Maybe we've conquered this pill thing? Well, maybe not.

Well a couple of years ago when Reed's acne got pretty bad, we took him to the dermatologist. She prescribed VERY expensive medication (I think it was like $600, of which we thankfully only paid the co-pay). But....he'd never taken pills before. It didn't go well. We tried all the suggestions for helping kids learn to swallow pills (starting with swallowing Tic Tacs, moving up to mini-M&Ms, then full size M&Ms), but it just wasn't happening. And since the medicine wasn't for anything that was truly serious, we just let it go.

We've been so very fortunate that we don't have kids who get sick all the time (knock on wood), so they haven't needed to take any pills. So while I'm guessing many other kids have that down, our kids do not.

Reed came down with a sinus infection over Christmas. The doctor kind of scoffed at the idea of giving him a liquid antibiotic, so we went with the pills. They're a little large. He's struggled with getting them down....there was ONE dose he managed to swallow and seemed to have a bit of an "a-ha" moment about it, but then back to the drawing board. Doing a lot of practicing, hoping to get there eventually. *Sigh*

Secret Santa Amy

Leading up to Christmas, Amy said she had a few close friends she wanted to get gifts for. Tod took her shopping and she purchased very thoughtful gifts for each of them - a cake mix, frosting, and a Christmas-themed spatula for Morgan, who likes to bake; a Starbucks gift card and candy for Claire, who is obsessed with Starbucks; a pad of paper and colored pencils for Calla, who loves to draw; and movie candy and card games for Maddie, who loves candy and is stuck at home with a new baby sister.

Then Amy got herself all wound up. She wanted to give these gifts, but she didn't want her friends to feel like they had to reciprocate, or to feel bad if they couldn't. So she checked in with neutral third parties to ask what they'd prefer - getting an anonymous gift, or getting a gift from someone that they wouldn't have bought a gift for. Whoever she talked to said they'd rather get an anonymous gift, so that's what she went with.

On Christmas Eve, we drove her through town dropping off the gifts. She ended up letting Morgan know who the gift was from, and had to tell Claire because it looked like they were out of town and Amy'd put her gift in the mail box. But Calla and Maddie hopefully really enjoyed their special Secret Santa gifts.

Amy is a very kind, caring girl!

What a happy email to receive

A NTM from Dad

Last night was one of the most entertaining family dinners on record. I really enjoy our family dinner and want to make it a priority, it payed off big time last night. All 4 of us were laughing at each other's comments and it did not end in tears or us punishing the kids. Reed is normally very tight-lipped about his day, but he offered up a long explanation of his tech ed project (a wooden clock). Amy told us about a lunch time "where to sit" dilemma. I'll take it as a glimpse into a kids maturing but not expect it to happen every night.

Disney pop star evening

Before the show.

Took Amy and her pal Maddie to a Sabrina Carpenter concert tonight at Jammin' Java. It was Amy's first Disney star show, and I'd say she's all in. The place itself is pretty unassuming from the outside (to put it nicely) so when we drove up, Amy was like "this is it??" and I explained that while it's not fancy, it's a terrific little venue and a great, small place to see someone you really love. I'd say she came away agreeing with me.

Amy and Maddie both sang along to pretty much every song, which was so much fun to watch! Sabrina has all the Disney training and put on a really fun show for them.
I hope maybe Amy's old enough that she'll remember this show. She'd actually been to a few shows at JJ to see kids' performers, but of course she doesn't remember it.

I'm so glad that Amy likes going to concerts! It's a fun connection to have, even if our tastes don't overlap much. Maybe they will one day.

The only song they didn't know through the whole show was the cover "oldie" that came out before they were both born - Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" (2002). *Sigh*

It made me think of another teen pop star's show, many many years ago. Shaun Cassidy. Somewhere around 1978 or so.

Amy's reaction was somewhere near my Shaun Cassidy feeling,
but not quite this whackadoo.

But it was nowhere near Jennifer's reaction to Shaun Cassidy...total tears! 

Geeking out over design!

How awesome was this – I picked Amy up from the Girl Scout financial literacy program I forced her to attend, and she started talking about going to art school, asking me what graphic design was (AWESOME), talking about college costs.

She also wanted to show me the certificate she got for the class, and give me her critique.

Her opinions: she was mostly annoyed about the photo of the badge, where the badge is half in the shadows. [My later add-on: absolutely. I would have taken a good photo of the badge (assuming it wasn't already available digitally) and removed the background so just the badge was showing.] She didn't like the font they used for the heading because it had a shadow and she thought it was hard to read. [Me: agreed, and all caps should be used more judiciously than this as well.] She thought her name should have been pre-printed, not written on. [Me: would have been nice, but sometimes people run out of time.] She also thought having the Girl Scout Promise and Law was unnecessary. [Me: eh, maybe.]

I told Amy she really has an eye for this kind of thing. People tend to think that design is easy and anyone can do it – but doing it well is different than just getting it done. Maybe this is where her art will take her one day – who knows!

Happy #14!

This baby boy turned FOURTEEN! Pretty awesome day for him - gifts in the morning (including new phone), flag football in the afternoon, and then off to the Alamo with his pals Harrison, Robbie, Sebastian and Matthew to see "Doctor Strange."

