Lasts

I guess this is a fitting post for the final day of the year. I've been thinking lately about "lasts".

It's easy to track some firsts, and even know exactly when they're going to happen - first time meeting grandparents, first airplane flight, first time at the ocean, first day of school, first roller coaster ride. It's easy to document those firsts and hold them in your memory forever.

You don't know when some other firsts are going to come - at least not exactly. First smile, first steps, first tooth lost. The excitement of these expressions of growth are so wonderful. Babies are basically blobs the first couple of months of life - and then you get that first real smile and everything changes. They have personality! They can give something back! It's amazing and beautiful. Firsts are incredible.

But "lasts"....well, they are different. You don't realize a "last" has happened until much later. We've already past so many lasts - the last time we'll hold a sleeping infant, the last time we'll put a baby to sleep in a crib, the last time we'll send a child off to kindergarten. But there are other lasts that are still to come for us. The last time your child holds your hand without a thought of what anyone else might think, just wanting that sense of security and comfort. The last time they wander into your room at night, climbing into bed and going right back to sleep. The last time they enjoy having you visit their classroom to help out. The last time they'll take a nap with you. These lasts are going to come and go and we probably won't even know it until months or even years go by.

I'm trying not to dwell on these things, instead focusing on savoring these special moments every time they happen. I'm so grateful for our beautiful, loving children. I wish I could keep them little, but I know that's not possible. I'll just do my best to enjoy every single stage.

Building some great people here

As a parent, sometimes you wonder if you're instilling your kids with the right values and teaching them to do the right thing. Yesterday we had a couple of examples of how we (hopefully) have our kids on the right path.

First, there's Amy. This girl is a hard worker. She (mostly) doesn't quit when things get hard, and she will work all day if it's something she's interested in. She does extra school work. Give her any job, she's glad to do it. She loves (LOVES!) to serve people food or drinks, happy to take orders and deliver them. Yesterday was our annual Cookie Day where the family gets together to make treats for the holidays. We were at Jennifer's for four hours and I think Amy only stopped working long enough to eat some lunch. She measured, poured, stirred...any job, she was happy to do it. What a work ethic. Right afterward, she went to a Brownie gathering where they decorated cookies to take to a nursing home this week. She said she decorated so much, she didn't even get to have a cookie.

And Reed. Nana wasn't quite up to participating in cookie day this year, but I wanted to bring her some of the goodies so we headed over to her house. Reed was genuinely happy to do this, and eagerly carried the cookies in to her. I know this is a small thing, but I was touched to know that he understands it's a tough time for her, and that the small act of bringing her cookies would mean a lot to her.

Couple of good kids we've got.

Double digits!

Our baby boy turns 10 today! I can't even remember what our days were like before he came into the world. It has been so amazing to watch him as he goes through each phase, from being a cuddly baby to being a tween. A tween! It's crazy!

Reed's interests have expanded over the last year, he's now really into football. He still pores over the newspaper every morning, but now instead of sticking to the comics, he also studies the sports page. He's into stats like you wouldn't believe. He also loves playing Madden on Xbox – and when he disappears into the basement for hours, it turns out that he likes making his own lineups and doing drafts as much as he likes playing the actual game, if not more.

Reed still reads as if his life depends on it. Today, for example, he was excited about having gotten new books yesterday so he was up sometime around 5 a.m. to read a few of them. We still haven't had the greatest success with getting him to read non-fiction books, but hopefully that will come in time.

Ten years old. The time has breezed by. When the typical household noisiness that goes along with two elementary-school age kids sometimes drives us crazy, I try to remind myself that happy noise won't be around forever. It's not going to be long before they're grown. So we'll try to keep our sanity amid the chaotic noise and enjoy every minute!

Farewell, Ddaddy

On October 27, my grandfather Lee Allder passed away, a little over two weeks after receiving the news that he had cancer in his liver, kidneys and lungs.

During the few years that my Mom was a single parent working two jobs (NALC and the Grand Union grocery store), we were frequent visitors at my grandparents house. We'd have fried chicken or spaghetti, then watch the Andy Griffith Show, the Carol Burnett Show, or M*A*S*H. We'd pull the hair on Granddaddy's legs when he'd fall asleep in his recliner. These are good memories.

