Almost 10 - wanting to be 20!

Baby A - what am I going to do with him? He is bored all the time at school - at least this is what he has been telling me for the past 2 weeks. I'm thinking this is fall out from him not getting accepted into the gifted & talented program - when we thought he might get in - we had built it up saying how much fun it would be to be in a class filled with kids just like him - now he is thinking that he is too much ahead of his regular class mates to be able to have any fun. I'm thinking that this will all pass - and he'll learn to get over it and get on with life. So in the mean time I listen (patiently) to his stories of woe - about how easy everything is - how the stories they are reading in school are only 5 pages long. He can't believe they can even come up with enough questions for the tests if the story is only 5 pages long! He also spends time complaining about how he wishes everyone else knew their math facts that it takes entirely too long for everyone to get done with their math - and he just has to sit around and wait all day long......

Then today - for the first time I get graded papers home - he hadn't even bothered to look at the grades - otherwise I'm sure he'd have never brought them home to me. He got 50% on 2 of them and a 58% on a third one! E-gads! One of them was the test on the 5 page story he had been complaining about because it had been too easy - and another one was just a math sheet with 18 problems - all of the problems being adding 4 two digit numbers together - needing to carry in order to complete them. So I remained really calm, and had him sit down & re-do the math sheet after he was done with his reading. He immediately told me there wasn't any need - that the teacher wasn't going to give him any more credit for it - I quickly informed him that we were going to do it to let the teacher know that he was the kind of student that re-did papers that he only got 50% correct on, and to let the teacher know that his mother was not the kind of mother that let 50% grades just slide by. So I had him copy the 9 incorrect problems down & re-do them on a separate sheet of paper. He got 5 of the 9 incorrect AGAIN! I'm having a harder time keeping my cool - but we needed to move on - I had to get dinner ready before shipping them off to Cub Scouts.

Of course the next issue is the fact that he can't find his uniform. I send him back to his room - telling him to look harder - his room isn't that big and it has to be there some where. He still can't find it. I look for it - it was turned inside out and lying on his floor beneath all of his shirts that are properly hung up. I hear his father tell him every week - to put it on the hanger nicely so it will look decent for next week. Once again I'm calm. I just tossed it at him and went downstairs to finish the dinner. Asking him to hang up all the other shirts that I had found lying in the bottom of his closet.

Now - my issue is this - this is the same child that SWEARS that he is mature enough to play in the Major's - meaning he wants to play in the 11 & 12 year old catagory for next year's baseball season. Not only is he really small for his own age - which he won't even turn 10 until December - he is apparently not overly mature for his age.

In the mean time - I am trying REALLY hard to remain calm, and kill him with kindness - with Ben that almost always works better than hollering at him. I'm about to burst a blood vessel - but I've decided that I can do this - he is worth it.

Tomorrow I will talk to his teacher. I know that today she sent him out in the hall for quite a while - apparently she was talking about plant reproduction & he got the giggles thinking that the plants were having sex. So I have to tread lightly - I don't want her thinking that I'm upset about that - she probably did the exact right thing there - get him out of there before he got the entire class in an uproar.

I guess no one ever promised me that this parenting thing would be easy.

In our boys’ school the kids can choose to participate in the AR (Accelerated Reading) program. They don’t have to do it at all – but if they choose to – they read a book, and then take a test on it. If they get an 85% or better on the test – they get so many points. The tests are comprised of 20 multiple choice questions. The points depend on the length and reading level of the book. For instance the books in the Harry Potter series range from 12 to 44 points each. Then you only get all the points if you get a 100% on the test score. If you get an 85% - you only get 85% of the points available for that particular book. If you get less than 85% on the test – you read a different book and try again. So – Ben is really into this program, and has been really working hard at it. He read all 7 of the Harry Potter books, and has recently finished the 2nd of the Eragon books, plus what ever else he picks up to read in the library at school.

As the students progress through out the year they pass certain bench marks. There are tons of kids in the first category, (+50 points) and then there are fewer and fewer students in each category until it progresses up to the “Super” level. There are 4 kids in that level – Ben, one 4th grader and two 6th graders. Then one of those 6th grade boys is in the top “Star” level – meaning he has received more than 250 points this school year. Well today – they had to add a little 3rd grader’s name to the “Star” section. Yup – little Ben Carberry is the 1st Third Grader to reach “Star” level in the history of Lincoln Elementary! I thought his little chest was going to explode he was so proud of himself when he received his little dog tag that says STAR on it this morning.

