Brag day

[akafred]

I think we skipped last week. Let's hear some brags!

[greysonsmom]

DS was hardly saying any words six months ago and now he is saying some three word phrases!

[mrsbuttinski]

DS graduates in a week.

[mirandah]

DS had his birthday party a couple weeks ago. It was 4 NT friends of his at our house doing science experiments for 4 hours. DS was worried about the guest list; there is a friend of his (who has told DS he is ADHD as well) that doesn't get along with his other friends. He didn't want to invite him because he was afraid his other friends would be annoyed. (Great TOTM!) In the end I encouraged him to invite him, because I think down the road they might continue to be close friends. He did, and they all seemed to get along fine. They had so much fun getting absolutely filthy- I got 500,000 water polymer balls (orbeze) and a bunch of giant water polymer balls, dry ice, slime, etc. They all had to change into DS's clothes afterwards; the confused look on their Mom's faces when they were picked up was priceless.

Not really a brag but- in the last year DS has picked up a new interest. Sports. ALL of the sports (watching mostly- not playing). He chose on his own volition Boston sports particularly. We're going all in and are planning a trip to Boston next fall and going to a Patriots game so DS can see Tom Brady before retires. DS is beside himself. It's going to take a small fortune to obtain tickets (it's the Patriots-Falcons game that works best with his school schedule, so high profile $$ game). DS's BFF has also caught the Patriots bug. I happened to mention to BFF's dad that we were planning this trip and his Dad got excited and said they were planning the same- they have family in Boston- and so we're planning on buying tickets with his BFF so they can go to the game together! If it all works out it will be like, the highlight of his young life.

[mamaturtle]

DS got student of the month again for the month of April.

DS earned his wolf badge this past Sunday at the Blue & Gold and two more belt loops. The pack didn't give the parent pins to the us. Either they forgot to buy them or they didn't have the budget for them. I have to go out and buy my own.

[Deleted]

DS turned 9 on Sunday and we had a party with 6 of his friends at a local indoor rock climbing gym. He remembered to stay with the group when it wasn't his turn to climb and even cheered a friends on when they were having trouble. It was slightly delayed, but he took cues from the other boys, who were also cheering, and the delay wasn't overly noticeable. I like this group of kids. It could have easily turned into a competition with lots of teasing, but instead was a completely supportive environment, even for the one boy who discovered he was scared of heights when only about 5ft from the ground.

Not surprisingly, DD refused to participate, because the idea of wearing a harness and a stranger holding the rope as she climbed was absolutely abhorrent to her. DS came and sat with her. He didn't try to push her to climb, just sat and kept her company for a bit "so that she wouldn't feel left out". TBH, she likely felt relieved, not left out, but the fact that he thought of it is pretty awesome.

[mrsbuttinski]

mamaturtle,

I didn't even know such an item existed. And I have 37 Packs on my roster.

[mamaturtle]

May 5, 2017 6:11:56 GMT -5 mrsbuttinski said:

mamaturtle ,

I didn't even know such an item existed. And I have 37 Packs on my roster.

This is the pin that they give to the mom as soon as the cub scout completes all the required belt loops.

www.scoutstuff.org/parents-of-wolf-cub.html#.WQykcsZMHIU

And some day I will get this because I have a bobcat and tiger parent pins.

www.scoutstuff.org/rib-neck-proud-parent-multi.html#.WQylSMZMHIU

[mrsbuttinski]

mamaturtle,

I don't have any bling from DS's cub days. Hell, I accidentally ran over my Eagle Mom pin when it fell off my shirt on night in the dark. It's pretty beat up now which sort of seems appropriate.

I have a significant number of Eagle Mentor pins which I don't generally wear unless I am looking to make a "statement"- only a handful of scoutmasters I know have more than I do; I wear them if one of the old coots in district pisses me off with overt misogyny.

I also have me one of these-

[akafred]

I finally thought of one. I have mentioned before that Charlotte is "the toddler whisperer" at school. She is so caring and so nurturing with the toddlers. She has a special toddler who is the lady who runs the school's baby. She is 20 months now and has come to school since she was 2 weeks old. And Charlotte is potty training her!

