Xanthe's Sixth Grade Graduation

Xanthe is an elementary school graduate! She felt pretty proud and nostalgic at her graduation. I even saw her shed a tear up there on the stage, standing with her class. She is the best student of all time. Teachers adore her. She works relentlessly. She was working on a poster for her China report the day before school ended. I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be as big of a project as Xanthe turned it into, but she did an excellent job and had a houseful of props in her backpack to show the class.

We're so proud of Xanthe.

Her class voted her the Best Dancer. She is a really good ballerina. She is strong! Her calf muscles are bulging from always waking on her tiptoes. She is highly flexible and knocks herself out in class to work hard. Ruby subbed her class a few months ago and told me a funny story. Ruby was encouraging the class, "Point! Harder! Higher!" Or whatever she was saying. She saw Xanthe gear up to put in even more effort, and she said to her, "Not you! You're great. You're going to hurt yourself!" Ha ha. Xanthe is always working at 100% capacity. She always says ballet was "good and hard" when I pick her up.

I don't even know who this teacher is, honestly. But she loves Xanthe.

Xanthe, a girl and Izzy. Can't remember names. It's the middle of the night.

So many lovely girls headed to junior high! I'm sure Xanthe will have a lot of success and accomplish lots of new goals. Well done, kid!

Fifth Grade Maturation

For heightened levels of awkwardness, try taking your 11yo exchange student to the fifth grade maturation program. She kept whispering, "But what is 'blood' means?"

We both deserved a soda afterwards.

Freestone's Schedule

Freestone was clever!  He met with his school counselor and arranged for a home release period.  When he called me on the first day of the term at 1 o'clock asking to be picked up, I was pretty surprised, even though I had apparently signed a permission paper or something.  (Did I mention I can't remember anything?  Ruby said the other day, "We're all turning into Nana!")

When I went to get him, I figured it would make more sense if he had two home release periods, so I could pick him up at the same time every day.  Mrs. McEwen agreed, aand it was done.  Moments later, we were both waltzing out of school, on to more important things than whatever electives he was signed up for.  One was P.E.  He wouldn't have minded taking it again, but he had it last semester and he dances 15 hours a week, so really? 

We visited Nana, went to the store, got drinks, tooled around with Tizzy.  Most days, I drop him off at Scott's office where he has nothing to do but homework, and I pick him up when it's all done.  So he's finished with homework by the time he leaves for ballet, which is great, because he gets home at 9:30.  I love it. I hate how much time school and homework take.  It's great that we have so much freedom to tailor public school to our personal situations.

We, the People

The fifth grade program, "We, the People," always gets me choked up.  This time it was Xanthe's turn, and she's been talking about it since school started.  She has taken it more seriously than even Golda did, and that's saying a lot.  At the beginning of the program, the kids sang the Viking song which has been famous at our house since Golda put her whole heart and soul into the menacing glare and threatening pirate grunt that is part of the song.  Xanthe was equaling menacing, and it immediately brought back memories of tiny Golda, showing early signs of the striver she always was, a trait that is serving her so well in Honk Kong.

But enough about Golda.  There was plenty of emotion to go around!  Just seeing Xanthe's earnest little face up there, singing about the country that was always destined to be hers, even during her year of loneliness and want in China, made me so thankful that she is here.  I have probably had that thought billions of times since she arrived, like I have with all my kids:  "I'm so glad you're here."  But with Xanthe, there's another layer.  "I'm so glad you're HERE."

Lady Liberty.  I've always been fascinated with the whole immigrant experience, especially Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. 

All the kids audition for parts, which is very exciting.  Xanthe was put in this song about sailing across the sea to reach America.

The biggest tear-jerker of the night is when the kids sing all four songs of the branches of the armed forces and the military members of the audience stand to be recognized.  I'm so proud of Bruce and my dad for their service.  My dad has always demonstrated such pride in the Navy that I knew it was special and important.

