Before Moonlight There Was Mathcounts

So, by now you probably know all about the Oscars mishap where La La Land got told they won, but ... they didn't.

Well, I'm here to tell you I've been there and done that, in a way more geeky junior high sort of way.

It was the year 1995, and my teammates and I were at the national MathCounts competition. After a whole slew of different events--including nerdy mathematical interludes when the judges asked things like, "How many digits of pi have you memorized?"--we were announced as placing fifth out of the fifty-seven teams! We were both thrilled and shocked. Especially given how much goofing off we'd been doing.

Um yeah, we actually placed twentieth.

Naturally we drowned our sorrows in junk food, many rounds of card games, and a lot of tween angst. Also a lot of geekiness. Fortunately, we all recovered.

Here's the news article chronicling our tragedy: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/418107/MATH-OFFICIALS-CANT-ADD-UTAHNS-ARE-20TH-NOT-5TH.html?pg=all

Of particular note: the insanely pretentious answer I apparently gave to the question of future plans. Seriously? Could I possibly get more show-offy sounding? But it was good for a guffaw just now, so I'll call it a win.

Too bad it wasn't also a win for my MathCounts team.

Meta

"I don't know what to write," I tell Brice. I have a goal of writing every day, you see. 

"Write about how the baby was crawling down the hall and how we are all crawling down the hallway of life. We can choose to laugh and giggle as we head into the darkness, or we can turn back in fear."

"Brice, I love you. You are a source of endless delight."

And also, I think to myself, I'm totally not writing about that. Because that's weird. 

Wolves

A few days ago, I prayed so hard that I would be able to be patient and be kind and see the positive in the kids. I've been really struggling with them lately.

But then Addra wanted a YouTube drawing video. And then she didn't like the one she chose. Then she wanted a new one and wanted to scroll through tons to find it. Then she started getting upset because it was too hard, she said.

All this time I was getting increasingly frustrated at her. Just pick something! Just try again! It's okay if it's not perfect!

She was crying and upset and just curled up in a blanket by the computer, and I just didn't think I could be nice about this. I knew she needed a snuggle and some comforting, but I didn't want to do it. I went to find Brice to get him to help her so that I didn't make it any worse, but he was eating breakfast and I didn't want to stop him in the middle of a bowl of cereal.

So I took a breath and went back. I sat down beside the red blanket lump and pulled her partially into my lap and started rubbing her back. I told her that I loved her, over and over, and listened to her sadness at how hard the video was. At first I had to bite my tongue to keep from getting cranky at her, but slowly the back rub and snuggling soothed me too.

Five minutes later, I asked if she wanted to try again. Brice brought another pencil and paper, and we both watched the video and tried to draw from it. I paused it frequently so she could erase or catch up, and eventually we were both done.

She was totally happy again and was satisfied with her wolf drawing, and we'd had some happy, loving time together. 

Without a doubt I can say that this was a gift from God. Brice being busy so I had to handle it. My recognition and acceptance of what she needed just then--not criticism or pushing her to try harder, just a snuggle. And most of all the inner strength to actually do what was needed when I didn't want to. It turned an ugly interaction--the kind of thing that we've been having far too frequently these days--into a loving one. I'm so grateful for that gift.

Spindles, baby exercises

The kids and I are reading Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George, and there is discussion in it of carding and spinning, so we watched some YouTube videos about that. Then we watched one about spinning wheels, and I kept waiting to see something that Sleeping Beauty could have pricked her finger on. Alas, there was nothing.

So then we looked at the Perrault text of the story and discovered it mentions a spindle but no wheel! It was a drop spindle! Oh, Disney. The shame of it all.


In other news, every time I've had a baby, I've thought someone should invent a workout routine that uses the baby as the weights. Today I discovered one! Too bad my baby is now too wiggly and too heavy to use effectively for very long.

http://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/workouts/too-tired-too-busy-too-bored-work-out/new-baby-strength-training-routine

Send in the chocolate reinforcements

Ever have one of those days where you have awesome intentions and then your child has a meltdown and then you have to put yourself in time out for ten minutes so you don't say something you'll really regret and then later you're cleaning the bathroom and your toddler runs the water out of the sink all over the floor and then you get through that crisis too and then your child drops a pickle jar on the floor and it breaks and the toddler is mad he can't play in the kitchen and the six year old is upset she can't eat the pickles and then she hides and screams and all you really want is to steal the entire bowl of pudding that your husband made and hide in your bedroom to eat it but you can't because the cranky, tired baby would probably grab it and spill it all over the carpet?

No? You haven't?

Me neither.

First things first, snowman confusion, fashion

The very first thing Koa said to me this morning when he came out of his room: "Read this book?" He is totally my child.


Today he was looking at an old picture of Brice with a snowman. When looking at any picture, photo or illustration, he is constantly pointing and saying, "What's this?" Or, "This is?"
So he pointed to Brice and said, "This is?"
I told him it was Daddy, and he said, "No." Then he pointed to the snowman. "This Daddy." He was quite adamant.


Addra designed some fantastic dressed today. She is quite the fashionista.


Coriel has been writing some epic stuff lately. I'll try to post some soon. It's pretty great.