Last week, Christopher graduated to Bear Scout from Wolf Scout. We worked hard to finish up all of his final achievements. Sometimes the achievements seem like "busy work" (will Christopher really benefit from writing down his hygiene habits for 2 weeks, including each time he washes his hands? Really?) but others were kind of neat. Some of the achievements are requirements for conversations between parents and child. A lot of those conversations are good ones to have, or framed in slightly different ways than I might have done them otherwise. Overall, it's been a beneficial thing in his life, even if it adds to the "busyness" of life. Greg was in DC for the end of year banquet You'll see that all the other boys had their dads there to support them, except for one other little boy whose dad is running for Mayor and had to be on the public television show "Running" that night.Grandma and Papa came to support him in dad's absence, which I think helped soften the fact that dad couldn't be there.

Because I had written on a survey that I had experience with singing and drama, I was put in charge of helping with the boys' skits and songs. I had fear and trepidation, but it was actually a really neat thing to see them put into practice some of the things I had taught them (don't break character! Speak loudly and clearly! Make sure to turn your body towards the audience rather than speaking with your back to the audience!). These might seem like small accomplishments, but when you're dealing with 8 8-year olds, I'll take it. They did great. And Christopher felt quite proud to have tied with one other boy for accomplishing the most achievements. Good work, kid!