kindergarten winners . . . (and losers)

Now we're 'proud honor roll parent's we understand why some people plaster their mini-van bumpers with elementary school stickers. Having your kid excel is exciting. As the parent it only makes sense that the entire world should be metaphorically patting your kid on the back.

 

I went to Liam's award ceremony this morning and as happy I was to see my kid with a yellow-starred certificate, I felt really bad for those kids that didn't quite make the cut.  Before the awards started they made it very clear that although everyone would get some kind of paper to bring home, at least for 'effort', the honor roll awards were just for the kids that averaged 90-100% on their quarter grades. It makes me a little uncomfortable to have kids ranked and categorized at such a young age. I know that's part of life- some people race ahead, some lag, and some just take their own path entirely- but can't everyone be equally a winner in kindergarten? I guess it all has to start sometime.









Liam's 'star of the week' poster

This is a video clip of Liam's class.  He is really easy to spot out in this video, for obvious reasons :). (Also look for the spontaneous background dancer) Yep, it's a multi-ethnic, ALL in French, kindergarten experience.  His kindergarten experience is a bold contrast to the cushy one I experienced in Eagle River, Alaska, but we're all happy with it.  His school was the only one of 204 schools in their district to be awarded the "School of the Year" distinction from the Maryland Board of Education. About 1/3 of the kids have a parent that speaks French (African, French, Haitian . . .) All their math, reading, writing, science is all done in French. To me it seems disorienting and exhausting, to Liam it feels normal (although if he had a choice he would prefer English.)

The dog experiment

Wouldn't it be nice if before people made big life decisions -getting married, buying a car, having a baby, accepting a new job- if first they got a 9 day take-it-or-leave-it trial. You know, if you tried it out for 9 days and didn't absolutely love it (the new house, infant, or dog) it just goes back. Well that's kinda how I'd sum up our dog sitting experiment.

Our kids are crazy about dogs.  We keep a box of dog bones in our cupboard at all times, even though we have never had a dog, just in case.  So Brady and I thought that maybe, as considerate parents, we needed a pup of our own.  In the meantime our friends went to Cali for a 9 day vacation and asked us to dog-sit. As a dog-hungry family, we were happy to help.

 So we took in a sweet, 1 year old, lab-poodle named Osa. . . with ADHD.  She likes kids but she also loves toppling them over. It was fun taking her on walks but it was just too much for her to see all the kids get off at Liam's bus stop and resist jumping and catching them.  Liam and Elsie enjoyed taking turns feeding her but also discovered that she likes eating crayons, chapstick, styrofoam, and Buzz light year rocketships. She was pretty well potty trained, well, except for the 7-8 times she wasn't.  (Including when she peed inside right in front of our landlord during our yearly rental inspection.)

Yet despite this and all the times Elsie said " Is she going to EAT me ?" it seems really quiet around here and we all kinda miss Osa- the crazy, lovable dog.
 Luckily, not enough to replace her.

random, silly kid ramblings

(Elsie and Liam were playing make-up. Elsie was thrilled with the results, up until she did the eyeliner on her nose.)

 Liam is certain that we are having a baby boy.  He says that it is the only thing that makes sense considering the family pattern we have in place, starting with dad (boy/ girl/boy/girl. . . boy)
Elsie wants a pink baby, preferably a baby sister, but definitely not one that will take her mermaids.

Liam's top name choices are:
 Ninja- if it's a boy
 Princess- if it's a girl. (There is actually a girl with this name in his kindergarten class)

Elsie's top choice:
 "Baby Elsie"   Never-mind it being her own name, and redundant, it's her favorite name ever.

Liam quote of the week- "Too bad they can't rename my school from 'Goddard French Immersion School' to 'Goddard Ninja Shark."



Elsie quote of the week: "Mom, don't worry, I don't eat green boogers, only the yellow ones."

