Enter the Teenager.

Despite the fact that people all around me have been raising kids for years and have all experienced the entrance of their children into teen-dom, I sort of didn't think it would ever actually happen to me.  To us.  To my sweet little guy who was my best buddy and constant companion.  Suddenly that chubby-checked cherub has turned into a long-limbed eating-machine who flails around the house in wild mood swings of hyperactivity and sullen brooding.  I have for the most part managed to sit back and kind of stay out of the way, but I confess to occasionally trying to jump on the merry-go-round and try to add rational thought or a calming influence to the equation.  It usually doesn't go very well. Much to our mutual chagrin.

Nonetheless, the 28th of October was a day to celebrate.  Let's get these teen years going, already.  And I'm not going to deny that choosing gifts for this fan-boy fanatic isn't terribly fun, because it really is.  We knew we'd make his day with some very cool action figures like Boba Fett and a nasty looking Spider Man villain.  He got his first real (Star Wars) comic book as well as the Jurassic World Blu-Ray.  Tons of fun.  My favorite find was a total surprise for him - he's been enjoying the tv show The Flash lately (I couldn't be more proud - I've poured my nerdiest nerd-loves into him) and he had no idea that The Flash has his own action figure and he's pretty dang cool. I loved surprising him with that.

In the morning we had (what else) Swedish Pancakes with some sugar and butter and some sugar.  And butter. Don't forget the sugar.  It's really a treat to have little mini parties at breakfast with just one or two gifts - our own private family party that no one comes to but us.  That's when I gave him The Flash.  Maybe anti climactic to give him the gift I was most excited for at the beginning of the day, but I liked having that gift be just among family.

I was a little surprised that Cap didn't want anything special for lunch or for anyone to take him out or bring a treat - he said he didn't want his friends to feel bad.  I thought that was sweet, and sent several kit kat bars in his lunch so he could divide them up among the kids he sits with. It was sort of my junior-high equivalent of bringing cupcakes to share with his class.

We didn't really have a party - we just had some friends over for fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  He pushed hard for crab legs but HELLO those are expensive at Costco.  So...not all birthday wishes come true.  We just hung out and ate and played and had cake and ice cream and called it a night.

It felt like a great birthday, even if a little different from the years where my life was taken over by a large party with themed plates and goodie bags and a sure-to-fail weird cake and .....now that I think about it, I'll take a junior high party any day!!  Yay teenagers!  

Girl Scout Camp Strikes Again

The first year it was delightful.  The second year it was fun.  This year....I kinda didn't want to go.  Too bad me, I knew I had to go.  No questions allowed.

For the last two Octobers I have been able to take Bitty to a Girl Scout camp up Provo canyon, a special reward for cookie-selling girls who are not part of an official troop.  We have had a couple of fun, bonding over-nighters together, and Skippidy has been jealous beyond jealous that she wasn't able to go.  Man was she excited when she joined girl scouts last year and knew she'd be allowed to sell cookies and go to Girl Scout camp this fall.

As it happened, Girl Scout camp was happening on the very same weekend that Bitty was invited to a special Un-Birthday Tea Party breakfast with her church group, and she decided she couldn't miss that.  So Skippidy was even more excited that she got me all to herself for her first camp.  That sweet thing.  Most things in life seem to absolutely thrill her. This is a trait I'm deeply grateful for.

We took off late Friday afternoon and within five minutes of our journey it became clear that we had left the house about two hours too late.  There is some serious construction going on at the south end of our valley, shutting down the passage at the point of the mountain to just one lane.  That issue plus the fact that it was a Friday evening made the going rather slow.  And when I say slow, I mean absolutely crawling.  From the moment we got on the freeway at 500 South in Salt Lake we rarely went faster than 5 miles an hour.  It took us two full hours to get to the point of the mountain, by which time I had nearly pulled out all my own hair.  But what can you do.  Skippidy, as mentioned above, is generally a pretty happy gal, and she contentedly chatted with me and listened to music the whole way.  Never a complaint, I kid you not.  At least, not from her.  I myself did enough (mostly) inner complaining to use up five years worth of grouch tickets.  Yes, the phrase "grouch tickets" makes perfect sense to me; if it does not to you, so sorry. You can go complain about it and it will cost you one grouch ticket.

