Graduation Ceremony

June 13, 2018 by Adam in Ben

Last night we pulled Benny away from their room, despite protestations that they weren't ready, and headed to Charlemagne for 5th grade graduation ceremonies.  They sang, told poems of each other, and shook the principal's hand.  Later they ate pizza and roamed the playground.  Benny and some friends jumped the fence to run around in the big field nearby, yelling at cars and getting up to minor mischief.  Benny's the last of the kids in elementary school, making it 14 years of elementary kids in the house.  At least everyone gets my slightly inappropriate jokes now.

Benny's also going to get braces, the clear ones that don't clash with the MRIs in the study they're a part of.  I was a little skeptical after Emma's brush with an aggressive and unnecessary ortho treatment plan, but dad gives his thumbs up.

As part of their graduation ceremony, Benny was putting together a collage of old photos and I started to get a little teary eyed.  All my kiddos are getting so big.

Changes

May 10, 2018 by Adam in Ben

Joanna took Benny down to the court house yesterday to officially change their name to Ben Yvonne Gustina Bartlett.  The only gotcha was the gender change to "non-binary".  The judge felt the law wasn't clear, though some people in Portland had changed to non-binary - Joanna's working with an advocacy group to help sort things out.  Apparently the DMV will make the gender change and Joanna drove up to Junction City yesterday to made it happen.  There's a whole list of name changes that need to happen, and gender changes where it can happen.

I need to track down everywhere it says "Berry" on this website and make the change.  I think there's one or two left to go.

All-in-all, things have generally been moving along nicely.  Benny's classmates have been supportive of the gender change, giving the gym teacher a hard time when they divide the class up into boys and girls.  I think we'll be celebrating with a cake tonight after dinner.

They Go To Eleven

April 17, 2018 by Adam in Ben

Benny turned eleven.  We saw Ready Player One, they opened lots of presents, and ate pie.