June 2008 newsletter

June 4, 2008
Hello Dear Family!
How are you doing? We are doing well. I have decided that writing a bi-monthly letter is both good and bad. It’s good, because then I dread it only every other month, but it’s bad, because then I can’t remember what has happened the last two months, and then when I finally do, you have to read a novel! So however it turns out, here goes...
The kids are out of school for the summer, as of May 29th. I do enjoy having them home, and we have a pretty good system in place that gives them some structure and ensures that they are still using their brains and helping around the house. We have started out the summer pretty busy as three of the kids have camps this week, so I have had to get up early to get kids ready and transport them.
The five oldest kids played soccer in March/April/May, this being the first time the city offered the option of a spring soccer season. I’m not sure that I want to do it again next spring, partly because the weather was so disagreeable but also because it was very stressful for me trying to coordinate getting each of the kids to their twice weekly games, sometimes at the same time at different locations without Hugh’s help (since he was working late hours during tax season.) But the kids enjoyed it, and they really are fun to watch.
Steven is now a teenager (yikes!) as of May 18th! So far, so good (pretty much.) He is pleasant, sometimes responsible (we won’t mention the phone call I got from his English teacher informing me that he was failing her class because he had not turned in several assignments... Oops, I just did, never mind...) He’s getting the lower voice and the bigger feet and the acne and everything. Steven talked us into signing him up for a soccer camp at Utah Valley University which started today. He was also trying to get me to sign him up for a summer soccer club, but that would have entailed a lot more driving all over the valley throughout the whole summer, and I think I deal better with craziness if I can have some rests in between. Steven was surprised that the majority of the kids at the camp were girls, but he said it was fun and hopefully he will be able to pick up some tips on how to be a better player (I mean soccer!) Steven has signed up to take two advanced math classes concurrently next year, and while I think he is smart enough to handle it, I question whether he has the will and the discipline to pull it off. I hope he understands this will be his last chance to get it figured out (8th grade) before it really counts.
Daniel has been sadly anticipating his last weeks and days at Canyon Elementary forever (he’s a sentimental one, that Daniel) since he and Alyssa will be joining their siblings and cousins at ALA (the charter school) in the fall. ALA is piloting a new program in which students choose one of three “tracks” or areas of study with different emphases. I’m hoping that this approach will enhance each of our kids’ learning styles and help them to enjoy school and get more out of it. Daniel just returned today from a three-day, two-night fifth grade camp. He seemed to enjoy it but also seemed happy to see me when I picked him up. Daniel reluctantly finished a big poetry/prose autobiography assignment a week before the end of school, and I have enjoyed reading his writing. Sorting through his backpack full of papers, I have come across some assignments that he obviously didn’t put much thought into, like this one: “The people I admire most are... my mom and dad because they’re my parents. My biggest goal for the future is... to keep breathing, because I like to live.” Slacker – slacker with a sense of humor, but still a slacker! Daniel would like me to relax my expectations of them for the summer, but I can’t just let their brains turn to mush over the summer, so I guess I’ll have to think about a good compromise so that we can both feel like the summer was well-spent.
Julia likes having a project to work on. She has been excited about helping me come up with a schedule of things we should study during our “Brain Time” every day. This is what we came up with: math (do worksheets,) science (watch Bill Nye the Science Guy or The Magic School Bus,) history, geography, art, cooking or baking, biography, read-aloud, poetry (reading or writing.) I’m excited about the things I hope to learn with the kids. Julia, Michael, and Alyssa made chocolate chip cookies all by themselves for the first time last week. Julia asks me nearly every day if the Wrights can come over and have a sleepover, which doesn’t happen as often as she would like since Hugh still has to wake up at 4:30 every weekday morning, summer vacation or not.
Michael just finished up a four-day basketball day camp, which he and his cousin, Guts, said was mainly “TLC - torture little children.” I suppose that just means they had to do drills and exercises rather than just playing basketball - you know, doing the things that will actually make them better players. So I’m glad that they did it, but I wonder if they will choose to do it next year. Michael and Matthew share a room, and though Matthew drives Michael crazy sometimes, he really likes him. Sometimes Michael will read to Matthew, sometimes they will shoot hoops or play catch while they are supposed to be reading, but Matthew struggles to get to sleep at night if Michael isn’t in the room with him. Michael always comes home from piano lessons with four or five candies he has earned for memorizing songs. He really seems to have a good ear for music but doesn’t ever play the piano just for the sake of making music; he is much more motivated by the promise of candy or extra electronics time. Since my last letter, Michael turned eight years old and was baptized. I hope that we have taught these guys not only to do the right things, but also to seek for more understanding as to why the things we ask them to do are right so that they will be more likely to choose those right things once they are outside of our influence. Michael did amazingly well academically this year as a third grader, but he did tend to use his age as an excuse not to complete assignments he didn’t want to finish, so we will have to watch him more closely on that next year.
