outside is best

Bede likes to draw in the dirt, then...


...blow it away.


Gloria likes to take time to stop and eat the flowers.


Abby drawing, as usual.


Faith makes a face like Agent P, on her shirt. Dooby dooby doo bah!


I leave you with a longsuffering Mistyfoot.

long tall Gleesons

I'm tall for a woman (I'm 5'10", or 178 cm) and Sean is 5'9" (175 cm). Our kids are all normal to tall, but some of them are very tall. Among the girls, Gloria is the 99th percentile for height and is predicted to be 5'10"-5'11". Faith is very tall right now but will likely end up about 5'8". Trixie is slated for 5'9". Abby is supposed to be the shortest, at around 5'6" (168 cm).

The boys. Bede is predicted to be 6'1" (185 cm), and Gilbert is the beanpole, likely to be 6'2"-6'3" (190 cm).

It was fun to predict these!

[Kid's Height Predictor](http://children.webmd.com/healthtool-kids-height-predictor)
[Child Height Predictor](http://www.babycenter.com/child-height-predictor)

sunday

We went to Half Price Books yesterday and got some good ones. Everyone else made me leave before I was ready because I can outlast almost anyone in a bookstore. I worked in one for years for a reason, after all.

Today I have baked bread, put away clean clothes, washed dishes. Also listened to the children tell me things of interest: Faith kept having me read from her new Calvin and Hobbes, Abby and I discussed what sort of book she likes, Bede read to me from Flight: Explorers (an excellent graphic novel), Gilbert played with the Cuisenaire rods and taught me about multiplication and division, Trixie showed me the elaborate foods she was feeding to her toys, and Gloria showed me how her toys can dance.

Now we're off to my folks' house!

read books -> get free books -> read more books

The summer reading program at Half Price Books is underway! Kids 14 and under can get a $3 card for Half Price Books EVERY WEEK from June 1st through July 31! That's nine weeks, guys, or $27 bucks!

Your kid (or you, if you have a non-writing kid) have to fill out a log showing at least 15 minutes of reading time each day, but it's not an annoying log like in fourth grade.

We'll get $162 in free books chez Glee, and since it's Half Price Books, it's actually $324. *Ohhhhh yeah*!

[Feed Your Brain at Half Price Books](http://www.halfpricebooks.com/feed_your_brain.html)

yall know I twitter, right?

[http://twitter.com/feebeeglee](http://twitter.com/feebeeglee)

medieval historical fiction

Here's my preliminary list of Middle Ages or so historical fiction for middle grades. We'll start a high-tide period with some or all of these in the next month or so.

(This is just novels. We'll also have nonfiction and some other books. When I get the final list compiled, I'll post it too. All links go to the books' pages on Amazon.)


400s Between the Forest and the Hills
597 Augustine Came to Kent
781 Son of Charlemagne
800s Beorn the Proud
1100s Red Falcons Of Tremoine
1167 The Red Keep
1170 If All the Swords in England
1171 The Hidden Treasure of Glaston
1200s The Magna Charta
1200s Adam of the Road
1200s Catherine, Called Birdy
1381 Crispin: The Cross of Lead
1400s The Door in the Wall

like a big pizza pie

I made pizza for dinner. I do that about twice a month, as scratch pizza is an undertaking, you see, and not one to be done lightly. Tonight I had help from this fellow here:



who looks much less ghostly in real light.

He came in as I was plopping the crust on the pan, and said "Mama is making bread. Hmmhn."

I said, "It's pizza."

He said "PIZZA!" and was so overcome with excitement that he had to skip off and touch the laundry room wall, then come back.

I said, "Do you want to help me?"

He said, "Hmmhn! Help me."

I said, "You need oil on your hands. Here is oil." and spread the olive oil on his hands so he could help press the dough. He did so, pressing perhaps a bit too firmly, but trying so hard to do it just right. I let him do a little, then directed him to the sink while I finished. He washed his hands and dried them, with prompting, and I applied the sauce. He was watching, and deeply wanted to write in the sauce, but restrained himself. Then we did the cheese, which he did perfectly.

My favorite was the application of the pepperonis. He skittered off mid-cheese and I thought he was overwhelmed and done with the whole thing. I finished the cheese and was putting the pepperonis on when a little hand snaked in beside me and placed a slice next to mine. He had gotten a stack of them and proceeded to put them on, precisely, until there was no room for more.

We finished then, and I got on my knees to hug him. I said, "You made the pizza, Bede! You are a wonderful pizza maker!" and he smiled.

I took his picture and then we settled down to watch it bake. Now we're going to eat it, and it will be the best pizza ever.

And that, my friends, *that's amore*.

Beatrice and the New Hat

Made this for the Trixificate.

moo! MOO, I SAY!

Trixie's nebulizer.



We hope the extremely cute, kawaii-inspired cow will compensate for her innate skittishness.

And that is one seriously adorable piece of medical equipment, no? D'awww!

[Kawaii - Cuteness in Japanese culture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuteness_in_Japanese_culture)

His name is "The Doctor"

Tabitha, you gotta watch this.

His name is "The Doctor"

pictures

Gilbert and Faith


Faith


Abby


Hi, Bede!


He says hi.


Miss Teafoot


Trixie shares her chocolate with Gilbert

cookies

I'm going to bake 144 cookies today, I think. It will please the children VERY MUCH. It will not please my attempts to shave 2-3 inches off my waistular area. Can't have everything!

Perhaps I will post pictures of the cookies. Oatmeal chocolate chip, yall. NOM.

Bede hard at work solving the European financial crisis

(Got a new camera.)

Worth a thousand words

No, no, this isn't going to be my long-awaited picture post. Instead, it's about picture books! On Twitter, Melissa Wiley mentioned the favorites at her house right now, and I started to reply with ours but quickly hit the 140 limit.

