Another Year Done

I just sent my two boys off to their last day of school. Noah was absolutely right last night when he said this was the fastest year ever. It really did seem to fly. Each year seems to get easier in many ways, even though new challenges arose as well.  I love to sit back at the end of each school year and reflect on how far the boys have come.

AARON
The kid who is a full year younger than most of his class (and two years younger than a few) definitely held his own this year. Going into this year, he and I both believed that it would be better for him to repeat first grade rather than advancing to second, in order for his social skills to catch up with his academic. In truth, I will always think it may have been better to hold him back. But despite our reservations, Aaron proceeded to second grade on his teacher's recommendation and really did rise to expectations. He ended the year as the second highest reader in the class, even while being the youngest by 1-2 years. Both of my conferences this year were "lectures" from his teacher telling me to stop worrying about him. His handwriting is still way behind, but we will spend a lot of time working on that this summer. This was his first year receiving speech and language services and I was amazed at how much he improved. He no longer stutters (or "bumps" as they call his particular form of stuttering). We are going to continue services into the start of third grade however just to make sure there is no back slide. He grew a full two inches his year, which is crazy. He also had his first major disappointment in a failed drama audition but handled it impressively well and is looking forward to trying again.  The biggest growth we've seen in him this year is in his confidence. He is becoming much more willing to try new things and handles his frustration so much better than in the past. Unlike last year at this time, I have very little concern about him advancing to the next grade level. His charming smile and joyful enthusiasm for life continue for all to see.

NOAH
4th grade definitely brought new challenges for Noah but also a talent emerged in him to a higher level. Noah struggled this year socially, mainly because the girls in his class who have always been friends with him are starting to enter puberty and creating much confusion for this sensitive kid.  But luckily some new boys moved into the school and he was able to branch out and make some new friends as well.  We spent most of the year working through the social difficulties and I think he has handled it pretty well. Noah developed his comic writing ability this year, with many thanks to a teacher who not only encouraged his creativity, but even LET HIM DOODLE during instruction time since he had straight A's anyway and she knew he was listening and taking it all in while she was teaching. Pretty impressive for a first year teacher. I am wondering if this will become a problem next year but we'll deal with that in three months. Noah also played basketball this year. This was huge because although we have tried pretty much every organized sport, none of then have ended in a positive note and it is exciting for him to have had a good experience and is even looking forward to next season as well. Noah continues to struggle with self esteem but we will continue to help him with this and I hope that someday he will come to believe in the amazing person that he is.

BOTH
I was disappointed that we didn't do scouts this year. Noah was definitely not into it and even though Aaron wanted to continue, he never mentioned it again after we stopped.


As we head into the summer both boys are pretty excited about next year. Their classrooms will be right next to each other next year and in a separate wing of the school from everyone else. Both of their teachers for next year are awesome which makes going into the summer a little less worrisome.










THE SUMMER AHEAD
I have high hopes for this summer. I did have to drop my hours at work, which will significantly chop our income, but this is nothing different than any other summer, which is difficult every year. They will be spending a day and a half at work with me each week at gymboree, but the other three and a half days will be ours.  A few VBS programs, a couple little mini-camps, a rented cabin for our annual camping trip in July, a birthday party for a boy entering double digits, and hopefully a couple of day trips as well. I am hoping to just be with the boys and enjoy them this year. We are on borrowed time until the boys no longer want to do ANYTHING with boring old mom. As a matter of fact, Noah is already planning his play dates with some of the new friends he made this year. And with his gal pal attending our church now, that will definitely make him happy this year as well. For Aaron, all I really have to do is keep our homemade dunk tank operational and he will be happy as a lark all summer long. I imagine we will continue our Sunday weekly trips to the state park beaches as weather permits as well.

Okay, so after writing all of this, I have a confession. I am always happy AND sad on the last day of school. I am always so proud of how far each of the boys have grown, but my eyes tear up every single year at the last day awards assembly. I have no idea why I get so emotional every year, but I do. The kids all get their own individualized award from the teachers and I can usually accurately predict the awards they will receive. Aaron will probably receive Best Reader and Noah will probably receive some sort of Creativity award.

And then we will come home.

And play.

Here's to summer!

