I know it's been a while, and I apologize. I've been busy. Yeah, school has added to my schedule and things aren't as clean or orderly around here. This time of year gets pretty hectic too with events and birthdays (I had one too, but I'm just pretending it didn't happen since I am now less than 350 days from the big 4-0) plus we threw a baby shower for my sister and held a big multi-family garage sale last weekend. Whew! Crazy. AAAANNNDDDDD . . . The absolute best part of the birthday that I'm trying to ignore is that Scotty's sister gave birth that morning to our newest nephew: Benjamin Wayne. I absolutely LOVE that I get to have him as a birthday buddy. (In fact it occurs to me that next year we can focus on his 1st birthday and forget about my 40th altogether!!)
But the thing is - I've been mostly busy just being a mom and for some reason lately, that's been busier than usual.
Where to start - Riley got put under general anesthesia for the second time this year in order to have 8 cavities (yes, you read that right my friends - molars very tight together does not a happy mom make) filled and crowned. He's also very busy learning one memory verse a week for school, one memory verse per month for Church, keeping track of his weekly library book and also picking up Spanish from Miss Dawn at an almost alarmingly fast rate (I might have to invest in Rosetta stone for this kid!). I took him on Friday for his 5 year check up a couple weeks early and found out that since his surgery last spring he has gained 4 pounds. I can't remember the last time he gained that much in one stretch. He also grew an inch. Both of these accomplishments have officially moved him into the 'able to sit in a car booster seat with a tall back' bracket (he always wants to be in Scooter's seat when Scooter isn't in the car so I feel way better about this now), but he still dropped 2 percentage points for height to the 17th percentile. His weight gain made him jump from the 10th to the 18th percentile so that was a plus. He's just a peanut still, but he sure is tough. He's still running around scoring goals like crazy at soccer and keeping up with kids much bigger than he is and he's the fastest swimmer in his class of four kids (including Scooter) and everyone in there is at least 5 inches taller than he is. Overall Riley is doing just awesome, keeping me hopping. Right now we are planning his pirate themed birthday for which he wants all the kids to have an eye patch and everyone to say 'ARRRGH!'
Scooter - We had a rough adjustment to school starting this year. I just got his school pictures back and they crack me up because he was so determined to NOT smile you can see it on his face. Someone else might not think it is a great picture, but it is sooooo my kid, I'll take it. He's still having a little trouble getting in the door in the morning, but it's a lot better than last year and we have made it through the first full round of teachers so everyone is familiar to him now. His first report card was spectacular and I heard at our first parent-teacher conference that he's talking in class and responding to the teacher and classmates, but he got very quiet for the 2 weeks that they had a student teacher in the classroom. Pretty par for the course, I guess. We are pursuing an official medical diagnosis for Scooter now, but the wait to get into a neuropsychologist for an assessment is kind of ridiculous (at least for one tied to a therapy center so we only have to do it once). That might take a while, but I am okay with that too - one step at a time. Doing homework has been an adjustment and there are days he doesn't want anyone else besides me to hear him do his 'reading', but we're making it work and he is doing so well.
Tyler - I feel like Tyler has aged 3 or 4 years in the last month. We have definitely entered the 'adult in training' part of the program here and he's not even officially a teenager yet. His first report card this year was stellar. He's taking the SAT (or ACT we haven't decided yet) in January for the Duke Talent Identification Program. He is improving on the violin by leaps and bounds since he started private lessons. He's first chair and got elected to orchestra council. And he talks politics and world events like a little scholar. And then it all becomes too much and he has tear filled moments because he is still just 12 and not really ready to be grown up yet. Poor guy.
Tyler's been kind of interested in the election and although he doesn't watch non-stop, he likes to listen to speeches and watch some of the debates. Last night I heard him say several times 'He didn't answer the question! Why isn't he answering the question?' about both candidates and he also said more than once 'I don't understand why they can't just say what they mean instead of complaining about what the other person does'. He also had a few comments about interruptions and the fighting over the rules. Tyler's been trying to figure out what each guy stands for just by watching these highly 'staged' presentations of the conventions and debates and he can't puzzle enough together to make sense of either candidate. Pearls of Wisdom people.
I am so proud to be his mom.
And I am totally overwhelmed. I took him to half-price books to pick a novel for his next Language Arts project (he just finished The Hobbit so he was looking for something a little lighter) and I was really startled at just how many series of books and individual books were romantic vampire sagas, or witch/wizard or something with obviously strong sexual content. I am all for imagination and fantasy and science fiction, but some of the pictures on the covers of these books made me blush and we were in the teen section. Why is there a picture of two teenagers in a shower with no clothes on a book in the junior section? Really? We don't have enough to worry about these days? He asked me about the 'Shades of Grey' books a few weeks ago because he sees them everywhere and I have to explain to him that they are adult content and not-in-a-good-way adult content. I go to the grocery store and see magazine covers about these 'teen moms' all the time. I don't know who these people are and I don't understand how they are famous because they got pregnant and had kids while they were still kids! Why are we glorifying this kind of behavior? What is wrong with us as a culture? I am so grateful that for right now Tyler isn't interested and he still cares what I think about situations and morals. I am grateful that I still have influence, and I worry about the days that I won't anymore. I am starting to see that with a teenager in the house there will be no room for 'grey' areas. Our views, beliefs, morals and rules have to be as clear as possible and vocalized often so that we can outshout the media and all the 'crap' he is being bombarded with. Wow - this is going to be harder than I ever thought it would be. Prayer. Lots and lots of prayer.
So that sums us up for the first few weeks of school. Halloween is looming and I refuse to buy a costume until just beforehand since my kids can't make it an hour without changing their minds about who they want to be. Any and all 'Avengers' top the list. Riley is about to be 5!!!! which is insane since he's my baby. I am trucking along at school. I've done well so far, but now I am kind of in a mid-semester funk and wondering what the heck I am doing this for! I will keep on though.
Much love & God Bless!
