Ava is completely obsessed with dragons. She is dying to know what they are, see one, read about one, anything. I keep telling her as much as I know, and promising that we will go to the library, but we have not had a spare moment to get there this week. She must ask me 40 times a day what a dragon is. I have started the narrative each time with “well, a dragon is a mythical creature…” Tonight, she asked me what a mythical creature is, and if a zebra was one. (How random, since we have not discussed zebras in a long time). So, I began to tackle that question. I pondered it a bit, since saying “it is a creature from a myth” would really be circumventing the question, and then I said that it was a creature that only existed in stories, because so few people had ever seen a mythical creature, and so all we have are the stories that those people have told about them a long time ago. She was satisfied, and I was pleased that I could get away with not squashing the hope that there really might be dragons and fairies and unicorns and all of that. That is the best part of childhood. We have also discussed fairies to quite an extent, thanks to some stationary from Grandma (thank you, Grandma), and the other day she asked me what a goblin was. That one stumped me, because I really don’t know what they are, exactly.

We went to Octoberfest at Whiteface Mountain last weekend, and that was great. I went alone with the kids, which made it rather exhausting, but it was nice for Ava to see the mountain again – gearing her up for ski season. We went on rides, she rode the ponies, Carter rode the ponies, we pet the animals, had a snack, watched an oompahpah band, went on the gondola (a hit with Carter), rode the ponies again, then went to the main tent to dance to a band that was the most amazing mix of genres ever. It was basically an ooompahpah band that mated with a ska/reggae/rock/gaelic/folk band. They were fabulous. Ava danced with a friend from school, and we had a great time. Carter was nearly catatonic at that point, so we finally went home and collapsed into bed.

Last night we had swim class again. Carter was mellower, easier to maneuver, but Ava was cold and did not want to get in. She is so in love with her purple bathing suit that she will not wear her wetsuit. I finally asked her if she knew what a wetsuit was for, and when she looked at me quizzically I told her. Upon learning that it was for staying warm, she had a change of heart and promised that she would wear it on Tuesday. We will see. If she does not start getting in the water, I will take her somewhere for private lessons or take her to open swim and just let her splash around when I am in with Carter. Frankly, that might work better anyway, because the class is large and even if she does comply with the getting wet part she still does an awful lot of sitting on the side of the pool waiting for her turn. And she did an awful lot of learning to swim over the summer. It is not like she needs swim classes. She needs to have fun, and if they are not fun, well then there is no point. As she put it herself: “But I already know how to do that…”

It looks like my courses are going to be very hard. This is good. My peers include an awful lot of physicians and pharmacists. Also good. I think I may be going to bed at 7 with the kids and getting up at 3 to work.

Life is very very full right now. Ava is getting a run for her money, and is probably right on the cusp of doing too much (part of the swim issue too, I would think). My goal is to keep our afternoons as free and as quiet as possible.