Happy Birthday M

Happy, happy birthday M! It's hard to believe its been 15 years. This last year has seen a lot of changes. You finished up middle school and moved on to high school - into a very demanding magnet program where you have thrived. Your dad and I are very proud of how well you have handled yourself. There have been a few mis-steps along the way, but overall you have stepped up to the plate, getting your work done (even mostly in a timely manner - and when you have had to stay up too late, you are learning how to cope with tiredness the next day) and getting great grades!

You finally got to be as tall as Dad last year when you turned 14, but you have grown several more inches since then. You are at least 5'10" now, and not showing any signs of being done growing. It's hard to believe that when you were little all the predictors said you would top out at around 5'9". Now predictions are anywhere from 6 feet to 6'1" or even 6'2". This makes you very happy.

I didn't get any pictures of birthday celebrations this year, but we had a lovely dinner out at an Italian restaurant and then back home for the (traditional for several years now) "perfectly chocolate chocolate cake with perfectly chocolate chocolate icing". Quite yummy and we will be enjoying it for several days to come.

I hope your next year will be as good or better than this year!

Growing and growing

I decided to measure the kids today, and yep, they are both still growing like weeds. M currently measures 69 1/2 inches (5' 9.5") and A is 59 1/4 inches (4' 11.25").

What I find really interesting is that A is the same height that M was on 3/30/08, or 2 years 7 months ago - whereas A is 2 yrs 10 months younger. So A is just slightly ahead of M's pace. This could be A is going to be taller, or A is peaking slightly sooner or just chance. Who knows. I suppose we won't really know until they are both done growing.

But due to all this growing going on, I'm not buying A a hiking backpack anytime soon. I've been told that they will cover about a 9 inch height range, but given that M is a good 10 inches taller than A now, and both are still growing, I think any pack I get now, A would outgrow in the next 3 years. He's borrowed one from the Scoutmaster for the campout this month. It will be a very gently intro to backpacking.

A with the clarinet

A finally got his clarinet and the first bit of instruction in playing it last week. He seems to be enjoying it so far, though his says they have only learned to play 2 notes.

I'm trying to come back...

It's been a long time, as my mom reminds me, since I have posted. I feel like I should go to confessional (and I'm not even catholic).

It's been a long, HOT summer. The heat is finally breaking, but oh, my it was hot. Yesterday was the first day in at least 2 months we've been able to use the attic fan. And it was lovely! It's running again right now. I love having all that breeze when I sleep.

The kids have been back in school for a month now. It does and it doesn't feel that long. But progress reports are due next week, at the 1/4 of the semester mark. M is amazed he has already finished 1/4 of the semester and 1/8 of the year. His freshman year! I can't believe I have a middle schooler and a high schooler this year. They are growing up so fast.

Both kids are handling the transition of schools reasonably well. M is buckling down to the MUCH increased level of homework expected - and with minimal, pro-forma type complaints. The grades are still bouncing around a bit, due to increased expectations and with so few grades, one bad one makes much more of an impact currently. I expect things will settle down as the year progresses.

A has different types of homework than last year - not necessarily more, but he feels he has less time to do it as he gets home 2 hours later than last year (and the starting an hour later is nice to him, but doesn't make up for it to him). He has remarked that he wished he was still in elementary. I'm still clueless as to how A is doing in science as his teacher has not posted any grades. I guess I'll wait and see next week...

Long time no post

It's always hard when I don't post for a bit, because then I wonder how I can catch up. Well, I guess I can't. Maybe at some point I will put up some photos of the past month or so - or maybe not.

Anyway, the house has been quiet this week. D is in Colorado, with some students. He and they seem to be having a good time. They are enjoying MUCH cooler weather than we are. They had snow flurries - meanwhile we're having triple digit heat index days.

A is at Scout camp. I went out there tonight for parent's night and enjoyed pizza and desserts - what a healthy combo! At least I drank plenty of water (thanks to the heat index). A is doing fine and having fun. He doesn't seem overly bothered by the heat. He says the food is good - they cooked themselves spaghetti yesterday and hot dogs today for lunch. He is swimming at least once every day (swimming merit badge plus some free swim).

The Scouts were going to have ice cream after all the parents left, to help console the Scouts at their parents leaving. This is a slightly foreign concept to me - A is having a blast, he won't need consoling. One of the other parents said she had asked her son if he was homesick or crying and he said yes. It hadn't occurred to me before that to ask A, but then I did. A's response, "no, I'm not homesick, but I miss the computer".

A was happy to see me, and the stuff I brought: googles, spray sunscreen and a book. He'll be happy tonight eating ice cream with his friends too. And tomorrow doing his activities.

Meanwhile, back at the home front, M is hanging out in his room on the computer and reading. I'm trying to get him to tackle his summer work little by little, so it doesn't ruin his last week of summer. He misses his friends, but doesn't want to initiate any plans for getting together.