 
Elsie is an artist.  She can't resist passing by a blank piece of paper without leaving it colored.
Here she is painting a cardboard box pink (left)
& posing by her self portrait (below)

Liam's class celebrated their 100th day of kindergarten today with a counting party where they made trail mix.  School is a breeze for Liam. Here is a picture of his kindergarten homework, which he completed by himself.  I love seeing what he comes up with. . .

kids and medical misconceptions

Since my kids have been sick on and off again for the past 6 weeks we have talked a lot about preventing sickness and then how to manage  symptoms once infected. From these discussions have come some interesting comments. 

From Liam:

Liam talking to Elsie- “If kids have a fever and they don’t drink water, they’ll DISAPPEAR!!!”

-“I don’t know how the germs got me. I have really good eyes and I looked REALLY closely and I didn’t even see them. “

-“How did I get sick again? I was sleeping with a blanket over my head and even all the way over my feet so the germs couldn’t jump on me while I was sleeping.”

-“Every time I cough I am letting the germs out so there is less and less inside me.”

-“If you get sick the first thing you do is drink hot chocolate and watch movies.”

From Elsie-

-"When kids are sick they drink lots of hot chocolate. When moms are sick they drink bath water." (Looking at my herbal tea in a dark mug)

-"The pink medicine is the best cause it eats all my germs all gone."

-"The germs tried to get me and I was running SUPER fast. Like this-" Then showing 2 fingers frantically moving as fast as they could.

Presidential Inauguration

  
An inaugural kiss, downtown D.C. during the presidential inauguration. Brady didn't take an Obama flyer and a guy accused him of being a "Republican," a dirty name in this town.

You've probably noticed that none of these pictures of the presidential inauguration actually included the president.  That's because we did not actually see the president. We saw the capitol, we saw the national monument, we heard the inauguration blasted over a loud speaker, saw the secret service snipers, the tanks, but there were about a million people between us and Barack. With D.C. security, unless you know a guy, you aren't actually allowed anywhere near the president. That said, we had a fun time being downtown for the festivities.

This is a town that can't get enough Obama. He snagged a jaw dropping 96% of the vote here.  Even when it's not an election year people sing his praises year round with T-shirts, tattoos, bumper stickers, songs (that Liam sings in kindergarten.)    I visit taught a lady from church that had 2 large pictures taped to her house front window- one picture of the Obama family, the other of the Mormon temple. It's pretty indicative of how deeply, almost religiously, connected people feel to him.  He is much more than a political figure- for the black community he like is a prophet foreshadowing opportunity to come.  While I didn't vote for Obama (some of his fiscal policies don't jive with me) I appreciate what he has done to open doors and bridge the racial divide. 

Here's the official 1st lady 2013 inaugural dress, in case you're dying to see it.  I'm nearly fashion-less but the D.C. Smithsonian National History Museum has a collection of 1st lady inaugural dresses that's quite fascinating. It's a retelling of history via ballgown.  This dress will go to that collection alongside Martha Washington, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Jackie O.

There are few things as pathetic as sleeping next to a barf bowl-  yet Elsie makes it look perfectly cute.  Somehow the very first week back from Utah she got the same stomach flu she had on Christmas.  The miserable cycle of fevers, taking medicine, throwing -up medicine, and piles of vomity laundry continues. 

This past weekend we went to the Smithsonian museum and she was as cute and curious as always.  We've been there so many times, I feel like even my 5 year old could give tours. Some things just don't get old.

 Before Elsie had recovered from her stomach flu Liam caught it. Here he is with his super sad, sick and fevery face. And here Elsie is mimicking Liam's sad face and walking around with plastic containers on her feet.

This picture reminds me just how sweet my children are. In these pictures Liam is sharing a bowl of fruit with his sister. He made it by himself, unsupervised, cut with lots of love and a dull butter knife, then brought to share. I had been sick that day and this gesture was his way of helping.  My children bring endless light to my life.

enjoying winter

This winter break Liam has spent hours outside collecting large snowballs, making sledding hills, shoveling snow, and giving warm water to dead looking plants. I tend to be a grump when it comes to winter- I don't like cold, I don't participate in winter sports, and I basically start counting down 'til spring on the first day of frost.  But it absolutely melts my heart to see the kids sled with their grandparents, eat and collect icicles, and turn into half -frozen, happy, snow kids. 
I   I stole the big, nice pictures from my mother-in-law, Leisa.