One Chase left behind

As he typically might report around state testing time, Chase came bounding in the house enthusiastically today and told me 'Mom, I got third place on the state reading test! ...Oh, yeah, and Archer got first!"

Usually second or third is the best he gets because of his twin who has tended to take the world by storm his whole life. I am more impressed about Chase's good nature about the situation, though, which he doesn't usually even get credit for. People have plainly stated 'I want my son to be just like Archer, etc.' I think Archer tends to give off a certain image, and for some reason people usually assume that he is also the better natured child, too. Kind of unfair, but such is the situation of differential genetic endowment.

Chase on steroids at 10

It's just Prednisone, actually, and everything sounds scary with the list of side effects you can have and that they have to report. But it is only for five days, to clear the runny nose he has had for the last few years. I finally went back to his doc and said listen, it is not ok for a kid to have a runny nose his whole life. The biggest concern to me was that he was starting to pronounce things like he had a cold and I wondered if it would stick, since this age is a critical period for that stuff.

It seems to be working like a dream, and that is great, because I was seriously feeling bad for him. No kid should have to be stuffy all the time. It is good that some problems can actually be solved. Wish some of mine could. In fact it has been my pessimism that caused me to not force things earlier.

Almost chess season

The beginning of the year brings for our family the coming of chess tourneys.

Another thing we do, just not extremely well. Drake has a few limitations, even though his 2nd and 3rd places in the state tournaments the last few years are nothing to sneeze at. He has quickly discovered that the kids that are 'into' chess enough to win consistently are not his ideal role models for various reasons. I think his dad went through that around the time he quit competative chess.

Sadie of course has the obvious fact of being a girl, that for whatever reason is the most limiting. But she did really well this year in her first torney when she was only five. I was actually worried that she wouldn't even stick with it the whole day and finish all of her games, but she was a trouper. They even gave her a sportsmanship trophy, which she is very proud of.

The cutest thing was her brothers helping her out and showing her the ropes, which I have pictured to the left. Precious.

Also to the right is Sadie accepting her trophy. If you look closely on one of her leg is her cast, which she had received a few weeks prior during our ski trip. Another story...