Family update

Good things:

Tritan has done so well handling middle school, that I requested that he be go from the pull-out classes to an inclusion class. The guidance counslor agreed, and he'll get switched this week. He was mostly put in the pull out classes because he has a hard time with large classes and the noises there but it seems to be bothering him less. His academics are strong, so I am glad to see him be more challenged.

Paris signed up for trombone for band. I think he will do really well. Trombone players are rare in the school district, so the band teacher was excited he wanted to play it. I don't know if Paris really knew what a trombone was when he signed up for it, but he can trade it in if he hates it.

Tritan went on his first overnight camp trip as a Scout. He came home covered in dirt but he said he had fun. There was a little mix-up getting him home--communication break down--and we didn't know where he was for a bit. It prompted us to give in and buy another line for our cell phones. Our kids are just going in too many directions. I can't believe we are doing this! But they are very excited about having their own line. We told them it is only for emergencies, but I don't think they take that seriously.

The bad:

The kids have been sick for 2-3 weeks now. It seems to have finally passed, but not without leaving mayhem in its wake. Tritan seems to have gotten a sinus infection and he can't hear worth beans. I feel like I'm talking to a 90-year old. I don't know how he is doing so well at school. We got some antibiotics so hopefully it will help. Paris, on the other hand, is constantly tired. He came home from school one day and immediately went to sleep and didn't wake up til the next day. Every day he takes a nap, and still goes to bed at bedtime. If he doesn't wake up by tomorrow, I'm taking him in to the dr. too. Ironic, really, since when they were both "sick" (fever, cough) they acted perfectly normal.

Tritan got cut from the midle school choir. When I asked the choir director about it, he said Tritan's voice was too high. I was really dissappointed since getting Tritan interested in something is not easy. Hopefully, he can find another club or activity that interests him.

Kings

What do you do when your kids pass around a 7-day virus that keeps them out of school for days? Play cards!

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bob reintroduced us to the joy of card playing. We used to play a lot more before we had toddlers who would grab the cards and chew on them and preschoolers who would get into them and lose all of the face cards. But now, all of the kids can play one game or another and it's a good way to be together as a family or one-on-one with the kids. We try to emphasize logic and math skills, as well as good sportsmanship--but really we're just having fun.

Apollo's favorite game is Kings. Here's how you play:

Deal 4 cards to each player. There can be as many players as you want, but only about 3 players/deck. After that you need to add at least one suit for every added player. (No jokers).

Each player places his cards singly, in a square in front of you, with any 2 face up, and any 2 face down. No one knows what is under the faced down cards.

The rest of the cards are placed in the middle, the first one turned over (the start of the discard pile). Starting with the player to dealer's left, each player either takes a card from the deck or the last card in the discard pile; he can either exchange any of his cards with the drawn card, or simply add it to the discard pile. Face-down cards can be exchanged, but the new card must be placed faced-down as well. The point is to get the lowest score. Aces are low, Kings are zero, and all other face cards are 10. So the point is to get as many kings, aces, and low cards as you can.

The game ends by either running out of cards in the draw pile, or if a player thinks they have the lowest score, they can Knock (literally knocking the table with your fist). They do this instead of drawing a card. Then each remaining player gets to draw one last time. Score is taken by turning all of the cards over and adding up your score. Lowest score wins. If you Knock, and you are not the lowest (or if you tie) you must add all of the players scores together and add it to your own. If you Knock, and you are the lowest, you take the score of that hand and subtract it from your over all score. (Like if you knocked and your hand was 5 points, and you won, you'd add a -5 to your score). If there is a lot of people (4 or more) playing we usually play so that everyone deals twice and call it a game. If only 2 people are playing we usually play 5 hands.

If we are playing with the kids, we don't keep score for consecutive hands. Instead, Brian and the kids came up with this tiered system:

Hand 1--start as equals; winner is declared the winner

Hand 2--If winner from hand 1 wins again they are Top Dog

Hand 3--If Top Dog wins again, loser is a Wimpy Chiauau

Hand 4--If Top Dog wins again, loser is a Scared Kitty Cat

Hand 5--If Top Dog wins again, loser is a Blind Mouse

Hand 6--If Top Dog wins again, loser is a Dust Bunny (Paris came up with this)

The loser can win and work himself back up the chain, but the Top Dog is Top Dog until the loser has worked himself back up and then beaten Top Dog twice.

No, we don't play too much here.

BTW, Apollo is very good at his victory dance if he makes it to Top Dog. He stands up on his chair and wiggles his hips and then wags his behind in your facewhile singing/saying "Oooh,yeah. I won. Oooh, yeah." Thank you sports players for teaching my son this skill.

Of course, this is only when he feels cocky. At other times, he will throw the game for you. Somehow that is more humiliating than if you had just lost to him. (He is surprisingly good at this game).

Sick?

This week, the kids have been home sick. Sick being a fever of exactly 100*. Sometimes 101*. But they aren't tired, aren't achey, don't have a sore throat. According to the numerous notices I've gotten from the school, they shouldn't be allowed to go to school til their fever is less than 100* without medication. So, they are at home playing wii and eating hot dogs. I guess I should be glad that they aren't sicker. But then I take Apollo's temperature, and it flashes red (meaning higher than 99.5*) and he sticks his arms up in the air like a champion, "I'm sick! Yay!"

