Belatedly 18 and the end of school

Things have been a bit chaotic recently and despite meaning to sit down and write something, life has been in the way. But I have some time and so it’s worthy of spending a couple of those minutes putting a marker in the ground.

Thomas has turned 18. Not only that, he’s finished school as well. Thomas turning 18 filled me with a little more trepidation than his brothers, probably because he was so obviously keen for the event and the fact that it marked his entry into adulthood. And legal access to alcohol. Given the proximity of that event to the commencement of his final school exams. The planning for the 18^th party kicked of pretty early and certainly seemed to be attracting more attention than some of the school work.

The party went off without a hitch, a good time was had and no police were called and Thomas even remembers it. Mission accomplished.

Thomas had come along way in the last two years. It seems that since moving schools at the start of Year 10 he’s really come into his own and found himself and has a great group of friends. He’s continued with his refereeing and this year was named in the talent development squad which was a nice piece of recognition. At lease being able to drive himself to games has meant that our taxi duties have been significantly reduced. It’s put some good cash in his pocket, but also really helped him to mature as he deals with all the different personalities one encounters during a football season. You know that he’s embraced the role when he tells you how many red cards he’s issued not to mention coaches that he has ejected from games!

The passion for computer games remains while the juggling and card tricks have taken a back seat. There were times when I lamented the fact that I never seemed to be able to bust him studying no matter what surprise tactics I employed, but he assures me that the study really did happen and we just have to hope now that the evidence is borne out when the results come through.

Rather than doing schoolies he’s heading off to a rented shack with a group of friends from school and then eagerly awaiting his first Temby new years event where he will be legally allowed to partake of the grog without fear of repercussions from the parentals. We’ll have to see if he manages to make it to midnight or whether misplaced enthusiasm does him in early. Hopefully it will be the former.

So as we sit and wait for the results and Uni offers we look forward to Christmas, the New Year and a celebratory trip to Japan to indulge in some skiing. We’re extremely proud of Thomas and the young man that he’s becoming and wish him the very best for the next stage beyond school.

Fifteen

Every time I sit down to write one of these things, the temptation is to start with "it's hard to believe that this kid is this old." Probably because it's true.

Emily has today turned fifteen. It's a scary proposition to have your youngest entering the back end of high school. I've been conscious along the journey with the kids so far of not wishing life away. It's wonderful to celebrate the milestones as they get older and sometimes it's truly joyous to see them in the rear vision mirror. The temptation is of course to look forward and want to knock the next one off the list. As the youngest goes through her paces though I find myself wishing this less and less, because every time that she achieves one, it's the last time for Caroline and I as parents (Because there's no way I'm going back to start again!) I'm sure before too long we'll be watching them all start to move out of home and wondering what we used to do with our lives.

To Emily though. Emily has had a good time over the last 12 months.

She has done extremely well at school and it's always nice when she takes pride in her achievements. She may groan about the fact that she got stuck in the top maths class, but I think she is secretly (and justifiably) proud of the achievement.

I can't say that I know exactly what Emily might be looking at doing beyond school, but given she's in year ten she's far from an orphan in that regard. It's the first time that they've had elective subjects though I don't know that they gave any particular insight into where she might end up. She's talking about following in Michael and Sam's footsteps in terms of tackling IB in her last two years, so we'll have to see how that pans out and influences her future decisions. With so many options these days, I wonder if anyone get's it right straight out of the gate off high school.

One thing that has happened recently is that Emily has joined the choir. She's always sung around the house and enjoyed her music, but any suggestion of joining a choir or doing anything signing wise with the school to date has been met with a certain level of scorn (she's exceptional at that - you won't die wondering what Emily thinks on a topic!)  But this year apparently one of her teachers has suggested that she do so and she's actually joined. I'm looking forward to whatever opportunity eventually presents itself to hear her perform. It's certainly influenced some of the things she's been caught singing around the house compared to her usual fare.

Sports wise she has indulged in tennis, table tennis, netball and softball, making finals in both softball and tennis. The Softball fell short of the ultimate goal, but the tennis team plays in their grand final this coming weekend, so hopefully she gets that sweet taste of victory.

Emily remains enamoured with her fan fiction, continuing to both read it excessively and write her own which if anything makes buying a book for her a challenging prospect. I'll never complain that she's reading though.

All in all, Emily is developing into an intelligent, beautiful, strong-willed woman and I look forward to see the mark that she makes upon the world. I'm grateful that she's lucky enough to be entering into it at a time when we're making more and more progress towards equity so that she can hopefully achieve all that she dreams of.

