For a week that will end in Burns night, a quote from the Bard of Scotland seems appropriate.
Let me start by saying how grateful I am that my sons now sleep through the night. I’ve realized in the last few weeks that I’ve stopped hearing them while I’m sleeping, instead of the hyper-alertness of the mother of an infant. Mmmmm sleep. (Pity my husband, who still does hear them.)
Anyway, last night my husband vaulted out of bed. In my groggy state, I couldn’t believe that morning was already here… it seemed like I’d just fallen asleep! I heard him getting Thane ready for school and wrapped my blanket more tightly around my ears, wishing he’d closed the door (like he normally does, considerate guy). (By the way, in case you ever think more highly of me than I deserve, let me assure you I’m the biggest, laziest morning-slug you’ve ever met.) Then my husband called for me.
Ugh. Really? I looked at my watch. 12:20.
Hm.
As I blinked the sleep from my eyes, I found a child covered in vomit and a husband struggling with child, bedding, etc. UGH. I’d like to take a moment to think of Grey, who may not have been potty trained by three but who got himself to the toilet/trash can to throw up nearly 100% of the time. Thane, sadly, is not so trained. Thane threw up another three times last night, every hour, just as we both fell back into deep sleep. So instead of my long list of stuff to do, I’m downstairs with a little boy who is quietly watching a personal all-day Scooby marathon. (I wonder if we have enough Scooby DVDs to watch all day long. I bet we do.)
I’m just hoping he’s well enough to go back to school tomorrow. On the one hand, I am annoyed that my precious time off is spent needing to provide childcare. On the other hand, so much more convenient when I don’t have to attempt to work or anything. On the third hand, my husband is also working from home today, and the kid has been quiet and well behaved so far. And of course finally, I love that little ScoobyDude of mine.
I think as a parent you often hope that your children will end up loving the things you loved. Mostly. I have always loved comics – newspaper, Sunday-morning-type comics. My favorite, along with everyone else is my generation, was Calvin and Hobbes. Before I went to college, I had amassed the complete collection of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. They’ve spent most of the intervening decades near my bed as safe bedtime reading to wash the taste of hard days from my mouth.
This harmless location takes on an entirely new aspect when your own unkempt-haired six year old boy learns to read. Sure enough, when I dared sneak one of the books next to my bed, it was found in short order by my young son. With trepidation, I warned Grey that Calvin didn’t always make good choices and if I caught him pulling some of Calvin’s stunts, or acting as rude as Calvin could, I would be disappointed. Then I let him at it.
He loves them. Loves. They are scattered throughout the house. They are far and away Grey’s favorite reading material. He sits on the heat vents and reads them after school. He reads them while he eats. He lounges on the couch and reads them during his brother’s nap time. His mis-readings are pretty hysterical. For example, the word “heinie” is not in his vocabulary. “Mom, what is a ‘hee-nigh?'”
He has also started sneakily reading after bedtime. He’s never been able to relinquish his nightlight, so his room is quite bright. Many’s the evening lately I sneak in to give him his goodnight kiss and find him facedown on “The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes”. As long as he seems reasonably rested, I’m not going to bust him on it – and it’s making bedtimes much easier since instead of trying to lure us to stay longer he wants us gone so he can read.
I was afraid of the bad influence of Calvin on Grey, but instead Calvin is teaching Grey about a style of imaginative play that’s gone out of style lately. Grey built a tiger trap (tuna fish sandwich). Grey recently constructed his own transmogrifier, and has turned himself into various creatures. Grey made an adventure flip book similar to Calvin’s detailing tiger-food but less gory. Following Calvin’s lead, he’s flipped it over in order to do time travel. He’s begging to experiment whether cereal actually tastes better when hunted and stalked around a corner. He’s requested stuffed monkey heads for dinner, and telling him that food will turn him into a mutant is an effective way of getting him to eat. I suspect that if we get any snow, he’s going to want to imitate Calvin’s phenomenal snow-creations.
For all Calvin’s parents exhaustion, and his own complaining, Calvin had some pretty fun times in his 11 years of first grade. I hope that Grey enjoys himself with some of Calvin’s more enjoyable ideas. And so far we seem to have avoided the less salubrious elements of Calvin’s childhood!
