Star of the week

Life has been pretty crazy over here lately...I will have to fill you in when things have settled down over here.

I'm posting today a thing I wrote for Steven's star of the week spotlight. Maybe nothing is new, but I thought I'd type it up anyway. Steven said the class really like embarassing stories, but he wanted to make sure I didn't say anything too embarassing. Just thought I'd clarify why I picked the stories I did.

Steven was born in Columbus, Ohio and lived there until he was seven, so he is a Buckeye. He taught himself to read when he was four, and hasn't stopped reading since. He often gets caught up in a book and it is hard to get him to do whatever else he needs to do--like eat or play with a friend who has come over to play. He loves to learn about history and science and then share the facts he learns with us. When he was four he pointed to the sun and said, "Look, Mom, the giant ball of burning gas!" He loves to learn about Yellowstone and is our family expert. He loves to travel and learn about new places. Even as a baby he never complained a bit on a long drive--he would just look out the window and take it all in. On one of our airplane trips to Utah from Ohio, he was three and could see the moon and the planets perfectly out the window. He was fascinated and decided he wanted to be an astronaut. (That dream has since changed, now he wants to be a chemist.) The only thing he didn't like about that trip were the automatic flushing toilets that were all over the airports. They were his biggest fear at the time. As we were walking through the airport, he heard a child crying and he said, "See Mom, there is another kid here who doesn't like the toilets either."

I'm happy to say he got over his toilet fear. A little later, when he was 5 or 6, he was afraid of natural disasters, especially tornadoes. We had an occasional tornado warning when we lived in Ohio and were in the middle of a severe storm that damaged the exterior of our house. He was wide eyed and scared to death when Rob and I wanted to watch the hailstorm instead of hunkering down in the basement like the warnings told us. After that storm, he did some research and told me that he planned to live in Maine when he grew up because he figured that Maine had less natural disaster risk.

Of course, some disasters are personal and it doesn't matter where you live, you can't escape. I haven't asked him, but I bet Steven would rank cancer among his top fears now. I must say, he was so brave through his fight with cancer. His doctor told him he was tough as nails--and he was. He isn't afraid of hospitals or needles or surgery, but he went through lots of pain and fear and was brave through it all. He doing great with his walking and he doesn't let his disability slow him down. We are so proud of him! *****

So that is what I wrote. The kids wanted more embarassing stories, but I had a hard time thinking of them. I thought of one when I got home, that I will share now. The other night I wasn't feeling well and was lying down. Steven came in and told me to just go to bed and not worry about anything. Then he started to do the dishes by himself. He unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it. It was very sweet of him, and although he isn't always so helpful, he is very compassionate. Well, the next morning as we were getting breakfast ready, I started getting dishes out of the cupboard and found that he had unloaded the dishwasher while it was dirty! And we had to start all over again. It was a nice thought, though!