The parts for e.'s play were handed out yesterday. She is NOT the lead, but she got a VERY good part, and the leads went to very talented 6th graders, which I think is the most appropriate. e. is a very good sport, and very good natured, and spent only a short time being disappointed that she isn't the lead. She is encouraged that she got a good part, and is hopeful about next year - when SHE is a 6th grader.

I think it helps her that the adults love her. Most adults just think she is the "neatest kid" or "so wonderful!" Kids sometimes, not so much. But the ADULTS love her. And the adults do the casting.

I think this is an important year for e. She is doing some serious reshuffling, socially, which I think is good. We moved here in her 3rd grade year, and she lacked confidence and was dealing with the transition and some homesickness issues (missing California and the friends she'd established there). Then in 4th grade, she had her first real "social network" and did GREAT. It was her first time, I think, where she was solidly in a group of kids, and wasn't just dependent on one or two others to play with - feeling lost if they chose to do something else or were not around. That was the group that started a newspaper, and it was a co-ed group, and it was just great for her.

This year, they all got shuffled around, and while they all are still friends, they aren't all in the same class. Some people who weren't in her class last year are this year, and she's finding that perhaps that's TOO much time to spend with them. She is taking on new activities, and backing off on some old activities. Her love of acting and theater stuff is proving relentless, and I think she's exhibiting talent, which is fun.

Even academically, I think she's finding her way more independently. Or finding the way to BE more independent. I learned in November that she certainly still needs guidance, as she got two mediocre grades in one week, but since then, she's doing really well, and still proving to be very engaged academically.

She was privately approached by her classroom teacher who asked her to please write an article for the school newsletter that goes home with all the kids to parents about an issue she's been working on in that "gifted" program she does every now and then (it was supposed to be once a week, but the teacher is often not in school, and it's been quite sporadic).

She's also taller, and cuter. Even though she gets very angry if I call her "cute." I have to tell her she looks "nice" - not "cute." Which is, well, cute.

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I had to work at home last night. Which I didn't want to do. We went out for sushi for dinner to celebrate e.'s part in the play, and didn't get home until late. I then managed e.'s progress on her project that's due Friday (I'm hoping for a check-plus here), and checked j.'s homework with her, and by the time they got into bed, it was 9:25, and I was tired, and the LAST thing I wanted to do was read cases to try and find something other than "judicial discretion judicial discretion judicial discretion" and perhaps something more like a solid legal principle that I could apply .... I was TIRED. So I took out my little Pac Man Plug-n-Play that Beloved got me for the holidays, and played a few games of that. Poor Pac Man proves to be an old man now. When he was younger, I could whip him around the screen and he would have multiple lives and eat lots of ghosties. Now, he's just not as nimble anymore. The most I've gotten for him is one extra life, and maybe 1-2 ghosties per power pellet. Then again, I'm not willing to work with him as much as I used to ... 15 minutes every two weeks (tops) instead of 2-3 hours every DAY like when I was a kiddo .... I guess it's my fault that he's out of shape.

The girls were incensed, however, that I chose to do something fun after they went to bed. ha ha.

Between the dinner out, the project oversight, the Pac Man and the cases I had to read, I feel like I got ZERO time with Beloved prior to flopping into bed (at 11:30 ... unfortunately). Hopefully tonight will see me with NO work, and we can .... talk. Or something. Tomorrow night is his night to go out and do manly things, so I won't get to see him then. Thursday night he works in the evening, and I won't get to see him much then, either.

So, that's the home front.

Also, I want to see a movie. But I can't. Anyone out there who is contemplating children - take note! My oldest is TEN!!! And I *still* can't go see a movie.

Labels: home, parenting

posted by Zuska @ 9:47 AM

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