I think it might be kind of late for me to be writing.

Anyhow, we finally made it to camp, thinking we were hours late, which actually we were, but so was everyone else.  Funny thing - the moment we stumbled breathlessly through the doors I caught sight of my good PTA friend Janet, with whom I had already spend a large chunk of the day at PTA meeting.  We started laughing when we saw each other, because we instantly knew what kind of day we were each having.  And it was really fun to spend the camp together.  She has a darling daughter, who is a 6th grader and couldn't have been sweeter with Skippidy.

The evening was spent eating dinner which was lasagna and which Skippidy absolutely miraculously ate.  I was shocked.  I mean, it was food.  Different kinds of food all mixed together. This is definitely not her MO.  We then dragged our stuff up to the cabin where Janet and Molly were staying, then we trooped back down the hill for a campfire program.  I found it sort of painful, and Skippidy found it hilarious and entertaining beyond all reason.  Her delight was all the entertainment I needed.  After s'mores in the lodge, it was back up the hill for what was possibly the worst night of sleep I have ever had the pleasure of not enjoying.  I kid you not, I am seriously old and cranky.  But I hid it well from my little gal.  Okay, even Skippidy mentioned that she was uncomfortable, and she was up a ready to go by about 5:30.  I let her play phone games under the sleeping bag covers while I lay there feeling pain.  When dawn finally cracked we were all too happy to sneak off to the bathrooms and freshen up.

The good thing about the night was that for the whole rest of the day, no matter what we were doing, I could just enjoy feeling grateful that the horrid night was over and I would not have to lie on the torturous bed frame any more ever again.  Made it easier to enjoy the day.

Skippidy, as you can imagine, was psyched with every part of the day.  A nature walk in the morning (okay, I did have to kind of drag her up the hill and Janet mentioned that she was feeling exhausted just by watching us), followed by craft hour in the lodge.

After lunch was archery, which event caused Bitty some serious heartache and trauma both of the previous years.  Bitty was so disappointed the first year to be too young to use the big bows and arrows that we didn't even participate.  Skippidy, however, took one look at the nerf bow and arrows she got to use and literally jumped in the air with glee.  Hard to please, I tell you.  And believe me, I understand Bitty's pain and frustration - that was the same way I felt when I was left out of the big kid stuff at her age.  Poor girl. I hope she doesn't follow in all of my emotional footsteps.

The drive home was significantly easier and speedier.  We enjoyed a stop at Swig, our favorite watering hole.  It really was quite a pleasure to spend those hours with my seriously happy little girl scout.  And I'm still, a month later, feeling grateful that that horrible night actually did come to an end.

Milestone for Bitty

Bitty has been working so hard on her cello - she learned all her pieces in the first book of her program.  She actually learned them by the middle of summer, and by the end of the summer she was about ready to perform them in an official Book One Recital.  There was just one little problem.  Her teacher-aunt and her mom could not find a time that worked. It was such a busy summer and September for us all that we had to postpone the recital until we finally made it happen last weekend. Bitty waited patiently and kept faithfully practicing her pieces.

We gathered on the first Sunday evening of October on our back porch, a small group of folks including Bitty's dear activity days leader and the family of one of her closest friends, one of those terrific 6th grade girls I'm so grateful for.

Bitty did a great job and played her heart out.  She felt a little shaky after it was over, not sure if she had done as well as she wanted, but was reassured by the magical aunty Margaret that she made beautiful music, which she truly did.  I tried to reassure her too but Margaret is gifted with her students and knows just the right things to say.

It's so amazing to watch my kids play the cello, to watch their brains in full swing, synchronizing their hands and ears and bodies and brains to create music.  I'm so grateful we have music in our lives.

