Day +793: Summer dance camp and other stories
Mina and Isaac are on summer vacation from their preschool, so Keri is finding other activities for them. Last week Grandma Judy and Grandpa Monte were here to help entertain them. The kids had a ball. They really love all of their grandparents. At some point toward the end of the week, Isaac was talking to Grandpa, and he said "I want you to stay here for a long time."
Grandpa was getting a real kick out of Isaac. All week long Isaac was running around the house, singing and banging his tambourine, picking up his guitar and pounding the strings, then putting it down and grabbing the harmonica, then running to the back room singing and dancing, all with this goofy grin on his face. At one point Grandpa just shook his head and said "I think he's the funniest kid I've ever seen." He's definitely very confident in his home environment, though he can still be a bit shy in public. He really hasn't slowed down with the love of music. He plays all of the instruments in our house almost every day, and he's constantly singing. His guitar playing style is pretty amazing. He sticks his left leg forward and balances the guitar on his thigh while he strums with his left hand. It's exactly the right stance, and in fact several of the NPG parents have commented on how he holds the guitar at school. Mina gets to play it now occasionally, but she doesn't really know how to hold it or how to strum it. Isaac can really get a lot of sound out of his little guitar with his confident strumming. Now, that isn't such a good thing because it doesn't actually sound that great and it's impossible to keep the little strings in tune. We're trying to decide at what point we could trust him with a more expensive and better sounding instrument. He actually does pretty well with his guitar -- it's a little banged up, but he's pretty much gotten the message about not using it for anything else.
With all of the dancing that has been going on at our house, we were curious to see how the kids would enjoy dance camp. They went last week every day for three hours, from 9:00-12:00. Every day they came home exhausted from all the physical activity, which is great except they are chronically a bit short on sleep, and I had a crazy busy week at work so Keri was stuck at home by herself much of the week with two very tired kids. They did like the camp -- the teachers were really nice, and the kids liked getting dressed up in their dance clothes every day. Mina wore leotards and tights, of course, with pink ballet slippers, and her hair was supposed to be fixed up every day. A couple of days the teachers helped to fix up Mina's hair. Isaac wore black footless tights with a white shirt and black slippers. Both the kids say they really liked it, and both of them say they would like to go again, but I didn't get that many stories about what they actually did. I know they did stretches and exercises in the morning before they danced, then they danced for 45 minutes or so, then had Goldfish and apple juice for a snack and did crafts for a while, then danced for the last hour. But we haven't yet seen any new moves they learned at camp or anything. The teachers liked our kids, and said they would enjoy seeing them in class in the fall. They were struck by how much Mina helped Isaac to stay in line, follow directions, etc.
We had a minor medical scare with Mina a week or so ago when she got a mild fever that last two days. She seemed to be feeling pretty decent for the most part, but she wasn't eating quite like normal and she was definitely tired and run down. We had already noticed how seldom she's had any kind of illness since coming out of the hospital, and we're thankful that she seems to have been transplanted with a strong immune system. But the absence of illness makes a fever seem all the stranger. She was pretty tired the Saturday before dance camp, and when I asked her how she felt, she said "I feel a little bit good." The next day she was obviously feeling better, and when I asked her she said "I feel a little bit sick."
But the fever wasn't really the scary part; the other thing that happened is she got a rash on her forearms and hands that looked a lot like the GVHD rash she had when she was so sick. Monday night it had spread to the top of her feet, and since the hands and feet are commonly the first place for a GVHD rash to show up, I made Keri take her in. Dr. Kerper saw her, and said they weren't worried about GVHD this far out, which was good to hear. The rash went away after a few days, and Mina is doing great now on all fronts.
Mina and Isaac have this game going now where Mina is the mother hen and Isaac is the "chickie". Grandma and Grandpa took them hiking, and they found a great place to play it: a circle of cut stones that the kids immediately called their "nest". Isaac got down on his knees and was the "egg", and Mina actually sat on him until he hatched. They've played it several times at home since then, and tonight Mina was pecking worms out of our living room floor with her nose and then bringing them to Isaac to eat.
Grandma and Grandpa spend a lot of time fixing things while they're down here, things that Keri and I don't have the time or the ability to get to. Grandma Judy is the expert at fixing broken toys and books, and she's gotten quite a reputation. One day Mina was watching her in awe, and she remarked to Keri, "Can Grandma Judy do anything?" Then tonight, Mina was traumatized because a plastic horse that she got as a door prize at birthday party yesterday had broken a leg. It was just a cheap toy; I watched two of them break at the party, and Isaac's broke on the way home. But Mina takes these things very seriously, and she was distraught. She burst into tears and wailed "I want Grandma Judy to come and fix it!" So we tried to call Grandma Judy, but as Grandma was coming to the phone, Mina dropped the horse on the kitchen floor and it broke into about five pieces. Mina shrieked and then cried these deep sobs that she cries when her feelings really are hurt, so we had to hang up the phone. Mina really has very deep reservoirs of emotion.
The emotion comes out all the more readily when she's tired, of course. Last night we were out late at Walt, Blaire and Devon's house. They had a ball playing with Devon, but we didn't leave until almost 10:00. Isaac fell asleep after about five minutes in the car. Mina didn't fall asleep, but as we were coming into our neighborhood, I heard kind of a strange voice from the back seat saying "I'm supposed to be asleep." I said "What?" and Mina said "I'm supposed to be asleep by now. It's very late." Which was definitely true, but it was still a bit surpising to hear it come from the back seat.