Having told you about the person Grey is at six, I thought I’d enlighten you on Thane at three. First, the physical. Thane is 39 1/2 inches tall (3 feet and 3.5 inches) and 35 pounds. By my admittedly unprofessional analysis, that makes him 95th percentile for height and about 75th percentile for weight. He has glorious golden curls, which are currently way too long and have gotten California-surfer-boy unkempt. The angelic aspect of his curls and features is much moderated by the fact his face is never, ever clean. It takes about 20 seconds between washing his face and having it somehow, miraculously get dirty. Thane is a sturdy child. Currently one of Thane and Grey’s favorite games involves Grey wearing a blanket and making ominous “boo” noises while chasing Thane around the house. Oh! The thumping and squealing! Thane is actually a bit stronger than you really want in a just-turned-three-year-old
Thane subsists on a diet of entirely protein. He loves, cheese, meat, bacon, butter and yogurt. He disdains not only vegetables, but most carbohydrates too, making me wonder if he really is my son. He magnanimously makes exceptions for processed sugar, of course. In fairness, he also like applesauce and bananas. You probably don’t care about how food emerges from the other end, but I’m happy to report that Thane is 80% potty trained. He goes whole days dry (including naps!). He’s finally crossed the wonderous #2 bridge. If my memory serves, he’s way ahead of where his brother was. I think it is plausible that I will never buy another diaper for my children. (Nighttime pullups being an entirely different category, of course.) Thane making a frog
You intellectually know, before you have children, that they are different from each other. This is very different from actually having children who are different from each other. I think this makes it harder for me to notice, or believe, some things that are true about Thane. One of the key attributes of Thane is his sequential obsessions. They started, I think, with cars. Following cars were stickers. Then we went to dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were replaced by puzzles (my favorite – he spent long periods quiet and was a puzzle-savant doing 60 piece puzzles at two and a half years old). Puzzles promptly fell out of favor, to be replaced by Scooby Doo. I sense Scooby Doo is waning, but have no idea what will replace it – awkward timing what with the birthday and Christmas buying spree forthcoming. It’s also awkward because other people pay attention to what he likes (oh, he loves puzzles!) and get them for him. Of course, he’s moved on. I have no idea what to recommend for Christmas.
One of the things everyone comments on about Thane is his verbal ability. Thane speaks clearly, with complicated sentences and wide vocabulary. What people do not understand about this is that Thane is so verbal because he practices. All. The. Time. And he doesn’t practice listening, he practices talking. In fact, his listening is so questionable, that I even had his hearing checked. (It was fine.) It is really fun to listen to him talk, or tell a story.
Thane loves books. One of his favorites is Anansi the Spider. He also adores these awful Scooby Doo books which he checks out of the library every single Library & Pizza night and insist that that’s what I must read to him. Since my rule is that I read whatever Thane wants on library pizza night, I’ve had ample opportunity to work on my Shaggy voice.
My littlest boy likes to sing, and talks a lot about music. He has a pretty nice voice for a preschooler. He also likes “playing piano”. He often demands songs he knows doesn’t exist, “Sing the Anansi song!” But at night he always asks for “Star of the County Down”. He has a good memory, and knows all the words to lots of songs. He also remembers all the words to prayers. Listening to his rendition of the Lord’s Prayer is very sweet.
There are so many things that make a Thane. He still loves his Puppy (who is a bunny rabbit). He loves his pink Dora sunglasses. He tries to shape reality with his words, “I AM seven years old!” or “It IS Monday!” He snuggles with us every morning at exactly 6:45. He wants to do whatever his brother is doing. He contains multitudes of words. He is a joy and a delight.
A minor cold has settled on my household. My husband thinks he has allergies, but I think he has incremental sniffling. My youngest son sports varsuvial flows of snot in the charming manner of 2 year olds. I’m congested and sneezy and sniffly. And my eldest son has a bit of a cough. Welcome cold season!
So I, of course, sent everyone in for everyone’s activities today because we do not stop living our life when we have colds or the world economy would come to a screeching halt. I was sitting on traffic in my morning commute, yuppee cup of Starbucks in hand, when the Bluetooth car stereo rang and displayed the name of the school nurse. This is how you know you live in the 21st century. The school nurse said Grey had a cough and was too sick to be at school.
I took the next exit and went, in the driving rain, to pick up my son. Any time I have to go to his school, the rain miraculously drives. It’s thematic.
I pick up my sick kid. I found him in the nurses’ office, looking fine, proactively eating his lunch. He’s an innovator like that. The nurse confided that some kids had gotten pneumonia lately. (Pneumonia is a secondary infection, folks. It’s not generally contagious. Sending him home will not prevent pneumonia.)
