Lacey Hits Double Digits

Today is Lacey's 10th birthday.  The past year has been full of many adventures because Lacey meets each day with happiness and enthusiasm.  She can turn every situation into fun.

Eating Pizza

 Look what happened when I asked Lacey to help me clean the bird's cage!

 

Lacey wants to be the first one finished, no matter what activity she's completing.  She wants to be the first one finished with her school work and the first one to make it from the car to the house.  If there's a door, she needs to be the first one through.  If there's a staircase, she needs to be the first one up or down.  An elevator?  She needs to be the first to push the buttons. Last Saturday she was in a ballet recital.  Of course, she wanted to be the first one finished with the dance.  Who needs to follow the music?

Lacey getting ready for her recital

Lacey is not afraid to try anything.  Here are a couple snapshots.  In the first, she's wearing a suit of armor at Jamestown.  In the second, she's discovering that snow angels are best made on your back, not face down.

We spend a lot of time trying to get Lacey to slow down and appreciate process, not just product.  We read together, encourage her to observe, and question her about everything and anything.  We try to help her apply what she's learning to new situations.  Lacey is always quirky and funny and unpredictable.  Here's an example of a typical day.  On the way to school we passed a family walking a gorgeous poodle.  Trying to make conversation I said, "Wow.  Look at that beautiful poodle.  Do you think it's a boy or a girl?"

"What do you mean?" laughed Lacey.  "All poodles are girls."

 "Are you sure?" I prompted.  "What would happen if all poodles were girls."

"Nothing.  They're already all girls."

I tried another approach.  "What would happen if there were only girls in the world?"

"I don't know," responded Lacey.

"Well," I sighed.  "What would happen if there were only men in the world?"

"Whoa!" Lacey shrieked.  "It would be creepy and disgusting!"

"I see your point," I laughed.  "But, seriously, what would happen if there were only men?"

"I guess there would be no more babies," she finally responded.

"You're right," I praised.  "Now, are all poodles really girls?"

"Maybe," Lacey said.

She must have thought about the topic some more because at dinnertime she decided to try her new knowledge on Cassie.  "I wonder if Cassie's ever going to have children?" she queried.

"I'm going to adopt," Cassie answered.

"Then you're going to have to renew your passport!" Lacey said.

As Lacey continues learning how to be part of a family, she spends a lot of time trying to keep up with Cassie.  The results are always funny.  When Lacey's class put on a play of "The Three Little Pigs,"  she played the part of the wolf.  For her costume, she chose to wear one of Cassie's PE shirts.

Lacey knows that Greek history is one of Cassie's favorite subjects.  So, after spending some time reading about the ancient Greeks, she was ready to impress Cassie.  "Cassie," she said, "If we were living in ancient Greece, you'd be getting married now."

"Yes," replied Cassie. "And, if we were living with the Native Americans, you'd be running around naked right now."

Lacey has made a lot of progress in school.  After several years of watching Cassie get academic awards, Lacey got her own.  She received awards for making the Principal's Honor Roll and for attendance.  She also graduated from the English as a Second Language Program. I pointed out to her that this was something Cassie will never be able to do!

Lacey, Cassie and Gaby with "Heinz"

Sisters

One of my favorite "sisters" snapshots

Thursday

Thursday was one of those days that will haunt me until I blog about it. It started as I was taking Lacey to school.  As we stood in the garage looking at the rain Lacey asked, "Do you think I need my umbrella?"

"You have to take about six steps to get from the garage to the car," I pointed out.  "Can you make it that far without an umbrella?"

"Let me see," she began as she stepped outside.  "Hmmmm," Lacey continued as she stood outside staring up at the falling rain.  "Maybe I do need my umbrella."  She bent over and began stirring through her backpack.  The only problem, as she eventually realized, was that her umbrella was in the garage.

As I finally backed out of the driveway, wondering if we should have gone back for dry clothes, I tried to explain, "Do you remember that we checked the weather last night when we laid out your clothes?  And, the forecast said 100% chance of rain?  We talked about how you needed to set out a jacket and have your umbrella ready?  Did I just say 100% chance of rain?  Ah geez.  That means Cassie's field hockey practice will be cancelled.  I already told Taekwondo she won't be on the after-school bus.  Now, I'll have to figure out how to pick her up . . . "

My day at school was just fine except for my departure.  I had requested several hours of leave because I had an appointment with the middle school counselor.  If I left exactly at lunchtime, ran to the parking garage, and had a traffic-less commute, I would get there just on time.   BUT, just as I was getting ready to leave, two girls asked if I could help them apply their new eye makeup.  Because I'm the one who consistently says, "Ladies, putting on makeup is something kind of personal that we don't do in the middle of class," and because the girls had actually chosen the right time to apply makeup, I felt compelled to stay for a few minutes.  