Reed is growing into a respectable human being, bit by bit....he does his chores without complaining, is kind to others, and has a great sense of humor. It's a pleasure to be his parents and watch him grow!

Well that didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to

I can hardly express how disappointed I am with the election results. I am so proud to have supported Hillary and voted for her. I feel like we let her down, though, by not bringing this home. She deserved better. In an email to supporters, Hillary wrote:

And to all the little girls watching right now, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world.

She makes me proud. I'm proud that a woman was finally the presidential nominee for a major political party - it took long enough. I hope it won't take quite so long for it to happen again.

Amy is upset with the election results, especially the fact that Hillary won the popular vote while losing the Electoral College. It actually helped me to have to explain to her that even though our preferred candidate didn't win, we have to stay positive. It's not as if we can root for him to fail, because then we fail too. And I'm also telling myself that even though the Republicans have control of the House, Senate and the Oval Office, Congress really doesn't see eye to eye with the Donald, so I don't think he can implement every frightening thing he's proposed.

It's going to be even more important to support the LGBTQ community now, and all people of color. I'm frightened that they may lose the slow, hard-earned progress they've made. The rest of us will have to step up more and support him.

I do honestly believe that the long months on the campaign trail have had some affect on Trump. I doubt he ever in his life had so much interaction with "real" people, and I think maybe he 'gets it' a little more. The question will be - is it enough?

For the sake of our country's future, I certainly hope so.

Heading into the election tomorrow

Tomorrow is election day. It's been truly the worst election cycle in history, as far as I can tell, and I think our country is worse off for it. The level of discourse has been lowered to such a level that I'm not sure how we'll recover.

But what I want to say, for the record, that I am appalled by the popularity of Republican candidate Donald Trump. The laundry list of things he's said and done that should have disqualified him from office began with his campaign announcement where he called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers and has only gotten worse. I really cannot fathom how people support him, I think he is a truly terrible human being. His campaign has brought out the worst in our fellow Americans, allowing racism and sexism to be more acceptable. From everything I know about him, his primary mission in life is to make money for himself, at the expense of anyone who gets in his way. He is not someone who is capable of having others' interests at heart. We cannot let this country go backwards in how we treat LGBTQ people, or further erode the rights of non-white Americans. We cannot. We don't need to "Make America Great Again" because it's already great.

Hillary Clinton is not a perfect candidate. But she has lived a life of service to Americans, working to improve the lives of people who need a little bit of extra help. In this election cycle, she has been painted in a negative light for living a life of public service – that really ticks me off. I have seen first-hand how dedicated public servants make a real difference in people's lives. I think the email 'scandal' is a case of much ado about nothing. Benghazi was horrible, but is the unfortunate cost of doing American business internationally – it's not the first time and won't be the last, most likely. She has done the best she can (though I'm guessing if she had it all to do over, she'd probably not set up a server in her home). HRC has my support, and will have my vote tomorrow.

I hope Clinton prevails tomorrow, because I honestly fear for the future of our country should Trump be elected. I just wanted our kids to know that their parents were not 'fans' of Trump....I want you to know we were on the right side of history.

Let's hope it's the only thing he's picked up from Donald Trump!

Today we went out to a corn maze, about an hour from home - had a great time! In the car on the way back, though, things went south between the kids. There was laughing at someone's dancing, there was great offense taken...there was more offense taken at laughing at the offense....it didn't go well. (I'm sorry, but who among us WOULDN'T LAUGH at their child who complained that her brother's arm was too hard, that it hurt her hand when she hit him????)

Anywho, I told both kids to keep on their side of the car (why do I still have to say this??) and Reed motioned between the seats and told Amy "I'm going to build a wall. And I'm going to make you pay for it."

Both parents LOL'd. There was more offense taken. Lather, rinse, repeat. Good times.

A rose by any other name...

Clearly I am no poetry expert. As I mentioned earlier, Amy had a poetry assignment in her sixth grade English class with Ms. Brown. For some reason she was really worked up over it. She can get really fixated on making things perfect, and make herself nearly sick in the process. There was plenty of class time available to work on this project, which if I gather correctly, required each student to do a variety of poems, each with a different value, to reach a certain total. In the end, she finished the project just under the wire (after a few tears), and she got a 100%. I think the poems are pretty awesome.

Grateful for the National Book Festival

This past Saturday was our second time attending the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Amy and I had a great day - lots of standing in line, but again we both got to hear talks by authors we enjoy (Sarah Vowell for me, Raina Telgemeier for her).

Amy getting her Raina Telegemeier books signed,
after hours waiting in line.

Once again this year I am SO grateful that the authors/illustrators that Amy likes take the time to interact with their fans and talk about their work. Raina Telgemeier talked with the kids about how she grew up drawing, and even showed some of her early work. I was glad to have Amy hear that this famous author was like her, and had always been drawing, getting better over the years through lots of practice. Raina also went through how her artistic process works as she's doing a new book, even including photos of the favorite kind of pencils and pens she uses. And BTW, I think Amy's drawings compare very favorably to Raina's work at the same age (Amy argued about this with me, of course). Last year with author Jarrett Krosoczka, he also showed a lot of early work (his parents apparently saved everything!) and talked about how his work was rejected so many times before he finally got a book deal. So fabulous to have Amy hear these messages of working on your craft, and being resilient!

