My apologies for being a lazy sod. I keep writing in spurts & bits this month, never quite building up to a sustainable rhythm. Lately it’s been all about lying down, as I’ve been getting up earlier. Unfortunately, I seem to be unable to sleep at a sensible time; as soon as I lie down, phantom anxieties start chasing around in my head like spring-struck squirrels. I wonder if all this will be better once I actually start teaching. All I can do is hope that once I’m in the saddle, I’ll stop fearing the ride. Or some such cowgirl metaphor. Yee haw!

Strange day today. Blake developed an obsession with a slim paperback called Wake Me in Spring. It’s a sweet little book about a bear who has to hibernate and a mouse who has trouble letting his friend go to sleep. (In real life, the Boy & I take turns in these roles.) I read it to Blake for the first time last night, and while he normally squirms and resists new material, last night he was rapt throughout. He even took up the book when I was done so that he could study each page in order. Great! I thought. He must really like this one!

Uh, yeah. So much so that he had us read it to him almost 10 times today, and spent vast portions of the day turning pages on his own. After his nap things took a turn for the sinister: when we reached the part about the bear brushing his teeth, Blake spontaneously burst into noisy, frightened tears. After this reading, Blake could be counted upon to cry at a random part of the book, even though he would end each outburst by pointing to the book as if craving another page. Or maybe he was just really spooked; I don’t know. In any case, I think Wake Me in Spring is going back on the shelf for awhile, at least until Blake can tell us what exactly makes him scared about a bear going to sleep.

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 1/16/2005 10:07:00 p.m.