Festival Weekend

I am here with a much more positive post than the previous one. Huge sigh of relief from all :)

I just want to say that Grand Rapids is a great city near which to live. It has the wonderful experiences that you'd find in a bigger city with a small town feel. Every time we're downtown for an event, I marvel at how lucky we are to have a city like this. We have a top notch symphony (with which I am honored to perform several times a year) and quite a few events that bring thousands of people into the downtown area to just experience the life. We have had many awesome experiences downtown such as ArtPrize, museum visits, bike racing through the streets, and so many more than I can think of.

And this past weekend was another one that we've experienced several years in a row. Festival of the Arts is an all-volunteer arts festival in Grand Rapids that runs for three days with four different stages of acts running continuously all day and evening.  In addition, there are kids activities and about two dozen different food booths sponsored mostly by local churches.

Hubby's singing ensemble performs each year and we head down to enjoy the ambiance.  Steve sang the opening solo and the second one as well, which was kind of neat. This was the group's second year performing on the "main" stage so they were pretty excited.












Meanwhile, the kids spent time, as they do every year, climbing a pyramid sculpture downtown and sliding down it, climbing trees in the nearby courtyard,  and basically running around in the beautiful weather.

Following Daddy's performance, we headed over to kids activities. This is fun because I have pictures of the boys participating in this activity every year since Noah was four. They started out with wood working and then followed by painting. This activity center is pretty cool since it is a "No Adults Allowed" center and kids are allowed to create to their heart's content. The sculptures this year were pretty cool.











Then it was time to find something to eat. At that point we were all pretty grumpy but as we were all grumbling in hunger, the boys' attention was caught by a nearby acting troupe and while they were looking on.

Hubby went in search of some vittles. He came back with a skewer of chicken. After giving me a small taste I decided that I too NEEDED one :) And after sharing a small bite with Aaron, he too decided he NEEDED one. And after he had inhaled his chicken on a stick, he spent  the remainder of the weekend (yes, I said WEEKEND) talking about his chicken on a stick and how he wanted some more.











No trip to Festival is complete without a ride in the HUGE tire swing. Since the boys were the biggest boys in their group, they both took the ends and Daddy got a major workout with another dad getting them going.

















It was a fun visit to Festival. Every time we go to an activity downtown, I just think about what a cool city we live near and all of the things we do as a family in this city.

By the way, this is not a sponsored post. I just really like hanging out downtown :)

Our Week of "Just" Allergies

Whew...what a week it's been. Aaron only made it to school for one and a half out of five days this week. And he was TECHNICALLY not sick. Now, take one look at this little boys and tell me what your first thought would be...

My first thought would be that he got socked in the eye.

The word "allergies" has an entire new meaning to us after this past week.

A week ago Wednesday, Aaron came home from school and Steve and I noticed some purple circles under his eyes. We just kept going on as normal. Meanwhile, Noah had been sniffling and had a scratchy throat for over a month. So not thinking much of Aaron's eyes, I took NOAH in to the doctor Thursday morning. There is a long and drawn out story related to that but it basically came across as "It's JUST allergies" and we were sent on our way.

By Friday after school, Noah was not sniffling so much so I thought, "no big deal, it's just allergies" But then I took one look at Aaron and was dumbfounded.

His eyes were not only purple, but also a little swollen.

So, I put him into bed and also gave him some benadryl, which I thought would help him sleep.

Well....as I found out almost every hour on the hours that night...benadryl apparently keeps BOTH of my children up at night. So, no more benadryl as an option. That's for sure!

Saturday morning, despite the lack of sleep, his eyes were looking a little better. We were thinking, okay maybe we won't need to take him in to the doctor on Monday after all.

And we went on with life. Steve took the boys out  to make a Mother's day craft and we continued with our plans to spend our day with the in-laws do Mother's Day. I worried quite a bit about Aaron playing outside since we still hadn't figured out what exactly the kid was allergic to, but their cousins were there and the four of them were having so much fun playing on the logs that I decided to just go with it.

Now, I don't know if it was because he was outside playing, or because something just wasn't right, but Monday morning I was awakened by a scream...

"MOM, I CAN'T OPEN MY EYE!!!!!"

And THIS is what I found

Yuck!!