Amy also got to get Lois Lowry to sign our copy of "The Giver," which Reed is currently assigned to read in eighth grade English. He was banking on having a signed copy giving him an automatic A. LOL

On one hand, these past couple of years there've been lots of authors at the festival that I missed out on seeing and meeting, because we were focusing on things Amy wanted to do. I know it won't be too long before we can go to the festival together and basically head in opposite directions. But for now I am glad to have this shared experience with her, and expose her to things that she really loves, where she really fits in.

Amy wrote this poem for a poetry unit in her sixth grade English class. I love this too!!

Secret art

In the last couple of years, Amy has started to be a little secretive about her artwork, mostly just not wanting to share things before they were finished. But lately she seems to not want to share her art with us at all. I can't really understand why – if I ask, she says it's because I'd just tell her it was good whether it really was or not. I've tried to assure her that if she wants total honesty, I'd be glad to give it to her, but yes I do think she's an amazing artist.

So I'm a little sorry to say I've resorted to snooping a little bit (I'm sorry, Amy!!!). One day when she was at school, I took photos of a bunch of her artwork, because I really want to save this kind of thing so she'll one day be able to look back at her work and see how crazy good she was as a kid.

This is an example from her sketchbook....

...I've tagged her stuff in our Photo system with 'artwork' and of course her name. Looking back on it, it's clear to see her progression. She IS a really good artist, and that's aside from my admitted bias. She works so hard at what she does, erasing and retrying – it's what she's most persistent about. However what hasn't come her way just yet is an art teacher who believes in her too – I really don't understand that. Maybe this will be the year? I sure hope so. And I hope she never stops drawing and expressing her creative side – it really is like therapy for her, it calms her and makes her happy.

And as I said, she's really really good at it! (For some reason, she's signing her art as "Shelbypants" - I think she's got plans for some kind of online presence under that screen name.)

Wish I'd thought of this

So let's say that one day I really do follow through with my plan to have this entire blog printed for the kids to have as a remembrance. (I better!) Here's one thing I want to remember to remind them about when they're grown and maybe have children of their own.

Aug. 2001 – Hanging out with Jay at the Birchmere.
Going to concerts was always one of Mom's
favorite activities too.

A guy named Jay McDowell was the bassist for the country/rockabilly/bluegrass/hard-to-classify band BR5-49. Smilin' Jay and his doghouse bass. Met him a couple of times after shows, seemed a really great guy (aside from being a Flyers fan, but we'll forgive him). 

Nowadays he is a curator at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville (somewhere I really want to visit!) and I'm 'friends' with him on Facebook. A while ago he posted about a family ritual that I just loved, and only wished I'd thought to do myself. He's got 3 kids, and each night (in addition to reading to them, I hope) he plays them a song that's important to him, or important to music, or just a song he wants them to know about. He also knows a lot of music history, so I'm sure he throws that in as well, but even absent that aspect, what an awesome thing to do! Think of the musical education a kid would get, having that kind of focused listening attention!

If only I could time travel and do this myself!

Tickling our funny bone

It's pretty cool to watch your children grow into being people, not 'just kids.' The comment we most frequently get about Reed in our admittedly limited interactions with his middle school teachers is "he's a funny kid." Now of course we (mostly) think he's funny too, but it's interesting to hear that from other people. They say he has a 'dry' sense of humor (his very appropriate response: "As opposed to a wet sense of humor?").

He also seems to enjoy pulling people's legs...well, mainly his sister is who he can get away with that on. As we rode home from the airport in the taxi a couple of weeks ago, Reed, Amy and me squashed in the back seat, Amy asked how long until we were home. Reed, who could see the driver's computer screen, including route information and ride durations, looked around as if surveying our location and said "I'd say about 12 minutes." Amy was like 'what?' – surprised at his specificity. He played along with it until I busted him for seeing the driver's route info.

Maybe it's all going to work out okay after all

There are times as a parent where you wonder....are we raising these children to be functioning members of society, or will I spend the rest of my life doing a million mundane things to take care of these people? Like picking up trash on the floor that they just walk right over. Putting away drinking glasses left on the coffee table.

And then...your son sees the tissue box is empty, flattens the empty box, puts it in the recycling bin, and gets a new box out. And then the angels sing.

Perhaps we are on the right track after all...

(yes, as a parent sometimes it's the really little things that make you happy!)

Sometimes still a sweet, little girl

Yesterday I decided at the last minute to go to a concert at Wolf Trap (Don Henley...it was SO great!), so I needed to let the kids know I wouldn't be home after work. Amy FaceTimed me and we chatted for a while on the evening's plans. When we were signing off, she kissed her phone to tell me goodbye. 

Sometimes she can still be that same, sweet little girl! 

