Rain, reading and...laptops?

Our cold is *still* hanging around. Lovely. Mine went into sinusitis with a cough that has left my lungs and stomach sore and tired....let's not even start on the whole trying-to-sleep-with-this-cough rant. Let's just say that we're all sick so I haven't felt like blogging or doing much of anything for that matter.

But I'll give a quick run-down of news worthy items for you.
1. I ordered my new laptop last night!!!!! After much much MUCH deliberation, I went with a Thinkpad T61P, for those of you who are interested. I was debating between that and several others for a few weeks when I came up with a good idea. I have been itching to play Oblivion since it came out 2 years ago and I wasn't sure if I'd like the glossy but high-color screens that are so popular today or if I wanted the matte non-glare but not so high-color screens that Lenovo has. So dear sweet Hubby bought Oblivion for me to try on his Thinkpad. I was hooked. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the mouse nubbie on Lenovo's laptops and the screen was bright enough to satisfy me. I think, in the long run, the glare on the glossy screens would have driven me to so something really evil. ;) I'm not a heavy gamer at all but I did absolutely love Morrowind and I'm excited to play its successor. It's Hubby's fault. We spent our very first New Year as a married couple haunched over our Windows 95 playing Myst. My brothers liked Traveler and D&D but it was Hubby who finally hooked me on games.

2. Rose is READING!! And I'm not talking about 3 letter words. She's reading words like "everyone" and "prancing". She's reading VERY well. When did this happen? I'm not sure. As unschoolers, you know I don't have a set curriculum. So how do the kids learn? I answer questions. Hubby reads to them...a lot. She plays with Starfall.com when she feels like it. She has a few toy/gadgets that talk about word sounds. When she has asked me in the past what a word is, I will sound out the letters slowly as I say "ssss tt arrrr tt". She has been working on writing so much lately. She writes very phonetically but she's doing it and correct spelling will come with more reading. I'm already seeing a vast improvement in her spelling. We're all so very proud of her and it's so great to see her self confidence grow!

3. Matthew has been a little unsure of what to do with himself lately. I see him wandering around seemingly bored quite a lot these last few weeks. It was never a statement of "I'm bored" but just his demeanor that told me. I think a lot of it has to do with the constant rain we've had this season. He's always anxious to ride his bike but the allergies have been bad and within an hour, he's inside practically crying over incredibly itchy eyes. I understand that! So yesterday I talked to him about his seeming out of sorts and he agreed with me. I asked him if there was something he'd like to focus on studying about. Being mostly a science guy in the past, he surprised me with answering (after a minute of thought), "Presidents". Immediately my stomach started churning while I thought of boring dry 'history' but I kept my game face on. "Would you like to start with the first one and work your way forward or start with the current one or someone else?" He said he'd like to start in the front and work his way chronologically. OK. Guess I need to head to the library...see what I can find online. Wonder where I can get Schoolhouse Rocks episodes? :) So that you can get a picture of how they learn without curriculum, I'll try to remember to blog the details.

4. Jade is loving the new room arrangement. Sleeping with her sister and being a 'big girl' is definitely a new high for her. But it's hard to tell with her...she's always been a very happy person. Even as a baby, she was always all smiles. If she wasn't crying (for a very good reason), she was smiling. It's still very much the same way with her. Even though she's in the "terrible threes", it's barely noticeable due to her overwhelming always-sunny disposition.

5. Linnae is not such a happy baby. At almost 14 months, she is still the baby of the family and waits for everyone else to do things for her. She wants to stand up but decides to cry and hope that someone else decides to come over and stand her up instead. If you stand her up, she's as happy as a clam for a while...until she wants to sit down again and then proceeds to cry until someone puts her down or she gives up and falls. It's hard being the baby (I know because I was one too).

I should have some pictures up soon and I hope to catch Rose reading on video so I can post that too!