week ending aug 24, 2008:

Week ending August 25, 2008: This week Chloe saw a different gastroenterologist who gave us a prescription for Nexium to replace the Prevacid that Chloe has been taking. Without seeing the slides from Chloe’s endoscopy (which I was unable to get before the appointment), the new doctor didn’t have anything else interesting to say.

Because the doctor is in Baltimore and we’d been planning to go to the Maryland Science Center before the summer is over, we headed over to the Inner Harbor the same day. The twins have been begging to go and it was probably their 4th or 5th time at the Science Center so they remembered many of the exhibits that they wanted to revisit, and we saw a bunch of new ones. They particularly liked excavating the bone replicas, sitting in the dinosaur foot prints, and playing with the fancy water table.

This week I set up a project for the kids to make a pretend clock and I asked them to write the numbers 1-12 on the clock. They haven’t practiced writing numbers very much but Chloe practiced a little on a piece of paper and then made her clock. Alex wouldn’t write on the clock, and after tracing one number I’d written on a piece of paper he refused to try any more. We had the same conversation we’d had a dozen times before about how it can be frustrating to try something new when you can’t do it the way you like, but practicing is the only way to get better. Alex wasn’t swayed. I told Alex that next year in kindergarten he’d have to practice writing because everyone has to learn writing in school. Alex said, “I’m not going to learn to write.” I said everyone has to learn how to write so they can get a job. Alex said, “Then I just won’t get a job. I don’t want to write, I want to be an astronaut.” It was hard not to crack up laughing at that point, but I did mention that many people want to be astronauts so he’ll have to work hard in school if he wants to get to be an astronaut. The talk didn’t change his mind that day, but the next morning Alex brought up the subject on his own and told me that he wanted to practice writing. Unfortunately we had to hurry out the door that morning, so I didn’t have time to take him up on his offer, but I’m glad he thought about it and somewhat amazed that took the talk seriously enough to remember it the following day.

Looks like I posted the pictures from the carnival, not the ones from the Science Center: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/EdgewaterCarnival