Dorkilicious

Birthday celebrations for my big kids have become pretty low key. Last year Nathan invited a huge crowd and they played improv games. All I had to do was provide food. This year he downsized and took a small group of cronies to an escape room. All I had to do was provide food. Nathan thrives on solving puzzles, enjoys cryptograms and the like, and is good at problem solving so it was a perfect fit for him. The game he chose was Harry Potter themed so his inner nerd was happy too. All the kids had a great time and Nathan says doing the same thing every year (although choosing a different theme) would be fantastic.

In the past year, Nathan has grown comfortable in his own skin. He loves being on the stage crew at school and between that, choir and the musical, he has found a group of friends who have the same interests and with whom he gets along well. He has embraced his inner dork and is completely at ease with his own wacky sense of humor. In my opinion, it’s a good thing. Being at ease with who he is will make the rest of his teenage years (and actually, the rest of his life) just a bit easier. Self-confidence is one of those things that makes the day to day grind seem a bit less harrowing.

Nathan still loves music and playing piano is his “happy place.” He is confident enough in his skills that he is willing to step up and play the organ in sacrament meeting if needed. He enjoys a variety of different music (classical, ragtime, and jazz are just a few of his likes) and discovering his inner Broadway nerd means that I can play all the showtunes I want with no complaints from him. 😊 He is generally quite thoughtful and is (almost) always willing to help in whatever way he can. He has become a bit of an organizing guru as well as his innate OCD has become apparent. He is terribly pleased that he has grown so much that he may, in fact, be taller than Daniel before he is done. Luckily for him, Daniel is in no way threatened by that and takes in all in stride.

Overall, Nathan is a good kid. Especially for a teenager. He’s pleasant to be with and everything. He has come a long way from the toddler who didn’t talk to the teen that won’t stop. But some things remain the same: to quote the illustrious Nathan, “Once a dork, now a dork, always a dork.”

Those Super Yummy Gummy Bears Arrived Today!

 The kidlets are happy!

A Year at the Opera

Matthew’s teacher is one of those who is a firm believer in the arts. She incorporates the arts into her classroom regularly and the kids have come to love all the art, music, drama and dance that she uses to reinforce learning. In fact, she is so good that this year she won a state award for excellence in incorporating the arts into her classroom. Here is the tidbit about her class that is posted on the school website:

“In an effort to create a well-balanced educational experience that addresses the many and varied needs of each child, K.L. intentionally creates consistent and frequent integrated arts experiences with her students.

Mrs. L.'s fourth grade students perform brain dances every morning to get their thinking started on the right foot. They also learn the elements of dance while learning important academic concepts in memorable ways. They create and perform dances for many concepts, including the rock and water cycles, clouds, weather, fossils, geometry, fractions, and multiplication. One of the students’ favorite experiences is creating and performing Native American hoop dances during their study of Utah history.

One project in particular that showcases Mrs. L.’s ability to integrate all four art forms into her instruction is her current opera production. The students have created the story, music, lyrics, scenery, and costumes. We’ve enjoyed watching the process take shape, and we can’t wait to share the finished production with our community.”

Matthew has really enjoyed being in her class this year. He is so active that getting up to dance around is good for him and helps him stay focused. He loves music and singing and really enjoys the art and dancing as well. As for the opera, the kids have been working on it all year and Matthew was super excited that today was performance day. Utah opera has a program where the teachers take a class about the creation of an opera in their classrooms and then, when the kids have created their librettos, they send them to Utah opera and someone writes the music for them. Then they rehearse and perform their opera. His teacher has wanted to do an opera for years but had never been able to take the class. This year our school’s full-time music specialist (I’m so glad we have him! My kids love him!) was able to take the class so he and Mrs. L. were able to work together to make the opera happen.

The kids did a great job. I was so pleased with what they came up with. And they were all pleased as punch. Our local free newspaper (not one of the biggies) even wrote an article about it. So last year Matthew’s class was on the news and this year they are in the paper. He’s had great teachers and I’m so grateful for everything they’ve done for him!

It Was the Cat’s Meow!

Instead of having a tradition concert, the high school jazz band did a “speakeasy” for their final concert. They played all the numbers the ensemble has learned this year and filled in the rest of a 2-hour set list with solos and smaller ensembles the kids rehearsed and prepared on their own. The kids dressed in 1920’s style and they set up tables and chairs in the commons area. The music was fabulous and the kids were obviously enjoying themselves. There were other high school kids who dressed up and danced the night away. They had drinks for sale (although not illegal and definitely not alcoholic 😉). There were not enough seats for all those who came. It was a come and go as you want event and we hadn’t planned to stay for the entire time, but they had enough music that they didn’t need to start repeating things until long after they thought they would and we were enjoying it so much that we stayed for the entire set. It was just a super fun, successful evening and we had a great time!

They are already making plans for next year’s speakeasy and I’m looking forward to it.

A Rainbow and Fruit Flavors

Today was a big day at kindergarten. They called it Kaleidoscope Day, probably because the kids got to show their parents the rainbow of skills that they’ve developed this year. There were a dozen or so stations set up in the gym and Malia got to take me to each one and show off some of the skills she’s gained this year. It was so fun to see how confident she has become this school year and I think she really enjoyed showing off her knowledge.

