Accolades...

Wyatt's wrestling awards banquet was tonight.  He earned his Varsity letter!  He also was awarded a box of Moon Pies from the seniors who hand out random awards every year.  Way to go Wyatt!

Little sad unpictured moment.  There is a girl on the wrestling team this year, Melody.  All night they kept refering to her as the only girl who has ever wrestled at SRV.  I prickled every time--MY GIRL WRESTLED TWO YEARS AGO AT SRV!  They've had a big coaching switch up over the last two years so they don't remember Lorien.  But still, she is even in the pictures for that year...she has short hair so?  I don't know.  It bothered me every time they said it.  Finally, one coach who was there they year Lorien wrestled, Coach Billy, stood up and said "We keep saying Mel is the first female wrestler at SRV but that isn't true.  Two years ago we had Lorien Anderson on the team.  She did a great job, stand up Lorien."  So she got a little round of applause and some acknowledgement--which made me feel better.  We are also so proud of her for trying wrestling one season.  It was a big deal!

School is dangerous when you have loose teeth...

Colter has two very wiggly teeth.  One on top and one on bottom.  Imagine my surprise when he jumped into my arms at kindergarten pick up and gave me this jack-o-lantern smile!  He lost a tooth at school!  It wasn't even one of his wiggly ones!  He was twisting the not-so-loose tooth while sitting at this desk and all of a sudden, the tooth popped out!  Wild!  He was creeped out because "there was a lot of blood and this one big chunk of blood that was all (pantomimed wiggles here)."

Now we have to get this other tooth out!  It is practically sideways and creeping me out!

A busted washer...

The weekend of Clare's play, my washing machine did its very last load of wash.  I didn't know it was the last...but it was.  The penultimate wash went just fine, cleaning a load of darks for my family.  On the next load (the last load) the washer hit a wall.  It wouldn't drain or spin out the dirty water.  I read the manual, tried the trouble shooting suggestions with no luck.  

A repair guy came in on Monday morning and took my machine apart.  It looked like several fuses had blown in the circuit panel.  Our washer and dryer were handed down to us by a friend who was moving to Florida and didn't want to take them across country.  We knew they were already well used when we got them.  This particular model is no longer manufactured so getting a replacement circuit was out of the question.  We were in for a new washing machine!  First we had to do some research and find the right machine.  So I got to take our family's dirty laundry to the Laundromat!  Lucky me!

I loaded up the van with 5-6 loads of laundry and went to the nearest Laundromat while I was waiting the two hours between dance carpool runs.  Colter decided to go with me, for a good time.  He was kind of in heaven.  I realized he and Adell have never been to a Laundromat.  Even though I used the Laundromat when we lived in the apartment and Adell was a baby, she has no memory of it.  Colter was born when we were settled in an house in Danville with a washer and dryer.  I don't even know how many Laundromat memories the big kids actually have.  We had a washer and dryer at Stanford and our Redwood City house.  It was really just the Menlo Park apartment and when we lived in our very first place in Everett.  

Anyway, watching Colter be awed by the gigantic machines and putting quarters in made me weirdly emotional.  I just thought, this kid has had a very different first 6 years of life compared to Lorien and Wyatt.  He doesn't know how we struggled financially or have any concept of what it was like to be a family with a dad going to school full time instead of working.  I don't know how much internalizing Lorien and Wyatt have of that fact either, but they definitely had a different experience in their really early childhood years. 

I remember frustrating runs to the Laundromat and wishing for the days when I would have a washer and dryer in my own home so I could forget a load and the biggest price to pay would be musty clothes.  I could remember many trips into uncharted Laundromats where I didn't have cash and the Laundromat didn't have an ATM or any way of getting cash.  Worse, I can remember Laundromats where they were coin operated but gave no way to turn cash or cards into coins!  Each hurdle required a trip to the bank and almost always encounters with bank tellers who were annoyed at my wanting change but not having an account at their bank.  I took it very personally.  I had a pile of little kids and many piles of laundry.  It was always stressful. 

I definitely feel like I've come a long way as a Mom and as a maturing person.  Mostly I am just so grateful for all the years I have had my own washer and dryer.  It is an awesome blessing I cannot wait to get back!

PS It is March 22nd now, my new washer was delivered and set up this morning.  I've been doing laundry at home all day.  It is so wonderful!  I ended up having to go to the Laundromat three times over the three weeks we didn't have a washer.  I did 6 loads the first time, 9 the second and 9 again on the third.  Lorien helped me out the very last time.  It will be good practice for her going off to college.  We also had a weird run in with a husband and wife team who complimented Lorien's cute looks and then called their son down to the Laundromat to meet Lorien...it was weird.  We were happy to leave. 

