March 1, 2004

It is fortunate for me, who loves watching the Oscars, that Lord of the Rings won all 11 of it's nominations last night. Dominic had sworn that we would boycott the Academy Awards in perpetuity should Peter Jackson not win for best director. It's a tradition for me to watch the Oscars. In fact Dominic and I saw them on our first date.

Reagan and I started school today. We worked for less than an hour, and only made it through two subjects, but I'm easing us back in. Tonight he read to me from his illustrated Bible story book. The reading is definitely above the first grade level, but he needed very little help with it. I was so impressed. It seems his reading skills keep improving with very little help from me at this point.

We are working a lot more on natural and logical consequences for the kids. Sometimes this means taking more time to work with them on a certain issue, but in the long run we think it will be worth it. This is our job, after all, to raise good adults. Piper loves to take things out and scatter them all over the floor. This goes for books, toys, puzzle pieces, etc. So Dominic and I are taking the time to go back with her and have her pick up the things that she's scattered. We're hoping that this teaches her that the consequence of throwing these things around is that they have to be picked up. Since this isn't her favorite part of the whole game, we're hoping that after a while she'll decide that she doesn't want to do it anymore. For Reagan, he didn't do something that I asked him to do this morning because he was really into his movie. So, he lost movie privledges for the day. When I caught him watching the movie tonight instead of picking up his toys, he lost his movie privledges for a week. He didn't argue at all. The consequence was so logical, that he completely understood it. I like that a lot.

Bridget is telling me more and more that she prefers to be with me as opposed to the bassinet or just about anywhere else. I'm so grateful for the sling. To be honest, I don't want to be separated from her either. I like having her little body close and being able to nurse whenever the mood takes her.

Yesterday we were at the Basilica in Minneapolis for a special ceremony leading up to my joining the church at Easter. We had the children blessed by the Bishop while we were there, and we lit a candle for my brother-in-law who has recently been diagnosed with cancer. The Basilica is beautiful. I'd love to go back with the kids some time and really look around.