Joys of the Metal Mouth

I've known for months now that Cap needed a trip to the orthodontist.  And boy did I put that off. Not only did I find it overwhelming to choose one orthodontist among so many in the valley, I also just knew that once braces entered the scene, life was going to get a little more challenging.  And guess what.  I was right.  Happily I was led to a fabulous doctor that so far I've been super thrilled with.  (Shameless plug here - his name is Michael Richards and he's great.) I guess I can't complain too much - Cap has had his braces for more than a month now and though the first few weeks were challenging for him (and thus for us) he's adjusting pretty well.  He sounds more like himself than he did the first two weeks, and he isn't in the throws of pain and suffering quite as much.  But I'm not going to lie.  Those first few weeks were a doozie.  For him.  And thus....for us.  Someone in this house is nearing his 13th birthday.

My current plight is sending my mind back in time to long ago....nearly 30 years.....when I was the almost-teenager getting my braces on.  And it's making me kind of sad, because I'm feeling suddenly like I need to apologize to my mom.  I know exactly how awkward and grouchy Cap feels, because that's exactly how awkward and grouchy I felt.  It's like your whole face becomes nothing but your giant lips, which are protruding out in a very unfamiliar way due to the painful chunks of metal that were just glued onto your teeth. Glued!  Isn't that something that you've always been told to keep OUT of your mouth?  It's just a miserable experience.  I clearly remember that my mom, sweet lady, wanted to do something to celebrate the day, to find something to cheer me.  She printed up on our very fancy computer a little card that said, (I will NEVER forget this....), "Rachel is Sweet, Rachel's Petite, Now Her Teeth Will Be So Neat."  She used a card-printing format on Word or whatever the processing program was called in the mid-80's. She picked out a little rose-lattice border and a blocky font that printed up in pixelated gray-scale glory.  Sweet, right?  Well guess what.  I was 13.  I was horrible, and I didn't think it was sweet.  I was absolutely enraged because she had called me petite.  I hated being called short. I took great offense at her use of the label. I believe I even snapped at her and stormed out of the car in a great big fat huff, the door of the Volvo slamming shut with a very satisfying thunk.

Mom, sorry about that.  I should have seen that note for what it was - pure love. You were trying to make me feel special, and I was horrid.  You didn't even chase me down and holler at me like I clearly deserved.  You just let me go storm away while you probably did something like cook dinner for the whole family.  It's going to be hard to get through to you now but maybe you can feel a subtle shift, a little warming in the air that is the repentance your daughter is making for a long-ago wrong. Thanks for the note, mom. I love you. And thanks for the braces.  Those are expensive, and I'm grateful I had them.

Hopefully that little memory will help me be slightly more patient with my son as he works through these rotten months of changes.  Cap, my boy, you've never been horrid.  Thanks for that.  Your teeth are going to look great.  Look at that cute face....

Before

During

After

What a good kid to put up with me taking pictures!

Off to a Great Year

It's a little anti-climactic to write about this when it turns out that it is now October and school started more than a month ago but...guess what!  School started!  (It feels weird to be working on Halloween costumes the same day as writing about the first day of school.  Clearly I'm either way behind at blogging or super awesome at costumes.  Ha ha.) But school! Exciting, right? Exciting for me, I mean.  The kids may or may not feel the same way.  Well, here's what I think.  They love it.  They just don't KNOW they love it.  Well....Skippidy loves it and knows she loves it.  The other two...maybe not so much.  They are grumpy in the mornings, but actually come home in pretty good moods, so I kinda think they secretly like it.

