Noodle Soup

Halloween happenings

I’m emerging from my sugar coma to share some Halloween pics. Would you believe there were only TWO mini Heath Bars and ONE Dubble Bubble in the entire haul this year? What’s up with that?? I’ve been consoling myself with M&Ms and Kit Kats for the time being.

Reece and Taite were gross/scary/cool, and adorable, respectively, as a punk zombie skater and Shirley Temple.

 

 

We passed out mini chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s, wrapped like mummies. (And yes, that is her real hair. Thanks to the 10 years Kendra spent performing with Kids Are Music, I know how to rock the sponge rollers!)

 

The ceremonial Sorting of the Loot is always a highlight of the evening (and is typically preceded by the ceremonial Removing of the Sweaty Mask):

 

 “Surely, you’re not going to eat all of that candy.”

“I am, and don’t call me Shirley.”

 

That joke just never got old all night long!

Happy, happy

Happy #1 

This cute dude turned 10 on Sunday.

 

Double digits, baby! And the very last age he can show on his fingers…mental note to get a picture of that.

We celebrated at Benihana, one of our family’s favorite birthday celebration locations. Justin & Kendra were both able to come, which made me extra happy. It has been a while since the entire family was together for dinner.

 

 

Happy #2

Stacy Julian & Lain Ehmann’s fabulous 20 Tips for Happy Scrapbookers is available starting today at Ella Publishing.

 

I had a chance to peruse it yesterday, and let me tell you, it is a must-have. It is brimming with great ideas for celebrating the good stuff in your life, both in your attitude and on your scrapbook pages. Whether you pride yourself in finding the happy all around you, or you aspire to, you won’t want to miss this great read by these “happy scrapping” experts.

Putting 40 Top Tips to the Test

Today was the first day of school for my kiddos – the perfect time to try out some of the tips from Rebecca Cooper’s new photography e-book from Ella Publishing.

My first day of school pics are typically pretty mediocre, but thanks to Rebecca, I was much more conscious today of lighting, background, & perspective.

Here are a few of my favorites.

The requisite ‘front door shot’…only this year I remembered to have them step forward, out of that annoying slice of sunlight that’s usually across someone’s face.

New school shoes are a very big deal around here, so I had to document that.

Taite in her sparkle-tastic Sketchers Twinkle Toes…

…and Reece in his super cool Ecko sneakers. Notice he already has a slightly scuffed toe, and he has been wearing them for 10 minutes.

This was a first for me, shooting up the front steps of the school. (ETA: Shooting the photo from below the steps...I was not shooting up the school!) Love it! This may become our new traditional shot. Much more interesting than that front door.

This one just warms my heart. Can I get a collective “Awwwww”? Big brother leading little sis by the hand on her first day at “big school”. Sheesh, I’m getting all teary again.

I had my camera zoomed in and focused, and called Reece’s name while he was waiting for his classroom door to open. I snapped this photo in just the instant he looked up, before he could go all goofy 4th grader on me. This is one of those ‘glimpse into the future’ photos, I think. He looks so grown up!

And finally, a detail shot of the backpacks. As nostalgic as I am about my elementary school lunchboxes and fashion trends, I’m sure Reece will one day appreciate a record of what constituted a cool backpack, circa 2009.

What would the first day of school be without a pop quiz? I’ll leave you with the page I did yesterday, amongst the madness and mayhem of back to school preparations, using the fab quizzes & sketches download from Ella Publishing. I printed & cut out the journaling spots in the morning, and had Reece fill in the details just before dinner. Once the kids were in bed, in between a last minute grocery store run for paper lunch bags, and baking my traditional back to school school brownies, I threw this page together. With minimal brain power, I was able to complete it in less than 30 minutes, including the time I spent obsessing over whether my circles were even. (That top right one is not, but I'm mostly over it now.)

I’m thinking I’m going to swap that photo for the one of him in the hat from this morning…since he mentions his hats being the coolest thing about him.

Has anyone else tried a quiz page yet, inspired by Angie & Wendy's book or eZine article?

May I have your attention, please?

I normally keep things light ‘n’ crafty here, but because this also serves as a journal of sorts, and because I suspect I am far from alone in this struggle, I thought I would post a bit of what our family has been going through lately.

Reece has been identified as having ADHD – officially. I say officially, because I have suspected it for quite a while. Well, the ADD part at least. The ‘H’ was a surprise. While he’s not necessarily “hyper” in the customary bouncing-off-the-walls sense, his tests showed enough brain impulsivity to qualify him for the ‘H’ part. There could also be an additional learning or processing disorder in the mix, but we need to wait to test for that until we get a handle on the ADHD. One step at a time.

