Tournie

Katie had an all-day volleyball tournament in Frederick Saturday.  Jenna and I decided to go along, and it was quite an experience.  The host school was Maryland School for the Deaf, and one of the best teams there was the MSD team.  Wow!  Those girls can really play!

So, we really enjoyed watching the volleyball, but it was also fascinating to experience the deaf culture.  Obviously, the MSD team was hearing impaired, and so were about half of the fans.  The officials were all bilingual. :)  We all know that deafness has got to really be hard for them in some situations, but, at least in this situation, it was terribly handy.  They could easily speak to each other across the gym, with all that volleyball noise.  We saw the ref up on the ladder signing to the people across the court at the score table. 

You might think it would hurt the volleyball team to not be able to talk to each other during a play, but it didn't seem to hurt the MSD team a bit!  They were fantastic, and I never saw them goof because they couldn't communicate.  Between plays, they would communicate tons.  Just wave their hand to get the person's attention and then sign away. 

The concession stand and ticket table, etc were all manned by hearing impaired people, so it felt a bit like being in a foreign country, just a really quiet one.  We did some gestures and pointing and they did some pointing and lip-reading.  Kinda funny to watch the girl ahead of us in line ask for a fork.  :)

From what we could see on Saturday, they seem to have a great school environment.  Katie even said, "I wish I could go to this school!"  Fans and players obviously were having fun the whole day.

It got REALLY long, tho, so Jenna's enjoyment decreased steadily near the end. : ) We left home at 7am and got back at 10pm.  And we didn't even stay for the championship game.

P.S.

This week Micah counted to 118 by 3's.

He also asked me, "What's 99 + 85?"  I was sick of answering math problems for a while, so I didn't say anything right away.  Pretty soon, he said, "184, right?"  Totally shocked me.  I said, "Where'd you learn that?  How'd you know that?"  He couldn't answer any of my questions, so I was thinking it could be he really figured it out.  Later, Chad thought to ask him some more similar questions, and, sure enough!  He figured out most of them.

How he's doing it, I have no idea.

Michelle

Numbers

I think Micah's taking after Daddy.  He's been fascinated with numbers for quite a while now-- sometimes it's pretty funny what things he comes up with.

Just now, he was reading the numbers in the table of contents in one of his large books (has many stories and thus many numbers.

Lately he's been counting by 10's.  Not always starting with 10, tho.  He'll say 21,31,41, 51, 61,71 etc up to at least 101.  Starting with any number.  Maybe 7,17,27,37,47, etc.

He counts by 2's or 5's or 10's the normal way as well.  Yesterday he made it up to 300-something by 5's, I think.  At that point, someone told him to shush because he was bugging them. :)  Life of a younger brother.

Often in the car (and some other places), he'll say, "Mommy, what is 4+4?"  Then when I answer "8", he'll say, "What's 8+8?"  Then when I say "16", he'll say, "What's 16+16?"  And he keeps going until either 1) the numbers are too big so he has trouble repeating them or 2) the numbers are too big so I have trouble keeping them straight in my head while I'm driving or 3) I get sick of it so I end it. 

He's also VERY much into people's ages.  He couldn't tell you names of everyone I think he should know by name, but he can tell you ages of all sorts of people.  And be careful!  If you don't want everyone to know your age, don't tell him!  He's announced to all sorts of people that I'm 39.  Daddy is 39 and will turn 40 on Oct. 7.  Mrs.  Shoemaker is ___.  Grandpa is _____.  Grandma is _______.  Grammy is ____. Papa is _______.  Natalie is _____.  Heidi is ____.  And so on with MANY more.

Maybe funniest is with babies.  At the Wingert reunion the other day, I was holding a 3-week-old 6 pound baby, Chad's cousin Melanie's youngest, and Micah didn't ask her name (that's what the girls would have done at that age, I'm sure).  He said, "How old is that baby?"  (I don't think he even knew/cared if she was a girl or boy)  When I said she was about 3 weeks old, he said, "I know!  She's zero!"

Camping

We went camping in Ohio with Eric and Lea Anne and their kids.  Rained the first evening and thru the night, but, thankfully, no more.  Before this, we had not camped anywhere (other than cabins) with all 6 of us, so this was  a bit of a test.  Well, we learned that we'd prefer a camper :) and we at least need to buy a new, waterproof tent.  Thankfully, Eric and Lea Anne had extra space in their camper!

Caught 2 fish in one of the lakes at the campground

2 beautiful smiles!

Silly boys had tons of fun playing together.

Some of the group went swimming in the sandy bottom lake

This was our campsite as we packed up.

Kids loved a ride in the back of Uncle Eric's truck!

School year 2012-2013 begins

Here we go again!  The first day of school was a little disappointing for me because none of the 3 girls seemed like they wanted to go, but I think that was mostly first-day jitters.  Things are going pretty well.  Hard to believe they are in 9th, 5th, and 3rd. 

words

Cool word game Grandma made for Micah