Sam's First Parade

This afternoon Sam walked with his Cub Scout troop in the Milford Center Christmas parade. There weren't many kids who made it - the Sunday after Thanksgiving is a horrible time for a parade with everyone traveling. Maria and I watched - Ben was with his band - but Maria and I parked a couple of blocks away so we could leave as soon as soon as Sam and Ben went by (both were at the beginning of the parade so we didn't have to stay long). And the weather was perfect - sunny with no wind and 40 degrees.

When they got home I asked Sam if he had fun. He said yes, but he apologized for not throwing candy at us since he was on the other side of the road.

Next week Maria dances with her dance class in the Marysville Christmas parade - I just hope the weather is as nice as it was today!

Thanksgiving

We had another great Thanksgiving this year. We were fortunate that everyone could travel to be here with us, including Ben's parents, my parents, and my sister Wendy and her family. The meal turned out great, and Maria did a lot of my cooking this year - the only thing I do with the turkey is lift it for her and pull out the guts. Ben started off the morning running in the Flying Feather 4-Miler, but I chose not to run so I could stay here - I just love our tradition of cooking with my daughter and then watching the parade with both kids. Ben did well, and the very rainy day took a break while the run was going on, which was a huge relief.

We spent the rest of the weekend getting stuff done and having time to relax too. We got the Christmas decorations up Friday, even though Sam had some kind of stomach bug he was able to help some (he never really helps a lot). Saturday we went to see the Harry Potter movie (which was awesome) and out to dinner, and today we watched Ben and Sam in the Milford Center Christmas parade (Ben with the band, Sam with the Cub Scouts). No one really wants to go back to school tomorrow, but time always flies in these short weeks between now and Christmas!

Parent Teacher Conference

Last week we met with Sam's teacher for a parent teacher conference. Sam has been doing well this year, but elementary teachers always have a lot of additional testing information to share - seems like they are constantly having to test kids for some reason at this level. Anyway, Sam is reading very well, and is almost at the level where they should be at the end of the second grade year. What's holding him back is not the reading, but the comprehension, where he sometimes seems to miss the main points of the story. None of this surprised me, as I read with him most evenings and noticed this myself. I think sometimes he just quits paying attention and his mind wanders, and he misses part of the story. He may need to be a person who re-reads to get the main idea, although I'm not certain he'll enjoy the extra work. But he is still doing very well, and she commented on how well he reads out loud with expression (which is something Maria always did well, too).

Sam is also excelling in math, which seems to be his favorite subject (in spite of the tears we sometimes have doing math homework!). His teacher mentioned that not only does he do well, but he is often "creative" at coming up with different ways to solve the problems. That was great to hear since problem solving is such an important life skill - if he could just use this skill when he loses a Nintendo game and "can't find it anywhere"). Plus I've always thought he would probably lean toward a math type career as he gets older - especially with his love of building. But only time will tell.

Behavior-wise, Sam's teacher said following rules is important to him. That he will leave a group of kids if he thinks they are going to get into trouble. He just told me the other day that he hates the way they spilt the classes up for math because now he's in a group where "he's the only one who listens." Probably an exaggeration but I'm glad he is paying attention, at least. I'm just glad he tries to follow the rules, when he was three and four years old I used to wonder if he would be able to control his temper and worried he might be a child who acted out.

Sam can write well, but does not enjoy writing. He will usually write the minimum required, and although what he writes is done well, we would all like to see him write a little bit more. But I think it may be a fairly common boy trait, and as long as he is doing a decent job on what is required, I'm not sure how much I can push him on that. And his spelling is very good - seems to have that natural gift for being a good speller. Which is especially good since I usually forget to go over his words with him before his Friday tests (poor second child - I never forgot when Maria was this age!)

Speaking of Maria, we didn't go to the middle school conferences this time. They do "student-led" conferences, and I feel like she tells us stuff about school at home when she needs to. Not to mention we are down the hall from her teachers - they could find us whenever they needed to if there was something we needed to know. And Ben and I have each been stopped by at least one of her teachers this year so that they can tell us wonderful things about her (which never gets old). So I just didn't see the point of trying to fit a conference in our busy schedules. She did bring her folder home from school and show me everything in it, which is what would have happened at the conference.

Prairie Oaks 5K/10K

Ben and I both ran in a race yesterday - I ran the 5K, and Ben ran the 10K. This is the first time we've raced since school started, and other than running my 14 miles each week on the treadmill, I really hadn't trained for this race specifically - hadn't even run outside in over a month. But Ben loved this race last year, said the trail was beautiful and that the weather is usually cool but nice, so I agreed to do it.

Of course, since I was running, the weather was not what we expected - it was 32 degrees during the entire race (I have a bit of a curse when it comes to racing weather - it's either way too cool, or way too warm). Luckily, Ben had some cold weather running clothes I borrowed, and ended up dressed perfectly for the cold weather. (I don't have my own cold weather running clothes, because I don't plan to run outside in the winter.) Anyway, we got there over an hour early yesterday, checked in, and then sat in the warm car for quite a while. We just kept moving while we were waiting for the race to start, and that kept us warm enough. Once the race started, I didn't really notice the cold, except for my nose running so much.

Andrea Owsley ended up running the race as well, and Doug brought their kids and took pictures, so we have pictures of the race, which was a nice surprise. Andrea and I started off together, but eventually I pulled away. I just set what felt as my usual running pace and tried to maintain it for the entire race. There were some hills, though, which I'm not used to, but I would not let myself walk, no matter what. This is the first time I've raced without any pains in my legs during the last mile. I felt like I ran a good race, but was disappointed when the finish line was in sight and it was already past the 33rd minute - my goal was to beat 32 minutes. (Now I know that my Nike+ distance is far enough off that I just thought I could run faster than I actually can.) So imagine my surprise when I checked the posted times and realized I had won 2nd place for my age group - females 40-49. My official time was 33"35". If I had still been 39, I would have been in the middle of the pack. I picked up my plaque and went back to the finish line to wait with Doug for Ben to finish (the 10K started several minutes after the 5K so I had a little bit of time).

Ben's goal was to beat his personal record and finish in about 45 minutes. But after his warm up run, he told me his legs were a little tight and he wasn't sure he could do it. Unlike me, he has been training for this race pretty intensely. At the 43 minute mark, Doug and I saw Ben turn the corner and race toward the finish, with a very athletic runner right on his heals. We cheered him on and Ben beat that guy - and his personal record by about 2 minutes (still waiting for official times to be posted). After he crossed the line, Ben had to lay down in the grass and got a little sick - I've read about runners vomiting at the end of races but never witnessed it before. So Ben blew away his personal record but it wasn't good enough to win in his age category - even though he was 10th overall, it ended up being 7th in his age division for men 40-49. Those are some serious runners.

Anyway, it was a successful race for both of us - Ben set a new PR, and I got an award even though I didn't set a PR.