Stuology

Utopia in the Stugopolis kingdom will be discovered on StuDay^TM.

*Cool, of course, being an objective term for people who play Ikariam and/or are big dorks.

We had a teacher conference for Ada last Friday, and one for James the Tuesday before Ada’s. James has been doing great at drop-off until recently when he decided to revert back to crying and screaming and such. Distracting him with food has always worked in the past, but not so much now. He eventually gets over it and is fine the rest of the day, but geez. What’s the deal? James is working on exciting things such as going down the stairs, and two word phrases and understanding that when he throws the ball against the wall, it will bounce back. He shouldn’t act surprised everytime it comes back and bonks him in the head.

Ada meet all of her goals for the school year already. I believe that they are going to continue working on the same areas, but just up her goals. Most of her work is in the life skills area. She does things like folding napkins, washing dishes, cutting apples and bananas, making toast, using a screwdriver, riding a tricycle, building things out of blocks and so on. She works with an OT and a speech therapist on Tuesdays still. Her speech is getting quite a bit better. She is still behind for her age, but she is improving quickly. She does some work in the academic areas where she is ahead of her age. If she makes the same kind of progress in her speech and gross motor skills during the second half of the school year, her new goals that will be done in May for the next school year will include the academic areas. I’m excited for her to start reading, and not the “mimic and memorize” that make most parents exclaim “My child can read!” She can do that now, as can most kids her age. She will get to work on actual reading. And math! Of course, with a couple of Christmas presents that I have picked out for her, she will be working on math anyhow.

Ada has also earned the label “independent and stubborn.” There was hesitation before the word “stubborn” was used, but she is. Her most common phrase is “No thank-you! Ada do it! No, Ada do it! ADA DO IT!!!” She doesn’t want anybody to help her with anything. It makes it difficult when people don’t really want to do it for her, but just guide her on how to do something when she is having difficulties. However, she is sometimes too proactive on her approach, and she will spurt out “No! Ada do it!” if she perceives that someone is coming to try to help her with something, even though they aren’t. On the flip side, she will work and work and work on something until she gets it. She will not quit. She gets frustrated with it sometimes, but she doesn’t give in. That personality trait will be the most beneficial to her than any other. I couldn’t be more thrilled that my daughter is independent and stubborn. She is also a little too possessive with what she perceives as belonging to her at home. She has a Hello Kitty crayon and marker holder. She was playing with it this weekend on the living room floor when James walked close to her. She started yelling “No J! No J! Mine!” and then she threw herself on top of her crayons, lying on them so James couldn’t get them. He wasn’t even trying. He was just looking at her like she had gone crazy.

We picked up Animal Crossing for the Wii yesterday before picking up the kids. Ada and I played last night for a little bit. We haven’t even paid our house off yet. We may play a little tonight. She loves just waking around and talking to the other animals and collecting and counting cherries. She also named the town, so we live in “Go Kitty.” She is having an equal amount of fun in Viva Pinata. Her favorite activities for me to do there are to have the pinatas eat fruit and to water and fertilize plants. She doesn’t have the motor skills yet to work the controls in either game, so I do that while she hints at what to do. However, she can take the controls in Lego Batman and collect coins. My favorite moment in that games is when she gets near an edge and exclaims “Don’t go there. That’s where I fall down!” I may work with her though in Animal Crossing. I think with some practice, she’ll be able to walk around town and collect stuff.

…the shower broke. It is fixable by us, and not a plumber, but still. It was angry and spurting water all over the place. Good thing I work from home since I probably won’t take one now until lunchtime.

More repairs will be made tomorrow–the same plumber to fix the bathroom sinks and a repairman for the washing machine.

I also did not need to sign up for Ikariam, but I did.

• It does not need to say “ow” everytime I step on the board.
• I have crappy balance. This is probably why I cannot walk on ice no matter how appropriate the shoes, and I’ve never understood how anybody could run in heels.
• The Wii asked me if I fall down often while walking.
• It put my Mii in the healthy BMI, and it only made me slightly chubby. It also weighs me a little over 10 pounds lighter than I am.
• The Wii Fit is now my new scale.
• Ada + Wii Fit = hilarity^*
• If you can dodge a panda bear head, you can dodge a ball. Even though you are not suppose to.

