Our rite of spring and other things

The arrival of spring is affecting the members of our family in various ways. My husband is suffering from seasonal allergies now more than in the twelve years I have known him. I'm suffering a bit as well. The worst is still probably a few weeks away. It usually gets to the point that I cannot wear eye makeup for several weeks, which will occur some time around Memorial Day Weekend (the end of May). Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it does make me a bit groggy.

Samuel has become much more withdrawn the past few weeks. This is probably due to a variety of things, only one of which is the change in season. I'm still carefully monitoring his computer activity, both for quantity and quality. His latest obsession is to use Writing With Symbols to type in words. After doing this he uses the speech function on the software and listens to the words being spoken. One evening I caught him typing words off the collection of videos he was carrying around that day. He also types in character names from favorite TV shows, and tonight he asked me to type in "Klasky Csupo" (the producers of Nickelodeon shows like Rugrats). I was amazed that the software speech pronounced it correctly! I probably shouldn't encourage this activity too much, but I like to let him have a little bit of fun in his day, even if it is quirky.

I have re-started Samuel's religion lessons at home. The children his age are going to be making their First Communion next weekend. I had thought at the beginning of the school year that he would join them, but our lessons at home became a bit sporadic when I started focusing on school academics over the winter. I also decided to have Samuel wait because of his behavior in church. I am hopeful that it will improve the next few years. Samuel is interested in God and in religion, so I am very grateful for that. He thinks about heaven alot and asks me questions about it:

"Mom, where is Grandma?" "She is in heaven, Samuel." "Can she come back?" "No, she cannot come back" "I don't want to go to heaven!" "We all want to go there someday Samuel. You probably won't go there for a while yet."

He has decided that the dreamy scenes in a Disney vacation-planning DVD we received are heaven. He asks "Mom, can you come back from heaven to go to Disney World?"

Another favorite topic of late for Samuel is area businesses. A restaurant we frequented years ago went out of business (well, I'm assuming it went out of business) and was replaced by another restaurant a few months later. When we drive by it the questions start.."Mom, why did the G__________ go out of business?" "It might have gone out of business because they didn't sell enough food." "I want to go to the G_______________!" "We can't, it is no longer there. Now it is The S_________________". As we drive into town on Sunday mornings for church he asks us to notify him whether businesses are open or closed.

I e-mailed the school principal over the weekend asking about the portable question. She tried calling me back while I was out this morning, so now we're playing phone tag.