Letting the kids be themselves

As the kids are growing up, they're figuring out who they are, and I'm figuring out how to let them do that. For instance, when I took Amy back to school shopping, I realized that she really doesn't have any interest in being particularly "in style" - she just wants to wear black leggings and a graphic t-shirt. Couldn't even talk her into other colors of leggings, or maybe leggings with a pattern to them. These are the shirts she picked out. You could argue the one on the left is stylish (the plaid button-up), and it is....but she wore the Batman shirt on the right underneath it. She likes the things she likes (Harry Potter, and a new-ish obsession with super heroes), even if others around her aren't into the same things. (She'd also really love to find a friend who's into the same things she is, though.) She's comfortable with who she is, and that is so very very awesome.

I found this in Kohls when he was
shopping with me, and he said he'd
wear it. If he hadn't been there...
not so sure.

And Reed. I used to be able to buy him shirts with funny sayings on them, and he loved wearing them. No more. Now, he'll still wear a shirt like that, but only if he's picked it out. Wanda bought him a few silly shirts for back to school, and he will not wear them. I guess he really wants to only express his own sense of humor....fair enough!

TWO middle schoolers!

The summer has felt both long and short to me. We had so many camps to juggle for Amy, it felt like every week was really busy. Of course Reed did a whole lot of nothing, but that's a different story.

After vacation, we had a few more days at home to relax and get ready for BACK TO SCHOOL!

Of course we did our annual tradition of having breakfast for dinner the night before school starts, complete with name and grade pancakes. (P.S. wouldn't it be great if one day Reed and Amy have their own kids and continue this tradition?!)

Amy was well prepared for middle school after attending the "Lion's Leap" orientation, but she was still pretty nervous for the first day – excited, but nervous. It's a big adjustment, going to a block schedule, with "A" days and "B" days, plus two lockers (one regular one, one for PE), lots of new kids and all new teachers. Reed was nonchalant about starting eighth grade - middle school is old hat for him. Honestly, though, I think even he was ready to start school again.

Hope it's a great year for both of them!

Good times out west

We got back last night from a long overdue visit out west. We stayed with Grandpa Larson in Spearfish, SD, for six days, and in that time we drove nearly 1,100 miles. Keith's got a great condo (really it's a small house, I'd say, since it's not attached to any other condos) with two bedrooms and two bathrooms - we were very comfortable there (Reed slept on a cot in the garage! he was happy to have his own space, I think).

On the first day, we had a great surprise when Martha showed up with her granddaughters Harmony and Dalila, who we'd never met. We also got to visit with Pete and Nubby, plus their son Jeff and his family (who were in town from MN). Then we went up to the cabin that Keith helped his brother Pete to build, up on a hill outside of town. The boys all go up there in the evenings and have a few beers. It's a great spot! Kenny's son Sam came to town in the afternoon, on his way home from Texas where he had a summer internship, back to college. We went to town to see the shop where Martha sells the clothes she makes, and then visited the fish hatchery.

The next day, the weather was cruddy (like 55 degrees and rainy) but we made our way to Mount Rushmore. Afterward, Sam and Keith headed back to Spearfish and we hung around for a while. Tod and the kids did a ropes course / zip line park. Reed started strong, but halfway through got to a part where you basically walked on a wire...and he was out. There was a less-than-cool extraction via ladder. We aren't going to talk about that much. LOL. Amy and Tod continued on and did a couple of more courses, and suprisingly, Reed decided to do the main zip line thing - it was so long and so high! I could hardly believe it. It was pretty cool to see. I got videos of that and of Amy and Tod doing the shorter zip lines that were part of the ropes courses.

The next day, we drove to Gillette, Wyoming, to visit Tod's nephew Derek's family. We got to see Derek's oldest son Larson (age 10) play his first football game of the season. Then we hung out at Derek's place for a while, where we were joined by Tod's sister Jennifer (over from Billings) and then Martha too when she got off work. It was really fun to get to see where they live and get to know their kids (Larson, Tensley and Blaine) a little bit. Tod taught the older kids to make para-cord bracelets too - hopefully they'll remember that!

The next day, we drove basically back almost to Gillette again. Stopped at Devil's Tower on the way, which is an amazing national monument. We walked its circumference and then headed to Keyhole Dam for some water sports. Derek has a boat and tubes, so there were several boat rides. Martha brought her kayak, which Blaine in particular loved. Amy and Harmony enjoyed just floating in the water. The spot was quiet and uncrowded - we nearly had it to ourselves. Martha cooked a "low country boil" on a propane grill, and we had watermelon and cookies and a general good time!

The selfie stick really came in handy!

The next day we drove through Ekalaka, stopping at the cemetery and driving through town, on our way to Baker to visit with Kathleen. It's been quite a while since we've seen her, and she's had a really rough go of it. I know she was really happy to get to spend a little time with all of us - we had a nice lunch together. Jed was there as well, and joined us for lunch, then showed us around some of the concrete jobs he's done around town.

For our last day, we had a visit to the High Plains Western Heritage Center, where Keith volunteers. It was neat to see a different kind of local history than we see here in Virginia. Well the backlighting isn't so helpful in this photo at right, but here's Keith and Tod with a buggy like the one Keith and his siblings would ride to and from school in, bringing the day's water for the school with them. Wild!

