Michael's Run

We walked in Michael's Run this year, a benefit for the Respite Center that Lars attends.

when this whole world starts gettin' me down (click to hear song)

and people are just too much for me to face
I climb right up to the top of the stair
and all my cares just drift right into space

on the roof's the only place I know
where you just have to wish to make it so
let's go up on the roof!!

first day of school 2006

Joa was so excited and relieved that school had finally started. The Sunday evening after it recessed in June, I asked how his summer was going and he said, "Well, I think that's enough summer. I'd like school to start again tomorrow." Now it's three weeks into the year, and although not each day is heaven like it was the first two weeks, he'd still rather be at Sudbury Valley than anywhere else on earth.

bath

I came home pretty late from a meeting & was talking with Andey & Lars in the kitchen. Knowing he was taking a bath, I heard Joa talking in the bathroom & figured Gannon was in there with him. I went in to find him, prune-fingered, with the curtains draped around the bathtub, happily playing alone with a little plastic boat. It was such a sweet little-kid kind of moment, somewhat rare at this crossroads where he's slowly leaving paradise and learning bit by bit about some of the more disappointing aspects of life as a human in our current world. Balance: I'm trying to help him understand that for every awful fact he learns about our current state of affairs, there are billions of people offering each other trillions of loving, kind, generous actions every day.

this may not sound like English to you...

Tough day. Joa accidentally erased his very favorite starter Pokemon, a level 93 Blaziken named "Lars." He sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. There are some things a mom just can't fix or even make the least bit better. Irreplacable.

Joa did decide that he wanted to rename another Pokemon "Lars." We want everyone to know that if you want to rename a Pokemon in Emerald, you can find the "Name Rater" in Slateport City, just up from the Pokemon Fan Club. You can only rename Pokemon that were trained under your trainer ID. If you want to get a Pokemon in a trade from a friend, and want it to have a different name, then ask your friend to rename it before s/he trades with you. It took us something over two hours, reading the entire Prima book on Emerald, and doing many web searches to find this out!

rollerblading & school

Joa fell madly in love with rollerblading this weekend! Was invited to a birthday party at Roller Kingdom & after saying he couldn't go because he was terrible at roller skating & then being reminded he'd never actually tried, he went & loved it. Now he's begging hourly to go back. School starts tomorrow & he and Gannon are so excited they could hardly go to sleep tonight. They baked a cake and wrote "welcome back to SVS" on it & are bringing it to school tomorrow.

stay tuned for Joa's blog

Joa says he wants to start writing a blog about what it's like to be Lars' big brother. Actually what he said was he's going to write about "what it's like to have a 2 year old brother who's blind." So stay tuned!

water boy

visit to Oregon

Joa & Gannon

9/5/06

Joa can't wait for school--Sudbury Valley School--to start! He and Gannon have had a great summer, but they're totally ready to start school and see all their friends again. They've been fairly obsessed with Pokemon this summer & it seems they get louder & more prone to roughhousing every day. The grown ups are definitely ready for them to go back to school!!

Highlights of Joa's summer were a trip to Oregon, a week of inventors' camp, a grand week camping & fishing & canoeing in Vermont, and a week of YMCA camp. Oh yes, and turning 8. Tomorrow I'll ask him if he'd like to add any of his own thoughts here.

Joa & Grandma

Joa & Mama singing

8th birthday party

Joa's birthday party was at the Greendale YMCA pool this year & was great fun. Pokemon cake...

Joa & Alan in NYC

Alan is an old friend of mine from preschool! And high school. Lives in NYC now & we visited last February. Somehow forgot Joa's coat, so he went up the empire state building & all over in my coat.

Joa's a drummer

When Joa was 18 months old and at his second music therapy conference, he toddled up onto stage during the cabaret and sat down at the drum set & began to play. He became known as the drummaster, and has performed at the cabaret many years since then, including this April. He usually asks friend Kimberly to be in his band.

Joa & Lars

Joa's little brother Lars has his own little blogspot called "Little Lars" - http://littlelars.blogspot.com/ They are 5 1/2 years apart, but this summer we bought them matching shorts and Joa's were size 5T, Lars' size 4T. Tonight Lars outgrew a pair of shorts that Joa wore last summer.

Joa!

fishing in Vermont this summer

Tucker & Joa

first fish