April 07, 2004 - 9:56 a.m.

Break in the Clouds

Yesterday the sun came out for real, but the wind was still cold. Today, however, is shaping up to be a beautiful day! Yippee! Unfortunately, I've got a very full day ahead in nanny land, so I don't know how much I will get to enjoy it. The girls get out of school early today. H is going to the movies with a friend, and M is going to a museum with her Brownie troop. That means I need to find something fun for B to do, or he'll spend the entire afternoon complaining about how he never gets to do anything special. Never mind that I took him to a really cool arts and crafts place yesterday where he got to paint a drum. Maybe we'll go to the playground, but if he lobbies hard enough, I may take him to Chuck E. Cheese. We have some leftover tokens, and I could even play a little skee ball.

Once the girls are back home - an achievement that is likely to be a logistical nightmare - we have to hurry to get them ready for their gymnastics class. It's supposed to be warmest in the late afternoon, so B and I will almost certainly go to the playground while the girls are in their class.

At some point during the day the girls need to do their homework, and H needs to do some final work on her Mars project for school. Phew! I am going to be tired by the end of all this.

Yesterday, in addition to taking him to the crafts place, I made B a little reading board game. He is just starting to learn to read, so I've been looking for ways to encourage him to practice. He doesn't know all the sounds associated with letters, but he can usually sound out simple three letter words. The game is very simple. It consists of a board with a simple path of squares. Each square has a red, yellow, blue, or black star on it. When you land on a square you take a card of the color that matches the star. On black stars you can take any card. Red and blue cards have consonants, and yellow have vowels. Once you've collected a few cards you try to form them into three letter words. The game ends when a player reaches the finish line, but the winner is the player with the most words. The main problem we discovered is that the path isn't long enough, so I may need to add to it, or we'll be lucky to make one word.

Making games is one of my favorite little ways to go above and beyond as a nanny. They cost nothing, and I can customize them to the abilities and interests of the kids. They are surprisingly easy to do, as well. They just require a little creativity and problem solving skill. I've done holiday games, word games, counting games, etc, and all have gone over well with the kids. And it always impresses their parents with a minimum of effort on my part. :)

Well, I have the next hour and a half to relax and mentally prepare for the hectic day ahead. Oh, and to take a shower and get dressed in something other than the scruffy, sweaty gym clothes I have on now.

Before I go, though, I must quickly comment on last night's American Idol. The show's theme was Elton John, which turned out to be a BAD THING. Desptie the fact that all of the competitors have great voices, many of them just don't have the range to successfully sing his songs. Some of the performances were almost painful, and that's particularly sad since they do all have great voices. That said, Latoya and George continued to amaze and entertain, and Fantasia and Jennifer were really good. Camille and JPL, though, have got to go. They both have great voices that are refreshingly unique, but at this point I'd say that they aren't great singers, and neither has the stage presence that the other performers do. Let's hope one of them gets booted tonight. Last week's result was a travesty, so I no longer trust whatever segment of America that votes.

today's project: getting everyone where they need to be, when they need to be there

Did you know? B eats a kiwi pretty much every day at lunch.

consecutive workout days:3. Today I did more than 16 miles on the recumbent bike.

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flutter back - fly ahead