The Swine Flu causes stupidity.

Strangely, this symptom is most common in people who are NOT exposed to the disease.

OK, on to the real post.

Quinn is talking more and more. He is also singing more and more. He always sang all the time, but he's not just singing a few bars of a song. He's singing entire songs with all the verses. Yesterday he sang this for his grandma, straight through, on key the whole time:

I gave my love a cherry that has no stone.
I gave my love a chicken that has no bone.
I gave my love a ring that has no end.
I gave my love a baby with no cryin'.

How can there be a cherry that has no stone?
How can there be a chicken that has no bone?
How can there be a ring that has no end?
How can there be a baby with no cryin'?

A cherry when it's bloomin', it has no stone.
A chicken when it's pippin', it has no bone.
A ring when it's rollin', it has no end.
A baby when it's sleepin' has no cryin'.

My baby when he's sleepin' has no cryin'.

He's not even three yet! Two year olds aren't supposed to do that, are they?

Speaking of doing things they aren't supposed to, Zoe is getting in more in more trouble at school. Her teacher said something about it to me today, implying that we never tell her no. I didn't know whether to laugh or be offended. We tell her no about a dozen times a day. And we get screamed at about a dozen times a day, too. I admit that I try to set things up to where I don't have to tell her no any more often than necessary. It's called picking your battles. If I didn't set it up that way, all we'd do is fight. But I do tell her no and I stick to it. I try hard to make no mean no every time. But I avoid saying it unless it's necessary. Do I make her buckle her seatbelt? Yes, every time. Brush her hair in the mornings. Yes, every time. Taste each and every type of food on her plate. Yes, every time. Not hit Quinn. Yes, every time. Not yell in the car. Yes, every time. But do I make her pick up every last toy? No. Not worth it. Wear shoes in the yard? No. Not even close to worth it. Go to bed at 8 instead of 9? Not worth listening to her scream for an hour at 8 at night.

I told her teacher that she listens to me and Scott and minds us, but is not so good with others. She had to fess up that Zoe listens to her, but not the aides. Maybe the aides need to tell her no, too. Later I will point out that she is naturally a boundary pusher. She WILL back down, but it's a fight every time. One day she'll be a lawyer or a wrestler and it'll come in handy. Right now, it's a pain.

Caly is growing fast. She's inches taller and has hips now. She's strikingly pretty, but she feels very self concious. I got her stuff to whiten her teeth and that helped. And I'll be calling the doctor this week to set up an appointment for her acne. I know it would be a lot better if she pulled her bangs off her forehead whenever she's not at school. She likes them long, but when she wears them down her forehead breaks out.

So far, she's not expressed any interest in any other boys at school. Well, there's a high school boy who she says has perfect hair, but I don't think she could pick his face out of a lineup. His hair, yes. But not his face. She's a bit sad, though, that most of her friends have boyfriends. She's not interested in any particular boy, but it's hard to see all your friends show up to the dance with a date when you don't have one, even if you don't know someone you'd want to date.

Zaven, on the other hand, is oblivious. He's got female friends. And he even has a few he likes romantically. But he never bothers to flirt with them or ask them out. I think he'll start dating when some girl clubs him over the head and drags him home to meet her folks. He's like that with all things social. He enjoys it, but he never initiates it. He'll talk on the phone to friends who call. But he doesn't call them or even find out their phone numbers. I think it's a combination of it not coming naturally and him being lazy. It's just not important enough to him to make that big of an effort. Of course I worry that he'll regret it in the long run. Fortunately, he's in a lot of activities and he's in Upward Bound. He makes friends without working at it there. I suspect he'll grow into it over the next summer. I won't be shocked if he comes home in love.

And Scott and I are surviving. I'm getting over my horrible flu, wondering now if it was swine or not. But I'm improved enough that I'm not worried either way.

Scott hasn't been sick but he's gotten hurt twice lately. He cut the very tip of his thumb in a chainsaw accident. He actually cut the tip off. But just that bit of skin. It bled a lot, but he didn't even get any of the bone. I'd say he cut off about a quarter of an inch. It's growing back nicely. And he got burned yesterday when someone lit a fire on our property. He had to hook up some stuff that was on fire to a chain and use a tractor to haul it away from some propane containers. Somehow, he ended up grabbing a chain after it had been in the fire and burned his left palm pretty badly. It looks like it's going to be fine. It blistered awful, but when he drained them this morning they stopped hurting. I, on the other hand, am a bit concerned. He never gets hurt that bad on the farm and twice in the same week he got an injury that could have been serious. Plus there's the fact that someone set a fire on our property. Not reassuring at all.