Four-kid update

We have medication for Big Guy. Whew! I mean, WHEW! Things were getting pretty hairy, since we'd run out of one kind on Saturday. Even though the half-life on it is quite long he'd come in yesterday afternoon saying, "Mom, I had a bad day at school. I was really irritable and depressed all day."

We still don't have insurance coverage for him, but Andrew dedicated five hours to dealing with that yesterday, and we're coming closer to a resolution. Rah! for Andrew. I mean, RAH!

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Snuggler has a part in the ensemble of Kiss Me, Kate! Once a year the children's theater does a big musical for the older kids -- many of whom have been doing shows for a decade -- and this year Snuggler was old enough to audition. That's exciting.

Now that our second semester schedule is beginning to gel (I couldn't sign up for anything else until casting came out, because we're talking 3-4 three-hour rehearsals a week), I can think about taking Snuggler to speech therapy. She has a recalcitrant 'R' sound that is significant enough to limit the kinds of roles she can get. We spent a year working on it to no effect; this is kind of our last shot, since we're expecting that she'll be in school next year and will have limited free time.

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Little Guy has joined the Cub Scouts. A friend once commented that 90% of childhood activities up to age 10 are determined by the outfit. I think this is true. This kid loves his uniform.

My brother sent us some money for Christmas, and I opted to spend it on having one super-cool activity for Little Guy in this last semester of homeschooling. So I enrolled him in a robotics class. He'd taken a class with these folks last spring and loved it. But when it came time to go yesterday Little Guy was suddenly paralyzed with anxiety. After a lengthy intervention I figured out that he was afraid that since he was going to be the youngest (the class is for ages 8-12) he'd do badly, or that the older kids would laugh at him. I pointed out that the advantage of being the smallest is that no one expects you to be the best. And we went through the usual "Even if you're scared, you can put your shoes on" and "Even if you're scared, you can walk to the train" kind of thing. 

When we arrived and saw the place and it was real, it was do-able. Which is why my core strategy for dealing with a balking child is to say, "It's okay if you're scared. We'll go, and if you get there and it still seems hard you can wait outside until you feel comfortable." Because usually the fear is mixed with curiosity, or interest, or desire-to-go. And unless you can get to the physical place where the child remembers the positive part of the mixed feelings, you don't stand a chance.    

When I picked up Little Guy after class he practically flew into my arms with excitement, and yammered on and on and on about the super-cool wind-up robot he had made. Robotics is now the best thing ever.

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Dancer's scholarship interview and exam is this afternoon. Pray for her. She really wants to go to this school, and unless funding comes through, she can't.