Hanging Out in the Heat

We’re absolutely heat wimps, I admit. 90-degree heat is much, much harder for us to bear than 30-degree cold.

JediBoy and I spent the day lounging about the house, sitting in front of fans, watching American Inventor online and Planet Earth on DVD. He asked to play with some math manipulatives (MUS blocks) and we gave each other puzzles for a while. He looked through his bag of 14 library books (all about knights, of course) while I finished rereading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and picked up Prisoner of Azkaban. (I’m rereading the first six volumes before the release of number seven.) I wrapped birthday presents for T and M while JediBoy wrapped a present for me - took one of his plastic watches, folded it inside a sheet of writing paper, taped all along every edge with carefully cut sections of masking tape, and decorated the outside with stickers. We went out to dinner with T and M, R and J, and J, and as we waited for our food, JediBoy complained that his throat hurt. Maybe his body is still struggling with the viral or bacterial conjunctivitis and associated ills. Sigh.

Tomorrow we leave for Camp, The Lake, which usually cures all ills.

Preparing for His Sister

JediBoy has been doing a lot of drawing in the past few days. Lots of intricate shield designs and castle towers with complex banners. Last night, he started adding this logo to each of his drawings:

He told me it means no children three or younger can have this picture, because they might chew on it.

Draw Me the Maccabees

Yesterday afternoon we had a meeting to work on our Spirit Play class for the fall. We’ll be putting together about 12 stories for the fall and 12 more for the spring. The women who were there each took a story or two to put together before our next meeting sometime in July. We have some really nice books we’re using including Belinda’s Bouquet (which we’re desperately seeking a copy of, by the way), Ghost Wings, The Lazy Bear, The Empty Pot and more. The book I’m working on is The Blessing, which actually is a stand-alone book called The Chanukah Blessing and a story titled “The Blessing” in an anthology of Hanukkah stories.

For those of you who don’t know, Spirit Play is a religious education program for Unitarian Universalism based on Montessori teachings. At each class, one story is selected and carefully told to the class using small props - either small toys and wooden figures, or laminated cut-outs of illustrations, or a combination of both. The props are laid out at appropriate times on a felt backing to illustrate the story.

Later in the class, the students choose their “work” which can include visiting a classroom altar, reading in the book corner, using clay, paint, blocks or other creative materials, or choosing one story basket that the class has already heard and retelling a story to themselves.

The story of “The Blessing” did not come with a photograph showing how other classrooms have put this story together. It did come with a list of materials.

cream colored felt underlay cut in a T shape, smaller basket with gelt, dreidel, Temple of Jerusalem, figures for story: man, woman, children, house, table, food, Maccabees, Antiochus, Greek statue, menorah, Star of David symbol, pig, Torah; large basket for whole thing, metal menorah with candles

Here’s where I get stuck: neither print version of the story actually illustrates Antiochus and the Maccabees or any of the story-within-a-story that the old man is telling. The Spirit Play committee may decide that any simple, featureless figures will work, but it might be nice to have a laminated illustration of Antiochus, since we’ll probably be using copied illustrations from the book for the old man, the woman and the children.

Anyone want to draw me the Maccabees? Or simpler yet, point me to a source?

Post Party Post

What a beautiful day! We celebrated JediBoy’s 5th birthday with a big party at the park. His friends came and waged battles with him, using the inflatable swords and morning stars and attacking and defending the playground climber as a castle. They dug in the sand pit, rode on the carousel, splashed in the wading pool. We had pizza and cake and presents, and his two main groups of friends - his playgroup buddies from way back when (the moms met in LLL in the summer and fall of 2002) and his newer homeschooling friends - got to meet & play together, and Grandma and Grandpa were there to watch. Uncle Jer made a splendid suit of chain mail - shiny fabric stitched onto a large grey t-shirt with the center of a white t-shirt as a tabard surcote. He suffered a few painful blows, enough to make him declare “This party’s over!” but not enough to make him actually want to go home. As we settled into the van for the drive home, he sighed This was a beautiful day.

Another Round of Pinkeye

Yep, pinkeye has returned. I noticed JediBoy was coughing last night, but figured it was because he has so many piles of growing-dusty, too-small and too-big clothing lingering in his room from before I hurt my knee & back. Then as the day unfolded his eye was getting pink & more discharge. Since we had a smidgen of the drops left in the bottle, I started those right away and took him back to the clinic. No ear infections this time, but the doctor was puzzled that the conjunctivitis had returned. So - another round of eyedrops.

This might have been a major tragedy, since his big “Knights and Castles” birthday party with friends is TOMORROW. Fortunately, the friends who have seen my email warning so far have all said they’ll come anyway, and just take extra care. The only big thing we’re forgoing is the dragon cake we had planned to spend the afternoon creating. I knew it would be a disappointment for JediBoy if I made it without him, so we picked up a bakery sheet cake (not easy to do - I forgot this is high school graduation weekend in this area) and promised him we’ll make the dragon cake for ourselves later in the week, when he’s feeling better. (Oh, darn, a giant chocolate dragon we’ll have to eat by ourselves?)

He tickled me, though, by passing the waiting time at the clinic by counting things in Spanish. “There are quatro doors on the cabinets, and uno box of tissues.” Can you tell he’s been on another Dora & Diego kick? He’s not interested in listening to the learn Spanish cds I’ve been using, but he picks up a little from his cartoon buddies. (Did you know Dora is an unschooler? Diego even more so, I think.)

We talked some more about slugs, learning from a friend why they were out in force last night. The heavy rain saturated the ground too fast, putting the slugs and snails in danger of suffocating, so they had to come up to the air.

