Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.

Tuesday is my favorite evening. Tuesday, Josh goes off to practice and leaves E and I to do whatever it is we're going to do. What it's evolved into (now that summer is over and practice is no longer outside, because when it was outside we - along with many other people - would go and lounge on the lawn and eat take-out pizza and the kids would all play together until sunset) is coming home, doing homework (because there is, indeed, homework in second grade), making and eating supper (almost always mac and cheese with peas, and hotdogs), then playing a game before we trundle off to bed.

Last night the game was Dread Pirate. A super fun game where you sail around the seas, collect treasure, say "Arrgh!" a lot, and attach your opponents ship. In order to play the game, you also need to read, and do math (which served as an object lesson to my son's "Why do I have to learn to do all this math" question earlier in the evening.) We also played a little X-Box together. Then, at bedtime, he decided he didn't want me to read him a bedtime story, but rather we laid in bed side by side, each reading our own book, until he turned to me and said "I think it's time I got to sleep."

E's transition to second grade has been a little bumpy, but overall fairly good. I love his teacher, who is determined to "do right by him" and who is as interested in and passionate about science as he is. She also gets that he's both way above grade level in terms of academics (his current math homework is work that he could have done two years ago; we're also doing some multiplication on the side while his class is working on the concept that 5 + 4 = 9, 4 + 5 = 9, 9 - 5 = 4, and 9 - 4 = 5 are all closely related equations) while is simultaneously somewhat below what is expected for his age in terms of social and emotional skills. He has friends in his class, and is overall adjusting better socially than last year, when, of course, we made the mistake of pulling him out of class for nearly two weeks for the fun-but-ultimately-disastrous Disney trip.

Otherwise, all is pretty quiet. We spent a lot of time in August rebuilding one wall of the kitchen (first we replaced the window, then, in that process, discovered other work that needed to be done) in hopes that it will decrease the heat loss in the kitchen, and make it warmer overall throughout the downstairs. Now all that is left to do is paint it. I'm having a small amount of SCA related angst, basically related to once again figuring out my place in the grand scheme of things, but nothing that is anything more than my personal introspection.

I'm glad it's fall. Fall is, by far, my favorite time of year.