Growing up

Amanda is 16 now and it is hard to believe. I received her school pictures just the other day, and she looks so much like me. Unfortunately she is not the quiet shy me that I was at 16, she is the loud mouthed, opinionated me that I am now. Sometimes I find it very hard to live with me. Tomorrow night is her Sophomore homecoming and she is going to a friend's house to stay the weekend. They want to get ready together. I can't deny her. She needs her freedom to an extent and she is a good girl, she has never gotten into trouble. I am just a little selfish would have loved to help her get ready and see how beautiful she is when she is all made up. She doesn't normally wear make-up even though her best friend wouldn't be seen dead without it, lol. I am proud that she is confident enough to be herself. Especially knowing how peer pressure is and how bad it can be in high school. Amanda wanted to be a veterinarian, until last year during a conference with her teachers we were talking about the kinds of classes she should take. Her science teacher was telling us how much Molalla had expanded and now you could even take classes where you could go up to OHSU and work on cadavers. When we explained to Manada what a cadaver was she decided that Horticulture is what she wants a career in.
Thomas is 15 now and is getting that manly look and smell. His upper arms are filling out the arms of his T shirts. His chest is broadening, and his voice has changed. For his freshman year he made the choice not to play any sport as he wants to concentrate on his studies. He knows that his freshman year can make or break him. As he hasn't applied himself the last two years and just glided by, I am proud of his decision, yet wish that he didn't feel it had to be one or the other. He never brings homework home, and seems to be getting everything turned in, I feel that his classes so far are a little too easy for him. I don't want him to get bored and start just sliding by like he did last year and not turning in homework because he would pass the tests anyway whether he did the homework or not. Thomas for the last four years has told us that he wants to be a police officer. No matter what else we have talked about, he has not changed his mind, we have discussed him going into the military whether it be full time or just into the Reserves, he has agreed that he thinks that would be a good idea.
Erica is 13 and is loving 8th grade. She is kind of our blond bubble head though their is nothing blond about her. She is the one who takes care of me when I am sick and makes sure I eat even when I don't want to. Erica helps take care of the boys when I need to sleep in the afternoons due to my fibromyalgia, and keeps them occupied whether it be taking them outside or reading to them....she will also make them dinner and get them ready for bed. Though when they don't listen her patience gets very short. We were talking one night and she has high ambitions for when she gets out of high school, she wanted to go to ITT, then to Concorde to be a RN, and to a cooking school so she could have three jobs, she wants to be a millionaire. With the cooking school diploma, she wants to own her own restaurant. During our conversation she expanded on that with catering, and David could cook for her, I could do her books and help with catering. She wants to name it "Time for the Family". She even had menu ideas. I gave her a notebook to write down all her ideas, and to do things like when she goes out to eat, write down things she liked about the restaurant and things she didn't. When I got home from work the next day, she had the front of the restaurant drawn up with the logo of the name. I told her if that is what she really wanted to go for it.
Dakota will be 7 in December and he has become our handful. Since the first day of school, he has slapped another child, kicked a child in the back, punched a kid 5 times in the forehead, spit at the teacher, the student teacher took the class out to the track and when it was time to line up, he took off running the other way, been in a fight with two kids, and had trouble on the bus. I have been to the principals office, to the bus barn, to the teacher's room, and to Ms. Sheldrake's office (she is at the district office and oversees all the IEP students). Dakota is still behind from going into school late last year as he didn't go in until January. It takes him about three times longer to finish his papers than the other kids. We repeat with him every morning before he gets on the bus that "I will not use my hands or my words to hurt myself or others." I make him repeat it two or three times. I have started volunteering on Thursdays in his class. Now it is a reward though, he has to be good Mon.-Wed. for me to go to school with him. That seems to be working some. He had a little incident on Wednesday, as he wrote on the back of another child's shirt with markers. His mom had promised to come eat lunch with him all week then that morning called and said that she was sorry but she couldn't make it. Anthony handles it pretty well. Dakota is a momma's boy, whether it be her or me, he is a momma's boy. He didn't take it as well, and was mad as soon as he heard. David said he had his hands into fists and was growling. I told David to tell him that if he had a good day that I would eat lunch with him on Thursday.... When I was at school with him it is almost as if he is embarrassed that I am there, but when he looks at me, he smiles and leans on me. He is trying to be a big boy, and not let anyone know he needs his mom. One of the girls at the table asked if I was his mom, and he said yes. She looked at him, and looked at me and then back at him. "you look like your mom," she told him. He didn't even correct her that I wasn't his real mom, but his step mom. He just smiled and stuck an orange in his mouth. The funny part is....he looks just like his dad.
Anthony is 5 and is excited to be in school this year. When he turned 5 in May, he looked at me and said, "Ok, I go to school now." It was hard for him to understand why he had to wait until September when he was already 5. He is learning fast, and rubs it in Dakota's face that he is smarter than Dakota. We have had to stop that a few times. Dakota is street smart.........he can stack things up and climb in or out the window, where Anthony can tell you colors, numbers, and the alphabet, lol. Anthony is getting ready to play basketball this year. He is really good, he will tell you so, just ask him. He can also watch a hip hop video a few times and then do the dance for you without missing a beat. He is amazing to watch. Not to mention cute as heck.
Those are my amazing and wonderful kids in a nutshell. Welcome to my family.