poorly_worded

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:31:54 GMT

So, I'm not in the mood to write anything, really. Kind of having a hard week so far. But I feel sort of obligated to, as now that I've let all of you know this is here, I feel like I'm keeping kid news from you if I don't post to it! :)

I have some pictures of Sadie from Shakespeare Day at her school last Friday. Every year they celebrate his birthday by "allowing" everyone to dress up in costumes either from that time period, or from one of his plays. I bought Sadie a really cute fairy costume (Midsummer Night's Dream), and embellished it with more flowers, and some bells. The we spent two grueling hours in the bathroom putting ringlets in her hair that stayed for maybe an hour before turning ito simple, pretty waves. I'll try and get those up sometime this week. I still owe Sonja a ton of pictures from the couple of days that I was up there when she came home from the hospital with her new babygirl.

Speaking of Baby Girls, mine is doing just fine. Happy, healthy, and smart. Nothing new to report really, except that I really need to get her into art classes, since all she wants to do all day is color and draw, and that this swim lesson session will be her last, as she's pretty much got it down. I can take it from here, teaching her the different strokes, and helping her build the confidence she needs to go further.

Dex will be starting swim lessons next month. I tried putting him in this month in a class where he goes in with the teacher and other kids, but he wasn't ready. So next month he'll be in a class where I go in with him, "parent/child water experience", I think it's called. Hopefully he'll gain enough confidence so that the next month he can go into the next higher class, the one I had put him into originally.

He's growing so tall, and is talking so much. He's moved on from choo-choos (they're SO early 2005!), into Monster Trucks, so we're currently in search of tickets to see them live. In the meantime I've located some DVD titles, and will be shopping for those this weekend.

I had more, stuff about Brian and him turning 14, but this has been sitting here for three days without being finished, so I'll post it now and try again later.

Fri, 01 Apr 2005 17:54:54 GMT

I've posted some pictures on livejournal's picture hosting site. Check it out if you like!

Click here!

From 3/4/2005

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 20:03:51 GMT

Yesterday I put these sort of heavy twill cargo pants on Dex. I don't often put them on him because he just looks cuter in his jeans, but yesterday those were handy. He didn't say anything when I put them on, but about ten minutes later he came into the room where Tom and I were and said, "I can't wear deese fweaky pants!"

Then today, he has in his hand...not any of the fifteen hundred chewed up doll parts, shoes, clothes, etc that the dog has ruined, but a tag from Sadie's bathing suit we bought yesterday, that is torn a little at the top. He holds it up and says real loud: "WE HAVE DIS FOR ONLY FWEE WEEKS, AND AWWEDDY THE DOG WECKS IT."

I. Died.

HAHA he just now asked me to drop him off at Target:
"Mom, when we go get Sadie, will you dwop me off at Tawget? I wanna get da Hot Wheews twuck dat cwushes caws."

Who does he think he is, anyway? ;)

From 3/8/2005

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:46:51 GMT

The oddest/funniest thing happened today.

ok first the notsofunny part. This afternoon, the kids were playing out in the front yard while I was making dinner. Sadie came running to the front door, intending to jump up to the cement front step to get the water bottle I had set out there. Instead, her foot caught on the edge and she went down on her face so quickly she didn't even have time to get her hands out to break her fall.

So as she's sitting on the counter and I'm trying to calm her down and assess the damage, Dexter is standing next to us, laughing hysterically. I mean deep down belly aching laughter. Now what you should know is that anytime she cries over anything, he cries harder. He gets so upset when she's hurt or in trouble, I usually end up spending more time trying to soothe him than her.

So of course I'm upset and I tell him to stop laughing or he's going to his room. He can't, so I send him to his room. I get Sadie calmed down, talk to the doctor, determine she's going to be ok, and get her settled on the couch, propped up on a pillow with an ice pack for her face.

I go into his room to check on him, and he's still in the throes of a huge giggle fit, holding his belly with his arms and rolling around on his bed.

I have to think that it was a nervous reaction to really being worried about her? But I don't know! Can a three year old even have a nervous reaction like that? I can't imagine what else it would be...he's not cruel, he certainly wasn't laughing at her...man, was it ever weird.

And just so you know, Sadie's ok. She has quite a knot above her eye that's got a bit of a scrape on it, and she's going to have a pretty bad bruise there and on her cheek, but overall she's fine. Still, poor baby. :(

(next day:)
It's the dark purple bruise just under her cheek that makes my tummy hurt the most. It just looks so sinister.

From 3/10/05

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:44:41 GMT

Sadie's been playing so much on Tom's computer. I have to get her some games to play on it. So far she just goes to websites of things she likes (with my help to prevent typos which might lead her to places she shouldn't be). We're actually thinking of getting her one of her own, but if Brian doesn't get his new one first, he'll freak.

Today I signed her up for her own email account! She's so excited, and it's going to be so much fun writing emails to her. I hadn't thought of that part of it, but as I was just writing my first one to her, I realized that this could end up being something that means so much to her down the road.

If you want her email address, let me know! (I don't feel comfortable posting it here, as this journal is public and anyone can run across it.)

From 3/12/05

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:43:23 GMT

I just priced Annual Passports to Disneyland for the family.

Since I don't want any blockout dates (the tickets are discounted, but even the most limited number of blockout dates include Fridays and Saturdays all year, the entire months of June July and August, and all major holidays), we would have to purchase the "premium" passes for everyone, which include parking (a total waste for the kids passes of course).

The Premium Annual Passports are $329 each. No discount for children. So for our family of 5, it would be $1645. One thousand, six hundred forty-five dollars for us to have annual passes to Disneyland.

