It was such a beautiful day today that I (went temporarily insane and) took the kids down to the marathon route to cheer on our friend Marla, who ran in support of Children’s Hospital. I freely admit that I have never in my life run a 10-minute mile. Today, Marla ran more than 26 10-minute miles to finish the Boston Marathon for the Miles for Miracles team and her patient partner, Samantha. When I turned the TV on this morning to see what was happening at the starting line, the winner in the wheelchair division was just crossing the finish line and Aliya said, “Aw…I guess Marla didn’t win.” She’s still a winner to us!! Go Marla!!!

In the picture above, Marla is the one with the lampost jutting out of the top of her head.
https://www.mwareinc.com/events/web/profiles/?EventID=112&ProfileID=GM0051

Here she is, running by us so fast you can barely spot her!!!

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I had a parent-teacher conference for Adlani this week and he has apparently made great strides since the beginning of the school year. We need to work on his writing ability…he hasn’t mastered holding a pencil yet and hasn’t chosen a dominant hand. He’s very good at building things though, so it’s not a question of motor skills. While I was talking to the teacher he completely filled the triangle frame with tiles. The teacher said she had never seen any of the kids do it.
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Today I was the mystery reader for Adlani’s class. I read “Somebody and the Three Blairs” and “Prince Cinders”. The kids loved the books, although I almost completely lost it when they all started shouting out comments about the big hairy monkey’s butt. The teacher and I were hysterical. Aliya is going to be the mystery reader on June 2nd for Adlani’s current class and the Spanish immersion class he’ll be in next year. She’s already practicing.

I talked to Adlani’s teacher and the director about kindergarten readiness. I’m sure you all know that I’ve been struggling with whether to hold him back or not. I learned today that if his teacher (next year) strongly feels that he should be held back, he can stay at BLOCKS for another year, but it won’t be my decision. If she thinks he’s ready for kindergarten and I disagree, he’ll have to go to Next Generation or another private school. It actually feels good to have the decision taken out of my hands and into more qualified hands. My impression today was that they don’t currently see any delays that would require him to be held back.
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Aliya’s school held a poetry night this week. At first she wasn’t sure she could write a poem but we talked about it and she ended up writing a poem about things she loved. Then she wasn’t sure she wanted to read it in front of people since it was very personal and “people might think it was dumb”. Since her poem was in Spanish I suggested that she show it to her teacher so she could advise her on grammar. I had Aliya’s parent-teacher conference that day and her teacher loved the poem. She told Aliya that she would come to poetry night JUST for Aliya (there were only 3 kindergarteners who participated and Aliya was the only one from her class). During the day, the principal saw Aliya in line with her poem and she asked her about it. Aliya told her that she was going to recite it at poetry night, and the principal took her into the office to recite it for the secretaries, a couple of teachers, and the nurse. Before we left home to go to poetry night, Aliya said that it was ok if people thought her poem was dumb, there were at least 8 people who liked it. She did a great job!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5eni1lVGDc]

Me Encanta (I Love)
By: Aliya

Me encanta mi familia (I love my family)
Me encanta nadar (I love swimming)
Me encanta colorear (I love coloring)
Me encanta cantar (I love singing)
Me encanta rosada (I love pink)
Me encanta leer (I love to read)
Me encanta mis maestras (I love my teachers)
Me encanta escribir (I love to write)
Me encanta mi nuevo dormitorio (I love my new bedroom)
Me encanta chiclit (I love gum)
Me encanta mis amigas (I love my friends)
Me encanta las frutas (I love fruit)
Que le encanta tu? (What do you love?)
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Seriously…where does the time go?? I’m aware that it’s Friday, because that’s the night Ben takes the kids upstairs for movie night and I have “a night off” a.k.a. catch up on laundry, write blog entries, maybe read a few chapters and hopefully go to bed (alone!!) at a decent hour. I recognize Sunday because that’s when I get everything ready for Monday…work/emails, backpacks, lunch money, etc. Everything else is a blur until Thursday, when I have Adlani and Norah home and I basically start work at naptime and work into the wee hours. TIME FLIES!!! I feel the urgent need to slow it down before time runs out.
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We’ve been doing lots of fun stuff…I’ll start with the most recent and work backward.
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Last weekend we went to the Big Apple Circus. If you haven’t gone, GO!!! I have gone every year for about 12 years. It’s fabulous! It’s different every year and I’ve never been disappointed. It’s a wonderful charity and I join every year, which gives us access to great seats at a discount, plus the annual member party where we get free food and drinks, entertainment, face painting, and a lovely parting gift for the kids (lunch bags this year). Adlani even overcame his fear of clowns at the member party. During the show, I was asked to participate by raising an umbrella before a clown spit a mouthful of water on me. The kids were so surprised and excited. It was a blast.
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The first weekend of the month we “dropped into art” at the Danforth Museum. The girls made sculptures of animals which took so long that we didn’t get to see any of the art! We’ll be back next month…it was a lot of fun – and FREE!
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Before that, we had a date with Zineb at Chuck E Cheez (one of my least favorite places). If you don’t know Zineb, she is our niece and she lived with us for about a year when she was a junior in high school. I hadn’t seen her in a while and I’m so proud of what a beautiful woman she has grown up to be. She works at Tufts Dental School and is engaged! The kids are in love with her and we had a great time getting reacquainted.
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Easter weekend was a crazy whirlwind. We had 2 egg hunts, Lindsey’s birthday party, a swimming lesson, and Easter dinner. It was chaotic, but fun. We still have about 5 pounds of jelly beans and we all need emergency visits to the dentist. I actually just went through a dental ordeal…a toothache, a filling and a cleaning, another toothache (same tooth), antibiotics and Tylenol with Codeine, a root canal, a post, a temporary crown, and a permanent crown. I spent 8 HOURS in the dentist’s chair. At least I was able to track down my favorite dentist who changed practices after her maternity leave.
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Here are some pics from Easter weekend:
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