Doctor Visits

I like to do all of these appointments BEFORE the start of school, but then COVID made things weird, and now I'm afraid I'm stuck in a just-AFTER-the-start-of-school pattern with the doctor and the eye doctor and the dentist since insurance wants the visits to be a year apart.

James had his well-child visit on Tuesday and then all three kids had their eye exams Wednesday, since they were off school for a teacher workday.

Leah and James both have slight prescriptions, but the doctor said no need to worry about glasses for them at this point. Here's Leah doing the colorblindness test, I think. 

And here's James at the regular doctor's office. A man in the lobby threw a fit about wearing a mask (I think?) and James kept making googly eyes and head motions at me about it. 

Here are those vitals:

Height: 4 feet, 4.5 inches (50%) 
Weight: 92 pounds (96%)
Shots: 1 (I told James that he wouldn't have any shots at the appointment since there aren't any for 9 year olds on the schedule and I filled out the paperwork for the flu shot at school, & then he just insisted on getting his flu shot when I got mine. So then I gave him $1 because I swore there would be no shots at the appointment. He thinks he's sneaky!) 

Here are some things that James is doing now that he's 9 (I keep messing up and saying 8 still!)  

• Likes to be independent 
• Wants to go play with the neighborhood kids without mom & dad (& especially siblings)
• Still drawing a great deal - he's improving (& he sure practices enough)
• Still very much into graphic novels and independent reading
• Wants to discuss long and complicated plotlines from (and/or theories about) books he's read or superhero movies
• Loves youtube animators and wants to watch brief comedy sketch videos
• Easier to get along with & seems to be getting along better with Amelie, too
• A big help with Leah. He readily agrees & seems to enjoy helping her (reading to her, helping with shoes & toothbrushing, things like that)
• More self-directed, will finish homework quickly and on his own
• Has started back doing gymnastics
• Learning cursive 
• Learning multiplication

Here's the link to last year's visit for comparison purposes. 

And then here's Amelie, too, since the other kids have pictures in the post. She's sitting with the piles of homemade pasta that we made the day they were out of school & I scheduled all those appointments. The one closest to her - the cavatelli shape - did not turn out at all! It was my first time making a more complicated shape and it just tasted like hard lumps of flour. So probably a good decision not to make too much of it. Oh well, it was fun for the kids to mix up and roll out and then try at supper. 

New House

 We bought a new house!

Sam and the kids and the dog spent some time over at the empty new house when I was showing the old house. 

Amelie found the one piece of furniture in the new house and made herself right at home. 

Leah's finding ways to have fun even after most of her toys are packed up.

"Put books on top!" she said, and then when I declined, "Just do it!" 

Here she is with some of those toys that we already moved over. The kids are loving playing in the empty rooms. 

Middle School Interim Grade Report

Amelie got an interim progress report - I hesitate to call this a report card, since they've only been in school 3 weeks and haven't even really got in the swing of homework, etc. 

Also, the school is "transitioning to standards referenced grading (SRG)" and the report is ... kind of a mess! But I think she's doing well! With a mix of A's, B's, 3's, 4's, and P's. Ha! If any of it actually means anything! We finally figured out that "AB" stands for "absence," since those numbers are the correct number of absences for each period since we already had our back-to-school cold (and not 1's and 2's, which are poor for the new SRG system, as Amelie had originally feared, or "AB" for "Amelie Buffaloe" which was Sam's guess). Still no clue what "CM" means. 

I asked if I could post this on the blog & she said yes, so here you go: 

Birthday Interview: James is 9!

James turned 9 yesterday! He had to be prodded into doing the birthday interview with me today after school, but he did all of it in one sitting, which is a little bit of an improvement. 

For his birthday meals yesterday (he got a second set! since we did his birthday party on Saturday and he picked the meals for that day, too). Breakfast: sausage links and pancakes. School treat: Oreos (except we left these at home, so he was supposed to do them today - but he says they didn't have time in class, so he passed them out on the bus & took one over to our across the street neighbor Anne) Dinner: Shakespeare's pizza (spinach & artichoke & pepperoni.) 

