Yahoo!

My student, who I wrote about earlier in terms of his reading test struggles, made it to graduation.  He never passed that test.  We took him on an end run around that obligation by working with a anxiety diagnosis.  It was legit.  Because the kid can read.  Shortly after the testing fiasco, he and I read Antigone together and he got it and loved it.  So there.  But the bigger news is that he managed to cross every last t and dot all the i's and get out of Avalon with a diploma.  On time.  He told me he wasn't going to come to our graduation ceremony as his family couldn't make it and he hates crowds. So we surprised him with a guerilla ceremony.  And it was lovely.  My aunt, who had been tutoring him, made it, as well as his coach and mentor, Buzz Lagos.  We gathered our advisory and other interested students and presented him with his diploma.  Then we clapped long and hard.  He deserved it.  One of my happiest days of teaching in quite a while.

Tooth Fairy does damage

So, a while back Theo lost a tooth.  He KNOWS there is no Tooth Fairy, yet there is this strong expectation that we keep playing along.  And so we have.  Some days it takes us a few reminders to remember, but the coin usually does arrive under the pillow.  But on this one evening, Theo was wound up and not getting to sleep.  I was tired.  I couldn't wait.  So I grabbed the coin and then pranced into his room making flapping motions with my wings and shoved the coin under his pillow.  I thought I was kind of funny.

His response?  "Mom.  You have just so damaged me."

Apparently so.  Because shortly thereafter the Easter Bunny arrived- but Easter came the morning after we crashed back in our home after a long drive from Colorado.  We hinted to the boys that there might be no easter bunny activity on Brimhall this year.  They took it fairly stoically.  Theo bundled up to bed a bit after the discussion.  But he didn't go to sleep.  He kept getting up out of his loft and looking around.  I thought he was looking for the Easter Bunny.  But no, he was looking for us to go to bed.  Because as soon as we retired to our room, Theo jumped out into the hall and quietly spread coins and other little tidbits of candy or chocolate he had secretly dug out of the back recesses of our kitchen cupboards.  He was not leaving this Easter Bunny up to his damaging mom.  I appreciated that.

The Perfect Snack

The other day Theo hit his hunger wall about 45 minutes before dinner, as usual.  He made his way into the kitchen, fished around, and came out with a banana, sighing, "Really, can you think of a more perfect snack than a banana?"  For the record, I can.

In Even Plastic Cup

One thing I love about my boys:  they also like to laugh at stupid grammatical errors on public signs.  This one was posted on a sign outside a pool in a sad little hotel in Omaha.  It went on and on about no alcoholic beverages were allowed.  And no glass.  And at the end after one more warning of the dangers of bringing in alcohol it gave the final demand:  No Alcohol.  In Even Plastic Cup.  That became a catch phrase around here.  Can I use the computer, Mom?  Can I use it now?  No.  Not now.  In Even Plastic Cup.  Quit asking.

This sign also brought up memories of the time we were taking a tour of a cave and were given explicit instructions to "Don't touch nothin'".  Huh?  Just where does that leave us?

Back on skis!

After we finally got out of Denver and away from the substitute pirates, we make our way out to YMCA of the Rockies- Snow Mountain Ranch.  While there we took advantage of all of the facilities- the xc ski trails, the archery range, the roller rink, the courts, ping pong tables, and most of all, our room's microwave.  Yep- 6 people in one room for a week, mostly eating out of a microwave.  I was very unaware of the depth and breadth of microwave cuisine.  And I had hoped to stay that way.

There was so much to do at Snow Mountain Ranch that it was hard to pull ourselves away to go try out downhill skiing in the mountains.  But we did.  We spent the first day at a small place- still big hills by Minnesota standards, but only one chalet and just a few lifts.  The boys started out cautiously, but by the end of the day they were looking great.  And my mom and dad?  It's like they had never taken a 20 year hiatus.  They still had all the moves.  The other day of downhill we spent at Winter Park- the place we came as a family many times in my youth.  The names of the hills came right back, Mock Turtle, Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit, and it was just as beautiful and exhilarating as I remembered.  Only this time the exhilaration didn't come from my own daredevil moves, but from watching my boys shake off their hesitation and really figure this skiing business out.  Theo inherited my (dangerous) love of dodging in and out of the trees.  The grin on his face was probably gorgeous, but it was hidden behind a helmet.  Thankfully.

In all, we lucked out.  Great weather, great snow, short lines.  Enough sun to keep us smiling, but not so much that we were fried to a crisp like I was back in the 80s.  We will definitely return.  But we are upgrading to something with a kitchen.