Holiday Spirit?

What a busy six weeks it has been. I feel like I always say that, but Halloween feels like a lifetime ago at this point. Just two days after that holiday, Emily came home from school with a fever. Sure enough, it was Covid and Abbie and I caught it, too. Emily had a booster more recently than either Abbie or me, so her symptoms were negligible and she enjoyed the time off from school.

Fortunately, we were all better well before Thanksgiving rolled around. We had Grandma P. here to help us celebrate, which is the first time that we have had company for a holiday since the BC times (before Covid).

Recent art

Emily doesn't care much about the Thanksgiving meal, but she does like dressing up and watching the National Dog Show. The art above is one of her recent creations, with the dress being inspired by the outfit that she wore for Thanksgiving this year. One of the things that she likes about drawing on her iPad is that it makes it easy to do the shading in her pictures. However, she has been drawing on paper more and more recently and she just got some new paint pens that make shading just as easy as on the iPad, so she is happy about that.

As for Christmas, life is a little different this year. For one thing, Emily now knows the scoop on Santa. We still have the elf visiting us right now, but Emily has started being the one to move her around the house. After all these years, I think she was happy to finally touch Frisbee without fear of killing her.

Gingerbread houses

Perhaps the weather is also making it hard to get into the holiday spirit. As you can see, Emily went to a gingerbread house decorating party after school last week. It was a beautiful 70 degree day. Perfect for keeping the mess outside, but definitely not Christmas weather. 

It is also hard to get too excited about the holidays when there is so much going on at school. This is the last week before break and there has been lots of homework and tests to get ready for. She finishes at noon this Friday, so hopefully we can enjoy a week of shopping, baking, and watching holiday shows before Christmas actually arrives.

Happy (belated) Halloween!

She doesn't look very happy in this photo, but I think that is all part of the costume. Emily had been looking forward to Halloween for a very long time. They dressed up for school last Friday, so yesterday was a regular uniform day. She also had a couple of friends over for a Halloween sleepover last Friday night, but they didn't do as much Halloween-related activities as she had hoped. On Sunday, we baked pumpkin spice cakes in the skull-shaped muffin tins. Then, last night she went trick-or-treating with the same two girls that slept over on Friday night. All in all, there were lots of activities, but she wasn't as happy with this Halloween as she had hoped. She worried that maybe she is getting too old for Halloween, which I assured her she wasn't.

Annual School Photo

As for other updates, Emily had her annual check-up a few weeks ago. She is now 4'11.5" which puts her in the 36.6th percentile and keeps open the possibility that she will ultimately be taller than Abbie. Of course, this delights her to no end. :) At school, the first quarter is over and we received Emily's report card. She is doing well and has a 92.8 overall GPA. We were supposed to have her parent-teacher conference last week, but her advisor was sick and needed to cancel at the last minute. We will need to reschedule and I'll keep you posted on any nuggets that come out of that meeting.

Finally, it may not be scary, but it is a bit gory - Pumpkin the kitty managed to get a nasty puncture wound on her chest. We have no idea how it happened, but it was pussy and infected so we had to take her to the vet last week. The result is that poor kitty needs to wear the cone of shame for 10-14 days. This is a double-whammy for her because she can't go outside with the cone on. Needless to say, she is not a fan of the cone. We did have a good laugh at her expense, though, because when we brought her home, she ran around the house backwards, desperately trying to get the cone off her head. She has since accepted her fate and has quit meowing constantly. This has also been a good excuse to feed her some extra tuna fish, which doesn't hurt her feelings.

Progress Report

Emily has been back in school for just over a month and it has been going well, all things considered. One source of excitement (at least for me) is that we already have her annual school photo! I was surprised by her photo this year because she has so clearly matured. I can really see the transition between child and teenager happening. 