After a little clean-up work, it still didn't look much better and it was really odd that it was only in
one eye, rather than both as it had been previously. By the time we got to the doctor, it was looking better and the doctor (actually the PA) looked at him and prescribed an eye drop. When I asked her about allergy testing too, she said no (which is surprising and I will be following up on it next week)

Tuesday Aaron was feeling better and he went off to school.

Wednesday morning his eye looked a little pink but not bad and I sent them off to school again. A half hour after school started, the phone rang and I saw the school come up on caller ID. Sure enough, Aaron was complaining about how much his eye hurt and itched and he needed to come home. By the time I got to school, they were back to being pretty red and swollen again and he spent the day in my work office in the dark watching movies. He thought it was a party.

So after yet ANOTHER call to the PA and doctor (I was hoping to talk to the doctor this time) a steroid was finally prescribed. Now, I was thinking of all the joys of this overly dramatic child's behavior when prednisone was added, but at this point it kind of seemed like he was never going to get well so we'd do whatever it takes.

So we went to fill the prescription. I did call the school and decided to keep him home on Thursday, not knowing how he would act on the new meds. It was probably a good call considering the kid has been bouncing off the wall ever since.

But the eye is looking good.

For now. And although he got several  out of character "behavior tallies" today (presumably because of these meds), he was pretty much back to normal.

So that was our week. I do think I need to pursue allergy testing though. I always thought of "allergies" as sniffles and sneezes, but this was out of control and the poor boy was miserable. I am really hoping we can find out what this was and avoid another breakout of this type. I will never think of allergies with the word "just" in front of them again.

So I think it will be a much better weekend, other than all of the homework we need to do to make up for all the missed school this week. Luckily, with only 13 days of school left, the work isn't too pressing at this point.

And I guess we'll find out on Monday after this new medicine is complete if there will be a sequel to this saga.

Gotta say...I hope not.

Have a great weekend.

Noah's Comic Strip

Difficult Decisions in Growing Up

Noah is growing up.

I see it in so many ways...in his desire to become more independent, in his ability to take on bigger tasks around the house, in his efforts to try to think before he acts (at least sometimes).

Unfortunately, getting older brings on many challenges that kids don't have to deal with at younger ages.

In two words...SOCIAL STRUCTURE.

This is definitely taking a toll on him this year. He is struggling to find his place within the social structure in this school. Being a small school, his class size (17 total fourth graders) can bring some challenges in finding the right place to fit in. And GIRLS this age seem to be going through lots of changes that are confusing him. We have had MANY discussions this year as he tries so hard to figure out why the girls whom have always been such good friends are suddenly acting so different.

He has one particular female who has stayed his constant throughout, whom he locked onto in kindergarten, and throughout all of the social changes, the two of them have stayed friends.  It is a friendship that we downplay for the sake of not making a mountain out of a molehill, but also one that we fully support, as does the young lady's mom. Yes, it comes in waves, where he'll come home and ask "Mom why isn't K being nice to me today?" and I always have to tell him, "That's just the way girls are at this age and and she will come back to you" which she always does eventually. She will even defend him if other girls are starting their little petty crud against him.

Here is Noah with his gal at the 4th of July fireworks on his birthday last year

In short, he is confused as to why everybody is changing and why things can't just stay as they are. I hurt for him when we are having some of these discussions because he really is so confused.  In addition to this confusion with K, there are many other social triangles causing him stress and heartache and I just wish I could put him in box and protect him from it all.  But alas, I cannot.

So Friday night, a difficult situation arose. His girl, K, invited him to her little birthday party. He was to be the ONLY BOY. It was a very difficult situation. They really do have a special friendship and he really wanted to go to be part of her day. But he was also concerned about being the only boy at the party and feeling like the oddball (his word, not mine). On top of that, there was a huge overnight celebration party at church and he had been looking forward to that for weeks now.

So Friday afternoon after school, the poor kid was in tears after school about how to make the decision. He REALLY wanted me to make it for him and I just couldn't do it. He was so worried that K would be sad if he didn't come and was so excited to have been asked to her party, but he didn't want to feel out of place and he also wanted to go to the church party.

