Hallie and Travis

Travis turns 5 1/2 today. He’s very proud to be able to say “I’m five and a half.” By the time he gets used to that, he’ll have to start with “I’m almost 6!”

Ever since the kids were tiny I would always peek at them once last time before I went to bed. I thought several months ago about how I probably wouldn’t keep doing that forever. Looks like that time has come. Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten less regular about that last check. If I’ve been out and didn’t put them to bed, I always peek in on them. They love it when I leave something behind–a scarf or glove or shoe–that lets them know I was there while they were sleeping. But I may have retired the habit of sneaking in every night. Read the rest of this entry »

Our friends Craig and Lisa very graciously offered to watch our kids overnight the weekend of Gerry’s memorial service and party. Boy did they show them a good time! They took them to Quail Ridge Books to see Mary Pope Osborne, author of the Magic Treehouse books, and her sister, who does the research guides, read and do a book signing. The kids were enthralled, and were even more delighted when Craig and Lisa treated them to two books a piece which they were able to get signed.

While that was the highlight, it sounds like the rest of the sleepover was a big hit as well. Hallie and Travis and Emily and Carson got along well and apparently didn’t wear Craig and Lisa out TOO much. We feel awfully fortunate to have such good friends who are so good to us and our kids!

This is well overdue, but I must post about our first independent bikers ride to Shelley Lake. We’ve gone on several greenway rides with them on their own bikes, but we hadn’t made it to Shelley Lake since they were both on trail-a-bikes.

Several weeks ago we headed out for a family bike ride, parking as we often do at Atlantic Avenue. Hallie hadn’t been on her bike much at all over the winter, and I was reluctant to go too far and have her wear out. I needn’t have worried!

Not long into our trip both kids started asking to go all the way to Shelley Lake. I resisted, still not sure they could do it. But they proved me wrong. We made it all the way there and back again–about 14 miles round trip–with almost no complaints. Travis did a bit of griping when he wasn’t leading, and he got weepy when Hallie (whose bike has gears) made it up a big hill that he couldn’t quite handle.

Overall, though, they both amazed me. We’ve gone once since then, though not quite as far. I’m eager to get back out and try it again. I think this time we’re ready to ride from home to the greenway and do the whole thing by bike!

Travis had his first piano “recital” today. Miss Anne emphasized it wasn’t truly a recital, as the kids were not on stage alone. Still, Travis was pretty charged up about it. He and his five classmates, each accompanied by a parent, were on stage for about ten minutes to perform four songs: one singing, two playing piano, and one on triangles.

As I told Travis, my favorite part of his performance was the huge grin he wore the whole time. Despite having a cold, he got pretty into the whole thing, kind of grooving and bopping along as he played. He also got to watch some of the older kids perform, which was a great way to get him excited about what he’ll be playing next year.

About a year ago Travis picked up a habit that concerned me a lot at first. He’d be in the middle of playing, sometimes sedentary and sometimes active, and announce, “I can’t breathe!” or “I can’t get enough air!” He’d take one or sometimes several enormous breathes/yawns and then go back to what he was doing.

This started in April, and when I called the nurse she thought it might be allergy related. T didn’t have any symptoms that concerned them but I took him in to get checked out and everything looked good. One doctor explained that given no other problems it was probably a “learned behavior”—it would feel good when he got extra oxygen so he got in the habit of doing it frequently.

Still, this continued for many months and it bothered me every time it happened, especially when he would do it in the pool. He really would stop everything and act like he hadn’t been able to get enough air. Sometime in the last couple of months I noticed this was tapering off, and it’s now been several weeks since I’ve seen him do it at all. Looks like the doctors were right, but I’m still glad to see him grow out of it!

As part of their Megalodon exhibit, our local science museum sponsored a contest for kids to submit their best shark drawings. Both H&T were excited about doing this. The contest stressed detail and accuracy, and I shared these guidelines with the kids. They were more interested in just drawing their own imagined pictures, which they did, and they were very proud when we dropped them off.

When we went by the museum to see the exhibit, Hallie was delighted to find that her picture was one of about 100 “honorable mention” pictures that got displayed in the gift shop along with the winners in each category. I was a bit surprised, actually, since her picture was 90 percent beautifully drawn coral and water and sunlight and 10 percent shark swimming among the coral. But it was really neat for her to see her work there.

Travis was a bit disappointed that his picture wasn’t up, but the curator explained that they had more than 700 entries. He was OK with that pretty quickly. I’m sure they’ll both be eager to participate in the next contest that comes along.

I got to overhear a fun conversation on the way to school the other morning. I’ve been running a lot lately and working to get in swimming and biking, too, to prep for next month’s mini-triathlon. The other morning we picked up the kids’ friend Oskar to walk to school.

Oskar mentioned that his mom had told him I was going to do a race with three different sports. Hallie and Travis jumped all over each other to tell him about it. They were each fighting to brag about me: “She’s going to do all of them because she’s been working really hard!” “She’s going to do best at running because she does that the most and can run TEN WHOLE MILES!” etc., etc. It was a pretty great way to start my day!

Travis has been going great guns with the reading and writing for a while. He’s constantly writing new books and reading every street sign and label he sees. He hit a new milestone last week, though — correcting his mommy. Hallie always used to (in fact, still does) read along to herself when I read out loud and jump in any time I mess something up.

I wasn’t sure how much of this Travis was doing yet but now I know. The other night I was reading a Magic School Bus chapter book to him. Twice I misread things, and twice he caught me. My mistakes weren’t enough to change the meaning or even to be noticeable to someone just listening. But T was paying attention and he busted me.

Travis was very proud to share this with Conn’s media specialist when we were at school the next day. She feigned horror, declaring that she was in trouble b/c with her kindergarten groups she doesn’t always read every word. We agreed she’d either have to change her approach with T’s class or make sure he was in the back of the room. Travis is pretty proud of his new accomplishments!

Hallie started violin lessons last month. She’s only had five or six lessons so far, but she really loves it. She’s made clear improvement already (much to the delight of my ears). She’s thrilled to have an expanded repertoire (four songs, now) to work on. I didn’t quite appreciate how much she likes it, though, until a conversation we had this evening.

We just found out that Hallie’s first recital will be June 5th, the day after her birthday. We told her that we’d probably do her party the next day so they wouldn’t conflict. This got us started down a path of silly talk about holding Hallie’s birthday party without Hallie or any of her family there (since we’d all be at her recital). Hallie declared happily, “Well if they had to be at the same time, I’d definitely go to my recital.” (!!!!) I guess she’s excited about performing:-)