Sayonara, 2015!

The years fly by, don't they! We've had a great Christmas break, with lots of family activities and even a bit of down time too. Santa was good to all of us.

Looking forward to a fabulous 2016!

Ahoy, matey!

Pretty rough day for ol' Reed-o yesterday. Back in the summer, he had a chalazion in his left eye, which is kind of like a pimple, but on your eyelid. That never quite went away completely, I think, and on Sunday it exploded into a huge red thing hanging from underneath his upper eyelid, crusty and gross (I'll spare you the picture of it).

Argh! Avast, back to
school with ya, 
middle school pirate! 

So on Monday we went to the pediatrician, who was perplexed, and sent us to an ophthalmologist the next day. He diagnosed it as a "pyogenic granuloma" and said yep, it needs to be cut off. Thank goodness he was able to do it right then, because I'm not sure I would have been able to get Reed back in the office again. 

I watched the whole awful thing – from the numbing shots (multiple) in his eye, which bleed A LOT, through to snipping the thing off and cauterizing the wound. I nearly tossed my cookies. It was painful for Reed, but he was super brave. And he got to wear an eye patch at school for the rest of the day, which he liked much better than having this gross thing hanging in his eye.

Hopefully this is the end of it! Mama can't take any more! LOL

Thirteen!

Yesterday was Reed's thirteenth birthday.

Thirteen! A teenager!

The saying goes 'The days go slow but the years go fast." It really is so true. I mean really, wasn't I just in middle school, turning 13? And now our kid is 13. Taller than me, and closing in on Tod too.

Reed is a homebody and, given the choice, would rather just hang around home instead of going out doing things. All the better if he can spend his time playing video games (says he). There are more frequent signs of maturity - and believe me, we take every small victory as a true victory - from only having to ask him once (hey maybe someday we won't have to ask at all! wouldn't that be grand!) to do something, to less grudgingly doing chores like walking the dog, taking out the trash/recycling, or doing dishes. School work...well, Reed continues to do really well (7 A's and a B+) without putting in a ton of effort. Things seem to come pretty easily to him, but we hope that when things do get tough, he'll be able to develop study/work habits that will allow him to continue to succeed. Reed didn't want to do flag football this fall, so instead his one activity is the Model UN club at school. There've only been a few meetings so far, so we're not totally sure what that's all about. Reed's best pal is still Robbie Webster, I think that's going on five years now. They don't have any classes together (4th grade was their only year together) but they sit together on the bus every day and get together from time to time. Reed continues to be a picky-ish eater, really doesn't like things that are mixed together like red beans and rice with sausage (he only eats the sausage). But he'll always eat a salad, which I know a lot of kids won't, so that's good. If he had it his way, our family dinners would be burgers, pizza, tortellini soup and salad, tacos, cereal, cereal and more cereal. He also doesn't like anything "spicy" – and let me tell you that is a broad definition for him.

For his birthday, Reed said he wanted to build his own computer. So we bought some parts, Tod had some parts already on hand, and together they built the new computer.

Already enjoying it!

If we can just get Reed to be a bit more tolerant of his loving little sister, we'd be all good. That's probably our biggest issue....bickering kids. Many days are a struggle when the kids end up having their "outside time" at the same time – evidently our driveway isn't big enough for the both of them (and the whole great big rest of the world is uninteresting). Sigh.

But it's pretty cool to have a "grown up" kid who we enjoy being with, and who we find funny and engaging. It's such fun to be his parents. Love you, Reed-o.

Trouble in the corn maze

Last year we went to a corn maze and Reed separated from the rest of us and blasted off in the other direction, trying to beat us out. We beat him, but he still contests it.

Happy group at the start of our expedition.

This year we tried a new corn maze. Turns out it was a lot more challenging than the one last year. We started the same way...team of 3 versus team of 1. Off he went. Tod and I followed Amy, and she observed the strategy of always turning right (mostly...she took a few shortcuts). After lots of dead ends and misdirections, the 3 of us made our way out in probably 45 minutes of walking. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. After about 45 minutes, Tod and Amy went back in to what was kind of a central point of the maze to see if they could see Reed. They didn't see Reed, but they did see lots of families desperate to find their way out ("Can you tell us how to get out?!?" and "We've been walking forever – do you know the way out?"). Then Amy came back out and Tod went back in to walk through the maze and try to find Reed. Somehow he managed to find him within 10 or 15 minutes, much to Reed's relief:

Actual relief not pictured.

I felt SO horrible that he was lost in there so long!! He must've walked 5 miles, and covered and re-covered most every inch of the maze. He wouldn't admit it, but I think he was getting pretty worried. Thank goodness we found him without too much trouble once we actually started looking.

Next time...Reed gets a cell phone in the corn maze.

New furry family member

Meet Eddie. "No, I'd really rather not come out
from under the desk, thanks."

About a month or so ago, one night while Tod and I were watching TV we heard a weird sound outside. Turns out it was a cat, perhaps in some kind of altercation with another cat. When we went out, the cat was lying in the grass in front of our house, and didn't move when approached – we were afraid it was injured, but no...it was just really chill. Then the cat became my pal, wanting lots of loving. It followed me up on the porch and hung out for a while. Super cool cat. After a little bit, the other cat also came by.

Anyway that got me thinking it'd be kind of neat to have a cat. But I wasn't totally sure, so I thought it would be good to volunteer with Friends of Homeless Animals (FOHA) as "cat cuddlers" to see what I really thought. Amy and I volunteered two times before I decided that yes we do have room in our hearts and home for a feline friend.

