sleepy

we've all been sick with colds here. z even had to have steroids for his croupy cough. it started on saturday. anyway, last night i had to take two benadryl pills to be able to sleep well, and this morning i was really tired. it didn't help that i was up from 4:50-5:20am because s was crying. i slept until j left to bike to work, and was in quite a fog. thankfully, s slept until i woke her up after 8am. one child is always a little less stressful than two. practicing was not the best. i tried lighting a candle at the beginning, with the incentive of blowing it out at the end. this helped marginally. i began having z figure out the first part of twinkle yesterday, and tried to continue on the rest of it today, but he fizzled out. on these tired mornings, i have learned that i need to practice what i preach to my students: the most important thing is reviewing pieces already learned, pieces on the "review" list. i need to begin with them. new pieces can wait. it's not about reaching the end, it's about the process, having something i share with my kids which enables me to develop a close bond.

anyway, after practicing, z told me he wanted to make a puppet. for some reason, in my antihistamine induced haze, i was thinking a puppet was a marionette, something involving strings. i told him to draw something on paper, and then he could cut it out & we could use ribbon or dental floss for the strings. then i realized it would be easier to just use a stuffed animal and tie ribbons to it. THEN i realized a marionette isn't a puppet. did i mention how tired i am? by that time, though, z had drawn something on a piece of paper and HAD TO CUT IT OUT AND MAKE IT INTO A PUPPET. (steroids do not help one's behavior.) so i cut a piece of paper & taped it to the back of his "bee," and he was really happy. here are some pictures from this morning's craziness:

raggedy andy came from s's room

poor, poor raggedy andy

the bee - yes, it is really a bee

bee made into a puppet

what have the kids been doing while i typed this? they've been destroying my couch with a fort. i brought my computer over next to it, because z was shouting at s, "NO! I! SAID! SIT! DOWN! S! CAN'T! YOU! UNDERSTAND! ME!???" sigh. back to reality. time to get ready to head to swimming. is it bedtime yet?