The Blog

He isn’t accustomed to failure. School work (to date) comes too easy to him. We could force him to participate in sports so that he knows what it feels like to lose, but that doesn’t seem right. Although, come to think of it, he does play soccer in the fall, and last year’s team lost nearly every game without it bothering him, I think. So maybe it wasn’t the losing/failing that bothered him so much … maybe it was that he lost while competing in something he genuinely cared about. Or maybe it was the hit to an ego that expected to win something, but didn’t. Austin has spent the better part of this school year reading a series of books with his closest friends. The books weren’t chosen by them, but instead by a committee somewhere in the area (I don’t know who, specifically). The books were to be […]

This week, Austin’s friend and orchestral-partner, Acadia, was unable to attend school, because she had the flu. Unprompted on Thursday night, Austin asked if he could offer to bring her viola home from school for her, so that she could practice her instrument over the weekend; Christine or Keith would have to drive him to her house so that he could drop it off. Of course we agreed: he brought her instrument and sheet music home with him the next afternoon and he dropped it off to her Friday night. Yesterday, Victoria attended a birthday celebration with her friend and neighbor, Mary. They celebrated at Billy Beez at the mall, but it was an informal celebration – they hadn’t formally rented space at the facility, so Victoria and Keith decided to leave Mary’s present in the car (rather than bring it into the lobby and leave it there unattended). When […]

Keith is now working behind a PC all day; he has become a photography hobbyist. Christine is still working with kids; she has become a triathlete. Austin is a now blackbelt; he plays the viola, quite-well we’re told. Victoria is a now following in Austin’s taekwondo footsteps as a green-stripe; she has learned to love to read. – – – – We’re gonna try to start this blog-thing up again and see what happens.

On Saturday, Austin had his first baseball game of the season; his first year without hitting off a “T”. The game is supposed to be 6 innings, with a player (7-8 years of age) pitching 2 innings, and coaches pitching the remaining 4 innings. That, of course, is not how the game was played this day. You see, due to poor weather conditions over the last 2 weeks, neither team had even practiced hitting yet, so both teams decided to play the game more like a scrimmage: coaches pitched at all times, every player batted once in an inning, and there were (essentially) no strikeouts. Some of the highlights of the game can be viewed below. Austins first hit of the season came on the 5th strike…         …but the remaining hits were within the formal rules of the game.              And […]

Looking back over the photographic records, the first instances can be seen in July, approximately 4 months after she was born. We don’t know what prompted it, but it brought us tranquility. It brought her comfort – and 4 episodes of Coxsackie. For nearly 4 years, Victoria has loved to suck her fingers. [singlepic id=480 w=480 h=480 float=center] When pre-school started, we began to place a small Band-Aid around her fingers to prevent her from sucking on them during the school day. Every morning, she would select a Band-Aid from the box, and (eventually) put it on herself. Every day, in the mid-afternoon, she would ask to take her Band-Aid off, so that she could suck on her fingers for 30-45 minutes while lying on the couch, snuggling with her favorite blue blanket – sometimes whe would nap, other times just rest in a euphoric trance. [singlepic id=1620 w=480 h=480 […]

The family enjoyed a very nice, cold, intermittently snowy Easter holiday this weekend, sharing the day with Grandma and Grandpa Waldron and Great Grandpa. Before the company arrived, the Austin and Victoria first enjoyed searching for Easter eggs and opening gifts from the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny decided to hide eggs specific too each child this year, which successfully prevented them from competing for, and arguing about, eggs and treats.   In addition to typical Easter basket fare (e.g. marshmallow and peanut butter chocolate covered eggs and jelly beans, each child received 2 wrapped gifts. Austin received a R/C helicopter… [singlepic id=4022 w=320 h=240 float=] …and a much desired LEGO Ninjago set. [singlepic id=4024 w=320 h=240 float=] Victoria received a Paw Patrol Pad… [singlepic id=4023 w=320 h=320 float=] …and cupcake crafts. [singlepic id=4025 w=320 h=240 float=] Austin was eager to assemble his LEGO set right away, and Victoria started […]

It is the Saturday before Easter, the date of the annual Town of Sullivan Easter Egg hunt. Nearly every every year, we have participated in the event, which is very well-organized by the town’s Parks and Recreation Department – a previous posting from our first time attending can be found here. This year, however, the radar looks like this: Yep – snow. No, it is not ‘sticking’, but there are 14 mph winds and the wind chills are currently 26 degrees…so…we will not be attending today’s event. We are looking forward to tomorrow though…

Keith: I love you, honey. Victoria: I love you too. No, you don’t. [emphatically] Yes, I do. Then why do you always choose Mommy to put you to bed at night? [she pauses – then exposes a playful grin while shrugging her shoulders] Just the way it goes.

Earlier this morning, Austin gave a short speech to all of the teachers in the Chittenango school district, to kick-off their ‘Professional Development Day’. And while Keith has reservations/concerns about using a select number of advanced students to over-inflate the confidence of teachers when they should instead be concentrating on the difficulties they have advancing the lives of children who do not arrive at their classrooms as ready to learn…it was an honor, nonetheless, for our boy to be selected to represent his entire school as a ‘presenter’. A few weeks ago, the principal of Austin’s school had called to ask if it would be okay for Austin to participate in the event – one student was being selected from each elementary school (and the middle school) to present to the audience what they liked about their school and their own personal goals; the principal had selected Austin. This was […]