The photo above is from our only recent trip to my grandparents' "farm" - not really a farm, but more of a place in the country. It's in the Stanley, near Luray in the Shenandoah Mountains. It's 90 acres of quiet and solitude. We also spent quite a few weekends there growing up, bored to tears, just as my Mom and Wanda had been when they were dragged there as kids. It was a place that made him happy, and the place where his ashes will be spread this spring, just as he asked.

Historic

I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try. - from President Obama's 2012 victory speech

I am so very happy that our kids are going to grow up in a United States where having a black President is not the least bit out of the ordinary. They are never going to think it's something that's impossible, or at the very least unlikely, as I had. If you'd told me 10 years ago that we would have a black President, I doubt I would have believed it. But here we are, with Obama winning a second term. Incredible. I am proud to have voted for him in 2008 and again this year.

This is not to say there is no racism in America, or that minorities have an easy path. But the mere fact that it's a reality that a minority has won the White House not once, but twice - wow. 

And it was also a historic day for women. There will be at least 19 women senators in the next Congress, which is a record. It's still not enough, but it's progress. 

We are getting there!

The kids' "office"

It used to be that I wondered when it would occur to Reed that he could bring a book into the bathroom with him. I mean he's always reading, I couldn't understand why it didn't occur to him to bring a book when he knew he was in for a long bathroom visit. He'd log a considerable amount of time in the "office" but would just entertain himself however a kid entertains himself in the bathroom. Then I guess it was probably a year or two ago when he started bringing books in with him. We thought he spent a lot of time in there before! It's even more now. And Amy's not been shy about bringing a stack of books with her into the bathroom for a while now as well. Many days after school, both kids pretty much head straight to the bathroom, books in hand. Don't they go to the bathroom at school? Maybe I don't want to know. :)

Hey they're happy, they're quiet, and they're reading. Who could complain!

Boy are they going to be embarrassed to read this one day.

Back to school!

Okay so I'm a month behind with this, but oh well!

I think both kids were excited to head back to school, despite Reed's protests to the contrary. I think by the end of summer, they've had more than enough of camps and field trips and want to use their brains a little more.

First day!

Amy's teacher, Mrs. Maynard, seems to be a good fit for her so far. Amy's pal Guiliana is in her class, along with a couple of other pals from previous years. She has fallen into a pretty good routine with her homework, doing it at CASA many days, and finishing at home others. The dreaded Word Searches that caused Reed so much consternation are still part of the spelling homework, much to my chagrin. She's handled them much better than he did (thus far, anyway) and hasn't complained a whole lot.

Reed's homeroom teacher is Ms. Coughlin and she is new to the school. Everything seems to be going well so far, his grades are good and he gets a lot of positive feedback. He also has Mrs. Sgroi for Virginia Studies and math, and I think this might be his first real connection with a teacher. He's been really into learning about Virginia, and I think it's due in part to Mrs. Sgroi (perhaps it has something to do with the fact that she's beautiful? maybe!). He's even done EXTRA homework for Virginia studies, which is unheard of. He also decided to join the chorus, which meets weekly after school. I'm looking forward to their first appearance of the year, which is next week.

By now we've mostly settled into our routines and things are going well. The rhythm of the school year is comforting for all of us, I think. It's hard to believe that Reed has only one more year of elementary school!

Will they remember?

When I try to think back to my own childhood, I don't remember a lot of details. Did my Mom read to me? Play with me? What were our evenings like? Did I have homework in elementary school? Sadly, I can't remember. I have a few early-ish memories - falling off the monkey bars at Blake Preschool and needing stitches in my forehead (I was 5), being scared out of my mind on Space Mountain in Disneyworld (I was also about 5), driving trips to Florida in Mom's Firebird or Grandma and Graddaddy's big conversion van (probably ages 7-9).

