Interview with an 11 Year Old

Favorite color:  Red and yellow

Favorite food:  Cheeseburgers, tacos, soup

Least favorite food:  Peas

Favorite restaurant:  Monicals

Favorite dessert:  Ice cream and Oreo balls

Favorite toy:  Do books count as toys?  Maybe my calligraphy pens.

Favorite stuffed animal:  Teddy

Favorite animal:  Platypus and sloth

Favorite game:  Clue

Favorite movie:  Not sure.  I like the Harry Potter movies.

Favorite sport:  Volleyball

Favorite activity:  NTA and Drama Club

Favorite thing to do at home:  Read and listen to my iPod

Favorite thing to do at school:  Is Drama Club part of school?  If not, free reading days.

Favorite place to go locally:  State Farm pool

Favorite place to go on vacation:  I like going on vacations.  South Dakota is fun.  Tennessee is fun.  Disney World is fun.

Favorite thing to do with Adelie:  Play games

Favorite thing to do with Briggs:  Read 'Land of Stories'

Favorite thing to do with Mommy:  I like doing lots of things with you.  Go for walks and running.

Favorite thing to do with Daddy:  I like doing lots of things with Dady.  Maybe snuggling.

Favorite book:  I don't have a favorite.  I can't even keep track of all the books I've read.

Favorite princess:  Tiana

Favorite outfit:  I don't have a favorite outfit

Favorite pajamas:  T-shirt and shorts

Favorite play that you have been in:  I can't decide.  Maybe Seussical or Aladdin or Frozen or Peter Pan

Favorite play that you have seen:  Wicked or maybe Hamilton even though I haven't seen the whole thing

What are you looking forward to doing when you are 11?  Perform Elf, maybe sit in the front seat of the car

What are you afraid of?  Rats and football players

What is the best thing about you?  That I'm smart.

What are you good at?  A lot of things.  Theater, reading, math, social studies, science, playing piano

Who is your best friend?  I don't really have one.  I have lots of friends.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  An actor

My big 11 year old!

 

Happy Birthday, Staley!

11 years?  How can 11 years have flown by when, in so many ways, it seems like such a short time ago that we welcomed you into the world?

We are so thankful for 11 years of getting to experience your mind.  Your heart.  Your personality.  Your confidence.  Your determination.  Your individuality.  Your passions.  Your smile.  Your love.

Happy golden birthday to our Staley.  Our theater-loving, singing, dancing, persistent, intelligent, hard-working, responsible, funny, kind, confident, strong-minded daughter.  We love you so much and are so proud of the person you are growing up to be.

She Writes...

Day at the Park

by Adelie

As you lay on the blanket, checkered red and white

The wild flowers so pretty

The grass green as grapes

Your singing a song and dancing along

you are by yourself in the morning.

You lay on your towle, with the sun shining high in the sky

It is so hot, you are sweating a lot.

You take out your lunch, sandwiches as you tast the

peanut butter and jelly, chips, and fruit.

After you finish your lunch, you play a bunch.

As the sun starts to sink

you watch it at the lake,

the bright light and red, orange, yellow ball 

growing small, watch it fall.

As you pack up your bag, what a time you had

with the stars shining bright

you walk through the night.

Questions of the Day

Although Briggs has a past precedent for sleep walking, we hadn't had any recent instances that we were aware of.  However, the other day I went to throw something away in the garbage can in our bedroom.  I lifted the lid and realized that there was liquid in the bottom of the trash can.  It didn't take long to discover that the liquid was urine.  It was a mystery to everyone in the household, so the only logical explanation was that Briggs had used our trash can as a toilet in his sleep.  

So the question:  How concerned should I be that my son is sleep peeing?  Or should I just be pleased that it wasn't in his bed...or his bookcase...or OUR bed?  Is this yet another repercussion of encouraging him to pee standing up?  And, if so, is it too late to reverse course?

Life with kids is always an adventure.  And sometimes that adventure includes garbage can pee.

They Say...

When we were deciding on a movie to watch, Briggs got upset about the chosen movie, claiming how much he didn't like it.  It was a movie we had watched for the first time last year and all enjoyed as a family.  As we were watching the movie, Briggs kept talking about "favorite parts" and getting excited about things he remembered.  When the movie was over, I said, "I thought you said you didn't like this movie, but you seemed to really enjoy it."  To which Briggs responded, "I meant that I didn't like it when I was little."  Guess one year can make a big difference when you go from being little to being big.

