Travis has a history of getting sick to his stomach on tire swings. So far he’s managed to avoid this on the one at his school. When we went to Kids Together park in Cary a few weeks ago, though, I was worried he’d repeat his performance from our last visit.
Before he started I encouraged him to be clear with the other kids if he needed to stop. He was having a great time, but then I caught an expression that concerned me.
“Are you OK, T?” I asked as they kept spinning.
“I’m fine, Mommy. I’m just organizing my senses so I don’t throw up.”
He went on to swing a while longer and hopped off with no further incident. I’m not sure how one organizes one’s senses, but it seemed to work for Travis, at least this time.
We had our first real snow of the winter this weekend. We didn’t get the 11″ they were suggesting, but we got enough for some good sledding. The four of us spent a couple hours this morning on the hills at Lions Park. We outlasted quite a few neighbors and their kids. Having real snow clothes makes a difference!
I’m guessing we’ll be back out there tomorrow. And who knows whether there will be school on Monday. I’m pretty glad this all fell on a weekend so we could enjoy it together and not mess up the school and work week.
This whole reading thing is clicking like crazy for Travis. He’s now reading short chapter books with only a bit of help from his very patient and supportive sister. For stories this evening, Travis did the reading and Hallie helped out. Mark and I just sat and grinned at each other.
We’ve been wondering how kindergarten is going to go for Travis. Unsolicited, Travis’s teacher pulled me aside last week to say that if she ever saw a child who could skip kindergarten it was Travis. She actually mentioned sending him on to second grade. I think that’s a bit extreme, but I do have a meeting scheduled for this week to talk about how Conn can best meet Travis’s needs. I have mixed feelings about sending him straight to first grade, but I have a hard time seeing how he’ll be challenged in kindergarten.
Travis’s biggest challenge in school is keeping his mouth shut. He’s so delighted by what he knows that he has a very tough time not sharing it, even when it’s not his turn. He also loves explaining (with an interesting mixture of fact and fiction) anything under the sun. His teacher suggested, in a most diplomatic way, that not everyone wants to hear all that detail and that this would be a good time to get that in check. I think it’s time to help Travis get better at reading people’s signals!
Travis came up with another invention today, called the “Space-Moon Blaster.” This is a jet-pack type vehicle that lets you orbit the sun.
I can’t get into all the specifics of the Space-Moon Blaster, so I’ll let Travis explain it himself.
Travis got his first basket yesterday during his second practice. Boy was he excited! He wriggled for about 2 minutes afterwards and I thought his grin might split his face apart. His first game is tomorrow. It promises to be total chaos, but I’m guessing he’ll have fun.
After sitting through 2 of Travis’s practices, Hallie was wishing she’d signed up, too. I talked to the head of the program. Turns out one team had lost several players, so there was space. AND there was the all-important factor of another girl on the team. She’s the coach’s daughter, so I doubt she’s going anywhere.
The team Hallie’s friends Jacob and Ryland were on was over-crowded and their coach wasn’t happy about it. So, we did some talking and some juggling last night and now Hallie, Jacob, Ryland, and another friend named Gabe will all be on “The Orange” (strange name, I know) together.
This means we’ll be having 2 games every Saturday, often separated by a couple of hours. But at least the kids will have back-to-back practices, which means only one week night devoted to basketball. I don’t honestly expect either to be the star of their teams but I think they’ll get better and have a lot of fun. And I won’t mind chatting with all the parents we’ll know on each team!
One day Travis will really not be pleased that I posted this. But it’s with relief and optimism that I note that his marathon bathroom visits seem to have shortened from their former 20-30 minutes to a mere 5-10. He was king of impeccable timing, heading in just as we were trying to get out the door. And nothing I ever found could speed him along. I don’t know what’s caused the change. I’ll just be grateful — and be prepared to one day apologize for mentioning this.
I’m learning something new about Hallie this year. She really does get the concept of the “intrinsic reward.” Don’t get me wrong–she’s as happy as the next kid to have her work praised or to get plastic crap doodads from the dentist. But more than once recently she’s rejected the possibility of an external reward and chosen to do something she loves just for the sake of doing it.
Wake County Schools participates in an annual PTA competition with several categories for entries. Poems and stories and artwork just seem to flow out of Hallie and I thought she’d enjoy creating something for the competition. She liked the idea at first. And she started down a path toward a neat visual arts project. But after a bit, she decided she wanted to do her art and her writing the way she wanted and not tied to someone else’s theme or criteria. Read the rest of this entry »
Travis’s class did a bunch of activities this week related to the new year. When I picked him up today their resolutions were posted outside the classroom. Travis’s was “I will practice basketball five days a week.” He’s pretty excited about his new sport!
OK, I wasn’t QUITE caught up. But pretty close. I just discovered the summary of Travis’s five-year check up of a couple of months ago. I figure I’ll go ahead and record his stats for posterity.
Height: 47 inches (close enough to 4′ that he made in on the big water slide on our Warrenton visit)
Weight: 51 pounds (though he feels much heavier if I ever dare to pick him up)
He passed all his other tests with flying colors. When the doc showed me Travis’s measurements plotted against the percentiled growth curves, Travis was a little dot floating up above the highest curve. At his basketball practice last night all the parents were introducing ourselves to each other and identifying our kids. When I pointed out Travis, one mom said, “Oh, the tall kid.” That ought to serve him well in that sport.
For the first time in I don’t know how long, I think I’m actually caught up on posting! Spending the morning at the Honda dealership does wonders for the Hallie and Travis page. I don’t know how long I’ll stay this way, but at least maybe I won’t get quite so far behind again.