This has been a big year for us because it's the year that Cap departed the halls of our beloved elementary school and headed off (on a bus!!) to middle school.  He was pretty nervous about it, and I think on many mornings his tummy-butterflies act up still, but overall I've been pretty happy about his experience.  He's definitely on a learning curve when it comes to being responsible for the goings-on in seven different classes and keeping up with all that. I'm trying to be patient and remember that he has taken on not only the responsibility of middle school, but also had a major spike in responsibility for dental care and attention (braces blog post up next), not to mention eye care (I don't think I'll do a specific post about his new contact lenses), not to mention the fact that his brain is currently in a state of reconstruction that basically has turned it into hormone soup. (Sorry honey, I hate to say it, but it's true.) Considering all that, he's doing ok.  Considering that I have turned into a Hermione Granger wanna-be, I get a little frustrated.  We balance each other out.  But over all, I really think he enjoys being the manly man in our house as he's learned how to work a locker combination, navigate a comparatively huge school, change in and out of gym clothing in record time and has joined the world of morning commuters.  And I have to say, I'm super impressed with his teachers.  Special are they who wish to teach in a junior high school.  My hat is off to you.  I can't even manage one of these people at my house, not to mention a class room full of them.

The girls are also off to a great start - I can't believe Bitty is a fifth grader already.  I look at the sixth graders, who all look about a foot taller than she is with all sorts of mature manners and appearances and it totally freaks me out.  Bitty is still just such a cute little gal - I can hardly believe how close she is to being a sixth grader.  I guess I'm getting ahead of myself.  I'm really happy with her teacher, a Mr. Fuller - he's terrific.  Sadly, most of her friends are in the other class, but she's making new friends and strengthening friendships a bit where she is.  It's been a little tough with some drama here and there, but I'm very grateful for the dear friends she does have, including two of the cutest sixth graders ever.  I will MISS them next year.  Getting ahead of myself again.

And Skippidy?  What do I say about her?  That every single day I pick her up from school and ask her how her day was and she always leaps into the air and says, "It! Was! AWESOME!"  Of course, when I go to ask her details from her day, she shrugs and says she can't remember any.  Hmmm.  In reality, she has the greatest teacher ever, Miss Blank, who is nothing short of a 1st grade-teaching genius, a veritable guru in the art of mastering the six year old mind.  How can I even describe her?  She is sweet and kind and silly and also doesn't give an inch on her expectations.  She does amazing things where she has the kids learning concepts with their entire bodies, like standing up and doing motions to represent each punctuation mark they learn.  It's amazing to watch. I kind of want to hang out there more than I get to, which is only for 15 minutes on Thursday mornings.  I'm very happy.

Ok WOW I finally got through a blog post. Yay me.  Here are some ancient pictures of the kids on their first days of school.

Celebrating the Completion of Bitty's First Decade

While spending most of my time and energy on squeezing a little more summer out of summer, I suddenly became aware that Bitty's 10th birthday was fast approaching. The first decade! We tend to do birthday parties on even years and try to do something else fun on odd years, so I already knew we had a party year coming up, but it seemed like I should put some special effort into this 10th birthday. But oh....have I complained already about the fact that one daughter has a birthday that coincides almost exactly with the last day of school and another whose coincides almost exactly with the first? I'm sure I have. But I find it's worth mentioning again. Already stressful times, and then adding a birthday on top? Oi!!!

Bitty and I chatted a bunch about her birthday desires - I just listened patiently for a few days as she'd approach me periodically with all sorts of (horrid-sounding) ideas - Chuck-E-Cheese! Renting a party room! Actually I'm just making those up. I can't remember what her ideas were, and she definitely did not request Chuck-E-Cheese. But I do remember feeling not too excited about many of her suggestions but decided to just sit back and wait for her to scroll through her imagination until we landed on something we could both enjoy.

Her final idea was a cooking party on our back porch. I confess to possibly slightly maybe pushing hard in this direction, because it seemed like something pretty simple and easy to pull off.  Boy am I dumb.  Haven't I somehow learned over the past almost-thirteen years that I can not keep a party simple?  It's not like the parties that happen are all that fabulous or anything, it's just that I always overcomplicate things and keep adding details to the plan until I'm sort of overwhelmed.  Happens pretty much every party I've ever thrown.  I do not know how to change this habit.