Kids start summer camp at NPG Monday. Teacher Julie will be there, but there will be another teacher as well and some new kids, which will be good for Mina. Looking forward to seeing how that goes.
Thanks for checking in.
Grandpa was getting a real kick out of Isaac. All week long Isaac was running around the house, singing and banging his tambourine, picking up his guitar and pounding the strings, then putting it down and grabbing the harmonica, then running to the back room singing and dancing, all with this goofy grin on his face. At one point Grandpa just shook his head and said "I think he's the funniest kid I've ever seen." He's definitely very confident in his home environment, though he can still be a bit shy in public. He really hasn't slowed down with the love of music. He plays all of the instruments in our house almost every day, and he's constantly singing. His guitar playing style is pretty amazing. He sticks his left leg forward and balances the guitar on his thigh while he strums with his left hand. It's exactly the right stance, and in fact several of the NPG parents have commented on how he holds the guitar at school. Mina gets to play it now occasionally, but she doesn't really know how to hold it or how to strum it. Isaac can really get a lot of sound out of his little guitar with his confident strumming. Now, that isn't such a good thing because it doesn't actually sound that great and it's impossible to keep the little strings in tune. We're trying to decide at what point we could trust him with a more expensive and better sounding instrument. He actually does pretty well with his guitar -- it's a little banged up, but he's pretty much gotten the message about not using it for anything else.
With all of the dancing that has been going on at our house, we were curious to see how the kids would enjoy dance camp. They went last week every day for three hours, from 9:00-12:00. Every day they came home exhausted from all the physical activity, which is great except they are chronically a bit short on sleep, and I had a crazy busy week at work so Keri was stuck at home by herself much of the week with two very tired kids. They did like the camp -- the teachers were really nice, and the kids liked getting dressed up in their dance clothes every day. Mina wore leotards and tights, of course, with pink ballet slippers, and her hair was supposed to be fixed up every day. A couple of days the teachers helped to fix up Mina's hair. Isaac wore black footless tights with a white shirt and black slippers. Both the kids say they really liked it, and both of them say they would like to go again, but I didn't get that many stories about what they actually did. I know they did stretches and exercises in the morning before they danced, then they danced for 45 minutes or so, then had Goldfish and apple juice for a snack and did crafts for a while, then danced for the last hour. But we haven't yet seen any new moves they learned at camp or anything. The teachers liked our kids, and said they would enjoy seeing them in class in the fall. They were struck by how much Mina helped Isaac to stay in line, follow directions, etc.
We had a minor medical scare with Mina a week or so ago when she got a mild fever that last two days. She seemed to be feeling pretty decent for the most part, but she wasn't eating quite like normal and she was definitely tired and run down. We had already noticed how seldom she's had any kind of illness since coming out of the hospital, and we're thankful that she seems to have been transplanted with a strong immune system. But the absence of illness makes a fever seem all the stranger. She was pretty tired the Saturday before dance camp, and when I asked her how she felt, she said "I feel a little bit good." The next day she was obviously feeling better, and when I asked her she said "I feel a little bit sick."
But the fever wasn't really the scary part; the other thing that happened is she got a rash on her forearms and hands that looked a lot like the GVHD rash she had when she was so sick. Monday night it had spread to the top of her feet, and since the hands and feet are commonly the first place for a GVHD rash to show up, I made Keri take her in. Dr. Kerper saw her, and said they weren't worried about GVHD this far out, which was good to hear. The rash went away after a few days, and Mina is doing great now on all fronts.
Mina and Isaac have this game going now where Mina is the mother hen and Isaac is the "chickie". Grandma and Grandpa took them hiking, and they found a great place to play it: a circle of cut stones that the kids immediately called their "nest". Isaac got down on his knees and was the "egg", and Mina actually sat on him until he hatched. They've played it several times at home since then, and tonight Mina was pecking worms out of our living room floor with her nose and then bringing them to Isaac to eat.
Grandma and Grandpa spend a lot of time fixing things while they're down here, things that Keri and I don't have the time or the ability to get to. Grandma Judy is the expert at fixing broken toys and books, and she's gotten quite a reputation. One day Mina was watching her in awe, and she remarked to Keri, "Can Grandma Judy do anything?" Then tonight, Mina was traumatized because a plastic horse that she got as a door prize at birthday party yesterday had broken a leg. It was just a cheap toy; I watched two of them break at the party, and Isaac's broke on the way home. But Mina takes these things very seriously, and she was distraught. She burst into tears and wailed "I want Grandma Judy to come and fix it!" So we tried to call Grandma Judy, but as Grandma was coming to the phone, Mina dropped the horse on the kitchen floor and it broke into about five pieces. Mina shrieked and then cried these deep sobs that she cries when her feelings really are hurt, so we had to hang up the phone. Mina really has very deep reservoirs of emotion.
The emotion comes out all the more readily when she's tired, of course. Last night we were out late at Walt, Blaire and Devon's house. They had a ball playing with Devon, but we didn't leave until almost 10:00. Isaac fell asleep after about five minutes in the car. Mina didn't fall asleep, but as we were coming into our neighborhood, I heard kind of a strange voice from the back seat saying "I'm supposed to be asleep." I said "What?" and Mina said "I'm supposed to be asleep by now. It's very late." Which was definitely true, but it was still a bit surpising to hear it come from the back seat.
Kids start summer camp at NPG Monday. Teacher Julie will be there, but there will be another teacher as well and some new kids, which will be good for Mina. Looking forward to seeing how that goes.
Thanks for checking in.
posted by Arne Olson @ 5:04 PM
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