Wrestling

While we missed the last two (or three - I lost count) weeks of wrestling due to illness and a host of other things, we were able to attend the end of season ice cream party and award ceremony this evening, even though I have a concussion (*see below for an explanation if you're curious).

Aiden really enjoyed the chocolate ice cream they served. He liked it so much, he had to dribble it all down his front. He is very proud to have a trophy with his name on it.

We also got his wrestling pictures. Sorry about the picture of a picture. Isn't he cute with his little wrestling stance?

The group photo cracks me up. Click on it to enlarge if you can't see the look on Aiden's face. He's smack in the middle front of the entire group and looking suspiciously off to one side. Oh kid.

All in all, I'm not sure that we'll do wrestling again next year. Aiden was um, not great at it....he had one take down the entire season and would otherwise just flop to the ground and let other kids take him down. That's a big reason why we didn't take part in any of the tournaments. Also, we didn't feel entirely at home with the wrestling families. Most of the children had foul mouths and were incredibly rude and ill-behaved, and their parents would not address any questionable behavior. Maybe I'm wrong, but just because it is a wrestling practice doesn't mean that you should allow your child to beat the living daylights out of another kid while waiting for practice to start. Needless to say, I felt really uncomfortable exposing Aiden to behavior like that and that's one reason why we sort of faded out going to practices over the last few weeks. We are, however, looking forward to soccer starting up in mid-March. Aiden is very excited about it and I think he'll be better at it as well.

*The concussion: I had lifted up the lid to our top-loading washing machine and reached in to grab clothes. Apparently though, I did not push the lid all the way back and when I reached in, the lid fell back forward and the sharp edge hit me on the top of my head. It only fell a few inches forward, but somehow managed to hit me hard enough (or in just the right place) to cause a mild concussion. I am slowly feeling better, but my head still hurts quite a bit 24 hours later.

Happy Valentine's Day

John isn't really the "surprise gift" kind of guy, but I've always been ok with it. That makes it all the more special when he does manage to completely surprise me every three years or so.

I love it.

I hope everyone had a great day - with or without a Valentine celebration. You can be loved on any day of the year!

TAG

As many of you know, we've been waiting to hear from the school district about testing Aiden for TAG (Talented and Gifted). There was a big overhaul of the testing system this year and it put things behind quite a bit. Really, we should have done this in kindergarten but I thought there was no rush. Because of the wait (which can be blamed on us for not doing this last year), Aiden has been struggling this year. He's bored, which has caused frustration and anger on his part, along with refusing to do his work at school. All very textbook behavior when kids aren't challenged enough, according to the doctor. We've been trying various ways of challenging him when he's home, but its been obvious that he needs more than he's getting during the 6+ hours in the classroom.

I received an email today from the school's TAG coordinator, letting me know that the testing had been completed and the paperwork is in. I had no idea that they had done the testing already so this was a huge surprise! There is a final meeting on February 27th between the coordinator, Aiden's teacher, and two specialists to determine if Aiden qualifies for the program. The coordinator said that from what she knows from his assessments and in speaking with his teacher, we should expect a letter home that afternoon confirming his entrance into TAG.

If you could keep us in prayer over the next three weeks, and especially for the meeting that afternoon to go the way we need it to go, it would be greatly appreciated. And hopefully we'll have some good news to share three weeks from now!

More Toothlessness

Aiden's other front top tooth fell out! This one got the final nudge after Nathan accidentally knocked him in the face with a Wii remote. He's been saving for a new bike and putting his tooth money towards that purchase. Maybe we need to tell him to stop having people hit him in the face for more tooth money.

Field Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday Nathan's preschool class took a field trip to the zoo. Aiden just happened to be off from school due to grade prep and budget reduction days, so we tagged along. And it just so happened that there were enough kids with memberships, everyone was able to get in for free. We had let our membership expire well over a year ago, as we'd had it for a few years and the boys were starting to get bored with going to the zoo all the time. But it was nice to go back for a day and not have to pay $30 to get in.

It was chilly, but quite a few of the animals were out having a leisurely morning, which made for great viewing.

We got to see the new baby elephant, Lilly and oh was she adorable! Trotting all over the place, walking in between her mommy's legs and nearly tripping her (hmm, much like human children do!), and pestering her big brother. There was a funny moment when Sam, her big brother, came along behind her, pulled her tail with his trunk, and then ran off. Sibling rivalry translates so well. :-)

After the field trip wrapped up, the boys and I decided to stay at the zoo for a little while longer. Because I had Aiden with me, I wasn't able to drive any other kids from Nathan class,so we had no reason to head back to the preschool. We had some fun going through Africa.

 Nathan is a crazy jeep driver!

 Future circus performer?

Our most interesting moment by far was our visit to the giraffes. One of the giraffes was...um, proudly showing off the fact that he had male parts. He wasn't doing anything with his male parts - just walking around, making sure that everyone could see it. Nathan's friend Rachel had been at the zoo the day before and her mom told me that the giraffe was doing the same thing while her family was there. As we walked up to the giraffe enclosure, I fully braced myself for a loud question or comment from either Aiden or Nathan. But instead, Aiden took one look at the giraffe and calmly said, "I know he's an animal, but I think he needs to put some pants on". I'm glad my child knows that you should not go around with personal parts whipped out for all to see. We quickly moved on to the next animal enclosure.

As we were leaving, we happened to meet our cousins Daniel and Levi, who were just arriving. It was fun to say hi. I almost warned them about Mr. "I have nothing to hide" Giraffe, but there were other people around us, so I didn't. I heard that they saw for themselves a little while later. Zoos are so educational!

Before getting in the car, we walked across the parking lot to spend some time on "Betty", the train that sits outside the forestry center. I asked the boys to pose like they were driving the train and this is what I got. I have no idea why Nathan looks angry/evil.

At least he's happy in this one.

After such a fun morning, I treated the boys to lunch at Red Robin, where they made sure to order their own food "like grownups". It occurred to me that I had never taken the boys out to a sit down restaurant by myself before. We've always been with someone else. So it was a new experience, but they did very well and we were very hungry after our zoo excursion.

We topped off the afternoon with a trip to the library and ice cream at McDonalds (coffee for me!). There was a small incident when trying to leave the library when it appeared and sounded like the engine of my car was attempting to escape from under the hood, but that's another post.

We had a great day and we all slept very, very soundly at bedtime.