Soccer

Meggie had her first soccer "game" this weekend. It's basically a practice in jerseys followed by a scrimmage against another team. It was hilarious as the kids cried when the other team scored and were all very polite about sharing and not wanting to steal the ball from the other kids.

She actually did really well and seemed to generally get it. I was impressed. Sure there was a little crying but overall she was digging it.

Reading club

Andy is in reading club at the request of his teacher. Apparently there are two kinds of reading club here. One is an enrichment, "You're doing great, let's do more reading! Crime and Punishment anyone?" kind of club. The second is more, "Your reading could be better. Let's meet after school once a week."

I was surprised to get the call from his teacher as I didn't realize it was a problem -- it's not like there are grades that matter in first grade per se. But after talking with her, she explained that he just didn't really like reading so he wasn't progressing so she wanted to get him over the hump, so to speak. And it's true, he just didn't like to read so it was always pulling teeth to get him engaged.

After talking to lots of other parents with his age, I realized that it's a really common thing and that there seem to be kids on all levels of the spectrum. I also realized that him and me fighting over getting him to read wasn't great so I hired a tutor to work with him once a week.

I must say, that's been the biggest difference. Reading club has been off and off due to the health of his teacher, but meeting with the tutor, he's managed to go from hating to read to wanting to read quietly in his room at night. It's been the most amazing shift to go from hating it to loving it. It also helps that we found some books he likes. Someone recommended The Spiderwick Chronicles which are great. We've also been reading some of the Magic Tree House series (there are only about 163 of those so we've got a lot to read). It has just been totally cool to see the transformation from non-reader to loving to read.

Here are a couple of the Egan family holiday pictures. I thought I was getting the whole CD from mom, but I managed to only get two pictures. At least they're good ones.

Birthday girl

For Meg's 4th birthday, she requested a fancy dinner at...Subway. It was adorable. The boys working there were surprised to see a family walking in laden with presents but when I explained it, they were really sweet to her. I will enjoy this. Soon enough, she will be like her big sister who quickly figured out that lobster, shrimp and sushi taste good.

Her big present from us was a new bike. She's already making strides on it and has the bruises and scrapes on her hands to prove it. She desperately wants to keep up with big brother and it's not there yet.

She was lucky enough to also get a Barbie from Fafa, a cool hopscotch game from Jennifer, a stuffed Minnie Mouse and DVD from Mark, leotards from Grandmother, $5 from Tia (all the cash in the world when you're 4) and pom-poms from Bitsie. It was a great birthday.

We had her party at the gymnastics center yesterday. I think it went pretty well and was inexpensive all things considered.

Photo shoot

 As part of the Bennett Family Christmas Extravaganza 2011, we hired a photographer to come take photos of everyone. Sadly the day picked was just dark and gray and the pictures of our family subset were terrible. We called the guy to come back and he knocked it out of the park this time. Check these out! We missed the window for Christmas cards so we're doing Valentine's Day cards instead. Personally, I love getting cards at other times of year so I'm glad to return the favor (and finally get out our cards.)

Pinewood Derby

This past weekend was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Whoo, boy. It's easy to see that some kids (and parents) get waaaay into it. It's like Toddlers and Tiaras for boys to a certain extent. Bjorn and Andy did spend a lot of time working on it - nothing major, but it was a good project they did together. Some of these designs were amazing (sadly, no pictures) and some parents were grumbling to each other that there was some cheating going on.

Andy managed to come in 5th or 6th out of six in his pack (den? I can never remember). He didn't cry to throw a fit - we'd prepared him pretty well for it. Some kids were bitter and sad - to be expected when you work hard and it doesn't work out. Now the boys in my house want to build a track so they can practice between now and next year.

Bjorn has also agreed to take on being the leader of this age group. Big props! He's a great guy to do it and there is a cumulative sigh of relief from all the parents.

Oh, boy

So here's an interesting problem that came up in our house the other day. We were at an event and ran into one of Andy's buddies and they decided to have a play date. Great! We love play dates.

The kids played outside in the creek while I worked in the yard next to them and then they played upstairs and downstairs for about an hour. I was around in the house folding laundry and putting things away. I'm downstairs when I hear from upstairs, "Mom! He's trying to kiss me!"

...

That's about what I thought, too. So I casually said to stop that, as if I was telling them to stop fighting, and gave the five minute warning. Convenient since I had just texted with the boy's mom and it was time to go home.

I am sure this isn't a gay thing (not that there's anything wrong with that), but kids being curious. But it's a good lesson on boundaries and leading into private parts and who can('t) see them. And damn, it's a lesson for me, too. Just when I thought it was safe to let kids play alone, they smack me in the face with a reminder why I have to keep watch. Gah. Don't these kids know Downton Abbey isn't going to watch itself?

Enjoy it!

Several friends posted this essay this week on parenting that so rang true, I laughed out loud several times. Then I sent it to several friends. I love my kids. Loads, even. But there are certain situations and days that are just a challenge and that's always the day that some random stranger tells you to love every minute of it. Hee. Good stuff. It's always nice to know I'm not alone in thinking that while motherhood is truly one of the coolest adventures I've ever undertaken, some days are more fun than others.

Speaking of fun though, we've been having some good stuff lately.