And of course most days included Skip-Bo, as tradition dictates!

An all-around terrific trip, even if a bit exhausting!

It's good to be the parents of the big kids

This past weekend, we finally got to officially welcome Nikki AtLee to our family as she and Stevie married! Hooray!

One of the best parts of our wedding weekend at the hotel with family was that somehow through the magic of the passage of time, we are the parents of the Big Kids. You know, the kids who can help out with the little kids. The ones that you can let go visiting in the hotel lobby or in another room. How amazing is that!? It was great. And as if we wouldn't have appreciated that enough on its own, we also got those first-hand reminders of how very intense life with babies and kids under age 3 is. It is exhausting even just to watch! Our kids had a lot of fun with Kyla and Mitchell, and maybe even more fun with Sierra, Colton, Crosby and Jay IV (Aly is practically a grown-up, so I'm not counting her as a kid anymore). I realize this is the last big family event that we'll all travel to together – the last of the Mitchell kids to get married, and they've all graduated college. That's a little bittersweet. But hopefully there will still be trips to the river, and maybe even vacations to new places too.    

What just happened?!

It's 9:07 a.m. and Reed just woke up.

I can't begin to explain how unprecedented this is. I think he's maybe never in his entire 13.5 years slept that late. I was actually sitting her thinking I should check on him in case he was sick, or in case he'd snuck out during the night! He is generally up by 7:15 at the latest, even now in the summer time. We keep thinking that whole "teenagers sleep late" thing will kick in, but not so far. Maybe other teenagers don't have a 10 p.m. bedtime.

When he walked out of his room, he was totally disoriented and asking if the world had gone mad. He woke up and wondered why it was so bright outside. Weird how that works when you sleep 2-3 hours later than you usually do!

Well here's something new

Amy decided on Sunday to try being a vegetarian. So far, five days in, she's sticking with it. I don't think any one thing prompted it, but she's trying it on for size. We'll see how long it lasts!

Summertime and the living is easy

Well Reed has an entire summer of nothingness ahead of him. We couldn't interest him in any camps, and figured it wasn't worth the money or the heartache to force him to go to a camp. So his summer will be filled with video games, I guess. He spends some time listening to music and podcasts as well. His friends Alex, Robbie and Harrison (or some combination thereof) sometimes come by to get him to go on a bike ride, which inevitably ends up at someone's house (usually Alex's) playing more video games. Reed also does solo bike rides, and his chores have ramped up some for the summer. More dish-doing, more dog walking, so he's pretty happy about that! But it's the cost of being home all day.

Amy, though, likes to do stuff. This week and last, she's been doing the schools' "Summer in the Arts" program, where she's doing two Harry Potter classes, a cake decorating class and a digital drawing class. She's really enjoying it - wish they offered it for more than just two weeks! Then she gets a week off, and then it's off to a new Girl Scout camp called "Filmtastic" which (shockingly) has a movie theme and includes archery every day. Then it's Camp Crossroads again (aka "Harry Potter camp") which she's really looking forward to. Last is "Lion's Leap," which is the Lunsford camp to help sixth graders get ready for the start of school. Maybe we'll throw in a week or two of tennis camp there at the end, we'll see.

I really wish I could remember what I did to fill my time in the summers I was our kids' ages. I remember when I was 10 and Mom and Jim just got married, we spent the summer in our new house on Pepperidge Place. I think I watched a fair amount of TV (as much as I could stand, in the days when daytime TV only meant game shows, soap operas and reruns). I'm sure I listened to a lot of music, stayed up late and slept in. The following summers I know I spent some time with friends I'd made in the neighborhood, and of course when I was 15 I got a job at Roy Rogers. Ah, youth!

School's out for summer!

Somehow the first quarter of school goes by interminably slowly. And then - WHEW - made it to winter break. Throw in a million snow days and that smooths the way to spring break. And then you blink and - BLAM - the school year is done. I'd like to talk to Doc Brown about this whole space-time continuum thing.

We're done with another school year, and unbelievably we are also totally done with elementary school.

First and last days of 5th/7th grade - they're growing like weeds!

Both kids had terrific years and great grades. Let's start with the oldest. Reed ended the year with almost all A's, just a B in algebra for the fourth quarter. Overall for the year, he had all A's. And this with having nearly ZERO homework throughout the year - maybe a project or three that he worked on for a half-hour or so each. He said he did his homework in Resource (in the olden days it was called study hall) but who knows, he probably did it all during class. But I guess you can't really question his methods when he gets great results...while we wanted to tell him to work harder in Algebra, because we know he's capable of getting an A in that class too, it was pretty hard to do. "Hey kid who's getting great grades, they should be even better!" It's not the A that we wanted, it was just for him to do his best, maybe set a goal and work toward it. But he had a great year and had so many teachers that he enjoyed - Mr. Payton for Biology (had him for science last year too), Mr. O'Rear for Latin, Mr. Bauer for US History 1865-present. He even enjoyed the "Family/Consumer Science" (aka Home Ec) class, and definitely enjoyed Tech Ed. He kept his same small group of pals (Robbie Webster, Alex Arriza, Harrison Hill) and continues to prefer to just be at home hanging out by himself. This summer is a lazy one for him - no camps, no nothing. Just a lot of being around the house. He of course still loves video games and watching Netflix on his iPod Touch. He doesn't read much at home, well barely at all. Well I guess he reads the comics and the sports page of the Washington Post every day...that counts, right?