We were triple entertained, having our two nieces, Izzy and Esmae, in the program.  Having Xanthe repeat 4th grade was the best thing we ever did, and a big part of that is being able to be with Esmae and Izzy all through school.

Job well done, Xanthe.  We are so proud of you and love you so much.

Diorama-orama

Last week, Ptolemy made a diorama and wrote a report about his animal.  He chose the narwhal, because that's what Ruby chose in second grade, and it seemed like a pretty chill animal. :)
He wrote the report and turned in the diorama, which Araceli helped him with by sewing a little narwhal.  Done!  Phew.  And a week before the deadline, too.

Then, the night before the animal report deadline, Frank gave Ptolemy a wood model of a squirrel.  Suddenly, narwhals seemed so last week.  At 7 am, there was an emergency diorama of a squirrel.  I think Ptolemy just likes to say the word "diorama." Or maybe he just likes school work.  Last week, he and Xanthe made posters about themselves, just for fun. 

This kid oozes creativity.  He looks like the artist he is, in this boiled wool sweater.  (Actually, it's not boiled wool.  I just keep washing it by accident.  It started out as Scott's, then went to Araceli, now Ptolemy.  If it gets in the laundry again, it'll go to Don Carlos.)

There we go.  A new diorama with a Christmas-light sun, a Peep marshmallow bush, rocks from the collection and a wood squirrel from Lio Ning Province, China.  And a report based on Mom's non-scientific observations on squirrels.

Elusive Energy

Ruby had mono.  It's been a whole saga.  In the middle of it, we redecorated her room, as she needed a clean, comfortable place to sleep all day. :)  As a parent, I suppose I was channeling my nervous energy into the room, trying to control something in a world that was spinning out of control.  After the initial emergency room drama and diagnosis (Ruby had a high fever and her gut hurt, but not on the appendix side. Dr. Hoagland looked at her and sent her straight to Primary Children's. Her temperature was 104 and her spleen was about to burst), Ruby had high fevers all the time and just had to sleep.  All the time. She literally could not get up. If she pushed, her spleen, which is responsible for filtering infection, would swell and threaten to burst again.  After awhile, she was her old cheerful self, at least for a couple of hours a day until she crashed.

Ruby at the ER with a fever of 104.
She had said a few times, "I wish I could get hit
by a car, just a little bit, so I could be in the hospital
and sleep." She was that sick.

Looking back, she had been fighting this throughout the busiest time of the year, and I felt so badly.  She would come in the house exhausted at 9 or 10 pm, every muscle and joint hurting, and just flop on the couch and cry before picking herself up to start her homework.  She would push herself to the brink until midnight or so, then she was back up at 4 or 5 in the morning.  Yes, she needed more sleep, but this time of life isn't exactly geared for the amount of sleep teens actually need.  It's hard to keep up with all of it, but what would be harder would be NOT keeping up.  It would take two days, maybe three, of not keeping up before a high school student would be irrevocably behind.  Not only are scholarships and futures riding on their grades, but they have obligations to teams or groups or teachers that simply must be met.  This is life.  We all know flakes.  Their lives are complicated, and they complicate everyone else's lives, too.  You don't want to be a flake.

So when you get sick and drop every ball, it's hard.  Suddenly, you're that girl who didn't show up or had to cancel or missed important rehearsals.  Suddenly, all your A's are D's.  It happens so fast.  So Scott and I took Ruby out of school.  I emailed all of her teachers, which was so out of my comfort zone.  I never meddle with my high school kids' teacher-student relationships, but Ruby just couldn't do this.  I went from the mom who is all, "You're fine, take two of these and get in the car," to the mom who had to say, "No.  You can't do this.  You need to stay home and sleep."

