s*e*v*e*n

no wonder i feel old ... ian is now 7! how did that happen? the little boy i thought would always be my baby is not really that little anymore. he's at that age where he's almost independent but he still needs his mama to be in the background ... just in case.

i think most parents are sad and reluctant to let go of their maturing children, but i'm eager for ian to find himself and become self-confident. i admit i was a helicopter parent during his younger years and, combined with his sensitive and cautious nature, he's grown up to be remarkably similar to me :: thin skinned, hypersensitive to criticism and errors, and easy to cry. these traits won't serve him well as he grows up so, lately, i've been trying to toughen him up a bit. i want him to live life to the fullest. that's what i'm working towards in the coming year. i hope he's receptive to my new parenting goal.

i really have very little to complain about. we are blessed to have him as our son, and there's no greater compliment than when our friends only have good things to say about him and continue to invite him over to their house. he's sweet and sensitive, gentle and serious, inquisitive and smart, fun-loving and hardworking. and what a great big brother he is! i hope he knows that, no matter what, we love him dearly.

happy birthday, ian!

bowling birthday "party" with his buds A and A

goody-two-shoes just like his mama

gawd, i hate to admit this, but i'm tickled pink that ian received the first student success award of the year for his class ... for the third year in a row. isn't that the shallowest thing to be proud of?

but it makes me smile to think that his teacher recognizes his citizenship + academic achievements so early on in the year, and that he is a good role model for the rest of the kids in his class.

yay ian!

he had me convinced

ian's new talent :: losing things that aren't lost.

on wednesday we went to the park after school. on the way home, i asked him if he had his lunch box and he answered in the affirmative. but when we got home he couldn't find it. i was annoyed, for obvious reasons, but we went back to the park to look for it.

ian remembered that he threw it under a tree when we first got to the park. "why would you throw it under a tree when you left your backpack with me?!" i asked him. "i don't know," was the reply. "are you sure you left it under the tree?" i asked him a couple more times just to be sure because i didn't remember seeing him with a lunchbox in his hands on the walk to the park. "yes, i'm sure," he said with conviction.

so, off he goes looking for the lunchbox under the tree. it's nowhere to be seen. he runs around and around the park looking for it to no avail. from a distance i can see the worried look he's getting, and he's almost on the verge of tears.

to be honest, at that point i was super-annoyed. and i can get pretty nasty when i'm super-annoyed. but i held my tongue; if i have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. i knew he felt bad about it, so we could talk about it when i was less annoyed. but i knew i was going to make him pay for the new lunchbox if it came to that.

but, lo and behold, the next day after school ian comes up to me and says, "oh yeah, about that lunchbox. it turns out i left it at school ..." after all that drama he didn't even have the lunchbox at the park. it's one thing to think that you left it somewhere at the park, but he was so sure that he threw it under a tree. he "lost" it at such a specific place how could i not have believed he left if there??

he's a (book) smart kid but sometimes he's such a space cadet. so now i have to add "forgets something in one place and thinks he lost it somewhere else" to the list of absentminded things he does.

penguins

[click on picture for more info]

my baby's growing up

today was ian's first day of second grade. it really does seem like just yesterday that we were walking him to kindergarten ... maya wasn't even born yet!

the excitement today was being on a new campus. his elementary school was torn down over the summer and will be rebuilt this year. in the meantime the students are at the old middle school down the street; the new middle school just opened today as well, so there's lots of confusion and chaos with drop-off and pick-up.

second grade is the highest grade at his school (he'll move up to the upper elementary school next year) so ian's a big man on campus this year. fortunately, i like the teacher he has and he already knows a few other kids in his class. i think we're all getting used to this "first day of school" business because there was no nervousness, no anxiety, no apprehension. we hadn't even picked out an outfit or emptied out his backpack from his montana trip until this morning.

i may, however, be a bit more nervous about rupert's first day of school, which is coming up in a few weeks ...

faux shaved ice

i still have to do a bit of journaling for this layout but i think i like where i'm going with this one.

this is from our last night in waikiki in may. my sister's graduation dinner was down the block from waiola bakery + shave ice II, which is where we were intending to take ian for a snack ... and a real taste of shave ice. but it was closed by the time we got there. it being our last night and late already, we headed to a cafe near our hotel.

we knew it wasn't going to be hawaiian-style shave ice, but my sister recommended it because of the sheer size of the serving. sure enough, it was huge and it was more like a sno-cone. if you've had hawaiian style shave ice like matsumoto's or japanese kakigouri (the hand-shaved kind, not store-bought) you know there's a difference between sno-cones and shave ice. the texture of shave ice is almost fluffy (before the syrup goes on) because it's so finely shaved. the sno-cone -- and this shave ice we had -- has an almost grittier texture in comparison; the ice is chunky as opposed to flaky.

ian, however, did not care one bit about the finer points of hawaiian shave ice. he was thrilled with the sugary iciness that we bought for him. we spilled/dropped quite a bit of it and we still didn't manage to finish it all.

