Run, Greyson, Run...

Yesterday Greyson participated in his very first marathon - the Music City Marathon right here in good 'ole Nashville TN. Now I am sure that some of you are saying....Greyson ran 26.2 miles, come on. Well he did, thank you very much, just not all in one day.

How the kids marathon works is that over the last six weeks he has been training with his school and during gym class and his marathon practices he has run a little over 25 1/2 miles. The last mile (or 1/2 mile in the case of the Kindergartners) is run on the same race course as the regular Music City Marathon- around Titans stadium, which for my sports obsessed son was like running around heaven.

It was actually a pretty amazing experience. There were over 3,700 kids participating - from 7th grade all the way to Kindergarten. It was great to see all these kids out and active and excited about running.


Here is the Kindergarten team getting ready to go.

The countdown to the start, can you tell they are slightly excited?

On your mark, get set......

GO!!!!!!

My son shot out of there like a bat out of hell (that's him on the far left), taking the very early (and large) lead. Clearly, Coach Wells didn't stress pacing one's self.

Now the only bad part of this whole thing is that the finish line is on the OPPOSITE side of the staudium and by the time we got there he had already finished, so I never got to see him cross the finish line (boo) or actually run any part of the race except the beginning (boo again) but next time (Greyson has already said he wants to run it next year) we will be prepared and have multiple cameras stationed along the course.

And to make the day even more special, Greyson had a cheering section drive up all the way from Atlanta - Ms. Susanna and Mr. Keith. (OK, perhaps they drove up to run in the 1/2 marathon on Saturday but really let's be honest, they came to see Greyson run, the 1/2 marathon was just their excuse!!)


As always, we are so proud of him. Way to go Greyson!!

So Proud...

So I came out of the house this afternoon and found my children doing this...







Amazing!! We haven't been working on riding their bikes since last fall. I have seen Greyson get on his bike several times and just try to balance as he goes down our driveway but never pedaling. I guess this is what happens when you leave kids alone to do what they want!!

(On a side note to Grandma and Nini - I am well aware that Greyson did not have his helmet on and after our oodles of congratulatory hugs and kisses we had the talk about wearing it, but didn't want to spoil the moment by making him put it on. Going forward he will wear it!)

Hark, Will Thou Understand??

We had a very busy day on Saturday. Along with our wonderful spring romp at The Spring Art Hop, we had tickets to the Nashville Children's Theatre's production of Robin Goodfellow.

For those of you not versed in children's theatre Robin Goodfellow is a children's adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. I had been looking forward to this play all season long because a) I have actually never seen the play before (my bumble Kansas public school education left a little something to be desired in the literature section) and b) I wanted to see the kid's reaction to what would be our first somewhat older children's play. My assumption, of course, when I heard that this was adapted for children, would be that they would convert the old English into a more modern understandable English and keep the storyline. And so I was quite shocked when the play opened and Robin Goodfellow (who was Puck from the original play) began spouting off Elizabethan English. My heart sank into my shoes. I thought the kids wouldn't understand what was going on, they would get bored and wouldn't enjoy themselves. As usual, I shouldn't underestimate my children. They both sat in their chairs intently watching the whole play. There were times when Greyson looked a little confused (Quinn was with Raif and so I don't know how he handled these parts) and so I quickly whispered into his ear what was going on and he smiled and continued watching. They laughed at the appropriate times and at the end of play declared it a winner and promptly wanted to see it again.

One small step for man, one giant leap for culturing of the Erim children.

Spring Rituals

My absolute FAVORITE spring activity is Cheekwood's Spring Art Hop which occurs the Saturday before Easter.

The kids get to say hello to the Easter Bunny.


Enjoy face painting (or in this case arm painting)


And arts and crafts (Greyson and his garden bunny pot which hopefully will soon grow into grass)


And of course Easter Egg hunts.


What they do really well here is have multiple Easter Egg hunts (every 30 minutes) on multiple parts of the grounds for every age group. Which means that at each hunt there are a reasonable amount of children not a massive horde of them that we have experienced elsewhere (Nashville Zoo I am talking to you).

But I think what I really love most, is that this is usually our first 'outdoor' event of the year. The flowers are in bloom and it just really, for the first time, feels like spring.

