Most everyone knows that December was a tough month in our house, and that had nothing to do with the water from the faucet! January seemed to be going better until right near the end.

We’ll start with the good parts. Ashley continues to make great strides with her piano, and she is the proud owner of a glow in the dark, blue and pink swirled retainer. Kayla wanted me to post about her special project at school. This will take some space…

After Kayla’s friend Alex died, a memorial fund was started at the school where people could donate funds to be used for anything special for students. We thought a lot about it, and decided that we did not want to just put money in a fund. We wanted to do something that tied into the strong friendship that Kayla and Alex shared, and would highlight something that meant a lot to both kids. They were both super fans of the “How to Train Your Dragon” book series by Cressida Cowell, so much so that they spoke the fictional Dragonese language from the books to each other all of the time. So what we decided to do was buy the entire 10 book set and donate it to the library at school in his name, with a promise to add the last two books when they are published. We contacted the school about it, and all we hoped was to get some help allowing Kayla to deliver them, rather than dump them in the main office.

I had contacted Alex’s mom just to let her know, and pretty soon I found out that the school was planning a special area of the library to display the books as part of the permanent collection, and they wanted Kayla to work with Alex’s little sister Emma (grade 5) to design and build this display. They also wanted the girls to come up with a contest to build up the hype a little, so Emma suggested a Lego building contest (Alex LOVED Legos!). The memorial fund is sponsoring nice prizes, and the girls (mostly Emma) designed a flyer. What this has meant for Kayla is that she has been pulled out of study hall several days during the past few weeks to work with Emma, the librarian, and meet with the superintendent! The girls have put special stickers in all 10 books, designed the display, made the flyers, hung up posters, and coordinated the plan. Kayla also wrote a silly sentence in Dragonese, and we wrote one word in each of the 10 books. Any student who reads all 10 books in order can translate the sentence, which says something very Alex-like in nature.

The nice part of this project (and why we are so grateful to Kristina for suggesting it and inviting Kayla to be part of it) is that Kayla is channeling her grief into something positive. She is really excited to be doing something special for him.

Now to the end of the month. Two days ago, a substitute teacher with an outdated roster kept calling Alex’s name in class, asking kids if they knew if he was sick or something. Not a single kid could answer, and Kayla was in that class. It rattled her some. Yesterday, the school had a special assembly on bullying. The speaker told the story of his son dying following relentless bullying at school. Kayla became so upset that we got a call from her end of day teacher just to let us know that she would need some TLC when she got home.

And then how does she turn it around? This morning, Kayla asked me to contact Emma’s mom. Emma was supposed to see the same assembly today, but the kids were told not to tell other kids about it. Kayla was worried that if the assembly upset her that much, it would upset Emma even more. I sent the e-mail, and I will be able to reassure Kayla that Emma did not attend the assembly today.

I know – long post! We are looking forward to a better February! I will try to get some more pictures and videos going!

Ashley has no braces and much shorter hair too- here are some pix as proof!