More Rock City

Amy and Julia came to visit this weekend. We didn't do much but on Sunday afternoon at the girls request we went to Rock City. They all had a ball.

Back Injection

I had my back injection today. They did both sides. The numbing and the first side hurt, but nothing major. The second, left, side was one of the most painful things I have ever felt. They told me to keep breathing as I was gasping and crying. Michael was in the waiting room so that kinda sucked.  They wheeled me out to his car afterwards as my legs were numb.  When I texted Michael that I was done, he said, "Are you texting from Heaven." Then added, "I didn't think you'd be there." Hilarious.

Nice to not be dead.

I forgot.

We took Parker to a ADHD screening today. We don't actually think he has it, but I guess we'll find out. Michael and I are skeptical of the entire process as it involves his teacher filling out an evaluation of him.  There's a lot more to say about it, but I don't have the energy.  I will summarize it all by saying this:

We asked Parker if the doctor there told the kids (it was a group screening) why there were there. He said, "The doctor asked us if we knew why we were here. One kid said he did."  I said, "Well, what did the kid say?"  Parker said, "I forgot."

Parker Weekend

Parker had another long weekend of activities this past weekend. On Saturday, he had an all day chess tournament.  6 matches. 10am to 5pm.  He and 14 classmates represented Wildwood as it was a school vs school tournament.  He won his first two, lost his third, tied his fourth, lost his fifth and won his sixth. He came in 5th out of his teammates and he was pretty bummed about that because the top four get big-ass trophies. BIG ones.  Wildwood placed third out of 25+ schools so that is pretty good. He was tired that night but had a good time all day playing with his friends and playing chess. The most impressive this day was that he beat a 1102 rated player. Parker is only rated 551 so this was quite a thing!

On Sunday, he had a swim meet where he swam 4 events. 50 free, 50 back, 200 free, and 100 breast. This was his first meet as a 9-10 year old so the competition and the time cut offs were much tougher. He did great though, coming in 9th, 9th, 8th and 10th in his C division. (the lowest). He did make a B time on his 200 free so he'll be competing against even faster kids in that one. An A time is the one you want to get to and it will probably take him until he almost 11 to get there.  He was very happy with his results and pleased with his one ribbon (top 8 in each division each event) get a ribbon.

He spent a good deal of time re-organizing all his medals, ribbons and trophies on Sunday evening.

Big books don't scare Elizabeth anymore

Elizabeth still enjoys climbing a robe.

Kaiser

It's a damn good thing Michael has a good job and health insurance because I've been spending a lot of time at Kaiser lately.

Two days ago, I went to pick up the kids camp forms from their doctor. They each needed a written assessment to send in.

Yesterday, I went to the spine clinic as a follow up to a second MRI on my back.  It was fairly depressing even though she showed me clearly on the MRI where my vertebraes are narrowing and out of line and where my discs are bulging (not good).  But she also said things like, you need to lose weight (duh) and we'll get you in physical therapy (which I told her didn't work.) So....on Thursday next week, I'm going to have a steroid injection in my spine. Risks include death and paralysis so I'm pretty excited about it (not). My back is so bad lately that I pretty much don't have many options left. She wrote on the notes "delay consideration of back surgery" so I guess there is still that option. Michael has to go with me and then deal with the kids the rest of the day which should be challenging with swim team/baseball, gymnastics and theatre class drop offs and pick ups.

On Tuesday, I go to the knee clinic for my patella thing. I doubt they will tell me anything useful, but it's the first step in getting any treatment.

On Wednesday, Michael and I take Parker in for a behavior assessment. His teacher was "concerned" about his "anxiety" (hand/finger sucking) and we are all a little concerned about his in ability to follow simply instructions or remember basic things like to change his underwear, bring his equipment home, turn his homework in and many, many other things. He can remember all 28 seasons of Survivor, who won and what the tribe names are, but he can't remember to take his backpack when he walks out the door. I spoke to a therapist and they want to "rule out ADD". Not sure we will, but we shall see.

I'm also back to having major sleep issues and my trusty Advil PM has very unpleasant bootie side effects.

Getting old sucks.

Guitar lessons!

Shredding

Skiing!

