Raising Bipolar

Well, I would say we had a productive week over here.

I officially withdrew Rye from school and started homeschooling.  Rye is so much more relaxed now that we are homeschooling it is ridiculous.  Not that he is a different kid but it certainly helps to have the anxiety, overstimulation, and frustration of regular school out of the equation.  Whew…

We also signed him up for a week long sleep away summer camp for the first time ever.  He has never agreed to go before but this one is close and inexpensive and it is a Christian based camp but also has paintball as one of the main activities.  Go figure.  But I’m not complaining because I’m thrilled that he agreed to go and he seems excited to go.

We started the boxing classes and they are great.  The trainer worked one on one with Rye for over an hour and Rye was pooped when they were done.  Boxing is extremely physical between the punches and the footwork.  We will now go two times a week and there was a man there with his 16 year old son who was training as well and they said they’d come the same times during the day when we did so the 2 boys could train together (this other kid has been going for a while but was glad to have another kid there).   This young man was homeschooled as well and his family had driven even further than we did to go to this gym.  And this kid was in really good shape so I think that was encouraging to Rye.   And let me tell you, people think of homeschooled kids as weak and mealy but between Rye and this other kid they looked anything but weak and mealy.  This other kid looked like he could do some damage if he wanted to.

We also signed Rye up to play football in the fall for the public school he was going to (he can still play for them because we are zoned for that school).   They start conditioning in August so we’ll stick with boxing until that conditioning and season start.  Rye is very excited to play football and his friends seem really excited for him to play as well.    The guy told us to have his birth certificate handy because since he is so big he said the commissioner will definitely question if he is the correct age and zoning for the school.

And we had a decent weekend here.  Rye had 2 friends spend the night Friday night then Saturday we had an unfortunate incident where one of the kids caused a logistical headache for me and all of them by bold faced lying to me.  Without going into the details suffice it to say I was mad at the kid (we have known him for many years) and I made that known.  We solved that mess and I then took Rye and the other friend roller skating and had a great time.  I roller skated for one and a half hours while they did the whole middle school social thing with the other middle school kids there.  Then Rye spend Saturday night at a different friend’s house.   Right now he’s at the skate park and will be coming home soon.

And, it is now official.  When Rye is wearing shoes and I am not he is a good inch taller than me (I am 5′8″).  I actually have to look up to him.  I can’t believe it.  He’s 12 years old!  Yesterday he was letting off steam about the lying friend incident and we were standing in the kitchen talking and when I realized his nose was a good inch taller than mine and that I was looking up to him I nearly freaked.  I pointed out to him that he must have grown again and he started crying more and said he didn’t want to be this big.  It was so sad.   We pointed out to him it’s a good thing though and that he will grow into it all and be glad later he is so big.  He just kind of has that Marmaduke thing right now where he is so young but getting really big and it’s like he doesn’t quite yet fit into his body.   But he’ll get there.   At present he wears a men’s size 11.5 shoe.  I wonder what size his feet will be when full grown.

And that’s all I can think of for now.  We go to the Neurologist tomorrow.  I hate doctor visits and so does Rye but alas, they are necessary.  And I’m just really glad to finally have decent insurance.  Things to be grateful for, for sure.

I hope everyone has a nice Sunday.