Science Night
Thursday the elementary school hosted its annual Science Night. This is something that the kids look forward to every year. All of the science fair projects are lined up in the hall. [You can ask Bleu about humidity in the air vs. underground!] The library is set up with lots of hands on stations where the kids can learn about different concepts, make things or do puzzles. It is a good time all around, but the highlight of the evening is what happens in the back of the school.
Kids line up in the cafeteria and craft rockets out of paper. Outside, they line up to get their rockets blasted with an air compressor and run to catch them. Seriously, an hour and a half just isn’t long enough! Click here to see a video of Echo with his rocket.
Track
Last night, Mayfield hosted the track meet here in town at the Field of Dreams. Mia ran three races: 3200m, 800m and 1600m. We watched the first on together and then went home. I came back to the track for the other two. She was having a bad day yesterday and her times were off by 10-20 seconds. After the last race she dropped down and stayed down for a long, long time. I couldn’t help crying but didn’t rush onto the field this time. She doesn’t want the attention. Even though I know she’ll be all right eventually, it hurts to watch her crying twenty feet away and not be able to go to her. She came in 3rd in the 3200m, 8th in the 800m and 4th in the 1600m.
She is worried about not being able to compete at state if she has a bad day. She doesn’t want to come in last or disappointing her coach/team. What can I say? There isn’t a whole lot we can do to control it so I hope she can relax and just enjoy the experience without putting too much pressure on herself. Click here to see a video of Mia in the 1600m.
Good, Bad and Ugly
Mica has had a hard semester. She hates math and hasn’t been doing well in her honor’s math class. She trys to avoid studying when she needs to do more of it. Lately it feels like every time we talk to her it is something negative. I hate that. Yesterday we got a letter in the mail from the principal letting us know that Mica will be getting an award next week at the underclassmen awards assembly. It was a wonderful surprise. I have no idea what it is for and neither does she. Suspense!
She called her mom to invite her and Julie agreed to go. She told the girls she would come by the house so they waited in the yard all night. She never showed up and when they called she didn’t answer the phone. It’s just a little thing but all these little things add up and I worry about their ability to trust. You can only be disappointed so many times before you begin to get jaded. It’s hard because I love them so much. I really wish she would be more involved because they need her.
This will go down in history as one of the best weekends we’ve ever spent together as a family. There was no fighting. Let me write that again because I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around it. THERE WAS NO FIGHTING. The kids all behaved and got along, even though we spent a good six hours in the van driving.
Silver City has an awesome park with climbing walls and a playground. Since Mia runs the first and last race at the meets, we had a few hours to relax between races. It is getting harder and harder for me to deal with her running. The pain is worse each week. She ran the 1600m first and collapsed in pain at the end. It lasted longer than usual and I worried all day about the second race. She warmed up well and stretched out her back, but six laps into the 3200m the pain was written all over her face. The last lap was so hard. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. It is difficult for us because she can’t stand to be touched when her back is hurting so there isn’t a lot we can do to help. It took forever to get her breathing and calmed down. I don’t know how she can stand this, but she won’t quit. She loves to run.
After the emotional ordeal at the track meet, we needed a break. Mike and I had set up the trailer on Friday so it was ready when we got there. The weather was beautiful and we had an amazing time. It’s been to cold to do much fishing, but we decided to try anyway. After a few hours, everyone was ready to give up and then Bleu caught a fish: the first fish of 2008!
We went on to catch another seven or eight fish, enough for Justin to have a fish fry. He and Michele brought Madison up to the lake, so we got to visit with them. She is growing up so fast…
Now that we have our trailer back, we can go camping and fishing every weekend. I couldn’t be happier.
Saturday we traveled to El Paso to watch the girls compete in their track meet. Mica made the JV squad and threw the discus 66 feet, her personal best. Mia ran two relays: the 4×1600 and the distance medley. In both events she ran a mile, or four laps around the track. Supporting her decision to keep running has been difficult for me. Mike thinks I baby her too much [but technically he thinks I baby all the kids too much]. He thinks we need to help her push through the pain because this is a condition that is chronic. She will be dealing with it for the rest of her life. The last thing I want is for her to give up, but it is SO HARD to watch her suffer.
