Zeke watches tv with me at night.

Court of awards

While Parker and I were at his swim awards, Jessie took the girls to the Girl Scout award ceremony. I've avoided them all year and plan to continue...

Miranda and Waffles

Swim team award

Parker and I went to his swim team awards banquet tonight. He's been for two years and never won anything but tonight he got the coaches award for being a hard working swimmer, improving, helping others and being generally awesome. He was very, very happy. It was all quite sweet.

New Leotard

Kids' Day

Kids' day (a day we decreed as "the kids make the rules") was about as you would have imagined.

Parker was up before 6am and ran downstairs to play video games.  He pretty much stayed there until it was time to go to bed, coming up to use the bathroom and eat. I think it was about 14 hours of straight minecraft.  He had ice cream for breakfast. And lots of pop tarts.

Miranda woke at 6am and came in to our room to say she was ready for breakfast in bed. We both got up and started on that. But Miranda, unclear about the breakfast in bed situation, decided that after being up for a while, she'd have breakfast in the playroom. Chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and sausage.

Elizabeth actually stayed in bed for breakfast.

Then they all spent much of the day playing video games.  Miranda took some time out to snuggle with kittens and watch a movie.  

 Elizabeth took some time off to fall asleep in the playroom.

Then around dinner time, Elizabeth and I went to Old Navy with me and then got some Sushi for her for dinner.  

We all watched an old survivor at night and had strawberry shortcake and more ice cream (and more pop tarts).  Michael and I went to bed and the kids stayed up late.  Miranda came up first around 9ish and the others just after her about 9:30.

They were all happy with the outcome and are already looking forward to when we do it again.

Russian River Sunday

Bay Island Gymnastics Team Newest Member

Well...it looks like Elizabeth is on a gymnastics team.  She will be in level 3 where 10 is the highest. I'm still conflicted about it, but I think it will ultimately be good for her.  She'll work out three days a week for 2 hours each day for about a month. Then when summer kicks in the workouts go to 3 hours a day. While it sounds completely cruel and unusual to work a 7 year old that much, it's really just normal for the gymnastics world.

When we went on Tuesday, they said she would need special work on the bars since she is behind. But today, another coach said, "she'll be fine and we won't start scheduling any special work yet. If she is struggling in a month or so, we can do it then. But I think she'll be fine."  The competition season is September through November. It's unclear if she will be ready by then, but that's the goal.

Elizabeth seems pretty dang happy (as happy as Elizabeth gets which is like a small, sly smile out of the corner of her mouth) about it all. Today after workout she said, I think I need to work out my cartwheels. She really wants me to land in a lunge.

Now, I have to tell Matt, her current teacher. This will be the second time we are leaving him to join a competitive program. I know he'll understand, but its bitter sweet nonetheless.

Not sure how I am going to manage all the driving to classes and such after school, but I'm confident I'll figure it out. I always do.

Quad Win!

Parker won a quad tournament this past weekend. He played three kids in his "quad" and won each game. His rating jumped over 200 points after that since all the players were rated slightly higher than him. He was pretty happy both with the win and with the rating jump!

2nd injection

I got another back injection two weeks ago on Thursday. It wasn't the same kind of injection so didn't hurt as much.  The lidocaine hurt like a bitch but the injection wasn't too bad.  It didn't take away all the pain like it did last time, but it did take it down quite a bit. I was hopeful that it kept lasting after a week (which was one day longer than the last injection lasted) and even more hopeful when it was still good almost two weeks later, but then today, I think it started to wear off. I did a fair bit of sitting at the gymnastics studio on a hard bench so I'm not 100% sure yet.  But just thinking about it wearing off already is heartbreaking.

Ugh.

A few weeks ago, Elizabeth asked to join a gymnastics team (specifically she said, "Mom, is there a way I can earn ribbons by doing gymnastics?).  I ignored it for a bit but when she brought it up a few more times, I asked Jenna, who works at a local gym what they offered.  She suggested I bring her in for evaluation so we did today.  At first they said she could join the team at a level 3 but then they saw her on bars (which she hasn't done since she was 5) and said she needed work on that which she could do one on one with a coach. She did the pre-team class today for 2 hours.  Elizabeth appears to understand how much work it will be and how much time she will need to commit (3 hours 3 times a week), but she is going to do another trial class on Thursday. It's a good gym. Between Head of Heels which was too crazy and structured and Matt's class which is too laid back.

The whole thing makes me a little bit (actually a lot) anxious.  I'm worried about how she does. I'm worried about the time it will take. I'm worried about how tired she will be.  I'm worried about how it will affect family life at night. I'm worried about her whining.

But...I know if she does it and works hard, she will love it and it will be her thing. I can just see her at meets with her pals. I see it.

This and that.

Not much new around here these days. Parker was sick Monday and stayed home. Nothing major...just run down.

Elizabeth is taking chess in an after school class and is doing well. She plays with Michael a lot.

Parker did another meet on Saturday. He swam well and got a new B time on his 50 back. He is really enjoying it these days. I am training to be a swim meet official which is the role that make sure the kids are doing legal strokes. So I was at the meet for 8 hours. Oy.

We are fostering some kittens. We had four little ones, but Miranda's teacher is adopting two of them so they are gone.  We also have Waffles back. He is the kitten that escaped his carrier, was lost for a month living in the garden center of the rite aid in pleasant hill.  He's getting adopted at the end of the month.

I'm taking the girls camping on Saturday for our girl scout troop. I'm in charge and slightly dreading it. but it's only one day and I figure I can do anything for one day.

We've decreed May 24th Kids' Day.  I got the idea from my friend Monika who does it with her kids every year.  They get to make the rules all day.  The kids worked together about what rules they wanted and are very excited about it. I predict lots of minecraft and ice cream. It should be fun.

The kids are out of school in one month. They are pretty excited about that too.

Michael's Bday

Michael turned 46 on Monday. We had sushi and then lemon cake. The kids got him presents via me. Elizabeth gave him a little desk thing that says, "I love that you are my Dad." Miranda got him an Oakland Magnet (he collect magnets) and Parker got him a puzzle of vintage cereal boxes.

I got him HBO. He's been talking about it for a while so when Susan told me we could get it without getting cable, I did some digging. That wasn't quite true, but we were able to get super basic cable (only local stations) with HBO and HBO GO so that he could watch all the old episodes of Games of Thrones, True Detective, Deadwood, Band of Brothers and much more. We discussed it so it wasn't really a present since he's actually paying for it too, but whatever. It got installed today and he is happy as a clam. The best part is that we got cable internet with it and the whole thing costs $5 more than we are currently paying for just internet. And the internet is much faster. I'm sure the price will jump in a year, so I told him this present may have an expiration date.

Until then, he will be a happy guy.

More foster kitties

We got some 6-week old foster kitties a few days ago and Miranda's teacher (my friend) took two of them today to adopt.  She was quite excited.

Here are two with waffles. He's a boy cat, but they try to nurse off him. He is very tolerant. He is getting adopted in 2 weeks.  The grey and black ones below went to her teacher.  They look surprised, but I swear that is their normal look. It's strange.

No tooth fairy

The girls "found" their teeth in my bedside drawer and Miranda told me about it.  She said she knew there was no tooth fairy, but she was glad she now had proof. I gave them their teeth back and told them not to discuss it at school since some kids still believed. I told them they could talk about it in 4th grade.   They asked if Parker knew and I said I didn't know and we should let him believe it if he wanted to.  They seemed ok with that.   Then they said that Lola's mom told her there was no tooth fairy and that Lola was mean to them.  Nice transition huh?

Miranda Mouse Goes to School