Amy and I picked him because he was a really relaxed cat, and one we felt was least likely to bite or scratch or be really crazy. Plus he'd been in a foster home with two big dogs and he loved them, so we figured that would be a positive thing toward getting him to like Shelby.

We have tried to come up with a better name for the cat but we can't agree on anything and haven't hit on the right thing. I'm afraid he might be stuck with Eddie.

So far things are moving along slowly. I think it's possible that Shelby thinks this is another (weird looking) dog to play with. She is very much playing the stereotypical role of over-exuberant dog who's desperate for a new friend. Eddie has logged a lot of time hiding in the spot pictured above, and today he's been under our bed all day.

Maybe one day they'll be friends?

May the force be with you

Amy was always adamant that she was NOT interested in watching Star Wars. Sometimes she'd say it was too scary, other times she said she just wasn't interested. Tod was always sad to not share his Star Wars geekdom with her.

Then everything changed. Earlier this year, Tod took Amy's Girl Scout troop kayaking and it was a bit of a car ride. Amy's troopmate Lily wanted to bring her Star Wars movies to watch on the ride. Now she's an absolute convert. Tod is delighted! Amy is even thinking she'll be Princess Leia for Halloween...not the Princess Leia who wears the white robe, but Princess Leia as a jedi. Which apparently technically she is not, at this point, but Amy believes she will become one in the movie that comes out in December.

And BTW, the kids both ask every month or so whether Tod's bought tickets to see the new Star Wars movie the day it comes out. 

Amy knows herself so well

I feel pretty certain that when I was 10, I didn't have the kind of self-awareness that Amy does. A couple of weeks ago, we had to work together to complete a self-assessment for the Futura (aka "gifted") program that Amy goes to once a week. She had an informed and thoughtful opinion on her preferred learning style - she likes to hear something once, then apply it...she doesn't like hearing things more than once, and she definitely doesn't like repeatedly practicing things. She says she always "gets it" on the first explanation.

Amy also has pretty good awareness about her emotions and what's behind them. She still gets really angry at us from time to time, but eventually she comes around to realize that though she was yelling at us, she was really upset with herself. I'm proud that she can recognize that and even more proud that she feels comfortable voicing it, and doesn't just dig in and stick with the anger.

She's a pretty great kid.

I read an interview recently with someone who's an expert on giftedness. She talked about some gifted kids being very spiritually sensitive, specifically mentioning someone she'd worked with who asked "What if I'm living in someone else's dream?" That reminded me that a couple of times, Amy has called me into her room at night, teary-eyed and sad, and when I asked why, she said "What if the world isn't real?" Try answering that!

Baker, baker, cookie maker

That book was one of Reed's favorites.

Cookie Monster
Cookie eater
Mixes batter
With his beater

Now we have two very interested bakers on our hands. Both kids are only interested in baking or making desserts of any kind. Reed most frequently wants to make cookies, usually chocolate chip. One recent weekend, Amy and her pal Morgan had made cupcakes and used up all my baking butter for the frosting. But Reed wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. So he searched online for a recipe that didn't use butter, and went for it. He was successful, but having cookies that used a cup of oil in the recipe only reconfirmed why the Nestle Tollhouse (read: recipe with butter) is the best.

Amy loves to make cupcakes, often finding recipes online. Yesterday she found a recipe for baked donuts and she made those for us this morning - they turned out great! Her fifth grade science project is even baking related - she's going to test the differences in how cookies come out if they're baked with softened butter vs. melted butter.

Reed is taking what used to be called "Home Economics" this semester...it's now called "Family and Consumer Science." He brought home a recipe for cookie dough dip which we tried out at the river last weekend - it was dee-lish! That one will go in the next family cookbook, for sure.

With any luck, perhaps one day soon they'll both be interested in cooking too, and I can hand off some of my duties to them! Fingers crossed!

It's like her brain went in high gear again

Amy did some reading over the summer, but not heavy duty like she sometimes gets. But this week with school starting....I think she's read at least 5 books this week. Brain is back in gear, ready to learn!

So long summer, hello new school year!

Summer has just flown right by. Things didn't go exactly as planned, but in the end it all worked out well.

Our plan going into summer was to hire a babysitter even for weeks when it would be just Reed at home, while Amy was at day camp. So that's what we did, and picked a young lady named Megan who'd just graduated from Freedom High School. Then about 2 hours after she finished her very first day watching the kids, she texted us to say she'd been offered a dream internship which she wanted to take, but if we needed her to stay with us she would. Well of course we couldn't do that to her, so...back to square one.

After looking at our schedule more closely, we realized that between camps, my teleworking two days a week, and Tod being able to take an online training from home one week, plus a week of vacation and a week of me being on vacation at home with the kids, there were only 13 days where both kids would be at home. We were okay with Reed being home all day by himself, but didn't think it was a good idea for the two kids to be at home all day together. So we asked a family friend's daughter, Jacqueline, who also just graduated from Freedom, if she could babysit on those 13 days, and the stars aligned and she was available all but one day (Auntie Wanda and Cousin Katie helped that day).

And so went our summer - Amy did two weeks of Girl Scout camps and two weeks of STEM camps, and Reed did one week of 3-D game camp - and that was it!