So I broke down and called K's mom, whom I absolutely adore. She is just the neatest woman and I would really love to get to know her better (especially if someday we are MILs together :) ). We talked not just about the situation at hand, but also about the social stuff that's been going on over the last few months in this class.  It was a great talk and I felt much better after talking to her. I also felt honored when she was the second mother this month who reminded me again how lucky I am that my almost ten year old boy still openly talks to his mommy about his feelings.  I know the day will come when this won't be the case, but I am EXTREMELY lucky that at this point it is still true.


Mommy and her special firstborn

So the decision was made together that he wouldn't go to K's party but would still bring her a small gift on Monday. Also, that it would still be okay to invite her to his party in July, which is really what he wanted all along. And K's mom assured me that K had already been worried about Noah not feeling comfortable, even though she wanted him there.

Hubby and I struggled over letting the boys go to the church sleepover as well, not sure if they were ready for it. But actually what made our decision was this same social structure of which I've been talking. With the boys going to such a small school with limited people to choose from as friends, this is another opportunity for them to start finding other healthy social groups from which to choose friends. And the best part was that both boys came home talking of new friends they made. And Sunday morning as we were walking both into and out of church, Noah and new friends were socializing, which we hadn't seen yet in the two years we have been at this church.

These two goofy pictures are from the professional photographer proofs that the church hired for the fiesta.













So yes, growing up is hard to do. Physical changes are a part of growing up. But it sure seems to me that as we face the tween years, the social pressures  that our boys face may be the more challenging issues that we will have to be careful to guide these developing minds through. It is so hard to fight the desire to protect them from mean people or fix their problems. But I have to say, I am getting better at sitting back and watching things play out.

 Growing up is hard to do...for the kid AND the mom. But we WILL make it through!

We Have Stones

Yes, that title could mean anything. Thankfully, it's not gall or kidney of which I speak :)

No, I am talking about landscaping. In a  few weeks, we will have been in our house for ten years. That alone blows my mind since a couple of years ago I realized that I have been in this house longer than I was ever in one place in my life.

Our front yard has been through many many transformations over the years. I tried to dig up some old pictures for this post but came up short unfortunately. It has gotten me thinking about the changes though.

At this time last year, I had just started my second job with hopes of trying to get our house out of foreclosure (which we did thankfully) but the entire year before that I had done absolutely NOTHING to our yard, either in landscaping OR maintenance because I thought we were going to lose the house.

So this year when we had that warm stretch a month or so ago, I realized that I have 2 to 3 years of no yard care to make up for. Not a small task I must say. But actually, a fun one.

(Left side before stones)

(Left side after stones)

It will look much prettier after the hydrangea and lilac bushes are in full bloom but you get the idea







I love working in the yard. I love getting dirty knowing that the end result is going to be amazingly different and make me feel good when I look outside. Each year for my birthday, my parents take me to a local flower store and we get some flowers or shrubs for my yard. Some things have taken to the ground well and others have had to be replaced.  But the one thing I haven't been able to do is follow up on the flora with any kind of actual landscaping. A few years ago, I did manage to get some paver blocks to put around our front and the tree, and then a couple of years ago I redid that area to make it bigger. But trying to keep a huge area of dirt weed free gets to be a huge task and by mid summer I end up giving up when it gets out of control.

This is the reason I was ecstatic when my neighbor met me at my car last week, announcing that she was going to kill off her lawn, pull out her shrubs and start from scratch. Through the process, they were going to get rid of the MANY stones they had around their bushes and asked me if I wanted them.


Less than an hour later, I had donned my "play clothes", gloves, and the wheelbarrow and together with my neighbor and her significant other, we went to work.

It was probably a little over two hours later when we were finished with my front and the boys were happily sitting outside watching them use a borrowed truck to pull out her bushes one by one. You'd think it was major attraction with how fascinated the boys were by the process. Okay, I admit it....I enjoyed the show as well :)

(Here is the right side where Noah went to work pulling out the weeds that were coming up and the leftover phlox that never quite took)

I have to admit that this picture doesn't do the "after" look justice since all the rocks were still wet. It looks great now though









So now I have stones and hopefully will be able to keep the weed population at bay this summer. I think I am getting greedy now and kind of wishing for some kind of fun ornament to put in the big open space on the right. The boys think I need gnomes like in Gnomeo and Juliet. I'm not sure but it just may be what we will be searching for on my birthday excursion this year :)

Have a great weekend!

