What a week......

We have definitely had a week of ups and downs. The kids were off school for Presidents' Day on Monday, but Maggie still went to gymnastics in the afternoon.  Apparently she did not have a very good session because her coach was waiting for Sam when he picked her up and told him that Maggie was now on final warning.  Apparently, she was being disruptive in the class and they have had enough.  Fast forward to Wednesday, when Sam picked Maggie up from school.  Maggie's teacher was waiting for him because Maggie had a full-blown tantrum in class, ending up by kicking her drawer and breaking it.  Either Maggie is not having a good week or Sam really needs to stop picking her up from places!!!!

Big news of the week is that Ben has a girlfriend!!!  He's been after her for a while, but she had another boyfriend.  They broke up because he cheated on her (they are in sixth grade, for crying out loud!!!).  Ben has done a couple of things with her before, now they are enjoying their snow day together playing Monopoly!!!!

We have our first snow day of this Winter-snow, ice and freezing rain.  Glad we stayed at home....

Wonder what Friday will bring....

Weird quote of the day

When we got up yesterday morning, Ben said "Mum, can we go to the hardware store today, I want to look at appliances". Since I wanted to look at tiles at Lowe's, I told him I'd take him later on in the afternoon.  He even had to call me to remind me I was running out of time when I was going a bunch of other things I had to do....
Being curious, I took him over to Lowe's to see what his agenda really was.  He went through every single refrigerator in the store and critiqued every one of them.  He's a seriously strange child, but supremely entertaining!!!!

I think he's been watching too much HGTV!!!!

M.U.G. Meet at SLGC

Ben had an unsanctioned gymnastics meet at his gym yesterday

Ben came first overall in this competition, although he only won 3 individual events and didn't medal in 2 of them. I don't think he was on his best form but he did really well on rings, parallel bars and high bar.  I took a couple of videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j1TCOdBb7M&list=UUAOWX-wOARFYsMlXtYv82vA&index=1



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPY8ub2Zq6s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Girl scout meeting

The girl scouts from Maggie's school had a luau party last weekend.  Someone made these sandal cookies, aren't they great?

These cupcakes were pineapple flavoured and had pineapple and cherries on the parasol stick

They had a bunch of games to play.  They did the limbo and played skittles by bowling a coconut.  Maggie has quite the technique going.

They made native-style masks

we took their picture with the masks on!!!

What was the hit of the event????  The coconuts eventually split and they were fascinated with getting the water out to drink it.  Then they wanted to eat the coconut.  I think it's akin to buying a bunch of Christmas presents and the kids playing with the boxes!!!!

Big day at the dentist

Maggie and I had dentist appointments yesterday.  Maggie was getting her braces, so I took her to SLU.  It took them about 2 hours to do them, but I think she did just fine.  She's very happy to have braces and chose blue and green as her colours.  We'll see if she's still happy about them once they start to ache.  Hopefully she won't mess them up like she did her palate spreader, but I don't have that much hope....

The worst thing is that her teeth would have been perfect if she hadn't been sucking her fingers.  The dentist talks to her about it every time she goes, but it makes no difference.  I'm hoping that her teeth are aching enough during the braces phase that it makes her stop sucking her fingers.

After Maggie's visit, I had to take her with me to my dentist's appointment.  I just had my teeth cleaned and checked, luckily they are all fine (for now)....

James Madison

Well, Maggie learned her speech perfectly and luckily Sam was at the presentation to tape it and take the obligatory pictures!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Nn0PVoCPk&feature=youtu.be

Living Museum, Part II

Now that Maggie is in 3rd grade, it's her turn to do the Living Museum for Presidents' Day.  Ben did it 3 years ago (check here) and he was George Washington.  Not to be outdone, Maggie told her teacher that she wanted to have a white wig and so she chose to be James Madison.  Of course, I knew nothing about it until she got into the car yesterday and said "Mum, you have three days to get my costume ready for the President's Day thing"  I had no idea who she even was, so I had to run around and get a costume together for her.  Luckily, we still had a wig and neck thing from when Ben did it 3 years ago.  So, we went to Goodwill and found a pair of black pants and a jacket for her.  I had to cut the sleeves off the jacket and take it in at the back so it doesn't fall off her, but it came out OK and wasn't a bad effort for an hour's work.

