Officially a Boyscout!Last week was an insanely busy week. Jon and I both had a ton of school work and tests to study for, along with all the extra Halloween activities, piano lesson, parent-teacher conference, and regular family stuff we were both definitely feeling stretched pretty thin. By Wednesday night I was less than excited about taking the whole family to the Cub Scout Pack meeting. Jon typically takes the boys without us girls because it's still difficult for either of our girls to sit quietly for long. The exceptions are special events or when the boys receive an award. Since this was the first meeting they'd had since the summer break, and Shule turned eleven in July, he was receiving his Arrow of Light, along with a bunch of other pins. I was excited for Shule but I was dreading having to take the girls. Surprisingly it turned out to be one of the highlights of the week for me.
The girls were as crazy as I thought they'd be and I spent most of the time in the hall letting Sophie walk around, which I didn't mind because I was a teensy bit embarrassed. The new scout leader, Brother Lilly, had a great presentation going on with the scouts pretending to go on a safari. I had a feeling we were in trouble when he asked if anyone knew what a "safari" was and Shule's hand shot up and Shule began to answer using his lecture voice that "Safari is a Swahili word meaning long journey, it usually consists of..." If any of you have been fortunate enough to hear Shule's lecture voice then you know that once he starts talking about a topic he's interested in it's difficult to get him to stop. So after giving the very long answer, poor Brother Lilly had a hard time remembering what he'd even asked in the first place. That was OK, Bro. Lilly recovered quickly and got the boys engaged in the Jungle Book story of Mowgli and the law of the pack. After that he made the unfortunate mistake of asking some cute riddles. Aside from animals and Pokemon, Shule's favorite things are jokes/riddles, he's probably read almost every kids riddle/joke book and remembers almost every one he's read. Shule stole the punch line of every joke that Bro. Lilly told. Bro. Lilly totally rolled with it but it was so embarrassing for me, I tried nudging and whispering to Shule to stop but he just didn't get it. He got in one of his super silly moods when he's just thriving on being the clown and seems almost unable to stop. He was still trying to be funny when they started passing out badges and pins and that's when I had to take the girls out so I'm not sure how Jon managed to get him to be more calm and respectful. But by the end, when they started the Arrow of Light ceremony Shule was totally sober and all seriousness.
The ceremony was really cool. Brother Lilly did a great job. They turned out the lights and had a recording of native drums playing. They lit 3 candles (white, yellow, and blue) that symbolized different aspects of scouting and put corresponding colors of paint on his face while reading the meanings of each color. Then they presented Shule with an awesome arrow and had him step over a little step ladder and shake hands with his new Boy Scout leader. I know that he was paying attention and really internalizing what they were talking about because he brought it up a few nights later just before bed and wanted to talk about feeling like he was growing up and becoming more responsible. Thanks to Brother Lilly for making it such a special experience for Shule!
The girls were as crazy as I thought they'd be and I spent most of the time in the hall letting Sophie walk around, which I didn't mind because I was a teensy bit embarrassed. The new scout leader, Brother Lilly, had a great presentation going on with the scouts pretending to go on a safari. I had a feeling we were in trouble when he asked if anyone knew what a "safari" was and Shule's hand shot up and Shule began to answer using his lecture voice that "Safari is a Swahili word meaning long journey, it usually consists of..." If any of you have been fortunate enough to hear Shule's lecture voice then you know that once he starts talking about a topic he's interested in it's difficult to get him to stop. So after giving the very long answer, poor Brother Lilly had a hard time remembering what he'd even asked in the first place. That was OK, Bro. Lilly recovered quickly and got the boys engaged in the Jungle Book story of Mowgli and the law of the pack. After that he made the unfortunate mistake of asking some cute riddles. Aside from animals and Pokemon, Shule's favorite things are jokes/riddles, he's probably read almost every kids riddle/joke book and remembers almost every one he's read. Shule stole the punch line of every joke that Bro. Lilly told. Bro. Lilly totally rolled with it but it was so embarrassing for me, I tried nudging and whispering to Shule to stop but he just didn't get it. He got in one of his super silly moods when he's just thriving on being the clown and seems almost unable to stop. He was still trying to be funny when they started passing out badges and pins and that's when I had to take the girls out so I'm not sure how Jon managed to get him to be more calm and respectful. But by the end, when they started the Arrow of Light ceremony Shule was totally sober and all seriousness.
The ceremony was really cool. Brother Lilly did a great job. They turned out the lights and had a recording of native drums playing. They lit 3 candles (white, yellow, and blue) that symbolized different aspects of scouting and put corresponding colors of paint on his face while reading the meanings of each color. Then they presented Shule with an awesome arrow and had him step over a little step ladder and shake hands with his new Boy Scout leader. I know that he was paying attention and really internalizing what they were talking about because he brought it up a few nights later just before bed and wanted to talk about feeling like he was growing up and becoming more responsible. Thanks to Brother Lilly for making it such a special experience for Shule!
Shule's new scout leader, Bro. Web, Shule with his new arrow(notice the huge smile hiding under the hat, he was very pleased with the arrow), and Bro. Lilly.
After all of that silliness, he refused to even smile a little bit for the picture-what a stinker! I never know how much to blame on the Asperger's or just his natural stubbornness.
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