Winning!

With each contest, Ben and I have tried to prepare Mia if she loses, which we always tell her there is a good chance, because there are so many people who enter. Mia struggles with defeat. She hates losing. At home, it is very difficult to play a game with her because she is so competitive and always wants to win.

There's lots of tears and a lot of frustration from everyone.

We went to Xander and Mia's Science Fair last night and Mia scored 2nd place again! I kept telling myself that it would be good if Mia didn't win again. Other kids should have the opportunity and Mia could learn how to deal with not winning.

But when the moment came, in my heart I was cheering her on and hoping she would win. I think that as a parent, we should be cheering our children on and not hoping that they will lose so they can become humble and learn how to deal with defeat. There will be plenty of opportunities in life to do that.

I've decided that I am past the part where I prepare Mia for a loss. I'm just going to enjoy in this girl's achievements and when a loss comes, then we will help Mia deal with it.

And then there is Xander.

Mr. Shy boy.

Each student has to present their project to the judges and explain what they did. Since Xander can be super shy at times, I thought he was going to bomb the presentation.

I was volunteering in the class when he left to go present his science project. When he came back he looked calm and happy. I asked him how it went and he said very cool, "Good."

And that was that.

So each grade level came up on the stage when it was time to present the awards. When Xander gets shy, he makes these weird faces where he sticks his tongue out on the side and then he hunches over like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

That's what he did when they called his name for "Honorable Mention".

If his expressions had words, they would say things like, "What? Did you call my name?" , "I have no idea what you are talking about." , and "I'm so clueless as to what is happening this very moment."

Both Mia and Xander owe their Dad lots of hugs for doing both projects with them. I told Ben that it was his job to do the Science projects because, #1 he is better when it comes to science and #2 I did the Reflections contest with them #3 he is better.

It was a ton of work and Ben was a champ helping both the kids. They love doing projects with their Dad. One thing we have learned, having two kids doing the same projects is definitely double duty. I told Ben to just wait until we have 3 kids in elementary!

It was worth it though seeing our kid's get excited about their accomplishments!