Gloria's favorite is unquestionably "the big book!", the HarperCollins Treasury of Picture Book Classics. According to Amazon, I purchased it a year and a half ago and I don't think a day has gone by since that it hasn't been read from. It is a great book, and a steal compared to purchasing the titles individually. Unlike many compendiums of kids' books these are not abridged in word or illustration, nor are the illustrations reduced in size. The paper is heavy and holds up to repeated (and repeated!) readings, although I have had to tape the binding and use a bit of glue to hold the covers to the front papers. It consists of:

Goodnight Moon
Caps for Sale
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Crictor
A Baby Sister for Frances
Leo the Late Bloomer
William's Doll
If You Give A Mouse a Cookie
George Shrinks
Baby Says
From Head to Toe
Pete's a Pizza

(The only one I could honestly do without is the very outdated William's Doll. It introduced the idea that it was weird for boys to have dolls to my children which is what the story was trying to prevent. Heavy-handed writing is heavy-handed.)

Trixie is VERY into the whole If You Give A... series. Her favorite is If You Give a Pig a Party, but really any of them will do. Have you ever noticed the kids in those books look dismayed pretty quickly as they deal with the capricous whims of their charges? Heh heh. Welcome to my world, buddy.

Gilbert likes the Pigeon series, especially Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Gilbert has the melodramatic nature of many five-year olds, and he simultaneously feels for the pigeon, who just wants to drive the bus, fer cryin' out loud, and yet loves beyond reason the power of telling him NO. Great, great book.

Bede is all about Seuss and Eastman right now. His decoding skills are mad but his ability to follow a plot is significantly delayed, so he really likes books like The Cat in the Hat and similar. A favorite of his is The BIG Blue Book of Beginner Books, which has six stories in it:

Put Me in the Zoo
A Fly Went By
Are You My Mother?
Go, Dog. Go!
The Best Nest
It's Not Easy Being a Bunny

Again, a steal to get them all for one price. Bede likes to read them all, out loud, to me and Gloria. My favorite is Go, Dog. Go! but I am also fond of A Fly Went By.

So, yeah, busted that 140 character limit pretty hard, huh?

HarperCollins Treasury of Picture Book Classics

If You Give a Pig a Party

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!


Big Blue Book of Beginner Books

doctor doctor gimme the news

We found a doctor and she's great! She was respectful, kind, and competent. We will be returning. She is fine with our weird selective vaccination plans.

Trixie does indeed have asthma, as I feared. She was prescribed Singulair, which blocks leukotrienes. I am almost certain the Federation fought the leukotrienes along the edge of the Neutral Zone, so I'm really glad they won't be in Trixie's lungs any longer.

(Also daily fluticasone propionate (Flonase) and albuterol as needed.)

Gloria's bizarre rash is healing and merited no treatment. The doctor said to bring her in if it comes back though.

And last but not least both girls were immunized today against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and polio.

I hope this brings the Saga of Medical Discontent to an end.

dominoes, posting policy, camera

The children have been playing with a set of dominoes all afternoon. They aren't playing dominoes proper, they're setting them up and knocking them down. I don't have the nerves for that as a pastime, especially with six kids all gamboling about.

I read a Salon.com article about divided attention and how the Internet is rotting our brains. In honor of that, well, in honor of trying to stop brain rot, I'm going to stop making in-text links as a general rule.

I hope to get a new camera next week, which will stop the pictureless posting.


[Yes, the Internet is rotting your brain](http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/05/09/the_shallows)

Cardinal Double 12 Color Dot Mexican Train Dominoes in Tin

is there a doctor in the house

There's not, you know. Today I called ten doctors and none of them could take us, either because they flat-out don't take Medicaid or because they aren't accepting new Medicaid patients. The latter is what really bothers me. The office staff was all pleased to talk to me (and said they were admitting new patients) and then they heard "Medicaid" and BOOM down came the Gates of Discrimination.

The only places we can get in are Resident-O-Matic clinics, where we never see the same doctor twice, the staff is rude and the wait times are thirty to forty-five minutes in the waiting room and as much again in the examining room. If you do luck out and get a doctor you like, she's gone in a year because she's done with her residency.

It really makes me mad.

I haven't checked recently, but a few years ago over half the children born ithat year n Oklahoma were SoonerCare clients. There's a huge disconnect here, do you see it?

I had an idea for health care. What if all children under 18 got free health care, regardless of income? Just like all children get free education through 12th grade. And just like all adults over 65 get free health care, regardless of income.

Huh? Equalize the playing field a little? Could it work?

Pediatrician or family practioner

I'm very frustrated today. I'm trying to find a doctor. I'm pretty sure Trixie has asthma. Every doctor I've called is not accepting Sooner Care (that might be SoonerCare.)

Anyone have a rec for me? The doctor needs to be okay with selective vaccination.

toothbrushing update

Bede has requested toothbrushing on his own at least twice ("You want some brush your teeth? Okaysure, I getchoo some brush your teeth.") and tonight allowed his entire mouth to be very thoroughly brushed, making appropriate "eee" and "aaah" sounds. Milestone! He's not shown any interest in doing the brushing himself but I don't care about that yet.

I feel like dental hygiene is especially important with Bede as he might be unable to articulate tooth problems before they become emergencies. Now that we've progressed to home brushing my next goal is a dental visit. It won't be for months, and the first visit should be very short and maybe we can get him to let them count his teeth, no more. When he gets older I will definitely be getting sealants for him, even if he has to be sedated. I want everything to be very positive, and no forcing or coercing, you know? Better to have Bede After Dentist.

plus ça change

I just told Faith she was being melodramatic.

"What does melodramatic mean?"

"Emo."

"Oh."