Halloween: I'll post photos soon, but the Pipsqueak had a pretty good holiday. For her school parade (and the Halloween "dance" they hosted that evening) she made use of one of her dance costumes from last season, squeezing into it for probably the last time to be a jester. She also had a grand old time trick-or-treating... AJ told me that when she emptied her candy bag for review afterwards, there were over 110 pieces of candy! I had a pretty good time, myself; by the time the streets cleared and I shut down my sound effects, I'd given out candy to a total of 169 kids ranging from 1-1/2 to 12 or 13; costumes ranged from nearly-nonexistent to one "mummy" dressed in actual windings of gauze bandage, with separate rolls for her head, each arm, torso, lower body, and legs. What's weird is that our folks had zero kids stop by in their neighborhood, but we think there was some kind of t-o-t alternative at the neighborhood pool that drew the kids away. (Their leftover candy is safely stashed away for later use; the little leftover candy I had is secure in the back of my freezer to make it more difficult to inhale it all in one sitting.)
School Stuff: Miri continues to do well, and is finally showing the kind of interest in reading general literature that we'd been hoping she would develop (as opposed to being interested in reading mainly because it was required and/or a way to earn rewards). We're still trying to find ways to help her deal with what can only be termed performance anxiety during big tests... and, unfortunately, helping her find ways to deal with a couple of difficult classmates. More news on those fronts as events progress...
Dance Stuff: The first dance team competition is still about two months away, but the studio's winter show is in just a few weeks so Miri's classes have mostly changed over from general lessons to learning & rehearsing the performance routines. She's in three of the numbers, so AJ is clenching her teeth in anticipation of how much she'll have to lay out for the costumes... but we'll always find a way to cover that expense. Meanwhile, I often catch myself wondering how someone who dances so well in so many different styles keeps walking into things and/or knocking things over...!
General Stuff #1: My niece is beginning to show signs of turning into a bit of a Potterhead, since her primary teacher is into that particular fandom from the tip of his Quidditch broom to the point atop the replica Sorting Hat he's known to wear from time to time. She's kinda-sorta been interested for a while (Dude, maybe because her mother and uncle are fans?) but he's really tipped the apple cart. She's also very proud to be a Ravenclaw like her uncle. (We couldn't use the official Pottermore sorting test because she's too young to have a account, but I dug up a full set of the test questions online.) Now we just have to figure out which Ilvermorny house she's in...
General Stuff #2: We're in the market for a simple booster seat for my car, because we've expanded & opened up & modified the Pipsqueak's original expandable/openable/modifiable car seat to the max and she's beginning to have real problems squeezing into the darn thing. AJ already tossed hers and is using just a small, simple booster to make sure Miri can easily see out the windows... but this kid's growing so fast, we're not sure she even needs that much elevation any more. If only Maryland made the regulations concerning use of child seats a little less obtuse, we might know if we can forego the booster entirely or not... <sigh>
General Stuff #3: On October 31st, we lost one of the cousins who'd never had a chance to meet the Pipsqueak after a long bout of illness. That got me moving on my family genealogy project again, but I'm still hitting a dead end trying to trace Dad's family back beyond his father & uncle. My talking about that search has once again gotten Miri asking me some interesting questions for which an adoptee cannot have easy answers (if ever having any answers at all); it's fascinating to watch how she processes what little information I'm able to give her, and I'm looking forward to some truly interesting discussions with her about identity and family as time progresses. (The Yin to the death of our cousin's Yang was the addition of a new cousin just one week earlier; we hope to be able to meet her sometime in the coming year.)
Okay, that's about it for the moment -- it's waaaay past my bedtime and I can't remember any of the other things I wanted to mention. I'm gonna go hit the hay, y'all keep your eyes out for photos from Halloween & other more recent events as well as more catching up on the past year right here in the blog!
Wishing everybody a (possibly belated) happy Halloween, happy All Saints Day, happy All Souls Day, and happy Diwali!
No comments:
Post a Comment