Taking Note of Note Taking

My plan to have Kai work on his comprehension skills through the short videos on the BrainPop app hit a snag when he stopped watching the movies. With him often losing points because he did not score well on the quizzes given after the movie, he decided that there were other apps he’d rather play with.

And so I restructured the incentive plan. He would only gain points for doing well on the tests given at the end of each video, but would not lose any if he did not do well. However, he would have to try; on weekends, he would not be able to use the iPad for anything else if he did not do the BrainPop first.

While that new plan got him to watch the video of the day, he still did not perform well on the quizzes. Too often he scored around 50%.

I thought it would help him if he took notes while he watched the movie.

I instructed him to write down the things that were most important. I tried to educate him that good note taking was not about writing every fact, but rather taking note of the most relevant items and writing only things that he would not know or remember otherwise.

Kai proceeded to pause the movie every five seconds and write down everything he heard.

The first time he took notes it took him about forty minutes for him to get through a four minute video.

On the positive side, he scored 100%. I think the act of writing everything down got him to pay attention much more than he had been.

Since then I’ve kept harping on him to not write everything down. As he watches the video, I try to coach him on what he should write and what he can let pass.

Usually he doesn’t do as I say.

Though this weekend he got through a video in about a half hour, so that is some progress.

I think one of the most frustrating aspects of being a parent for me is when my son doesn’t follow all of my great advice.

Do you have any suggestions? I’ll be taking notes.

Kai’s Laughter

My son’s laughter is definitely one of his most notable qualities.

From the time he was very young and his personality was just starting to peek through, it was evident that Kai was a very exuberant child. I recall that at his early IEP sessions, we started out the meetings by going around the table with everyone telling what qualities of Kai they particularly enjoyed. Almost everyone mentioned his smile, personality, or laughter.

Yesterday, he and I took advantage of some fresh snow to go sledding once again. And though the conditions were not as icy fast as the week before, we still had plenty of fast runs down the hill.

On one particular run, one of Kai’s snow boots fell off halfway down the hill. Kai thought it was the funniest thing. I was irritated that I had to go back to retrieve it, and told him to make sure he kept them on his feet from now on.

A few runs later, I told him that I would take a video. He said something about losing his shoe. I told him to not to lose it again. Little did I know that he was planning to deliberately kick off his shoes (snow boots) on this run.

You can see the video of it here. (Apologies that you will have to turn your head to the right to see it properly. I haven’t figured out how to shoot video from my Android phone.)



You can hear on the video that I was a little irked that he deliberately lost his shoes, while he thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

After we got home, he could not wait to see the video and then to show Mom.



He ended up watching the video several more times after this, laughing just as hysterically each time.

And you know what? By that time, he had me smiling, too.

Silly kid.

Sweet kid.

Not Being Able to Distinguish A Deliberate Act From an Accident

Kai is doing much better overall when it comes to his anger and aggression.

But it is still not perfect.

About a month ago, Kai visited and helped out at a food bank along with other kids from school. While there, another boy accidentally dropped a can of food on Kai’s foot.

Kai is still mad about it.

We keep telling him that it was an accident. From what the school told us, the boy did not deliberately do it. But Kai has difficulty distinguishing between the two. In his mind, all that matters is that he suffered pain and so that boy is his enemy.

One further complication is that this boy and Kai share a cab to school. We understand that shortly after the “can incident,” Kai raised a ruckus in the cab when this boy sat next to him. Since then, the school has instructed the taxi driver to seat them in separate rows. And all has been calm.

But earlier this week, a new driver came to pick up Kai. We found out later that she either had not been told or had forgot about the seating arrangement.

She went to the boy’s house after picking up Kai and she seated them in the same row. Kai ended up hitting the boy with his backpack and then had trouble calming down even after he arrived at school.

It is frustrating.

1. The other boy did not intend to drop the can.
2. It happened weeks ago. Why can’t he get over it by now?
3. The taxi is a wide van; it is not like they are sitting directly next to each other. There is a space between them.
4. Kai should not react so angrily regardless.

We spoke to Kai about this. The school had already made him apologize to the boy but we had him do so again. He also apologized to the driver for the trouble he caused.

But I don’t think we have seen the last of him getting angry over an unintentional action of another.

