This week in review

Our week started off with a bang, literally, last Sunday. Ariana was sitting in her class at church and the puppet theater--the size of a closet--toppled over and landed on her head. Thank God, she seemed fine aside from a little soreness.

Monday was nice and uneventful.

Tuesday started well. We met Carlos for lunch and then went to the park. We hadn't been there too long, though, when I got blind spots and then everything turned into a kaleidoscope. Yep, another migraine. I was so glad that Carlos was there. I couldn't drive home, so we left his car and he drove us to the house. The nausea and head ache hit, and since I was pretty useless at taking care of the kids at that point, Carlos took us all to his mom's house while he taught his evening classes. Aside from a brief episode where the kidlets took off in pursuit of an ice-cream truck, it was good. I felt able to drive home from picking up the car.

In an effort to distract me, Elena decided to show her stuff and walk across the room unassisted! She turns 10 months tomorrow, and I expected at least a few more weeks before she took off, but she had other ideas. We actually practiced walking with the other two--letting them walk between us or holding on to our hands. We hadn't gotten to that stage with her, but apparently, she didn't need it. She still crawls most of the time, but every day since she'll walk several feet as the spirit moves her.

Wednesday I felt OK for about an hour after getting up, then another one hit. I am so glad that we have family nearby. By the time my mom arrived, I was curled up on the floor wondering if vomiting would make me feel better or worse, and figuring that I probably wouldn't have an option, anyway. Ay, ay, ay. How do those of you who have them regularly cope? I would really rather avoid meds, especially since I'm breastfeeding, but if they get much more frequent, I'd look into just about anything to get relief.

Thursday it was just a headache, and Friday was just a mild headache. Whew! Friday the kidlets had fun with M and G, some dear friends of ours. Ariana especially is getting to the age where she enjoys time with friends, so I love seeing her having fun with other kids.

Ariana's reading skills have also really taken off this week, and it has been so much fun to see her excitement and enthusiasm. I haven't worked with her nearly as much as I could (should?) have, but it seems that it is starting to really click now, and I love seeing her confidence and abilities blossom.

Today my class ended. Hooray! Summer vacation is here! Well, after turning in grades, etc. It is so interesting to me how different students cope with things. I've mentioned before how every finals week seems to bring some tragedy (real, not merely imagined) to some of my students. One was hospitalized with meningitis (viral), and then this week her mother died. I would have easily given her any accommodations I could. She didn't even ask for any, and finished very successfully.

Another student missed the equivalent of a month of class, and I thought he dropped. This week he sent an email asking to make up the exam he missed, but I didn't get it right away because it was sent to the department and didn't include any information (such as my name, the class he was in, etc). Now, I give handouts with the syllabus, my name and email, make up policies, and so on, as well as posting all the info online. Once the email was forwarded to me and I contacted him, he requested to make up the exam the week after the final. Uh huh. In real life, I snorted. In email, I politely restated the policies from the syllabus. He didn't respond. He did, however, come to class today and explained that he had missed because his wife kicked him out and divorced him because he texted his ex-sister-in-law three or four times. Whatever the case, I figure he has more to deal with than Spanish exams right now.

One very exciting piece of news is that I might get to teach an extra class this summer on our Puerto Rico trip. If so, not only would it pay for Ariana's dental work, but also cover the full cost of a 5 day Disney trip for our family!!! (I think it deserves the superfluous exclamation points). Nothing official yet, but the chances are very good.

Joelito, in order to get his moment of fame, has spent the week searching out toxic substances that I thought he didn't have access to. Today he managed to find a bottle of nail polish in my purse and paint his lips and teeth. It was blue, his favorite color.

I've got a lot to be thankful for from this week, including the fact that it is over. :D