Me, I'm trying to tackle bits and pieces of things around the house and getting ready for our vacation. It sure is quiet.

31 cent night at BR

Yum! We took the kids up to BR for their 31 cent/scoop night. Conversation in the car:

M: I think I really want an eclair.

me: No, we were going there for the 31 cent ice cream.

M: I didn't know that - it could have been a random act of kindness

me: It's a random act of cheap kindness

M's First Concert

M went to his first concert last night, They Might Be Giants (TMBG). He had wanted to go to a concert back before Christmas, but since it was on a school night, during finals week, we vetoed it. This time, however, it was a Friday night and a band that D was reasonably interested in. So off they went - and both had a good time.

The opening act was Jonathan Coulton - M had seemingly heard of him and had one of his songs. They bought his CD and M is enjoying some of the other songs that weren't played Friday night. Then there was an long, 45 minute wait before TMBG came out. M knew about 5 of the songs already, D knew more, but not all.

M's verdict seems to be GOOD, but long, late, and loud. It was after 11 by the time the concert was over and well past midnight when they got home.

It's Happened

I've been expecting it for a while now, but it's finally confirmed - M is taller than I am. And still growing... D is expecting to be outgrown by M's birthday in just less than a month.

Not to be outdone, A is keeping up the pace. I measured him the other day and found that he was almost exactly the same height as M, with less than a month's difference in ages at the time. I had to send A back to change clothes this morning as both his shirt and his pants were noticeably short on him. Even then, the second pair of pants was still a bit short. I guess it's time to go through his drawers again and do the pants sort.

I like Wednesdays

I've decided that I really like Wednesdays at the moment - not necessarily more than Friday or the weekend days, but definitely better than Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. Why? Because I don't have to pick anyone up at school on Wednesdays. And I've got an extra almost 2 hours on Wednesdays too.

The first Wednesday of bliss was 2 weeks ago. It was quiet for so long that it was almost eerie. Then last week, I took advantage of that extra time and my mom and I went out to Kennesaw mountain to a program there with a pair of reenactors and had lunch. We even had time to go to an upscale farmer's market (where I bought wheat germ and beer (lots of beer - because our local liquor stores are sort of boring in the beer they carry)). Nothing too exciting today, just plenty of lap time for the kitties. I can tell that Wednesdays are going to be my day for Christmas shopping and baking as it gets closer to the holidays.

Fall Break

We're off for a longer fall break than usual this year, thanks to budget cut furloughs. The kids were going to have a half day today and no school tomorrow, with the teachers still going through Friday, but now everyone has been home today and will be for 10 more days.

It was lovely to sleep in this morning and sort of laze through the morning (and afternoon). However certain someones couldn't keep their hands off each other and got banished to their respective bedrooms for a while. I hope that they got that out of their system for a while, because I'm tired of people attacking each other.

High Finance

Money has been changing hands right and left the last few days in the owl household. M sold his old (less than a year old) iPod touch to A. Then M used said proceeds, along with allowance and saved money to buy a new iPod touch. If that wasn't enough spending, M and A each then bought a game - M one for the PC and A got one for the Wii. Plus A bought a 3 month subscription to an online game site.

Whew. You would think that would lead to 2 broke kids. Well, you would be half right. M is broke, but A is still flush with cash. Being on the cutting edge of technology is expensive.

Both kids are quite happy with their purchases however, so all is good. M declared today to be a very good day. His iPod touch arrived in the mail and we had a favorite dinner tonight.

Words I never thought I'd hear

or at least not for a long while.  M said tonight, "I'm full."  He was too full to finish his hamburger.  Amazing, coming from the bottomless pit of a 13 yo boy.  Of course, an hour later, he was hungry again - he ate the last 2 bites of his hamburger, a cupcake, and an apple. 

Procrastination and morning people don't mix well.

Not me.  No, no, no - I am definitely NOT a morning person.  However, the rest of my family is.  And it is causing M some problems recently.  You see, he likes to procrastinate - play on the computer after school and wait until later to do his homework.  Only, when his homework requires him to actually think (like math is now) and it is getting late, say after 8 pm, he doesn't think so clearly.  He did the first part of his math just fine, then he started getting fuzzy.

Finally I told him to go take his shower and go to bed.  He'll get up early tomorrow and do the math - and I'm sure have much less trouble with it then.  We discussed how he really needs to do his math earlier, even if he waits on the rest of the homework.  M agrees in theory - we'll see how well that holds up in practice.

We saw this same issue over the summer with his online Java class.  Only it was worse then, because the assignments were due at midnight, so he couldn't go to bed and finish up in the morning when he was thinking more clearly.

Facebook

M has an assignment for Language Arts to create a (fake) Facebook/MySpace type page for one of the characters in the book he read for summer reading.  He seems to be enjoying this assignment more than a traditional type book report.  

The assignment also seems to have gotten the kids talking about Facebook pages and who is on there.  Leading, of course, to M wanting to get onto Facebook.  D and I discussed it and decided that he could make a page, with certain restrictions, namely, he had to friend us and only friend other people that he knows in real life.