When Tod's sister Martha visited this summer, she talked about when she and their sister Jennifer made the HUGE trip from Montana to Florida to go to Disneyworld with their kids. This had to have been a big financial commitment for them, they probably saved for a year or more. Martha was sure they'd be making memories that would last forever. They stayed at a Disney resort ($$$) and were there several days. Martha recalled her oldest, Derek, was about 7. As it turns out, the kids have zero memories of this trip. Zero. Not one.

Which makes me wonder about the value of all the trips and activities we do with our kids. Will they remember that we have read to them pretty much every single day of their lives up until now? That each of them got a trip to Disney (and Sea World, etc.) when they turned 5? That we spend time checking in with them on their homework, giving help when it's needed?

I guess only time will tell if they'll remember these things or if they'll only have memories that are based on the photos we've taken. But I hope that all these things we do are helping our kids to know they are secure and loved, and giving them life experiences they can build on.

It's worth it.

It used to be us!

I guess with the new school year just underway, I must be feeling a little nostalgic.

Every work day, I see the parents dropping off their kids at the Employee Child Care Center. Families that weren't even there at the same time as us. I see the kids happily playing out on the playground and remember when those were my kids. It seems so long ago!

The couple that lives across the street, who we've only met a time or two, had their first baby recently. A boy. I see them going out for evening walks, carrying their new little son, and it makes me think of when that was us. It used to be us!

Floppy little one month old Reed.

Which is not to say that was a better time. It was great...but different. We'll never again have a new baby to stroller around the block with. Never drop another kid off for their first day of kindergarten.

But these kids, they are great. They are growing up more and more every day, and much faster than I'd like. Now it's our turn to have the big kids, making their way through elementary school and learning more about the world every day.

Wouldn't trade any of this.

All-time greatest toys

We have two toys that have been in our house since Reed was a baby. These toys have stood the test of time, with kids coming back to them over and over...and over again.

The first is a ball drop, given to him on his first birthday by my friend Betsy Young. I think it has somewhat of a hypnotic quality, you can get into the motions, doing them over and over again, watching the balls fall down, roll side to side, and out...then start all over again. Even older kids can't pass this thing by without stopping to hammer a few balls through it (though Reed usually preferred to push them through with his hands when he was smaller).

The second is the Doodle Pro. This was a gift to Reed from cousin Cristie for his fourth birthday. Reed was never super into it, but he did enjoy it. This one is a go-to for Amy. As soon as she was old enough, she started drawing on the Doodle Pro and hasn't stopped since. Any time you like, you can draw. No fuss, no muss. Take it with you in the car, take it anywhere. Great toy. It also came with a companion smaller size Doodle Pro which has also been well-loved. It's in our living room right now, after just leaving her bedroom where it lived for a while. She doesn't play with it all the time, but her love for it goes on and on.

Not the greatest picture, but this was the night of
Big Steve's 55th birthday in November 2006
when Cristie gave Reed the Doodle Pro.

Look how great her drawings already are!!
This is from July 2007 – she is just over 2 years old.

Notice something about these two most enduring toys? No batteries required.

Favorite books

About a month ago, when we just couldn't cram another book onto either kid's many book shelves, Reed set out to choose the books he no longer wanted in his room any longer. After that process was completed, Amy went through that very large pile of books and picked the ones that she wanted to keep. She also methodically went through her books to see which ones she didn't need any longer. It was a long process!

The end result was a huge pile of books. I choose many of them and packed them up to mail to cousins Larson, Tensley, Blaine and Harmony in Wyoming, and Adlen, Ayla and Leo in Montana.

But before any of that, I had to go through the books. There were so many that I couldn't bear the idea of parting with! How could my babies have already outgrown these favorite books?

Rainbow Frogs? The Daddy Book? What Makes a Rainbow? Old friends, I'm so sad to see you in the giveaway pile! So I rescued those and other books. I know I can't save every book that I think is special to our family, but I'm going to save more than I probably should. I hope that one day these books will end up in the hands of our grandchildren.

Awww....they love each other!

Last night, Tod and Amy sat at the art table coloring, and Reed was sitting on the floor with his Contraptions set. He made this. I think he really loves his little sister.

Summer of Harry

Where you'll find Amy this summer...behind a Harry Potter book.

