How the kids have been lately...

Am I bad parent if I let Clark continue his front seat antics? Yesterday, Jason told Clark he could sit up front if he promised to say "hi" to everyone he sees, while I was driving. I tried to keep a straight face, but it was funny. Clark was waving and yelling to everyone, even saying stuff like, "I like your pants!" and "Happy Birthday!" It was really silly, and he even got embarrassed when he realized that a girl walking with her dad, was a girl in his class. So far, people's response has been positive, with the goofy face Clark pulls, they can't help but smile and say "hi", back.




Clark is good student, is is disciplined in that way, but he still has anxiety and anger issues. When ever somebody gets on his nerves, watch out! No matter how small or unimportant it may be, he gets so furious! When that happens, I take away his video games and wrestlers. Yes, he does cherish those things, but it works. He loves wrestling, this fall he is going to try it. He already has had some practice when he grabs a hold of Vivi and Erick. Sabrina doesn't play that way. He also didn't do football this year, though he was so good at it. When he played, he really enjoyed himself, and if they lost a game, he would laugh about the other kids crying about it. When he was on the line, he would dance, because he was so excited. And he was never afraid of someone bigger than him. I told him to treat them like a bull, and just move to the side, and he did. But his ankle got sprained and that was the beginning of the end, after that he said he hated football.




Sabrina is a tigeress, her love for cats is beyond normal now. She is into the big cats, and if I find my camera cord, I would post a picture of her running beside lions. She wants a jungle themed room, with everything tiger and cheetah patterns. Besides her love for cats, she is very artistic. I was too at her age, when I was young, I had every part of my walls and even ceiling covered with pictures I painted or drew. In the past six months, she has become a picky eater! She is close to being a vegetarian, like me, but she won't even eat burgers anymore. I am proud she chooses healthy choices, like spinach salad, and fruits. Her picky choices has made it harder for me to make her happy when we have dinner, she won't eat any kind of pasta, not even mac'n cheese anymore. I am afraid this will be a trend that Vivi will follow, because Vivi copies everything, Sabrina does.




Sabrina never has a hard time making friends, but she is picky when it comes to who can be. She has a best friend who is really smart from her last school, she talks to Courtney every Tuesday. Courtney and Sabrina write stories together in notebooks. They even illustrate them too. Her other best friend ended up in the same school, in the same classes, and next to her locker. How lucky is that? She had been friends with this girl since we moved to Virginia, and her friend had moved a year ago. But not every thing at school is great, a girl on the cheerleading team started calling her names, last week, and this girl is just plain mean. Because Sabrina had to sit across from her, this girl said her hair was a rat's nest, and made a comment like, "I know you want my looks." This made Sabrina feel real bad, her only comeback was calling her four eyes. I have to restrain my self, because I can teach her a thing or too about comebacks. BUT, I won't, I want her to be a nice girl. Her troubles will never be over I am afraid, because she is so pretty, even a boy cut a two inch curl off yesterday in art class. This is just the beginning!




Vivi is my Jennie Jr, my wild child, and Sabrina's copy cat. I think it is cute, and sweet that Vivienne wants to be like Sabrina so much. But Sabrina hates it, she gets so angry over the slightest hint of drawing or making anything like her. They play together well, but only to Sabrina's benefit. Sabrina always has her way when it comes to Viv, and Viv don't mind most of the time. Viv likes cats, cheerleading and dancing. She loves to watch the Barbie movies over and over. She is also very lazy when it comes to cleaning up anything, even if she risks losing it in a vacuum. Everyone also knows that she is not afraid of strangers, this can be a good and bad thing. She likes to go swimming, and has never been afraid of the deepest water, even when she wasn't able to swim. I guess I am going to have to watch out for her because, she is a dare devil.


Finally, she was able to go on the big roller coasters, after years of tantrums and crying because she was too small. Like me, she also likes to watch scary shows, but I don't always let her. Because she will end up in my bed. In school, she does well, but I am sure she annoys the teacher with her willingness to help the teacher and ask questions.




Erick is a whole other thing, he is going through the voice changing thing, and it is hilarious when he whines. It reminds me of Peter Brady, when he talks. I didn't notice this until recently. He has gotten taller too, but not much like I thought he would be. So we shall see, what happens in the next year. Because of his weight loss, most of his clothes are too big for him. He is happy about that. As far as school goes, he is much shorter than other kids.



I am happy that he is in honors classes but he never brings homework home. Isn't those classes supposed to be harder? Erick's attitude has gone to extremes too, one minute he is way over confident and the next minute he is down on himself . He is really hard to get out of bed too, and every Sunday he is the last person out of the house. Last week he got this idea that he wanted to skip a grade, but it isn't as easy as he thinks. The school counselor told him he had to get straight A's for two years before they would consider it. So that is his plan for the moment, I think more power to him! But I know it won't happen, for now, he is excited about being in Pop Quiz. It's a team of smart kids that use buzzers to answer questions. Each kid on the team has a speciality and guess what his is! It's all video game and technology stuff! There are different rank teams, according to their intelligence. He made the "B"team, which is cool, because they won't let freshman be on the "A"team, which competes on TV. Maybe next year...



Erick is really making me proud that he is handling his new life so well. I am proud of all the kids, they really care about him. My toughest challenge with Erick now is, trying to get his spirits up, making sure he doesn't sneak things to eat that he can't have, making sure he isn't spending all his time in the nurse's office when he doesn't need to, getting after him when he leaves his needles and blood strips around, and when he shows off his stuff to other kids at football games, making them think he is a druggie of some sort. Things will get more interesting if he is going to try out for the soccer team. I don't know if I am ready for that now. That is how the kids have been lately.