Doctor, Doctor, Doctor...

Well, I think Shaling is starting to think that our family doctor (Dr. Western) is a close member of the family. She's been in America five weeks and today was her third time visiting him. Add in that she's been to the dentist and the eye doctor as well and she must be thinking it's no wonder the cost of medical care in America is so high; all we ever do is go to the doctor. The bad news is that her ear infection is back. We are on our second round of (stronger) antibiotics. If this doesn't clear up the infection permanently, we will have to see an ear, nose & throat doctor and perhaps get some tubes.

Before I got the email from her teacher that her ear was looking pretty yucky, I had called a local candy maker and ordered chocolate covered strawberries. I picked them up on the way to the doctor and Shaling & I partook of them while waiting. She loves them.

I get her school announcements in a daily email. There was a note in there about the local community college having a cheerleading camp. I asked her teacher to send home a flyer about it so I could learn more. It is this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon and then the participants will perform during half-time of the college women's basketball game (approximately 1:45) that afternoon. All participants get a t-shirt. I showed her the flyer, which had the picture of a cheerleader on it, and asked her if she wanted to do it. She started mimicking cheerleader moves, swinging her arms as if she were holding poms and jumping. She nodded and told me yes. This will be a new one for Mom.

I get to brag on Preston a little bit. For those of you who are Facebook friends with me, this will be redundant. Preston qualified to participate in the school-wide spelling bee (two kids from each class were selected, based on their performance in their classroom spelling bees). There are 8 fifth grade classrooms, so 16 kids were in the school-wide spelling bee. Preston came in fifth (or tied for fourth if you take into consideration that the next person eliminated was eliminated during the same round as Preston). The top two kids are in the regional spelling bee next week, so he finished just 3 out of getting to do that. Spelling doesn't come naturally for Preston. He has to work at it; so we are so very proud of him. He correctly spelled pester, pioneer, system and fiesta. He missed apricot.

Preston also had a mini-concert Tuesday night at the University of Illinois-Springfield. He is in the Sangamon Valley Youth Symphony Concert Orchestra. His orchestra was asked to perform as part of the kick-off to a week-long celebration of reading. He plays the drums. There are only two percussionists in the orchestra and his responsibility is the tympani. Back in August when this began, he had taken drum lessons for two years, but had never been part of an ensemble. He'd never counted rests, seen repeats or codas, or had to follow a director's tempo. Most of the other kids in the orchestra are in 7th & 8th grade, so he also is behind socially and in maturity. He has come a long way, baby. As we watched him perform with confidence last night, keeping his eyes on the director and playing with style, Brock & I both beamed with pride. Shaling got a kick out of it too.