M complained at first about having to friend us, but then one of his friends, J, sent D a friend request.  And I think perhaps he heard from some friends that they had their parents as friends also.

Anyway, I've set up a page now.  I don't know how much I'm going to do with it, but I guess we'll see.  I find it odd some of who it says I might want to friend - some people I know, some people I went to college with (but don't remember knowing) and some people who seem to be just random.  Including one person who sent me a friend request within 10 minutes of setting up my account.  I have NO clue who she is and I only know one person on her friend list.  Weird.

If you know me, feel free to send me a friend request.  Otherwise, for now, I'm not particularly searching out people.

climbing

A went to Webelos encampment recently and D 'got' to spend one day out there, so I have a few pictures.  (He 'got' to spend the day and night with them because we didn't have another person who was willing to spend all 3 days, so 1 leader was with them the whole time and D and 2 other parents each took one day).  

Anyhow, when D arrived, the boys were headed off to the climbing/rappelling area.  There were a bunch of boys eager to have a chance, so they each only got to rappel once.  Here's A at the top of the tower:

Now part way down:

He said it was lots of fun!

Then on to the climbing wall.  The boys evidently complained that some of the holds were too far apart for them - maybe they were set up with older Scouts in mind.  But fun anyway.

M's been growing again...

Proof positive that M's been growing - he is now taller than my mom.  Just a few weeks ago when they checked, she was still taller, but not now.  M is very proud of his new height.

Dinner by M

M was assigned to fix dinner a few nights ago.  He was not particularly enthusiastic, but he did decide on a menu - spaghetti.  Now, M likes his spaghetti plain (or with parmesan cheese) while the rest of us like sauce.  We insisted that he had to heat up some sauce, but no doctoring of the sauce was required (I usually saute some green pepper and onions to go in there at least).  

M's menu:

spaghetti noodles

spaghetti sauce

meatballs

mushrooms

cheese bread

All of these were separate items on M's plate.  I, however, cut up my mushrooms and put them and the meatballs in with the sauce on top of my noodles.  It may not have been the finest gourmet meal, but it did feed us all and M did it basically all by himself.  Up til now I've been providing more help, but he did well.  I wonder what he'll fix for us the next time?  But first, it will be A's turn to fix a dinner - I'll have to get him thinking about a menu before I go to the grocery store next.

School's Out!

Last day of classes was yesterday.  Hooray!  First thing M did when he came home from school was run downstairs and fire up Guitar Hero to play School's Out on the Wii (at an extremely high volume!)

I'm glad school is out, but it is a bit more of a mixed blessing for me than for the kids I think.  I see pros and cons to this.

Pro:

I can sleep in

No supervising homework/listening to complaining about homework/etc

General relaxed attitude about mealtimes and bedtimes

Kids have more time so can do more chores

Con:

Kids are together more so often more bickering

Less time to myself

Kids complaining about chores/making sure they do them

 

I'm sure there are other pros and cons.  Overall, I'm always glad when summer vacation gets here, but I'm also generally glad when school starts up again.

recent creations

M came home with some of his artwork recently.  A cool African inspired mask:

and a very life-like gecko!

I didn't get a good picture of it, but when we put the gecko down near the cats, they had to go check it out to make sure it wasn't alive.  M's art teacher was quite impressed with the gecko and offered him a slot in her advanced art class next year.  He is happy about that - art all year long!

Here's A with his recent Magnetix creations:

The Magnetix were a big hit when he first got them and for about a year thereafter, then went into hiatus for about a year.  A claimed he didn't want them anymore, but we held on to them anyway.  Lately they've had a big resurgence in interest.  He's built bridges and towers and cool geometric designs - all very interesting.

My Last Day without a Teen

Yes, tomorrow M will become a teen.  I'm not ready for this but he seems to be.  And I suppose that that is how it is supposed to be.  Turning 13 just makes all those other big years seem so much closer - like driving, especially.

13 years ago tonight I was in labor - had been all day.  I was waiting, not very patiently, for the arrival of this baby.  He was overdue and labor was long - he wouldn't be born for hours still.  Now it seems like he is trying to make up time by speeding through life.  He wants a laptop, he wants a car, he wants to make his own decisions.  I want him to slow down a bit, especially when he is still being the caring boy he can be - who is willing to sit in my lap (not for long or my lap complains), wants a cat to cuddle in bed with, and likes to share silly stories.

Other times, though, well, the teen/toddler is not so charming.  I've heard that teens are just toddlers in a big body.  Several months ago I didn't quite understand.  Now I do, unfortunately.  Teens can be just as stubborn and temper-tantrumy as a toddler, but you can't just pick them up and plop them in a crib anymore.  The whys are back as well.  Why, why, why, why, why????

I think we're in for an interesting ride.  Too bad there isn't a pause or rewind button sometimes.