Sunday, November 13, 2011

Sugar And/Or Spice, As Needed

laura at dusk

One time way back in my blogging career, I got an email from a reader--nobody I knew--asking if it hurt Laura's feelings that I obviously favored Hank and that I might want to think about blogging about her more to balance things out and in addition I might want to examine my inner self to root out the source of this unfairness.

I was like, UM HUH WHAT NOW? And then I hit delete.

People on the internet can be so generous with their opinions. Their crazy, crazy opinions.

Can you imagine?

But let's check in with Laura. What is she up to?

Mostly swimming. A month ago, her swim coach called me and said he wanted to move her up to the next team. She was eager to do it, so I wasn't about to say no. This means a lot more swimming for her. They want 6-8 practices over each two-week period, and the practices are from 5:45-7:30, and now consist of a thirty minute dry-land workout, then an hour and fifteen minutes of swimming. It's a lot. And it's a logistical puzzle for me, the getting her there, and deciding whether to leave again or wait, to take Hank or not, when to feed everyone, etc. I am getting the Home Ec issues worked out, and Hank taking karate next door helps some too.

With this ramp up in commitment, we are now at that point that I think a lot of kids reach in their various activities at 10 or 11, it's kind of an up-or-out moment. Laura is enjoying it and shows no signs of burn-out, the exercise is unbeatable, and I've read and bought into that book Positive Pushing, so we are going for it.

Her week is pretty packed. She has chorus after school on Monday, and tennis on Wednesday, and then swimming the other three days. It doesn't feel like too too much, though, because chorus and tennis don't require extra transportation. That's the key for me. I feel like being in the car too much drains our life force.

Oh, this is fun: Laura and her friend are going to sing a duet in the school talent show, "What Is This Feeling" from Wicked. It's the "Loathing" song that the two sister witches sing. It's very funny, a perfect number for two sassy girls to do. Her friend's mom is fairly musical, and she said to bring Laura over and she'd help them learn their parts. I took Laura over there today, and they have a white baby grand piano in their living room. Handy for such occasions as these. When you see a grand piano, do you want to go over and drape yourself across it? Just me?

When I came back to pick her up, they did their act for me and I was amazed at how great they're doing. They have to audition in early December (this is serious business for elementary school) and then the performance isn't until February. I will try to arrange a live webcast of this event. In the car, Laura said, "Casey's mom has an Emmy! Lots of them! I got to hold one." And I was like, "She has an Emmy for music?!? She told me she was a music minor in college!" And Laura said that no, they're from her work at the Weather Channel. Oh, okay.

I think that white baby grand piano turned my head around. Gracious.

In her free free time, Laura is watching Biggest Loser on Hulu, and reading Beverly Cleary's autobiography, A Girl from Yamhill. She is also known to write a number 13 on her hand with marker, because that's what Taylor Swift does. And from dawn until bedtime, she never, never stops talking.

9 comments:

delaine said...

Oh yes, indeed! Laura is one very talented young lady. She's very musical as well. I want to come see the talent show. I know she will do a great job. She is a swimming-singing-talking machine. I'm so glad she's enjoying the increased swimming schedule.

Christian said...

Ooooooh. Could we have a special episode of Suburban Matron dedicated to the craziest emails you've received?

Lisa Lilienthal said...

I'm with you on keeping the chirrun busy, as well as with the driving draining your life force. It's a delicate balancing act, no?

Elizabeth said...

My own mother once told me that I blogged too much about one son over the other and it bothered her. I explained that the older child doesn't want to be blogged about, while the younger one does.

Laura sounds like a real dynamo and kudos for all her accomplishments! Please tell her that my very dearest friend is currently touring the country as Madame Mobley!

Anonymous said...

My 10.5-year-old also never, never, never stops talking. It starts every morning with "I had a dream that" and ends every night with "What would happen if." It is going to drive me right out of my mind. I love talking to her but all the chatter-chat where she is listening to her mouth make words is disruptive to my psyche.

I think Positive Pushing is about the most well-written book abt parenting I have ever read. It's really good, generally, but for that genre it's downright literary. Nobel-Prize material!

AlGalMom said...

At first glance, I thought 5:45 was AM, and my mind boggled, and I had to push the reset button.

Jessica Gottlieb said...

Check your email. I'm going to forward you my most recent bit of "reader advice".

Anonymous said...

how funny because i was just thinking about how I rarely include my daughter in my blog posts. For me it is because she is so independent compared to her brother. I mean the girl babysits until 11 pm on the weekends and puts herself to bed! I never remind her to brush her teeth, do her homework or set her alarm. So, quite a boring topic! Glad to see your girl is a busy bee! I may have to investigate Positive Pushing. Never heard of it.

Star said...

She sounds lovely, thanks for sharing.