Back In Bozeman

We've actually been back since November, and it's been a long cold Montana winter. From life on the beach it was hard to return to snow, especially 6 months of it. It's still snowing regularly here, although the bulbs are making a valiant effort to appear and most of the grass is now visible in the front yard. The backyard, on the north side of the house, still has a foot or two of snow in most places. Unfortunately, that's where I planted my earliest spring bulbs, so there is still no sign of them. I treated myself to a wireless outdoor thermometer so that I can figure out when my greenhouse will be usable, and have discovered that the temperature ranges from 13 degrees at night to a sizzling 111 degrees during the day when the sun is beating down on it with the vents closed. So, I'm not sure I'll be using that anytime soon.

Alex and I are staying very busy despite these cold days. We've joined a Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) group, which is usually the highlight of our week. It's so fun to hear Alex explaining what he did there like quite time, and singing "silly" songs.

We've also been attending a class on the Five senses put on by the City Rec Department . Alex loves the circle time, when he's often the only child actually copying the teacher in hopping like a bunny, popping like popcorn, or flying like a bird. He doesn't appreciate the craft time, and usually completes a project by simpling smearing one brushstroke of paint or glue on it and declaring it finished. The one craft he really enjoyed was making a little drum out of a used cottage cheese container and decorating it with foam dinosaurs. He loves dinosaurs, and he loves drumming even more. I've signed him up for a Music and Movement class put on by the same group this summer, which I think he'll really enjoy.

We've been swimming on Friday mornings, and he's quickly overcome his fear of the water, especially since this is a nicely heated pool, used mostly for small children. He does have some lessons to learn about locker room etiquette, since he mortified me one day by pointing out the colors of the little girls' underwear "Pink underwear! Look, mommy, she has pink underwear!"

I've started preparing to organize our church's VBS program for this summer. Alex already has many of the songs memorized, months ahead of time. He just loves to sing.

With a morning of snow, and no activities scheduled this Monday, I decided today was an excellent day for crafts. So, we spent the morning using scrapbooking supplies to create alphabet letters to hang in Alex's room. Since he's learned to sing the entire alphabet song and can spell his name, I decided it's time he learn to recognize the rest of the letters. He thought that was great fun. After cutting out each letter I let him put a sticker on it for something starting with that letter (alligator for the A, etc.). We finished A-D today and hung them in his room to start learning. Amazingly he wasn't done with craft time yet, and begged to put together a mini indoor kite mom had sent him for Easter. So, we put that together, and I dug out another little kite I'd bought for him, and we raced around the house flying kites, just like the naughty Things in The Cat and The Hat.

He's sleeping now, giving me a chance to recover before another round.