After considering it many times, we finally took the kids up to the snow.  Everyone in Piedmont has ski homes, and ski shares and many of our friends have their kids on "ski teams".   The kids had asked many times why they hadn't been to Tahoe, but it just seemed like such a giant hassle in the past, we just couldn't deal.  But with parent teacher conferences this past Thursday we took advantage of them being off for two days and went for it.  We drove up Thursday stopping at Soda Springs to do some tubing.  They each did about 5 runs and were done. Then we went to the hotel where we enjoyed the hot tub and then the free breakfast in the morning. The kids were a little confused as to where all the snow was. (There was none in Truckee at all.)  Then Friday morning we were the first ones at Donner Ski Ranch, a ski place many friends suggested for a first time trip. It was perfect. There was no on there. We never waited for a lift, the kids had only 5 in there ski lesson (including them). And it wasn't crazy expensive. Sure, half the mountain was closed due to the lack of snow, but it was perfect for us. The kids did their lesson while Michael and I skied and then we all skied together for the rest of the day.  Miranda was the most fearless, but all the kids did fantastic.  Miranda didn't want to leave at all, but Parker and Elizabeth were done by about 3pm. Which was just as well as the snow was quite slushy and dirty by then. I remembered how to do it even though I haven't done it for over 20 years. Michael had a tough time at first, but then got the hang of it and did much better. He couldn't keep up with the kids, but that would have been tough.   There was one intermediate hill I went down and then the next thing I know, I see Elizabeth stuck on it. I took the lift up to meet her and it was rough going down the hill. I asked her what she was thinking and she said, "It didn't look too steep."  I took both Parker and Miranda on it later and both ended up wiping out, with skis off and in tears. I remember being in that position so I tried to be patient with them, but I think there was some, "STAND UP NOW, MIRANDA!" in there.  We drove home on Friday, stopping in Davis for a sushi lunch with every college student on the planet but still got home by 8pm. The kids collapsed.  But...they all want to go again. I told them, next year.  Good thing the snow will be gone soon.

Hot tubbing!

Miranda was so happy!

See all the snow?

 Snow bunny Elizabeth. 

minecraft musette....the meeting of video games and piano lessons

Conferences

We had parent teacher conferences on Thursday before we drove up to the snow.  These are usually pretty uneventful and this time wasn't really an exception.  Here is what we "learned".

Elizabeth is the model student, helpful, striving to do her best, reading above grade level and struggling a tad bit, but not much in math. She needs help with spelling but even that has improved.  Her teacher asked if there was anything going on with her because she is recently very serious and seemingly sad. She shuts down when she doesn't understand things or just randomly and has a very hard time coming out of it. Yup. That's Elizabeth.

Miranda is dong very well in reading. Reading above grade level now and is well liked by others. She too is struggling a bit with math, but not much and her teacher thinks she'll figure out it out soon.  She did say she has trouble focusing and gets easily distracted.  She takes a long time to complete her work and doesn't seem to have any time management skills, sometimes needing twice or three times as long to finish tasks than everyone else.  She asked our opinion about getting her a timer. We told her the disastrous consequences timing her usually has but told her she could try it.  Michael and I both noted that with one exception (the math part) you could have exchanged her name with Parker's for this conference.

Parker's teacher had very nice things to say about him about academics of course and noted that he "Needs Support" in following basic instructions and staying on task which we already knew.   His spaciness has increased lately and he isn't able to do follow basic and routine instructions.  His teacher also said that she feels bad for him because she thinks he thinks he has to be the best at everything and that this is possibly making him anxious or stressed.  Although always a finger and clothing sucker, this has gone to new heights in the last few months and he is literally eating the sleeves of his jackets. No amount of rewards or punishment has made any difference and he can't stop himself. The teacher sees this (as we all do).  (I actually recently got him a necklace that he can suck on from an autism website. It's called a "teen teething ring" and so far, it's been accomplishing it's purpose. But we didn't take it on our ski trip and he ate through his gloves.)  We told the teachers that we've never told Parker he had to be the best or smartest and Parker seems to be aware that others are better than him at lots of things. From his sisters to classmates to friends, he knows that everyone has their strengths.  The teacher was quick to say she wasn't blaming us, but that she really things he thinks he has to be the best. She told a story about how they were talking about "smart water" and were discussing whether it made you more smart or less smart, so the kids all said, "give it to Parker, he's the smartest" and this made the teacher sad for him. That he has to live up to this label.  I didn't handle the whole conversation well and started tearing up. Which made the teacher and his math teacher (who was there) tear up.   They agreed to reduce his additional math work in the hopes that he could be more "normal" and like the other kids and said they would help in any other way that they could. Michael and I are not fans of his teacher, but I think when she saw me cry, she saw me as a human and mom rather than the critical bitch that I usually am with her.

