Random Thoughts

So I have actually been scrapbooking lately (isn't it amazing what things suddenly take great precedence in an almost-due woman's head?), and I am pleased to say that I am now less than a year behind. In fact, last night I did a page on the camping trip we took with the L's last May near Shenandoah National Park. As I looked at the pictures, I knew I was forgetting crucial details so I went back and found my blog entry on the trip. Well, I liked what I wrote so much that I just used the first 2 paragraphs as my journaling! I know you are all proud at how I am using technology for my own benefit. It was fun to look back on that trip though--what a great time!

Caleb had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and Bob took him in. That was so nice. When Caleb was maybe 1 1/2 years old, he started having problems with his toenails. By that I mean they got really thick and kind of split away from the skin, and the skin on the end of his toes got really hard and cracked, almost like it was a part of the toenail. Weird. So I took him in to the dermatologist at Wright-Pat who told me that it was not some odd fungus or anything, but rather a condition related to his eczema. He gave it a name and showed me a picture and description in a big dermatology book, but I didn't write it down, and I can't figure out what it was, since my google searches of things like "eczema related toenail problems", etc. haven't yielded anything. And of course, the Air Force lost Caleb's records (well, all of ours, actually) when we moved here, so I can't look it up. His toenails have gotten really bad again, so I made the appointment, hoping to get at least a name so I can search myself for remedies. You may remember how frustrated I have been at not being able to communicate with the doctors at the clinic we have to go to, so this time I typed out a page of my concerns, Caleb's history, the meds he takes, etc., and Bob said that really worked well. We didn't get any help for the condition, but we did at least get a consult for a dermatologist at Bethesda, which we'll hopefully see the end of April. I also wanted a consult for an allergist, since he hasn't seen one since Feb. 2004, but the doctor said Caleb didn't need to see one since they wouldn't do anything. Well, I still think he needs to see someone on a more regular basis, just to make sure we're taking the right meds and managing his asthma well, but I will jsut wait until he has an asthma flare-up, take him again to the clinic (hopefully seeing a different doctor), and then see if I can get a consult. This doctor did say Caleb could stop taking his daily dose of Zyrtec, and only use it when needed, so that will probably help him with some of his sleep issues--maybe he won't be as drowsy. I am hesitant to take him off it right now, however, because he usually has a lot of problems in the spring with his asthma. Maybe in June. Anyway, Bob has volunteered to take Caleb to the Bethesda appointment too, which is a big relief. There is something about having the active duty officer present, as opposed to the frazzled pregnant woman with 3 other kids as well as the patient to deal with, that makes doctors respond better and be more helpful!

Today we ran a few errands after lunch. One of them was taking back a onesie I got at my shower. I felt ungrateful, but it was one of those that had "Girls rule; boys drool" in big letters across the front, and you know, I just don't want to go there in our family. When the boys saw it, they all immediately said, "NO! BOYS rule; girls drool", and I told them that both genders are equally important, and boys are to treat girls respectfully no matter what. No one "rules", that's for sure, and there will be no gender wars in this family! I knew where it came from, so I took it back. Oh well.

We're going to go as far as we can in school before the baby comes, so we haven't really slacked off there. Once the baby comes, we'll take a break form formal schoolwork, and Nathan and Luke will start working through their Spectrum test practice booklets, to help them review for the Stanford Achievement Tests, which they'll take the beginning of May. Also, Nathan wants to learn how to type, and I have the Typing Instructor Deluxe CD from Timberdoodle, so he's going to work on that. Maybe Luke will too, if he is interested. We'll probably keep reviewing Latin too, especially the vocabulary. We actually took a review week this week, and I made up several review worksheets for them to do. We've learned the first 2 noun declensions (which is more like 3, because the second declension has both masculine and neuter nouns, and their case endings are different), and Luke was struggling a little bit to keep up. Each declension has 5 cases, and the endings are different for singular and plural nouns in each case, so it can definitely be confusing--a lot to memorize at the very least! But I love Latin. I so wish I had learned this at a younger age. It's just so logical, and it really cements grammar concepts. Plus, their English vocabulary has expanded, as we learn derivatives of Latin words. Another thing that has been hard the past 2 weeks is that their vocab words were all new (usually there are a few each week that they learned last year in Prima Latina), and there were several of them that had no English derivatives, so they were hard to remember (like "oppidum", which means town, and "tergum", which means back). So I thought another week to review those words would be good too. Next week (if I don't have the baby, of course!) we are on to adjectives, and I think the boys will be glad to get away from Latin nouns for awhile!