Heat and Accent

We're making progress around here.
Today, Henry helped me hammer nails. I had no idea the kid could do it, but I would hit them in a bit then hand him the hammer and he would finish the job. We got so much done as a team. Usually the afternoons are a time of struggle for us, but this afternoon was smooth sailing as we had a hammering project to do together. I need to find some more wood and nails for tomorrow...

Henry and I put together the cube set for Svea's room, then got her all organized (she was downstairs building princess castles and totally uninterested in us. Which was fine).

Then we put together the cube in his room and he filled it with his favorite things. He promptly got bored and realized that if he sat on his bed and dangled his feet from the edge and kicked forward and back, his heel would hit the iron rail perfectly to make the most annoying noise. He also realized that his Mom was so focused that she would let him make this noise over and over just so she could finish organizing his room since tomorrow is the two week anniversary of living here and for the love this chaos must end sometime.



After cubes, we made beds and got Charlie and Lola tucked in and ready for tonight. Luckily, Lola had her "Svea" pillow to share that Carter and Graham made for us. Charlie prefers the monogrammed "Henry" pillow for the summer that the Nash's gave him. (He prefers the Carter and Graham one in the colder weather. Which kid is more like a Jackson, I ask you?)

Today we also bought about 96 bottles of Gatorade, Powerade and some other brands we haven't heard of yet. We are really adjusting to the heat. And global warming, I guess. We had about 12 days of bliss and adrenaline, and yesterday, being day 13, we hit some low points. I'll chalk them up to dehydration. Hence the Powerade run today.

I know hydration, salt retention, swimming, etc. affect the ear and hearing and balance. I don't know all the inner workings of it, but I am aware of the connection.
In the past two weeks, I have been most affected by the heat (and subsequent dehydration) and my inability to decipher accents at the pace I used to.

When I went to get my new driver's license, all I had to take was a vision test. I thought she would give me a hearing test soon after since I had to keep pulling my head out of the vision thingie to look at her face and ask her to repeat her instructions. I tried to joke with her a little when it was time for the picture for the card, like, "Does my hair look okay?" and stuff.
When I asked her that, she kept looking down at her Birmingham News and said, "To me."

Like "To me it looks okay" or "To me you are a crazy deaf girl who I wish would hurry up and get away from my desk"?

I got through it, but I noticeably pause between someone's question and my answer and I'm wondering when I'll get used to the ring of it.

Maybe that's next week.

For today, the Cubes and Powerade beat the Heat and Accent issues. Miniature victories, I tell you, miniature victories.