nothing is impossible except for that

 By myself. Charming words for a baby and I mean baby, that kid practically came out talking. 

 And critically scowling…Oh, look Colby, her New Hampshire is showing. 

I can tell you how much fun it is being the mom of a child who is older in soul than you are but when it goes wrong it goes really wrong. 

Like the first run at fractions.

The butterfly in swimming lessons.

The over-hang at the rock gym. 

And on Saturday after a full week preparing for a gymnastics meet, the meet itself on Friday, & then back to the gym at 9am for evaluations, 10 minutes after 12:00 total muscle failure on the walk into cartwheel thing (yeah, whatever it is called not a round-off, not a cartwheel).

“When I heard The Beachster was crying I almost called you.” Group W parent says to me inquiring into what could have possibly gone wrong.  Well, it was too much pressure on all them, it was too many hours in the gym back to back, but nothing was wrong.  It was just Beach.  Yeah, that smiling blond, crazy-durable cat bouncing around out there- she has a dark side.

Things that make Beach cry: losing a good rock, not being able to see where you are pointing, & that damn kid that picks on her all the time- herself.

That is the hyper-focused perfectionist who at 4 years old locked herself in her bedroom crying until she slipped a sheet of paper covered in correctly done fraction problems under the door. The five year old who re-entered the pool to deliver what her mom thought was an apology for freaking out on her swim coaches but was actually just more screaming about inconsistencies in teaching styles. 

The six year old kid who stayed crying on the rock wall 20 minutes past the end of class refusing to leave until she could do the puzzle perfectly.  And the seven year old Beachster who after taking first in the All Around at the Level 3 meet on Friday & 3 hours of intense try outs to make team Saturday morning left the gym crying heading for the grass to work out that damn cartwheel-thing. 

I watched helpless. Our home school doesn’t have an anti-bullying program.  And even if we did it wouldn’t save her from herself.

Okay, I’m not actually too worried about it, she will work it out.  She has great self-esteem it is her expectations that are precariously perched on the high wire.  And why not?  It’s more the rest of us I fear for.

Home school agenda:

1. Finish Second Grade math topics; Review & assessment
2. set reading goals for independent summer reading
3. SPELLING
4. Reading Harry Potter book 7 as a family
5. transition back into early American History: The Pony Express
6. Second grade Science curriculum Bend-In-The-River
7. Gymnastics, Level 4 (9 hrs a week)
8. Girls Scouts
9. Rock Climbing clinic in June
10.  Read through our entire library of children’s picture books 
11. agriculture & the summer farmers' markets 
12. sewing