whoa. weeks and weeks of illness here. yikes. most of it just high fevers. very high--104. each child had it, ava had it for the longest though--7 days straight. plus another week of getting her strength back. and it is not entirely back, she has been complaining of earaches for the last few days. no one is exactly "right" yet. i have had very little sleep. there is nothing to describe what it is like to be up all night with a rotating parade of sick kids. just when you get one back to sleep and think that you might be able to shut your eyes for an hour..."mom?"

i cannot say that i always had a patient and nurturing response.

but, we have read a lot of books--notably, the lemony snickett books-- "a series of unfortunate event". ava LOVES these books. i had no idea what to expect, but wow, they are positively morbid. but hysterical and very good at calling out the grown ups on their irrational behavior, something a six-year old certainly appreciates. for those who are not familiar, they are about 3 orphans who go through -- you guessed it -- a series of unfortunate events. very unfortunate. but the age structure of these kids is very similar to that of our family--there is an older girl, violet, who loves to tinker and invent things. then there is a boy (klaus) 2 years younger than violet who loves to read. and then there is a baby of about one year. the other day, we were all sitting around the table, and ava was building something -- actually dismantling something with the intention of building something -- and carter was reading something, and anna was playing with something and ava said "hey! we are just like the kids in our books!" that was great.

her reading is also progressing nicely, and she is finally confident enough to pick up some books and read by herself. she did that last night. problem is, she does not always want to read picture books. generally she never wants to read picture books. but then all of the books she wants to read are too advanced. it is very difficult to find books that are interesting enough to her but easy enough to read.

however, it looks like she is happy to read to anna, so that might get us over this little gap in desire and ability. i am just pleased that she is past refusing to read because anna karenina was not accessible to her.

last weekend we went to a ski race at the local hill. it was a crazy steep course, and unbeknownst to me, it began on a huge ramp that sent the kids utterly flying down the hill. carter managed to come in 2nd in his age group and ava came in 3rd. this was both terrific and very hard for ava. good lesson, but it took all of her self control to lose graciously. not that she really lost, but in her mind she did. carter could not have been prouder. he was SO excited to be on the podium, finally. i think he really did not believe that the medal was his and not ava's. and then, at the end, to the surprise of all, he got a trophy for being the youngest competitor. (even more of a challenge for ava). i swear, he would sleep with the thing, if he could. he took it to school on monday and presented it to every single person that walked in the door.

you can bet though that when dad asked ava if she wanted to go practice ski racing, she practically jumped through the door.

i suppose competitiveness is a good quality, but it sure comes with its challenges.

as for me, i think i am going to have a nervous breakdown by the time ava is 8, if we keep competing at this pace. i cannot stand it--it is bad enough to watch her go out on the ice, but to stand at the bottom of the ski hill while your son is flying down -- and you are completely without any control -- is very very hard.