Gentle Years

Our elementary school has a tradition of holding prize speaking night early every new year. I won in sixth grade; Golden Baby, Pretty Baby, Little Baby, and both of my younger sisters won. One of those sisters teaches kindergarten and the other teaches 8th grade, both at K-8 schools, so they have taken the tradition with them.  I think my brother two up from me won as well.  So, the point is, it really is a tradition and one that I wanted Aidan to participate in.  At kindergarten they don't compete; rather, they practice reciting before a crowd.  On the night of the competition between the finalists, the kindergarten students are invited to recite their poem if they wish to.  Here are shots of Aidan and his buddies on the night of their first stage adventure.

In the above shot, his teacher is talking to the kids from the left and G is looking on from the right.  Below, Aidan is on stage with his principal.

This is Aidan after sledding with RB and me on Monday.  He has decided that he doesn't want to go skiing today with his school but will instead sled.  He also rode the bus for skiing last week and then each day afterwards, but has decided that he's done with the bus, too.  We know not to push.  Better to have him smiling like this and eventually working his way into some things than to have him sobbing like he did last week on shot day-and staying home because he was truly too overwrought to go to school even though we promised him that he could just go to school and not get the H1N1 shot.

Today Aidan had his first skiing lesson.  I got home just before he did and he practically fell out of the truck to tell me all about it, about how he did the pizza (which we called the snowplow) and fell down a lot and got a snack afterwards.  Little Baby told me that he looooved skiing just before Aidan said he didn't want to do it again--very typical for him when he actually loves something.  But if you've ever skiied or like some other winter sport, you know that the minute you get inside where it's warm, you're ready for bed.  Well, Aidan was no exception:

And just look at those rosy cheeks! (not to mention helmet hair!)

Today we finally got Aidan's picture taken for his season pass at the ski area.  Lessons start this week; we'll have to wait and see how he does.  We know that he won't be taking the bus with the other kids-he still won't ride the bus-and that he does want to learn to ski or snowboard, but that he doesn't want to ride a lift.  So time will tell.

His school is also holding the first day of a two day H1N1 clinic for all the students and I signed him up to get the shot.  Another wait and see event-he has had several shots already this year and wants to know if he can just stay home from school on that day.  So if he panics, the shot will be off. 

Both of these scenes would be looking toward our house.

I was home Wednesday with a migraine that started Tuesday and still hasn't gone completely.  Probably a combination of the stress of returning to school after break (I never sleep well on Sunday nights anyway), having no heat in my room (literally) for the first two days, and all of the smells nearby (kids are painting murals in the hall near my room and I'm allergic to acrylic compound vapors).  So it was a quiet week.

Aidan is very creative; here he is wearing a fu man chu mustache made of dental floss.

Did you watch Fat Albert?  I told Aidan that he looked like the boy on that show who always wore a jacket that was too long.  He said he wants a jacket just like Daddy.