Happy Birthday Em.

Fourteen

Today Emily turns fourteen (well when I started this a couple of weeks ago it was today). The obvious place to start is 'Holy crap I can't believe my little girl is turning fourteen!' So there, that's that bit of it out of the way. 

Last year Emily, because she was being driven to school by Sam, embarked on what seemed like a quest to get involved in as many sporting and other extra curricular activities as she could. It was partly a case of 'if I'm going to be at school early/late then I may as well be doing something' but I think there was also an aspect of just enjoying getting to do a myriad of different things.

This year there was a fair bit of debate over the summer about just which activities she was going take on. Fortunately it seems to have been pared back somewhat from the initial list. Summer saw her join the Sturt Softball club which has given us something to do on a Saturday afternoon. She's done reasonably well, though seems to have a penchant for pulling up a bit lame. It's always a tough call as a parent when you can't really tell exactly how much pain is involved. Is it a 'toughen up princess' moment, or one where there's actually a genuine injury concern. I bit my tongue on the toughen up line and she managed to get through the season. The team ended up winning their grand final, so that was a great start to her club softball career. Now there's talk of club netball which will prove interesting at a time when we're finally seeing the back of multiple school sport commitments on a Saturday morning. 

Emily has maintained an interest in anime and it was never so apparent as when we were traipsing around Japan. It was almost a concern as to how much she knew about the characters that were on display in the large number of shops selling anime memorabilia. Combine that with her love of fan-fiction and she's pretty self-sufficient when it comes to entertainment, even if it means that she spends a significant amount of time on the couch.

Emily is certainly never short of an opinion and isn't shy about letting you know what it is. At least we can be sure that when she wants to be heard she isn't about to back away from letting people know what's going on, especially when it comes to what she likes to eat. That particular list isn't quite as long (or healthy) as we might like, but at least we can be sure that when she doesn't like something we're not going to die wondering. 

We're very proud of the young woman that Emily is becoming, even if with her being the last of the kids, we might be a little happier if it took her a little longer to get there. I think Emily lives in hope of another growth spurt, even if it's just enough to reach a height that exceeds her mother. We're looking forward to another year of celebrating achievements with her and watching her grow (and just maybe, providing a bit of well-timed guidance here and there).

Eighteen

Its that time of year when things tend toward the chaotic (which is why I am now finishing this several weeks after I started writing it). That's never more the case than when one of the kids is graduating. Add an eighteenth birthday into the mix and well chaos is very much the state of things. 

So Sam has turned 18. With final exams looming it was something of a quiet affair with just the family. Sam hasn't decided that its worth starting drinking at this point in his life, so much so that several days after his birthday he said, "Do you know that no-one offered me a drink on my birthday?" I in return asked whether he would have had one. His response was, "No, I just thought it was interesting." I had sent him off to buy champagne for the sole purpose of making him have to show his ID once on his birthday just as an acknowledgment that there was some right of passage.

It was only a week or so after his birthday that we were at school for his graduation assembly. Being the second time around for us after Michael went through it two years ago, we knew that we were in for something of an emotional ride. That proved to be very true as we swelled with pride and saw Sam's achievements celebrated along with those of his cohort. Having engaged in a plethora of sporting activities (if for no other reason than to avoid wearing formal uniform almost every day), he was recognised for service to a couple of sports and showed off his well-balanced approach to life with a couple of academic awards for topping subjects as well. The icing on the cake was when he was presented with one of the 6 mercy awards for his year. Not a bad effort at all and thoroughly deserved. 

Following on from that we went through the last of the current formalities - Graduation Ball. In a  reflection of Sam's life philosophy - (live it in shorts) the pants that came with the suit we bought him officially became the only pair of pants he owns that extend past the knee. When asked if he was excited about the ball, the response was pretty much a shrug of the shoulders and "Maybe, it shouldn't be too bad." I honestly think that Caroline, Michael and I who all went along to the event were significantly more excited about it than he was. When it came to a close at half eleven, Sam went off home with a friend as he had to get ready for 'schoolies' the next day. Caroline, Michael and I opted to party on. And to be honest, I was floored when I found out that Sam was actually going to schoolies. I was pleased that he was, but completely surprised. I half expect to hear when he returns that he spent two days camping and playing Pokemon. Somehow I think that there's a fair chance that he'll be the only one of the boys that goes through that little ritual of life without having a single alcoholic drink. I seem to remember Sam mentioning that he may have had a drink of orange juice, just to mix things up at some point.