A Princess and a Mersister...

In addition to being on dance team Clare went out for the school musical again this year.  She landed two parts and got to be in both casts.  In one, she was a Mersister.  In the other she was a sailor and a princess.  She was adorable, funny and full of personality on the stage (as always).  Lorien did her makeup so her face would really be visible under the lights.  

While watching the show, Colter decided to chew on the blue program--turning his whole mouth blue. 

Good show Clare!  It has been an exhausting pile of weeks.  Auditions were in October, Clare had play practice and dance every day since.  We are proud of her for doing hard things but we are glad this one hard thing is done!  She was a star on the stage and we loved watching her preform over the weekend. 

Don't forget...

Life keeps chugging along--like it should.  Here are a few things I don't want to forget about this month:

Colter had a cough and runny nose for a few weeks, which turned into a fever and feeling really crummy...then Adell got it, then Clare and finally Wyatt.  I had to line up the heavy hitters and get everyone deeply medicated to get through it.

Lorien has friends over once in a while.  Most of the time she cannot stand her younger siblings interacting with her friends.  She gets annoyed if they are even breathing in the same room as her friends.  It's awesome.  I try to be consistent with the rules: everyone gets to play sometimes, I will try to give you a break from the younger siblings but they get to play sometimes.  One day Lorien and her friend Erik came over to play Minecraft.  They let Colter play for awhile and then they burned down his house in the game.  Colter was so sad.  Like distraught.  It was disappointing that they would do that as a prank. 

Speaking of Lorien, she got into Savannah College of Art and Design and Mass Art.  We are waiting to hear from UCLA and UC Irvine. 

All three big kids got glasses.  We finally saw a different optometrist instead of our regular people at Kaiser.  We've always been told, the kids eyes are weird and they could have glasses if they wanted them--but didn't have to have them to see.  Our new optometrist, Dr. Diamond, was excellent.  He figured out exactly what was wrong with each kid's eyes and what kind of glasses they NEEDED to wear.  Lorien cannot see close up when both of her eyes are open.  She has underdeveloped eye muscles that might always be underdeveloped at this point.  They cannot focus together...just one at a time.  He had Lorien do a test where she looked at her phone with both eyes, then he covered one up.  Her response "Oh, wow!"  When I asked how she was able to pass her eye exam for her driving test he explained, they only test eyes one at a time.  She can see just fine one eye at a time...not both together.  So she has glasses to make her eyes focus together--at the same dam time. 

Wyatt is pretty much blind in his left eye.  He has great vision, near and far, in his right eye and can't see for crap out of his left eye.  So his right eye just does all the work and his left eye sits back doing nothing but looking pretty.  So he has glasses with a prescription in one lens so his left eye will do some work.  He can wear them when or if he wants to.  So far, he wants to wear them and has enjoyed being able to see with both eyes. 

Clare, who had been near and farsighted, needing glasses to see period, somehow got rid of her nearsightedness.  So she only needs glasses to read now?  I have zero explanation for this. 

Colter tried on Lorien's glasses and looked exactly like Macaulay Culkin in the Pagemaster.  Remind me to make my kids watch that movie.

All of Clare's dreams came true this month when she finally got braces!  She's had crooked teeth for a while now and all of her friends have gotten braces.  I think she's felt a little left behind.  She was all smiles to get things started!

Clare is officially taller than Lorien!  She's been eating her vegetables.

Holy Hail...

While we were mulling around the house this Sunday afternoon, we all kept noticing the weirdness of the light outside.  It looked like there was a fire somewhere?  We kept peeking out the windows and opening the door to try and figure it out.  I finally remembered, this is what the air looks like right before it hails.  Sure enough, a few minutes later, we were getting walloped with hail.  

Thankfully, the hail is usually pretty tiny and doesn't damage cars or houses.  These storms are really short, like 1-5 minutes.  We all ran outside to enjoy this weather anomaly for Northern California.

We could see the big dark hail cloud right above the house and clear skies just down the street.  It was wild.  Every one came out of the house to check it out, even the reclusive teenagers. 

I think this was the "longest" hail storm we've ever had...like maybe it was 6 minutes long.  There was enough hail for Will to throw hailballs at the kids and to see white covering the ground. 

I didn't raise jerks...

I saw that idea buzzing around the internet where you write something you love about your child on a paper heart every day from February 1st until Valentine's Day and stick the heart to their bedroom door.  I thought it sounded sweet so I took it on.  Thankfully, I took some time to write out as many things I loved about each kid on a piece of scrap paper.  Every night when I would forget to put up the heart I'd just have to consult my lists and quickly write up one (or two or three--depending on how many nights I forgot).   