Ah, modern parenting. I still dialed in to my conference call (9 to noon). I’m probably getting as much or more done here at home with my son.
Childcare is the weirdest commercial purchase. It’s a huge cost. At the height, it easily dwarfed our mortgage payments to put two kids in a medium-cost center that doesn’t even provide a hot lunch. And these childcare facilities can basically refuse to provide the service you’ve purchased at any time. Today, for example. He has a cold, but I still needed to pick him up and provide the childcare myself, even though I did not and do not believe he’s very sick. (And if you’re wondering, we do pay for Kindergarten at our public school.) You know you can’t possibly pay someone enough to take care of your child, and when you map it out by hour it seems ridiculously low, but it’s still your biggest single line item. Then there are the holidays off you don’t get, the in-service days, the snow days, the half-days and your complete lack of options on the topic.
Ah well. I’m getting my work done – being lucky enough to work in the sort of job where I can. I am getting to spend some quality time with my neat kid. And his cough has completely disappeared after the first hour… as I knew it would. And TGIF.
My firstborn son went to his first day of his first year of school. I have been anticipating this day for, oh, about 6+ years now. There’s trepidation and excitement: will he love school like I did? Have I taught him the right amount of the right things? Did I do everything I was supposed to do in order to do this first handoff? From now on, he will have to choose to do the things he is supposed to do, and I’m just the supporting cast.
The first day of Kindergarten was a big day for me. SOME parents don't get surly faced kids until Middle School!!!
Not for him. You could almost hear the “yeah yeah” as he happily ran ahead of me to the door. He tried to convince me that I could just drop him off. That I didn’t have to come in. That he was FINE thanks mom! There was, I think, a brief rolling of eyes when I held out my hand. He spotted his teacher and whoosh! He was gone – pausing only to give me a high-five on his way out the door. Can you spot the Grey?
The other parents and I looked at each other and shrugged. I guess that was it. My neighbor gave me a hug.
All day I wondered how it was going. Was he having fun? (More fun than I was having, I’d warrant!) Was he starting off on the right foot? Was anyone making fun of him or his lunch or anything?
When I picked him up from afterschool care, I asked how the day had gone. “Awesome!” He filled us in on the details: they play music at lunch, they played a fighting game in computer class, gym was his favorite part (a candy-filled pinata seemed to influence that decision), a kid had bullied him but the situation had been quickly and favorably resolved (I am having particular trouble figuring out what really happened with this one), all his friends had a great day too.
Note: I’ve been publishing my mother’s updates regarding my children’s escapades at Camp Gramp in Washington State
This is the last morning of Camp Gramp. We were awakened by Grey with wondrous news, his first tooth is loose. During Camp Gramp Baz lost a tooth, which he has placed in an envelope to take home to the tooth fairy. (This is not a full service operation). And Grey has his first tooth loose. What events! I e-mailed the parent units of the excited one, and Mom called to hear the news all by herself. I hope she had the phone a long ways from the ear!
We have started to collect the sundry things. The disaster so far is DS stuff. There is a sack missing. — the one with Baz’s case and various games. I am very sorry. The laundry is almost finished. Then I can have Grey and Baz sort stuff (Editor’s note: This assumes Grey knows which clothes are his – an assumption I would challenge!). I have allowed Grey to wear Baz’s plaid pants twice now. Clearly I am not capable of sorting the clothes. Kay and Thane’s stuff is easier.
The boo-boo report: The water park was hard on the campers. Thane has small abasions on his bottom. I was hoping they would be gone so I wouldn’t have to report them, but they are still there. The bottom of Kay’s bathing suit took the brunt of the wear. I haven’t checked to see if anyone else has bottom damage. No complaints = I don’t ask for the older ones. Otherwise, I think we are all OK.
It has been a wonderful Camp Gramp. You girls should be very proud of your children. (All right, the sons-in-law can also share in the pride) They are polite, intelligent, and adventurous. It is a pleasure to get to know the children. The Mineral church was particularly enchanted with the children. They specifically thanked us for sharing.
Today they go to Kent for a day and a half. Matthew (my son, you have a mother who loves you) will be taking care of them this afternoon. Matthew (loved by all, but primarily by his wife, Heidi) will take care of them tomorrow. Don and I will be packing for the Maritimes and sleeping later than 6:30 a.m. Then tomorrow night we take the Flynn children on the flight back to Boston.
We will take one last picture when we get all packed which I will post to prove they are still alive.