This is the makings of the pinewood derby car Andy (and Bjorn) will race this weekend. We finally found use of a Dremel that's been in the garage since we bought it to renovate our kitchen in our last house, probably circa 2004. It's nice when being a pack-rat pays off.

This is the inside of the laser tag arena where we had Andy's party. I may have had more fun than he did.

Unwrapping presents. We had a small group - four kids plus Andy - so we could do that during a break in the action.

I can't recall what he got but it apparently smells really bad.



And we're off

The training wheels came off yesterday. And it's pretty awesome.

He learned how to ride without training wheels at the end of the summer on his older, much smaller bike. But he couldn't get comfortable on this bigger bike. So we put the training wheels on and have been riding a lot lately. I have been asking for weeks (months) if he was ready, but he always said no. So Saturday we met friends who were also ready to take their training wheels off. Something about the peer pressure or the barometric pressure that day because he was ready.

Several people have likened this to potty training, "When they're ready, they're ready." Fortunately, this didn't involve any missteps that included bowel movements in sweaty boys underwear.

The great Christmas visit of 2011

Bjorn's mom rallied the troops and brougth everyone to Texas for Christmas. It was awesome to have everyone under one roof. The kids, in particular, had a blast! It was so fun to have us all together although I think by the fifth day, everyone was itching to get back to their own places, and not just because the stomach flu made an appearance. Since then, we've been busy washing all the sheets and towels and hot water, folding up the air mattresses (and buying new ones since half the ones I borrowed broke this week) and finding left items in random

Here's Fafa giving out some presents.

Simone, Meg, Andy and Zane.

Bjorn, Tor and Erik and Zane. We went to my parents' for Christmas dinner. They were fantastic to host 15 people!

All the "BBs" on the stairs. Barnbarn is Swedish for grandchildren so these are all the BB generation.

Up in Dad's new office where he was showing off his guns.

Out of sequence but so damn adorable - this is Meg's hoilday pageant. Is was so damn cute!

Andy and Mrs. White at his school holiday party.

One of the dad's reading a story at the holiday party.

Erik and Fafa on Christmas Day.

Fafa and Jennifer making fantastic Swedish cookies. I ate all of them.

Jennifer in the "Forever Lazy." She really rocked it.

The obligatory bathtub picture. Zane is far too mature at 9 to have any part in this, but the other kids had a blast.

Zane and his glow in the dark mouthpiece.

Vermin in paradise

Our house backs to a creek and a park. We love it. It is absolutely awesome to have this area. Downside? We have animals and not the fun kind. We have a possum that semi-regularly ends up in a trash can. And today, I saw an armadillo crawling across the pool cover and then into the bushes. Naturally one of the cats was sitting outside and watched the whole thing happen while yawning. These guys are obviously natural killers.

Best neighborhood ever

Sure, we liked our old neighbor loads. Great people, friendly and all that jazz. But dang, we have it all here in Southlake. I love the mix of people from everywhere, kids of all ages and parents of all political and religious affiliations. I also love the enthusiasm for community which just makes me darn happy. At Halloween, we all exchanged "boo" treats for the kids which they loved. And just today, I got some homemade Christmas treats, an offer for Andy to house sit some dogs over Christmas and an invitation to a New Year's party.

Even Bjorn had found a few guys that he likes well enough to go out for beers with on occasion. For a guy who tries so hard to be a stoic, non-joiner, that's pretty impressive stuff.

Fancy pants camera

I am still loving my fancy pants camera (and the fancy pants husband who gave it to me). I'm now coveting a new device that will let me post pictures even faster. In the meantime, here are some recent fancy pants pictures.

This girl can move! Here she is jamming at Andy's soccer game.

Classic father-son photograph. Classic picture of Mark refusing to smile.

The "boys", our boy kittens Perry and Mittens. I thought they were so cute asleep like that.

How good looking are these folks?

Our friends Jenny and Sean who were kind enough to ply me with wine and let me stay at their house last time I was traveling.

Andy getting a badge for his work at the last Cub Scout meeting. The whole Cub Scout business is really adorable. It also satisfies Andy's need for outdoorsy stuff that's not necessarily a competitive sport.

Mark really needed a haircut.

Dad in Arizona. We climbed "A" mountain in Phoenix right next to Arizona State University. It was a nice hike, and short, but staight up. I really dug Phoenix. Next time Mary does a triathalon, I want to bring the family and stay for a few days.

Sun Devil stadium from "A" Mountain.

Mary and Mom before race day.

Mary's car all decorated. Elizabeth and I did this after a few drinks and a $100 win at the casino. We are very cool and have fantastic talent.

Mary after the 1.5 MILE swim. That's right, 1 1/2 MILES in the water. And that's just the first leg of this Ironman triathalon. Seriously, it was amazing and inspiring. And naturally, I haven't exercised since.

Cool picture of the bridge and all the bikes.

The bridge at night. As you can see, I was really loving the fancy camera. I thought it turned out really nicely.

Mary after 1 1/2 miles in the water, 112 miles on the bike and 12 miles running. I was tired and I walked a mile. Seriously, it's amazing.

Bjorn putting the star on the Christmas tree.

Andy doing his spelling "sort."