The day began with a birthday breakfast.  I thought it was completely adorable that Bitty wanted the same biscuits and gravy that her Aunt Tonja had fed her on the camping trip the weekend before.  We had indeed learned a quick, easy, and heart-stopping way to make sausage gravy, and nothing goes better with it than giant buttermilk biscuits.  She was thrilled, and I had heartburn.  But truly, it's good stuff.

I did have to spend a little bit of her birthday at the school because it was the Friday before school started and being the PTA Queen (aka total slave) that I am, I had to man the table for a bit.  But the girls were excited to come in with Troy to see their class lists and find out who their teachers would be.  Skippidy was lucky enough to land in Ms. Blank's class, who also taught Bitty.  She is a classroom magician.  Like Snow White.  Really fun and sweet and happy and also puts up with no crap.  Bitty ended up in the class I was really hoping for; a Mr. Fuller who I find to be a fantastic educator and I would love to see go into administration in our district.  But...I digress.

After the morning at school I quickly came home, tossed some balloons and streamers around the porch, and got ready to teach 10 girls a few cooking ideas.  It was both easier and harder than I thought it was going to be.  That was a pretty large group, and they were excited and hyper, but they're also a really good group of girls and we had fun on our projects.

Bitty started the party by teaching them all a get-to-know-you game that only she knows the rules to. I loved letting her take charge of her game while I stayed in the background taking care of last minute preparations.

Then we moved to the tables where I had the girls use fabric markers to decorate some aprons, which I confess were awfully cheap.  Should have figured that out when they were 8 bucks for a dozen on Amazon. The paint pens weren't that hot either - they were rather over-generous in their paint dispensing. I think I only ruined two of the girls' shirts. (Insert red-faced emoji here.)

Then we moved on to the food.  We started with pizza dough, and then while that was rising we took on fruit kababs.  They loved that.  Blessedly the pizza dough rose quite well during the fruit cutting so we then prepped our pizza toppings and made mini pizzas.

While the pizzas were taking their sweet time to cook, we had present-opening on the lawn, where Bitty's day was made with legos, green sunglasses, and a board game called Sheriff of Nottingham, among other fun and thoughtful gifts.

Following these exciting events we declared it movie time, and we put on The Princess Diaries in the living room.  I was expecting two solid hours of girls giggling and wrestling and shushing each other while I hid in the kitchen.  Actually, much to my surprise, they all snuggled in and watched the movie.  Quietly. And attentively. It was divine. I called them into the kitchen three at a time to make the birthday cake - microwaveable mug cakes topped with ice cream that were a real hit, especially to me, because I didn't need to create some wretched theme-cake-fail that I manage to produce birthday after birthday.  Best cakes ever!

The next night we gave into to Bitty's pleas to have a family dinner at Red Lobster with her grandparents...that was probably a mistake.  That dinner was more expensive than the rest of her birthday put together.  Oh well.  We did have a nice evening, and we came home to eat her other requested dessert of key lime pie.  I love the way my little gal thinks.  Key lime pie is a favorite of mine, even though this one turned out limey enough to pretty much knock your socks off.  We sat on the porch savoring the sweet and tangy pie, playing Sheriff of Nottingham, and giving Bitty her one family group gift (besides the crab-legs extravaganza) of a Playmobile airplane.  It is truly an awesome toy.  It doesn't fit anywhere in our house except the middle of the playroom floor, where it has stayed, gathering nothing but many many hours of attention from many many kids.  It was a pretty sizable gift but a very happy one for Bitty as well as her siblings and friends.

Despite the exhaustion of putting together that cooking party for 10 little girls, (figuring out the timing and details on that one was a wee bit stressful!), I was so happy that Bitty had a really memorable and positive birthday weekend; just what she needed to get her happy and ready for the start of school.

Many thanks to Cap, who took on the job of party photographer - Troy was away and I sure had my hands full.  He did a great job taking about a bazillion pictures.  Great job, Cap!  And Bitty?  Happy 10th Birthday.  What a gal you are growing into.  Generous, funny, friendly, creative.  And many more adjectives besides.  I'm so lucky to be your mom.