We're not naive enough to think Reed truly adhered to our screen time limits during all the days he was home alone, but I think he didn't spent ALL day on the computer, either. Somewhere in between what he was supposed to do and outright disobedience all day. LOL. Reed's most frequent wish is to not leave the house, so he was able to accomplish that for the most part, although he would still say we made him do too much stuff. The pool was a constant source of irritation because Reed is now old enough to go to the pool alone, all he had to do was take a swim test (something like swimming one lap and treading water). But no matter how we tried to encourage, cajole, and even bribe him (that was all Dad, BTW), he was NOT interested. It's a little mind-boggling to think he wouldn't embrace the ability to go to a real "somewhere" and be independent, but he stuck with it. We're hoping next year he'll do it???

Amy enjoyed all of the camps she went to, particularly "Harry Potter" Girl Scout camp where she tried zip lining for the first time. We are hoping that next year she'll want to do a sleepaway camp (with Reed I think we may have to force him to do a sleepaway camp, he is just not interested). Amy had lots of time to meet up with her pal Morgan to hang out and go to the pool, and lots of down time as well.

Our summer vacation was to a new spot - Myrtle Beach. We stayed at a nice resort that had a poolside restaurant (okay so the bar was more what I cared about). I was very pleased that we didn't get a lot of whining about our activities - in fact, I don't remember any whining at all. As I said before, Reed is much more happy to stay in and play video games, but he went along easily with all of our outings. Besides the pool and the ocean, we went to a couple of different boardwalk-type shopping areas, a minor league baseball game, a (disastrous) Jeep tour [it poured for the 45 minute ride as we returned after our tour, as we were in the back of an open Jeep], a pirate-themed show, and a visit to a sculpture garden. Oh and one rainy afternoon found us at the movie theater. It was a busy week, but I think all of us had a great time.

Then we had a week at home to recover from vacation and prepare for school. Amy and I were able to volunteer at the school again, sorting the school supply kits and helping put together the first day packets. We did the 7th grade walk-through and the 5th grade open house. We also joined the family at a Nationals game, and joined Katie and the twins for a visit to the National Building Museum.

And then it was time for our traditional "breakfast for dinner, name/grade pancakes" the night before school started. I am so happy that we started this tradition back when Reed was in first grade. All of us were looking forward to it this year - and not just because having pancakes for dinner is awesome. I hope these kinds of traditions really cement our family connection over time and give the kids something terrific to look back on, and maybe even recreate with their own kids one day.

Reed's first day was "fine" by his report. Amy's was a little tougher - she is a bit anxious about some of the boys in her class, and not having some of her favorite girl friends in her class. But overall it was a success and they are now ready for the school year!

Vacation reading

When the kids were littler and we were heading off for vacation, I would buy each of them a few new books for the trip. I could easily pick things that they'd like, and they were so happy to get a bunch of new books. Reed especially would always dive right in. I always felt good about indulging them this way - you can never have too many books, right? And keeping kids busy on a trip is very necessary!

But things are different now. I can't pick books for Reed at all anymore. I think the main reason for that is he's too old for books targeted to his age, but also doesn't feel ready for adult books. He's searched the "YA" section at the library and feels like all he sees there is romance books (side note: seriously, is that all people think girls want to read about??). According to Reed, he read most every book in his Language Arts teacher's classroom last school year - which meant he was re-reading a lot of books he'd already read. He also got some school library books throughout the year, but things definitely aren't like they used to be for him, when reading was akin to breathing.

I am so-so with picking books for Amy now - probably as many hits as misses. At least I still get it right occasionally!

We head off for Myrtle Beach tomorrow morning, and in preparation for the trip I let Amy pick out a few books. I twisted Reed's arm and ordered two history books that I thought he'd like, which he gave a shoulder-shrug approval to.

Somebody's trying to get out of the doghouse

So Wednesday I busted Reed yet again for having screen time on his iPod Touch in his room when he wasn't supposed to be (see http://nafspac.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-hate-being-bad-guy.html and http://nafspac.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-results.html). We had to institute a new rule, one that's I'm sure miserable for him, but seems like the only logical next step....no more iPod in his room. He took the punishment gracefully. We told him he could earn it back by being responsible with his screen time in the future.

And that brings us to last night. I didn't sleep well and so was lounging on the couch when I got home form work. Reed consulted the week's menu plan (posted on the side of the fridge) and saw it was tortellini soup (it's not so much a soup as it is a lazy person's dinner plan....chicken stock for the broth, and frozen cheese tortellini). Then he proceeded to make and serve dinner - tortellini soup, caesar salad (from a bag, but still!) and cheesy bread. He even put it on plates/bowls for each of us and set it on the table.

First time a kid ever totally made dinner for the family -- a monumental and terrific occasion!

All about the music

Tuesday night was Amy's first big-time concert that she wanted to go to. And it doesn't get any bigger (right now) than Taylor Swift – I really hope it will become one of Amy's fond memories of her childhood.

I picked her up from the Girl Scout camp bus and we headed to the Metro and into the city to Nationals Park. It was a last minute decision to go to the show so we paid a premium to get tickets someone was reselling online – we ended up with great seats and an all-around terrific experience. It was second night Taylor was playing there, so I was able to get some intel from friends who'd gone the first night - travel tips and general info. We stood in a looooong line to take this picture (and really, couldn't they have chosen a more fitting picture to take these fake selfies with?)...