The perils of being alone

So now all of my kids are in school all day.
"What are you going to do with yourself all day?" everyone asks.
What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I have had a child at home with me for 12 years. It's not to say I won't be totally lonely without them, but my mind goes wild with the possibilities of shopping, excercising, visiting,--cleaning, even--and how I'll get so much more done without having to conjole another soul to go with me.
Although, in this first week, I have to say that apparently they didn't slow me down much. I don't seem to get much more done with them gone than I did with them here.
But anyway, in light of this new-found freedom, I decided to take my fitness to the next level. This involved a more intense upper body workout than I had done previously. Which meant that the next day, it hurt when I tried to open up the pickle jar. Or pull a sharp turn with the driver's wheel. Or raise my arms above my head.
Then I went running. Boy was it great to go running outside anytime I want between 9 and 2. What freedom! Then I got home and tried to take off my sports bra. It was wet and sticky and as I tried to twist my arms to get it off, I found that my sore arms no longer worked that way. I tried again, and this time managed to pull the bra up around my face. But no further. Now I couldn't get it up or down, the bra is over my face, and my arms are up in the air. And there is no one to call to help pull it off. I thought about having my kids find me there, shirtless, with a stinky sweaty mass around my head, passed out from the effort of holding my hands in the air for hours and it gave me a sort of adreneline rush and I finally freed myself. But it was a close call.
I tell you, being home alone does have its disadvantages.

First Day of School

Today was the big day. We spent the proceeding week getting in last minute dr.'s appointments (Athena had her extra tooth pulled, easy as pie, with some gas and local--no surgery-yay; Apollo went to the ENT and everything still looks good--even had another hearing test and everything checked out), back to school shopping, and organizing their rooms (I just took everything out of Paris and Apollo's except for a few clothes and their shoes. We'll see what I let them put back in.) We eeked out the last bits of summer with a picnic in the park, a BBQ, and some ice cream and then packed them up and sent them off this morning.

I admit I was emotional yesterday thinking of sending my oldest to middle school and my youngest to all-day kindergarten. I can't believe they are so old already. Tritan has been sick most of last week and I was intent on making him better before the first day. I really didn't want him to miss the first day of school. I was afraid it would put him behind before he got started. We called our home teacher to come help give a blessing last night so I am hoping all goes well.

Athena was up at 6am, a whole hour and a half before she had to be up. She picked out her clothes a week ago and painted her nails last night. The boys, on the other hand, put on whatever was within reach and I had to send a few of them back again to change. (Paris, for one, did pick his clothes out last night. He really can be stylin' when he wants to).

Apollo was cranky all morning and admitted he was feeling "funny". He has been so excited to start school, counting down the days since last April, but now that it is finally upon us he was pretty nervous to go. Thank goodness he has an older brother and sister who can help watch out for him.

Make it do

You know that old adage:

Use it up;

Wear it out;

Make it do;

Or do without.

Well, my kids have learned to make it do.

Paris has a collection of pewter landmarks: the Eiffel tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, the Empire State Building, etc. Well, there wasn't any Teardrop Memorial souvenirs, so he made his own with cardboard and tape. (Unfortunately, it looked a lot more like cardboard and tape than the Teardrop Memorial and Mom threw it away when she Clean Sweep-ed his room).

Athena has wanted a sewing box all summer. But that didn't get done this year so she improvised with an old pencil box and some cardboard.

And then there was the cell phone. They have wanted a cell phone for a while now and it doesn't help that most of their friends have one already. They have made cell phones out of cardboard and paper before, but Paris hit the jack pot when he found one of Brian's old cell phones, and then found the charger. Never mind that it doesn't have a SIM card. They hit ring tones when they want to hear it ring. They play the sample game up to Level 2 (which is as high as you can get without downloading the whole game). They write messages to each other and pretend to text their friends. Mostly they just carry it around and annoy me by hitting ring tone after ring tone. I told them that driving me crazy with a non-working cell phone is not the best strategy for getting a working one, but I think they know there's a slim chance for getting one either way so they just shrug and hit the "Hello Mortal" ring-tone again.

What we did on our Summer Vacation

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bob came from Idaho for a 10-day whirlwind of activity. Sometimes I feel let down when summer comes to an end, because despite my best efforts, we didn't get to do half of what I wanted to do. But now I think I can send the kids to school without any regrets. For those of you who are considering next year's vacation, just think, all of these outings were day trips from our house (hint, hint).

Trip #1: Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Betsy Ross House, Carousel at Franklin Park

Trip #2 : Boardwalk at Ocean City and dip in the ocean at Brigntine Beach:




Trip #3: Lighthouse at Cape May

Trip #4: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Teardrop Memorial (The Teardrop Memorial was a gift given to America in 2005 by the Russians to memorialize 9/11. It is a beautiful memorial, but not many people know about it. There aren't even any signs to it. But they are re-doing the pier it sits on, so I'm sure it will become a hot tourist spot in the future.)

Trip #5: Sesame Place

Trip #6: Valley Forge

Trip #7: Downtown Philly and the Art Museum. We ran up the steps, just like Rocky!

We had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming to visit, Linda and Bob!