Way to go, Amy! So proud of you!

Amy also had a super year and again earned all A's. She has said all year that fifth grade is hard, and I think maybe a little of that has to do with already worrying about the adjustment to middle school next year. But she worked hard when she needed to (spelling tests are a challenge) and though she still wasn't totally happy with her grades throughout the year, we were all in for a surprise at the fifth grade promotion ceremony. She got the President's Award, just like Reed did! We were not expecting it at all - the school has a new online grading system so you can sort of see their grades, for the elementary school kids it's not really accurate and doesn't show a true, overall grade. So our best guess was that she had some Bs and wouldn't get the award. Plus when Reed got the award, his teacher Mrs. Bedrowsky (who is also Amy's teacher) gave us a heads up that he'd be getting it. She didn't mention it this time. So when they started giving out the awards, the first class only had a single person who earned it. Next up was Amy's class and they named probably 3 or 4 people before calling her name. What?! Yahoo!! Jim and my Dad were there to cheer her on too. Socially, Amy continues to be friendly with most everyone and well-liked by all. She still doesn't have that one true bestest best friend, but I know that will come soon - hopefully in middle school where she'll have the opportunity to meet a lot more kids. She still enjoys hanging out with boys, where I think a lot of girls her age have fallen out of that. (She also had her first crush, a boy in her class named Justin.) While she also enjoys do-nothing time at home, Amy continues to like to be out and about doing things and going places. She is so wishing that she was 12 this summer so that she could go to the pool on her own (meanwhile we can't get Reed to even consider doing that, and he's been old enough for a year). She has two weeks of "Summer in the Arts" through the school system, two weeks of Girl Scout camp and one week of "Lion's Leap," which is to get ready for middle school. I think she'll have a great summer and hopefully won't make herself too anxious over starting middle school in the fall.

Farewell, book box! And other nostalgic moments.

With the impending end of the school year, which spells the end of our time at Little River Elementary, I guess I'm feeling more nostalgic than normal.

This week I "retired" our book box. Sure, it was just a plain old plastic bin, but there were years where it was essentially filled with magic. I stocked it with good deals from the preschool's and then the elementary school's Scholastic book orders, picking out things that I thought the kids would like (or that were just really really good deals - you can't beat a $1 book!). A trip to the book box was a coveted treasure, and both kids would sift through before making their selections - "how many books can I get this time?" Sigh, those were the days. Mostly the box was for day to day rewards for good behavior, but prior to road trips I'd grab stashes of new books (ones that were already in the book box, and ones specially purchased [because I am a sucker for books]). The kids would be SO happy to have a pile of new books for a plane ride or a car trip. Ah, it was so easy to make their day then!

Alas, no more. I have completely lost any ability to pick books Reed will like. Well there have been a couple of outliers that he liked, but those are the exception, not the rule like they used to be. The books that have been languishing in the book box for quite a long time have now moved to a pile to be donated. The box will be used for something else. End of an era. *Sigh*

Now that the weather has improved slightly and we've gone at least 2 days without rain, the kids at the Employee Child Care Center are back out at the playground again. It's such a happy sound to hear when you walk out of the office! At the same time it feels like just yesterday and a hundred years ago that those happy sounds were coming from our kids. While I wouldn't wish to go back to those days (not giving up the ability to leave the kids alone for a few hours!), it is wonderful to think about our days at the ECCC.

And today is another sad anniversary. Six years without my Mom. Emotions all over the place. Mom, you're with us in our hearts every single day.

"Why?"

The other night as I was telling Amy good night, I told her that I think she's a pretty awesome kid. She said "Why?" I thought she was just being silly, but she honestly wanted to know why I think she's awesome. So I told her. She's awesome because:

• When she loves something, she really loves it. Really. She doesn't just like Harry Potter or the Warriors, or now Star Wars a little bit. She loves them with her whole heart and wants to learn everything there is to know about them. 
• She works so hard at the things she loves doing, like drawing. It's incredible how her drawings have improved over time – she doesn't give herself enough credit for how good they are. She's done a couple of time lapses of her drawings from start to finish, and it's amazing to watch. She's working on her recording techniques to better capture her work. 
• She's a prolific writer (and artist, too) but likes keeping the things she writes to herself. From what I can tell, she writes a lot of her own versions of Warriors stories. Maybe one day she'll work up to sharing them with us.
• She is kind-hearted and sensitive, and knows herself very well. Sometimes she shows such introspection that it's hard to believe she's just 11. Even her asking me this question - why do I think she's awesome – to me shows her maturity and self-awareness. 

Let's hope she truly heard all these reasons. She's definitely a totally terrific kid!

"Good Golly, Miss Molly!"