Spring Break ReCap

Spring Break was uneventful for the most part since I had to work a few hours on three different days, which meant the boys had to sit in the little office while I taught. Funny enough, the boys actually don't mind going to work with me. Noah loves watching the babies when they smile at him and Aaron just likes to play on the big cushion we have for jumping into.

A sad disappointment came at the beginning of the week when we found out that Aaron did not get a part in the community musical that he auditioned for. His dance ability hurt him so we will definitely work on that with him before he tries again. He was disappointed but we handled it well so I think he will be fine. I am hoping to find a small and inexpensive way for him to work on this this summer. All of the camps I found are over $100 so that's not going to work. It's so frustrating that only wealthy people or people who know how to secure free stuff can send their kids to camp when normal, really hard working parents should be able to give their kids those opportunities as well...

One nice thing about the week was that we gave the boys their Easter present a week early so they would have an outlet outside. Since we couldn't take a trip anywhere we decided to use the small check we got from Steve 's old job with his PTO to get the boys a trampoline. Anyone who knows Aaron KNOWS that this is just what that crazy kid needs and we were right. He spent the entire week on and off vacillating between the trampoline, basketball hoop, and his bike. I definitely think that this summer will be easier for him when I say "Go outside" because he has something to do.

On Monday I took the kids roller skating. Noah is a great skater and Aaron did quite well with it when I took them over Christmas Break so I thought we would have a blast. Unfortunately, only 2/3 of us had a good time and Aaron just never really got it this time. Poor kid did not have fun and I think we will save the next skating outing for just Noah and his momma.

Tuesday took us to a new play place in our area. We have quite a few of them but new one exceeds all others in size, activities, parent comfort, and safety, and overall value. It was awesome and I know we will be going there again. We have spent so much time at all of the other types of play places but now after being at this one, we probably will not go to any of the others anymore. It was just THAT good.  I even had a chance to talk with the owner of this new place for awhile about how our businesses actually complement each other quite well.

On Wednesday I wanted to try out another new-ish venue we have in our area. It is a health center kind of like a YMCA and I thought the kids would love it. I even put out a question on facebook to see if it would be worth the money since it was a bit pricey for the time we would have to enjoy it.  The pool was kind of fun but both kids were done after about an hour. They did both love the climbing wall and Noah made it to the top a bunch of times. But for $17, we will drive to the Holland Aquatic Center next time and get our money's worth much better.

Thursday was our day to kind of relax at home. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were all happy to be home relaxing (after my hour at work). It turned into a "work party" of sorts though...a happy one. As I was pulling into the driveway, I was met by my neighbor who is in the process of redoing her yard and asked if I would want the stones in her front. I was so excited since we have been in our house for ten years and our front has never been landscaped other than putting in and taking out various shrubbery until I figured out what would work. So for the next three hours, my neighbors and and I dug up, moved, and re-laid stones in my front yard. Noah even did a great job helping for a little while filling buckets from her yard and dumping them into ours. The boys' favorite part however was watching as my neighbors then proceeded to use their truck to pull ALL of her bushes out of her yard one by one. They cheered loudly as each one surfaced. It was quite the event! Yes, we have no life :)

Friday dawned early as our old neighbors were in town for a visit and we set out to walk a nature trail with them. The boys found some trees to climb and got some visit time but things toook a own hill turn when it seemed that Noah wasn't feeling well and by the end of the day  was sporting a fever of 102 that lasted through Saturday night.

Saturday was a calm day while Steve took Aaron out and about and I stayed home with Noah as he was sick on the couch. Hubby finally fixed my bike (that was broken the entire summer last year) so Aaron and I could go on a nice long bike ride. We followed the ride by a cook out and our first meal on the picnic table that I had bought from our neighbors last year. I think that table is going to get a lot of use this year.


Easter Sunday was somewhat uneventful was well but a pretty nice day. Noah was feeling better (other than his voice, which still sounds awful) and we had a great church service. It was followed by a quick egg hunt outside and then a trip to the park to try out the new kites. A very windy day brought us home early and we spent the rest of the day just hanging out and being together.

  And here we are back to real life again. I liked that we tried out some new places over break even though they met with varying degrees of enthusiasm. No matter what, our city has so much to do for families, which makes having a "staycation" a very fun possibility.