We recently pulled out videotapes of Carmen at about 3 months old, remembering her responding to David's voices. Here is Paloma following suit.

Sheriff Landon's 3rd birthday at Rocky Top Ranch was a blast!
That's the birthday boy swinging with Gabe and his big sister Maddie on the barrel with Gabe, and little brother Owen next to Paloma. And that's Gabe reacting to the growl of the pot-bellied pig!

We went to Open House on Thursday at Carmen's school. We met the parents of the kid who cut her hair! We saw samples of her work and she showed us around the school. David and I noticed how comfortable and confident she seemed as she led us to music, art & the gym. We got a kick out of her journal again.

Here's the entry from the picture (translated for your convenience):
My babysitter is going to play games with me and she takes me for a ride. Her name is Miss Jackie. My babysitter picks my brother up at school. I love my babysitter.

I survived the first week being back at work. We were in survival mode because David traveled to Washington, D.C. for senate hearings on the Wright Amendment. He sat next to Kay Bailey Hutchison on the flight home!

He got home late Thursday night and then he & Carmen traveled to Oklahoma Friday for their first Adventure Guides campout. They returned Sunday with more pictures than I expected. Here's a sample.

I AM LIKE THE INUIT.
I feel like it, anyway, you know, how in the arctic circle during the winter there are very few hours of daylight?
I only feel like I'm living a few hours each day and only spending minutes of quality time with Paloma, and she's just getting to be so fun, smiling at anyone who talks to or makes faces at her!

I don't mind being at school--I was working half days since September--but I sure hate leaving her. The only thing that makes it tolerable is having Jackie care for her.

Jackie's 1st day at our house

I haven't written about it before, but we love The Backyardigans, and they are truly a part of our lives these days. We collected all of the episodes on Tivo and we listen to the cd in the car. I've also collected a number of songs their songs are patterned after. Apparently a LOT of grown-ups besides me love the Backyardigans. It is a kind of opera or Broadway musical for the preschool set, and each new episode features a different theme and a different musical genre. I was cracking up as I read other adults' comments on this blog:

The Backyardigans blog

Carmen wrote the following in her spiral today:

"I clet up my room my dad was so happy I clet up drrec daddy and Gabriel got brefes my dad was so happy I mat hem happy
I mad my bed and I pot the tos a wa I fodded my cos I pot te books a wa he was prowd ov me and I was happy to and he gav me a secr."

And I (Angi) was so happy that I could decipher all but one word--drrec.

Here is the translation for those of you who haven't read Kindergartenese in a while:
I cleaned up my room, My dad was so happy. I cleaned up during [while] Daddy and Gabriel got breakfast. My dad was so happy. I made him happy! I made my bed and I put the toys away, I folded my clothes, I put the books away. He was proud of me and I was happy, too, and he gave me a sticker."

She really did do all of those things this morning, but the last part of that is not true; he didn't give her a sticker-- just wishful thinking!

Today was my first day back to work, but instead of being just sad it was somewhat comical since I had all three kids with me. (Well, Gabe went to preschool in the morning, but was with us the rest of the day until almost 5.)

The kids' favorite part of the day was the cake reception for a colleague but the second favorite was playing inside my drafting table desk in my English room. (Usually we're in the yearbook lab across campus, so it's a treat for them to be somewhere else.) I had brought several videos and movies but they didn't even watch a whole one because they were having fun playing in the classroom.

The reception was a going-away party; the English department is losing another teacher in the middle of the year. That makes three in the middle of the year since January and there were three others that left over the summer! Something in the water. . . the stress of the job is too much for too many, so at least I know it's not just me!

Will we ever all be well at the same time???? I'm supposed to go back to work Friday, but it's hard to imagine how that will be possible at this rate.

In addition to missing most of the Halloween-weekend festivities, poor Carmen has missed a LOT of school. Yesterday at the doctor, Gabe told the nurse, "Carmen has terrible spots and we don't know where they came from!"

Even though she's not at school, Carmen can't stop reading and writing--those activities are getting in the way of her drawing these days.