Rock Star

Mealtime is always, always a push to get Bethany to eat more. It is not that she is picky. All the food groups are equally unattractive to her. She is obsessed, however, with candy (and to a lesser degree snacks in general). So there’s added pressure to establish a healthy diet. When it comes to snacks, they can be healthy snacks, even meal-like, and she’ll still eat them without fuss. But, serve the same presented as a meal…and it’s no dice.

I expect that if we just broke all her meals up into an endless series of snack times, she would eat it all.

Bouncy In Our Backyard (Andrew's Birthday)/Helping to Deflate

Bethany remains in the lowest percentile for weight to height (see meal issue above). This small size suggests gymnastics as a good activity for her to do well.

She’s just finished another series in her weekly gymnastics classes. They are in big barn of a metal building, very conveniently down the road from us. She still appears motivated to learn, but would do better if she paid more attention to her coach and less to all of the other kids, doing other activities in the gym.

She is very interested in perfecting a cartwheel–and getting much better–but has a way to go. Cartwheel is such a joyous skill to have. If I were a few years younger…

She also works on her handstand. Not as much progress there yet.

The focus for now shifts to cheer class. She’s taking that though city Parks and Recreation programs. Thought that would give her confidence in public performance.

She likes it and maybe will identify more with being a cheerleader at this age, than at being a gymnast. Unfortunately the coach doesn’t want the parents in the room, so progress is difficult to monitor.

She does enjoy being in control and “on stage”. A lot of her roll playing with Andrew and friends involves making commands, such as to a pretend dog or pretend students. It is the same “bossy” behavior that gets her in trouble in school – and home.

When Bethany took a hip-hop class last year, she often would stand next to the instructor, facing the other kids, mimicking the instructor as she demonstrated the steps.

She seems fascinated with the whole “rock star” persona. When she sees a picture or video clip, she’ll ask, “Is that a rock star?”

The first rock star she heard about, from her friends at daycare, was Hannah Montana. She is still the only one that Bethany and Andrew know by name. Anytime they hear her name mentioned, they get excited.

At the museum, a Civil War piece with the kids (in a previous life).

Bethany likes to grab a pretend microphone (or her toy guitar), and play rock star – but then, who doesn’t…Born to Be W i i i l l d d.

She has always wanted to help with whatever we are working on; Andrew is not much at helping. He expresses an interest, and then gives up quickly. He’s still not at all good with “clean up, clean up” – despite Barney’s encouragement.

We haven’t put much effort into making it a requirement for them, but when on occasion we assign them a task, Bethany will jump right in, but Andrew will only make a half-hearted try before stopping altogether.