And now we are five

Look who's here!  Samuel Thornton Quam was born on October 23rd at 9:45 in the morning.  He was ten pounds even and I can't remember exactly how long--21 inches I think.  I grow them big.  He is sweet and my milk is coming in better than it did with the previous two, which is a relief.   I am definitely attached to nursing.  We are having a lovely baby moon with my wonderful parents here to take care of us--all I am doing is nursing the baby and directing (there are, it seems, a lot of things I am attached to).  As you can see, Elsa loves her baby brother...and thus far, David does too. 

Not only am I loving Samuel's tininess....I am loving how sturdy and big Elsa and David are.  I keep grabbing their arms and shoulders and hands and they are so strong and delicious.  There is plenty of love for all, indeed.

Pulling the Plug

Oh, am I conflicted.  And nervous.  But I did it.  I pulled Elsa out of her school today.  There is a farm/homeschool program twice a week in Fairview, and she went there today and loved it, and we decided that she is going to be homeschooled.  With the caveat that if it isn't working in January, she can go to the Montessorri school in Asheville.   Tomorrow we are going to work on reading word families and form drawing and making a calendar.  I am excited.  I am terrified.  I wish I had the kind of unwavering self confidence that I was on the right path...either way.  But I don't.  I can see both sides of this (and many) issues.  Although at this point in the political game I am pretty confident in my choice of president...but that isn't going against the grain.  Most people I know prefer Obama.

Anyway, I did it...and actually, I am coming back to this a week and a half later, and I am already feeling calmer about this decision.  Elsa is doing great.  We get a lot done.  She is learning to read, and we are hiking and being outside regularly.  I am imagining that after I have had the baby (and gotten through the first few exhausting months) I will have even more energy and we will be able to do more.  I do like it-it is pretty brilliant to see her figuring out how to read, and I do think it is a lot more efficient to do it at home--Elsa's memory and verbal skills had the teacher completely fooled in terms of her reading ability, and I think she was not getting much out of school.  Probably the teacher would have figured it out after a while, but as her mama, I know exactly where she is at as a reader--wonderful comprehension and understanding of story structure, not a whole lot of  decoding skills...which is what we can work on together. 

Okay, so this is even later....October, two weeks before little man is arriving.  Homeschooling seems to be working great...I wish I had more energy.  Anyway, I don't want to completely abandon this blog, but I also don't want to actually write in it, or download pictures or anything, so here it is.