In fact, just yesterday, he had another major incident. We didn’t get the details from school, but from Kai said, it sounds like he over-reacted when another student may have accidentally damaged a project Kai was working on during break time.

So, we will need to continue to work on this.

Sledding Failure is a Big Success

This past weekend, Kai and I got in one more time sledding before the warm weather melted all the snow. When we went, there was actually very little snow on the hill – because it had all turned to ice.

Conditions were very fast to say the least. And not only did we fly down the hill, we kept sliding well past the bottom of the hill where it flattened out.

We made several record-setting runs, and then it happened.

We crashed.



As Kai put it, it was an “absolute failure, waa, waa, waa, waa.”

And yet, our failure on the sled was a huge success.

In years past, a crash like this would have terrified Kai and caused him to never want to go sledding again. But this time, he laughed it off and could not wait to make another run.



And when we made it all the way down the hill without crashing, it capped off our most successful sledding outing yet.

Makes me almost wish for more snow so we can go again.

Saying the Darndest Things

Do any of you remember Art Linkletter?

When I was very young, I came home from school every afternoon to find my mother watching Linkletter’s talk show on television. Her favorite segment was when he interviewed young children, who would invariably make some intentionally humorous comment. Linkletter later wrote a book called Kids Say the Darndest Things, which stemmed from these segments.

I think that Linkletter would have gotten a kick out of some of the things Kai has said recently.

* * * * *
When we met with Kai’s teacher at school last month, she told us about how, at the beginning of the school year, Kai “fired” her at least once a day. She thought that they had each adjusted to each other as the firings had become much less frequent these days.

* * * * *
We use a Point Store at home to try to incentivize Kai for certain behaviors. He has a lot of input into the apps, games, or books that are “sold” in the store, while my wife and I set the price, the number of points he has to earn to win the prize.

On a recent occasion, I did not immediately tell him if we would include a certain prize in the Point Store, or how much we would price it at if we did include it. I was not familiar with the app and wanted to research it more before deciding. But as I had to go to work, I did not have time to do that at the moment.

I’ll do it later, I promised Kai.

He responded, “I’ll text you.”

Huh?

I don’t need my nine-year old texting me! Certainly not about some app that he wants.

I told him that I would get to it when I got home. And that satisfied him.

This time, anyway.

* * * * *
We visited a few assisted living places the other day. At the first place, the woman we met with introduced herself to the three of us.

Kai immediately spoke up.

“We’re looking for a place for my dad’s dad to live. Why is this a good place?”

Ha, no pleasantries with this guy. Let’s get right to it.

After we had toured the facility and wrapped up our visit, the woman told Kai to be sure to be “just as tough on the person you meet with at the next place.”

* * * * *
The three of us were playing a Mario Party game on the Wii the other night. Kai was winning while my wife and I were battling to stay out of last place.

My wife was struggling with one of the mini games so Kai started giving her advice on when to press the buttons.

I grumbled that he didn’t have to help Mom.

“But I want to protect my mom!”

My wife thought that was incredibly sweet. I thought so, too. Though, I continued to grumble.

* * * * *
All this from a boy who, at one time, thought might never say more than two words.

Art Linkletter would have loved it!

More Zumba

The Zumba Wii game that Kai got for Christmas has been a great source of entertainment in our house – well, at least for me and Kai.

Kai is now very motivated to do Zumba several times a week. He thinks of it as fun, not as exercise.

A big reason why he loves it so much is because he loves music and dancing. But he is also motivated by anything that has scores and levels. And this Zumba game is perfect in that regard because it rates your performance after every dance. You work your way up to different levels while unlocking prizes along the way.

Of course, Kai would not like it nearly as much if he fared poorly on the ratings. But he is doing very well.

And that is where the entertainment factor comes in for me.

Kai outscores my wife on every single dance. Every. Single. Dance.

Usually it is not even close.

On one dance the other night, he got four stars, which, according to the program, made him a “Rocker,” while on the very same dance, my wife got zero stars. The program deemed her a “Beginner.”

This irritates my wife to no end. And of course the scoring makes no sense as my wife used to be an aerobics instructor and she has plenty of rhythm and good moves.

But I like to play it up.

I tell her that she just needs to practice more. After all, not everyone can be as good a dancer as Kai. And then Kai joins in.