...then we got some dinner and headed to our seats. Detouring first to sit in the wrong seats before being redirected. Live and learn! We listened to the first and second opening acts and then headed out to the restroom and stand in the super slow line to get some ice cream. We knew there was plenty of time before Taylor came on, since she didn't start until 9:30 p.m. the night before (don't these people realize that I need to sleep???). To our delighted surprised, we hadn't been back in our seats for maybe two minutes before Taylor came on, and hour early. Score!! Apparently there was some potentially bad weather coming, so they shortened the two opening acts, dropped the third act entirely, and got right down to business. Show was done at 10:30 p.m. rather than 11:30 p.m., and we got on the super crowded Metro and headed home, making it there at 12:15 a.m., even with a quick stop at the McDonald's drive through for a couple of drinks. Logistically, it couldn't have been better!

And the show was really fun – Taylor is quite an entertainer. As you entered the stadium, each person got a bracelet thingy with instructions not to pull the battery tag until the show started. These bracelets lit up in time with certain parts of the music, and there were different set-ups so the bracelet of the person beside you might be on a totally different set-up than yours. It was really a cool effect and honestly I bet it makes Taylor's concert-giving experience a lot cooler to watch – she must love looking out and seeing all the cool fireflies changing color with the beat! I guess it doesn't take a lot to impress me, because I really loved that.

Doesn't do it justice!

Throughout the night, another thing that was on my mind was that if my Mom were still alive, she would most definitely have been at that show. She may have even taken all three granddaughters by herself!

Taylor played mostly her newer stuff, not much from her "country" days...Amy was sad she didn't play "Fifteen," but I think overall she was happy with the song choices. There were several outfit changes, including a pink light-up outfit which was adorable.

And the special guest....each stop of her tour, she brings out a special surprise guest to do a song of their own. The night before it'd been Lorde (who sings "Royals" and if she has another hit, I don't think I've heard it!). We totally lucked out and got Jason Derulo, who has one of the hits of the summer, "Want to Want Me" – super fun!

Overall I give it two thumbs up, and I think Amy would too. Hopefully she will always remember her first big concert!

But I can't forget to mention that the whole fam-damily went to the sold out Weird Al Yankovic show last month. That was quite an experience! Reed has been a big fan of Weird Al ever since he first heard his Star Wars parody songs - "The Saga Begins" (to the tune of Don McLean's "American Pie") and "Yoda" (to the tune of the Kinks' "Lola"). For quite some time, a couple of Weird Al songs were on rotation as Reed's going-to-bed music. He listened to them hundreds of times.

You really can't deny Weird Al's likability. Nonetheless we were a little surprised to see his show at Wolf Trap was a sellout (over 7,000 tickets!). We grabbed dinner from KFC and headed to Wolf Trap for a tail gate. We had seats in the pavilion, and it was quite a thrill as we watched as Weird Al opened the show by walking from his trailer, through the backstage area, behind the building, and then out to the crowd RIGHT NEXT TO US. And believe me, he's every bit as pretty in person.

He and his band put on a really fun show. The entire group does costume changes between every song (!!!). While they're off stage, they showed some video footage and other fun things. It was a really good time and I think the smile hardly left Reed's face the entire time. I still am a little surprised to think we spent $285 for our family to see Weird Al. Money well spent!

Music was such an important part of my growing up. I remember the nights in our townhouse before Mom and Jim got married, when Mom would put the kids to bed and then go downstairs and do whatever it was she did (cleaned? drank wine? both?), with the music always blasting. Emmylou Harris, Al Green, Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles, Bob Seeger, John Denver, the Temptations, the Doobie Brothers, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. Some of those songs are so ingrained in my brain, I can't even tell you. And I still love most all of that music to this day.

As I got older and was able to choose my own music, my first favorites were groups like Loverboy (I was the only one I knew who loved them! this is a recurring theme for me) and Duran Duran, then Def Leppard, Ratt and Motley Crue. This was the beginning of the music video age...and I must mention that we didn't have cable TV so the only time I could see videos was on "Friday Night Videos" and "Headbangers Ball", VERY late at night. But I played my records over and over and over, and if the jacket sleeve didn't include the lyrics, I'd record the song on my tape recorder and write the lyrics down myself, tediously going back and listening again, trying to get it right. I had a big binder of song lyrics, in fact!

My very most favorite band of all time (well, the teenager edition of me) was Triumph. No one else I knew liked them, preferring that other Canadian power trio instead (Rush). Triumph's music was so important to teenage me. I can't even stop myself from including all of the lyrics to my all-time favorite song, "Magic Power":