These updates are sent by my mom, telling us about the latest hijinks the kids are up to. My folks and kids will all arrive back in New England on Wednesday morning.
Lively day. We were invited to a play date at Sue and Dave’s. Their granddaughter, Melissa, was there. She is 7. She had prepared well for our visit — tea cups and punch, cookies, mac and cheese which was nothing like the stuff that comes out of the box. I need that recipe! They have an outdoor room kind of thing with a fire place and a fire was not amiss today. I think the high temperature was under 70 today. We even roasted marshmellows! Fun.
Then we came home and Unca Matt was here. So we had a computer afternoon. He downloaded Castle of Dr. Brain for the boys. A little difficult yet, but fun. I did a really cool book with Thane. It is a dinosaur book. When you find a page with the correct logo, you hold it up to your web cam and it gives a 3-D graphic. I sense a coming trend. It is pretty simple, but could become more complex. One graphic is eggs. You press the space bar and the eggs hatch. Just thought I would say that Thane didn’t really understand it and prefered reading the book, but hey!
Kay started painting her peacock.
Then Unka Matt took me to Kent to pick up the Saturn. Ironically, we both forgot our phones, which was a mistake. Dad did a fabulous job taking care of the kids. He is a hero!
Note: these are updates from my mom about Camp Gramp. I just serve as the editor and publisher!
Yes indeed, Great Wolf Lodge was a fun place to be! Great wet fun was had by all. There aren’t many pictures because cameras and water don’t make a good match, but we had a great time. Thane played in the tot area. He loved the slides and sitting on the banana. Kay was with him most of the time. Baz was an intrepid swimmer. He did all the slides in the park, including the biggest. He did that with Papapa. We were supposed to go together but just didn’t find the right time. Grey did a wonderful job. He really learned how to handle the waves in the wave pool. Poor kid, he was too short for the big slide, but the was plenty of excitment in the ones he did.
Unfortunately, the grandparents weren’t with it and failed to get magic wands with the game. It is like a scavenger hunt all over the hotel. Next time we will be smarter.
The minute I get the three younger ones to sleep, I am going to bed. It was great fun, but I am really tired!
Hey, who took my toddler and replaced him with this boy?I think he has a future in special ops!
Can you hear the exhaustion in my post. My oh my, we are all tired. Poor Thane, his tooth brushing was certain the sad way. He is one tired little boy.
Tuesday we went to Pioneer Farms. That is an amazing place. Baz got to use the blacksmith’s forge. Thane petted a pig and chased chickens. They all tried to milk the cow and got a ride on the horse. Doing the laundry was fun, and so was grinding coffee for their Aunt. Unfortunately, the trip to Sheila was cancelled. Good thing. We all took baths and played in the back yard. We all needed sleep.
Wednesday was a three adventure day.
First, Wilcox Farms, which is now an egg farm. They have 1,000,000 chickens on the place. As you can imagine — there were a lot of eggs. Unfortunately, the guide was not kid oriented and although he talked to the kids, he was really long winded. But the school house was cool, and so was the heavy equipment to climb on. Grey’s favorite part was lunch. I do wish that boy would eat breakfast.
Adventure two, Nisqually wildlife refuge. It is a beautiful place to walk. We watched a frog eat an insect and heard lots of birds. Baz read all the informational signs, but all three of the older kids could handle all the headings. They just didn’t have the interest that comes with a little age. While the wildlife refuge is a place that we all want to go, the primary purpose of this stop was to let Thane finish his nap before the final adventure of the day, Chuch E. Cheese. The pizza was better than the last time we were there. It is still a parent trap, but it does entertain the kids nicely. It was facinating to see the kids use their tokens.
Baz. He used his tokens very slowly. He took Thane around for some time. He is so patient with him. Then he chose challenging driving games and things like that to do. They all took longer. He didn’t get too many tickets, but he got good play value for his time.
Kay. She was extremely thoughtful about her use of tokens. She like rides with video on them. She came back to the table to check with us the most often. She was a little panicked that she was not with us all the time. Her pictures is very cute.
Grey. Grey used his tokens first by half the time. He would come dashing back with pickets and put them in his cup, then fly off to do more. Grey got a very creative collection of pictures in which he had different emotions, mad, scared, happy, etc.
Thane. We could give Thane no tokens and he would be happy. He puts tokens in the slots of the most colorful game, then runs away without playing it. He is perfectly happy with the demo screens on most of them. We almost made it out of CEC with him happy, but there was an epic meltdown at the prize redemption area.
My Truant Pen 