School Photo 2022

Middle school is always a challenge, but she seems to be adapting. From an academic perspective, she is doing well in her classes and keeps herself very organized. I never need to worry about her getting her homework completed and turned in. From a friend perspective, she has a few girls that she has been hanging around with. It sounds like there tends to be a fair bit of drama among the girls and the friendships are sort of always in flux. That said, she has gone to a couple of parties and football games, so that has been good.

Laila's Birthday Party

There has also started to be some relationship drama in that the kids are asking each other out and "dating" (which doesn't actually involve going anywhere together). There is a boy in Emily's math class that seems like he has been trying to get her attention lately. One day, he showed her the doodle that he had done. She didn't say anything, but she told me that it wasn't very good. Another day, he just marched up to her and counted to seven in Latin - LOL. Clearly, this kid needs to get some better material. Anyway, she isn't quite sure what to make of him. Hopefully his intentions will become clearer over time.

Back to School

1st day of school photo

Emily went back to school on Tuesday this week. They started with a half day, and then full days for the rest of the week. I think that she was excited to get back, but also a bit apprehensive about a new year. She wants to do a good job and impress her teachers. That said, getting back into the swing of going to bed early and getting up early has been a bit challenging. She is already exhausted every morning, but also has a hard time falling asleep at night.

Another 1st day of school photo

It probably doesn't help that in the few weeks before school started she (1) had three sleepovers with Laila (which contributed to late bedtimes), and (2) didn't do much other than draw during the day. So, now, having to be active and attentive in class probably feels particularly tiring. We are also back to violin lessons on Wednesday afternoons, so that was a drain yesterday, too. Hopefully this weekend will help her catch up a bit. 

As for other news, we were all happy and relieved to return from MN and find that Pumpkin was healthy and happy to see us. For the first few days she stuck very close to us, probably out of fear that we would abandon her again. However, now she feels much more relaxed and is back to her usual routine - sometimes sleeping inside at night, other times spending the night outside. As you can see, she is still a playful kitten from time to time.

The only other wild card on the horizon is COVID. Laila's older brother just tested positive yesterday and many of the kids in Abbie's classes are out with it already, so we'll see how the year goes on that front. Hopefully we can all get another round of boosters sometime this Fall . . .

Quick Summer Update

A long time has passed since Emily's birthday and we have been in Minnesota for about six weeks now. For the first few weeks, Emily did not have summer camps, so there was a lot of free time. Chad took her to the zoo, grandma came for a visit, we did some shopping, and there was plenty of relaxing.

At the petting zoo

Emily also got a COVID booster shot shortly after we arrived in MN. Now that she is twelve, she was able to get the larger dose. For the past few weeks, she has been in day camp. She has done stop motion animation, jewelry making, volleyball, pottery, and horseback riding. This week she is doing advanced drawing and anime. These are two of her most passionate interests, so I am cautiously optimistic that she will enjoy them. I will find out more when I pick her up today, though. 

Rides at the Mall of America

As usual, she has had an easy time making friends at camp and even keeps in touch with some of them after the week is over. She has also been exchanging snail mail letters with her friend Laila who went to camp in the mountains of North Carolina for four weeks. She will be back in town at about the same time as we will be, so I expect that the girls will want to get together a bunch before school starts again.

When she is not at camp, Emily is hard at work drawing, story boarding, and making short stop motion animation videos. Her dream is to work for Disney one day and she has become really interested in attending California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) because she thinks that Disney looks carefully at their grads. Time will tell as to how all of that shakes out! :)

Happy, happy birthday (thankfully)!

Emily is officially 12 and we are happy to celebrate this milestone. Being her first real birthday party since before COVID, she celebrated with a sleepover with friends from school on June 1st (celebrating early because we leave for Minnesota tomorrow). We sugared them up really well - snow cones, peanut butter cups, pizza, soda, and bundt cakes - doing our part to add to the country's health crisis! 

Dinner time!

In the morning!

