The Laundry and the Tooth Fairy

I mentioned in a previous post about Sean's obsession with wearing tan shorts year round, all the time.

At our annual shopping trip during the summer, where I buy Sean 90% of the clothes he will need for the next year, I purchased four new pairs of tan shorts. He hasn't gotten rid of the shorts from the previous year because they still fit. Kind of. He can get them most of the way zipped up.

I sometimes wonder what his friend's mothers think when they see him show up day after day in what appears to be the same set of shorts, and because they're light-colored, they always look dirty except when he's just put them on.

Sean is a very physical kid, and he loves playing football and baseball and sliding in the dirt and rolling around on the ground with the dog, so nothing light-colored stays clean for long on him.

He's got 6 pairs of tan shorts, 4 that fit and 2 of the previous year's 4 that are still semi-wearable.

He also owns jeans and shorts in different colors like blue, black and gray, but to Sean tan shorts go with everything.

Some of those shorts can't be gotten completely clean any more, but I do my best.

So today in the laundry, I see these shorts (above). I notice a small tear in the back, but what's that silvery stuff under the tear?

Duct tape. Well, he's resourceful. I personally would prefer not to be washing the family laundry with duct-taped clothing items in the dryer, but Sean is a man of the moment. I've thrown these shorts away once, but Sean apparently resurrected them.

Then, I'm changing the sheets on his bed and I find the above note (click on the photos to make them larger). Sean is supposed to be making his own bed these days, and that has affected the tooth fairy's promptness in noticing such items in his bed. But $100? I think I used to get a quarter or something.

The tooth fairy responds. She puts it under his pillow.

We'll see if he finds it when he wakes up. Depends on whether or not he makes his bed like he's supposed to.

We're getting ready to travel to my parents house for Thanksgiving at my sister Elizabeth's house.

Tooth story to be continued...

Happy Thanksgiving!

- Kathleen

Spray 'N Wash

Sean's been keeping me entertained lately.

He's got this thing about wearing shorts all year (it has been cold here this year) and I usually have to force him to even consider long pants.

And not just any old shorts. Sean favors tan colored microfiber shorts. It's like pulling teeth to get him to wear some of his other clothing choices, like the dark blue or gray microfiber shorts, or even worse, the blue denim shorts.

These tan shorts are light-colored, which is not well suited to his daily rolling-around-on-the-ground outside routine, by the end of the day they are filthy.

This morning I make breakfast and Sean, usually the first one downstairs, is nowhere to be found.

I sent Doug up to find him and he discovers that Sean has decided to clean his favorite pair of tan shorts before school. He does this by saturating them front and back with most of a bottle of Spray 'N Wash, and when Doug finds him he's in my bathroom using my hairdryer to blow-dry his Spray 'N Wash-saturated shorts.

The Spray 'N Wash rearranged the dirt. Where before they were uniformly filthy, after the Spray 'N Wash they had clean streaks demarcated by dark black wavy lines of dirt, baked on with a blow dryer.

I tried reasoning with him, but in the end it was only the threat of dire consequences that convinced him to change into his olive green shorts for school. Steven, who usually finds me too picky about such things, agreed wholeheartedly that Sean shouldn't be seen wearing the shorts he'd "cleaned" in public.

I tried to point out the name of the product, Spray 'N Wash, implied there was a washing (or at least a rinsing) step involved.

Sean was merely disgusted that you couldn't just spray it on and dry the clothes with a hairdryer.

He's a work in progress, but I think we'll still keep him.

- Kathleen

Parent Appreciation Day

Sean with breakfast all ready to go

Last week I got up at 6:00 AM to start breakfast and this was what I saw when I walked into the kitchen.

Sean had made a banner proclaiming February 26, 6 am-9 pm as Parent Appreciation Day.

He'd emptied the dishwasher and had eggs and toast waiting for everyone.

I guess we'll keep him.

- Kathleen

Sean's Colonial Revue

Sean at his play

Sean's fifth grade class put on a musical performance about the 13 colonies and early life in the United States.

Sean waiting for the podium

Sean front row center

I don't think Sean was too happy to see me and Doug turn up for the performance.

I was trying to catch him looking at me

Dancing with his partner

He spent most of his time studiously averting his head so we couldn't get any full face photos.

A (mostly) full face shot

Singing about the states

So despite the fact that I sat in the first row, it was a challenge trying to take photos of him.

Doug called him and he almost looked at us

Under threat of punishment...

I guess this is what happens when you end up with the world's most annoying parents.

The class sings "Fifty Nifty"

Fifty nifty United States from thirteen original colonies;
Fifty nifty stars in the flag that billows so beautif'ly in the breeze.
Each individual state contributes a quality that is great.
Each individual state deserves a bow, we salute them now.

Fifty nifty United States from thirteen original colonies,
Shout 'em, scout 'em, Tell all about 'em,
One by one till we've given a day to ev'ry state in the U.S.A.

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut;
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana;
Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan;
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada;
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio;
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas;
Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

North, south, east, west, in our calm, objective opinion,
California is the best of the
Fifty nifty United States from thirteen original colonies,
Shout 'em, scout 'em, Tell all about 'em,
One by one till we've given a day to ev'ry state in the good old U. S. A.