Today in the car, Reed said "Hey Mom, on Apple Music I listened to an album of Little Richard's and it was really good."

Well I guess that interest in 50's music hasn't waned just yet!

Busy busy busy

A lot of families in our neighborhood have a couple or three kids who are each involved in multiple activities practically year-round. That hasn't turned out to be how we roll, for the most part, but right now, we're living at least a semblance of that life. Reed has flag football (two practices a week and a game on Saturday) and Amy's doing Girl Scouts, tennis and since I took this photo of our weekly family calendar she's added piano lessons as well. Oh and Tod's playing softball again, one night a week, and has been doing some extra time at work too. It's all good, since these are things the kids enjoy, but man it's a lot! We're accustomed to being home all the time and having our weekends totally open, so it's a bit of an adjustment. We'll get back to being lazy-ish sometime soon, I'm sure.

An Amy for Amy

Back in February, Amy got a special gift from Grandma Allder...

Grandma gave this Madame Alexander doll of "Amy" from Little Women to my Mom when she was nine years old, in 1960. (Wanda got the Jo doll.) Over the winter, Grandma had Poppy locate the doll with the plan of passing her along to Amy. Her clothes and hair were in great shape, but her body needed some work....so Poppy took Grandma to Maryland to visit a woman who runs a "doll hospital" at her house for repairs. Then Grandma washed the doll's clothes and got her all cleaned up to give to our Amy.

Poppy and Grandma took Amy out to lunch at Ford's Fish Shack and gave her the doll, who now has a special spot on the bookshelf in Amy's room.

Amy hasn't read "Little Women" just yet - she started on it but didn't quite get hooked in, so maybe when she's a little older she'll enjoy this classic book.

Family sayings

I think every family has some little sayings that are unique to them.

For our family, a few come to mind. "Eat place" is what Reed called restaurants when he was probably 3 years old. That one's kind of stuck.

My mis-speaking during a game of Clue got us "lead poop" instead of "lead pipe" as a weapon of choice for would-be murderers.

Last year, Reed was asked to take care of his friend Robbie's pet gecko while the family was on vacation. The first sentence into a full-page description of his care was "Geckos are a fairly low-maintenance pet" - um, not really, when you've got to leave out meal worms in a certain spot, put damp paper towels out, and I can't even remember the other very specific instructions!

And then there's the family favorite "But there's no post on Sundays," which Amy will never live down. In November 2012, we were ordering her a Pokemon game she'd been saving up for, and Amazon said it'd be delivered that Sunday. Without missing a beat, Amy aid "But there's no post on Sundays" - it was so quaint and adorable (she was deep in a Harry Potter phase at that point) that we all laughed and she got really mad! And she continued to get mad any time it got mentioned after that...but we didn't really mean to upset her, of course, it was just such an unusual thing to say! She doesn't really get too mad any more if we say it, but we have to be judicious.

"Jackets are for the weak"

That's this morning's bit of wisdom from the teenager...."Jackets are for the weak." Learn something new every day!

How long is a minute?

We are constantly in a state of time warp with Amy. I know it's both developmentally and age appropriate that she can't tell how much time is passing, but man is it frustrating! This morning I told her we needed to leave in two minutes to get to running club. Five minutes later she says she's ready to go, and I tell her it's too late, we've missed it. She yells at me that she "only put two things" in her backpack (those two things were apparently scattered through the house, I guess). We give her plenty of warnings, we do our best to move her along but still we all end up frustrated. Putting her shoes on is never less than a 3-5 minute production, most often closer to the 5-minute mark. How is that even possible?!? And yet it's our everyday reality. One regular minute is equal to at least three Amy minutes. But she's growing up more and more all the time, and I know it's just a matter of time before she "gets" this concept and we're all a lot more calm!

School days

Last week was the seventh grade honor roll celebration. Reed said he didn't want us to go, but this is part of the never-ending parental dilemma....they say they don't want you there, but maybe secretly they do. Or at least maybe one day they'll appreciate that you were there. So I went. I wasn't received well. If he was secretly happy that I was there, he hid it pretty well. I know, I know...normal teenage behavior. Still made me a little sad. Then Tod reminded me that the during an outing to the Torpedo Factory art gallery the previous weekend, Reed very frequently held my hand (which was so nice). So maybe things are just as they should be. 

The certificate is a little worse for wear
after a trip through Reed's backpack.

Another school thing that was weighing on my mind was Amy's sixth grade classes. The middle school principal indicated that a lot of kids who were placed in accelerated math (Math 6/7, where they do all of 6th and 7th grade math in one school year) turned out not to be ready for the class, so they changed the testing process with the hopes of getting only students who could really handle the class. The day she went to the computer lab to take the test, for some reason the test wasn't loaded on her profile the way it was supposed to be. They tried to fix it but she ended up having to miss science class later in the day to go take the test on her own. I was concerned that she might have been really stressed out over all the changes of plan, but no need to worry – she got a 90%, when a 70% or higher was needed to be recommended for the accelerated math class. The same day we got those results, we got the rest of her recommendations...

All honors classes.

Way to go, kids!