[click on picture for details about materials.]

montana is a hard place to get to

remember how maya and i didn't get to montana last christmas? it's not as bad as that, but ian is experiencing something similar today. he should've been in montana by now, but he's spent the day with his great-grandparents at the beach instead.

seems delta cancelled their flight this morning to salt lake city due to mechanical issues. since it's friday in the middle of summer there was no way they could get to their destination today. so they're flying first class tomorrow morning instead. sadly, it was a short trip to begin with (just until monday) and now it's even shorter.

thankfully ian has taken it all in stride and is enjoying his day away from mom and maya, being spoiled by his great-grandparents.

happiness is

cardstock :: bazzill basics
patterned paper :: my mind's eye
"happiness is ____" stamp :: purple onion designs
letter stamps :: martha stewart
letter stickers :: provo craft
orange heart sticker :: martha stewart
blue heart sticker :: threadless.com
arrow punch :: fiskars
tab punch :: mcgill
corner slot punch :: ek success
other :: date stamp, foam tape

this was such a great afternoon i had to document it. threw this layout together really quickly (quick by my standards) this evening. i'm not even sure i like it that much visually, but i needed to write down and show how ian and i were linked that afternoon by mutual interests :: the simpsons, harry potter, and lounging around in bed.

sometimes i get really wrapped up in the artistic energy required to scrapbook and i forget that it's all about telling the story about my family. so, here's to throwing something down on paper and not caring how it looks. hip, hip, hooray!

even funnier than U6 soccer

we signed ian up for basketball at the local county park. rupert took him to practice on thursday and came home excited. he wanted to be out there on the court with the kids. as for ian, my impression was that he wanted to play but baseball is his first love.


bright and early this morning we headed out for ian's first game. the kids aren't on separate teams; they're all on the lakers. before warm-ups begin the coaches just have them flip their jerseys so there are yellow lakers and white lakers. ian played in a couple of quarters and did really well. during the first quarter i think he made the majority of baskets for his team.


and while i can commend ian on his basketball playing skills -- he's running hard, being aggressive with defense, passing to his teammates, and making good shots -- some of the other kids are hilarious! i couldn't stop laughing for most of the first quarter. the kids are just running with the ball (dribbling is clearly an aquired skill), some of them need reminders about which way to run, etc. of course, there are some very skilled players even at this young age, so it's exciting to watch too.

i just need to figure out how not to take crappy sports pictures before the end of the season ...

how to mess with your kid's mind :: lesson 1

step 1 :: buy him this book.
step 2 :: take him here.
step 3 :: talk a little too honestly about this.
step 4 :: define this word.
step 5 :: watch this show in front of him.

[sorry you have to follow so many links.]

as most of you know, ian is a very sensitive boy. he can be incredibly introspective and he thinks too much (he gets that from me). and that thinking often leads to bad stuff. lately, he's been talking about the holocaust a lot and asking tons of questions. it's also sparked more fear in him, and in his weak moments (i.e., when he's tired) the tears come pouring out.

it's really hard for me to know where to draw the line with disseminating information. and i know i've messed up (yet again) with this. i have always believed that if my child asks me something i will answer him as honestly as i can, especially if it's an important topic. my motto :: knowledge is power. but the holocaust is such a difficult, cruel, and important topic; you can't deal with it carelessly. how much is too much information, especially for a 6-year old? i didn't do enough research beforehand to prepare myself to deal with the sensitivity of the subject and the pupil.

ian's intellectually curious, so i can't answer his questions vaguely. at the same time i know i can't tell him everything about the inhumanity and insanity of the holocaust. it's even too much for an adult to take. what he learned at the museum of tolerance, what he's read in his children's encyclopedia, and what he's learned from us has been enough to make him worry about another holocaust in his lifetime. he came home early from a sleepover at my parents' house with a stomachache because he was scared that he would be taken away to a camp someday. it took a lot of coaxing and gentle discussion about how we learn from history, and how his dad and i are going to do everything we can to protect him. it brought tears to my eyes to think that i brought this fear to my child's life.

