Cubs Win the World Series

The bad, a bit of good

Some of the boys in the household fared better than others yesterday...

In pre-kindergarten mode, Wylie seems to be experimenting with new boundaries.  Yesterday he drenched the poor cats, especially Felix, with Fantastic bathroom cleaning spray.  Very toxic for animals that groom by licking themselves clean.  So the gatos endured a bath...not their best day.

Meanwhile the human boys have been fighting like cats (and dogs) lately.  Yesterday the house feel into a temporary state of peace as they worked on a tower together.

Amazing, a peace treaty was brokered for the sake of this construction project.

Accomplished through the teamwork of two, demolished an hour later by the younger of the two.

The blissfulness of summer

I am feeling the blissfulness of summer.  It is July 1 and I have captured the joy, the ease, the laid back approach to our days.  Now, can I hold on to it?  It does not come naturally.  Wylie and I share an outlook to our days, asking, "Did I waste it?"  I don't want to waste a single moment of this summer freedom.  My formula for success seems to be:
Keep a light to do list, but don't fixate on it.  No large projects or long-term task-related goals.
Combined with:
Schedule in the fun--play dates, pool dates, Wednesdays with Grandma.
And:
Remind myself to go with the flow, do fun things on purpose, changing it up to keep the boys from driving each other or me crazy.  That's my real focus for July.  Wylie and I printed out a list of Fun Summer Activities and we are getting busy checking things off.  Yesterday was a picnic in Mills Park and exploring the sculpture walks.

Today (or this afternoon really, after a morning of yoga, groceries, and chiropractor, thanks go babysitter time) was that true blissfulness.  I hung out with the boys in the backyard, intermittently reading my book and playing with the boys.  We examined and picked berries in our ridiculously overgrown garden. (Check.)  We laid on the grass and named the shapes of the clouds.  (Check.)  Not on the list, but class summer, we rode our bikes first the Animal Care League to visit the kitties then to Hole in the Wall for pre-dinner ice cream. (Check and ahhhhh.)

I am feeling the blissfulness of summer.

Baseball Champions

A huge milestone for Finn:  his baseball team won the championship!  On Friday, June 24, 2016 his team, the Spikes--short for kids' hair salon Lilies and Spikes, their sponsor--played and won the championship game!  So fun to watch.  It was a huge and joyful moment, the boys running off the field hooting and hollering and piling on top of each other.  Our typically neutral Finn was right there in the mix, beaming.  Love seeing him proud of himself and a part of a big success.  

The Spikes were not destined to win from the start.  They lost their first three games back in April before they found some rhythm and started winning.  Entering the play-offs we figured they'd win a game or two, but they just kept on winning.  Amazing.  So much thanks to Coach Proskey for guiding the way!

Summer 2016: Week 1 in review

After five extra days with my ELA colleagues, my summer finally started last Friday.  Now, a week in and I am feeling the summer vibe.  Life is good...A lot happens in a week.  My overarching summer goals:

-Go with the flow (so far so good)
-Meditate (haven't gotten back to that yet)
-Help boys solve their fights themselves (will most likely involve re-instating meditation)
-Exercise (Lots of successes here, if I only I could stop eating ice cream and drinking beer...By the end of June I'll have hit 20 yoga classes- woo hoo...also started a 30 day 15-minute a day workout challenge...walking a few times in the early mornings)
-read 20 books (slow start on this one)

I'm trying not to focus on my usual "To Do" list, using a bit of reverse psychology on myself.  Trying to learning to just have fun.  Last summer whizzed by and I was overly-consumed by my writing class.  This summer less focus on getting stuff done.  I'm trying anyhow.  So far I think I've got an even balance going:

Friday
Kindergarten readiness test for Wylie followed by play time at Hatch and a playdate/picnic at Commons Park with Jennie and Sarah and kids followed by escaping for a pedicure, yoga, and the grocery store. (Thanks to Cleo and Zoe for babysitting and tutoring the boys.)  A successful day!
And that wasn't the end of it...we squeezed in an early movie-night before Finn had to run out to batting practice.  And all the while Jason was on his way to Pennsylvania--whew!