His teacher sent me this photo: 

1. How old are you? 9
2. What is your favorite color? Teal
3. What is your favorite toy? Hmm, let me think about this. A pop-it. What is that? It helps you deal with stress, you can pop it. Who has a pop-it? Do we have one? Everybody at my school.
4. What is your favorite game? Smash Bros.  
5. What is your favorite song? Record Player by AJR
6. What is your favorite animal? Fox
7. What is your favorite book?  Hilo
8. What is your favorite movie? (long pause) I really liked Harry Potter 7. I'm gonna go with Harry Potter 7. 
9. What is your favorite TV show? Adventure Time
10. What is your favorite thing to eat? (long pause) I don't know. 
11. Where is your favorite place to go? The ocean 
12. Who is your best friend? Leah
13. What is something you learned last year? Nothing. Nothing at all? You didn't learn anything the whole time you were 8? Not really. Wait. Air goes through you as oxygen, comes out carbon dioxide. 
14. What is something you'll learn now that you're 9? Cursive!
15. What is your favorite part of school? Cursive. Really? Probably. I mean at the moment, yes. Better than PE? No. PE's the best. 
16. What is hard for you to do? Nothing. Eat an entire pizza. 
17. What is your favorite thing to do? Swim
18. What do you like about Me (Mama)? I can cuddle you.
19. What do you like about Dad? I don't know. IDK. Has a beard. 
20. What do you like about Amelie? Nothing. (look from me) I can't lie!! 
21. What do you like about Leah?  Everything. Except she crawls on me, yells at me, jumps on me.
22. What do you like about yourself? Everything. Specifically? (Maniacal laughter) I'm very smart. 
23. What do you want to be when you grow up? Inventor. What kind of inventor? A scientist. What do you want to invent? Nothing!

Here's a link to his 8th birthday interview. 

7th birthday

6th birthday

5th birthday

4th birthday 

3rd birthday 

Ninja Birthday Party

 James is turning 9 tomorrow! 

He was so disappointed to have yet another birthday during COVID. His first choice for a party was a sleepover, and his second choice was to invite everyone in his class over, and then he finally begrudgingly settled on doing a ninja obstacle course at Authority Gymnastics. Amelie had her 6th birthday party there and James reminded me that he and Amelie had gone to a daycamp there (I don't remember when this was! Pre-COVID so it's been a minute.)

So we last-minute invited his grandparents and cousins and I made (teenage mutant) ninja brownies and rice crispy treats.

The worker there really earned her wage - she was running around with the kids almost the whole time. They used the parachute: 

Sam and Barb got roped in, too: 

I think this was when they were practicing going through the obstacle course before the official timed versions. 

They played some version of tag where the kid who was "it" could use this blue noodle to tag everyone. "That seems easy," said Sam. 

Ben scooted Leah all the way back in this foam circle - Barb said it looked like a Roomba. 

I think everybody - adults included - tried out the balance beam. Look how tall Amelie looks! It's those long legs. 

Listening to the instructions. 

James did the best somersault (not pictured!) and the rest of the kids would just fling themselves down the foam triangle any which way. 

Nana Jana and Grandma Mary and Papaw stopped in for a minute to see the kids running around & drop off presents. James's big present is really for all three kids (& really they paid for it with their own money since their Great Grandma Doris gave them $100!) and it's a Nintendo Switch, which he has been HIGHLY covetous of. I told him that once he's able to be vaccinated against COVID that we'd talk about a sleepover and/or inviting his classmates somewhere. 

Always Something

 Saw this cool bug at the park: 

Amelie had to soak her toe for a time. She put too many bubbles in: 

Or maybe she put in dish soap instead of regular soap. I forget what she's drinking here - not coffee! 

It just kept making more and more bubbles. Leah got in on the action & took some outside on the deck: 

I texted this excerpt from a parenting book I was reading to my friend Shauna. That last line: 

Vacation

 I'd better make a post about our vacation before I forget. 

We've been busy buying a house (and the more time consuming endeavor, selling a house). Post on that to come (probably). 

So! We took what turned out to be a very poorly-timed vacation, but maybe a needed one, and we had a lovely time. As an added bonus, we got to stay with my Grandma Doris in the bootheel on the way down and on the way home from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which is on the Gulf Coast. We stayed at the same VBRO that we'd stayed at 5 years ago. Here's a link to the last post I made about that trip back in 2016 (pre-Leah!) and you can just keep clicking through to the next "older post" to see them all. Link!