Now I hear things about it being even more difficult to get to “Star” status in other schools – so maybe it isn’t THAT big of an accomplishment. But I’m pretty proud of the little buggar! Especially since it is all self motivated – he didn’t have to read any of them. And the only thing that he has gotten out of it other than the enjoyment of the books is a few little dog tags and his name listed on the hall wall outside the library. Last year there was only one girl in the school that made “Star” status and they put her photo in the yearbook – tomorrow is the day that the photographers are going to be in the school - Ben is going to be terribly disappointed if they don’t track him down & take his photo. In the mean time – I think it may be time to go buy him that video game that he’s had his eye on.



Just call me Proud Mama!



Sherlyn

Animal Crossing - City Folk

Do you play this game? I think I'm more addicted than my children! I shot down a space ship today - woo hoo! I hear that is quite a feat - most people don't ever see one - and those that do rarely get it shot down. I'll find out what my "gift" is tomorrow. But I must admit that I was pretty smug about it - chalking it all up to Karma - I always turn in my fish & bugs to the museum - the first time I catch anything new. Well after all the smugness I caught a Stringfish - worth 15,000 Bells - tonight for the first time, and then 2 minutes later I caught a football fish - not sure what they are worth but it was my first one of those too. And then on my way to the museum I caught a Koi. I don't know how much that one is worth either - but even Blathers made some comment about how much I could have sold it for. Oh well!

So - I dutifully took them all to the museum. Not sure how many bells I gave up, but If I'm going to continue to feel I'm reaping the rewards of good Karma - I'd better keep holding up my end of the deal.

If anyone would like to venture out & visit my family's town -

Friend Code: 3867 2618 3266
Name: Sherlyn
Town: Iowa

You'll have to leave your Friend Code, name & town in a comment for me to add to my friend roster - so we can meet!


I couldn't help myself - I just googled it and looked up the value of the fish - Football Fish - 2500 Bells & the Koi was worth 4000! That is over 21k I gave up to the museum today all in the name of Karma - that better be one really cool gift from the alien tomorrow!

Added the next morning - here is a shot of my character & the fallen space ship!

Am I Hysterical?

This salmonella outbreak in peanut products is about to get the best of me.

Most days I just go on my merry way living with the fact that people consider me one of those hysterical peanut people. I don't allow my children to come into contact with peanuts. I don't allow them to eat things from other people's homes. I don't allow them to eat things that have been manufactured in a facility that also manufactures foods containing peanuts. I have a VERY strict comfort zone when it comes to feeding my children - but I've only had to witness anaphylaxis once - the day we found out about the allergy. We haven't had any known exposures or reactions to nuts since. This knowledge that people think I’m hysterical is a price I'm willing to pay in order to keep my children alive.

I know that I'm not crazy - I've seen what anaphylaxis can do to a child. I see the results of the yearly blood tests drawn on my children that says that one of my kids results are literally off the charts. In allergy tests any thing over 0.35 means a child is allergic - anything over a 2.0 means it could be life threatening - BabyB's number is often > 100 - that's all it says - they stop counting when it gets that high.

I read the accounts of the approximately 200 Americans that die each year from reactions to peanuts - a huge percentage of them being children in schools. I read how over 2000 Americans are hospitalized every year because of it. I keep all of this to myself most days because once again - I am aware that the world thinks I'm hysterical.

Now - is the rest of the world considered hysterical because they don't want their children to eat anything that might have salmonella? So far 9 people have died and over 500 people have been hospitalized because of this outbreak.

Some schools have even gone so far as to remove the Smuckers PB&J sandwiches from the menu they normally serve. It's known that these particular products aren't affected by the salmonella - but the schools thought that they didn't want to cause any stress to any of the children or their parents so they took them off the menu. Of course these same schools said that they couldn't possibly take PB&J off the menu in order to keep a few peanut allergic children safe or less stressed. One of the many reasons always stated in these arguments is that some children will eat ONLY peanut butter - these children might go hungry! Gasp! As you can imagine - the thought of a child choosing to not eat anything other than peanut butter who might miss his meal - compared to the fact that other children might actually stop breathing..... that doesn't really impress me much. What is poor little Billy eating now that they have temporarily removed the beloved PB&J? Has he starved yet?

I can't even imagine how these school officials that have made these recent decisions can look some of the parents in the face. You can remove an item from the school menu because it might stress some kids out - but you can't even imagine removing the same item because it can actually kill some of your students? What about the mental health of the allergic kids? There are fewer of them so you just flat out don't care?

The fact that Delta Airlines is making a big public flap about serving peanuts again on their flights because they are based out of Atlanta isn't really helping my mood this week either. My fear is that this will continue until some one actually dies on an airplane. Won't that be so much fun for all those that get to witness it! Then and only then – after having to pay out tons of money because they knew they might kill some one and chose to serve the silly peanuts anyway – then Delta and other airlines will stop serving them on their flights.

My family and a lot of other hysterical peanut folks will just choose to not fly on their airlines until that happens.

