She's famous!

My nine-year-old daughter is now famous, as the kids like to say, since her picture was in the paper today and Friday for the store ad. She had on the long green dress and the two-piece outfit in Friday's ad, and is wearing the pretty green and purple dress in today's ad.

The ad was publicizing a sale on the dresses, and we went yesterday to take a look and get one for each of them for the upcoming Memorial of Jesus Christ's death on April 9. They picked out so many and the older one couldn't decide so I picked one out for her ... the long green one from the ad! Her sister picked out one that wasn't in the advertisement but tried on several that were.

Spelling bee

Today was the much-awaited (by me) spelling bee day for my daughter in the fourth grade. My daughter lost her enthusiasm for studying early on and decided she didn't want to be in the spelling bee. We told her she couldn't quit, gave her some tips and tricks, and encouraged her to try to beat her performance from last year. She was eliminated in the third round last year and I thought she could certainly beat that this year.

The kids dropped like flies in the first round this morning, and my little girl was one of the ones eliminated. Her word was "ballot," and she spelled "ballet." She was disappointed but quickly overcame it since I let her sit with me and help me keep her baby brother quiet. Last year's champion (a fourth grader in my daughter's class) defended her title against a fifth grader.

Photo shoot

My nine-year-old daughter had a photo shoot today and her photo is scheduled to appear in a department store ad in the newspaper the 27th and 29th of this month.

Her sister had a photo shoot on her sixth birthday and the photo appeared later that month in a department store ad in the newspaper. (Same department store, same newspaper.) Her little brother had a photo shoot this time last year and his photo was greatly enlarged for an in-store display (same department store) that stayed up for a good while.

She got her hair washed the night before and was quite excited about the prospect of getting her makeup done. She modeled a light green long dress, another dress she'd seen in the store already (bright green and purple) and a two-piece yellow and blue skirt and top set. She looked so pretty and really enjoyed herself. She went to school afterward and wore her makeup for everyone to see.

Character of the Month

My first grade daughter is the Student of the Month -- or as they say at her school -- Character of the Month -- in her classroom. She got to eat lunch on the stage today, so everyone got to literally look up to her as she was eating lunch and watching a movie.

I missed out on the honor because I didn't know about it. I didn't receive a note from school like I normally do. I was terribly disappointed because I always try to come out to the school for activities like that and have never missed a character lunch before. Turns out an invitation to lunch was made out for me but didn't make it home. My darling first grader not only didn't tell me she was the Character of the Month but didn't bring my lunch invitation home, either.

I'm proud of her anyway.

Clinic visits

My son gets to spend two days in a row in testing at children's hospital clinics. Today's visit was for allergy testing and tomorrow's visit will be for lung testing, a science guinea pig sort of thing.

It was our first visit to the allergy clinic so we didn't really know what to expect. We answered a lot of questions, and the doctor found out my son is healthy as a horse except for his bad eczema breakouts, possible seasonal allergies, and possible allergy to peanuts.

Then came the actual testing but it didn't turn out very well. He has had at least two doses of allergy medicine in the last week when I should have stopped all of it five days before the clinic visit. (When the doctor/clinic sends you paperwork about an upcoming visit, you should read everything and then keep up with it. Just FYI.) They put a histamine in his skin that should have made him break out but his medicine was still working. (Bad for the testing appointment but very good to know otherwise.)

They couldn't do the skin testing but drew some blood and will test it for allergies to peanuts, tree nuts (I'm allergic to brazil nuts) and other things and will let us know the result.

He didn't cry or even flinch when he got his blood drawn and of course the nurses thought he was adorable. The doctors enjoyed him too and commented on how nice-looking and well-behaved he is. My son just enjoyed the fish tank out in the waiting room and the Nemo sticker he got for letting the nurses take his height and weight.

The lung test tomorrow is part of a long term lung function study; we've participated in it before. We come in to the clinic and the baby gets something to make him sleep. The doctor and nurse use a breathing machine to observe and record how his lungs function. It takes a couple of hours during which I can come and go, and we are usually finished by 12:30 p.m. or so. We hope to make it out in time to attend his sister's quiz bowl competition.

After-school tutoring and other school activities

My fourth grader started after school tutoring today. It's more like homework/snack time after school. It's on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from the time school lets out until 4:30 p.m.

She really enjoyed herself today. The teacher she was assigned to for tutoring wasn't there, so she went to another teacher, who happens to be my first grader's regular teacher. She sat at her sister's desk and noticed that it was really messy inside (no surprise there). She worked on multiplication tables (good!) and had a snack.

The other kids and I walked to school after it was over to pick her up.

After school tutoring started back in November for any child in the school but I didn't sign her up. She's at school all day every day -- I figured that was enough and besides, her staying up there means I have to make another trip to the school two afternoons a week. That's not an easy thing when you are taking care of four to six other kids. But her dad suddenly announced last week that he thought after school tutoring would be a good thing for her. Boy was she happy to hear that. She's been wanting to go ever since it started.

She's been busy with other school things lately too. Her performance group has stepped up rehearsals to three times a week in preparation for their "tour" to other schools at the end of the school year.

She's got a quiz bowl competition this week. All of the students are participating. There is a heavy emphasis on African-American history (yay, I love it!). Her sister and I have been helping her study and we know the answers pretty well.

She's got a spelling bee next week; she'll start studying for that after the quiz bowl is over. She didn't do as well as she could have in last year's spelling bee so she's determined to advance further this time. I think she can at least make it to the final round this year. The words are fairly easy or will be if she'll study. Time will tell!