- Kathleen

San Diego Science Olympiad - Sean's team

San Diego Union Tribune article about the Science Olympiad:
http://signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080203-9999-1m3olymp.html

The Torrey Hills Elementary Science Olympiad Team

One of our projects for the last few months (since October) has been coaching and preparing our kids for the San Diego Science Olympiad, held this last February 2nd. Doug and I coached the Road Scholar event, a map reading and comprehension competition for both the elementary and the middle school.

Typically each student that participates enrolls in either 3 or 4 events along with a partner. At least one event must be a building event, the other events are tests.

This is what happens when the brakes fail

Sean's building event was called Scrambler. They had to build a wheeled vehicle with a launching system and brakes.

An example of a good Scrambler run

They taped an egg to the front of the vehicle and run it down a course with a plank at the end. The idea is to get the vehicle as close to the plank as possible without touching it and without breaking the egg.

Sean, Drew and Drew's dad strategizing

The scoring is dependent on how long the vehicle takes to make its run and how close to the plank it gets. The distance to the plank is not known in advance, the range they were given beforehand was 8-12 meters and for the competition the distance was 9 meters.

Sean and Drew getting set up

Sean and his partner Drew had a hard time taping the egg onto the front of the vehicle, they broke two eggs and if they'd broken a third, they would have been disqualified.

Working hard to finish the setup

Sean and Drew were the youngest participants in the event, most of the participants are 3 years older. They had one problem after another getting set up and there was a murmur going through the room as the parents of other participants made sounds of sympathy for their struggles.

An awesome run, the egg was 2 cm from the plank

They finally completed their run and after all that trouble it would have been good enough to earn them a medal, the car moved quickly and stopped less than an inch (2 cm) from the wall.

But they'd exceeeded the 10-minute time limit allowed for setup and to complete the first run so their score didn't count.

Sean and Drew showing off their Scrambler car

They were great sports about it. We were really proud of our 5th graders going head-to-head in an event for 6th-9th graders.

Torrey Hills and their 9th place trophy

The single team from their school, the only elementary school in the event, took 9th place out of the over 40 schools and over 70 teams who were there that day, nobody expected it.

I think by next year they're going to be a force to contend with. Now if we could just get them to grow a little...

- Kathleen

Ten Candles for Sean

Sean at around 5:00 pm June 30, 1997

When the doctors found out I was carrying Sean (I knew, I didn't need a test to tell me), they went into a bit of a tizzy.

I'd had four miscarriages, and then there was Steven, who was born with a cleft palate, malformed ears, no hearing on the right side, a mild form of spina bifida, his stomach was upside down, and too many other things to mention here.

I didn't have amniocentesis with Steven. I decided that I wouldn't even consider it unless the other prenatal tests they do came up positive, and they didn't, everything was better than normal for my age.

In retrospect, I feel even more strongly now than before that even if they'd been able to peer into my womb and tell me everything about Steven's medical condition, and even if they could have told me that he'd develop a malignant brain tumor when he was 9, I wouldn't want to have known. The picture I would have painted in my mind would have been far worse than the reality.

So here was Sean, growing inside me. I had an entire different feeling with Sean, like I knew he would be fine, the entire pregnancy was different than it was with Steven.

His birth was relatively easy. He was a big baby, I said 9 lbs or more, the doctor said 8 lbs as she felt him during my labor, Sean was 9 lbs 9 ox. Big and healthy, and he came out hungry.

I lay on the table where I'd birthed him and held his slippery warm body against me. It is always so weird when you look at the face of the creature that's been growing inside you for the first time, Steven and Sean never looked like I imagined they would.

He was born hungry, he started shoving his fists in his mouth and turning his head back and forth the way newborns do when it's time to eat. I didn't have any milk yet, and I was slimy myself and ready for a shower, so I called the nurses to get him so I could take a shower.

Afterward I got him from the nursery and brought him to our private room. I stood and held him and Doug and I talked and he turned his head back and forth in response to our voices. I looked at him and I told Doug I could tell he was going to be healthy and smart and advanced for his age.

At around midnight we wanted to sleep, so I sent him back to the nursery and Doug and I got in bed. Half an hour later the nurse came back with him and said, "He's hungry". I said, "You're a nurse, you know I don't have milk yet, I can't do anything for him, and for tonight I want to sleep." She asked me what to do and I told her, "Feed him, he's hungry".

So she did. We supplemented with formula for two days while I waited for my milk, the La Leche folks who kept telling me he wasn't really hungry, that newborns don't need to eat for four days didn't have a clue.

When my milk came in, he nursed. He ate so well, he was gaining 2 ounces per day. When I took him for his 6-month visit, he weighed 20 lbs. 3 oz, more than Steven weighed at a year. He was roly poly and had dimples all over his fat little body.

He only gained 7 oz over the next 6 months, at a year he ws 20 lbs 10 oz, a more normal size.

My predictions came true. He's healthy, smart, athletic, brave and strong. I worry all the time that I focus so much on Steven and his health issues that I don't give him proper attention, that I won't notice something I should. I have had more than one dream that something terrible happens with him and I've been too distracted to notice.

At least for me, guilt is part of parenting no matter what I do.

Sean with our puppy Buddy (r) and his brother Jack (l)

Happy 10th birthday, sweetie. I am so very proud of you.

- Kathleen