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.

Welcome Spring

Our Heritage

Last night was one of our Christmas experience gifts. Daniel, Nathan and I got to see “Shen Yun,” a New York based Chinese performing group. Their specialty is keeping the traditional Chinese performing arts alive. It was visually stunning and wonderful to watch. I thought it was interesting to see elements of dance that are common in the traditional dances of other countries represented in the ancient Chinese arts. It seemed to be proof of the mingling of the cultures in ancient times. Anyway, we had a great time. It was great to be able to immerse ourselves in the culture of our own ancestors.

Are You My Mother?

I know I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but Nathan has been spending a lot of time at school. He was in the school musical and has been on stage crew all year. The drama teacher at our school (Mrs. Martin, whom the kids just call Martin) has seen him a lot more often than I have in the past four months. In fact, Nathan has spent so much time with her that yesterday he called me “Martin” instead of Mom.

I laughed my head off.

Today he told Martin and she laughed her head off too.

Eggs-capades

Tomorrow is Easter. Since 50% of our children have passed the age of hunting for eggs, the whole affair is much lower key than is was in days past. On the other hand, 100% of our children still enjoy coloring the eggs so they all participated in that portion of the festivities. And honestly, I think Nathan likes hiding eggs almost as much as he enjoyed finding them when he was younger!

Rubber Chicken, Anyone? (or Downtown Scavenger Hunt Part 1)

Last Christmas Seth and Danna gave us a gift certificate to do a downtown scavenger hunt. The kids are on spring break, so Kevin took the day off and we ventured downtown. We started at the state capitol, roaming the grounds to find a variety of landmarks, answer some questions, and a learn a few new things about our city. Perhaps the most random tidbit we learned is that Salt Lake is the country’s largest producer of rubber chickens. I guess we have to find creative ways to entertain ourselves since so much of the state’s population prefers not to get drunk. 😉

We ran out of time before we ran out of scavenger hunt, but luckily for us, we will be able to pick up where we left off on another day.

The Circle of Life

When I was a teen, I spent many, many hours at school participating in rehearsals for the school musicals. There were times that I arrived at the school by 5:30 a.m. and didn’t come home until after dark. They were long days, but so much fun. Nathan has followed in my footsteps and since it is school musical season for him, we haven’t seen him much for that last couple of months. Not only is he in the cast, but he’s in the stage crew as well so his hours are even longer than normal. But he’s loving it.

Nathan was very excited when they announced that “The Lion King” would be this year’s show. I may think the story is boring, but the spectacle associated with the show is super fun and Nathan was really looking forward to it. He auditioned and was called back, but when he got home from callbacks he was definitely in a funk. Apparently, he was asked to participate a bit at the beginning, but then was not called on to do anything again. Around 5:30, the teachers looked at him and said, “Why are you still here? I thought we went you home.” Needless to say, he was sure that meant he was not what they are looking for. I explained to him that being sent home early is not necessarily a bad thing. It can just mean that the casting crew already knows where they want you. It may have helped a bit, but he was pretty discouraged. Luckily for him, the drama teacher didn’t waste much time posting the final casting list and Nathan was thrilled to discover that he had been cast as Zazu! In later conversations, the teachers told Nathan that they knew from the very beginning which part was his.

Nathan dove right in, learning all his parts, building sets, creating costumes, programming lighting settings, experimenting with makeup, etc. He was seriously neck deep in pretty much every aspect of the show. And he was having the time of his life!

Last night was closing night. Even though it was a middle school production, I feel like the show was very well done. The kids all did a great job. The music was well rehearsed and well performed. The costumes were creative and appropriate. They had a variety of creative puppets. They even build an elephant! Nathan has really enjoyed himself, but now that the show is over, he’s looking forward to getting a bit more sleep…and he’s already talking about next year’s show.

(So I don’t know any of the pachyderm players, but I was so impressed with the elephant they built that I had to include a picture!)

It has been fun to see him immerse himself in a world that was mine when I was young. It brings back so many fond memories of the productions I participated in, the crazy things we did, the rush that came with performing and the euphoria that came with applause. I hope that his memories end up being as positive as mine are.