i can't erase what's already been implanted in his brain. i think all i can do now is educate myself on how to appropriately teach my kids about sensitive issues, and make this a true teachable moment about human rights. what can we do to prevent another holocaust from ever happening? what can we do to make our planet a better place? what can we do to prepare ian's generation to work towards peace? what can we do to instill compassion in all of mankind? it is a ginormous task, one i'm not sure i'm prepared for. but to make ian's life (and maya's) a better one, i know it's something i have to do.

coming soon :: lesson 2 :: how to unmess your kid's mind. i think i'll talk about this to help ian understand that not everyone has learned from history, but we can do something about it. maybe if we get involved it will help him feel like he has power to make positive changes, to have control over the future. i truly hope so.

the age of innocence

as i was driving to the airport post office last night (which, by the way, is the place to be on a friday night) i passed by the strip club near lax. it reminded me of the last time i drove by, on our way home from hawaii. ian says, "look, that store is a 'nude and alcohol shop'. i wonder what that means." the sign in front of the club actually says "nude and xxx shop" but ian thought the triple-x meant alcohol, the way old time cartoons mark jugs of beer/moonshine. i couldn't help but laugh and give ian some lame reason for the name. and it got me thinking that he's getting to that age when he'll start asking me what's up with the nude shop and why people talk about having sex. oy, yet another hurdle in parenthood. for now, i'll relish the fact that he's more concerned with the "alcohol" portion of the sign rather than the "nude" part.

[btw, some of you la people may be familiar with this strip club -- not because you've gone to it ... or maybe you have -- but because it's the place where they were missing letters from their billboard for awhile and in big orange and yellow letters it said "nud nudes." that always made me crack up. why, i don't know. but i was bummed when they got new letters.]

did you watch it?

the scripps national spelling bee, of course. how could you not?! ian and i watched it until the end, and while i'm not surprised the homeschooled genius boy won, i was hoping nate gartke, the canadian boy, would outspell them all.

i was so pleased to see ian trying to spell each of the words, and even though he's not particularly interested in competing in a spelling bee, at least he wanted to watch the whole show. it was a great way for me to show him how helpful language lessons are in figuring out the spelling of words. many of the words were french in etymology, which made it easier for ian to understand how those words were spelled. i don't think i'll forget the spelling of fauchard for a long time to come. (or the meaning of vituline.)

readathon wrap-up

519 pages.

that's the end result of ian's second readathon. he reached his goal, and i'm so thrilled for him. he accomplished his goal by reading at a leisurely pace and making sure to balance reading time with play-outside-time and veg-in-front-of-the-tv-time. he also branched out and read different material, like non-fiction, chapter books, and good ol' i spy books.

and, thanks to our very generous friends and family (and if my math is right), he raised close to $700! (it may be closer to $800 if our friend B's company will match his donation. isn't that fantastic?) i'm just so overwhelmed with the support ian received from everyone ... i hope they know we'll be counting on them next year too. ;)

thank you so much!

[edited 05.03.07 :: ian is the top earner in the whole school -- of the $4600 or so raised in this fundraiser ian's contribution was $800! he earned his class a pizza party, his teacher a $50 spending spree at the book fair, and himself a gift certificate to borders. yay ian!]

["reprinted" from our reading blog :: 365books.blogspot.com]

goofy grin

ian lost his fourth tooth, right in the front. it was already loose when he missed a flyball (which he threw himself) that smacked him in the mouth and knocked out the tooth!

he looks ridiculous and goofy and endearing. it reminded me of when i lost my front tooth eating a chicken leg; i swallowed the tooth and never saw it again. (i've never confirmed this story with my mother. it's possible that i made it all up.)

sadly, the tooth fairy (i.e., mom) forgot to bring ian some cash that night (oopsy!). hopefully she (i.e., i) won't forget tonight.

read ian, read!

ian's school's pta has a readathon during spring break each year to raise funds for school supplies. this is my favorite fundraiser (besides the book fair i organize) because it encourages reading.

last year ian was the top reader in his class and the top earner in kindergarten (thanks to our many friends and family who sponsored him). this year we're not really aiming to "win" but to read everyday during spring break. ian is challenging himself to read lots of chapter books and read at least 500 pages.

so, until the 16th i'll be chronicling his daily progress at our reading blog :: 365books.blogspot.com. if you'd like to sponsor ian or you have any suggestions for books to read, please leave a comment here. thank you!