Today Amy finished book seven of the Harry Potter series. What an accomplishment! She started the series in May and has single-mindedly progressed through the books, absorbing every detail, and I think she's grown to love the characters as friends. We worried that the content might be too scary and the writing too grown up, and certainly she has been challenged in both respects. But she was able to take a couple of the "Accelerated Reader" quizzes in school and did really well on them, so she definitely understood everything. During scary parts, she'd sometimes want us to sit near her or read them to her.

I'd say she is learning to live the expression "My books are friends that never fail me." (Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish writer from the 1800s). I hope her complete and total enthusiasm for reading will continue throughout her life. I'm so proud of her setting her mind to finishing this series, and she got it done in record time!

"You've got a friend in me..."

....you've got a friend in me. When the road looks rough ahead, and you're miles and miles from your nice warm bed. You just remember what your old pal said: boy, you've got a friend in me. Yeah, you've got a friend in me."

Tough times around here last week. Jalen, Reed's pal since kindergarten, and BFF (do boys say that?) for a couple of years now, moved to San Antonio with his family. After the end of the school year, we did our best to get them together as much as possible, which was great. They had a lot of fun hanging out, including a trip to laser tag.

We hadn't really talked about it much leading up to the day Reed would say goodbye to Jalen. There were no tears as we dropped Jalen off at home and said our goodbyes to his family (who we really like), but the tears arrived before we turned off Jalen's street. Reed said "I wish school started tomorrow, so I could find a new best friend." It was really heartbreaking, seeing him so sad and knowing we couldn't help.

Reed and Jalen had lots in common - they both love Skylanders and Pokemon, and sports....it was great for Reed to see Jalen playing football. I think that motivated him a bit to try it himself, which he ended up loving.

I hope this won't be the last we hear from Jalen, it'd be great if they could stay friends long-distance. And I've always wanted to go to San Antonio!

Great end to flag football season!

Reed gaining some rushing yards.

Reed just finished up his first 7-week season of flag football. His last game was his best yet - he had 1 interception, another near-interception to break up a probable game-winning TD in the dying seconds of the game, 3 "pulls" (the flag FB equivalent of a tackle), and was in at QB on the game-winning TD (a running play).

The league is very low-key (just one day per week, with an hour-long practice immediately preceding the game) and I think it was a great learning experience for him. Tod was assistant coach as well - I think they both enjoyed it.

Of course now he wants to move up to tackle football, but we're holding off on that!

Hooray for Mom!

Amy has always wanted her hair French braided, but unfortunately that's not a skill I learned growing up. So one day a few weeks ago, I decided that it can't be THAT hard, I needed to learn.

I spent a semi-frustrating hour one night watching YouTube videos on how to French braid, using Amy's new American Girl doll, McKenna, to practice on.

The next day, I did this - kinda crooked, but pretty great for a first-timer!

Moving right along...

Well I wrote not too long ago about how Amy has really progressed with her reading. She now has at least 4 books she's working on reading at all times. I am not sure that she's circling back around to all of them, but hopefully she will at some point.

Amy has even finished the first and second Harry Potter books - can you imagine! Reed first read those in second grade, so she's quite proud of reading them earlier, and he is very quick to point out that he read them much more quickly and repeatedly than she has. Always a competition! Amy has even taken the Accelerated Reader test on the first Harry Potter and got a 90% score! Way to go, Amy!

Best Mother's Day gift ever...two kids hanging out together,
quietly reading for an hour. Aaaaah.

Good company

At the movies...pardon how miserable he
looks, he really wasn't!

So Tod and Amy headed out to Montana on Saturday morning for cousin Sam's high school graduation. That left the three-day weekend for Reed and me.