[luvboston]

Ds climbed 3 stone steps at a bocce court perfectly exactly the way you are supposed to with no support and didn't fall. I almost cried.

[akafred]

We had a HUGE weekend at our house with lots of high demands. We had her birthday party a few weeks early so as to do it before the end of the school year and not on MD weekend. I was up late every night last week doing Pinteresty shit because I have a sickness lol. Plus on Thursday we got a portable storage unit and started moving stuff (slowly) into it, so there was more visible evidence of the move. Char was all for moving until she sort of realized she would miss her friends :/. But 2 of the 3 besties are also moving so it's actually good moving. Her grandmother came in town for the party, so that is exciting and stimulating. Last year she got 99% gift cards but this year we barely fit the gifts in the car. The party was a swimming party which is extra exciting. And on Sunday she had her spring recital. They always do a version at school before the big recital for the primary class, and C played her piano song but refused to sing her voice song. She is self conscious about her voice (which is pretty amazing for an almost 8 year old, if I do say so myself; not like Little Big Shots amazing but definitely local talent show amazing).

She handled this whole weekend like a champ! No meltdowns, not one. No sleep disturbances. No outward signs of anxiety other than the school singing refusal. There was even a technical difficulty when she sang her song at the recital (the background music was not audible), and she rolled with it even when she had to sing "from the top." And of course did amazing! She sang both verses of "How Far I'll Go" from Moana and sang a little fast in places (her coach slowed her down) but really nailed the lyrics and the tone. I'm very proud of her performance of course, but also of just how awesome she was all weekend! Maybe this means the new med (Prozac) is starting to work. It has been 2 weeks and I had not seen any other indication that it was helping, but it's supposed to take 3+ weeks anyway. Last night she lay on me watching a movie for almost an hour without squirming unbearably. It was heaven!

[URMySunshine77]

Love all these brags!!

DS started practicing writing without us badgering him. He wrote a big sign for my husband's 40th and woke up early to surprise him with it. I really am elated that he is interested. He even took out our writing pad to practice some letters with DH!

ETA--he's 4, so I didn't consider handwriting really essential work right now.

[spooko]

I'm actually kind of pissed at the boy ATM, so it's hard to be positive, BUT, he played in quite the soccer tournament this weekend and was on fire. Scored more than anyone on the team, was really giving it 100, and was asked to sub on the "A" team. Scored the only goal for his team in that game, too! Behaviorally and mood wise he was very pleasant, so that's what made it even better. Of course it's all gone to shit now because we're at maximum sleep deprivation and what not, but it was great while it lasted!

[macchiatto]

After having lunch at school with Oliver and Leo, a friend and his mom, I dropped by recess and observed Leo for a bit without him knowing. It was nice to see he was playing with another child the whole time!

[akafred]

We skipped this week again. Womp womp.

It has been a glorious week with DD. Med changes always seem to start out really promising and then fizzle out quickly so we will see how long it lasts, but on Prozac (2+ weeks in), she seems almost TOO happy. Not manic (outside of normal), but just really happy, easygoing, and super loving.

Yesterday when I picked her up from school, I got there shortly after she called a little girl D a bitch. I took her aside and parented her in a normal manner. I made her look at me and firmly told her that it is not okay to call names, that we want her to use her words to tell the other child what they were doing that she didn't like but that it is not okay to call names, and that word is not ok to use. She looked like she felt bad about it. She said she was sorry. She told the girl she was sorry. She did not cry, she did not melt down, she did not throw a fit of any kind, she did not act like the world was ending, she didn't even tell me what D did to "deserve" the name calling. I never found out. There was no dwelling, no returning to the subject at bedtime. After she got her backpack together (no improvement so far in the ADHD piece so it took a while), she walked out of school holding my hand and telling me she loves me.

In fact because we ended up leaving school later than planned, we made the decision to skip swimming last night and go tonight instead so we would have more time. She didn't assume we would never go swimming again. She didn't assume it was punishment for what happened at school. I let HER make the decision, and she decided to go today instead.

Is it possible for a kiddo to be tooooo happy?