And sleep she did. 20 hours a day. All of her teachers have been very helpful and generous.  I think a little bit of my Mama Bear came out, and I just asked for what Ruby needed instead of trying to help her accomplish everything.  I explained the situation and asked that she be excused from everything for the rest of the year.  She still ended up with a fair amount of homework.  Actually, a huge amount, but nothing compared to what she would have had to make up if she hadn't had such compassionate teachers.  Her seminary work is all on hold until next year, for example.  Her AP Psychology teacher gave her full credit for being there when she wasn't, which was major, as each class period after the AP test is 50 points.  That grade had gone from an A to an F within two days, so her teacher's help excusing those points was vital and much appreciated. Golda and I had to do a major English project while Ruby tried to contribute from her bed. She was too sick to even lift her head up, but her teacher still insisted that this big project be done.

This ordeal has been hard.  Every morning when Ruby is still in bed at 8 or 9, I have a tiny breakdown, cry for a minute, then move on.  Families are like living organisms, and if one part of that whole is down, it affects everyone. Tziporah has felt it.  One day, she lamented sadly, "Everything is different.  Ruby is sick and everything is different."  One thing that's not different is Ruby's giving, happy personality.  If she only has an hour of energy, she'll spend it on the kids.  And there has been a silver lining.  After the first few weeks, when Ruby didn't have the strength to even watch TV, she started coming out of it.  She got a free Netflix subscription and became addicted to Gilmore Girls.  Now it's a thing.  We're all hooked.  I hardly ever watch TV because frankly, I'm too lazy to turn it on and find a show.  But now, I look forward to seeing what those Gilmore Girls are up to every night, snuggled up with Golda and Ruby and any little kid who wanders in and snuggles up to Ruby, looking up into her serene face, searching for confirmation that everything will be OK.  In the moment that she looks down into their eyes and gives them a big, confident smile, I know it will be.

Ruby wasn't the only one who was tired!  Maria routinely breaks down a mile from home.  She's just addicted to coolant.  I came to rescue Ruby and give Maria her fix, when Ruby was on her way home from the Dance Company Soirree. Don't they both look lovely? :)

While I was at it, I did Victor's room...

and Sofia's room.  They arrive June 23, and we are ready!!  It's going to be a good summer.  Ruby will be recovered, and there will be nothing but fun, celebration and relaxation on the agenda.  Ah, bring it on!

Pony Express

Freestone has a couple of teachers that he just loves, and Mr. Brumbaugh is one of them.  So Free wanted to do a great job on his history fair project.  The problem is that he hates to write, type, or generally form written sentences of any kind.  He can talk up a storm, but there's a block with his writing and typing.  Maybe it's because he's awkwardly left handed and his writing is terrible.  At any rate, he procrastinated this project, fretting every step of the way that it wasn't somehow magically getting done.

On the last night, he got it completed, with typing help from Mom.  We're getting our money's worth out of this map we made a couple of years ago.  Ruby used it for a book report, and now it is the proud vessel of knowledge for the Pony Express history fair project.  You gotta work smart, and this map is a good visual backdrop for these kinds of things.

I'm proud of Freestone for wanting to do a good job, and persevering on something that's hard.  I went with his to the history fair after school the other day, and his project looked sharp in there among all the other projects.  I used to think that some of the better-looking projects were parent-driven, and maybe they are, but the way my kids can navigate their way around a computer, and come up with professional-looking graphics, is way beyond my capabilities.  It's better for my kids if I just let them work their magic.

If you're my age, you remember when computers weren't a thing.  My parents dropped me off at a computer class at the high school when I was Freestone's age, so I could catch the wave of the future.  Our job was to build a virtual lemonade stand and sell lemonade.  First of all, I recognized it as a thinly veiled ploy to get me to do math.  Secondly, the only thing that ever came up on my black screen were the green, blinking words, "Syntax error!  Syntax error!"  I made the decision then to wait until computers got smarter before using them.  Computers are pretty smart now.  Its' galling to think of the hours and hours I spent in junior high and high school, painstakingly blowing on Wite-Out, manually adjusting margins, slipping a new piece of paper in the typewriter after spoiling the last one with a mistake.  Kids have it so easy now, compared to the dark ages of the 1980's...let alone the days of the Pony Express!  Ten days to get a letter from Saint Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco, as opposed to a split second.  No syntax errors these days, and no horses, either!