The BBM Diet & Exercise Program

To open with, I'll post a picture of the boys. This is Robbie and Aaron in their tuxes, just before their stint as ring-bearers in my friend A's wedding. You can get a good idea of how strong the resemblence is here. (Robbie is the taller one on the left.) I get asked if they're twins an average of twice a week.

Sorry for the long wait between posts. Brochitis has been kicking my butt for the last week and a half. I haven't even been to karate, which is unusual for me. I did try on Friday, but was foiled by Sensei craftily having to work and cancelling class. Just as well I suppose, since I'm still getting coughing fits bad enough to make me hyperventilate. Passing out in class would probably not go over well. On the good side, as Black Belt Mama reports, a good round of bronchitis leads to both weight loss and strong abs. The weight loss is enhanced when you combine a deep chest cough with nausea-inducing medication (I leave the resultant synergy to the reader's imagination.).

Just to add to the fun of this last week, the boys' last day of school was Tuesday. Plus Rob was out of town, so I had two kids wanting Mommy attention, when all Mommy wanted to do was crawl into bed and hack her lungs up in peace. Both boys did well. Robbie made the A/B honor roll (B in Language) for the year. Nobody in the entire third grade made the A honor roll. The grading at Parkwood is really tough. An A is 93% and up, rather than the 90 or 91 I'm used to. That means that on a 10 question test, which would be about half of their tests at this age, even one question wrong means a B. Aaron was S's (Satisfactory, the highest Kindergarten rating) across the board except in Writing Mechanics (how he holds his pencil), and Identifying Information (He can't seem to remember our phone number). I'm not sure about the number, but given that he gets 15-30 minutes of special help daily on how to use his pencil and manipulate things manually (scissors, glue, etc.), it would be shocking, delightful but shocking, if he did manage to get an S.

Keeping our fingers crossed for 1st grade and 4th grade respectively. If we get our teacher request for Aaron, I'm pretty sure he'll have a great year. Robbie is more of a crap shoot, since we don't know any of the fourth grade teachers. Unfortunately, Robbie is actually the fussier child when it comes to teacher matching. A great teacher means a fabulous year (THANK YOU MS. EDDINGS!), whereas a bad match, not even a bad teacher, just a poor match for Robbie, spells universal disaster. A nine-week stint with a new math teacher in 2nd grade nearly had him suspended by the end of it, and the behavior problems weren't just in math class either. We had notes home from music, gym, English, everything, for as long as he had that teacher for math. When the math class rotated, the problems vanished within a week. So heavy finger crossing there.

I'm starting a new sweater from knitty. I just cast on today. I'll post about it sometime later.