So welcome Spring - please stay around a little while before relinquishing to your sometimes brutal sister Summer.

Just us Girls

Last Saturday, with Greyson having not one but two birthday parties to attend (he is such the popular boy) Quinn and I were left with a day, that for all intents, was just us girls.

We started out with dance class and then a ladies lunch.


Then we spent an afternoon tackling a big project - making dinner for the boys. Now when I say making dinner I mean MAKING dinner. From the pasta to the sauce EVERYTHING was made from scratch - and mostly by Ms. Quinn herself.

She stirred the egg into the flour.


Fed the dough through the pasta machine.


Laid out her pasta to dry.


And cut all the veggies up for the sauce.


At the end of the day, our weary party go-ers were thrilled to have something to eat other than less than mediocre pizza and high fructose corn syrup.

I was just glad to spend the day with my girl.

This Picture Says It All...

Quinn: A whole lot of sweetness topped with just a little bit of mischief (in case you can't make it out that is her scary spider Halloween headband).

Question?

So at what age do the giving up loving the box the stuff comes in?

Badminton Anyone?

He seems to have the stroke down, just needs to work a tiny bit on his aim (note the birdie behind him)!

Gratuitous Cuteness

Rites of Spring

Fired Up

I usually don't post anything political on my blog for a variety of reasons but the main being that most people come here to catch up on the kids not to find out my personal opinions on the news of the day but when personal and political merge I feel the need to vent, so here goes....

Anyone who knows anything about our family knows how much I adore Quinn's preschool (and where Greyson went as well), The Susan Gray School. I have written many times about this amazing institution, but for those who just happened to stumble here or for those who bizarrely haven't committed all my posts to memory let me give you some background.

The Susan Gray School is one of a very few private inclusive preschools around. What does inclusive mean, you ask? Inclusive means that children of all abilities (both physical and mental) are welcome. In fact, Susan Gray has a minimum ratio of special needs to typically developing children it needs to maintain. Susan Gray was named after Susan Gray (duh) the pioneer of the HeadStart program as well as many programs for young children with special needs. Her belief and the philosophy of the school is that children with special needs learn better with typically developing peers to model after and that typically developing children benefit from this type of environment as well. Both Greyson and Quinn have had children in their classes with Down Syndrome, with Autism, who are deaf, who have Cerebral Palsy and I am sure other physical and mental disabilities.

The Susan Gray School is also unique as it is a laboratory for current research on child development. As part of Vanderbilt's Peabody School of Education (one of the top in the nation, I might add), the school helps and hosts many Master's and Doctorate students working on research and dissertations. Both my kids have been in studies on how exercise affects attention spans, how to increase interactive communication between special needs children, and a variety of other studies.

Finally, The Susan Gray School, on Vanderbilt's campus attracts the children of visiting professors and staff from around the world. My children have had classes with students of every color and religion from all over the world.

I have had people over the past several years ask me why I put my children in Susan Gray's environment. I have taken from these people that they mean, why would I put my 'normal' child (though I don't believe there is such a thing as a normal child) in a classroom with special needs children. This is my reply:

There is much more to education at this age than learning your numbers and letters. My children have learned more about compassion and understanding at Susan Gray then they ever could at a 'typical' school. They have learned that everyone has special gifts and everyone is different and that not everyone looks or sounds or walks or learns like them.

My kids come home and tell me how happy they are that they helped their friend climb the stairs or taught a friend a new word. How many kids at your run of the mill school tell their parents that?

All of this leads me to the actual point of this post. Recently I received a letter from the head of the school. Our new legislature recently passed a new budget and has slashed Susan Gray's funding by a total of 25% of its total budget. Susan Gray receives funding from a variety of sources - a healthy portion comes from typical families, like us, that pay a comparable tuition rate. While Vanderbilt doesn't provide a monetary contribution, they provide their space, janitorial services and certain managerial functions (Susan Gray employees are Vanderbilt employees) free of charge. The remainder of the budget comes from donations and the State funding of Early Intervention services. The fact that the State only funds a portion of their budget but they slashed enough to decrease the budget by a TOTAL of 25% means they slashed their portion by far more than that. The school is currently doing fundraisers and asking for donations but simply put by the head of the school, if The Susan Gray School does not raise a large portion of what the government has taken away there will be DRASTIC cuts to the program. Considering neither one of my children has ever brought home an origami duck made out of dollar bills and that the school asks us to bring in a box of tissues with each tuition check, it is fair to say that this institution is running on a shoe string budget as is.