He's been great company. We got up early Saturday morning (reaaaaaalllly early – 4:30 a.m.) to take Tod and Amy to the airport. When we got back, we walked the dogs, then I went back to bed! Walking the dogs is a nice opportunity for Captain Question and Captain Segue-way to come out. Of course these are both Reed. He asks question after question...half the time he doesn't even really care to listen to the answer. Many times the questions are sports-related - "Mom, how many times have the Los Angeles Kings been in the Stanley Cup finals?" "Mom, why do most stores only have one level, and even when they expand they stay on one level instead of making a second level?" "Mom, who won the last five NFC championships?". And yes, most questions are still preceded with "Mom" even though I'm the only one there. So he will go from subject to subject - sports, science, math, nature...back around again and in between. The way his brain moves from one thing to another just doesn't compute with me. I do the best I can to answer his questions, but fall short more often than not - especially if the question is a random sports statistic!

We've done maybe a little too much running around this weekend, but I hope he's had a good time with his ol' Mama. Love that boy.

Problem solved!

This morning as I was walking out the door, Reed asked me to open the bag and box of new box of cereal for him. He still has a hard time with fine motor skills things like opening a cereal bag or a non-kid-friendly shampoo container. I told him "You're going to have to get married young so you'll have someone to open your cereal boxes for you, you know." He said "No, I'll just eat oatmeal instead."

No worries, then! :)

A two-song playlist?!?

Reed can manipulate his iPod Touch (handed down from Tod) better than I can my own iPhone. He loves to reorganize the apps into categories. He also loves to play all kinds of games on it.

But music...he's gone through a few iterations of playlists. The longest-running list had all his most favorites on it, which was Trout Fishing in America and They Might Be Giants, plus soundtracks from the Phineas and Ferb show. Oh, and his most favoritest of all - Weird Al Yankovic (or Weird Al Yovac, as Reed calls him).

The current favorite playlist has just two songs. Two. Over and over and over again while he falls asleep each night. It's Weird Al's "The Saga Begins" (which is a Star Wars song set to "American Pie") and "Yoda". Over and over. It would make me totally crazy, but he loves it!

The reading vacation

We just returned a few days ago from our spring break trip to Florida. We spent a couple of wonderful days in Amelia Island, then stopped through St. Augustine to see the Fountain of Youth, then on to Daytona, with a one-day trip to Legoland. Great time!

Amy reading on the boat

But what strikes me about the trip is that, along the lines of my last post...Amy became a real, true, crazy-for-books kid on this trip. She spent hours reading. She read through almost all of our 2.5 hour boat tour around Amelia Island, only stopping to take quick looks at the wild horses or dolphins. She even became one of those kids who you see walking around and reading a book. It's been a quick progression, but she is all over it. The Puppy Place books are her obsession, she can't get enough of them. On her last trip to the library before vacation, she checked out about 8 of those books, along with five or six others. I think it's official...she loves books as much as her brother does.

Sometimes even Reed
wears out and
has to quit reading!

I also read a lot on this trip, including Reed's recommendation of "Trumpet of the Swan," which is his all-time favorite book. I read a few other grown-up books as well. Tod did a bunch of reading. Oddly enough, Reed probably did the least reading of all of us...though he did manage to fall asleep reading one night.

A tale of two readers

With apologies to Charles Dickens, I'm here to write about our two readers.

First, we have Reed, who seems to have been born to read. I often say that for him, reading is as necessary as the air he breathes...and that is not much of an exaggeration. I cannot think of one single day since he learned how to read, when he has skipped it. It's a necessary part of his day – sometimes he even gets up early so that he'll have extra time to read. He also checks out the Washington Post newspaper each day over breakfast...mostly he reads the comics, but he'll also check out the sports section, and sometimes the front page.

Reed reading with Dad

Other parents, especially those who have sons Reed's age, always ask "How do you get him to read so much??" as if our situation is foreign - well, for us, their situation is foreign. They want to know how we "made" him so interested in reading, since they can't get their sons to read at all. I just tell them we didn't do anything other than read to him each day at bedtime since he was very small. The continuing interest is all his. How great is that?!

Reed is so in tune with books, I swear he has a sixth sense to know if new books have come into the house. And when I order Scholastic books through his classroom (which I do, entirely too often), the teacher has to leave them in the office for me to pick up, lest Reed have every single one of them read before he even arrives home that day.

