V.I.P. Week

Emily was chosen to be the VIP this week at school. She gets to share stories, photos, and other interesting things (that she can take to school) to show what makes Emily Emily. I'm curious to hear about her presentation tomorrow . . . and I'm waiting to see if she asks to bring her guitar and mini amp.

These are some of the photos she chose. I'm blogging this from the Picasa software - great stuff. You can do so many things with it, including some great editing and formatting. ;) Note the upside down picture...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. :)
With no leftovers to worry about... We are playing with brithday presents and lunching on Ramen!

Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Birthday Alani!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

At this very moment, we are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade... getting ready to go over to the in-laws to open presents and then eat a big turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

Have a great day!

Sleep

How about getting some sleep?

I learned how important it is recently - at work of all places. No, nothing bad happened. I didn't fall asleep at my desk (I'm still not sure how someone could do that), but I did attend a lunchbox lesson on sleep. I decided I needed to get more. :)

The speaker was a video by Dr. James Maas from Cornell University. He teaches arguably the largest class in the states, averaging over 1,600 students. Fascinating stuff. He has a book out, but don't go to the website. It's called Power Sleep. The website is nothing more than an infomercial - one of those with huge font (like a commercial vying for your attention), and links that seem to take you nowhere. I plan on reading the book though. I just don't know that I will contribute more to Dr. Maas Sleep Empire.

But about sleep... Basically, get more. Lack of sleep is dangerous. It's unhealthy. Getting more of it can change your life. :)

Emily: SUPRA-GENIUS

We received a note from Emily's teacher the week before parent/teacher conferences (held at the end of October) to let us know that he wanted to discuss some concerns has has about Emily...



... let me add here there is nothing worse than an ambiguous note sent home from a teacher...



We arrive at the conference, trying to read between the lines for any hint of what he wants to "discuss", and after going over her grades and test scores, he talks about some behaviour issues he's noticed, and asks if we've ever had her tested for the Gifted program...



::: Of all the things to hear, this was NOT what I expected. You mean my child really is a supra-genius, and I can get proof?! :::



He said that she doesn't seem to "connect" with her peers and tends to get frustrated in group projects when the other kids don't see things the way she does, and that her behaviour is similar to what he has seen in gifted kids, so he thought he would ask. Then he gave us the contact information for the school counselor and advised that she would be able to tell us more about it.


My mind was racing, trying to figure out this massive equation on what our relationship is with this eleven year old girl who has never really fit in, doesn't have many friends (and doesn't give a rip about it, I might add), has these huge emotional swings... and as we walked out of the classroom, saying the usual "So glad we had the opportunity to talk, yadda yadda yadda", I noticed the wall next to the door has pictures of frogs and lily pads with the names of all the students in the class. It only took a moment to notice that I only recognized a couple of the names, and I made a comment to Garry. Then her teacher pointed to a couple of them and asked if they sounded familiar. I had to admit that they didn't at all. Em had never mentioned them. She doesn't talk about the kids in class. She never has.


So I sent an email to the counselor to ask about the process of requesting our child to be tested. She called and we talked for a long time about Emily. Not so much about her academic record, but her personality, how she behaved as a baby, etc.


::: All of that made me curious, so I did some research on the behaviour of 'gifted' children. I'd like to say here that after all of the research I've done, I honestly think all four of my kids would be classified as "gifted" at one level or another. What I found was that most of the emotional issues we thought we had with Em, which we'd pretty much chalked up to hormones, not enough sleep, and genetics, are all indicative of exceptionally bright kids. What a relief! So now the question was just how bright she really is. Does she meet 'The Cut'? :::


The counselor advised that in addition to the usual academic research on Emily, that they will also probably do some classroom observations and private interviews to find out if she is a candidate.


A couple of days later, she called to let me know that they didn't need to do the observations because Emily's MAP scores and grades have been consistently high, so it's not necessary. The did the WISC IV last week and last Thursday I got emails and phone calls from the counselor, the gifted program instructor, and Em's teacher all saying that she's in if we want it... They couldn't believe she'd flown under the radar this long...


So I'm excited and happy to announce that Emily really is a Neek (nerd/geek). She has every right to be proud of it.

She is a genius!

First Blog Via TEXT!

I've set up my blog so I can blog via text msg/mms!
Yes, I agree it's sort of silly but I thought it would be fun... Not to mention convenien

Buddha

This is Buddha, when he was just a few months old. He's a much larger seven month old now - nearly 75lbs and growing.

Yes. Buddha is a yellow lab.
He is named after the Buddha; a name that came almost instantly because as a puppy, he was the only one in the litter that after running and jumping a playing and getting chewed on by his six sisters - letting them do whatever they wanted to him - when he was done, he just took a nap in the sun. Nothing ever seemed to bother him, and he was the calmest puppy I've ever seen.

So, Buddha is one of the kids, and we treat him like one - except he has his own food, doesn't have chores, and still gets to sleep with mom. :)

He has a few nicknames.
Garry calls him the "Blond Bomber" because he has made a habit of farting at the most inopportune moments. . . and as dog farts do, they really stink!

I tend to call him Buddha Baby, and sometimes call him Boody, which transforms to Boodiliscious. . . Boodyman. . .

That spot where his pale brown nose meets the fur on his face is the softest, velvety, fur I've ever felt in my life.

Buddha's paws are almost as big as my hands.

He's asleep with his nose touching my knee right now. . . snoring softly.

MELT!!!

I don't love this dog at all. Can you tell? :)

Karate Chop Action?

Yeah... it's probably better if you just don't ask.

All I know is I laughed for a full five minutes when the name came to me. :)