However, my commute was exceptional.  I even had time to call and reschedule an eye doctor appointment that conflicted with an orthodontist appointment.  I pulled into the parking lot with 2 minutes to spare.  The counselor was expecting me.   BUT, someone had just brought a student to her office.  During the next 15 minutes, I could think of nothing except how if I had known that a student was going to have a crisis I might have stopped somewhere for a sandwich.

I spent the next 20 minutes learning what Cassie will need to do to apply for the high school fine arts program.   In January, Cassie must submit an art portfolio that should include artwork resulting from class assignments.  The first bit of reality sank in here.  Because Cassie is in the foreign language program, she hasn't been able to enroll in middle school art.  I will have to find art instruction over the summer.  I also learned that the middle school art teacher is happy to review portfolios of the foreign language students, understanding that they haven't benefited from her instruction because of the foreign language scheduling conflict.  Nice. . . except that she does this in September.  That means that I will have . . . June, July and August to help Cassie get ready.  Then, we will have October, November and December to make changes to the portfolio.  Now, reality really sank in as I realized that I might have to start an entirely new blog to deal with this portfolio preparation process.

As I left the school office, I stopped to verify that field hockey practice was still scheduled.  I headed for home thinking that I might have 15 minutes to myself.  I walked in the door and tripped over Cassie's field hockey gear.  Oh great, she had either forgotten it or decided that it would be cancelled because of rain.  Whatever the cause, I knew that at this moment Cassie was standing outside school waiting for me.  I got in the car and headed back to school.  As I joined the half-mile line of cars trying to get into the school parking lot, she called.  "Why don't you start walking down the street toward my car?" I suggested.

When we got home, the cable TV repairman was there.  I remembered that Les had scheduled an appointment for the installation of new boxes.  Les had assured me that the repairman would only need to access the TV in the family room.  BUT, of course, the guy needed to work on the set in the master bedroom.  And, of course, I hadn't made the bed and there was a pile of laundry strewn everywhere because SOMEONE had been searching for her ballet tights.

"Did you at least explain to the guy that we have boxes stacked all over the house because of all the stuff we got from my parent's home?" I asked Les.

"No," he answered.

As my head filled with visions of Child Protective Services accusing us of hoarding, I realized that it was time for Lacey's bus.  Should I drive down and meet her bus and deny her the opportunity to use that umbrella?  It was raining pretty hard so I took the car to meet her. Fifteen minutes later,  Lacey got off the bus, unfurled her umbrella, and splashed right past me.  Yes, it was turning into one of those days.

We had just enough time to help Lacey study for her Social Studies SOL before I had to take Cassie for a haircut appointment.  I know this blog is getting long.  But, I'm sharing this especially for those of you who have never helped a child study for an SOL in the state of Virginia.  The school sends home review books that contain page after page of listed facts.  If these booklets contained questions and answers, it wouldn't be so bad.  But, the parent is supposed to somehow formulate the right questions.  Here's an example from the "Economics" section:

"Goods are things that people make or use to satisfy needs and wants.  Some examples of goods are cars, food, and clothing.  Services are activities that satisfy people's needs and wants.  Some examples are policemen, teachers, and hairdressers."

I begin by asking the logical, "What are goods?"

"I don't know. My teacher never asked us that question."

I try again, "What are services?"
"We didn't learn it that way."

So I try again, "What are things that people use to satisfy their needs and wants?"  Oh good Lord.  Did I really just ask my 9-year old daughter that question?  

I spent the next 30 minutes watching Lacey spin around and around on an empty salon chair as Cassie got about six inches of hair snipped off.  When we got home, all the exterior doors were open because the cable TV guy was now working outside and Les wasn't sure which door would be most convenient for him.  The good news was that we could smell dinner from outside.  Les had cooked a pot of soup!

We made it through dinner and, as I got ready to take Cassie to ballet I told Les that I thought I'd stop and pick up a few groceries.

"Can I go?! Can I go?!" asked Lacey.

I turned to Les and asked, "Do you remember that Episode of 'Modern Family' where Claire told everyone that she was going to Yoga class but she was really sneaking away to the shooting range?  Well, that's kind of how I'm feeling right now."

At the end of the day, I realized that maybe getting another dog wasn't such a bad idea.  After all, I'd have a lot of alone time because I would be the one walking it.

