Family Life

You may be wondering what the Smith family does now that life is back to "normal." Here is a glimpse into our lives:

When Angela is not making breakfast, doing laundry, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, changing diapers, preparing lunch, holding Leah, reading to Jeremy, teaching the boys, taking a shower, or sleeping you'll find her on the computer. If she's not preparing the taxes, answering email, planning home school lessons, or balancing the checkbook she is most likely playing Puzzle Pirates. You might think with all the aforementioned tasks she would have no time for pirating, but actually she still finds time to distill, weave, forage, sail, bilge, rumble and sword fight! You'd be amazed at how often Cassiddee (her alter ego) is on Sage Ocean gathering hordes of poe (gold) while fighting zombies and other pirates on the high seas...

Of course, this means that at times Leah is forced to take care of herself. She has tried to dress herself, but hasn't yet figured out which limb goes in which hole. We have also found that not all the pants that fit her for length, adequately fit for girth!

Jeremy is full swing into school where he is busy learning phonics and writing his letters. Grandma did an awesome job at teaching him how to write his name, and he now proudly "signs" all his drawings. I'm hoping Leah likes to draw flowers and ponies when she gets older to balance out all the light saber duels and Pokemon characters currently on the refrigerator door.

Eli is in school as well where he's already answering questions in a third grade math book (by county age standards, he should be in the first grade -- gotta love the home school advantage of moving through different subjects at different speeds). He is writing well and is currently reading "chapter books" which he enjoys as long as he gets to pick out the subject matter. Apparently mystery stories written in the 1950s don't interest kids these days...

Of course, when the boys aren't schooling, they enjoy playing in the back yard where soccer and baseball are favorite past times. If it's an indoor day, they stay busy making a complete mess of their bedroom while playing with Legos, Matchbox cars, or Pokemon cards. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays they are allowed to play video games (sparingly). Jeremy hasn't completely gotten the hang of the PlayStation 2 controller so Eli has resorted to trying to teach Leah in an effort to find a competitor when Daddy isn't home.

Dinner is always a blast for me, especially since I am so anal about cleanliness. I used to sit beside Leah, but had to move opposite her at the table so Angela could have the pleasure of dealing with the "show." Unlike while we were in China, Leah will eat practically anything we put in front of her which is good since Angela has always stuck to the policy of one dinner for everyone -- if you don't want what's served, breakfast is only 12 hours away! We often jest about how much food Leah can put in her belly (she does have the second largest gut in the house after daddy -- did you see those pants in the picture above??). This 17-month old girl eats like a hobbit. Breakfast is served as soon as she wakes up (to avoid the crying so early in the day), morning snack is about two hours later, and lunch comes about 90 minutes after that. There are the two afternoon snacks a couple hours apart, and then of course dinner. If dinner is earlier than usual, there's sure to be a nighttime snack and each of those "meals" is separated by a continual refilling of the juice cup. I suppose I should be happy that all of dinner doesn't end up in her stomach, but at the same time it's getting old having to clean up the kitchen floor after every meal!

Dinner is often followed by bath time which is easier than using half a roll of paper towels to clean up our little monsters. In an effort to save time and money (not really, but it sounds good doesn't it?) we have started sticking everyone in the tub together. I wonder how long it will be before Leah realizes she's a little "different" than her brothers? Copious amounts of bubble bath should avoid that question for a couple of years -- at least from Leah. The boys have already inquired!

So where does that leave me? Well, unfortunately someone has to work to keep a roof over our heads and food on the floor -- err -- table. If I'm not at work or out jogging (I've found jogging to be a nice "retreat" from the insanity at home), you'll typically find me in the living room trying to block out the noise of family life with a good nap! Speaking of naps, I think I'm overdue for one...