If I wanted to take us there today? For just one day of Disney fun? It would be $245 to get in the park, then no less than another $40-$60 for drinks and snacks (we would bring our lunch and eat out of the park in the picnic area).
$300 for a one day event.

That Mickey is one greedy mouse.

From 3/15/05

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:41:27 GMT

Dexter informed me this morning that he really likes "dat cwazy wock and woll music!"

In
the course of the fifteen minute drive home from Sadie's school, we
determined that it was a wove of alternative wock and woll as opposed
to hard or cwassic wock. Case in point, he yelled at me when the
Smashing Pumpkins song was over and AC/DC came on.

What can I say, the boy knows what he wikes!

From 3/23/05

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:38:34 GMT

Brian's IB (International Baccalaureate Program) meeting was last night.

Brian, John and I met at the high school that Brian will be attending with the gentleman who will be his school counselor to go over the program: What it means, what it entails, what it will allow him to pursue once he's graduated, and then to decide what classes he should take for this year (9th grade) and next year (10th grade).

I honestly had no idea what this whole thing meant before last night.

First of all, Brian is gung ho on going as far and high as he can with the program. He feels like there's no other option, otherwise why be in the program at all? So he's going for the top teir of credits/classes, to ensure him a better chance of getting into the university of his choice. This means

He has to take 5 years of math. 5. As he has only four years of high school. Which means...actually I'm just going to list it out.

Health is a basic HS requirement. You can't graduate if you don't have Health class. Since he doesn't want to take a 0 period or 7th period (his workload is going to be difficult enough without extending his day), he's decided to take it in summer school, this year. This means that Brian will technically be starting high school June 20th, the Monday after graduating from 8th grade. Fortunately, only one semester of Health is required, so it will only be a three week class (8-1:30, M-Th).

With that out of the way, his Freshman year he will be taking:

Honors Introduction to Literature
Advanced Algebra/Trigonometry*
Spanish 2 (He's in Spanish 1 now)
Honors World History and Geography
Honors Biology
P.E./Golf**

K so.
* = The natural math progression is Algebra 1, then Geometry, then Advanced Algebra/Trig, and so on. Since he needs 5 years of math, he's going to skip Geometry this year and take it as a summer school class next summer (between 9th and 10th). It's a class that can be taken as a summer school class (because it's so easy, heh), where as AdvAlg/Trig can not.

** = He only needs two years of PE, which is 4 semesters. He'll take PE class for his first semester, and will try out for the golf team second semester. If he makes that, he'll play it until the end of the year, and it will count as another semester of PE. Since he plans on making the team and playing all four years, he'll have beyond what he needs when he graduates. If he doesn't make the team, he'll just remain in PE for the remainder of the year and will try again the next.

So, back to math. When he starts his Sophmore year of High school, he will have his Algebra/Trig, as well as his Geometry out of the way, and will be in Pre-Calculus. As a Junior, he'll be in Calculus, and as a Senior, to complete his fifth year math requirement, he will be in what IB apparently calls "Higher Math", in which they warp the space/time continuum. I mean really, who even knows? Higher Math??

We also worked out the remainder of his Sophmore year classes:

Honors World Literature
Spanish Native (Spanish 3)
A.P. U.S. History (?? This seems odd, but I can't remember what it was, and can't figure out what else his abbreviation would be)
Honors Chemistry
P.E./ Golf

At this same time next year, we will have the same meeting in which we work out what he will take in 11th grade, and the following summer, if necessary. Also, he has to work in some "Visual & Performing Arts" classes in there somewhere, so he may be taking some college courses at Riverside Community College during the last two summers of H.S.

In addition to his summer school Health class, he has required assignments in both Intro to Lit, and Honors World History, to be completed this summer. For Intro to Lit he has to read The Odyssey (books 1-6), as well as A Wizard of Earthsea. For Honors World History he has to "define and explain the significance of each of the following vocabulary words (there are 18 of them, here is just an example):
Monarchy
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Jesus
Plato
Aristotle
Cleisthenes
Diocletian
Green and Roman Mythology
Marty (Marty?)

Then he has to "Write a one paragraph response for each of the following questions (there are 7, here are the first three):
What ar ethe Greco-Roman views of law, reason, faith, and duties of the individual?
What are the Judeo-Christian views of law, reason, faith, and duties of the individual?
How are the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian views of law, reason, and faith similar? How do they differ?

Not only will this last assignment be due on the second day of school, he will be tested on the information on that day as well.

Whew. This all blows my mind just a little bit.

I've asked him several times if he's truly up for it, and he makes a face at me everytime and thinks I don't have faith in him. I think I finally have him convinced that it's not a lack of faith, but a concern that it's simply a lot to take on, when his workload at the school he's currently going to is a minute fraction of this. I'm just trying to prepare him mentally for what he's in for.

I also told him how proud I am of him. I want to tell him every five minutes, but at this point it would only be for me, not for him. He knows I'm proud of him. He doesn't need to know that part of that pride is for myself, and how I've been able to turn from a child who was "ugly and stupid and worthless", and was "nothing would amount to nothing", into a parent who is somehow able to instill a doubtless belief in her child that he is capable of accomplishing anything he desires. Not to mention the fact that he actually has the desire to succeed in the first place. I think that to me, instilling ambition seems the most daunting challenge of raising children. I don't even know how you do it, or if it's even something that can be "done". Maybe it's just one of those things that "is" with certain people. I'm not going to question it, I'm just going to enjoy it. :)