I should add as a side note – my family has been very lucky. Our school took PB off the school menu the day we stepped into the school. We didn’t even have to ask much less fight them on it. I only raise these issues because being part of this hysterical peanut community – I read and hear so many stories of parents trying to keep their children safe every day that it breaks my heart.

Plus – my one hope out of this current catastrophe is that the FDA will start figuring out how to force companies to start labeling for possible cross contamination. Since this has all began – they have finally figured out that they have no way of knowing what non-peanut foods might have been contaminated by the salmonella in the peanuts. They are finding out that in many factories it depends on the whim of the shift manager as to what gets ran on what lines that day. So it is very difficult to find out if things got ran on the same lines that salmonella was running on the hour before. Welcome to our hysterical world everyone!

All is well .... for now

The tooth got fixed! The dentist says that these fixes last on average 5 to 6 years now-a-days. We'll see how long it lasts. When I had mine fixed the first time - it lasted a week. My brother and & I were playing tug-of-war with a gavel and he let go, and it of course smacked me in the mouth - knocking off the piece of porcelain. But back to BabyA - they didn't even have to numb him up or anything - just slapped the stuff on there, shaped it up, and then did their thing with that special light they use. He's as good as new!

We took the boys out of school half an hour early this afternoon. They had a small ceremony for the torch being carried to the Special Olympics. It was pretty cool. I'm afraid to say that there were more people on the stage than in the seats watching - but it was still pretty cool. The special athletes seemed happy to be there - and I guess that is what really matters.

Never the thing you worry about!

I know this is a weird thing to think about - but every now and then I have worried that God will trip my son, BabyB, knocking his teeth out. I just can't help myself from worrying about this. BabyB is just plain gorgeous. He has gorgeous red hair, he is tall and slim, he has cute freckles, and he has these perfectly straight teeth. When I think of how handsome he is, I always fear that God might smite me and knock his teeth out just to prove a point - the point being I shouldn't take such pride in the looks of one of my children. I especially shouldn't take this much pride in only one of my twins! In all fairness - I think BabyA is cute too - he's just a different kind of cute. He has LOTS of freckles, auburn hair, and a smile that could melt any mother's heart. He also has loads of attitude that make all the girls think he is HOT! But in this mother's eyes - BabyB is the true looker - even though it is BabyA that has all the girls chasing after him.

Some days I think that I must be a complete narcissist - hoping that God surely wouldn't knock my child's teeth out just to prove a point to me. Other days - I think I'm just paranoid about it because I knocked half of my front tooth off as a 9 year old, and was taken to a horrible dentist repeatedly in order to get it fixed. I screamed and cried for my daddy to save me from the torture chamber of the dentist office. To fully understand the horror this put my Aunt through - who was sitting out in the waiting room during all this - you would need to know that I had been orphaned about 6 months prior to this. This tooth still causes me trouble to this day! My tooth has 2 pins in it - one horizontal & one vertical to try and hold on to the piece of porcelain attached to it. But every so often I bite into an apple or something else and it breaks off.

So - this is the backdrop to yesterday’s happenings.

Both boys go to a friend’s house down the block to play basketball. About 20 minutes later BabyA comes running in screaming that BabyB knocked his tooth out! I immediately ask - "BabyB knocked who's tooth out?" MINE!!!! He screams showing me his teeth and bloody lip. Sure enough about half of BabyA's front tooth is missing. Lovely. It never occurred to me that BabyA would have his teeth knocked out - he has wild looking bucked teeth that will most certainly need braces. But he was standing in front of me with half his tooth gone. E-gads!

So I'm not sure what the moral of the story is - other than the tried and true rule - of it's never the thing you worry about - it's always something else that sneaks up behind you and grabs you in the gut when you aren't looking.

The dentist that we go to has a migraine today - so we have an appointment first thing tomorrow morning. Wish us (all of us) luck!

I will try to get a photo of this today – but I doubt that he’ll be into it. I told him yesterday we should take a photo of him and send it to his Grandma Sara – (my Aunt) – and ask if it brought back old memories. He just started crying and went and hid in his closet until I came in and apologized.

As you can see here - he did let me take his photo today. He wasn't happy about it - but I promised him that he would want to see what it looked like when he is 30.

The day before 2009!

Well, I'm back at it. I've been not doing the diet thing very well - for the past couple of weeks. During the 2 months before that - I'm down 25 pounds - yay! But I've been snacking for the past 2 weeks. Between the boys turning 9 and Christmas - it was pretty easy to come up with an excuse to snack. But it's all behind me now - I'm back on the wagon - so to speak.

My next official weigh in at the doctor's office is scheduled for 1/14. I'm hoping to drop 5 pounds by then - wish me luck!