*There is a running section where you are suppose to put the Wiimote in your pocket and jog in place. Mac lazes it up on this part, and sits on the sofa and just moves him arm up and down to emulate running. In one part, if your Mii goes too fast and passes up the guide, he trips and falls down. While Mac was playing this, Ada would run circles around the Wii board, and when the Mii fell, she would fall and then tumble forward.

Mac is leaving to take our new mower in for repairs^*. This errand is going to include picking up the Indiana Jones Lego game. The Star Wars one was so much fun. I’m looking forward to playing this one. That means that I need to squeeze in as much work as possible before dinner so that I do not have to work tonight.

*Yup, our new mower is not working correctly, and the return time on gas powered equipment was something silly–like 15 days. Either way, we couldn’t return it for another, so we have to go have it repaired.

The teeny, cheap push-mower from the 80s never had to be repaired. Just saying.

This is going to have to be our next game. The Star Wars one was a lot of fun. We just got some Best Buy rewards too!

Ada was playing on the deck earlier, tripped and broke her fall with her face. Considering, it isn’t too bad, but she now has a fat upper lip.

Day 97: The deck of falling downness

The big house project that is coming up: new deck. When we bought this house, the deck was in really bad shape. “It just needs pressure washed” says the agent. No, the wood is rotting. It needs replaced. I was fat and pregnant, and then daycare cost 800 gazillion dollars, so we didn’t do it. Then I was pregnant again. Now, I’m not pregnant and we have very small daycare costs. We are finally going to replace this deck. Suggestions for people are welcome.

Today was the first day of grilling! Oh, it smelled so wonderful! Oh the sun shining on me while I scrapped the grill. Oh, that meat! I had completely forgotten about our branding iron until I was looking in the drawers of the grill. Mac got it as a gift, and its intent is to mark beef with a W,M or R to best describe how the meat is cooked. However, I just mark our meat with “M” and “W” so you know you are having Melissa Wisler burgers. I am not from Wisconsin where people apparently grill year round as long as they have shovels to dig the grill out from under snow drifts. I don’t like cold, so I grill from Spring until the point in Autumn where it is either too cold or just a tad too dark to get it done. It is much more exciting to have that first grill of spring. It is the same reason I do not make chili during grilling season. It has to be no warmer than the mid-40s. It just makes it special that way.

I almost forgot to post a photo today too. I’m playing Mass Effect today in between child care and the few chores that I just had to get done. I was thinking that it had been a few weeks. It turns out a few weeks is actually since mid-January. Time really passes quickly. I bet after today, it will be another couple of months before I get to do it again. One thing about this game, for all the sci-fi and technology in this game, you’d think they could make faster elevators.

Day 67: You don’t need to shovel it in.
There more where that came from.

Ada eats her pears with a shovel. Just…whatever. She’s my child. That’s the only explanation I have.

I also taught her that before you eat bananas/apples/pears the sticker that comes on it must go on your cheek/nose/forehead.

Mac ordered some games with his Amazon Christmas monies. In the mail today, we received Burnout Paradise, Some Other Game Bully, and Scene It.

Mac is still giving me the silent treatment.

Mac is moving the 360 into the bedroom so he has entertainment and pain distraction from his surgery that is tomorrow. I’m not nervous about the surgery, but I’m finding myself nervous about the recovery. You’d think that I was the one that is going through this. I will probably feel the same way that he did with my James recovery. You want to be able to have the power to do something about the pain, but you won’t be able to do anything.

Anyhow, totally going to lie in bed and play the 360 tonight. I haven’t done that since, um…my Sega.

James has been moving around more–cruising along furniture. I’m counting down until he decides to let go and make a break for it. He’s getting so much better with food as well. He’s mostly lost his gag reflex, and is eating more solids.

I don’t have a lot of game excitement moments anymore. Rock Band was a big excitement for me. The only future one that pops into my head is the Indiana Jones Lego game.

I never play games on my desktop anymore either, opting to go back to my “consoles are for games” stance that I adamantly took years and years ago. The only game that I would be interested in maybe playing again would be Black & White II. I just don’t have time to sit down with it, and I certainly don’t really enjoy playing it on a laptop as opposed to playing games on my 60-inch tv.

However, Spore? I’m actually feeling excited about that, and I wished a Wii or XBox360 version would have been in the plans from the beginning.