Alyssa (Lissy-loo) is very much into pretty hair lately. She likes to twist the lock of hair which frames her face until it sits there in a gentle corkscrew curl. She has taught herself to braid and put her hair and Natalie’s into rubber bands in different configurations (some cute, others silly.) She tried to fix Emily’s hair, but Emily has so little hair still that all she could do was slick it up into a Mohawk, or put it up in a rubber band, where it looks like a unicorn’s horn sticking out of the top of her head. Alyssa was happy to finish school and dance last month, neither of which she much looked forward to, oddly enough as she begged me for a year or two to put her in a dance class before I finally did. Alyssa and Natalie love to play with their cousin, Josie, and they spend lots of time outside on the swingset or riding bikes or inside dressing up, coloring, or painting. Alyssa and Julia have learned to roller skate pretty well in the last couple weeks.
Natalie is enjoying her newly acquired skills of riding a bike without training wheels and whistling. She is such a funny mixture- such a sweet, cute little doll-faced girl using big words and phrases like “seriously” or “in real life,” and then she can be so defiant and grumpy for no apparent reason other times. I’m afraid she is learning to be “prissy” from Alyssa, so I am trying to emphasize that how she acts is much more important than how she looks. She has been very shy (or is it just plain rude?) about talking to adults lately, to the point that Alyssa has had to accompany her to her Primary class for months now. I’ve tried to start having “special time” with Natalie for even just ten minutes a day, and she seems to relish that. Sometimes when she asks about it, I am working on something that I can’t put off until later, so sometimes she helps me finish what I am working on (and she calls this our “helping special time”) so that I will have time for “fun special time.” It is very sweet.
Matthew is such a paradox. He is so very Two - territorial, prone to temper tantrums, easily frustrated, and yet he is the kid who most often tells me “I love you, Mom” and most consistently says “thank you.” He bullies poor Emily, though he likes to hug her and “soft her” (pat her) and baby talk to her in a high voice. It is amusing (sort of) to hear him say “Go away, Happy Emily” and “I love Happy Emily” all in the same breath. He lays claim to anything he likes. Thus, all the cars and trucks or books about cars and trucks, etc. belong to him, and you’d better not touch them unless you’re prepared to fight for them. He is constantly sneaking outside to ride Natalie’s old pink, three-wheeled scooter back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house. His ever-increasing vocabulary is not always easy to understand, though I have a better time of it than Hugh since I am home with him all day. He amuses me when he points out my “spider eyes” as he watches me put on my mascara. It makes me wonder about how he perceives other such mundane things! Matthew likes to “help” say prayers at most meals now, which is again somewhat amusing to hear as his face is buried in his folded arms with the first word and his voice muffled until the pronouncement of “Amen!” at the end of the prayer. What a little character!
Emily is ten months old now, active and curious and seeming more like a little kid and less like a baby. She just barely figured out how to crawl up and down the stairs but still makes me gasp and jump to her side when she teeters near the edge of the stairs. She walks around the room while holding onto furniture, and can stand in one place for 10-20 seconds at a time. She likes to say “huh?” as she points or gestures at things. She also likes to wave and say “hi”, and Julia is sure she taught her how to say “up,” though I’m not sure she totally understands what it means. She likes to point to the pictures of all her siblings while I name them for her. She melts us with her adorable two-toothed grin and baby giggles, but is generally stone-faced and wary of anyone she doesn’t know well. Matthew’s nickname of “Happy Emily” has stuck, even though she is not as easy-going and friendly as she started out. She puts everything in her mouth, and I have often noticed her little cheeks bulging with scary things that could choke her like game pieces or toothpaste caps.
Hugh got through an especially rough tax season, and we are hoping he and his boss can figure out some kind of arrangement so that Hugh can work either from home or from BYU a couple of days a week so he doesn’t have to spend so many hours commuting to Salt Lake City every day. Since the weather has been nicer, Hugh has started riding his bike to the bus stop. As food and gas prices have soared, I have felt a new sense of urgency to make sure we have at least a three- to six-month supply of food and non-food items stored up for emergency or disaster. I am also experimenting with cooking/baking more with wheat, both for our health and to use the food that we can easily store for long periods of time. It’s too bad I didn’t do this a year ago – it would have been a lot cheaper had I purchased the bulk of it then! It has been a cold, wet spring, and we have had new leaking in the basement, so we will probably have to dig out the three window wells at least five feet down (below the level of the basement floor) and fill them with rocks big enough to allow space for water to sit until it can soak down to the water table. We are so excited for the Dosdall Family Reunion at Bear Lake and the arrival of cousins and families about two weeks from now. We know it is a big investment of time and money to come here, and we really appreciate everyone’s willingness to make it happen.
I’m sure there’s much I have forgotten to report but this letter is too long already, so I will sign off now. We hope you are all well and happy. We love you.
Love,
Ann, Hugh, Steven, Daniel, Julia, Michael, Alyssa, Natalie, Matthew, & Emily