Back in November, Atticus took a classroom spelling test, along with everyone else in 2nd grade and ended up being in the top 8 of 2nd grade of spellers. This led him to participate in the school spelling bee! They sent home a list of 50 words for the first spelling test, but for the spelling bee, they sent home a list of 450 words! Atticus was great at spelling the entire first half, but the second half were tough. However, we practiced every other day or so doing about 50 words at a time. Then, after basketball practice one night, he and I went to eat at Fazoli's for some one-on-one time and we spent the entire time practicing words. That, by the way, was one of my favorite evenings. I love each of my kids and Atticus really loves undivided attention. He is silly and smart and inquisitive and I just love it so much! And, that night, he not only loved trying out Fazoli's for the first time (it's now one of his favorite restaurants), but he had fun spelling the words and making me spell them. Ah - I love that memory! Anyways, the weekend before the big spelling bee, we worked really hard learning words. My hope was that he would make it a few rounds and just be proud of himself. He can be so hard on himself sometimes. And he would be competing with 3rd and 4th graders as well, so I just wanted him to feel good at the end. It doesn't help that my competitive side (that I do NOT want to force upon my children) was itching to come out because I know how smart he is and I knew he could win this thing! haha!
So, the Tuesday before Christmas break, we had a babysitter set and Vic and I were going to go watch him first thing in the morning for his spelling bee. He woke up and came to our room excited. Then, Grace came in. And threw up. And then she had diarrhea. Not trying to be gross but just keeping it real. And as soon as that happened, I realized I would not be getting to go watch Atticus at his Spelling Bee. My heart was honestly crushed. We had been practicing so much together and I had loved that practice time so much. I just wanted to watch him. But, mom duty calls sometimes. Vic told me to go and he would stay home, but that didn't' really make any sense because he would have to go to work anyways after the event. So, he kept me updated through texts and took pictures and videos. Atticus made it through 4 rounds of the spelling bee, getting out on Round 5 with the word "writhing". We had not practiced that one and the silent W got him. There were 10 kids in that round and only 6 left after it, so Atticus told us he was 7th place. I'll take that! And, he was the LAST 2nd grader standing. His other words were street, abnormal, something else, and perish (and this was one that he kept spelling wrong until the very end of our study times and I was so excited he got it in the bee!). The videos are precious because I am his mom and of course they are precious. Here are a couple of his rounds!
https://youtu.be/unimRawBhRs
https://youtu.be/bhLzn1OvGUY
Also, he was proud of himself and the cutest speller I ever saw! And he already hopes he gets to do it again next year! He wants to go to Houston and then Washington, DC for the bigger spelling bees. Haha!
