine twice a week. So nice. Landon's Library (the non-profit started by my cousin in memory of her son) is paying for the space to help me get started. In turn, I give them 10% of any profit...they've been SOOOO good to me. Landon LOVED Kindermusik, so we wanted kids around here to have the same experience. We had an open house to try to recruit more kids for classes, but that didn't go as well as we had hoped. We invited 50 families and only saw 5. I did get one new family to join, so I'm hoping I can add some families to that new class. I hope I can schedule some week-long classes this summer. We'll see... All you can do, I guess, is plant seeds and watch what happens!
Last weekend, it was pretty much a blizzard here, but Andrew and I left the kids at the farm and headed to Uniontown, PA (usually about 45min away--but in the blizzard, it took us 2 hours!) to see my friend Erica (from my grad school years at the Boston Conservatory) in a national tour of The Great American Trailer Park Musical. Driving there that night was terrible. There were times we couldn't see the road in front of the car...but it was fun to get away. I'm so glad we went. Erica was GREAT in the show, and even though I was getting sick and was really tired, we got to hang out with Erica a little bit afterward. She's one of my favorite people... I love you, Erica!!
Otherwise, we've just been trying to concentrate on getting healthy. My Mom had strep throat which lead to bronchitis and a sinus infection, so I substitute taught for her most of last week. This week, I've ended up with the sinus stuff and a yucky cough, but I taught at Preston for my sister Tuesday and another teacher there yesterday, I teach Kindermusik today, and tomorrow, I'm teaching Kindergarten here in Garrett County. Andrew's been all over creation...he's built up more than 55 hours of comp time from driving and working 12 hour+ days. He took Mon and Tues off this week and might take the whole week off next week before he takes some vacation time when Benny is in town!
Easter weekend, Rowan is getting baptized on Holy Saturday night, a traditional time in the Episcopal Church to baptize. Our church does "open baptism" where anyone who shows up and wants to be baptized can be, although we've talked with our priest about Rowan already. Uncle Benny Moreno is coming in to stand up as Rowan's "Godfather" and Aunt B is his "Godmother." We're doing our family Easter dinner that night before the service here at our place when we'll hide Easter eggs and have fun. We're excited to see Uncle Benny!! I'm sure he'll be taking pictures, so hopefully, we'll have some awesome pics to show you soon! :)
I'm going to leave you with a video of Ingrid getting onto the computer. She LOVES PBSkids.org (public television online...Sesame Street and Super Why and Barney and much more)! And she can do the whole thing by herself! Literally, we can leave the room and she's fine. Even if she's never seen the page, she figures it out. Amazing. And to think I never sent an e-mail until college. Shew!

Monday, March 3, 2008

So, this shouldn't affect my blogging...but one of the reasons I haven't been keeping up is that I ended up with a virus hat attacked my vocal cords! I had true laryngitis--or I think that's what it was. It started with a cough, but instead of going into my chest, my larynx began to hurt...and then my voice started to give out...and finally it was gone. I actually couldn't make much of a sound for about 5 entire days...during which I had to teach Kindergarten and attend a family birthday party where I saw family I don't usually see, even though I cancelled my Kindermusik classes and voice lessons. So much for vocal rest. Even on the days I was home, life with a 2 year old and an infant doesn't really lend itself to silence. It must have been a little amusing to watch me try to discipline Ingrid without a voice. Suddenly, my wagging finger and knitted brows had very little power... And Rowan kept looking at me funny, wondering why his Mama wasn't talking and singing to him... He sure gave Aunt B (Becca) a big smile when she said hi to him, being the first woman to talk to him since my voice "got lost," as Ingrid says.
It's been two and a half weeks since I completely lost my voice, and I'm still having a hard time singing. There's still some swelling there, and even controlling pitch isn't easy... I'm wondering if I should see an ENT, just to make sure there's no permanent damage. This is the first time this has happened to me...and I'm told that once you get it, you're prone to it forever. Not good news for someone who makes her living with her voice... Oh well...I'll just have to be really careful from here on out...

In other news...

Rowan got sick again just as his cough was clearing up. He began vomiting last Thursday and on Friday night, he had a fever of 102. We took him to the Urgent Care doctor who said he had an ear infection and gave us some antibiotic and decongestant for him. I got the medicine and tried giving it to him, but every time we tried, he would "give it all back" to me... Then, I was afraid he wasn't getting enough fluids... It was terrible. So, today, I brought him to Dr. Garrett, and she said both of his ears were infected now...so I asked her to give him a shot of antibiotic instead of trying to feed it to him. So, he's got his antibiotic in him now...but boy, he's not feeling real well tonight. Dr. Garrett said it might take 48 hours for him to be fever-free. Poor baby. His cry is the saddest thing...the kind where his lip trembles first and tears roll down his face... Not demanding at all, but just really sad. Andrew's out of town, so the baby's sleeping next to me tonight.

Good news, though, Rowan weighs 16.5 lbs! What a linebacker! :)

Ingrid is getting to be quite proficient on the computer. PBSkids.org is her favorite place to play right now. Andrew set up a separate account for her on our PC...so when we give her permission, she can go into the office, turn on the monitor, move the mouse so it comes out of hibernation mode, click on her froggie icon, click on the blue E, and play almost every game on PBSkids.org without help from us at all. If she doesn't know a part of the site, she just clicks around until she figures it out. It's like it's not foreign to her at all! Crazy to think that it was college the first time I sent an e-mail...or Graduate School the first time I "googled" something... Using the Internet is going to be as familiar to her as using the telephone or watching TV... She's something...

Also, our little Isaac (Rebecca's baby) was dedicated this last Saturday night. I was proud to stand up as his Godmother and Andrew and I helped lead worship--and I sang a Sara Groves song to Isaac. It was so good to sing worship songs again...even though I wasn't on top of my game, with my voice as weak as it is...but good nonetheless. They've invited us to help with worship again, as Becca's friends are planting a new church in Fairmont. We might sometime. They're good people. I'm so glad they're surrounding Bec and Brian and Isaac. Very good people...

Also, I turned 30 on Feb 27th. I have no strong feelings on this. It just kind of came and went...and now I'm 30.

Anyway, I'm going to include a few pics of Rowan's first bath in his ducky with Ingrid and a video of Rowan in his favorite Johnny Jump-up. My kids are the best! Enjoy!