This week was the induction into Cub Scouts ceremony. In it Kiernan got his Bobcat badge and David promised to support him. This was also the day of the chariot races.

It started well, with Kiernan excited to go to the meeting and Megan doubly so. Unfortunately Megan was hyper beyond belief (unbeknownst to the rest of us she was on her way to becoming a very sick little girl).

While we were focusing all our attention on her and on keeping her from being disruptive something rough happened with Kiernan.

We are still not entirely sure what but it was some kind of trouble with his best friend that ended in all of us leaving about 1/3rd of the way through the program. 

I so wish things had gone smoothly. For one we all worked on that chariot; David cut and drilled some wood for support and I looked up all sorts of knots to make the pullers have an easier time and Kiernan, of course spent more time that he wanted to doing decoration.

It sounded like the crux of the matter was that Kiernan and Alex had something at school that bled into Scouts, and that the pivotal moment happened when Alex told a wiggly Kiernan to hold still and pay attention. Kiernan said he was paying attention and Alex said that he wasn't being respectful of the Packleader.

Kiernan was feeling fairly excited and practically reverent about scouting after the Bobcat ceremony so he took the disrespectful thing very very hard.

I looked over from Megan just in time to see his face crumple and just before he began to wail.

Ug

We have to just keep trying at these things. I think the more he faces situations that break him down the more chance for success he can have. Its a double edged sword though. It would be so easy for him to just get fed up with the emotional turmoil that this Cub Scouting seems to engender for him.

I was really hoping that this would be a fun part of his life but right now its fun half the time and (optimistically) character building the rest of the time.

He has spent more time publicly crying with this group than I had ever imagined he would.

I am feeling discouraged.

I want him to like it and I want it to be good for him but I am just not sure of its value right now.

On the other hand I am tired so maybe I just need to give it time.

This week my main robot of 8-9 years got torn apart. Apparently the salvage group thought that unscrewing it to dismantle it would take too long so they just cut it up. 

When you unscrew it then it takes about 8 hours to completely disassemble.

They took 3 days and trashed the lab and now everything smells like burning plastic and cut metal.

We spent a long time cleaning up after them.

While I was pushing a mop back to the janitors closet one of the R&D guys asked me if I wanted a new job.

I said yes.

So now my dark loud  lab looks clean and bright and I have  a new job with R&D.

I am going to make everything so clear and easy to do that they will never miss me in production.

I am nervous. 

When I got offered a management position (for the 3rd time in 5 years) and declined it earlier this year, I kicked myself.

I honestly think I would be a bad manager. I get too stressed to easily and that sucks for everyone. I have worked under managers like that.

I don't want to be that person.

It makes work really unpleasant and hard.

On the other hand there is no way to move up in my current position except to go into management.

I regretted the refusal almost immediately because it made me feel like I was spinning my wheels.

I am now far old enough to be doing my career thing (whatever that may be) and Production Associate no matter how senior feels like a job you get straight out of college.

I am really hoping that going back to R&D after all these years will be the right decision.

I am not sure if I can do the work so I am of course afraid of screwing something up. 

But

It is time for me to try to do more.

I will start in January.

It is cold now and rainy and the daylight savings time means that I see sunshine during my lunch walks but drive home in this.

I so miss the feeling of having time in the evening that sunlight affords.

My cold is mostly better and I have my voice back but both kids had bad rounds of sickness this week.

Kiernan had a slight cough then a fever then 32+ hours of not being able to keep anything down.

He recovered by Sunday.

On a small but very gratifying side note. It was parent teacher conferences this week and he is doing very well in school. He is at or above grade level for reading and math and his teacher said the kindest thing about him.

She said that he is such a caring boy and that he is such a good critical thinker. She said that he asks questions that really help the class think about things in a new way and she said that he brings something to the class that fundamentally changes its character for the better (I am paraphrasing).

I am very proud to hear it.

Megan had 4 hours of barfing and then the kind of congestion that makes for seal coughs and snot explosions with every sneeze.

She has had a fever for the last 3 days and I have been "sleeping" with her to keep an eye on her during the night. She is responding really well to Advil for her fever but she is not eating so I am worried about it tearing up her stomach.

She is not recovered at all and clung to me crying this morning when I left for work.

Kiernan missed his Den meeting because he was sick, so we did some instructive handbook stuff at home.

We worked on the chapter My Family's Duty to God.

I need to get him back to church. He has such strange holes in his religious world view.

It is for sure something we are going to work on more.

We made a craft house (above) to represent our families beliefs. I am still not sure what he thought the house represented. It started out "God believes in houses" and ended up "We believe in God and we have a house".

hehe 

On Saturday the neighbors had a mini moon-bounce in their front yard. Pax and Kiernan were very interested.

One of them was not allowed out to investigate it and the other turned shy upon inspection and retreated home without giving it a go despite a kind invitation from the whole household.

We went to Play it Again Sports and got some used ice skates for Kiernan.

I went to the Indian store and got tons of easy to make Indian food to help everyone's sinus'.

David made pancakes and stayed near Megs while I took Kiernan to Scearce's to deliver a computer and then to the ice skating he so desperately desired.

It is going to take some time to get used to the hockey skates but he was very happy to be out trying them.

He wanted some one on one time.

I wanted some get out and move time.

We talked about football and monsters and skating and pizza.

It was a good thing to do for sure.