Birthday Party

We threw Anya a birthday party on Saturday with about 10 friends, breaking the cycle of going to Great Wolf Lodge. She wanted an animal theme, so we hired a mobile petting zoo to come. Not surprisingly, Anya chose the "Cute and Scaly Package", which has bunnies, chinchillas, and fluffy animals, along with snakes and lizards. Perfect for her.

The girls started in the basement with a (loud, high energy) dance party until the animal handler arrived. They went through the  animal program, then we did the fishing game (beanie boos for everyone), ate, opened presents, had dougnuts, and then ran around again being crazy. It seemed to be a good time for them all.

Patiently and calmly waiting for her turn with a chinchilla. 

 snake!

shiatsu massage on a bearded dragon

birthday doughnut

Halloween

This year, Anya dressed up as an archer. Sort of like Katniss, although she hasn't seen (and won't for awhile) The Hunger Games. She might also be an elf -- she's gone back and forth on that, so I'm not sure where it ended up.

She got a fair amount of use out of the costume. Saturday, she wore it to her piano recital/Halloween party. Monday, she wore it to school and for trick-or-treating, and last night, we had our annual PEPS Halloween gathering.

Speaking of trick-or-treating, we had a little gathering at our house with some classmates. Anya's new friend's family just moved here from Mexico and this was their first time experiencing Halloween. We all did the neighborhood rounds, kids with baskets and adults with libations in hand. As usual, it rained, but the kids didn't seem to mind too much -- although I think it kept them from a marathon of trick-or-treating. Anya got a decent haul, but not quite as much as last year.

A minion, archer, Rapunzel, two witches, a vampire princess, and an ear of corn

Happy Birthday!

Happy 9th birthday, Anya!

Here we go again with another year in the books.

School: Almost two months in, and she seems to be settled and comfortable in class. Third grade is a big year at St. C. for personal responsibility and quality of work expectations. Starting out the year, there were some tears (which we were warned to expect) and some surprises with a few less-than-stellar marks. She has written some beautifully creative and rich stories, which, unfortunately, weren't quite what the teacher was looking for in assignments. But she's motivated and has gotten better at paying attention to directions. Not perfect, but it's a process.

Socially, she seems to be doing fine. Surprisingly not much girl drama so far this year (other than the usual competition she has with one of her friends). Knock on wood, but this class seems to get along very well.

We just finished up the cross-country and soccer seasons. Big improvements for her in both. In third grade, the soccer teams split into boys/girls teams. All of the girls, including Anya, were much more aggressive on the field this season.

Let's see...I believe she still wants to be a herpetologist, or is maybe interested in being a veterinarian. I just now asked her and she said she wants to breed frogs and sell them.

Likes: still obsessed with animals. All kinds, bugs included.  We've started letting her go on neighborhood walks by herself, so she loves that -- she often goes to check out parking strip gardens that might have insects, look for cats, and chat with neighborhood kids/people we know. Her newest interest is American Ninja Warrior, with Jessie Graff as her current idol. She often sets up little obstacle courses in the house for herself and "sportscasts" as she completes them ("she hops over the couch...and she attemps a piano solo in the middle of the course. Can? She? Do it??").

Still loves rock climbing. We recently joined a group in the Mountaineers org that's just for kids her age. Every month, they go on an excursion in the Puget Sound area, with varying activities. Last month was rock climbing near North Bend. Tomorrow is a hike (which we'll have to miss), and there will be snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, etc. It's pretty awesome and she's made some friends.

She also still loves reading, and I'm pretty sure it'll be a lifelong love. We often have to take her books away at night, since she gets engrossed in the stories and stays up too late reading. She was recently tested at school and reads/comprehends at a 6th-7th grade level. I'm sure partly due to all the nerdy books she (and we) loves to read.

Anya is still doing piano lessons. She doesn't always want to practice, but adores her teacher and mostly enjoys it. We will keep it up as long as she wants to do it. Anya also asked to start doing gymnastics again. Seattle Gymnastics Academy is full right now, but we signed her up with 2 of her good friends at the Little Gym for a trial run of it. It's a little too beginner, since she's done gymnastics before, so we'll see if she wants to stick with her friends or move levels.

For her birthday this year, we are having a small party at our house next weekend and a mobile petting zoo is coming. Recap and pictures forthcoming. For today, though, it's a busy day with the last soccer game, piano recital at a retirement home, then the school's harvest festival, and topping it off with a friend sleeping over. Phew!

this evening's poem

 I don't know how she churns this stuff out with seemingly little effort. She's definitely in a Halloween mood this evening.

