A Real Fart Smeller

       This is not a very funny post, I'm mostly catching up on all the things I've forgotten to mention lately; sorry the writing will return to more engaging stuff later.  
       We live in Florida now, in case I forgot to mention it in our two blogs last year.  We PCS'd, bought a house, I learned to fly a new airplane, Brigham started 2nd grade, Mackay started 1st, David is now in preschool and Michelle finally understands those Calgon commercials in the 80's.  Things are good.  We certainly miss being near our family in Utah and Idaho and would trade the beaches in for mountains in a second but really we have little to complain about and much to be grateful for.
       Brigham was baptized last month.  Meemah, Buhpah, Grandma Susie and Cousin Max were all here to experience it.  We have a pretty amazing family all the way from Great Grandma Ruth and Great Grandpa Cal down to the newest member Laura (she and Brady were sealed in the temple today.)
       I want to brag on my boys for a minute.  I don't intend this to be excessive, to put my children above any others, nor do I in any way cover the short coming they they have but this is a blog about them so I think that this is something that needs to be documented.  The Blondies are really smart.  Smarter than me.  Smarter than most. They are very blessed.  I know that all parents say that but I have documentation to prove it.  
       Two years ago Michelle was worried about #1.  His behavior was mostly out of control.  She was exhausted by all the snide remarks of other mothers and public outbursts of the child and so being an elementary educator she thought she might be seeing some signs that testing should be able to identify ways we could tailer our parenting to give him a better chance at life.  So she took him to a doctor and got a referral to a child neuropsychologist, Dr. Adam Schewbach in Ogden Utah.  This processes took many months and then when they conducted the testing it took several more.  Holy moly those tests were thorough.  I mean as the parents we had to take 5 bubble tests ourselves to try and define BGB's behavior and attitude.  It was a lot and really I didn't even want to do it because I'm a big dumb dad and honestly I didn't want someone telling me my kid had ADHD, I mean that's what every child who goes into an office like that walks out with, isn't it?
Well the day of reckoning came.  I went from Hill over to the office in my flight suit no less and Michelle and I sat down with the good doctor.  "Brigham has no problem academically.  He's just really smart, and a little bit oppositionally defiant."  Phew.  Really that was a relief.  The doctor went on to say that when he gave Brigham the IQ tests he scored really high.  I don't remember how high but it was high.  The analogy he gave was this, "If this is a bell curve here to here are your average members of society.  Here on the right are your college graduates and way over here are your doctors and lawyer type." Then he moved the pencil considerably further to the right and said, "And here is where Brigham is."  Thank you Gene and Susan.
     The doctor told us a lot of things about our child we didn't really know until that day.  Most all of it was a huge relief and something to be grateful to our Heavenly Father for.  He did say that the behavior issues came not from ADHD issues but rather from relative development of different parts of the brain.  One part controls intellectual thought and another controls impulses.  Part A is well beyond his 7 years; part B is right on track.  When part A is working overtime part B just says, "sure that sounds like a good idea!" and his mother goes insane.  The doctor did say that we really needed to try and ensure that when we got to Florida we made sure that he was challenged in school.  He said Brigham would need a strong advocate because sometime it is easy for a teacher who is swamped with 25 other students to see the one doing well and pat him on the head as she focuses on those who need her time just to keep up. 
       Fast forward to this year.  We brought the test results to the West Navarre Primary School and requested a review for admission into the FACES program.  I'm not sure what it stands for but it's a kind of Gifted and Talented.  When the district counselor finally got to it she processed it fairly quickly and Brigham was accepted into the program.  And he loves it.  He seems to be genuinely grateful to have this opportunity and it is really a neat thing for the kid to be able to do.
       Calvin Mackay saw this happening and a twinge of envy began to build.  Mind you, Michelle and I very consciously attempt to down play everything above because if for some reason #2 wasn't so fortunate we didn't want this to be a shadow he lived in.  But you could tell Mackay really wanted it.  So we requested the testing for him and it was given some time just after Christmas break.  Two weeks ago we were called into a similar meeting with the district counsellor, his teacher and the FACES instructor.  After introductions the counsellor said, "Mackay's IQ test score for test A was XXXX.  That is just below the cut-off for acceptance into this program per the state of Florida guidelines."  I was kind of really sad.  The worst part was that both Mackay and Brigham were in the room and heard this so I knew that they would understand what had just happened. But she continued, "However, when I saw this I just didn't feel that this test fully reflected Mackay's abilities due to the limitations of the test and the wording of the questions.  So I gave hime a more extensive test B.  This is his new score and as you can see it is well above the requirement."  
       Congratulations Mackay you are officially a real fart smeller.  He is loving everything about being in FACES and mostly I think it is a bit of validation to him that he is equal partners with his big brother.  
       Now like I said, and I mean this, I'm not telling this story to brag.  Certainly many of the six of you who read this will have smarter children than mine are.  They are not exceptional but rather very blessed with exceptional tools in this life.  In the Malcolm Gladwell book Outliers he discusses this issue.  Mr. Gladwell notes that high IQ's alone do not equate to success in either life or academics.  He uses the example of Christopher Langan who had some 40 point on Einstein himself and yet was a miserable failure by comparable metrics.  He argues that what is required to be successful in life, meaning leadership, wealth, academic achievement, social advancement etc., is not a supremely high intellect but just a fairly high one.  I think the relief in knowing the blessing given to our boys is not that they are better than anyone else but just that I know they have the tools to be successful.  Or to put it another way that I didn't handicap them too much before we even started.  
       I don't remember much from blessing these three blonde boys. But I do remember the feeling I had at Brigham's that this child was special to the Lord and he had great things to do.  My Mom told me she was very lucky to have me (I assume she said that because she is required by law as my mother) and equally so, I am lucky to be these boys' dad.  Kind of like John the Baptist's father, Zechariah, I am humbled and excited to be their parent because I know that they will do some things amazing.  
       Like I said in the first post on this blog, "because this is so cool, we wanted to share it with everyone we know."  I suppose this is a part of who they are.  I am thankful for these kids and I am grateful to be their father.  I couldn't imagine not being in their lives every single day because this is going to be a ride for the ages.  Beijos.

-dAddie.