“Don’t worry, Mom. You have to keep trying. Maybe you’ll be as good as me one day.”

Here’s a short clip of he and I doing one routine together.




Not bad, huh?

Honoring His “First Father”

It is a Jewish custom to light a special candle that burns for 24 hours, called a Yahrzeit candle, on the anniversary of the death of a loved one. Yesterday marked the tenth year that my wife has been lighting one for her late husband, Kai’s biological father.

It wasn’t until the past few years that Kai even noticed that my wife did this. Having been in his own world much of the time before, he didn’t seem to notice things like that before.

But over the past couple of years, we have been filling Kai in more and more about his “first father” as he likes to say.

Yesterday, I understand that he prayed with Mom as she lit the candle. And when I got home from work he told me all about it.

When Kai was younger, I wasn’t sure he would be able to comprehend his somewhat complicated family background. That he does, and has such maturity and understanding of what yesterday meant to his mom is quite heartwarming.

Even More Frozen

I woke up this morning and our house was cooler than it usually is. Uh oh.

Sure enough, I discovered that our main furnace was not working.

I called the company that maintained our furnace in the past, and they said that the soonest they could come out was Thursday. Apparently, we were not the only ones with furnace issues.

Well, two more days without heat was not going to cut it. Kai did not mind, though. After all, the iPad still worked!

I called around some more, and found someone to come out today. Our heat is back on.

Even better, it looks like the worst of cold is over for now. Today the temperature got above zero to six degrees. Heat wave!

And best of all, it looks like schools will reopen tomorrow after an extended winter break. My wife is rejoicing at that news.

Hope you all were able to stay warm.

Frozen

We just got the call that my son’s school will be closed tomorrow. Not surprising as many other schools in the area had already announced early closures due to the impending severe deep freeze.

We in the Chicago area are used to cold winters, but the next two days may be the coldest days in Chicago history. The high tomorrow will be well below zero, while Tuesday it may warm and we may break zero.

I don't know if we are ready, but I think "our" dog is.

We also got more snow this weekend so we are buried. Here is a look out at our deck and backyard (taken from the comfort inside the house):

Since it was still balmy this morning, about 16 degrees, we went sledding one more time before being shut in for the next few days.

Kai enjoyed it, though the strong wind made it feel really cold already.

Keep warm, everyone!

Progress Noted on the Sledding Hill

When we go to waterparks, my son insists on wearing his swimming goggles because he is afraid of water being splashed on his face. His anxiety about it causes problems when some parks have policies that forbid the wearing of goggles on their waterslides.

I try to tell Kai that he can close his eyes and it’s no big deal if some water splashes on his face, but a big deal is exactly what it becomes.

No, we did not go to a waterpark this week. But, I thought of his waterpark anxiety the other day on the sledding hill of all places.

It was New Year’s Day, and with a foot of new snow, it was a perfect day to go sledding.

On our first run down, our sled cruised through the fresh powder. Kai and I got sprayed with snow from head to toe. We could barely see. Our faces were freezing.

I prepared for Kai’s eruption.

I tried to make light of the situation, laughing and exclaiming how much snow covered us.

For a second there, I wasn’t sure if Kai was going to lose it or not.

And then he smiled and said, “let’s do it again!”

We made about ten runs down the hill that day, getting sprayed each time. And he loved it!

In fact, he loved it so much he went back the next day with Mom while I was at work, and they did ten more runs.

It’s so nice to start off the new year with this nice little success.

Happy New Year!

A few weeks ago, we all watched the live version of The Sound of Music. Kai enjoyed it and said he wanted to watch the original movie version as well. So, for New Year’s Eve, we had a special movie night: ribs, shrimp, and the Julie Andrews version of The Sound of Music.

Then we donned our party hats, had my wife's delicious sponge cake for dessert, and prepared to watch the ball drop on Times Square.

Happy New Year!

Botanic Garden Wonderland

The three of us took in the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Winter Wonderland exhibit over the weekend.

Kai and I had gone last year and really enjoyed it so we looked forward to showing it to Mom this year.

The Wonderland is several rooms of famous Chicago-area buildings and landmarks all built from natural materials. And passing through it all are tracks with many different types of trains running on them.

Here you see the President’s Chicago home.

Kai enjoyed looking at all of the trains.

But he also wanted to see several other parts of the Botanic Garden as well.

