Superman is Six

 JMichael is six.  I know, I know; he's adorable.  He's athletic and funny and smooth with the ladies.  But he's six!?  He was born just yesterday.  His birth was the main catalyst for beginning this blog.  JMichael was 9 pounds, 14 ounces at birth - which was by c-section.  Since he never got that final squeeze, he was born with what the nurses called whimpy white boy syndrome.  His lungs were still full of fluid and he was not able to breathe on his own.  He was hospitalized for two weeks in a NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).  We couldn't even hold him.  With so many people wanting updates, I started a blog to centralize information.  Baby Jay grew into JMichael.

For JMichael's birthday, we had pizza.  We didn't mean to have pizza, but, earlier in the day I was talking to my borhter David about stuff and money or the lack of it, and JMichael's birthday, and stuff, right?  Well as I am driving home, I'm talking to James about what we can do for supper and he says, Who is Dawn Edelen?  I said, that's David's Dawn.  That her maiden name.  He said, that explains it.  I said It explains what?  He said, it explains the five pizzas that were just delivered to our door!  Wow.  Thank you David and Dawn!

Blowing out his candles - except it doesn't show up too much.

JMichael wants to be a soccer player when he grows up.  He is left handed and left footed and loves any game with a ball.  ANY game with a ball.  He can put away his own clothes, unload a dishwasher and count to 100.  He is slightly dyslexic, like his mother and two of his sisters, but he sees a reading specialist at school and is learning to read in spite of it.  JMIchael makes a mean cheese quesadilla and loves to play with his sisters.  At school he is quite the social butterfly, with lots of friends and never a dull moment.  He is the perfect caboose to our family of ladies and we all love him.

To This Day

Rachel went to a forensics tournament this past weekend and in a field of 72 entries, her performance of a poem took 5th!  Wow!  The piece is a powerful, viral youtube video on bullying and if you want to see the original, and I highly suggest you do, click here.  I don't have a recording of Rachel's performance, but, I can tell you that when she did it for a family friend, just to practice, Rachel had our friend in tears.  Way to go, Rachel!

This is a blurry picture, but, Rachel is the pretty blonde on the close end.  These kids are the six finalists.  Two are from Cabot High School, Rachel is the youngest, as a sophomore.

 

The 68 Rooms

Josephine came home with this book - it's called The 68 Rooms, by Marianne Malone.  Her school is participating in a program called "One School, One Book".  The premise is that the school gives each family a copy of the same book and we read it together as a family.  On the morning announcements, the principal asks a question that the students can answer, based on the assigned reading from the night before.  Each student answers the question and all the correct answers are put into a drawing for a prize.  Josephine is loving it.  The book is really very good - I am enjoying it, too - and you can read more about it here.  The book is based on the Thorne Rooms, which are located at the Art Institute of Chicago, and you can read more about the Thorne Rooms here.

 

I just love that this book has captured my childrens' imaginations and it's based on a place we can go visit someday.  I also love that my kids are excited to go to school to hear the question and get the right answer.  Now if we could only find a project that would excite them this much - but involving math skills - now THAT would be something else!

 

Ice = Swim

Our weather has been awful this winter.  It's cold and bitter and icy.  Yuck.  This week the kids did not have school one day because the roads iced overnight.  What do you do when school is cancelled for ice?  You swim.  We literally had the pool at the rec center to ourselves for about two hours.  A few people came and went later in the day, but, we had our own private swim party, complete with a life guard, on an icy winter day.

Super Kid #5

Presenting.....the Kindergarten SuperKid!  J Michael was awarded the kindergarten super kid (for his class, this nine weeks period) and he was thrilled.  This honor means that he has shown good manners and is a leader in his classroom.  During his 9-week reign as SuperKid, he is responsible for being the guide and first friend to any new student and he is his teacher's helper if she needs anything taken to another teacher, or the office, or any errands that kindergartners can handle.  Way to go J Michael!

As a side note, we are now officially five for five.  I haven't researched to be sure that all five are on the blog, but, all five of our kids were Kindergarten SuperKids!  Yay SuperKid Ball Team!

Just some pictures

I don't have any relevant information for these pictures, except that my kids took them and they are of our family, so I guess that makes them germane here, right?  Between Facebook and Instagram, this MUST be the most photographed generation of all time.

Samantha Marie, 14 years old

JMichael, 4 years old (double exposure?)

Charlotte (9 years old) chasing JMichael (4 years old)

Charlotte, 10 years old

Rachel Mae, 15 years old

 

Seminary Mornings... January 2014

Law and Order: Fairy Tale Unit

We finished another play - Law and Order: Fairy Tale Unit.  If you are familiar with Law and Order, this is the same format, except that the characters are all from fairy tales.  This picture shows Rachel as Bo Peep, the Defense Attorney for B. B. Wolf.  Charlotte is next to her as Goldie, the police detective.  I am next, as Chung Chung, the sound effect between scenes and then is Josephine, as Bashful, the dwarf.  Rachel also played Doc, leader of the dwarf's and Charlotte also played Happy, the comic relief of the dwarfs.

Rachel grilling the prosecution's witness - Humpty Dumpty (not int he picture).  Seated at the Defense table is Bernard Bartholomew Wolf and the Gingerbread Bailiff.

This is me with my co-stars...location and time.  We announced every scene, like the tv show.

 

Here we have Sneezy, the tallest dwarf (the dwarfs were on a basketball team), with Detective Humpty Dumpty, Rachel as Bo Peep, Merm, as the assistant state's attorney and Cindy, the detective.

 

These community plays are time consuming.  That's literally the only downside.  We have met some great people, volunteered our time and energy to a greater cause and really stepped outside the normal day to day life we are so comfortable with.  I am happy to be at home with my family.  I have learned, however, that putting yourself out there is good for the soul - we grew and I hope we made some people laugh in the process.  Film at 11.