Julia survived cheer camp.  So did I.

From what I heard from the coach and what I gathered from Julia, she did not participate much on Saturday.  She was content to sit on the side and watch.  I have seen her do that before and if such behavior helps her integrate into a new situation, it is a good way to find herself.  It must have been pretty overwhelming with cheer teams from all over doing all those cheery-type things very loudly.  An unfortunate side note, Julia had her phone with her and she spent a lot of the day texting with girls back in Madison.  On one hand, it was good practice, but on the other, I’ve seen this behavior consume all her attention and make her unavailable to do much else. The next day, Sunday, Julia did participate and she said she had a good time.  I don’t think she performed with her team at the end of the camp but she enjoyed what she did.

I also enjoyed the weekend.  An extreme amount of quiet without kid or street repair noise for almost two full days.  I got together with a friends on Saturday night and gave myself most of Sunday for writing.  It was incredibly and wonderfully indulgent.

Julia has been increasingly anxious recently.  Her speech therapist has noticed it and I saw some on vacation and since we’ve been home.  More than the usual.  On Wednesday, she had a melt down at cheer practice.  This has never happened before. I think at least  part of the reason is Julia’s awareness that she is not ‘getting it’ as quickly as she wants to.  She wants to begin cheering with the team at the beginning of the season, and I doubt that that is possible.  Sometimes I wish that she had not chosen to do something that is so very hard for her to do.  She was upset enough to still be thinking about it the next day and embarrassed to tell her speech therapist.  We’ve had some talks about doing hard things and also using her therapists.  We’ll address the anxiety on all fronts, hopefully getting some results before school begins in a few weeks.

Registration was last week and Julia’s schedule has only one art class for the semester.  I agreed to this in the spring but now, I am fighting for another art class.  I was tired enough of the fight in the spring and of course, I have no idea if giving her another art class is best for her.

Although there was a bit of drama, we had a slow, quiet week between us.  We saw two movies–Mama Mia 2 and Crazy Rich Asians.  Both are complete pieces of fluff, perhaps perfect for steamy and/or wet August.  We saw Mama Mia the afternoon the road crew put down the asphalt on our streets.  The smell drove us out of the house just after noon. By the end of our movie, we could drive down our street and park in our driveway.  Julia saw the trailer for Crazy Rich Asians when we watched Mama Mia.  Two days later she asked to see the movie about “her people.” Well, it had an Asian cast and Julia is Asian.  It was another piece of romantic fluff, extravagant, over the top living in a Singapore that is almost unimaginable.  We both had a good time.

And our internal clocks have finally adjusted!  Early morning road work, generators and scrapers may have hampered our transition but we are in sync with Madison.