Athena catchup

• Lately Athena must do everything by herself, get herself dressed, brush her own hair, fill her glass up with ice and water, even get her own snacks (sometimes resulting in Goldfish all over the floor) now if only we could get her to play by herself (she usually demands constant adult interaction).
• The other day, Athena and I were snuggling and she had her head on my belly. John Patrick kicked her in the ear, which she thought was enormously funny. Other than that the primary form of contact with the "baby in Mommy's belly" is giving me zerberts or poking him when a little foot, head or bum presses against Mommy's belly. Every now and then, Athena does talk to my belly and introduces us: "Hello baby brother, I'm Athena and this is Mommy".
• Athena is really curious about vocabulary and she's beginning to ask me to define words that she doesn't know, which is great, but try giving a definition of "emergency" or "personal" in kid language off the cuff...it's not easy.
• She's becoming scarily good on the computer! She's only allowed to play with three games, a Caillou CDRom, a Sesame Street CDRom and an online webpage called Starfall. But we've created her own profile on the family computer and she knows how to turn it on, click on the frog icon and load either the internet or one of her games. She's already better with a mouse than Yiayia. Zoe enjoys her proficiency too and plays along, so it's a group activity.
• She recently told me she wants singing lessons.
• Her main fault right now is her constant playing. She walks into a room and starts to play with three different things at once. She cannot sit still. I see other children her age standing quietly in line at the library or post office, but this is impossible for her. She must be spinning or singing or laughing, she's very joyful, but it's frustrating when you are trying to get her dressed and all she wants to do is put her shirt on her head (arms dangling) and pretend to be a puppy. I have to tell her "Athena! Focus! We're getting dressed right now." I have explained to her what "focus" means and just the other day she was telling me a story about an elephant and his Mommy or whatever, I wasn't really listening and she said "Mommy! Focus!"
• We're going to attempt a little homeschooling soon. Athena and I spend our afternoons together while Zoe naps, sometimes we watch a movie (aka Mommy sleeps on the couch) but often we do "work" on the kitchen table. I check and respond to work emails and she does an activity from a workbook, paints or colors. I'm going to try to start focusing these activities on big picture, kind of scientificky, concepts (i.e. magnets, the solar system, geography, animals, plants, etc.). I have big plans (and a book) we'll see how it goes!