Mac is Back

And I haven't updated my blog since then!  There are some fun updates to come.  Halloween, for one!

Mac drove back from Houston last week.  He left Wednesday after work, then drove about 5 hours, stopped at a hotel, then pushed on driving on Thursday.  He arrived home at 11:30 pm!  It was a long drive!   But he was happy to be home, and I was happy to see him.

The kids had to wait until the next morning, though!  Josie was suspicious as to what he was doing home, in person.  Why wasn't he still in the computer?  Or in my cell phone?  Why was he actually standing there?  She talked him through the process of getting ready for the day, though.  She told him her diaper was wet, she pointed out what she wanted to wear, she told him she needed milk in her cereal...  She is a *big girl* and she knows it.  It didn't take her long to figure out that Daddy does whatever she says...  So, she also tells him that she wants to watch Dora whenever she feels like it.  She asks Daddy, not me!  Wonder why...

On Saturday, we stayed home mostly (except for Kate, who went to her Homecoming dance with a group of friends.)  Luke was feeling sick and running a temperature, so the other kids got to spend a lot of time with Daddy.  Mac and I left the kids with Kate for a while to go to the gym.  I hadn't gone in a LONG time, so it was good, but painful...  We'll see if I pencil in time to go to the gym on a more regular basis.  Anyway, Saturday was a good day.  The kids enjoyed having Mac back, and I tolerated his stuff being spread out over the entire main floor of the house for the most part.

On Sunday, we had several games to attend.  Kate had her last game of the season for soccer, and the twins each had volleyball games.  Sunday was also Halloween!   Fun times! 

Then it was Monday, and Mac went back to work.  Nothing much has changed on that front.  The kids were out of school on Monday and Tuesday.  We didn't accomplish much those days, but I finally got Mac to stow his junk somewhere else.  Storage is an issue in our house, but at least most of the stuff has been transferred from the living room floor to the overflowing closet.  I guess it's an improvement...

Anyway, it's been great to have him back, and since he arrived here a week ago, I thought it was time for an update!

The Swim Meet

It was wild.  I'll put reviews of swim meets on the sports page later on, but since this was the first one ever, and since it took up most of the weekend, I thought I would cover it here. 

Swimming is huge out here in the mid-Atlantic region.  There are swim meets for kids as young as 6 (even younger, actually).  There is actually a 200 yd freestyle swim for 6 year olds, which Kate and I agree is way over the top!  That's a LONG way to swim.  Try it sometime, if you don't believe me.  It's 8 laps of nonstop swimming.

Anyway, the meet Steven competed in was for kids aged 9 through 18.  Steven is 9, and he's a "young 9" at that.  So he was one of the youngest there, and probably one of the greenest too!  He is so calm and seemingly unruffled, though. The coaches seem to think he knows what he's doing, and he doesn't ask any questions!  He was so composed that he almost failed to check in to his first event.  Eventually his coaches saw that he wasn't in line, and his heat was coming up in 2 races, and so...  They went and got him.  I was stressing though, from way up in the parent zone.

The pool deck was pretty much covered with swimmers, coaches, and the swimmers' gear.  There were hundreds of swimmers there, most of whom were from one mammoth team in the area, all wearing the same swim cap.  It was relatively easy to spot Steven in the crowd because he wasn't wearing a swim cap!  It's sort of like a "Where's Waldo" game to find your kid in that crowd!

The parents aren't supposed to hang around on the pool deck.  The viewing area was absolutely packed with parents.  Some camped out all day in the 3 rows of bleachers.  Some set up a folding chair out in the aquatic center lobby and just kept an eye on the events through the windows to know when to go into the sweltering heat of the viewing area to watch particular races.  That's what I did.  I hung out in the semi-air conditioned lobby along with about 200 or so other parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.  I'm not sure if the space was occupied past the fire marshall's limits, but I wouldn't have been surprised! 

It was an intimidating scene.  Steven retreated into the world of Pokemon Heart and Gold where he found his happy place while playing the DS and making a new friend.  Of course he can't remember the boy's name, or what team he swims on even!  Steven's the one in the black T-shirt.  He's hunched over his DS.  This was how he was for about 90 minutes straight in between his races!

Here is a picture of him before swimming in his trademark hugging-his-hands-to-himself pose.  He stands like this before every "big race".

And on the starting blocks for the 100 yd free.  That's 4 laps and 3 flip turns!  The longest free of his life thus far.