The other night I was sitting on the edge of the tub as I was starting some bath water for Briggs.  He came in to use the restroom and proceeded to accidentally pee a little on my foot.  I exclaimed, "Briggs!  You just peed on my foot!"  To which he responded, "Sorry.  I'm still not very good at aiming.  I peed on my foot a little too."  I don't think this standing up to pee thing is all it's cracked up to be.

Adelie was telling me about a game she was playing with her figurines.  She had a bunch of mermaids that turned into humans because they all liked the same prince.  The prince was going to have a ball to choose which girl he liked.  (Zach said it sounded like "The Bachelor.")  I replied, "Or maybe they all realize that they are strong, independent women and don't need a prince.  Maybe they should all go start their own companies."  Adelie thought about this for a second and then responded, "Nah."  Can't say I didn't try.

Christmas Letter

I always post our Christmas letter on the blog to archive it.  So here it is:

Like many of you, we enjoyed watching the summer Olympics as a family earlier this year.  We cheered for our favorite athletes, felt pride in the American medal count, watched the drama unfold in the gymnastics arena, and determined that all the dives look exactly the same, regardless of what the judges and commentators say.  In keeping with the Olympic spirit, here are the Olympic sports our family would have competed in throughout this past year…if things like laundry and reading were, in fact, Olympic sports.

Zach:  Zach participated for the second year in a row in working-from-home-without-going-crazy.  Still working for State Farm, Zach had to find alternate training strategies for things like maintaining social skills when your days are spent alone in the basement and accomplishing company goals when your on-site co-workers are cats.  He also would have medaled in coordinating the St. Jude Run in the midst of a pandemic, running lots of miles at insanely early hours, catching and “relocating” neighborhood raccoons, and maintaining eternal optimism during yet another disappointing Bear’s season.

Ellen:  My year was spent primarily focusing on the never-ending endurance event of keeping track of everyone’s schedules and activities while making sure the house is clean-(ish), ensuring there is (mostly adequate) food to eat, and seeing that the (endless mountain of) laundry is at least washed.  (Folded and put away is an entirely different category of competition that my rigorous training schedule just doesn’t always have time for.)  Working my 2 days a week at the Children’s Hospital, volunteering at the kids’ schools, running, refereeing sibling arguments, and planning vacations were also events I dabbled in.

Staley:  As an almost 11 year old, Staley ventured into a novel sport of middle-school-student this year.  Her eye rolling skills are on-point, but she also was introduced to events like not forgetting your flute at home, catching the bus, and remembering your locker combination.  Staley continues to pour most of her free time and effort into singing, dancing, and acting…with a few scattered sports seasons, piano lessons, and library volunteering hours in the mix.  Her gold medal effort is definitely reading as many books as humanly possible.

Adelie:  At 8, Adelie continues to compete hard at keeping up with Staley.  Although Adelie also enjoys singing, dancing, acting, piano playing, and reading, she ventures into her own territory when it comes to tumbling and flexibility.  Her ability to spend inordinate amounts of time hanging upside down and touching her feet to her head is unparalleled.  Adelie is also a gold medal creativity winner when it comes to making just about anything out of paper and tape.

Briggs:  Six year old Briggs likes to keep his options open when it comes to his pseudo-Olympic endeavors.  Throughout this year, he has tried out soccer and basketball and running and acting.  He likes bike riding and reading and drawing and building and dinosaurs.  His most consistent interest remains a love of trains and vehicles and anything that goes.  A decathlete, perhaps?

As a family this year we participated together in road tripping (to Tennessee, South Dakota, and Michigan with a number of day/week-end trips to Chicago and St. Louis), hiking in National Parks, playing family games, eating lots of ice cream, running (including a first 5K for both girls), and complaining about household chores.  We did have to say a sad good-bye to our beloved almost 20 year old cat, Jake.  He was the all-time record holder in napping, snuggling, and sitting in boxes.  Elwood continues to carry the torch for his brother and geriatric cats worldwide.

Wishing you and yours a gold medal Christmas and a record-breaking 2022!

Question of the Day

Since we've all gotten into the habit of sleeping in until at least 8:00 or 9:00 every morning during the almost 3 weeks of the kids' Christmas break, who do you think had a harder time waking up this morning for school?  Me or the kids?

Trick question.  It was rough on all of us!