Since he has not ever exhibited any overt behavior problems at school (other than zoning out), Reece has pretty much flown under the radar. He is not a squeaky wheel, just an easy-going underachiever. Add that to the current California school budget debacle that has increased class sizes and cut services down to the bare bones (with even more cuts yet to come), and we have a gaping loophole in “no child left behind”. Not to mention two and a half years of disappointing parent-teacher conferences, grades that just don’t gel with what I know his potential to be, daily homework battles, and no concrete answers or solutions. His teachers have run the gamut from suggesting it was a parenting issue, to chalking it up to “being a boy”, to being just plain baffled by the incongruities. Even his pediatrician, who is a bona fide, published authority on the subject of ADD, was in a “wait and see” holding pattern until this year. I could write about 947 paragraphs on how frustrating it has been, and another 382 on the challenges, behavior problems, and general uproar all of this has created at home. But I’m not going there, because I am choosing to look forward.

As much as I hate kids being labeled with anything, this diagnosis is a HUGE relief for me amongst the profusion of feelings I’m experiencing. I am sad that there is a biological issue that makes things harder for my child, and I am concerned about how teachers and others will judge him with that label attached. ADHD evokes some unsavory stereotypes…expectations that I don’t want Reece to learn to live down to. But the bottom line? We finally have an answer – a list of characteristics that can be attributed to something besides laziness, or deliberate stubbornness, or something requiring an exorcism. (Kidding on that last one! Mostly.)

It’s a starting place, with a plan of action being formed. The specialist we’re working with is really cutting edge, and Reece is a good candidate for some very exciting neurofeedback therapy (kind of like a video game he plays with his brain instead of a handheld controller). It has the potential to circumvent the need for meds, and retrain certain areas of his brain to function more optimally. It completely amazes me that testing exists that allows his doctor to pinpoint these exact areas of his brain, and I feel very lucky to live near one of the few centers in the country doing this type of therapy.

We are at the very beginning of a long and daunting process, but it feels like we are finally moving in the right direction – towards a better understanding of what makes Reece tick and how to help him be more successful. So among all those other feelings that come with this diagnosis, I feel truly hopeful for the first time in quite a while.

Christmastime in Londontown

The “family drama” continues – Reece has been rockin’ the crutch as Tiny Tim in a local musical production of Scrooge.

Little sis had to get in on a photo op, too. True to our typical holiday season schedule, she came straight from a show choir performance of her own, and didn’t have time to change first. I love the contrast of his 1800s costume with her snazzy, modern little performance uniform. It sort of epitomizes the range of goings-on around here, and the transitions I have to make from one activity to the next.

The Scrooge pic will probably wind up on a montage layout of Reece’s theatre experiences (after living in a category drawer for a while), but the pic of the two of them is sitting on my table, waiting for me to spill about the challenges and joys of our busy lifestyle during the holidays.

Don’t let this happen to you!

Nine

Reece turned 9 on Saturday. It’s hard to believe it’s been 9 years since I started all over again with a new baby. My older kids were 14 and 9 at the time, and now Reece is 9. I remember how huge that 9 year gap seemed then, both in terms of space between children, and the distance I had travelled from the new mom stage of life. And now that amount of time has passed again. Wow.

We spent his birthday at a theatre fundraiser and award ceremony, where he won an award for his performance as Young Moses in Promised Land.

 

Then Sunday evening, we went to Benihana for dinner – one of our favorite spots to celebrate with good teppan food, onion volcanos, Japanese soda pop, and green tea ice cream. Plus a couple of cousins...no birthday celebration would be complete without those!

Waxing artistic

Yesterday was my day to help in Reece’s class with the Meet the Masters art activity. The artist they have been studying this month is Frida Kahlo. I slipped into the room as the MTM instructor was showing a self portrait of the artist and reviewing what they had learned about her.

 

“What do you notice about this painting?” she asked.

“Colors!” said one student.

“Her birds!” said another.

Wanna know what my son said?

“She needs to get her eyebrows waxed.”

Family drama

Lots of drama going on in our family yesterday! Take a look…

Kendra performed as Medea in the “Contemporary Comedic Ensemble” category for a big high school theatre festival.

(Pardon the poor videography skills and sound. I can blame the sound on the mic being too far away and the bad acoustics in the room, but the rest is all me. I sometimes get caught up in watching the actual action and forget to look at the screen to make sure there are still people in the frame. And we won’t talk about that one time a while back when I tried to get a wider angle by turning the camera sideways. I’ll never live that one down.)

Meanwhile, Reece and Taite had 2 performances of Promised Land in one day.

Reece knocked it out of the park on his song.

Taite was an adorable little sheep, but by the end of the second show, I think she would have rather been counting sheep than being one.

My little list cadet

I spent this week making a lot of lists. A grocery list for Thanksgiving, wish lists for the kids that I know the relatives will soon be asking for, lists of errands I needed to run and things I needed to get done before the holiday…nothing out of the ordinary for me, really. I am a list person. I have to be. My brain ran out of RAM about 17 years ago, right around the time my 2^nd child was born.

So you can see why it warmed the cockles of my orderly heart to find this on Reece’s bedroom floor:

 

He’s #1 on my list for sure.

Happy Thanksgiving! And if you are crazy enough to brave the crowds this weekend, may you get lots of items checked off your holiday shopping list.