A Midnight Stroll

The shadows crawl and suck up light

because it's night

because it's night

The dogs start yelling and they ain't gonna stop til morning 

Cuz they ain't gonna stop til morning.

Cuz shadows crawl and suck up the sun

cuz the earth moves like a ball

while the wind blows

and it ain't gonna stop til morning. 

First Day of School

Anya started back to school on September 1st. I got to sneak in and take a picture while the kids were getting settled. Anya was pretty nervous about starting third grade and didn't want to have her picture taken before school. I think some of the older kids scared her, telling all sorts of stories about what a tough year it will be. Fortunately, she quickly got over her first day jitters and already adores her teacher. I think it'll be a great year, with lots more responsibility and accountability - and hopefully maturing - on the kids' parts.

Creative Writing

It seems Anya has a love of and talent for creative writing. Here are a few pieces she's written and typed out (somewhat edited for spelling and punctuation at her request). 

This one is a song/poem she wrote for Grangie earlier this Spring:

And here is a short story (or book, as Anya calls it) she wrote last week. She is quite proud of this one (as she should be). 

I look forward to seeing how her writing evolves over the years. I hope she continues to love it as much as she currently does. 

Jump Rope Performance

Anya had her last camp of the summer this week, which was YMCA jump rope camp. This is the third summer she's done this. They always end the week with a performance for parents and other campers. Here are some snippets from today's show. Excuse the sound quality. I'm super proud of her. She worked hard this week. I'm always impressed with how the kids manage to pull this together in such a short time.

Anya's First Communion

For those of you not paying attention at home, we decided to put Anya in a Catholic Grade School (Go St. Catherine's Tigers!), and as you would expect, they've been Catholigizing the kid.  Which is fine with us, we were both raised Catholic. Our theory has been that if she wanted to go through the sacraments with all her class mates, more power to her, and she has done so with gusto.  This year alone she's been baptized, received her first reconciliation, and now her first communion.  With out really being harassed by us at all, she did all of her first communion home work, learned all the songs and even attend several months of class with out us having to drag her kicking and screaming.

Anya with her God-Parents/Grand Parents Lynn and Steve. (The guy in the white behind them is Jesus)

Anya with her actual parents, with a side of Jesus

This is not Jesus, but Father Mark.  He's a great guy and really makes all of our Church goings-on very meaningful and downright enjoyable.  He's funny and fun, and very sincere.  We're lucky to have him.  He even shows a great deal of patience with our child (more on that later)

The Graduating Class.  

All the children got to play with real candles.  Which apparently is no longer common as they run the risk of lighting things on fire.  But Father Mark insisted they get real candles with real flames.  They all were nearly hypnotized by the fire, Anya went cross eyed.  The boy across the way (Warren)'s candle blew out and Anya crossed the isle and re-lit his candle.  Everyone went, "Awwwww", and Father Mark thanked her.  

Now I'm a pretty cynical and scientifically minded guy, but even I took note of this photo.  Even though I understand EXACTLY what happened here--that being that a flash went off 1/2 way through the photo registering on the photo sensor of my phone--I am totally amazed by this photo.  Right at the very moment of her getting her first communion, she is bathed in a beam of light.  That's pretty cool.  I sent this one to Father Mark. As I did with the next gem.  

I shall call this one: Anya wins first communion.  Along with a "Happy Birthday," card with  puppies on it, Anya's Great Grandmother Eileen decided to give her a chicken.  No it is not a real chicken, it is merely a decoration, but it's made of real chicken feathers, and looks real enough that Father Mark was very worried about what was about to transpire.  Take a close look at his face as he tries to comprehend what this crazy child is going to do to his church.  Anya ran up to the alter in a frenzy with the chicken in hand to which I stated, (none too quietly or calmly)  "Chickens do NOT belong on the alter!" Father Mark adamantly agreed that we were, "Not that sort of church". And so we once again narrowly avoided the church roof falling on our heads.  

In the end all was well.  There was a huge dance and Father Mark cut a rug with our kid.  

The chicken did make a final appearance before the night was over.  I do believe that this weird chicken decoration had a far better fate than anyone could have possibly imagined for it when it was being constructed with Styrofoam bailing wire and glue in some 3rd world country.  

Talent Show

Every year, the St. Catherine's 8th graders host a talent show. Anya decided she wanted to participate this time and show off her jump rope skills. She had about a month to practice her routine before the big day.

For me, the past month was an exercise in biting my tongue and stepping back.

