Margot 11th: Hitting The Waves

Sink or swim, the girl loves water. Whether is swimming on a swim team for the first time, or playing in the waves at the beach. Margot loves a good body of water. That said, she got jipped when it came swimming at to camp. Now! First, she loves going away for two weeks for camp. I think she would stay longer if we let her. When we arrived to camp that pickup day, instead gushing about all the things she got to do, she lead with “We didn’t go swimming at all for two weeks!” Now hit the rewind button to May of 2023, and me pointing out to Margot that she didn’t rank “free swim” in her top 6 choices for activities at camp. According to her, no one in her cabin wanted to go swimming for two weeks. I told her she needs to fight more for what she wants. Lesson learned for summer 2024.

Margot finished off her 4th grade year, with a teacher adored like crazy, and friends she enjoys seeing almost every day. One thing she was looking forward to when she got into 5th grade, was going away for Science Camp. Summer arrived and she and her two siblings spent half of the summer on the summer league swim team. As we rounded out the summer, she was probably the most anxious of the three to get back to school and see her friends. You would think, she never got to see them during the summer. For 5th grade, we requested the twins to be placed together in the same class. The plan always with the twins was to have them in separate classes all of preschool and elementary school. This way they were able to develop their own identities. Well COVID threw a wrench in that plan. First started out great! Two awesome teachers, and bam! COVID hits and the whole world gets almost 13 months of the home schooling!

We returned to campus late in Second grade, willing to brave the COVID world. We were blessed with a teacher who braved online teaching while being pregnant and the twins survived the online environment with the teacher till the last three months of school. As they returned to the campus, their teacher went into labor and the twins we setup with a substitute for the remainder of the school year I won’t go down the road about weird substitute, who would eventually gave the twins and their classmates, not so glowing report cards. Lets just say he always looked at me sideways when I would come volunteer at school or the classroom.

Sorry, I digress, back on topic. Second grade the twins were together, because two online classrooms was too much. We opted to put them together in the same class for 2nd. Then came third grade, and with the OMNICRON, or whatever it was called, we didn’t want to gamble by going back into quarantine, with two classes to deal with. They were placed together for 3rd as well. Thankfully, 4th grade was looking like life was back to normal for elementary school. They would be separated one last time. Now, you would think we would keep them separated in 5th. Initially, the plan was for 5th to be the one last year they had a class together. Then other factors come into play. Teachers!

I would love to pick my kids teachers, but as we know, all you can do is ask, you never know what you are going to get. Our hope was for the twins to get their sisters 5th grade teacher, and we even made the request to keep them together for that year. Why that one teacher. Paley loved that teacher and she truly was prepared her for Middle School at the end of 5th grade. Which is the biggest task in 5th grade. As some rounded out, I already knew the teacher we wanted was moving to another grade, and I don’t blame her wanting a change. The teacher to replace her was a gift, and even better the twins got her. We were beyond ecstatic and the twins as well, since they’ve known her for years, and just not lucky enough to get her. Who am I kidding, they literally had almost all of the same teachers as their older sister.

Margot kicked off 5th grade on a high note, and it all started with the track! At first she wasn’t a fan of running laps in the morning. She could be seen doing laps, or walks around the track with her friends. As the fall progressed, we started to see her, push herself to do more laps. I think one of the motivations was to condition for her soccer team. This being her third season of rec soccer, she was thankfully placed with two close friends. One from a previous soccer team and one from school. A first for both Margot and Lochlan. Due to where we live, we often end up on sports teams with no friends on their team. Weird, I know!

Margot blossomed into 5th grade, she adapted to the middle school prep pretty well in the Fall. She was excited to see the corner house blossom during her 10th year. At 11, she proclaimed she was ready to move back home before the rest of the family. I think she was ready for a fresh start. The first xmas without Mimi was rough for the whole family, but got through it together. Back in fourth grade Margot decided she wanted to start learning to play the guitar and for her 11th birthday, she was blessed with a pretty cool guitar. She’s begun lessons with Paley’s older teacher and she has made an amazing progress. She started writing her first song and is already exploring the second song. It September all of the cousins got together for a weekend at the Scottish Games, and Margot was beaming the whole weekend. For the twins 11th Birthday, we hosted a small luncheon with close family. Then came Halloween and the twins adventure on their own with friends, without parents. Thankfully we were invited by some awesome families to hangout close by to the trick-or-treating to curb our own anxieties. The kids did great and were beaming for a good week, getting to be on their own.

Looking ahead to 11, Margot really is passionate about building on her music interests. We knew this was coming with at least one of the kids, considering our egg donors family was musically talented. She has also found her love of the spoken word, like her sister. From writing lyrics to even writing stories. She is the free spirit of the bunch, wanting to see something new every time. In her blood, I think she’s more of a Sagittarius than I am. She loves family most of all. She’s had a great time spending with all her cousins. Most notably her cousin’s Ashley’s wedding shower and wedding held shortly after her 11th birthday. She loves celebrations, no matter the occasion. Whether its her gentle smile or evil smile, she does light you up inside. Looking to 11, I expect Margot is going to hit middle school like it’s a race and I am excited to see her enjoy her second season of summer league swimming.