Holds Amy with one arm while working with the other. There may be groping. No textspeak.

No textspeak.

Srsly.

So Emmett turned 13 yesterday.

Wednesday is a transition day for our schedule, so JZ, Matilda and I drove over in the evening and had dinner with Emmett and EM.

We ate at the brewpub Pyramid Ale House, and he was in a very cheery mood and Matilda wanted to sit next to birthday boy and alternated hugs between him and EM. He pigged out on appetizers and was too full to eat his tri-tip sandwich, which wasn't an issue since we just took it home with us.

After dinner we went back to EM's house to put candles in a fancy fruit tart (which Emmett wanted instead of cake) and open presents. He'd already gotten a new baseball glove from me, and he got two big new Lego sets (Star Wars, limited editions), JZ gave him a card which showed she had pre--ordered both HIMYM S4 and Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Dog Days for him (both out within the next few weeks). But his favorite present was a beautiful, small pocket knife from his mom with a mother of pearl inlaid handle.

When he was little she'd passed on her father's pen knife to him and he'd lost it. So this was a lovely present.

I have to say, Emmett's having a much better year than last fall. His teachers and course schedule are much better, his grades are up (A, A+, A-, B among the ones published so far), he tested into the highest math class, and the Krav Maga class has been a big hit with him. It gives him a physical focus in the baseball off-season that he enjoys.

::knocks wood::

So far so good. So much of parenting is trial and error. Two years ago we pushed Emmett into wrestling, which he enjoyed but got burned out on. We had to learn to get him to buy into activities; we couldn't just sign him up for stuff like we did when he was little. But last year he got depressed in the fall when he had nothing to do. So Krav two times a week is exactly right for him. A really good work out, something he enjoys and useful life skills.

Score one for not making the same mistakes repeatedly.

Aims, if your sister hadn't spelled out before the test that she would automatically fail any test that used text speak, then I'm somewhat, make that highly, affronted on the student's behalf. You shouldn't get negative credit for something like that unless the teacher has been explicit about it ahead of time.

Aw, that was great. But ... NO MORE TEXTSPEAK.

I am at home, eating lunch, having a door installed. Loki is seriously spooked. He's trying to figure out how to get in the kitchen cabinets to hide.

Hope this won't take too long.

My sister has had a problem with textspeak in her middle school math classes.

I've had that problem in the past but nipped it in the bud pretty quickly. I tell them that if they use textspeak or if I can't read their handwriting, it gets marked wrong. Simple. Haven't had the problem since I started telling them that.

Maybe she should have told them ahead of time, but man, the idea of answering a question on a quiz or test with textspeak? Absurd.

And what happened to just leaving blank the questions you don't get?

Emmett is 13! That's bananas. I am so freaking old -- I know this because I am more or less the same age I was when he was Darth Tigger.

Aims, if your sister hadn't spelled out before the test that she would automatically fail any test that used text speak, then I'm somewhat, make that highly, affronted on the student's behalf. You shouldn't get negative credit for something like that unless the teacher has been explicit about it ahead of time.

What Plei Said.