Exam week is upon us. Finally. This is one of the easiest weeks of the year. Students come in for an hour and a half or two hours, take their exam, go to their next exam, repeat, and then leave for the day. On Wednesday, there's only one exam period, but that's my free period so I'll be grading through it, and then enjoy the staff luncheon. On Friday, it's a 7 period day in which we see all seven classes for 15 minutes, have a staff Christmas show, and then at noon, could attend the alumnae reception to see recently graduated students.
I'm particularly excited, because I should have all grading and most planning done by the end of the work week so that I may enjoy my full two week vacation with Andrew and Lucy.
Speaking of them, they've had a good Advent so far. Andrew loves having the tree up and is very vocal about seeing the "high" ornaments on the tree. He also likes the early Christmas present from my mother-in-law, a hallway table, mirror, pictures, and four Christmas ducks. The second day they were up, Andrew told me "no touch!" when I asked him about the ducks. I asked him who told him that and he said "granny" which I thought was absolutely adorable. Additionally, Chris set up the tree and most of the Christmas decorations last weekend (end of the first week of Advent, into the second). Andrew was really excited about his nativity, especially the camels and baby Jesus. I, initially, was going to put Jesus away until Christmas morning, but Andrew was so cute about it. He took baby Jesus out of his plastic nativity scene and brought him to his room, and put the figurine under his pillow. He had "tuck[ed] in" baby Jesus. I was confused at first, but when I realized what he was saying, it was too cute. Chris had him put baby Jesus under the tree and then Andrew repeated it a few more times. Lucy also loves the nativity, but her love has to do with the fact that the animals are the perfect size for gnawing with her still toothless gums.
Lucy's now seven months. She has yet to roll over, though she is sitting really well. For the most part, she balances herself to lean over in front of her and then sits back up. Sometimes, she does topple onto her belly and then she starts pushing her belly up off the floor with her hands and knees. She does a lot of scooting backwards on her belly and a lot of scooting forwards while sitting. Andrew sometimes "helps" her onto her back, and depending on the force, Lucy will start laughing or crying. Regardless of how Lucy reacts, I make Andrew apologize. I tell him to say sorry and then ask him why he's saying sorry. He'll usually give me one word answers such as "kick" or "push" or "hurt" to describe what he did to Lucy. Sometimes he's defiant about apologizing and he gets a timeout. It doesn't seem to prevent him from doing it a few minutes later, though.
Something I'm especially not happy about recently, though, is that Andrew's start playing games and watching YouTube (watching Thomas songs or other kids play with Thomas trains) on Chris's (work) iPad and playing Angry Birds on my father-in-law's Nook. When we make him stop, at least on the iPad, he breaks down and starts sobbing. On Thursday, it happened for fifteen minutes and he wouldn't eat dinner. I'm a little frustrated because Chris doesn't think it's a big deal, but I don't think it's good that Andrew's obsessed with the electronic devices already (I was hoping to wait years until introducing real ones to him besides our cell phones) and that his reaction to having it taken away is so severe. It seems to me, based upon his reaction, that he is not ready for them. I also want him to learn to play without one. I'm not quite sure what to do about the whole situation, but it's bothering me. I really don't want Andrew staring at a screen as much as he does. I already somewhat caved to the hour or so of television a day so that at times, I can get some work done. I don't really advocate early use of television either, and am trying to not let Lucy watch it yet, too, even though sometimes, I notice her trying to look at the television screen to see what's going on. I really don't want my kids relying on electronic games and shows so much; I want them to enjoy playing and using their imagination as I had the chance to (amid the television-watching I know I did as a child).
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