Right now, her pain is constant but manageable. Some days are better than others, but it hasn’t been debilitating EXCEPT when she runs. During/after each race, her back starts to spasm and she experiences extreme pain. Also, the tenderness to touch that she deals with every day worsens. Even the lightest pressure on her skin hurts. Mia was always the kid that would finish the race with a smile and bop around like she hadn’t done a thing. Everyone would comment on how easy it seemed for her. Now, the last leg of the race is just an excuse to cross the finish line and collapse.
One problem she has is that what she needs is the exact opposite of what is normally done for the runners. If an athlete crosses the line and falls to the ground, they are pulled to their feet and walked around. The trainers rub their backs and shoulders and apply ice to sore muscles. When Mia falls down, it is because her back is spasming and most of the time she can’t talk. She shakes her head when something hurts too bad. We know this, but the people on the field don’t always get it.
After taking this video, Mike and I rushed down to the field. We told them to let her lay down. After about five minutes of deep breathing and stretching out her back she felt much, much better. Her coaches know about her condition, but trainers from other teams at other schools don’t. We have to work with Mia to help her find a way to communicate what she needs. She doesn’t like to draw attention to herself; she doesn’t want to be different. I have a feeling this is going to be a long hard journey for her, but I’m proud of how hard she tries not to let it change her life.
“If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell.” Lance Armstrong
In the five years that we’ve lived in this house, I’ve wanted a trampoline. Mike resisted because he thought it would make the yard look trashy. Hello! We’ve got a dozen skateboards, bikes and other toys thrown all over the yard at any given moment. I think we’ve got ‘trashy’ covered already. Instead of renting a jumping balloon for Jon’s birthday, we finally invested in a trampoline. It’s safe to say that our kids spend every free second on that thing. I love it. Not only is it fun for them, it is great exercise.
Speaking of exercise, Mia and Mica have been working out an extra ten minutes each night with Coach Dad. Last night, Mike and I both ran around the school. It is hard to preach the benefits of exercise when you don’t do it yourself. I didn’t want to run. I’ve been sick for over a week now and my lungs are full of crap. I did it anyway and boy did I pay. I started coughing and then choking and ended up puking in the front yard. How gross is that? All night I felt like I couldn’t breathe and kept having flashbacks of the trouble I had with asthma in more humid climates.The good news is that while I was running around the school I saw that the plum tree on the far side is in bloom. Yay for bunches of pink blossoms!
Yesterday was interesting. I took Butterfly to the doctor to get her chin checked out. A couple of days ago she fell off her bike and hit it on the handlebars. Normally, I wouldn’t worry but Butterfly has an unusual tolerance for pain. It is difficult to tell if she is seriously injured because she doesn’t complain or cry like the rest of the kids. When she broke her finger, she didn’t cry at all. The only reason I took her that time was because her finger was so swollen. In fact, I felt a little silly taking such a happy kid to the emergency room. This time we were lucky because she didn’t have a fracture, just a bad bruise.
I had to talk to Butterfly about being more careful on her bike. It turns out the kids took the skateboard ramp to the park and they were riding the bikes off of it. Not only that, they were JUMPING OVER EACH OTHER. Can you say DANGER? Beebo had taken my camera over to document it and naturally they didn’t tell me until after the fact. So, the new rule is that the skateboard ramp stays in the back yard and is only used for skateboards. Period. You would think that after getting hurt so many times my kids would get a little common sense knocked into them…
Speaking of common sense, yesterday we had a discussion with Mia about her back. She wants to pole vault in addition to running track. Her coaches don’t think it is a good idea. We don’t know how well her body is going to handle the running and adding the jumping and falling isn’t smart. She was extremely upset about it and started crying. She doesn’t want anyone telling her that she CAN’T do something. In her mind, she is the one dealing with the pain and she should be able to decide how much she can take. As a parent, it hurts me to see her hurting so I want her to be careful. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes, but this morning she is paying for the stress of last night. She could barely move and couldn’t stand to be touched. She is going to have to learn to choose her battles. There is no way she can do everything.