Something's at the edge of your mind

You don't know what it is

Something you were hoping to find 

But you're not sure what it is

Then you hear the music 

And it all comes crystal clear

The music does the talking

Says the things you want to hear

I'm young, I'm wild and I'm free

Got the magic power of the music in me

I'm young, I'm wild and I'm free

Got the magic power of the music in me

She climbs into bed

She pulls the covers overhead 

And she turns her little radio on

She's had a rotten day 

So she hopes the DJ's 

Gonna play her favorite song

Makes her feel much better

Brings her closer to her dreams

A little magic power

Makes it better that it seems

She's young now, she's wild now, she wants to be free

She gets the magic power of the music from me

She's young now, she's wild now, she wants to be free

She gets the magic power of the music from me

You're thinking it over 

But you just can't sort it out

Do you want someone to tell you 

What they think it's all about

Are you the one and only 

Who's sad and lonely

You're reaching for the top

Well, the music keeps you going 

And it's never gonna stop

It's never gonna stop

It's never gonna, never gonna, never gonna, never gonna stop

The world is full of compromise

And infinite red tape

But the music's got the magic

It's your one chance for escape

Turn me on, turn me up

It's your turn to dream

A little magic power 

Makes it better than it seems

I'm young now, I'm wild now, I want to be free

Got the magic power of the music in me

I'm young now, I'm wild and I'm free

Got the magic power of the music

I got the music in me

I got the power

I got the magic

She's got the power

She's got the magic

She's got the power

She's got the magic

She's got the power

She's got the magic

You know I'm not sure exactly what troubles I thought I needed to escape from (was there really a lot of red tape in my life?) – normal teenage angst, I guess, but this song touched my heart. I just love the idea of the restorative power of music, and how good it is for your soul. If there's a way to include this song at my funeral, I think I'd love that. Rik Emmett's voice always slayed me – the heights he could reach! And he always did some great acoustic instrumentals on most Triumph records too, and from that I learned that music can be beautiful without being loud ("Midsummer's Daydream"...google it). And honestly I thought he was adorable too (those tight white satin pants!)...ahh, the 80s!

Photo from the internet...I only WISH I'd been this close to Rik!
(and that's him on the left, in case there was any doubt)

Then there's "Fight the Good Fight"...

Days grow shorter and the nights are getting long

Feels like we're running out of time

Every day it seems much harder tellin' right from wrong

You got to read between the lines

Don't get discouraged, don't be afraid, we can

Make it through another day

Make it worth the price we pay

The Good Book says it's better to give than to receive

I do my best to do my part

Nothin' in my pockets I got nothin' up my sleeve

I keep my magic in my heart

Keep up your spirit, keep up your faith, baby

I am counting on you

You know what you've got to do

Fight the good fight every moment

Every minute every day

Fight the good fight every moment

It's your only way

All your life you've been waiting for your chance

Where you'll fit into the plan

But you're the master of your own destiny

So give and take the best that you can

You think a little more money can buy your soul some rest

You'd better think of something else instead

You're so afraid of being honest with yourself

You'd better take a look inside your head

Nothing is easy, nothing good is free on earth

But I can tell you where to start

Take a look inside your heart

There's an answer in your heart

Fight the good fight every moment

Every minute every day

Fight the good fight every moment

Make it worth the price we pay

Every moment of your lifetime

Every minute every day

Fight the good fight every moment

Make it worth the price we pay

Their music was just so positive and reassuring. "Let the Light (Shine on Me)" and "Follow Your Heart" and "Somebody's Out There". I can't even imagine how many times I played these records and sang along. It still makes me happy every time one of their songs pops up on my iPod! 

I went to a few concerts as a kid – the Oak Ridge Boys, KISS (I was SEVEN!) and Jimmy Buffett are shows that I remember, I know there were probably more. But my favorite, by far, was getting to see Triumph, I think it was at the Baltimore Civic Center or somewhere awful like that, and it was either the Stages tour or the Thunder Seven tour (I wish I hadn't gotten rid of all my old concert t-shirts!). My Dad took me. It was so glorious to actually see those three guys standing in front of me (far away, but still...we were IN THE SAME ROOM) playing the music I loved so much, and sounding every bit as good as the records. And they had a great laser light show...I was so happy!

Not too long ago, I thanked my Dad for taking me to that show. Who knows if I acted grateful at the time (seems unlikely), I hope I was. But I was glad to be able to say to him "That meant a lot to me and I am so thankful that you took me." Maybe one day Amy and Reed will say something similar to us, possibly about one of these shows.

It's amazing and wonderful how much the music of your youth sticks with you.

Always remember the great words of Triumph... 

Rock and roll hearts
Just never die....

"Amy does!"

When Amy was little, I think around age 2, if we asked her if she wanted to do something, she would say "Amy does!" For instance, "Who wants to go to the playground?" "Amy does!" "Who wants a Popsicle?" "Amy does!" It was the cutest.

This week Amy is at Camp Crossroads, better known in our house as Harry Potter Camp. Last year she could have done the zip line, but she was a little afraid of it. This year, she did it! She told us "I told myself that a lot of times if I'm afraid of something, but then I go ahead and try it, it turns out that I actually love it!" Such insight! Lucky for us, a friend was volunteering at that station and was able to take a video and pictures.

Amy was SO proud to tell us about it at the end of the day. I was so proud of her for doing something that scared her, I could have cried! She is ready to go do it again.

Just another example of "Amy does!"

Amy's garden

For the last several years, Amy has wanted to plant a garden. We don't really have the backyard space to accommodate a nice garden, plus we're a little lazy (okay guess I'm speaking about myself there!) so it never happened.

During the winter, I noticed Costco was selling these elevated garden beds, they're about 2.5 x 4 feet, not too big, perfect to put on our deck. So I bought it and we waited for spring. Tod and Amy did the plant purchasing and the planting, and soon we saw some growth! We didn't really know what we were doing, so it was a learning process.

 We had plenty of lettuce (too much, really),

and the corn didn't quite mature,

and I pulled up some garlic chives because I thought they were just garlic.

But we got our first cucumbers and some tiny potatoes,

and now some cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes!

I'd say we are very successful gardeners!

The results...