Swim Meet This Weekend

We just got the schedule for this thing.  It's going to be a huge, long, drawn-out event.  I've been preparing Steven as much as I can, being a novice myself, for the eventuality that he will not win.  Most likely, he won't even place...  He doesn't seem too concerned with this.  He is a competitive kid, but he understands statistics!

He will be swimming against older kids, more experienced kids, and in events he's never swum before except for one, which he only did two times.  He has to do new flip turns he is not used to doing, he has to start on the starting blocks which he's never used in competition, and the environment will be far different from the outdoor neighborhood summer league.  These are all serious swimmers.  But he's a pretty stable guy.  It should be alright, but I'm sure he's going to be overwhelmed! 

I'm mostly curious as to how the meet will affect his diabetes.  In a "big meet" during the summer league, where he never really had to worry about losing most events, his sugars shot up sky high.  We think it may have been due to adrenaline, and the epinephrine the body naturally releases when one is excited or nervous.  Apparently, says the absentee Doctor husband, epinephrine can suppress insulin, so the insulin we injected into Steven to bring down his sugar in the summer never quite brought him down to normal.  Usually he was swimming with a blood glucose level around 300 or so, when normal is 150.  The highest blood glucose he swam with was around 420.  That's pretty high! 

Anyway, this weekend will be a good trial run.  Hopefully he'll enjoy himself, and gain some confidence for future swim meets.  Mom and Dad are coming in to town to visit, so maybe they'll see him swim too.  There are always plenty of sports events going on to keep them occupied when they come to town!

Eminem vs Anderson Cooper

Kate and I have been listening to some Eminem lyrics lately (warning- they are not for the faint of heart!).  I think that most people would discourage listening to this stuff with your kids.  I think that's fine, of course.  Kate is the type of girl who asks questions, is inquisitive, and is a cynic.  If I ban Eminem, guess what she's going to do?  So I don't encourage her to listen, but the lyrics are everywhere in this digital age, so if she wants to listen, she'll find a way...  Anyway, I took time to listen to some of the lyrics with her the other day, and offer my own commentary...  Of course, Mac and I are ever weary of the old adage:  "Garbage in, garbage out..."

Eminem is a Big Deal in her school.  His lyrics are disturbing, to say the least.  Profanity is only a minor offense you'd find in an average track.  Since Eminem is about my age, I remember him coming onto the scene way back when.  He is still immensely popular.  I have sort of heard the lyrics here and there, enough to be familiar with the fact that he's got a lot of rage, a lot of drug issues, and a pretty large following of fans. 

We happened upon the interview on 60 minutes.  I thought Anderson Cooper was supposed to be one of the more "hip" newscasters, but he really looked out of his element!  The questions were strained, the answers from Eminem even more strained.  At one point, Anderson Cooper was looking through Eminem's box of discarded lyrics, and he commented lightly that the scribbling and random notes on various papers looked like the writing of a crazy person.  Well, I told Kate just a couple of days ago, in all seriousness, that I think Eminem certainly has some psychological problems, and some of his lyrics are just beyond any normal thought process...  Eminem himself, after giving Anderson Cooper a kind of tortured look, said, "That's probably because I am crazy..."   

Pop stars, rap, music, fashion trends are all at the root of many discussions Kate and I have.  Why do pop stars take drugs?  Why are they so "lonely" in their lives?  Why are fans obsessed with them?  Why does fame and fortune not lead to happiness?  Why does Eminem look so haunted, so disturbed?  Why do some people "make it" in life and some people don't?

Parenting a teen...  Such fun.

The whole conversation about Eminem and his lyrics reminded me a little of a comment Mom made way back when Sting (I think he was still in the Police) released the song Every Breath You Take.  I of course thought the song was awesome, and I still like it.  At the time, she listened to the lyrics as a mom does, but a teenager doesn't. She said, "Boy, he really has control issues."  Yes, it sort of ruined the song for me, because it made me hear the lyrics more clearly.  I'm hoping some of my "observations" about the lyrics of Eminem and others help "ruin" some songs for Kate. 

Ultimately, though, this may be a huge exercise in Garbage In, Garbage Out...

Check out the sports page!

I put a few pictures up from Luke's football game last Saturday.  Here is another picture to show you how interested Steven was in the game:

He was sulking because he lost video game privileges for the day due to the fact that he took a walk in the unfamiliar neighborhood around the football fields and the school building without telling me...  That's pretty much the ultimate punishment for Steven.  Loss of video games is like the loss of the cell phone to Kate.

