March Updates

I interrupted my general family updates with two big ol’ rants about college admissions, and in between I’ve started to write other posts, but we’ve been running ourselves a little ragged at our house.

In the last post before I started ranting about college admissions, I mentioned that the kittens are a delight while the non-furry children can be more of a challenge. In the Grand Tradition of Parenting All The Time And Always, as soon as I got used to the way things are going, they’ve shifted again. As Willy Wonka would say, “Strike that. Reverse it.”

First of all, those sweet kittens? It seems they’ve got a bit of a substance abuse problem.

They’ve also figured out how to open their toy basket. Of course, I’m pleased and impressed by their ingenuity, but it also means that I occasionally walk into what I thought would be a lovely, clean living room because the human children are at school, and now the rug is strewn with jingly balls and lengths of yarn

And at the time that I started writing this post, I must have thought that my actual human daughters were being pretty darn delightful, but damned if I can remember what made me think that. . . . I’m kidding! Well, I’ll say that they are delightful, but I can’t remember what specifically made me think so at the time.

M’s got a soccer game today and another one tomorrow, and she’s been keeping busy with spring track and still more soccer. She’s also gotten a job that is flexible enough that it can fit into the tiny slivers of time she has between school and track practice and soccer practice. So that’s great. She’s also narrowing down a list of colleges and trying to buckle down on the whole college application process, a long and intimidating obstacle course that’s likely to consume much of the next year. Oh, and we’ve got the prom dress and shoes settled and it seems likely that there is date, as well, but we’ll see how that goes. She is also super, super excited about her school trip to Spain, which is just a couple of weeks away.

J is getting settled into track, which was fairly high-stress early on. I think she’s had a bit of a complex about being M’s little sister since M has made such a splash in track. But J’s pretty fast, herself, and super-strong as well. She’s decided that she wants to train with the sprinters (M is a distance runner) and she’s also trying out jumping and pole vaulting. Wednesday was her very first track meet, and it was a mixed bag. She ran in one relay where she totally fumbled through passing the baton, which had her very sad, but then apparently she’d run it pretty fast in spite of coming to a stand-still at the beginning of her leg of the run. Then she did a triple jump that was pretty far for a first jump ever. . . and walked away because she didn’t realize that she got three tries. Her last relay was her smoothest event, but it was only afterwards that someone gave her some tips that would have been helpful. By the end she was downright philosophical, saying that the first track meet had been an excellent learning experience. So: Yay.

J was having some middle school social issues and had a couple of not-as-awesome-as-usual grades over the winter, but the grades are back to stellar and she’s solidified a couple of friendships that make her happy to walk into the cafeteria at lunch, which is a precious thing in middle school. With these issues resolved and track up running (get it? up and running?), J’s doing great. Oh! And she officially gets her braces removed on Tuesday! For the last several orthodontic appointments we’ve been crossing our fingers that they’d declare her done, and it finally happened! She is beyond excited to lose the metal.

I’ve been busier than usual with KidsOutAndAbout work, but I think that’s simmering down a bit. So hopefully I’ll get back on track here!