He also has not slowed down in the speed of his reading. From when he was 4 years old and taught himself to read, he has been a true "speed reader". He read so fast that we would quiz him on what he'd read, to be sure he'd really read it all. When I read a book that he's recommended to me, he can't believe how slow I am!

Amy reading in her room

And Amy...her emergence as a reader has come at a slower pace, but I suspect ultimately she's going to be every bit as avid a reader as Reed. She has always enjoyed being read to, and loves that part of our day. This school year, Amy has gained so much confidence in her reading ability. She can read longer chapter books now, moving beyond titles like the "Magic Tree House" series. Amy takes her time with books, and more and more she likes to take time to herself in her room, with a stack of good books.

She is currently obsessed with a series called "Puppy Place," which is about a family that takes in puppies that need a home. We're both glad she's (mostly) moved past the "Rainbow Magic" fairy series, which was just so very formulaic, repetitive and awful! She comes back to the "Magic Tree House" books from time to time, too, sometimes listening to the ones that we have on CD.

Amy is taking great pride in the "Accelerated Reader" program at school, where she can take online tests on the books she reads. She's so happy to tell us that she's done well, and she does great at them.

We hope that we're raising a couple of life-long readers...I think they are well on their way!

What you can't know

Before you have kids, you really can't know how fast the time is going to go. Sure, people tell you all the time that time goes by in the blink of an eye when you have little ones, but you can't really understand it (even though you think you do). Maybe you've got an infant who needs to eat every 3 hours, and it's feeling that has been going on f-o-r-e-v-e-r and that it will continue to go on f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

The reality is that each stage goes by pretty much as soon as you get used to it. And then you turn around and your baby boy is nearly shoulder-high and getting taller every day, learning more and more about the world and his role in it. Your baby girl is a competent, spirited first grader. You stop and say to yourself "But they were just babies ten minutes ago!"

I know we're not perfect parents, but we do the best we can. Sure, we lose our tempers, we lack the patience we're asking for from our kids (irony!). But we always do the best we can to make the best decisions for our kids, who are such a gift to us. Time is so fleeting and it's not going to be long before they're grown.

I always say that I wish there were a way you could 'record' a day in your life at each age with your kids, so you can replay it and relive it. I know that those baby days would be even sweeter if I could get back to them with the full knowledge of how quickly they will pass. I look back at pictures of the kids when they were one and two...seems like so long ago! Thankfully, every age has its own special elements, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for these beautiful children of ours!

Picture of Determination

Our Amy can be so very determined when she wants to be. After taking a month off from tae kwon do (it was getting to be a fight every single class day, so we thought a little break would be helpful for all of us), she's back at it with a lot of energy. She's been working to earn the tips she needs to get from her green belt to her green stripe belt. This week was a review week and she earned the second of four needed tips on Wednesday, then the third of four during tonight's class. After class, she bravely went up and asked Instructor J.P. if she could test for her black tip (forms) – he said he couldn't test her then, but she could come back at 7:15 p.m. when there was a review time that was open to anyone.

Tod and Reed left this afternoon on their trip to Montana to celebrate Grandmother Holt's 100th birthday, and Amy was really excited to share her news with them. Tod taught her how to send texts on the iPhone a week or so ago, so she asked if she could send him a text. I said sure. She got busy typing...

Today Feb.9,2012 I got my  blue tip it is for KICKS I know that I will get my black tip. I even think i'll get before you get back form Montana.Love Amy.

We added a picture to tell the whole story.

We came home from Top Kick, she had a bowl of cereal for dinner, did her homework and back out the door we went for the practice session. She worked for about a half-hour, practicing her form with another girl and with Instructor Jeremy, and she was able to earn that coveted 4th tip. Here's her second text to Dad...

I went to the 7:15 practice class and instructor Jrmmy came and tested me on my Form and I earned my BLACK TIP!!! As you have noticed it is for FORMS I will graduate Feb.22,2012 at 5:15.

Success!

When this girl wants to do something, she does it. I am so very proud of the way she works hard to achieve her goals. What an amazing girl she is!

Pants problem

No, this isn't about the dog (Shelby, who Amy nicknamed Shelby Pants). This is about Reed. He has a problem. A pants problem.

