Homework

Amy loves homework. LOVES it. Some days, she forgets her homework journal at home, so when she's at Quantum Leaps, she'll do her homework on a loose piece of paper. And while another kid would just shove the paper into their homework journal at the appropriate spot, Amy will re-do her homework, so that it's properly done in the right place. She got two "homework passes" that would allow her to skip doing her homework for a day. They hung in the kitchen for months before she decided to take them back to school to see if Mrs. Mitkowski would let her give them to another child. She had zero interest in skipping a day of homework. Quite different from our experience with Reed's homework in kindergarten, where it was a literal fight more days than not!

Reed doesn't mind his homework too much, though he does think it's boring and useless. The only thing he really takes issue with (and I don't blame him) is the word searches on Thursday. These are computer-generated word searches based on the week's spelling words. Now these are not like a word search you'd find in a book, oh no...these computer-generated word searches are hideously awful. The words are upside down and backwards and sideways and just terribly difficult to find. We've long since given up on getting him to find all the words on his own (usually there are 15-20 words), instead we say "outside" is in the upper left corner and let him find it that way. So much easier. He doesn't see the value of these word searches, and frankly neither do we. He doesn't get a single thing out of it other than frustration, it's not like it helps him know the words any better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that word searches will end when second grade does in a few weeks.

We finally figured out how to get Reed to do his homework at his after-school program (CASA) most days...if he does his homework there all week, he can bring his Nintendo DS to CASA on Friday. So much easier on all of us! Only problem is that we're probably not paying as much attention to his homework as we should, but that seems to be okay.

I certainly don't remember ever having homework in elementary school, so all this is pretty foreign to me. Hopefully they're getting something out of it!

Say what?

Looking over some work Reed brought home tonight.

Q: What adjectives describe you?

A: "awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Q: What adjectives do NOT describe you?

A: "boring, female, pineapple-ish, constipated, and loser" What a nut.

Things and stuff

Nostalgia

Monday was my first day back at work after our big San Diego vacation (more on that later), and the weather was lovely. Just the sound of all the kids on the playground at the Employee Child Care Center made me so nostalgic for the days of having our kids there. What a great thing it was, having them downstairs from me, getting to see them outside having fun with their pals. I miss having little ones, but also am enjoying having big kids too.

Comments from Strangers

Every so often, someone we don't know will comment to us about Amy. It happened just today, as we were waiting for bagels at breakfast. A lady came by and said "I just wanted to say that your daughter is beautiful, and she has such a great spirit!". It's not the first time it's happened. In fact, at Katie's wedding, the boyfriend of one of her friends sought us out to make a similar comment about what a delightful spirit she is. Amy is quite something!

The Royal Wedding

Well it may not have been the real royal wedding (that'd be Prince William and Catherine's, which just happened a few days ago), but it was our royal wedding! Katie and David had a beautiful San Diego wedding on April 16, and just about the whole family was there to wish them well. We're happy to have David join the family and only wish that California were closer, so we could see them more often. Amy was invited to be the flower girl, and she's been excited about it for months. She got a manicure, a pedicure, and her hair done all fancy like the big girls, and really enjoyed being part of it all – she was quite an observer, quietly taking everything in. She tossed petals as she walked down the aisle with Mitchell, and stood quietly through the ceremony, looking just beautiful. Reed and Aly were assigned to hand out programs to the wedding guests, and they looked great and did a terrific job. Then it was on to the reception, where let me tell you, Reed cut a rug like you can't even imagine!!! It was the first wedding he's been to since Cristie and Brandon got married six years ago, when he was just two years old. He boogied the night away then too. Once Aunt Jennifer got him on the dance floor at Katie's wedding, he was all over it. He needed about 6 feet of clearance on all sides to allow for all the fancy dancing he needed to to. Afterward he told us "I just did my arms freestyle but for my feet I had a routine" – so very much fun to watch, I can't even describe it. I will remember and treasure it always.

Growing Up

Reed is nearly eight and a half years old now, and we're doing our best to give him more autonomy and responsibility for himself. Just yesterday he rode his bike to his friend Harrison's house (it's only a block away, but crosses a semi-busy street). He was so very proud of himself for this adventure. I know in another day and age, in another place, this wouldn't be a big deal at all and he would have been doing this kind of thing for a while. But we live here and we live now, so it's a Big Deal. These kids grow up so fast!!

Race for Hope

This morning, Team Ginger gathered once again to participate in Race for Hope, a fundraiser for brain cancer research. There were 12,000 race participants, 300 of them survivors. Just 300. While I was so happy to see each one of those survivors, wearing their bright yellow shirts, it made me so sad that Mom wasn't there among them. This year we didn't work so hard on fund raising like we did last year, I think partly because we were all caught up in preparations for vacation and the wedding, but I think next year we'll be back on track. We gathered together and we all took time to stop by the "Wall of Hope" where the picture above was posted along with those of others who've lost their fight with brain cancer, and those who have survived it.

How I wish we didn't know anything about this disease, and we were back to when life was simple and easy and we still had Mom around. It feels like she's been gone so long. I think of her every day. And while I know they are just "things," the kids are outgrowing stuff that Mom gave them and it makes me sad that they might forget her. I don't think they have any clothes that she gave them any more – Reed has long since outgrown the NASCAR paraphernalia she bought him over the years, none of the special outfits she bought for Amy fit her anymore. They have lots of stuffed animals, some special decorations in their rooms. Amy wore the Hawaiian cross Kiki gave her in Katie's wedding. There are books she gave them, some they're getting too old for. While I know the things are not important, the connections they represent to Kiki are, and I'm afraid that they're fleeting. We will all do our best to make sure the kids remember, and know how very much she loved and treasured them.