Reed managed to survive his two iPod-free days, with the benefit of the first day being spent at Wanda's, followed by going to Aly's for her 16th birthday dinner. Funny that during those two days, Reed didn't lock the door behind himself every time he went in his room. WEIRD!

Here are the results of his assignments. He hectored me down to just having to write two paragraphs instead of three. Being a (near) teenager is hard.

I hate being the bad guy!

Being a parent is sometimes no fun at all. I hate getting the kids in trouble. It's nearly as "no fun" for me as for them. But tonight was too much. I know - well I guess I should say I strongly suspect - that Reed has been having lots of screen time in his room when he's not supposed to. I think we are very 'generous' in allowing them two hours of screen time during the days they're home, and usually at least an hour more in the evenings. That's a lot. A lot, I tell you! But I've looked the other way the many times Reed has lied to me about what he's doing, and that's no good for anyone.

Tonight finally decided to call him on it. When I asked what he was doing, he sheepishly admitted (after lying about it) in a whisper mumble that he was having screen time. I was very angry, and had been headed out for a long walk. I decided to go ahead and walk and take that time to cool off and figure out what to do.

He's not happy with the consequences. I made him sign a note saying he understood that because he had screen time when he wasn't supposed to, and more importantly because he lied about it, he was losing his iPod for 2 days. And he has to complete two writing assignments before he can get it back - three paragraphs on lying and 3 paragraphs on what our family's screen time rules are. When I was walking I realized I had to give him a consequence that I knew he'd hate...and writing is it. He is complaining that he doesn't know what to write, can't write 3 paragraphs on those things, etc....I said well that's fine then, you won't get your iPod back on Friday.

Ought to be a fun couple of days. UGH!

Unprecedented

I think I've documented our bath/shower time struggles periodically. We've gotten a lot of "whhhhhyyyyyy do I have to take a shower?" and "but I hate showers!" and even a bunch of "showers are stupid" (take THAT, showers!). We've gotten "But so-and-so says her mom says you shouldn't take showers every day". I guess we've gotten a bit of everything.

But with the new paint job/decorating in the kids' bathroom, Amy doesn't protest anymore. Hallelujah! And Reed has come to accept his showering fate and just takes a shower when he's supposed to. Miracle!

And then this happened last week...the kids had gone to the pool with the babysitter (more on that later), so Reed showered after that. Then when Tod came home, he set Reed up for mowing the lawn (and more on that another time, too). When Reed finished, he came back in and said "Now I have to take another shower!" and...he did! Two showers in one day, neither one 'forced'! I nearly fell over when he said he was taking a second shower.

Edited to add....just a minute after I posted this, Reed got in the shower for the second time that day - I guess that makes it a trend?

(And please for the sake of my sanity, don't mention what might be going on in the shower other than getting clean!)

Here we come, summer!

Yesterday was the last day of school (finally!) and one kid is thrilled (Reed) and one kid (Amy) is a mixture of happy and sad. Seeing how much Reed has grown this school year is pretty crazy! If I measured right, he is 5'6" now, which makes him more than an inch taller than me (much to his delight).

It feels like we will blink and these kids will be off to college....

Another thing we should have done sooner!

Just before this school year started, I ordered a calendar wall decal which you can write on with dry erase markers. We hung it up next to the kitchen table, which is not the prettiest of locations, but it's useful. We reordered the days so the calendar starts with Monday - that way we set it up on Sunday evening around dinner, and we can see all the way through the entire weekend what we've got planned.

Now I think we've all come to rely on it. Tod and I still share our calendars via gmail, and that's great for us, but it leaves the kids out of the loop. I've noticed a couple of times when Reed has come in to the kitchen specifically to see what's on tap for the day. Mission accomplished! Everybody does better when they know what to expect, and I think this is a great tool for helping to teach the kids to be responsible about their own schedules.

Our stuffed animal friends

We finally got new carpet upstairs, it was installed about a month ago. As we prepared, we had to clear all the miscellaneous stuff from the kids' bedroom floors. We collected all their stuffed animals in our bathtub, where they remain.

Clearly we've got issues here. And I'm torn. On one hand, their rooms feel so much more spacious without the stuffed animals everywhere. I sort of hate to bring it all back and mess things up when their rooms look so nice and neat - we even wore Reed down about the new bookcase that we bought quite a while ago and he wouldn't let us put in his room (as I said before, he really doesn't like change!). I think, well maybe we can get them to pick their favorite (few? dozen?) and find a place to donate the rest. But then I risk the possibility of at least Reed saying "I don't want them anymore" (there's zero chance Amy would say that of the entire collection). That would signify a kind of growing up that I'm not at all prepared for.

So they stay in the tub for now. Good thing we never use it, it makes a lovely storage space!

Should have done this sooner!

Two years ago we were considering a huge addition to our house. The main reason, and the starting point of this exploration, was to get an additional bathroom upstairs. Oh it got a little control after that (why not extend the garage! let's have a downstairs office! let's move the laundry upstairs! let's move the existing kids bathroom! let's extend Reed's closet into Tod's existing closet which would have connected to what will later be Amy's bedroom! - cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching!) and we ultimately decided against it. Lately we've even toyed with the idea of moving so that we can upgrade (that idea is currently on hold until spring 2016). It was frustrating to not be able to access our own bathroom, or to always have to remind Amy to pick her stuff up from our bathroom, or not drip water all over the bathroom floor, etc.

