First Day of School

School has started again....

Soccer

Both boys are playing soccer this year. Michael has been playing every fall and is a good player. Spencer has not been playing soccer, or any other sport, because (in Spencer's own words) "I don't like people telling me what to do." I convinced him to try it this year. He agreed, though he had a hard time seeing the point of playing because "I'm already really good at soccer." Great, I like the confidence I thought. After Spencer's first practice (which I did not see because I was at Michael's game), I learned that he did (actually) do very well. When Patrick asked him why he didn't pass the ball more to some of the other players, he responded, "Because none of them are any good." So, maybe too much confidence and in need of some humility and understanding of team work. Not to bolster Spencer's point, but during his first game he scored two of three goals. And he scored the only goal during the scrimmage at his next practice. He has a game this morning. I'm curious to see how it goes.

Baseball

Michael's baseball team won the championship this year. They were in first place in the regular season too. There is a big discrepancy with the size of the boys playing in this league which is ages 10-12. The older boys were really great with the young boys. The games were often exciting and always fun. Here are pictures from the day they won the championship.

Vacation Pictures

These are pictures from our cabin trip this summer. We had a great time. The boys loved fishing. Well, Michael loved fishing. Spencer enjoyed playing with the minnows, i.e., the bait. Both boys named the minnows and were intent on setting certain minnows free. They caught a lot of very small fish.

Spencer's Birthday

For Spencer's birthday, we had a man bring critters to our house to show the kids. There were snakes, iguanas, turtles, giant cockroaches, hedgehog and a chinchilla. Here are pictures of the boys and their friends with some of the animals.

Vacation Day One

Day One – Vacation

We rented a cabin on a lake about two and a half hours away from home. Both boys brought books to read in the car. I was looking forward to a relaxing drive, listening to music, having a pleasant conversation with Jon. Sometimes I wonder why I continue to delude myself in this manner. As I should have foreseen, Spencer decided within thirty minutes of riding in the car that he did not want to read any longer. Well, that is not completely accurate. Spencer did not spend even those first thirty minutes reading (at least as that word is usually understood). He spent the first twenty minutes “reading” and the next ten minutes actually reading. To explain, I began the car trip by relaying the plot of a movie I had recently watched. Both boys love stories of all sorts, so I often tell them the plots of books I read or movies I watch. Spencer thought that the time spent listening to me talk should count as reading time. Instead of questioning Spencer’s veracity, one might wonder why Spencer monitors and tracks the time he spends doing various activities. The answer is that both Michael and Spencer are involved in reading programs this summer that require a certain amount of reading each day/week in order to earn a free book. And thinking about this now, I wonder if perhaps I ought to be more diligent when Spencer tells me that he read for 150 minutes during the day because maybe he means “read” (i.e., watched a movie) and maybe he means read (i.e., actually read a book). Hmmm…

But, back to the trip. Truly, both boys are quite good in the car. They entertain themselves better than I was able to do at their ages. There is very little conflict or complaint. On this trip, Michael decided to read most of the way. Michael continues to be an avid reader. It is hard to keep him in books. When we were approximately an hour from our destination, Spencer came up with a new game. He did not call it a game, nor did he preface, in any way, what he was doing. He began merely by asking me, “What should I turn into an agate?” I thought for a few seconds and responded with some uncertainty (it was more of a question really), “the street?” “Okay,” Spencer responded cheerfully. He then made a series of tones and whirring noises and exclaimed that it was done, the street was an agate. “What should I change next?” This game lasted for thirty minutes or so with Spencer changing basically everything I could think to name (bridges, light posts, playgrounds, railroad tracks, signs, sidewalks, houses, garages, schools, all other buildings, billboards, picnic tables, rocks, etc.) into agates. He refused to turn some things, like trees and plants, into agates. In the last five minutes or so, he spiced things up by turning certain objects I named into pearls, or emeralds or gold. The time flew by.

We arrived at the cabin and got settled. I could see the boys were excited about the cabin, but that excitement was tempered a bit by Jon and me. Somehow neither Jon nor I were quite prepared for the cabin. I mean, both of us have been in (lots of) cabins before. And both of us knew we were going to a cabin for the week. And yet, when it came right down to it, I don’t think either of us expected the cabin to be quite so much like a cabin. But we adjusted. The cabin was nice. It was big. It was clean (mostly). The boys and I changed into our swimsuits. There was a small sandy beach with comfortable chairs. The water was shallow and a little weedy. I did not go in the water, but the boys (and Luka) went swimming. We had a good day.

Spring Must Be Coming

Michael came home from school and announced "I am really popular." I liked the confidence. But, taken (a bit) aback by the lack of humility, I did have to ask him to elaborate. He blushed slightly (where did his bravado go?) as he told me that three girls love him. Three. Well, I already know about Sylvia. Michael loves her too. In addition, there is Taylor. She is a sweet girl who struck me as very mature and quite discerning in her tastes when I met her last year. She came up to me one day when I was volunteering in Michael's classroom and said "You should be very proud of Michael. He is very smart and the best reader in the class." And, although I probably should not be using an eight or nine year old's yardstick for what impresses, I did feel proud of Michael. And a little bit proud of Taylor too (weird). But back to the third girl in love with Michael. Her name is Audrey. Michael said that Audrey chased him around the science fair all day trying to show him her "business card" (Michael did the air quotes around the words "business card"). Apparently the school made fake business cards for the "scientists."

Chess Team

Michael participated in a schoolwide chess tournament a couple weeks ago. It was structured so that he played against other 1-3 graders. Each child played four games and (not to brag but I'm going to) Michael won all four games. Two things impressed me about Michael's performance. Hmmm.... Actually more than two things impressed me. Let me say instead that two things now seem noteworthy.
First, Michael was significantly behind during his last game. Nevertheless, he stayed focused on the game and did not give up (and in the end, he won, so there is a lesson there both for someone who is in the lead and for someone who is losing). That aside, I found the last game very stressful. Too stressful in fact to check on the progress of the match. Instead, I remained in the general waiting room. Periodically Spencer would report on how the game was going (usually something like, "Michael lost three more pieces" or "Michael lost a pawn"... stressful).
Second, at Michael's first tournament (about two or three months ago), Michael lost the three games he played. In his defense, he never played chess at home. We did not talk about it. Although he enjoyed being in chess club and thought it was fun, he did not really work at it. However, in the months between the first and second tournaments, he played chess on the computer, he played games against me and he played games against Jon. He beat Jon one time (the implication there is that he has not beaten me, although I am sure he will soon). I like that Michael has taken on the challenge of improving his chess game, rather than giving up because winning did not come easily to him.
At the second tournament, both Michael and another boy (Ryan) won all four of their games. For the tie breaker, the judges look at the win/loss records of the the kids that Michael and Ryan played against. Ryan won the tie breaker, so Michael got second place in the tournament and a very nice trophy. Go Michael!!

Chasing Pavements

One night recently we were in the car and I was feeling rushed and not very happy. Spencer managed to turn that all around for me. All it took was him singing along to one of his favorite songs. He sang with such enthusiasm and joy that it completely changed my mood and brought a smile to my face (and Jon's). The song was "Chasing Pavements" by Adele.