So what is there to say about our Sam in this belated celebratory note to his eighteenth birthday? he is independent, responsible, honest and reliable. He is quite possibly the best of all aspects of us, his parents. His achievements are many and varied and he is an absolute delight to have as part of the family. One day there will be a girl that will awaken him to the other half of the species and if she's lucky enough to snare him, he will be a good catch indeed.

Exams are over and we now get to endure the wait to see how ell he's gone. Hopefully the reward matches the effort and dedication that went into his year. 

Not one to sit idly around, Sam's been busy since finishing school. He's assembled presents for teachers, from baked goods to compressed air powered marshmallow guns and has now set about the task of cleaning out our shed because somewhere along the way in the last couple of years Sam has become a clean freak. It's not a bad thing, not unless you're looking for that bill you were going to pay a couple of weeks ago and find that its already been slipped away somewhere safe so its no 'littering the counter'.

We're looking forward to seeing what comes next for Sam and in the meantime I thought I'd just bestow a couple of titles upon him for fun as a reflection of interests and achievements:

Master of Origami

Washer of dishes

Assembler of computers

Baker of cakes

Fixer of phones

Pokenut

Wearer of shorts

Declutterer extraordinaire

Happy 18th Birthday Sam and congratulations on the completion of school. You'll go far and you'll do well. Have fun along the way.

Sixteen

Sixteen. 

As with so many kid-based milestones, its hard to believe that Thomas has just turned 16. Yet another one on the road. The prankster has his learner's permit. What could there possibly be to be scared about? Maybe the fact that he's the only one of the three boys that has expressed overtly keen interest in driving the Porsche?

Thomas has had a big year these last 12 months. For a start he changed schools. In the process of looking at what measures we might have to take back when I was unemployed, schooling was one of the things that we thought might have to be sacrificed, what with it being one of our significant expenses. In considering what we might do if it came to such drastic measures Caroline unearthed the Australian Science and Maths School at Flinders University. We explored the place and Thomas decided that it presented and exciting and interesting opportunity for him. If nothing else, it presented him with the chance to escape French! So at the start of the year, after getting through the application process he embarked on his new challenge. Its been good for him. He's enjoyed it and so far, he's doing very well there. 

Thomas is the family clown, always quick with a joke and looking for the funny in life. There are times when it feels like he needs to be reminded that there is a serious side to life, but at the same time, why quash that spirit. There'll be plenty of time for serious as he goes through life and hanging onto the fun is important.

He's picked up a couple of hobbies that haven't been too hard to spot over the last 12 months. Juggling, Rubik's cubes and card tricks being the main focus. Where possible, he likes to combine the three, though that's mostly been confined to juggling the rubik's cubes and attempting to solve them whilst doing so. He hasn't mastered it to the point of being able to juggle and solve three completely mixed cubes at once, but the fact that he can even manage to rotate a targeted face of even one cube whilst juggling far exceeds any talent I ever nurtured in the area. Threats have been made of course, because the process of learning to juggle often results in the objects being juggled clattering across the floor. Less of a problem for the wannabe juggler than the other occupants of the room. The juggling seems to have gone by the wayside for now, with cards having taken more of a central role in Thomas' hobbies lately. Its generally a quieter learning process, though at times no less annoying as we're forced to sit through endless riffling of cards. It could, of course, be far worse.

Thomas picked up club soccer again this year, playing U16s for Adelaide University. It wasn't the greatest season, but he improved noticeably through the season and gave us plenty of moments in which to be proud parents. At this point he's decided to focus on refereeing next year rather than playing. Through the course of this year he generally assisted at premier league reserves and U18 games and enjoyed the experience almost as much as the money that it put in his pocket. I think he's keen to back that up next year and increase the funds coming in by being available two days a weekend instead of one. I'm sure its also driving his desire to get through the license process so that he can reach the point where he is able to get to games off his own back rather having to rely on being transported by semi-reliable family members (we only forgot him a couple of times, honest!)

I've really enjoyed Thomas' growth over the last 12 months (though perhaps not the literal growth that has relegated me to the shortest male in the house) and appreciate the fact that of everyone, he seems to enjoy my terrible humour the most.  I know he was expecting me to put something terrible on facebook on his birthday, but hey knowing he was anticipating it was enough fun without having to really embarrass him. I've written this instead. 

And I didn't even mention the girlfriend ;)

Happy 16th Birthday Thomas.