The kids' bathroom was originally painted not long after we moved in in late December 2004. We went with a fish theme and it was very cute! But nearly ten years have been hard on the room and we found the border was beginning to fall down, so we needed a new paint job.

Well I couldn't find a good one of the kids' bathroom, but this
does the trick - fishy shower curtain, toothbrush holder and towel.
Plus adorable two year old brushing her teeth.

I have to mention that when we were talking about a remodel, Reed was 110% against ANY changes to his bedroom. He didn't want a bigger room, he didn't want his own bathroom (okay he essentially had one already since Amy wouldn't use their bathroom), he didn't want a single thing to change. He stuck to that throughout the process and was relieved when we decided against the whole project.

So we found ourselves needing to choose paint for the kids' bathroom. I took the kids to Home Depot to look at paint samples and Reed chose a handful of colors, and Amy chose to focus instead on looking for colors to paint her bedroom. In the end, Reed's recommendation for color choices were lime green and purple. He chose those because they are opposites on the color wheel and he thought they'd look good together. While it wasn't our first choice of colors, since it was so unusual for Reed to express any kind of interest in something like this, we figured, well why not...it's only paint! The kids chose a new shower curtain together and I bought new hand towels and a new rug. Tod got to work painting.

Wow did the lime green turn out bright! I mean BRIGHT!

But the amazing upside to this day-glo bathroom situation is that it caused Amy to give using their bathroom another try. She was reluctant at first but now it's kind of second nature, she doesn't seem to give it a thought. She's even take a bath in there. And miraculously, I was finally able to find a comb that's just like our favorite comb, and so Amy is all set to use that bathroom full-time. I think it's been probably 3 years or more since she stopped using her own bathroom. Of course we still have conflicts from time to time that force Reed to have to use our bathroom (because Amy's already gone to bed and their shower is right next to Amy's room and is so loud). So far, though, no instances of "Reed's hogging the bathroom!" or "Amy's taking too long!" though I'm guessing that probably won't last.

So maybe this house meets our needs after all, and we don't need to make any big moves after all! All it took was a fresh coat of (really bright) paint!

Sidenote...I know my memory is cruddy, but I don't really recall a lot of bathroom conflicts in my house growing up. Jennifer was an earlier riser than me, so she showered first and then finished getting ready for the day in her room, while I showered. I wish I could ask my Mom if there was a lot of drama...but instead I'll just go on thinking we got along delightfully. :)

"You look like a couple of sisters walking down the street!"

That was the comment from Amy's PE teacher as we were walking to school this morning. I am pretty sure that's the first time I've heard someone say that, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Hopefully Amy isn't too mortified to think people might mistake us for sisters. :)

Memories....

Back in January 2009, Reed organized his books into a library. Then a couple of weeks later, Aly spent the day with us on a teacher workday. The two of them set up the lending process for Reed's library. Aly was 9 and Reed was 6 at the time.

Here are the rules and fees, which Aly wrote up...

And here is my own personal library card, with hole punches for the books that I checked out.

So delightful to come across that sheet, which was hung on Reed's door! I had my library card safely stored in my nightstand, for whenever I wanted to do some good reading. 

The best comb of all time

At the risk of sounding totally strange, this is the very best comb ever. I think I've had it since maybe 1990? That's a ridiculous amount of time to use a plastic comb, isn't it? But it's just the best. It's worn down, Shelby's chewed on it, the color that used to be on the tips is long gone...but it still works great. Amy uses it every time she showers, and is also a fan of the comb. I've looked and looked for similar combs but never managed to find one – I've bought her probably 6 different combs and she hasn't liked any. The tines were too close together, or too far apart....very Goldilocks. So she keeps using the comb. I keep using the comb. And we're both happy. Long live the purple comb!

Teleworking ain't always all it's cracked up to be

I am extremely fortunate to have bosses that trust me and are flexible with allowing me to work from home. Really the number of things I can't do from home are very limited - I can't make copies, send things in the courier, or talk to a co-worker face to face. Other than that, I can do everything remotely. During the school year, I telework on Wednesdays and Fridays - it really breaks the week up. It also allows Amy to walk home from school two days a week, and not go to CASA those days (her after-school program which she's grown to really dislike). This winter it's been particularly good to telework because the schools were closed so many days due to the weather - I didn't have to take vacation time or pay someone to watch the kids while I went to the office. Teleworking is really great for me, gives me time back in my day (the nearly 60 minutes I spend in the car getting to/from work) and I can take advantage of the solid block of time at home on Wednesdays and do the laundry (hey, I'm here anyway!).

Last summer, I cut down to just teleworking on Fridays, to allow the summer babysitter a 4-day work week/3-day weekend.

There is a down side to teleworking, though. Even though I'm physically present, I'm not really "here" for the kids. Reed doesn't care much, but it bothers Amy. I'm not able to really interact with her a whole lot (other than refereeing between the kids, which no one enjoys). I know she'd rather I just take the snow days off and relax with them...but being a teleworker kind of puts on the pressure to work regardless of the weather. I feel like if I take the good (being home with the kids when I need to be, being here for repair people to come, easily taking the kids to appointments, etc.), I also have to take the bad of working when I'd rather not.

I guess I just want to say that it's not lost on me that it's not all that great to have Mom home, if all she's doing is staying in the office all day working.

Look who's 10!

We celebrated Amy's 10th birthday last week – I can hardly believe it!

For her family birthday gathering (which she shared with Aunt Jennifer), we made our own Dairy Queen Blizzard-style ice cream cake...