Anyway, check out the sports page for more pictures of the actual football game!

140 miles!

Does it sound like a lot?  That's how much I drove yesterday. 

The twins had a big field trip to the Chesapeake Bay area.  They were outside the entire day, canoeing, fishing with a big net, and learning about the Bay.  I drove out there with Josie at lunch time to give Steven his insulin.  The teachers aren't able to do that- it's a subcutaneous injection, and you have to be specially trained to do it.  I was specially trained in the hospital when he was first diagnosed by injecting a squishy ball a couple of times!  Yeah, basically Steven's been my pincushion since then.  He usually doesn't bleed, and bruising at the site of the injection is very rare.  I'm getting better... 

The weather was nice for the kids- a little chilly but no rain!  We've had so much rain lately.  The group that went the day before the twins spent the whole day outside in the rain!  Miserable!  The environmental center is located in Annapolis, to the southwest of the city.  It's a quaint, fishing-town type of an area.  It reminded me of the Puget Sound area of Washington a bit, but with less hills and rocks.  The environmental center featured marshland, a little lake to canoe and fish in, and access to the bay.  The kids came home with some seashells.  Steven had 2 very smooth shells, and Izzy filled the pocket of her jacket with rocks and shells and sand...  Josie enjoyed walking around and eating lunch with the big kids, and even though she kept saying, "I cold!" she insisted on taking off her jacket...

Here is a picture of the Chesapeake Bay.

Here Josie enjoys smelling the wildflowers.  "I smell it" she said...

 Here Josie walks with her big girl lunchbox to eat lunch with the big kids...

Steven enjoyed canoeing, but he was in the front and so he claims he did most of the work rowing!  Knowing Steven, I don't doubt it... 

Here's Isabel.  She had fun, but she got absolutely soaked during canoeing! No worries, though.  That's why she packed an entire change of clothes, including shoes...

Anyway, that little trip was about 120 miles of the 140 we traveled yesterday.  Josie didn't sleep in the car at all on the drive home!  Little stinker...

When we got home, we had about an hour before our Tuesday Afternoon Madness Routine.  School let out, we picked up Luke, then we drove Kate to swim practice, then we picked up the twins from school, then back out to pick up Kate, eat a quick dinner, then drive Kate to soccer practice, then we went to Steven's cub scouts meeting.  Whew!

140 miles on the car...  Exhausting.

What did I just sign up for?

I decided that Steven was looking a little too bored in his swim practices.  The lessons were focused on learning the strokes, but he already knows them.  His technique is far from perfect, but during the lessons I saw a lot of Steven standing around, joking, distracting Isabel... 

So I decided to move him to the team training.  This is real swimming.  He had the first practice with the team on Wednesday.  He swam in team practices all summer on our neighborhood team, so no big deal, right?  Well...  After completing what he was used to for a warm-up, 4 laps of an easy freestyle, he stopped.... But the other swimmers who knew the system of this team kept right on going!  He looked at times like a prairie dog sticking his head up from his underground hole to check out what the other prairie dogs were doing-- Steven would pause mid-way through the lane and look around...  "Are we STILL swimming?  STILL?  Really?"  His warm ups went on for 25 minutes!  Of solid swimming.  Then they did some drills and a little more instructional time, but needless to say, the boy was tired (and a little bit humbled) at the end of practice! 

What does this move to team mean for us as a family?  It means swim meets.  I had wanted to avoid winter swim meets because they are long, protracted, multi-heat events.  They will be a challenge to manage, especially considering Steven's diabetes, but...  Hopefully it will be a good experience.  Steven really is a good little swimmer, but this will be a lot of swimming.  We'll see if he burns out.  Mac thinks this is the right thing for him, since Steven thrives on competition.  I want him to still be free to participate in other team sports.  He should be able to do both, but it's going to be a challenge...

Here is a picture after the Big Meet this past summer where Steven got 3 medals:

In other news, Kate is going to a football game tonight.  She's making more friends at school, and already feels like she knows the system.  She is amazed at how easy her English class is, and her History...  Come to think of it, she thinks everything is easy except for Algebra II.  I guess there really was more rigor at her middle school magnet program, but we'll see.  It is still very early in the year!

We have had tons of rain here for a week or so.  The weather is starting to change, to cool down.  Fall is on the way, some of the sugar maple trees are turning orange in parts.  Mac is coming home in about 28 days, but who's counting?  I am!  And so is he...