Anya discovered a third grader jumping rope after school one day and the girls decided they would do the talent show together. Great. I emailed her mom and got permission for her daughter to stay after school some days and practice with Anya, since they asked me to. And then, nothing. The girls never practiced after school or during recess. I asked Anya from time to time how the planning was going and usually received a vague answer or that the other girl didn't want to practice (not that Anya was practicing much herself or ever really having much of a plan).  I tried to stay out of it as much as possible and let the girls run it, since this was their performance and not mine....but I was also kind of nervous for Anya to get up in front of the whole school with zero preparation. I recall dressing up as the lead singer and lip syncing to Def Leppard's "Love Bites" in 5th grade. It was pretty bad and I cringe every time I think of that memory.  Part of me wanted to spare my kid that same embarrassment, but another part wanted this to be a learning experience about the importance of preparation.

On the day before the event, I asked Anya if they had their music picked out, since it was due. She told me that they had decided that afternoon and it was taken care of. Great. But that evening I thought about it and wondered how Anya got her music to the teacher....she never asked me and barely spoke to her friend about it. So to be on the safe side, Chris burned the song to a CD. Good thing he did because Anya had no idea that you had to physically give the music (cd, ipod, phone) to anyone. As far as she's ever known, when she wants to hear a song it magically appears, thanks to the magic of the internet. So we got it to school just in time.

Anyway, here is Anya's talent show performance . The girls did fine. As it turns out, the bar wasn't set too high for the K-4 performances, so even if they did terribly, it would have been OK. The audience was quite supportive, so it was a terrific environment for kids to put themselves out there. Anya was thrilled with all of the compliments she received the rest of the day. I don't think she learned any lessons about preparing, even though she had a moment of regret the morning of the show. Mainly, she just had fun and that's a good lesson too. So there ya go.

General update

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog. This is mainly due to my cancer treatment and the kitchen remodel. But I'm all done with chemo now and about 2/3 the way through radiation. My spirits are pretty good. 90 percent of the time, I'm positive, know I have a good prognosis, and that I'm being closely monitored and well-cared for. There's that 10 percent, though, that finds this all scary and worries about my future, that the cancer will come back. I want to be here, see my kid grow up, and grow old with my husband.

Anya has dealt with this very well. She doesn't seem to be worried because every woman she's known with breast cancer is still here. She asks questions and I answer as honestly and appropriately as I can. These days, she mostly teases me because I look pretty silly with fuzz on my head and a big scar on my chest. There haven't been any issues at school or emotional outbursts (other than the norm). I don't know any will come later. I suspect not. She's not really one to bottle up emotions. 

The big cancer stuff aside, things have been plugging along since the last blog update. Our kitchen remodel was pretty painless, thanks to friends who supplied us with meals during chemo, and a comfy setup in the basement where we lived for a few months. We are thrilled with the results and, even after living with the new kitchen for 2.5 months, I wouldn't change a thing. 

 before

after

The Christmas season was nice, not too rushed. I had to miss out on pretty much all social events during chemo, but Chris and Anya got to have some fun. Anya got a speaking part in the school's Christmas performance and did a great job. Maybe Chris has a video of that somewhere. Christmas itself was lovely. Lynn, Steve, and Eileen came over Christmas Eve after mass and we all had dinner together. Christmas morning was just the three of us and then we had dinner at Lynn and Steve's. The big gift for Anya was a metal detector, as she had been asking for one all Fall and we found a good deal on a decent one. New Year's Eve was quiet with just Anya's friend, Eva, for a sleepover. Thanks to Netflix, we had a short dance party countdown at some random, early time, and the girls didn't even notice the actual time on the clock. 

In January, my mom came out for three weeks to help out during my last round of chemo. It was wonderful having her here and we cooked/ate out a lot. Chemo ended up not being quite as bad as I expected, so we spent more time visiting and doing organizational projects than I thought we'd get to. 

At the end of January, we had our annual PEPS winter retreat. We did Suncadia again, since it's fairly close by and there's more to do if the snowpack wasn't great. Turns out the snow was fine. There was lots of sledding, I did a little snowshoeing and lots of walking. It was a great time for all. Since I was just over a week past my last round of chemo, I was a little tired and not quite my normal self. But I was so thrilled to be there and see everyone all together after a few months of having to skip PEPS. 

February wasn't too eventful, other than me starting radiation. It was more of a planning month -- figuring out our summer and making decisions on home improvement projects (living room and backyard deck). 

Last weekend, we got to do something we've all been wanting to for awhile, but couldn't justify the expense: indoor skydiving. Dan (Angie's dad) so generously gave all of the grandkids' families money to do something special and we decided on the skydiving. It was a perfect way to celebrate being done with chemo and have some fun as a family. We all loved it and really want to do it again.