As is now becoming our custom when we visit, we walked through each of the three greenhouses.

And then went outside and walked over to the Japanese Garden. One of Kai’s favorite parts is the zig-zag bridge that, according to legend, keeps evil spirits from getting on the island.

The end of the year is always a time for reflection. For us, it was a year of good progress for Kai, and many fun moments for all of us. And as we look ahead to the new year, we hope that next year will be just as joyful.

Happy new year, everyone! We wish the best for all of you.

Zumba Master

Who knew that my son was a Zumba master?

Kai received a new Wii game for Christmas. It is a Zumba game.

My wife used to be an aerobics instructor so she expected to do well. And so it frustrates her to no end that Kai has scored higher than her every time so far.

I’m not taking sides, but I’ve got to say that my son has great moves.

What do you think?

Snapshots Of Our Christmas

We’re not sure if Kai still believes in Santa. At nine years of age, I think he’s past the point when most kids stop believing. And when my wife told him in the days before Christmas that he needed to be good or Santa would not come, he responded, “well, if you believe in Santa…”

Still, on Christmas Eve he wanted to track Santa on the Google Santa Tracker. And make Christmas cookies for Santa.

And when it was time for bed, it was his idea to put the milk and cookies out for Santa.

He also asked that we not turn on the security system overnight so that Santa would not have any problems getting into our house.

He had a hard time falling asleep that night; he was too excited. And then he woke me up in the middle of the night and asked me to sleep in his room. At 6AM he woke me up again saying that he had been awake for two hours and could not sleep.

When I finally told him that he could get out of bed, he was excited to check his stocking and to see if Santa brought him something.

After that, he was remarkably patient as we had breakfast before opening the presents under the tree.

That was a lot of fun, of course. The excitement of opening presents perhaps made more so with the flurry of activity from the dogs staying with us.

Though one of the dogs took cover under the tree when the frenzy got to be too much.

After the presents were opened, we took a break to walk the dogs.

And then it was time to play with his presents.

He did several experiments with the chemistry set he got.

We played almost every game he got.

And he polished off a Star Wars sticker book in the afternoon.

He did so many things that I wonder what is left for him to do the rest of winter break. I think I’ll go nuts if I hear him moan about being bored in a few days.

But for now, all is good. Hope you had a merry Christmas, too.

Conversing on the Phone

There was a time when Kai would not say anything on the telephone except for whatever short phrase we whispered in his ear. His grandparents would talk to him, and he would not be able to process what they were saying and formulate a response so we’d quietly tell him what he could say back to them. It wasn’t a real conversation with him, but I think they enjoyed hearing his voice.

These days he’s gotten much better at having two-way discussions, both in person and on the phone.

Kai’s swim instructor called us from the local Target the other day. He had apparently asked Kai what he would like for Christmas. Kai told him about Trashies, the little rubbery characters that he is collecting. But as there are hundreds of them, James wanted to know which ones Kai already had.

Well, my wife and I can’t keep up with the names of all the characters that he has. So my wife handed the phone to Kai.

I could hear him explaining which ones he had, and answering questions about whether or not he had a particular set.

What was most remarkable was that I continued to wash dishes and my wife busied herself with the dogs during the whole conversation. We did not feel the need to hover over the phone to help Kai answer the questions.

It certainly wasn’t all that long ago that we never would have believed that Kai would be able to carry on a conversation on the telephone by himself.

Kai’s progress with his speech is certainly a very treasured gift this Christmas.

I’ll leave you with a photo from this weekend where we hit the big hill to go sledding once again.

It will be the coldest Christmas in years here. But it will be warm in our hearts.

Hope you have a merry Christmas, too.

Gingerbread Class

Winter break started and it’s a bit of a challenge to keep Kai busy with productive activities for two weeks. This weekend, we got some assistance from his mentor at school.

One of the nice extra things about our son’s school is that they have a program where an adult mentor will spend time with your child, taking them out for various activities while giving the parents a little break. Kai’s current mentor is his former teacher from second and third grade whom he adored. So it is great that they can continue their relationship.

This weekend, she took him to our local botanic garden for a class in gingerbread cookies.

Now this being a botanic garden, the class was more than just a cooking class. They taught the kids about all of the plants that are used in making gingerbread cookies. Here you see Kai inspecting one of the ingredients.