The other super exciting part of kaleidoscope day is that all the kindergarteners got to eat lunch at school. Malia has eaten lunch at the school on a number of different occasions when we eat with Matthew, but this was her very first time eating hot lunch. She knew right where the allergy table is and luckily for her, there is one other allergy kid in her class who has become a friend. Renee and Malia will be in the same class again next year and I’m glad she’ll have someone to sit next to at lunch.

In other news, I made an absolutely fabulous discovery today. While I was at Sprouts, one of the employees was refilling the bulk bins and I happened to see him dump a huge bag of gummy bears into the bin. Sprouts has the best gummy bears ever and these particular gummy bears were one of the two food items Malia cried over when she developed her peanut allergy and could no longer eat a bunch of stuff. I perused the bag he tossed aside figuring it wouldn’t hurt to know what brand they were. When I got home, I looked up those Albanese brand gummy bears and was absolutely thrilled to discover that the only reason Matthew and Malia can’t eat them is because of the cross-contamination risks of the bulk bins! There are several of the package sizes that have a warning on them due to where they are packaged, but most of them are allergen free!  I did a very serious happy dance! And then ordered about 13 pounds of assorted gummies. They have bears, butterflies, jumbo bears, airplanes and soldiers for Memorial Day, snakes, worms and many other fun shapes. This is one of those absolutely fabulous discoveries. Malia was thrilled! Matthew was thrilled! I was thrilled! It was a great day!

Here Comes the Sun

Juvenile (Non)Delinquent

Have you ever been contacted by the Utah State Department of Corrections? I have. And the inquiry was about my son…although he wasn’t listed by name and I had to inquire about which one. After discovering the reason for the email, I chose not to tell Nathan knowing it would make things more fun later on. ;-)

A few days later, a package showed up on our doorstep addressed to Nathan. I knew what was in it, but he has no idea and was somewhat concerned when he saw that it was from the Utah Board of Juvenile Justice. But it was all good because he was a runner up on the state level for a nation-wide essay contest called “Do the Write Thing.” Each state had 2 finalists that went to Washington D.C. And while Nathan was not one of the lucky two, he was still thrilled with the honorable mention. He got a t-shirt, a certificate, a copy of the book that had the essays of all the winners and honorable mentions (it was exciting to see his work in there), and an assortment of other things.

I sometimes worry that coming after Daniel will be hard for the other kids because Daniel has done so well and has had so much success, but each of my children have blazed their own paths and had their own successes and I’m so proud of them all!

A Brave New World

Once a month our elementary school has what they call the Birthday Table. They set up extra tables in the lunchroom, decorate with balloons and such and invite the families of all the kids whose birthdays fall in that month to come eat lunch with their kids. While I was at the birthday table for Matthew’s birthday in February, the lunchroom assistant, who seems to know Matthew quite well, was chatting with me and mentioned that he doesn’t always eat his lunch. This was definitely not news to me. It has been an ongoing conversation where Kevin and I tell him he needs to eat so he has energy to play, grow and learn and he says ok but doesn’t eat his lunch anyway. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that he is bored with his lunch options. His options are limited due to all his allergies and compounded by his own pickiness, so I’m not sure what to do about it. The lunchroom assistant mentioned that the head lunch lady is actually really good about making hot lunch work for the allergy kids and although I told her we didn’t expect anyone to go out of the way because he is allergic to so many things, she dragged me into the lunchroom office and had me talk to the head lunch lady.

I was totally surprised to see that all the kids in the school who are allergic to more than just peanuts or tree nuts (all the school lunches are nut free) had a paper taped to her window so she could see at a glance who is allergic to what. Even though Matthew has never eaten school lunch, his profile was up there too. And the lunch lady proceeded to tell me exactly how she handles all the special food needs, answering all my normal questions before I could even ask them. That is always something that makes me feel like someone really knows what the deal is where food allergies are concerned. In fact, I was so confident in the way she handles everything that eating school lunch became a very real option for Matthew.

Kevin and I talked to Matthew about having school lunch, knowing that it would be scary for him, and told him that we thought it would be great for him to try. It has taken him a few months to work up the courage, but today was his first hot lunch ever. We looked up the menu last night to see which items he could eat. He walked in and talked to the lunch lady this morning so she would know what to make for him. I met him at the school so I could be there when he ate. We had all our bases covered.

Boston, Rylan and William (Matthew’s three school besties) sat with us. Matthew was nervous, of course. It is a very scary thing. But honestly, Boston was almost as nervous as Matthew was. Rylan told Matthew he didn’t want him to die, and William made sure I had Matthew’s Epipens before Matthew started eating. I truly could not ask for better friends. What a great little group they are. And they were all thrilled that everything was just fine.

There are a lot of hard days with food allergy kids: days then they feel excluded, days when an unknowing action makes a normally safe food source unsafe, days when ingredients change and foods have to be eliminated from their diet. But there are good days as well: days when other people go out of their way to make things safe for your kid, days when previously off limits things all of a sudden become an option, days when friends show their love and concern and cheer with you when things go well.

Today was definitely a good day.