Breathe… Just Breathe

Sometimes breathing is difficult!  Don't worry, I'm not stressed… I simply caught whatever bug Doodlebug had, and it's reminding me of all the respiratory ailments I caught as a child.  I never had asthma, but every time I caught something, it would go straight to my lungs and cause what the doctor called "asthmatic symptoms."  And then I'd have to take yet another round of Theo-Dur (raise your hand if you remember THAT shit… all those nasty little white sprinkles.  My mom would make Jell-O and pour the capsules into little Jell-O squares.  Jell-O shots for the under-21 crowd).

Doodlebug is on the mend, though he's still emitting enough snot to drown a whole slew of rats.  We skipped his swim meet tonight because when I made him try to take several deep breaths in a row, he dissolved into coughs by the #3.  Nobody wants to race in that condition.  We'll keep him on Mucinex and his inhaler and do a few sinus rinses, and he should be good… and if that doesn't work, we still have that prescription for the antibiotics.  I just don't want to go down that road if we don't have to.

Doodlebug also lost another tooth today.  This would be something like his seventh or eighth this year.  I would know which it was if I was a good mom and kept track of those sorts of things.  The problem with this particular tooth is that it was one of his adult canines.  So in addition to missing one of his laterals and having the other lateral be something called a 'peg lateral,' he'll now be missing a canine.  I had canceled our second orthodontic consult that had been scheduled for last Monday, since I was out of town, but after he yanked that tooth today, I called and got us back on the schedule.  I had really hoped to avoid braces, but I think they're inevitable, darn the luck.  Maybe they can just put a veneer on the peg and shave down the other canine and make them look similar, kinda like mine.  I'm missing both my laterals, so they took the points off the canines so I looked less vampire-ish, and just left everything else as is.  Easy answers - I could use some of those.

Boo had another violin solo festival on Saturday and got straight 1s again.  That's the best score a judge can give.  She's thrilled, because in addition to getting another (pink) ribbon, that means she's gotten three sets of 1s in a row (we took a break from competitions for a while prior to that).  As we were leaving, she announced, "I like judges.  They're always really nice."  Lucky girl hasn't met one of those old hags with unrealistic expectations yet.  There are some major benefits to being 8.

Realized the other day that I'm staring Christmas in the face and haven't even thought about gifts for various family members.  I have a stash started for each kid… need to fill in a few more things for the girl.  The boy has actually been the easier child to shop for this year.  My kids have never been trend-followers, so there's never a fight to find exactly what they want.  But yeah… haven't thought at all about what to get my sister and her husband for their December birthdays, or to get my father.  Must be time for a Target run.

I can hear the cold front blowing in.  The wind is whistling down the chimney.  Very glad I dug up and repotted the rosemary and had the boy bring in his garlic last weekend.  I certainly wouldn't have wanted to try doing it when we all feel so icky!

Little Moments of Pride

 I absolutely love it when the children surprise me with little things that they do or want to do or are capable of doing.

M2, for example, surprised the heck out of me this week.  We've been discussing the spring violin solo competition with her teacher, and she'd been leaning toward doing a short song that she already knows quite well.  It wouldn't take long to work up, and - like I said - it's short.  She always gets very, very nervous during solo competitions, and so she tends to choose short, easier songs so that she has a little less pressure looming overhead.  

So imagine my shock this week when she changed her mind and insisted that she wants to play the song she's just finished learning.  It's long, first of all, with several repeats as well as a 'DC al fine' to polish it off.  Secondly, she's just finished learning it.  There are only six weeks till the regional competition, and if she does well there, she'll go to state later in the spring with the same piece.  Six weeks sounds like a long time to work up a piece until you realize that at the same time, she's working on two other pieces for the teacher's spring recital AND has selected another piece to learn and play for her solo at the recital (which, unlike the competition piece, doesn't have to be memorized).  And sometime in there, the teacher's likely to have her start refreshing several other pieces for the spring recital as well.  

She'll also take the music theory test for the first time this year.  Her teacher's been handing out worksheets each week, and M2 has taken to them quite nicely.

She's good, my girl, and I'm really proud of her for putting herself out there like this.  I can only hope that she doesn't start freaking out sometime between now and then.

M1 is making me proud, too.  Last night, he made eclairs.  Strawberry eclairs.  I had to teach him how to use a piping bag, but other than that, he did it all himself and cleaned up the kitchen afterward.  I love that part the most, I think, and the eclairs themselves were absolutely delicious.  He wants to try to make blueberry or raspberry eclairs sometime soon.  I'm not about to argue with him.

Then yesterday we got a nasty piece of news.  At one of his swim meets recently, he did very well at breaststroke, which is his favorite stroke.  He won his heat by quite a long shot and had great hopes of winning an overall ribbon.  However, when I got the results and started looking for his name, I discovered that he'd been disqualified.

I was angry at first, but I took a deep breath and texted the coach, who gave me a quick, if somewhat vague, explanation and promised to talk to me about it in person.  Which meant I had to tell M1 what had happened.  I told him over lunch today, and while he teared up initially, he seemed to get past it quickly.  I promised him that the coach would talk to him about it, and he asked if he still got to keep his heat ribbon.  I said yes.  (I didn't know for sure at the time, but they were going to get that back over my dead body.  I didn't have to worry, but still...).  Anyway, we went to practice, and the coach did indeed talk to M1 and me about the problem and helped M1 learn what to do so it wouldn't happen again.  Overall, the coach acknowledged that it's not a normal situation and several kids were dinged for penalties that aren't supposed to exist in our beginner league... but... M1 wasn't upset.  I was set to go all Mama Lion on the judges and league leaders and see if I could get things fixed, but M1 showed me that there was no need.  He's really okay with things. He understands that it isn't fair and that sometimes we have to fight for injustice, but he also knows that there's another meet coming up in a couple of months and he can try again then.  And he let it go.

I'm really stinking proud of my kiddos for pushing their emotional, experiential, and mental limits.  They're acting really grown up this week.

Remind me about this next time I gripe.  Thanks :)