Piano Recital

Allison did really well at her first piano recital.  Her teacher held it at the library, and though there were 22 students, the whole thing was less than an hour.

Jacob's concert.

Let's see if I can add this video.  Jacob is in the top row - second from the left.

I don't know who Jacob was staring at the whole time.  Neither did he.

Stupid things

You know what's dumb?  PE homework.  Last week, Allison had to log all her physical "activity" for a week and hand it into her PE teacher.  The goal was an hour a day or a total of 420 minutes that week.

With childhood inactivity/obesity rising, I can kindof see the value in encouraging kids to be active.  Still - I'm opposing this assignment.

1) Did anyone else notice it's FEBRUARY in WISCONSIN?!!  The school deemed the weather too crappy for the kids to be outside for 3 days last week.  The high one day was -2 degrees.  So.... other than having the kids run around the house in circles for an hour.... I don't know what you expect.

2) Oh yeah, you expect me to take them somewhere for an organized activity.  Something on the list, perhaps?  Maybe this worksheet will be just the kickstart I need to take Allison to the YMCA for some weightlifting.  Weightlifting?!

Allison doesn't do sports, and doesn't like being out in the cold.  She likes to read, play with her Monster High dolls, do puzzles, and watch SpongeBob Squarepants.  I'm totally cool with that.  She's not a couch potato.  She's not obese (in fact, she needs to gain weight - but frankly if she were obese, I'd still take issue with this assignment).  She plays when it's appropriate to play.  And her physical activity doesn't fall neatly into these "bins."  She watches TV while dancing and hopping.  She chases her brother around the house.  She jumps up and down while playing air hockey.  How do I log those minutes?  They aren't soccer, basketball, gymnastics, or weightlifting.

Shouldn't we be encouraging activity and not "sport."  Organic movement rather than structured activities which require travel, parent involvement, and a set place and time.  Wouldn't kids be more likely to continue activity for life if it wasn't dependent on schedule and payment?

Needless to say - even after my "creative" accounting, Allison didn't make a full 420 minutes.  You know what - I'm totally OK with that.

Pinewood Derby

In addition to the last day of basketball, last Saturday was also the Pinewood Derby.  Jacob was a bit more involved in the creation of the car this year (the black blur that was Darth Vader in the green lane below).  

 He placed third in his den, which means he got a trophy, though we think it was a very close race between third and fourth places.  Jacob stuck around for the finals with all the dens (top three race again) but alas he did not place in the overall. 

The boys in his den who got 1st and 2nd also got 1st and 2nd overall - so there were some fast racers in his group.  I think his stellar performance last year had him assuming that he'd place again this year, so it was nice for him to get a trophy in his den and also nice to experience not winning overall (ultimately, he said he placed 10th). 

Crushed

Jacob's team was soundly defeated in basketball today.  It may have been that the other team was (on average) 6 inches taller and 15 pounds heavier than Jacob's team.  It may have been more that Jacob's team had some weird aversion to passing the ball - choosing instead to shoot at the basket over 6 arms of kids who were 6 inches taller than they were.  It may have been that they rarely won a rebound.  It may have been that they were missing their best shooter.  But they entered the third period without having shot a basket.

None-the less, Jacob enjoyed playing basketball.  Today was their last game.  These were not pictures from today, though.  This was a team they were a bit more evenly matched playing.  Not that anyone was ever keeping score (except EVERY kid on the team).  No surprisingly, they "won" almost every game.  Except, it was more like 50%.  Don't tell them that.

Blogging from work

I'm writing a blog post from my office.  Unusual.  It's the weird beginning-of-the-semester time of year when classes are going but I don't have anything to grade.  In a few minutes I'll check in to my online class, but am avoiding that due to the extremely annoying student I have in Statics, who addresses me by "Madam" and posts approximately 3-4 questions a DAY.  It's like he thinks I'm his private tutor.  I've done more extra examples this week than I did in a month of dynamics.  And dynamics is harder.  This is review! 

I'm also waiting for a phone call from Allison's pediatrician, so I brought my cell and the home cell into work with me.  We're trying to adjust her ADHD medication.  Ack, it's not going well.  What I need is an Allison Avatar, where I can test different therapies and/or medications and see what the outcome will be before giving them to the real life Allison.  Instead, we have broad-based statistical studies that say "this will increase behavior x in 9 out of 10 attempts for 60% of children over a 6 month timeframe."  Life is full of trade-offs.

Here's one thing I love about Allison.  She made me a "git well" poster while she was with Leslie after school and I was having surgery.  Jacob, upon realizing that HE didn't do anything, went home and made a "get well son" decoration.  Allison, upon seeing Jacob's poster, gave him a super hard time about misspelling "soon."  Ha, she cracks me up.

Jacob passed his N-level reading test, which is what you need to pass by the end of second grade.  (Thank you - "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series).  He has declared himself done with second grade now.  Jacob was also intrigued by the penguin postcard that arrived from Grandma and Grandpa while they were in Norway.  He wanted to know what kind of penguin it was, so we looked it up - Rockhopper.  Then he noticed the map of where they live - the Antarctic.  But how did it get to Norway?  According to Jacob, it must have taken a plane or a boat to Norway so that a photographer would take it's picture and put it on postcards.  Clearly, the most logical explanation.  I believe that it's proof that we look for explanations that fit with our previous assumptions, even when young.  Belief - there was a Rockhopper penguin in Norway.  Contradiction - Rockhopper penguins live in the southern hemisphere.  Reconciliation - the penguin must also be on vacation in Norway.

I've also noticed that when we sit down for dinner, for example, we ask the kids about their day and they have virtually nothing to say.  "It was fine."  But when we are late for school and I'm trying to get them to get their snow pants on and get out the door - suddenly they have a whole crap-load of things to tell me that are so important we must stop everything and listen to the story about how classmate A plays the guitar and in school yesterday yadda yadda yadda yadda.  Sigh.

Gone teeth

So, the teeth that have been dangling out of Jacob's mouth lately.... gone!  He had to go into the dentist today for a filling and they happened to be numbing that part of his mouth.  I was like "hey, while you're in there...." and though they did charge a fee (two for one - fingers crossed that insurance will pay) Jacob is now missing two more teeth.

Then he wrote a note to the tooth fairy because he wanted to keep one tooth to show his friend (I don't know why only one, and I tried to just convince him to leave them both under his pillow tomorrow - no dice).

Jacob stands firm in his belief that notes under a pillow are direct mail to the magic world of fairies, leprechauns, and elves.