Orthodontics, Spring Sports, Books, and April Fools

Anna has become the first in our family to start the long process of orthodontia. She was fitted for a retainer last week. She has to wear that for 12-18 months, the onto the braces, followed by another retainer. She is looking at about 5 years of tooth work ahead. But, at the end, she should have a beautiful mouth. I am excited for her and curious to see how it all works. Jack will also need braces, but he doesn't need the pre-retainer. Kara and Luke are maybes for braces, but don't appear to have the same issues as Anna that necessitated starting so early (a really small mouth and a very large overbite).

Luke is finally over whatever ailed him. Following the birthday debacle, he was the sickest he's ever been. He would run a fever, usually just under 102, with a headache, diarrhea, and no appetite (and, he just had that sick eyes look). Then the fever would disappear and we would think he was getting better, only to have it return the following day. This went on for about 4 days before we took him to the doctor (because we kept thinking he was over it). He was diagnosed with an ear infection, strep and a virus. The virus was the catch-all, because strep and the ear infection didn't explain some of his symptoms. He was on antibiotics for another 3 days before we saw a significant improvement, although his fever was gone by the time we took him to the doctor and never returned. It was bizarre and we were worried about him. I am so thankful for antibiotics! We try to let our bodies work naturally, but it is so nice to have them available when we need them.

Random picture of Luke, he likes to be held in the fetal position :)

Since Luke has been sick, we haven't done much in the past couple of weeks. Although, spring sports have begun. Jack has baseball practice on Mondays and Wednesdays and Kara is doing soccer this year. Her practices are on Tuesdays. Jack's practices are about 20 minutes from our house and start at 5:30. To get him there and ready to play, we have to leave at 5:05. We generally get home around 7:30 (they are long practices). It is a long day for all of us. And, it is going to get worse because his play practices are increasing and he won't even get home until 4:50. That leaves him 15 minutes to eat dinner, do his homework and change his clothes. I'm pretty sure that is impossible to accomplish in 15 minutes, but we'll do what we can. The soccer schedule isn't quite as strenuous, but it coincides with the scenery committee meetings for the school play. Since it is a committee of 3, it is hard for me to miss, which means Thomas has to bring all the kids to Kara's practices. This might turn into a problem, as he may be stepping into the coach's role. But, that's a whole other story and we are waiting to see how it plays out.  In sum, it stinks to go from nothing on our evening calendar to all of these time constraints.

Anna is considering applying for the STEM program. We will see what happens, but I am not overly excited about the idea of having my kids at 2 different schools. I do love how much she has enjoyed school this year and of course, we want to encourage her in her academic aspirations.

Last week was the annual library book sale (although, most of the books are donated and not from the library). Thomas always enjoys going and browsing in the old and rare area. This year, he bought an old set of books (1880s) on John Adams. The books themselves were an interesting find, but Thomas also took interest in the name stamped as the previous owner--John S. Wirt, Esq. He spent several days researching Mr. Wirt and was able to determine he was a prominent Maryland lawyer and politician. Mr. Wirt had made some notes in the margins of the books and appeared to have a special interest in the morality of slavery and other moral based topics. He died in 1904 and his obituary was front page news. Thomas enjoyed learning about him and it is interesting to think about both the history of the books and the history of their previous owner, making notes on slavery, a short 20 years after the Civil War.

In our final news, we tried out an April Fool's Day prank on the kids. It was not very well-thought out. It was pretty spontaneous and really should have been given more consideration. I was going to pretend that I was reaching over our balcony to retrieve a balloon and fell to the ground. When the kids came to see what was going on, I was going to jump up and yell "April Fools." So, Thomas threw something off the balcony, I made a falling scream and waited. But, no one came. The girls started crying immediately and ran off. Jack wouldn't come downstairs. Thomas ran down and asked them to come help him, but no one came. Basically, we just terrified them and I felt terrible! Epic fail. Note to self--never do a prank that involves pretend bodily harm. And, hope that Thomas is home if there is ever a true medical emergency, because they are useless ;)