14!

Our baby girl has turned 14! She said somehow she didn't feel like a teenager at 13, but at 14 she does.

She is still as obsessively into Broadway musicals as ever, and still spends hours every day drawing, mostly on her computer. She's got all the moodiness of a teenager, that's for sure. Amy is still into fairness and equality and does her best to speak up for others when she sees things that aren't right.

She is the sole stage manager for her middle school play this year, they're doing Little Mermaid. They're just getting into high gear, which means rehearsals six days a week. She just had her first meeting with the crew, where she was in charge – she doesn't feel all that comfortable in a leadership role, but her Girl Scout leaders always said she does a good job with it, and I'm sure she does.

Unlike Reed, Amy is one who will sleep in like a teenager - and she really needs sleep. We have always made sure she gets enough sleep, because if she doesn't, it's really not fun for any of us!

Amy rejoined Girl Scouts a few months ago, when she realized one of her pals' moms was the leader of a troop that she could be part of. So far she's enjoying that, and the troop is a much better fit than her old one ever was.

She cares a lot about her grades, but sometimes really isn't interested in putting in extra work for subjects she doesn't like. Spanish continues to be her trouble spot, since she got another teacher this year who's not a great fit with her. But her "struggling" means she's got a B+ – and it's a bit frustrating because she's so close to an A. Otherwise her grades are pretty amazing. She is really ready for high school, I think. And she's excited since she'll be taking a theater class, and she'll have the chance to be involved as many as four shows per year.

For her birthday, just like at Christmas, she didn't really want any "stuff" – she just wanted to go to see shows in NY. She and I are taking the bus up on the Friday before Easter, seeing a new play called "Hadestown" that night, then seeing "Come From Away" on Saturday, and hopping the bus back. Should be fun!

Amy is a terrific kid, and it's a pleasure to be her family.

Funny guy

We have some fun family dinners. It's just about the only time we're all together without our noses in our screens...once dinner's over we all retreat to our separate corners and screens. The other night we were giving Reed a hard time about being a jokester and he laughed and said "Jokes replenish me." What a goofball! And for the record I'm so glad our kids are avid readers (well, at least Reed was an avid reader, not so much anymore) which gives them a wide vocabulary. Pretty sure there aren't a lot of 10th graders using the word "replenish" (not that it's a big word, just not an ordinarily used word).

Homework

So Reed is really good about doing his homework in a timely way. He does much of it at school - not sure if it's in class or in study hall, but either way he doesn't log a lot of time doing schoolwork at home. I'd say he spends at most an hour per week on homework. Now sometimes he doesn't remember to turn stuff in (minor detail!), but he does it. These days there's an app/website where we can see his current grade and the assignments he's missing....and honestly I try not to check it too much, but I get a weekly email summary which leads me to check it and pester Reed about what needs to be turned in. Some students obsessively check this app for their grades, but Reed has never once used it. I hope at some point he'll take more ownership of his grades and take care of this stuff himself.

Now Amy, on the other hand, her schoolwork becomes a huge problem probably every three weeks or so. One frequent cause is that she has a philosophical disagreement with the content of the assignment. And lordy is it dramatic. There are usually tears. Some yelling. It's not a lot of fun. Sometimes she has trouble just getting started on projects that she thinks will be daunting. There's a lot of over-thinking and second-guessing. This is also no fun for any of us. And she is one who checks the grade app pretty often, but not obsessively, thank goodness.

Fortunately both of them get great grades. We know how lucky we are to have two fantastic students.