Here's Leah with her beloved stuffed elephant Trumpo on the long drive down. 

Sam carefully planned out all of our stops so that we could eat at rest areas or restaurants outside and at not-regular-mealtimes, but the planned burger place with a patio was packed, so we bought a package of drumstick ice cream treats at a grocery store and ate them here. We were varying degrees of good sports about it. 

The house where we stayed has some groovy 70's architecture. 

Leah was more enthusiastic about the last-day photo than the bigs. 

The kids took full advantage of the Jacuzzi tub. "This is LUXURIOUS," James declared. 

Sam took quite a lot of nature photography (& video): 

One of the kids must have taken this for us: 

Leah's wearing the same swimsuit that Amelie wore the last time we came to the beach! 

This was at a national seashore (just like a national park, but on the ocean, I think) - but the visitor's center was closed, so we just walked around a bit and took these pictures: 

We even took the same shrimp boat tour as 5 years ago. The same tour guide told the same jokes. He coaxed the kids into holding all the different fish that came up in the tri-line. This one is a cutlass fish, also called a ribbon fish.  It was the first one and the kids were a little hesitant at first. 

They warmed up to it! 

I forget which fish this is - but it's the flat kind who have an eye that migrates over to one side, so that both eyes are on the same side. Maybe a flounder. 

And there's a shrimp! 

And a whole handful of shrimps!

We didn't see any dolphins this trip, but the seagulls swarmed the boat and carried off all the fish we threw overboard: 

I talked everyone into going to the sandhill crane refuge. The visitor's center was closed and no one else was there, but we walked around the trail. The landscape was pretty different even though it was very close to where we were staying. 

We saw these pitcher plants - a carnivorous plant that digests insects that fall into the trap. 

You can see that we had the beach to ourselves! If you zoom in, my kids are making socially-distant sand castles along this stretch. 

Sam enjoyed the waves.

I like the way the seagulls each claim a post to sit up on. 

The kids wanted to go to the exact same stretch of beach every single time. 

Our first day there, we did an eco tour with a guide on a motorboat up the Pascagoula River. 

James and I got sunburnt our first day & Leah didn't want to stay in her seat. 

We have some Cyprus trees in MO, too. 

We also saw hanging Spanish moss, saw palmettos, a houseboat that had been beached in the hurricane, a working hunting houseboat, several blue herons and white egrets. The guide saw a Mylar balloon and asked us if it was okay if she went back to retrieve the litter (of course!) I love the lily pads: 

Wild rice: 

Another view of the bridge - it was cool to speed along under it. 

I think the kids tried out three different parks with splash pads. James was a good citizen at this one and cleared the drain of rocks and shells and sticks. 

The kids in Ocean Springs were already back in school the week we were there, so we had all the parks to ourselves, too. 

Eating seaside at a restaurant! We all tried fried alligator and James and Leah had fried shrimp. We did a fair amount of carry-out as well. I ate seafood every single day we were there! I think Amelie sampled every chicken strip in the state of Mississippi.  

The Mississippi Aquarium was a little pricy (parking, too), but very nice to essentially have it all to ourselves as well! I think during normal times folks might be packed in like sardines, but here are James and Leah with the whole tide pool/interactive area. 

We went through twice. 

James

Amelie

Leah

They were playing classical music where you could look at this giant glass wall & see all the ocean life. They've got an injured/rehabilitated sea turtle & we got to see the scuba divers go down into the tank and feed the sharks. 

There was a small aviary at the aquarium as well. 

Leah likes birds. It was quite hot. 

There were stations where the kids could stamp a card as they saw different animals/exhibits. Here's Amelie with her completed card. There was some disagreement among the children about if they should stamp the cards when they saw the stamping stations or when they saw the animals. (James wanted to hold out until he'd actually seen the alligator.) 

Back at the beach. James liked burying himself in sand. 

Just raking the ocean, as one does. 

We didn't go inside, but we were impressed with the giant guitar outside the Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi. 

Sam got up early one morning and walked halfway across the pedestrian bridge to Biloxi.