Saturday
Block party craziness combined with Finn's baseball play-off game #1 combine with Jason out of town.

Sunday
Fire department on Wenonah, Father's Day brunch with Dad at Citrine, Eagles try-out for Finn, spontaneous and first-of-the-year trip to the pool.  Exhausting but fun!

Monday-Friday
While Finn spent his day's studying Sustainable Science at Dominican, I delighted in a week with Wylie.  We took a truly laid back approach to the week but still we:
-hit three grocery stores
-went for ice cream twice
-played at at least two parks
-explored the DuPage Children's Museum with Grandma
-ran various errands
-visited the library to stock up on Mo Willems books
-attended Dominican's open house to see what Finn had been learning about all week

In the meantime, baseball play-offs continued and we all rooted for Finn on Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and finally at the championship on Friday night.  In between I squeeze in a few workouts and two book clubs.  Again, whew!

Wisdom from Wylie

Wylie often has interesting and surprising comments and observations during our morning drives to Concordia.  (And with his time at Concordia ending this week I am seriously going to miss my little morning time with him.)

This morning out of nowhere he pondered, "I wonder when Finn is going to learn politeness in school.  He didn't learn it in second grade.  Maybe third?"

That boy tells it like he sees it.

Further Adventures of Wacky Wylie: No Dinner

Lately Wylie has not been coming to the dinner table.  Jason or I announce, "Dinner is ready, come wash hands."  Wylie does not come.  He more or less continues what he was doing as if there had been no such announcement, no interruption at all.  Eventually after a very lot of reminding and cajoling and threatening, he comes.  Eventually.

Jason and I have no idea how to handle this problem.  Our current parenting manual does not give us clear answers.  We had a complicated problem-solving discussion plan ready to go.  Then, well, tonight, Wylie handled it himself by completely not coming to dinner at all.  We Saran Wrapped his dinner, tucked it away in the fridge, and braced ourselves.

He didn't notice.  He eventually came to the dinner table to find just his milk waiting for him.  He didn't notice.  There was no melt down, no freak out, nothing.  He didn't notice.

Finn's Fort Sumter

Super proud of Finn today.  The second learning goal project of his career, complete.  Last year he and Jason created their own cooking show, featuring S'mores tartlets.

This year, following in more of Jason's footsteps, he decided to tackle the Civil War.  Narrowed down to the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter.

Anyway, today was the day.  His first public speaking gig was apparently a success.  Yay Finn!

Click here to see Finn's Prezi.

Mr. Kuntz Math

Since early on in first grade Finn has been talking about wanting be inMr. Kuntz's advanced math group.  We quickly realized his struggling with reading was impairing his MAP scores and impeding his qualification for advanced math.  According to Mrs. Hayes the benchmark was the 95th percentile to qualify.  Even once his reading improved, I wasn't sure if he was THAT good at math.

Well, he took the Winter MAP tests in January and came home proudly reporting huge jumps in his scores.  And, on Monday Mrs. Hayes told Finn he had qualified for Mr. Kuntz's math!  Possibly Finn's proudest achievement of his 8 years so far!

Girls Chasing Us

Yesterday Finn told us, "This is kind of weird, but girls were chasing us at lunch today."  He sort of smirked and giggled like he subconsciously know this was a new step in his march to maturity.  When we asked more about it he confided, "We asked them to."

reading like a champ

At dinner tonight Finn jumps into the conversation saying, "I had a really good day today."  He went on to tell us that he did amazingly on his Reading MAP test.  He'd scored a 150 in the Fall and a 185 today!!!! Wow, assuming he's reporting his data accurately this is a humongous jump.  And he's super proud of himself.

Birthday Countdown

Wylie is desperate for his birthday to arrive.  He thought as soon as Christmas was over it would be his birthday.  Practically every day, he thinks it is his birthday and is disappointed to learn he still has to wait.  So today he created a paper chain birthday countdown.

The best part was I got him started on it and he went with it, completing most of it by himself.  Finn helped cut strips of paper and hung it in Wylie's room for him.