At home, Michael and I discussed possible ways to help him be less stressed (if in fact he is.)  The only two things I think we could be "doing wrong" are letting him do too many sports or letting him play too much minecraft.  We discussed making him stop basketball, but didn't make any decisions yet.

I'm not a fan of conferences and I'm glad I don't have to do another one until November.

Dinner in truckee

Visit to snow! First day...

Piano updates

Parker did his certificate of merit test on the piano last weekend. We got the results today: excellent on technique, excellent on performance, 92% on theory and average on sight reading. His teacher says the two excellents are rare.

Elizabeth had her first piano lesson yesterday. She enjoyed it and practiced on her own this morning. We'll see how long that lasts...

Now I just have to find guitar teacher for Miranda. 

Pitcher up!

Parker played his first two baseball games this weekend. The coach asked him before the game, have you ever pitched? He said, No. The coach said, "Do you want to try?" YES!  So Parker pitched the first inning of the first game. He did great too. He threw a guy out at first. Tagged a guy running to first and struck out the third.  His second game on Sunday was not as good, walking several runners while letting several get good hits off him. But he never got bummed and was so happy he was pitching.  He also played shortstop and first base and did great at both. He's come a long way in baseball and it's back in his favor after a disastrous fall ball experience.

Lessons

Parker has expressed a desire to not continue with piano lessons. He says its just too much practicing. I'm ok with him stopping, but Michael is not. He just did his level four certificate of merit, which I hear for a 9 year old is pretty good.  We talked it over and then discussed with Parker and agreed to give him a break for a month or so. We thought this was a better approach then potentially creating a situation where he hated piano or resented practicing.

While Parker is taking a break, Elizabeth is going to start lessons. At first she was not thrilled to hear this news, but then she seemed excited and started asking lots of questions about it.  Miranda will not be left out, but she will start guitar lessons something that Michael thought she would be interested in and good at and something that she herself has expressed interest in.

So...we'll see how that all goes.  Parker has already played the piano once during his "break" and I'm sure he will again.

Bed

We sold Parker's loft bed a while ago and he's been sleeping on the floor since then. I finally went to ikea today to get him a bed but they didn't have the cheap one I wanted.

But then I got an email from someone in the twins club that she was giving away a bunk bed that seperated into a queen and twin. I picked it up 30 minutes later and Michael set up the bed this evening. Parker was a happy boy.

I hate fieldtrips

I took Parker's class on a field trip yesterday. I didn't want to, but they were desperately short drivers so I ended up with 6 in my car. I find fieldtrips unpleasant for a variety of reasons.   The kids are so loud in the car and then when we arrive there is too much standing around waiting.  We went to Lawrence Hall of Science which as anyone reading this knows, we've been hundreds of times.  Why these privileged, white kids need to spend a day away from school experiencing this place is crazy to me. They did a class on lasers and light where they got to play with lasers and mirrors.  As Parker pointed out when he got home, my spy laser alarm does the same thing!

Friday I drive Elizabeth to Adventure playground. It's somehow tied into their science unit, but I'm guessing it will be just more loud kids, running around and some amount of waiting.

Contest

Elizabeth's gymnastics class in Albany is going very well. She enjoys going, has fun there, is improving and likes being one of the youngest. Yesterday, they had a back walkover contest for who could have the straightest legs.  They did four girls at a time and then the winners from each of the groups went against eachother. Then there was a final contest between two girls.  Elizabeth won the whole thing. The last two girls were Elizabeth and the oldest (and second best) girls in the class. Elizabeth was super proud.