Only two of the three girls spent the night, but Emily declared it, "The best sleepover ever! Just like in the movies." What more can we ask for! They definitely seemed to have fun staying up late, watching Arachnophobia (one of Emily's favorites), and then making a giant bed on the floor of her room.

That said, the day of her celebration was one of ups and downs. She awoke at the regular time and decided that she would take a shower right away. She never takes showers in the morning, but it made sense, because she wanted to be ready for her party in the afternoon. After awhile in the shower, I heard her get out. She opened the door and called, "Mom, I need some water, I am going to be sick." I could tell immediately that something was wrong. 

As I rose from my seat, I heard a thud. I ran to the bathroom and found her loosely wrapped in a towel, lying on her stomach on the tile, not moving. I knelt over her and asked her what happened. I was afraid that she was going to seize, but she was completely unresponsive; eyes open, totally blank, totally gone. I felt like there was about to be a crack in the universe - the time before this moment and then the time after it, which would never be the same. 

I pulled her up a bit and was screaming her name, asking if she could hear me. Again, nothing. I was seconds from calling 9-1-1, but then she came to. She was disoriented, asking me if what was happening was real. Naturally, she was really scared (as was I). She was able to sit up and talk to me, but then she said that her entire body felt like all her limbs had fallen asleep and it hurt for me to even touch her - everything was tingling. Again, totally freaking me out.

She had some water and some food and started to feel better, but I was on high alert. She had a mild concussion about a month ago, and I was afraid of another blow to her head. She had clearly hit her cheekbone and one of her elbows, which was trapped under her body when she fell. I was afraid of fractures, intracranial bleeding, etc. I decided that a trip to the ER was in order. 

As tends to be the case, we spent four hours in the ER only to conclude that she was fine, but modestly more prone to fainting than others. That, the hot shower, which dilated her blood vessels even further, and her decision to sit down before suddenly getting up to call to me, all caused her to faint. Fortunately, there was no serious damage from the fall - no fractures, no bleeding, no concussion. All the while, her biggest concern was whether this would interfere with her birthday sleepover. She asked pretty much every person who attended to her whether she could still have her party. Fortunately, the doctor cleared her for all activities. :)

We got back from the ER with plenty of time for her to rest before her party. In the meantime, I had a chance for my blood pressure to return to normal. LOL. She was just excited about the dramatic story to share with her friends. That afternoon, they all had fun swimming, laughing, running around the neighborhood, etc. I am just grateful that the day ended as well as it did. She said that this is probably the most dramatic birthday that she has ever had, and I encouraged her to keep it that way!

School's out for Summer!

Once again, a long time between posts, so I guess that we have been busy. Emily is officially done with school for the year. Yesterday was the first full day of summer break. Monday - Wednesday this week were final exams, so she had half days and then had the end-of year party on Wednesday afternoon. She was pretty worn out by the time that finals arrived, so she has really enjoyed having a break.

I asked her a few weeks ago whether she was glad to be back in school and how it compared to being online. Hands down, she is MUCH happier being in school. Even with the early wake up times, the masks, and the friend drama, she is definitely thrilled to be back amongst people again. Despite only being in school for half the year, she did manage to earn an award this year. She got a Penguin Award for "most improved" in French. She is definitely still behind her classmates, who have been studying the language for much longer than she has, but she did pick up a few things this Spring. Hopefully she will continue to work on it over the summer.

Emily with Madame Lopez

She did a nice job of making friends this spring and has been getting back to actually doing things! She has been to shows, art fairs, and friends' houses. It is great to see her being active.

Emily and Hattie Beth

Emily and Laila

Naturally, Emily still spends most of her free time working on her drawing. Here are a few recent ones.

You can see that she really has a consistent style that she likes.

Next on the agenda is Emily's birthday party next week. She is looking forward to having a real party again and has decided to have three friends over for a sleepover. I'm sure that I will have updates on how it goes. Also, next time I write a post, I expect that we will be in Minnesota for the summer, so I'll have updates on that, too!