When she was practicing her speech today, we had this conversation.
Maggie: My name is James Bond
Me: What's your name Maggie?
Maggie: James Madison.
Me: Yes Maggie, don't say you are James Bond.
Maggie: Oh, I keep getting James Madison and James Bond mixed up
Me: Easy to do Maggie......

Ryan's video from Saturday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSoPAhD4blo&feature=youtu.be

The rowing Sylars.......

School ups and downs (but mostly up)

I got two emails from the school yesterday, which prompted me to think about how school was going this semester.

Maggie has been doing her new schedule since the beginning of the year.  This means that she has individual or small group attention almost all day.  She is either pulled out of the class to work with the SSD teacher or is in class with her teacher in a small group.  In addition to the regular help, there is a lady working at the school who is working on her Missouri Reading Certification and she needs to work with a single student for 90 hours.  She wrote to ask us if she could work with Maggie (how lucky are we?) and she works in the classroom with her every day for 40 minutes.  In addition, she meets with Maggie twice a week before school.  Sam and I were remarking on how well Maggie has been doing this year.  She is definitely more aware of what is going on and even told Sam on Thursday morning that she had Ms McGhee and art after school that day.  That's a huge step forward from not knowing what day of the week it was or if she went to school or not.

Unfortunately, all is not rosy in the garden and we should have learned not to tempt fate because I got an email from Ms McGhee yesterday with an update on what she has been doing with Maggie, but with this added:

"We have also had trouble just this week with Maggie not being motivated. She is just wanting to lay on the table and not do anything. I know that Maggie is a fun girl and it makes me sad when she is not listening and not wanting to participate. I have made rewards for her like candy and computer time, so if you could remind her of these and help keep her motivated, that would be great!"

It's not surprising as it happens over and over.   Her classroom teacher tried the same incentives last semester and it lasted for a few weeks and then Maggie just gave up.  She really can't keep it up for too long, but it's worth a shot for a few weeks reprieve.  I talked to Maggie's classroom teacher and she agreed with us that Maggie is doing better this semester with the extra help, but she still lays on the table, gets distracted easily and disturbs the other kids.  Everyone is doing the best they can, so we will keep working on her and hope for the best. 

Maggie has a long day on Thursday.  She goes to school early to work on her reading and then stays to do an art class after school.  When I picked her up from art, she was sitting at the table working on her puppet.  It was the most focused I have ever seen her and her puppet is really good.  I can't wait to see it when it's finished.

 

So after the email from Maggie's teacher, I got an email from Ben's teacher at Steger.  My first reaction when I see an email from a teacher titled "Ben" is to think "what now???"  I immediately thought, surely not two in one day.....I was pleasantly surprised though because it was very positive.

"How do you think this year is going for Ben so far?

Ben has been doing great in class. I do think he is understanding our new unit on Earth Science. We had a free team time the other day. We had an open gym and Ben was demonstrating some of his gymnastic skills. I told him I would love to come and watch him sometime. It was amazing."
On the whole, they are both doing really well and I am so proud of them trying every day.  At least they are always happy to go to school every day, so that's at least something!!!

St. Louis Indoor Rowing Club competition 2013

Sam and I did the rowing competition this weekend. Sam did it last year and I thought I might as well give it a go. We had to wait around a long time because they were running way behind. Plenty of time to warm up and stretch out.....

This is how Crossfitters warm up!!!!

Me ready to do my heat (at this point I was hoping I could finish and not puke!!)

I finished in 9:49.7.  I was really disappointed because I wanted to do 9:45.  I just could not pick up the pace at the end like I had wanted to do.  I was by far the slowest one of the whole day, by a long way.  Still, I went and competed, and finished and DID NOT PUKE!!!!

Maggie was happy to hug me at the end....

Sam and Ryan (in matching shirts!) waiting to start their heat.

Sam did a great job, he wanted to finish in under 7 minutes, but missed it by 2 seconds.  We both have something to aim for next year

They looked pretty tired at the end of the row

Sam won his category (second year in a row)

Maggie did the kids' race at the end.  There was just her and a boy about Ben's age.  They rowed 300 m and she did a really good job.  They gave all the kids a medal, so I was the only one in the family that didn't get one!!!

This was the Crossfit 26 rowing team.  We got 5 medals, not a bad showing.....