A study in Contrasts.

So the boys are more like this

The daughter however seems to be more like this.

Recently the son has been (un)fortunate enough to have a friend with a DS to spare.  He is fully into gaming.  Whether it is on the DS, online with this computer, or using the play station at home he is fully integrated.  Now being entirely susceptible to the draw of gaming myself I have great sympathy.  However, as a parent I still have to ask the question, where do I draw the line between an entertainment and over use?  I have never managed to draw the line for myself.  This is a problem.

The daughter was running with all of her classmates in the yearly grade wide distance run.  We went out and practiced for this a few times.  During the practices there was lots of walking and she really played up the fact that she wasn't very good.  Then she finishes 12th out of 38.  Which was an improvement on the 19th she had managed during PE class.  Her results were great, but beyond that there was how she managed herself leading up to and during the event.   A few times she tried to get all worked up about doing something where people would be watching.  I talked her down a few times but I don't think her heart was ever really in it. Best of all, in the end everything went fine.  It is amazing how far she has come since arriving in May.  I know she still feels like everyone is watching her all the time because she is different but she is handling it way better.  I am very proud of how far she has come and how hard she has worked.  

On a different note we are looking forward to Christmas here.  The fathers group has scheduled a Kite Making with your dad session.  Christmas morning 9:00 to 12:00.  I was going to skip it out of principle but I figured that was foolish so we will be at the school making Kites on Christmas morning.  When in Japan, eh.  Of course this means we will be able to take part in kite flying competition in early January.  Kind of a New Year's thing.