This Child Still Lives at My House

He loves kindergarten!  He loves his teacher.  He loves recess and math and getting a drink from the bubbler and his teacher and riding the bus and his teacher and lunch and snack.

He is already on a behavior chart--thumbs up or down for 8-10 different sections of the day-- but the last two days have been entirely thumbs up.  He's been written up on the bus for standing on the seat, putting his arm out the window and then not staying in the seat the bus driver subsequently put him in.  I am paying the neighbor girl 25 cents a day to supervise him.  He has all the 5th grade girls completely wrapped around his little finger.  They love him (and hey, they're keeping him busy playing Rock, Paper, Scissors all the way home so he can't get into trouble)

He hasn't lost his hearing aid.

He hasn't hurt anyone.  Well, he pinched some boy on the Seal bus, but he did tell us about it.

His teacher loves him.  His. Teacher. LOVES. Him.  Thank you, God!

He knows the names of every child in his class and every adult with whom he interacts (and there are a LOT of them!)  He can sing "Head, Thorax, Abdomen (Abdomen!)" and he's learning the days of the week.  He writes his name with all the letters from left to right and all on the same line (still in all caps, though).  He is pretending to read and to write all the time.  He writes wonderful lines of scribbles and calls them words.  He wants to know the title of every book.  He knows how to "Stop, Drop and Roll."

He was good on his first field trip (it helped that he missed rest time and slept all the way home on the bus!)

He is working SO HARD!  I can't even imagine how much work it is for this brave little guy every day to go to school and follow all those rules (that every fiber of his being wants to flaunt instead) and interact with all those adults (relationships to build with THIRTEEN different adults every week--that's a whole heap of people to learn to trust).  Plus there is all that academic stuff!

No wonder he crashes in bed at 7 every night.

Love that little man!

Homecoming

We Interrupt This Meeting...

On the way to church Sunday morning, as we crested a hill, 4 deer dashed across the road in front of us, followed by a pheasant running as fast as his little legs could go.  Nine pigeons scattered in the other direction.

So what was going on????

Happy Birthday, Rose Bud!

Rose Bud turned 15 today.  It was a warm day for running--80 degrees by 10 am.

I was so busy watching her run that I never got an actual picture of her running, but here she is warming up.

It was a true cross country course on a farm out in the country.  It was hilly, but a beautiful course with woods and a meadow and a creek to run along (and swim in afterwards!)

Rose Bud ran well.  Her time was longer: 17:49, but she placed higher, percentage-wise, than she usually does.  They ran one varsity race, but then they split the results into large schools and small school.  So in the overall varsity race, she was 57 out of 162 which put her in the 35th percentile -ish.  She usually runs just into the bottom half of the field.

In the large school standings, which were the ones that counted, she ended up 40th out of 95 runners and was 5th on the team (surprise).

We (including Rose Bud) were all a little concerned after the girls' JV race as they came into the finish looking really whipped and exhausted.  Rose Bud was worried she'd be really tired running, but she felt ok after the race.

It was also homecoming this weekend and Rose Bud went to the dance with her girlfriends.  15 years ago I was resting in my hospital bed looking with awe at my newborn and wondering what I had done taking on this incredible responsibility of being a parent.

This night, I dropped that same firstborn off at the high school for her first high school dance.

She has made this parenting thing a walk in the park.  She has always been a delightful companion, fun to talk to, witty with a dry sense of humor, observant and interested in the world around her.  She was and still is a family-girl and loves to be a part of whatever we are doing (because we are an awesome family, obviously!).  She works hard at whatever she does and sets high goals for herself.  She's kind and compassionate and thoughtful (and way more patient than me!).

It's a pleasure and a privilege to be your parent, Rose Bud.  Te amo!

Good-bye, Piggums!

Meet Ham and Bacon

 What's going on?  What's that noise?  Where did our gate go?

Hey, apple!  Mmm.  Mmm.  Apple.  Coming! 

 Mmm.  Apple?

Uh, no.  Nevermind. 

How about some chicken feed?  No, thank you. 

Ooh!  I'll have some chicken feed!  Let me out! 

After some clever maneuvering on the part of the humans with some old doors and gates, the piggums are safely stowed in the trailer.   

Good-bye, Piggums!  See you (in a slightly different format) next week!

All Rose Bud, All the Time

It's homecoming week, so the high school has been having dress up themes every day and class spirit competitions.  One day each class had a theme in time and the Freshmen, lucky ducks, were pre-historic.

Yes, that's a bone in her hair.  She borrowed it from Sunshine's vet kit.

Today was obviously red and white day.  Even the kindergarteners got involved.  Rose Bud gets to ride on a fire truck this afternoon in the Homecoming parade for Cross Country.  THAT should be exciting.  We're going to watch the parade with the kindergarteners.

I do still have 3 other children and we've been crazy busy with homeschooling.  I have tons of great pictures to put up on the other blog.  I just never seem to get around to it.

Winding Down

Only a few meets to go before conference.  Today was a beautiful day, albeit chilly!

She passed these two runners on the left just before the finish

Rose Bud ran her customary 5th on the team.  She is nothing if not consistent!  Her time was an excellent 17:15 and she was 61 out of 101 runners.  The team was 6th.

The coach is unhappy, however, with the 5th place spot.  He is justified, in the sense that because RB is coming in quite a bit behind the 4th place runner, an improvement would help the team in a big way.  He wants someone to step up and improve their 5th place performance.

RB feels awful because she really feels like she is doing her best.  She IS only a freshman.  She also has run very consistently all season.  She runs consistently in that 5th spot AND she runs consistently in about the 50th-62nd percentile of the field.  She's not all over the place, running very well one week and terribly the next.

Part of it IS probably a head game.  There is so much in running that is dependent on your mental state.  If you believe you can, often you can.  But there are the physical factors as well, and to just shave 30 seconds off your time is a HUGE change to make.  As her time has improved this season, so have the times of ALL the runners and so she remains in that same percentile, just below 50.

So each week, she tries out some strategies the coach gives her to see whether they work for her.  Some have, some haven't.

In any case, as her parents, we are incredibly proud of all she's accomplished this season!

umm...yeah!  This is art!  What a cool photo!  Actually, I swung around as she passed me and I was trying to take the picture and see her time on my ipod at the same time!