Of course, they also did make some cookies, too. Here you see Kai decorating:

And then he got to taste ginger in three different forms: pickled ginger, fresh ginger, and ginger ale. He liked ginger ale the best.

From all indications, Kai enjoyed it. And his mentor reported that Kai participated very nicely. And it was nice that he fit in quite well with all the typical kids who were in the class.

And while Kai was the class, my wife went shopping and I wrapped presents.

We’re just about ready for Christmas. Hope you are, too.


Photos courtesy of Kai's mentor

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

A professional theater company in our area was performing Mary Poppins.

We have taken Kai to live theater before, but only to performances specifically for children that were no longer than one hour long. This was a main stage production and would be two and a half hours including a 15-minute intermission. And at main stage prices, I did not want to leave halfway through.

But Kai has been doing very well at movie theaters and other live shows. (For instance, he loved the concert we saw as part of the covered wagon ride and chuckwagon dinner in Wyoming this summer.)

Besides that, we had already seen the Mary Poppins movie so he was familiar with the songs and story. So, this was a great opportunity to see if he could tolerate a long stage show.

We got to the theater early enough to settle in, but hopefully not too early that we would have a long wait before the show started. I started getting anxious when a family with younger kids sat directly behind us and the kids began to sing. Kai got agitated with their singing. My wife explained that the kids would be quiet once the show started, but Kai continued to be upset. Still, he didn’t get too loud. Rather, he put his hat on and tried to cover his ears. Though I breathed a sigh of relief when the lights were dimmed and the show started.

The story was not quite the same as in the movie; for instance, Mary Poppins leaves the Banks family for a while and a mean nanny comes and takes her place. But most of the songs were the same.

My wife had read the Mary Poppins book when she was a child and she enjoyed the show immensely. I thought that the actress who portrayed Mary had a wonderful voice. And there’s nothing like seeing a live performance.

I don’t know that this was Kai’s favorite show, but he behaved beautifully. He paid attention, stayed quiet, and applauded at all the right times. He had no problem with the length of the show other than needing to dash to the restroom after it was over.

We had a nice time, and did not even need a spoonful of sugar to help. And that is just super. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious that is.

Oh Christmas Tree

We went to get our Christmas tree this past weekend.

Before we went, Kai wanted to measure the distance from floor to ceiling in our family room. We had room for an 8-foot tree.

We had been buying trees from a local nursery for several years now. But this year, their selection was limited to Fraser Firs that started at $80, with most close to $100 or more. Ah, let’s go to Home Depot.

The prices there were much more reasonable. We found several Fraser Firs for under $40. Now that’s more like it.

The only problem was that most of the trees were bundled up with string so it was hard to tell what they would look like opened up. But I found one unbundled tree that looked great and suggested we take that one.

Kai asked how tall it was. I estimated that it was about 6 and a half feet tall.

He wanted a taller one.

He looked around and picked out the tallest one they had. It was nearly 8 feet I told him.

But it was bundled up so I wondered if it would look as nice as the other tree. And besides, it was coated with snow and ice.

But, Kai insisted on that one, and I wanted to make him happy, so that’s the one we bought.

When we got it home and unwrapped it, I discovered that there was a big bare spot near the top. And with so much ice on it, it would take hours before we could begin to decorate it.

Well, perfect. That meant that Kai could work on his special homework project.

The project was to create a poster that showed pictures of plants and animals found in the ocean, and to list some interesting facts about that habitat.

This probably isn’t a terribly difficult project for most fourth graders. But Kai has difficulty with multi-step processes so we gave him direction on how he could do the project.

First he did his research, mostly online, but also using a couple books.

Then he selected pictures to print out.

He wrote out his text on separate sheets of paper rather than directly on the poster in case he made mistakes.

Then Mom helped him organize everything, after which he then pasted it all on the posters.

It was the first project of that kind that he had to do. I’m sure there will be many more like this, of increasing difficulty, so it was good to get this one done. I thought he did fine for a first effort.

We went to check on our tree. There was a large pool of water on our family room floor from all the ice that melted off the tree. But the tree itself appeared dry so we decided to go ahead and decorate it.

Kai’s enthusiasm for decorating the tree seems to have diminished over the past couple years. This year I got frustrated when he kept playing on the iPad as I started to put the lights up.

