Tax day. The Wii Fit also has felt it important to remind us daily that it was also Carol's birthday for a few weeks now. I had finally decided I was ready to let Carol fully go and remove her from the Wii Fit, but Lori said we ought to leave her in, that if Morticia had been in the system she would have wanted her to still be in there.
It's funny to think of tax day. I get all stressed and frustrated and anxious about needing to get it done, and then it's all done, the refund's back and the money's mostly spent more than a month before the actual tax deadline. It actually took longer than it needed to this year. It was probably about an hours' worth of work (I love hrblock.com) but I got about 57 minutes done and then thought I was stuck (I wasn't) and I let it sit for way too long bugging me. And then I finished it. We didn't get our refund until March 5 this year. It was a nice size. I like not giving very much to the government. I much prefer giving it to charity.
A good day. I turned off the email in the morning and worked on another project that's been eating at me for a long time. It was potentially due at the end of September, but they delayed it. Then it was due March 31, but I just didn't get it done. Now, it's mostly done. There are pieces in a number of other people's hands, but very little waiting on me at this point, which is a relief. I have a little work to do tomorrow, but yeah, mostly not on me. I do need to dog it all to done and then there's another administrivial thing hanging over me coming very soon, but it's at least nice to check one thing off the list.
Lori, Rachel and Ben came for lunch today. While we were setting up, we were trying to get Ben to say things. He was repeating simple words, so I tried "fascinating!" He tried a few times, saying things like "fasciwasha" each time I said "fascinating!" After the third time, he added "I doan know" in a sad voice. That to me is fascinating - how well he uses that phrase. He's correctly using yeah and no to answer questions. Our friends said that with their son, he went from not speaking to just talking constantly, like a flood gate opening. I'm hoping that will be the case for Ben. There seems to be plenty of words he recognizes and plenty of words that he used to use but has since stopped using. One weird thing is that he seems to use "milk" for "more" or just when he wants something. And then he gets frustrated when we hand him his milk and that's clearly not what he wants.
And, he's mastered "uh-oh." He says it very well. Of course, it's not really an uh-oh. It's just that he felt like throwing something.
Tonight Lori had choir practice so it was just me with Rachel and Ben. We had a nice night. I had to excuse myself to another room and Rachel sat with Ben. She said she was going to read with him and pray with him. Not sure if she did, but when I came down, she did read to the two of us two of her Bible stories. She's getting really good at reading, including sounding out "Hebron." Then I read them one more Bible story and then some in the Psalms. I had started over again when Ben was born and it feels like we're moving more slowly than when I read through it with Rachel. In the beginning there were more missed days and days where we could maybe get a paragraph, but now I'm able to read two pages a night. I should go back and see how long it took us to get through the first time. I know I blogged about it.
It was a nice evening. There was even a few times where they were both sitting on my lap together. That didn't last long, though, because Ben wanted to keep smacking at Rachel. They both did a good job at going to bed without problems tonight which was kind of night. I think Lori's right - Rachel needs to be in bed before 8 pm or else... pain.