After a couple of nights the kids started making and placing their own hearts for me and Will on our door!  It was the sweetest surprise! 

I smiled every time I passed my bedroom door and theirs.  My kids are pretty amazing people and they know how to show love in a lot of different ways.

We. Have. A. Driver.

Last weekend we drove up to visit our friends, the Wirigs.  They took Lorien up to the DMV in Pittsburg and had her drive the test course a couple of times.  From their drive Lorien texted me the following picture.  Insinuating she had hit the sign and all was lost.  

Ha.

Ha.

Ha.

Today, Lorien and I headed back out to Pittsburg for her official driving test and hopeful license obtaining. 

We had an early appointment and she got through the line quickly.  By some crazy miracle Lorien got the DMV clerk who was nice, like super nice.  She took one look at Lorien's picture from back in August when she took her permit test (the picture they are SUPPOSED to use) and shouted "Oh no!  I know you're going to want to take a new picture!  No one is ever going to believe this is you.  You look like a baby!  You show this to anyone and their going to be like 'Nope, na-ah, go get your baby sister, there is no way this is you.'"  I was annoyed.  How does this kid do it?  She is so lucky.  Her permit picture really was awful.  We were late for the test and I wouldn't let her take time for makeup.  I had to drag her half asleep butt out of bed.  She looked ridiculous and I thought it would build character if she had to show that picture for the next ten years.  Nope, she got a new picture.  She was dressed to the nines with full hair and makeup this time.  She lined up for her picture, worked her angles and got THE MOST darling license photo in the history of license photos.  She looks like a super model. 

Part two of her dumb luck, we got a new mini van four days before she had to take her test.  We had dealer plates and no registration.  This nice DMV lady said they would check everything outside...and no one outside checked anything!?! 

Part three of her dumb luck, she knew the course so well she only got three errors and none of them were critical.  That wasn't dumb luck--actually--that was preparation. 

I waited patiently in the DMV for 13 minutes and saw her pull back into the parking lot and stop in an illegal parking spot.  I thought it was over, her dumb luck had run out and the proctor had told her to stop the car immediately and get out.  Nope, she passed. 

A few more minutes in lines at the DMV and she was all official. 

Thanks a million Wirigs.  We are lucky to have you as friends and teachers.  Lorien owes her license to you!

Our second round of last firsts...

We had Colter repeat Kindergarten this year.  We call it being an "expert Kindergartner".  It has been such a great decision for him.  He is learning and growing like he should.  Reading is easy.  Physically, he is more on par with kids in this Kindergarten class.  Last year he decided he wouldn't run races or play tag at recess because he was always slower than the other kids.  Last year he wouldn't try jump rope because he couldn't figure it out.  On some subconscious level, he knew he was a little bit behind physically.  

We had to resubmit his Kindergarten physical forms because they wouldn't count the ones from his first Kindergarten year.  He didn't need any shots just a check up.  He sat patiently through the exam and answered all of the doctor's questions.

I just sat there marveling over another last, first.  He really will go on to first grade next year.  All year last year we talked and debated whether he should repeat or move on.  At every conference it was the same story (starting at the very first evaluation in week two): he is trying so hard but he is just behind by a little bit.  He is smart enough and able but the benchmark keeps getting moved up just as he is reaching for it.  

Barf, last year was stressful.

I am so glad we kept him back.  Socially it has been sad.  He misses his old friends and there is one boy in this class who has been a bit of a bully to Colter and others.  But he has made good friends.  He has a good time at school, most days.  He cried about going to school last year.  This year he has been able to get himself ready and biked with Adell many times.  First grade is right around the corner (again).  We will keep going with our last firsts with Colter.  I am glad we wont have to do another year of Kindergarten.

February begins...

A new month, in a new year.  Lots to do.  Colter got brave and let Barry the Blue Bird stand on his fingers to eat some bird seed.  Colter was so proud of himself.  

The most boring, low-scoring Super Bowl ever happened.  It was a snooze fest.  On the bright side, Wyatt and I made brioche donuts thanks to Paul Hollywood and the Great British Baking Show.  They were pretty delicious!  I thought they were a little greasy but everyone else LOVED them. 

Adell won a citizenship award at school.  She is an awesome human being.  She tries hard to be a good student and to help others.  I'm never surprised when she comes home with a citizenship award...but I always miss the flag salutes where she is given the award.  Mom of the year...I get it all the time.  Adell and her principal look very related in this picture, is it the bangs?