So to our newly elected Governor and all of the wonderful Legislators who voted to slash this school's funding I say shame on you. Did you slash every budget across the board by this much? No. Why is education always the first thing on the chopping block? It should be the last, especially for children like those in this program that need it the most. Having taken a son through the Early Intervention program in Tennessee I can tell you first hand how much of a difference early intervention, good early intervention can make. This program is making a tremendous difference in the lives of these children, helping them reach their full potential. You are not just cutting dollar bills, you are cutting potential for these children to thrive, to become the best that they can be. You are heartless and I hope this eats away at your conscience.

So there.

Well At Least They Aren't Fighting...

Two Christmases ago I bought both the kids their own personalized super hero capes. Greyson's is red with a lightning bolt and the letter G on it, while Quinn's has a Q in the middle of a pink flower. I thought they were the best gifts ever but apparently my children did not as they have sat at the bottom of the dress up box for the last two years, untouched, until yesterday. The capes were rediscovered about the time I started dinner and much to my delight my two super heroes spent the evening laughing and having a ball. Of course, I didn't know what EXACTLY they were doing until Raif came home.

G: Daddy, did you root for the Lightning G's or the Q-cumbers?

R: Ummm, the Q-cumbers.

G: Too bad, they lost.

R: Were you playing a game?

G: Oh yes...

R: How do you play?

G: Well you put on your super hero capes and each go to one side of the room then you run as fast as you can into the other person and the first one who falls to the floor wins.

I wonder if they play this game on Krypton too?

Johnessa Appleseed

In that matter-of-fact voice that only a 4 year old can have, Quinn informed me yesterday while driving in the car and eating an apple, "Mommy, it would just be much easier if we used the seeds out of this apple and grew our own apple tree in the backyard. That way I can just go outside whenever I want and pick an apple to eat. (slight pause) You may have to help me pick the high ones."

So our weekend activity had been planned...apple seed planting. And just as all good plans come together, Greyson brought home from his monthly build-it-yourself workshop at Home Depot a flower planter (and a second kit for Quinn to build her own). Fate I tell you!!

So this morning we hammered...

And ate... (lest Quinn get all the apples)

And planted...

And watered...

I can already taste those apples!

Johnny Hustle

Yesterday was Greyson's first official baseball game. Now neither Raif nor I are great baseball fans, as I may have mentioned earlier. His friend Hutch asked him to play on his team which is the only reason the thought of Greyson playing baseball would have ever popped into our minds. Frankly we were a bit worried about how he would do because a) he has never really seen a baseball game and has NO idea what the rules are and b) baseball has a lot of standing still time and our son does not stand still.

But as with most of my concerns that relate to Greyson, these too were unfounded. That boy was Johnny Hustle out on the field. When the coaches said "Baseball Ready" he was down in his crouching position ready for the ball to head his way. And even if the ball came nowhere near him he was there to pick it up, occasionally knocking his own teammates out of the way to get it. (We still need to work on 'position play' and the fact that baseball is not a contact sport like hockey. My son likes to check people into the ground to get the ball). We did have the occasional dirt scoop and throw in the outfield but most of the time he was focused on getting that ball.

At bat he got a 'real' hit his first time up, a line drive through the outstanding infield of the Rangers and all the way to the fence. (I define a real hit as hitting the ball when it is thrown. They throw about 3 or 4 balls to the kids and if they don't hit those they put the ball on a tee.)

But even more remarkable than his hit was the fact that he actually got someone out. (Though it didn't count. Which I found out only after my son made his remarkable and generally on target throw from shortstop to first. At this level they simply bat through the order and let the kids get singles and run the bases and no one ever gets out.)

So all in all, a very exciting baseball game, the best I have seen in years. Go Mets!

(Greyson heading for home. My artistic action shot....hey you try taking a picture through a fence while cheering your son on and see how clear it comes out).

(Baseball Ready)


(Assistant Coach Raif directing the team. He sort of got roped into this duty but hey he got a free hat out of it.)