But eventually he helped.

And once the lights and ornaments were on, you could hardly see the bare area anymore.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season!

Progress Seen Through an Elvis Song

Every December, our son’s school has a holiday concert where parents are invited to hear their children sing.

Two years ago, we sat through all the songs but Kai never came out to sing. He had had a meltdown and we found him after the concert with his school therapist, still visibly upset as he sat without a shirt, having tattered the one he had worn to school.

This year, Kai sang several songs along with all the other students at his school. I couldn’t attend, but my wife recorded all the songs with her iPhone. I could see that Kai sang nice and loud.

The school's music teacher is from Chicago’s venerable Old Town School of Folk Music, and Kai has spoken many times about how much he enjoys his music class. Watching the concert, you could see that he was not the only child to feel that way.

The highlight of the concert came when any student who wanted to sing solo was given the opportunity to sing the chorus of Teddy Bear, the song made famous by Elvis Presley. Kai was among the many who raised their hands.



I’m pretty sure that several kids who volunteered to sing solo, including Kai, were receiving speech therapy. So it was quite heartwarming to see them so confidant and wanting to sing in front of an audience.

For us, the contrast from two years ago was stark.

Who knew that Teddy Bear could be so meaningful to us?

A Belated Hanukkah Celebration, and Other Good Things

Our weekend started off with some good news when Kai came home from school Friday afternoon with two certificates from his school. He had been awarded Student of the Week, and received his Safe Month Award for going the entire month of November without a major incident.

The safe months have been few and far between so that was particularly nice. Let’s see if he can put together two in a row for the first time.


We were out of town for Thanksgiving when Hanukkah arrived this year so we had a belated family celebration this weekend.

My wife was busy much of Saturday preparing the brisket, kugel, latkes, and other goodies. Kai and I helped. I fried up some of the latkes and tried to keep up with washing the bowls, pots and pans. Kai helped slice up the mushrooms that were to be sautéed.

Kai was excited, as he usually is when we have family gatherings. But it was nice that he was not overly rambunctious this time.

It was very important to him, thought, that he told everyone the schedule for the evening as soon as they arrived.

He kicked off the evening playing a few songs on the piano. He wanted to get that over with as he was nervous about forgetting his songs if he had to wait until after dinner. He then invited his cousins to play (keyboard and flute).

Next, he helped Mom light the menorah. Yes, we know in reality Hanukkah was over, but we thought it was okay as he really wanted to do it.

Then we had dinner. In the past, Kai would eat quickly and then pester everyone that it was time to open presents. But this year he was surprisingly patient. He still was the first one to finish eating, but he waited nicely while the rest of us continued eating and talking. When all of us had finished our meals, he came over an asked if it was time to open presents. He did not make a fuss when we told him that we wanted to chat a few minutes more.

Of course, he was happy when we finally gave the go-ahead to open presents. But I was pleased that he seemed a bit less frantic and greedy as he did so, and took the time to look at the presents he opened instead of rushing on to rip open the next one.

After that, Kai was on his iPad most of the time playing an app that went with a new game he had gotten. That gave us adults a chance to relax and engage in conversation. For my wife and I, it felt strangely normal, something we were not used to at all.


The next day, we got our first measureable snow of the season. Kai and I took advantage by going sledding.

We have a nice sledding hill nearby, but it has been a few years since we’ve sledded there. The last time we tried, Kai was very scared to go down and it was a traumatic time – for me, at least. Ever since, Kai has always insisted on going to the far smaller hill down the street instead.

But last winter we had told him that it would be the last time we would sled down the baby hill. He was too big for that. So he’s had about nine months to mentally prepare himself to go down the big hill again. But I was still surprised yesterday when he readily agreed without a protest.

It turned out to be perfect conditions for sledding. And I’m not talking about the snow. There was no one else on the hill so we could sled down without worry about running into anyone else.

We went down quite fast, certainly faster than on that old baby hill. It was bumpy but Kai loved it!

We went down several more times, pausing only to catch snowflakes in our mouths.

So, this weekend, we had a boy who wasn’t anxious in a situation that normally makes him so. One who was properly excited but unusually patient in another occasion. And who celebrated a good week and month of school.

All that, and good times with family, too.

Yes, it was a very nice weekend.