50s on 5

A little while ago, on one of Reed's forays into riding in the front seat (still a novelty at this point), he changed the XM satellite radio channel from the usual pop music over to the "50s on 5" channel. And now must times he's in the car, he asks that we listen to that station. He says the music is "weird" and funny and has lots of different sounds, but he likes it. I try to keep my enthusiasm for it tempered, lest my happiness at his hearing the Everly Brothers or Elvis or Sam Cooke turn him off of it entirely.

I remember Saturday mornings when my Mom would drive us to the Safeway in Reston to hand us off to my Dad for the night, listening to oldies countdowns and hearing lots of these songs. I guess that's where it all started!

Best. Moment. Ever.

Tod was needing to rush off from a late dinner to get to a meeting for the food pantry. About 1 minute before he needed to leave, Amy casually mentioned "I heard the best worst song today. It was something about code...." and Tod's whole face lit up. "'Code Monkey'? Was that it? That's the BEST song!" Amy was totally shocked that both of us knew the song, and Tod immediately jumped up and played the song on our computer and sang along to the first verse (including the 'goddamned' part). "Did you know, it's a love song! It's by Jonathan Coulton - he's the guy who does the music on that NPR quiz show we listen to sometimes!" This would have been an even more perfect moment if it'd been allowed to run its course fully, but it was still pretty great. Our kids get it. Whether they want to or not, they can't help it.

And yes, Code Monkey is a love song....google it.

Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
Code Monkey have boring meeting
With boring manager Rob
Rob say Code Monkey very diligent
But his output stink
His code not "functional" or "elegant"
What do Code Monkey think?
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself
Code Monkey not say it out loud
Code Monkey not crazy, just proud

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
With big warm fuzzy secret heart:
Code Monkey like you
Code Monkey like you

Code Monkey hang around at front desk
Tell you sweater look nice
Code Monkey offer buy you soda
Bring you cup, bring you ice
You say no thank you for the soda cause
Soda make you fat
Anyway you busy with the telephone
No time for chat
Code Monkey have long walk back to cubicle he sit down pretend to work
Code Monkey not thinking so straight
Code Monkey not feeling so great

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
With big warm fuzzy secret heart:
Code Monkey like you
Code Monkey like you a lot

Code Monkey have every reason
To get out this place
Code Monkey just keep on working
See your soft pretty face
Much rather wake up, eat a coffee cake
Take bath, take nap
This job "fulfilling in creative way"
Such a load of crap
Code Monkey think someday he have everything even pretty girl like you
Code Monkey just waiting for now
Code Monkey say someday, somehow

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
With big warm fuzzy secret heart:
Code Monkey like you
Code Monkey like you

Blizzard!

And not the good, Dairy Queen kind. The snow kind.

Started last Friday around 1 p.m. and didn't stop until Saturday night. I'd say we probably got 30 inches of snow at our house, and with the blizzard conditions it was blowing and swirling all over.

Schools were closed on Friday in anticipation of the weather. This was such a big storm that this area is not at all equipped to handle it.

The kids still aren't back in school.

They've had 6 days off.

Tell me they'll really go back on Monday?!?

They've pretty much totally zoned out this entire time. Video games all morning, podcasts all afternoon, spending an hour of outside time and that's it, then back inside for more down time, dinner, then more screen time. I had 2.5 days off work, but Tod didn't miss any time. I loved every second of the down time, I'll tell you that – I could get used to a life of leisure (though I'd prefer if I could actually leave the house).

The kids' brains might be mush by now.

Reed hung out with friends a bit, but mostly he'd rather be home. Amy too, I guess.

It's supposed to warm up in the next few days so hopefully a lot of this snow will melt (it's still pretty much one lane on all the neighborhood roads) and things can get back to normal.

I vote for no more snow!

Little by little

Wednesday is laundry day around here (though it feels like laundry day comes much more frequently than just weekly). It's one of my two telework days, so I take advantage of being at home to multi-task. Greatest thing ever. Usually I have to retrieve the kids' dirty clothes from their rooms, but a couple of month ago, Reed started bringing his laundry basket to our room as he headed downstairs on Wednesday mornings.

YAHOO!

Okay so I realize that this might be more a function of him running out of pants, so that triggers him to think 'hey is it laundry day?' but I am still taking it as a victory.

He is doing something that makes my life easier. I love it!

And speaking of pants - I think I've written about this before - but Reed still doesn't like to wear pants that have buttons/zippers. I blame myself for this, because I've always chosen comfortable clothes for him (what one year old needs to be super stylish in cool jeans?) but I keep hoping he'll grow out of it. At the start of fall, we went clothes shopping and he got a pair of jeans and a couple of pairs of jeans-like pants. Then he kept on wearing shorts, despite the temperature, because he "didn't have any pants." Eventually he decided it'd be better to not freeze, and he's been wearing what he considers "fancy" pants more frequently. And lately he isn't even complaining about it! I dare not ask if he actually finds the pants semi-comfortable now...don't want to draw attention to it. But that's what I'm hoping. Maybe, just maybe he's starting to care how he dresses??? Who knows.

Oh and he still loves silly socks, which makes me very happy.