Kid ramble

So, exactly as expected, once Mark got home last night he went directly upstairs and plugged in to the Internet on his laptop, and has pretty much spent every waking moment there since (well, except for our Friday night TV "date" of Ghost Whisperer/Close to Home/Numb3rs) He did sleep in this morning (desperately needed, the poor kid has got to be exhausted, although he claims he's fine). But after he made a brief appearance for breakfast, he disappeared back up to his room. I hear Weird Al videos going up there. Right now it's Amish Paradise. He's having a lot of fun.

I hooked him up with a kid account on Hotmail, that I can monitor. He's emailed his friend Luka, who is currently living in South Africa, but is actually flying back to Maine today for Christmas break. This is Luka's second move to South Africa. The boys have been friends since kindergarten, although it started to get a little rocky last year. Luka started getting to be a bit of a bully, and he directed a bunch at Mark. *I* think a lot of it has to do with how well Mark gets along with other people, and it threatened Luka, who always wanted to be the leader. But anyway, Luka's coming home for a week or so, and I guess there's a party at Luka's dad's on Friday (Luka's mom moved to SA, his dad stayed here). I hope I'll have a chance to see Tet while she's here, she's great and I miss her, although we aren't super close.

Kira was doing a "workout" this morning. She dragged out my exercise mat, a couple of light hand weights and a toning band and was getting all into it. I love how she's got such a great focus on being healthy, she and Mark both really have remarkable interest in making good eating choices and staying active. Yesterday after practice we stayed a little while and shot some hoops [note to self: next time, sneakers would be a better choice for footwear than sandals], and Kira was right there with us. She even made a basket (with the hoop at full height, no less). I'm looking forward to getting her into the Y program for basketball next year. And this spring she wants to move up from T-ball to regular baseball. Maybe I'll even get ambitious this fall and let her do soccer, since there won't be *as* much running around for me with Mark on the school soccer team. It's such a challenge to get two different kids to two different practices (or worse, games) at pretty much the same time. The worst part is trying to decide whose game to watch.

Kira's going to the movies this afternoon with Angel (the little girl who just lost her mom). Angel's moving to Florida the day after Christmas, and she's trying to get individual playdates in with all of her friends before she leaves. Tuesday is her last Brownie meeting with us (and as an added wrench for poor Patti, I have to leave early because that's the day of the basketball championship).

Well, I think I'm gonna go check out making some chicken salad for lunch so it'll have a chance to chill. Although we have enough leftover Sonora Chicken Pasta to feed us for days, so it would probably make more sense to just make up some garlic bread and have our big meal at noon today (since Kira won't be here for dinner). hmmm. I'll go poll the kids. Later. mk