See...sweatpants.

I will take the fall for starting this one. When he was small, I put him in nothing but elastic waist pants. Come on, they're more comfortable, and cheaper too. Lots of people dress their young sons in impossibly adorable and expensive pants and jeans...but not me. I went for comfort and low cost.

Consequently the poor child has not learned how to manage pants buttons. He's gotten a lot better at shirt buttons (on the rare occasions when he wears them), but he is flumoxed by his pants problem. His thin, reed-like (get it!) fingers just can't manage to properly manipulate the buttons without what he feels is Herculean effort.

Lack of practice combined with a lack of dexterity. What are you gonna do. I have decided to not be bothered by it - he'll figure it out sometime before he goes off to college (or else be outfitted solely in sports pants with elastic waists). Meanwhile he will either skip going to the bathroom (yikes) or, since his waist is so skinny, just pull his not-designed-to-be-pulled-down-without-unbuttoning pants down over his hips. I guess we should applaud his problem-solving skills.

One day, probably in the next two years or so, peer pressure will maybe get the better of him and he'll want to wear blue jeans like all the other boys. Or maybe not. But either way, no worries on this end – just smile!

Migraines? At 6 years old?

A week ago Friday, I got a call from one of the Daisy moms that Amy came down with a terrible headache at the Daisy meeting and wanted to go home. (Geez, I just realized that day was Friday the 13th. Ugh.)

Turns out it was more than a headache, it was her second migraine headache.

The first one happened on December 5. I picked her up from school as usual and she was fine. All four of us walked the dogs around the block and she was fine. We got back home for her to get ready for tae kwon do class (which was a fight, as it sometimes can be) and she was fine. Until she wasn't. Suddenly she said her head was really killing her. We thought we'd try making it to tae kwon do class anyway, but as I drove her there she continued to complain about her headache, and added that she felt sick to her stomach. When we parked the car, she said she didn't think she could do class, she thought she was going to throw up. We sat on the curb for a few minutes and then decided to go home. She laid on the couch for a few minutes, and threw up all over the family room not too much later. That improved her headache some, and her sick tummy feeling went away. Within an hour or two, after some Tylenol, she was feeling a lot better. She stayed home from school the next day, but was fine. We chalked it up to a really fast-acting tummy bug.

And now here we were again, same set up. She's fine, and then she's really not. When I got there to pick her up, she was sitting outside with a Mom, trash can nearby. Face as pale as a sheet, clearly in a lot of pain. We made it home fine, and again within 15 minutes or so, she'd thrown up (this time in the bowl I'd given her - yay, no vomit to clean up!). That made her tummy feel a lot better, and improved her headache some, but the headache continued for a while. Within an hour or two, she was laughing her head off at the Smurf movie we'd all settled in to watch, clearly feeling a hundred percent better.

After this happened, I did some online research to find out more about migraines. Her symptoms all fit, and of course we have the family history with my Mom suffering terribly from migraines from age 19. One of the things I read was sometimes people experience an "aura" - a visual disturbance of some kind, sometimes blurred vision, sometimes seeing colors - before a migraine starts. I asked Amy if her vision changed at all when she got this headache, did she see anything funny. She told me that when her head started hurting at lunch time at school, she'd had a bright yellow and purple/pink light in the corner of her eye that she "couldn't make go away". Sounds exactly like what I'd read.

We visited the pediatrician on Wednesday just to make sure everything was (relatively) okay. She told us what we already knew, that we should try to watch for patterns that go along with these migraines, and try to help Amy recognize when one is coming on so she can get some ibuprofen immediately and hopefully lessen the effects of the headache. So we'll be keeping an eye on things and I really hope this doesn't become a terrible problem for Amy. She's as tough as nails, so I can only imagine how terrible she was feeling in the middle of that headache - she looked so miserable. We're also going to get her eyes checked to rule out this being caused by eye strain. The school nurse told us there are lots of kids in the school who suffer from migraines. We'll see what happens - so far this has only happened twice, so maybe it will stop just as quickly as it started.

Meanwhile I'll be sending positive thoughts to keep this pain away from my baby girl.