For her actual big day, she baked her own birthday cake, including using fondant for the first time...it turned out so awesome!

And we celebrated by going out for breakfast for dinner.

Amy realized after Christmas that she'd amassed a pretty good chunk of money, from Christmas gifts and allowances she'd saved up. She proposed if she paid $150 for half, we buy her a new laptop so she'd have her own. Well the math didn't quite work out on the "half" part of the equation (laptops are expensive!), but she got her wish. And much to our relief, we don't have to listen to the kids bicker over whose turn it is on the computer anymore. Oh don't worry, there are plenty more things to bicker about!

Happy #10 to our amazing Amy!

P.S. Reed got the absolute best end of this deal. He did absolutely nothing, contributed nothing, yet now he's got his own exclusive laptop. Pretty sweet deal. 

The bike is gathering dust

This past summer, Reed rode the heck out of this bike. But once school started up again, he put the bike away and hasn't gotten it out since. It seemed he really enjoyed riding around exploring the neighborhood so it seems odd to me that he stopped riding entirely. Will he pick it up again once school's out? I guess we'll see.

Who is this kid?

A few weeks ago, the Grammy Awards were held. That day, Reed asked "Are we going to watch the Grammys tonight?"

What?

Who knew Reed cared about the Grammys, or even knew that they were happening at all?

Then this past Sunday, Reed asked "Are we going to watch the Oscars tonight?"

Again, what?

Who is this kid, interested in music and movie award shows?? Our kids aren't really in the car all that often, and up until recently, Reed's request for in-car entertainment was Laugh USA, one of the comedy channels on XM Radio. Lately he's started asking for the pop music channel instead...maybe that's it. As for movies, it turns out he's been listening to some podcast about movies. Who knew? I think I've mentioned before that Reed now spends the majority of his waking hours with headphones on. I guess he's expanded his listening from just Pokemon and fantasy sports podcasts. Guess at some point we should probably check out what he's listening to???

It's kind of exciting that he's getting to the age where our interests overlap a little more. I look forward to when we can watch more TV and movies together, maybe develop some family favorites we can look forward to week to week.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Baby, it's cold outside!

I think we're on snow day number 1,572 this school year. I may have lost count. Regardless of the number, here we are with another unexpected day off. Sigh.

It has been a particularly cold winter here. But even before that, for the last couple of years we've been hearing from Amy that she wished we'd drive her to school when it's super cold. I must point out...we can SEE the school from our front door. Sure, there are two rows of houses between us and the school, but still...we can SEE the school from here. But Amy tell us that when she's a grown up, if she has kids, she will never make them walk to school if it's really cold. Thought I'd get that in writing so I can be sure she follows through.

Early risers

Many school days, the kids have to be woken up. Amy around 6:45 a.m., Reed by 7. Fortunately they're not grumpy about it anymore, at least.

But weekends? These kids are both up, on their own, by 6:30 a.m. Sometimes even earlier. What the heck??? I do not understand this.

I have no doubt that once Amy gets to be a teenager, she'll be sleeping in until all hours. But Reed? I'm not sure - interested to see if he turns into a regular, sleepy teenager, or if he'll continue to be an early bird.

Meanwhile I nap every chance I get...wish I could still sleep in!

The empty bathtub

Oh Mr. Bubble...I thought you'd be
an enticement, but no such luck.
Sorry you're all alone! 

Well there it sits, our sad and lonely bathtub.

Last summer, Amy took lots of baths...almost solely baths, unless there was a time constraint. Even though she'd protest having to get cleaned up at all, she'd end up in the tub and stay there for as long as possible.

And then once school started, it was all showers. Even when I tried to cajole her into taking a bath - if she was having a bit of a hard day, and I knew she had time to take a nice long, relaxing bath – no dice. [The spider she saw in the tub one day didn't help, either.]

The bathtub sits unused. The toys unplayed with. The Mr. Bubble bottle full. It's so sad.

I think my wish to keep her taking baths is mostly due to the fact that no playing with toys in the bathtub = a grown up kid. Reed stopped taking baths a long, long time ago – probably when he was five or so? Sigh.

I guess this is the way it's supposed to go. No more little kids playing with cups of water or foam alphabet letters. Just grown up kids.

Amy's ponies

As I said before, Amy logs a lot of time drawing. And she's been especially working on drawing My Little Pony....here's a sample of her latest work. She watches a lot of tutorials online to get better at these, and I think her work is amazing!

"One bear, one bee," version 2.0

Back when he was about 2 1/2, Reed went through a phase of wearing one bee slipper and one bear slipper, rather than a matching pair. He'd raise 1 finger and say "One bear, one bee". It. Was. So. Cute. I wish we had a better picture of it, but this is all I could find...Amy is about a month old in this picture.

And last night I said to Reed, "Nice pizza socks!" and he quickly showed me....he had one pizza sock and one bacon sock. 

Everything old is new again, some thing never change! Love it! Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but somehow "One pizza, one bacon" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. And then this morning he was wearing the socks still...I said "Please change your socks...unless this is the other half of yesterday's pair!" and he was irritated at himself for not thinking of trying that excuse. :)

More on the GeoBee

So we did a little experiment to see if Reed would ever tell us about the GeoBee he qualified for....and he finally did today, after the first day back at school. Thank goodness. Not sure when it is but this time he seems to be a little open to the idea of doing some prep work, so we'll see how it goes!