Kiddos and general update

Things have been so busy lately! It's like we just lose weeks in there... like some customer will order something from me, and before I know it, it's been a month and I haven't even thought about their order yet. That's one reason I'm closing my business within the next two weeks, as soon as I get through the orders I have in house. It was too much for me to run this house 100% by myself since Thak is gone about 18 hours a day between work and school, plus homeschool Erin, plus represent him well within the unit, plus run a business. That's like three people's worth of jobs, and I'm one person. Something had to give. Since I never actually enjoyed my business, I'm more than happy to give it up. Thak FINALLY said it was ok for me to quit forever yesterday, and it was basically the best words I'd ever heard. I give it 3 months before he asks me to reopen. I'm not doing it, though. Sewing is monotonous, soul crushing, sweat shop work, and most of the customers treated me like crap, so I'm definitely never doing this again after I close my shop. I may make an occasional thing to put on ETSY, but I will NEVER take another custom order again, even from friends.

Anyhow, the kids are doing great. Orren cut four teeth this week, all at once, all across the top. That brings his total to six. For some reason, teeth is the one area in which he's actually behind a lot of other babies. He's 9 1/2 months old, and only had two teeth up until this week, and now he has six. I'm not worried about it or anything. He's doing everything in his own time.

He hasn't walked much more since the night he took his first steps. That's ok, though. He'll get to it when he feels like it. He's a big, strong, healthy boy, and we couldn't ask for better than him. He's the sweetest baby, and while he's not cuddly like his sister was at this age, he's still really nice. He's every bit a boy! I had no idea that even at this age, boys and girls were so different from each other, but they definitely are.

Erin is still the best big sissy. She loves helping to care for Orren, and playing with him. She sometimes gives him foods he shouldn't have, but she's no worse about that than daddy is, so I can't complain!! She has learned how to pick Orren up, and put him on her lap while she's sitting on their little bench. It's really cute, and he just loves it! She loves carrying him around, even though she can barely get his feet off the ground (when picking him up under his arms), and he weighs more than half what she weighs!

In school, she's doing great. We've started learning about nouns, verbs, and adjectives. She's understanding quite well, which is awesome since reading is not her strong area. She's doing well at reading in general also, and our goal is for her to read The Cat in the Hat all by herself by the end of the month. I don't know if we'll do it that soon, but we might. We're at least making progress in the right direction.

We also took a trip to the science museum (and bought ourselves an annual pass while we were at it!!) which was having an awesome exhibit about space. Erin has always been interested in space, so she really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, too, because much of the new research they were showing was done at GA Tech, or with GA Tech personnel, so I'd had my hands in it a little not all that long ago. (And by "had my hands in it" I mean I saw it in the lab next to mine, or helped the PhD candidate in charge of it tighten a bolt on his apparatus, or record numbers while he called them off to me!! Nothing terribly significant, but still, it's cool to see the research on display for the lay audience.) Thak also enjoyed it, and learned a lot. He wants to go back. I'm sure we will, maybe this weekend. I mean, we did buy an annual pass, so it's not like it would cost us anything!

In the remaining portion of the science museum, it was the normal science museum stuff, and all the kids there (and parents, too!) were enjoying it greatly. They even had a Tesla coil. I was impressed with Erin because she remembered that I built a small Tesla coil in my lab one day when I had her with me. She was impressed with the big one they had there, and even though she was a little scared of how much noise it made, and how big the sparks were, she still was just dying to volunteer to assist with the next demonstration. It almost brought a tear to my eye. Tesla is my homeboy, you see.

Beyond that, it occurred to me that just about all the exhibits there, all of the interactive ones at least, were physics-based. Everyone was enjoying them a lot, yet somehow I'd bet the majority of these parents shied away from studying physics in college, and the majority of these kids will also. The reason I say that is because it's the law of probability that they did/will. The majority of people think physics is either scary or boring. If it were so scary and boring, would an entire museum be geared toward it, and would that museum be a popular place to go? Highly doubtful. I even said to my friends, "Take that museum, sprinkle with some basic Calculus, add a pinch of Newton, and you've got your first semester of general college physics." The significance was lost on them, too. I wish more parents would use that museum, which all kids enjoy, as a way to encourage their kids to study physics. I know that's what I'm doing. Erin learns about physics every time I have the opportunity to teach her about it. Of course, she learns about the other areas of science as well. They all tie into one another. I find that other parents teach their kids a lot about the other areas of science, but avoid physics like the plague. That perplexes me. Because I majored in physics, I know the world around me on a level I would not had I shied away from it because I'd heard it was difficult or boring.

Anyhow, that's about it. My boy is growing like a weed, and my girl is learning well, and we're still not scared of physics in this family. Now I have to go and get ready for a unit function I didn't even hear about until last night. Luckily, it's just a picnic in a park on post, so it's casual. Thak has to work for most of the day even though everyone else is off, but hopefully he'll get out of there at a human hour even so.