We're Back!

We didn't disappear, we just experienced a significant blogging loss with the death of our computer. A month and a half ago I emailed a friend at 11 p.m., and when I went to the computer the next morning to check for a response, it was dead. That really rocked our world, but it certainly would have been worse without "our guy" who takes care of us when situations like this arise at our house. Of course, our timing couldn't have been worse as he and his family had just moved into a newly built, big, beautiful home with all kinds of stuff to put away and all kinds of trick things to try out like a really sweet media room, oh, and a previous home sale to get closed. With all that, he still managed to find time to get over to our house to confirm our computer had died, decide what we should get next, order it and then spend two more half days at our house getting everything set up. Thanks, Mr. B., for getting us back in business.

In the meantime, a lot has happened as you can tell by the pictures. We closed out the school year and said goodbye to second grade. Maryn had a hip hop dance recital. Jen graduated from fifth grade, Bill graduated from college. We enjoyed cookouts at Ame's house for Father's Day and Fourth of July. We even managed to enjoy some seahorse bacon, or, rather, bacon that looked like a seahose, when we were out for lunch one day. It won't be easy to top all that, but with a couple of weeks of summer vacation left, we'll give it a good try.

Bravo!

I was front row center for the best show in Room 8 this morning, and it didn't disappoint. A few weeks back the script came home from school with no fanfare, so now and then we divvied up the lines as a great way to practice reading. It wasn't until last evening that Maryn let us know she wasn't allowed to have the paper with her when she did the play this morning. Gulp! I surpressed the overwhelming urge to shout out, "You mean you have to have the lines memorized?" Shouldn't she be learning the word memorized at school and using it correctly in a sentence? Shouldn't there be a note that comes home for the parent(s) to sign that states I/We the undersigned parent(s) is/are fully aware that these lines must be memorized? She never noticed my bulging eyes or the rapid rise in my heart rate, as I calmly picked up the script, and we started to practice. Lucky for us, her teacher had it under control all along, and they have been practicing the plays at school for a while now, so Maryn had a good handle on her lines. We merely had to put some emphasis on words like identify, disgrace and actually, and she was ready for her close-up. There were classroom lights, parents had cameras, and the kids provided plenty of action that made me smile for 20 minutes. When it was all over, my favorite actress asked me to stay to have lunch with her. I declined the offer letting her know I didn't want to sit in my car for 45 minutes waiting for that to happen. Someday when she's an even bigger star, she'll thank me for keeping her grounded.

Encore!

Hangin' With Her Peops and a Butterfly

We spent time with some of our favorite people recently, a few of them smaller than Maryn. We think Olivia, Chloe and Will are some of the cutest people we know, and we can't wait to see them again.

Trophy Daughter

We went to Maryn's swim club banquet Saturday, and this is what we saw in the backseat when we arrived home. This is what two and a half hours on a dance floor will do to a person, any person. When it was time to pull the pin on all the fun, I stood up at the table and while looking at the dance floor between the heads and legs blocking my view I was saying in my head, "Hey, someone is break danc...it's Maryn!" She was spinning like a bug on it's back, doing a good job of cleaning that spot on the floor in her new outfit. It made me laugh, and it let me know it really was time to go home.
Maryn sat at a kids' table with her cronies, while we sat at a different table with two nice couples we had just met. The highlight of the evening was the distribution of trophies. They were participation trophies, all the same size, every child received one, and as the head coach called each child up, one at a time, he said something nice about that child. We heard him say, "This next person always has a smile on her face. She is happy all the time, and she makes me wish I were the coach of the red team...Maryn." What he said was really great and what was even greater is that during that pause before he said her name, from the table next to us we heard another child say "Maryn." That was better than getting a trophy.
We knew she would be asleep as soon as the car started to move so I asked her if she wanted me to hold her trophy. Nope. I didn't need to anyway because she had a pretty good hold on it. The next morning the first words out of her mouth were, "I got a trophy. I never got a trophy before." Every child loves a trophy, and every parent likes to hear something nice about their child.
The trophy looks good on her shelf, and she's on to the next thing.

Playing Around

I know, he looks ridiculous, and she looks adorable like she always does. I want to remember the two of them just like this. It was a big moment: Maryn-initiated, imaginative play. She had come home repeating the word "action" as if she had practiced a play at school, and she was eager to get to work on her own play. While I made dinner, Maryn got paper and a pencil and wrote her play, copying the same words on two pieces of paper. There were correctly spelled words. There were complete sentences with subjects, verbs and punctuation. There were costumes. There were calls for "action". There were parents wordlessly marveling to each other about how far she has come, and there were smiles.

Book Report

What are the chances Maryn would be lucky enough to be given China for her most recent book report about a country? Chances are excellent, when you have a savvy teacher like she does. With parental assistance, Maryn read the book, took notes, wrote the report with the help of those notes, and then practiced, practiced, practiced reading the report before presenting it to the class. We gave extra attention to new words such as crops, protection, and population that don't roll right off the tongue of an English language learner. And, we all know how hard it is to say spaghetti when you're new at it, but, in any good book report about China, you're going to have to say it since it was invented there.

She wore her new qi pao, a traditional Chinese dress, and taught the class to say hello, goodbye, thank you, mom, dad and teacher "in Mandarin, the national language of China." Does a quote taken from a second grader's book report require citation? Well, I give all the credit to Maryn. Once again, she wowed her teacher and class, and we couldn't be more thrilled with the progress she is making this school year.

Only One Fish in the Sea

This is what the 100 yard backstroke looks like to adoring parents. Our eyes are on only one swimmer and there are no other fish in the sea. Maryn is on a swim team, and this is how she has spent two nights per week and the occasional weekend since the season started back in September. She loves it, and so do we. Being part of a team and all that exercise are so good for her. Watching her go off the block and do flip turns makes us smile. We aren't rabid about times, ranks or ribbons, we merely delight in watching her do something she enjoys. She wants to do it next season, and we'll be there watching.