Art!

I have a couple of Emily's recent drawings to share, but first, a skiing update. We had a good week in Keystone last month. It felt like a bookend to the pandemic, as the last time we were there was in March 2020, just a week before the country shut down. We had our first meal inside a restaurant, the same restaurant that we went to in 2020, so it was definitely a flashback.

As for the skiing, much to Chad's dismay, Emily did some, but not much. I am sure that it didn't help that I am not too keen on it. She went out with Chad and Abbie a couple of times, but mostly she lounged around and read her book. She has found a new series that she loves, Keeper of the Lost Cities, so once she picks it up, it is hard for her to put it down. There are worse problems to have, of course. 

Now for the new art, here are a couple of her recent drawings. You can see that she is getting really good with the shadows and they are definitely creative characters.

She far prefers the second drawing to the first, but I like them both. The first reflects her ongoing love of scary things and the second reflects her love of all things anime.

As for school, she is still doing great. Her 3rd quarter report card showed good grades and the conference with her teacher indicated that she is focused and working hard. As tends to be the case in middle school, there is a ton of girl drama, but she seems to be navigating it pretty well. More than anything, though, I think she is ready for summer break so that I quit waking her up at 6:45am every morning. Personally, that sounds good to me, too! LOL.

Way too long!

Once again, way too long between posts. I guess that life has been busy. The big update is that Emily has been back in school for two months and it has been going pretty well. She mastered the rotating class schedule, the locker situation, and the coursework like an absolute champ. I really didn't need to help out at all. She jumped in as if it had always been the way that things work. 

On the friend front, she has been making some progress, but middle school is also full of drama. There seem to be lots of girls who are sort of hot and cold, fine one day and bossy or mean the next. Overall, though, I feel like there are at least three nice girls who she is slowly forming a bond with. It just takes time. Of course, most of the girls are doing cotillion, but she is not, so that doesn't help with the bonding.

At a pre-cotillion party

 

Other than school, Emily continues to make great progress with violin and continues to draw every chance she gets. She really loves perfecting her craft. She has also been doing some reading, now that one of the girls turned her on to a book series that she really loves. I love the fact that there are lots of books in the series and all of them seem pretty chunky. She doesn't spontaneously think of reading as an activity, but once she starts, she can't stop with these books. One night, I went in to check on her (thinking that she was asleep), but she was wide awake and reading at 11pm!

Just looking happy (after petting the cat)

 

Next week is Spring Break for both girls and we are heading to Keystone for some skiing. We haven't been since before the pandemic so both are looking forward to it. Sort of feels like bookends on the pandemic in that the last trip we did before we shut down for Covid was this exact trip. Of course, Emily has grown quite a bit since then, so we had to buy her all new gear. I am certain that some photos will appear on the blog (hopefully sooner than two months from now!). :)

Back to School (for real this time)!

After being at home for almost two years, Emily is back to in-person school as of today! She did an awesome job during the fall of studying for and acing her entrance exam, writing her essays, and visiting the school. Her visit day went off without a hitch and she really hit it off with the sweet girl that was assigned to show her around, so hopefully she already has a friend. 

First Day of School

We stopped by school last week to get her schedule, see her locker, and meet some of her teachers. I thought that it might help get her oriented, but I think it all went by too quickly. She has a lot to handle today - opening her pad lock (which she brought home to practice over the weekend), changing classes, keeping track of her iPad, changing clothes for PE, and navigating the mask situation. As she was getting out of the car, she said, "Mom, I'm scared." Despite being scared, she refused to let me walk her in and get her situated, saying, "Then I would always be known as the weird kid." LOL. 

For all her apprehension, I think she will do great. I think she underestimates the extent to which the teachers and other kids will be there to help her. Also, now that she and Abbie are at the same school, Abbie can help, too. They are already planning to meet up at lunch everyday so that Abbie can make sure that she gets something to eat and has a fresh mask for the afternoon.