Happy 13th Cassie!

Today Cassie is 13 years old.  Wow!  I have a teenager in my home.  I've had a hard time deciding what to write about her for this special day, mainly because she now insists on reading my blog before I publish it.  Then, I decided that Cassie's life right now is really about finding balance.  She's trying to balance schoolwork with her extracurricular activities.  She's also trying to decide how much time she should spend with her family and how much time with friends. 

Cassie's life is also about me trying to find a balance.  I don't always know when to treat her like a child and when to treat her like a youngish adult.  I don't always know how much freedom to give her.  And, I often don't know how hard to push her.  But,all in all, I think she and I are both handling "13" pretty well.  Here's a little photo walk to document the past year:

Cassie the teenager

Cassie really loves being with family.  Although she experienced a lot of sadness with the loss of two grandparents this year, she has been blessed with the opportunity to spend a lot of time with family in Colorado, Florida and Ohio.  For Thanksgiving, she insisted that we wear Pilgrim hats.  You can see that not everyone was willing.

I love this photo of Cassie.  She gets really self conscious about having her photo taken now.  So, I snapped this one when she wasn't looking.  Afterwards, I realized that she was oblivious to me because she was busy texting. 

Cassie continues to follow her passion - music, dance and art.  She is the concert mistress of the school orchestra and also plays in the county's Youth Orchestra.  She was the only 7th grade violinist at her school to qualify for the All County Orchestra.  She and I sometimes argue about practicing.  But, I'm really proud of her accomplishments. 

Cassie continues to work hard at school.  She won 1st place at her school science fair and went on to win 3rd place at the regional fair.  Last fall, Duke University invited her to participate in their "talent search" by taking the SAT exams early.  She was excited to participate so Les and I decided to let her try.  On test day, Cassie was the only student who wasn't a high school senior.  I was worried about leaving her, then surprised when I watched her stride off confidently with the older students.  I shed a few tears on the way home because she seemed to be growing up so quickly.  Cassie scored well enough to participate in online summer courses at Duke.  However, we decided that none of us are quite ready for that. 

 

 Cassie loves all living things.  She is currently feeding a feral cat twice a day in hopes of eventually taming him.  In this photo, she is shaking snow off tree limbs to keep them from breaking.

Cassie loves her role as big sister.  She helps Lacey lay out her school clothes every evening and is always eager to help Lacey with homework.  She is learning to accept and appreciate the ways in which she and Lacey are different.

Cassie still loves clothes and is happiest at the thrift shop.  In this photo, she is selecting a Christmas dress.  In the bottom photo, she is selecting boots to wear with the dress!

When Cassie was a few months old, a dear friend was visiting.  I asked my friend if the love I was feeling for my newborn child would fade as she got older.  "Oh, no," my friend assured me, "Each day will just get better and better."  You know what?  My friend was right.  Happy Birthday, Cassie!

At a Loss

I haven't blogged in so long that I'm almost at a loss for words.  "At a loss" defines the chaotic state of my life right now.  On Monday, the moving van arrived from Colorado, full of 500 cubic feet of cherished possessions from my parent's home.   In anticipation of this big event, we cleaned house.    The garage is so full of items to be donated that we have to use the front door.  The boxes and furniture from the moving van all landed in the living room.  For the past few evenings, we have been unpacking boxes, sliding boxes out of the way to place furniture, and sliding furniture out of the way to stack boxes.  Clearly, we are at a loss for space.

It's that time of year when we're getting ready for dance recitals, orchestra concerts, final exams and birthdays.  Add unpacking to all this and you can see that I've also been short on time.  I've been sliding a pile of unfolded laundry from one corner of our bedroom to the other for the past week.  On Tuesday, when I got to work I realized that my shirt was on backwards.  As if that wasn't bad enough, three hours passed before I had a chance to go in the bathroom and fix it.  Yesterday afternoon found me cleaning my purse out at the gas station.  My gas tank was almost empty.  So, I had a good chunk of time to work on my purse.  You have to admit, that was a pretty good use of my time.  I haven't had time to do laundry in so long that I actually stopped to buy a new outfit on my way home so that I would have something to wear tomorrow.   I was sitting at a stoplight feeling a little sorry for myself when I happened to glance over at the car next to me.  The female driver was plucking her eyebrows while she waited for the light to change.  Ah yes, things could be worse.

I took a short break to sit down and blog.  I'm still enjoying the therapeutic relief that comes from publicly poking fun at myself!