The mail held a birthday card and newspaper clippings from my dad in South Africa, including an article about Star Wars. Yesterday he got a package from PisecoSis that had a Beanie Bith and some Neopets that he decided were dragons. He’s been loving this extended birthday, so big thanks go out to both Pappy and PisecoSis.

We blew up an unending stream of inflatable swords and morning stars, and a few crayons for our pacifist friends. I have a hard time with JediBoy’s weaponry and interest in such things - it makes my stomach turn. I’m not sure why. I grew up in a household with guns - my dad likes target shooting, and when I was young he’d let us shoot the BB gun in the basement (er, at the target, of course). I didn’t have a problem with that, and PisecoDad and I spent time out at the shooting range in college, because he loves target shooting too.

I can understand an interest in the art, history, function of weapons. But when it turns personal - to attacking someone, shooting someone - that’s when my stomach turns too. I try to be the loving parent who directs him to more peaceful activities, but he really longs for the weekend, when he can spend time playing video games and war games with PisecoDad. Sometimes I wish I could more easily fall into his games of shooting and death - intellectually, I can see how it meets a need, especially for his personality type - and I can see how he lights up when he gets someone (RedLink, P., either of his Uncle Js) to come into that world with him. I just can’t. Oh, okay, I admit I am fond of the inflatable morning stars. They’re just goofy fun. We’ve had a good time swinging them around together. But when he starts to move from just a physical back-and-forth into a drawn out scenario that actually involves attacking - that’s when I shut down.

He knows it, too. He rarely approaches me for that kind of game. Today, at the clinic, he was getting very frustrated waiting, and he said - If I had a sword right now, I’d stick it through the door. Bam! And on the other side the sword would stick my doctor, and then Swoosh! I’d pull him through the door.

He looked up at me then and said But he’d still be alive, of course.

It’s Raining Slugs

JediBoy has an uncanny knack for making the world fall in line. He’s always the one to pick the most apt fortune cookie, the things he likes seem to roll over him in unending waves. Remember last week when he asked about slugs? Tonight, I think it rained slugs.

We had a trying day. The morning was filled with errands, each of which took twice as long as usual. Fortunately, we both stayed in good spirits long enough to make all the stops we needed. JediBoy was very helpful at the fabric store, picking out felt for some SpiritPlay stories. He enjoyed picking out party supplies and choosing a few snacks for the afternoon. After too long - and one of those creepy run-ins with the Crazy Mom (she’s honestly batty and we used to be in a playgroup together) - we headed over to P’s house.

As usual, our boys butted heads for most of the afternoon. B. said - “If you let someone walk all over you, you’re a doormat. And I’m no doormat. I won’t budge!” Naturally, JediBoy wouldn’t budge either! They both like to be in charge, give orders, change the rules to suit themselves, go first, do all the talking, lecture the other, make decisions, etc. We struggled through lunch, an indoor game with weaponry, the wading pool, water balloons, and baseball before JediBoy finally threw down his bat and said, “That’s it! We’re leaving.” B. talked him into staying, and we all went inside and they seemed happily content with the giant room o’Legos. Twenty minutes later, they had a disagreement, JediBoy tried to leave the room, and B. blocked him - somehow in the leaving and blocking, JediBoy fell into a bookcase. Big ouch.

It took some doing, several minutes with B. in a different part of the house, a cool washcloth and lots of sympathy, but JediBoy did calm down enough to chat happily with P, then B. and D. as they came in too. He even willingly and generously shared his bag of Flat Earth tomato chips. He wanted to stay and watch a movie, but it was time to go.

We came home just before being hit with a big rainstorm. We talked and played together, and at 5:15 I called the rec department to see if t-ball had been cancelled. Tonight was the last week, and they had a pizza party planned for the end of tonight’s game. The coordinator who answered the phone said she’d already paid for the pizza, so she was going to go and see what happened! About half the kids came (there are something like 14 teams) and played in about three different pick-up games for a while, until the rain returned. Then we all crowded into one pavillion to wait for the pizza. JediBoy did NOT like the cramming and loud noises. Eventually - pizza.

My back is still a little sore so I had the boys drop me off here before they went out for a few groceries. When they came home, the phone rang and PisecoDad answered it. It was our adoption agent.

Did your heart do a little leap too?

Mine did. It wasn’t any news at all. We’ve been in PGN for 4 1/2 weeks, and she was just checking in on us. We haven’t been KO’d, which is good, though most cases do get at least one kick-out for something. We have no news. She was just calling to be nice. But knowing she was calling - it made my heart leap, and then crash, and then tears.

There’s only one solution to that: I went outside to find JediBoy and hold him and hug him tight. He is so gentle and sweet with me when I need him to be. I felt better in just a few minutes.

It was as I set him down that I saw the slugs. Last week he’d asked about slugs, and we looked them up and talked about them for about an hour one night. So I showed him a slug I saw on the driveway. And another! And another!

Yes, I think it must have rained slugs, because in just one small area of our driveway / front walk, we saw more than SEVENTY slugs, and at least four different garden snails. What is up with that? Anyone an expert in slug behavior? It was crazy!

We had a very happy half hour counting them, gently touching them, talking to them, comparing colors and sizes and activity levels. Here they are.

Still Five

Believe it or not, he’s still five!

I keep looking at the portraits from yesterday, and he still seems so much older. He can turn on the floor lamp in the living room now, and for the first time - ever - went into a local wading pool alone. Oh, it took a little convincing - I had to hop in and help him slide in that first time, and give him a pep talk as he did it - but to watch him unfold as the afternoon went on, it was so precious. He started out sitting on the side of the pool, dangling his feet in. Walking over to me, then back to the pool. Watching all the other kids play. He seemed nervous, so I went and sat by him. Dangled my feet in. Stood up in the pool and told him he might feel more confident sliding in backwards, which he did. Then he slowly started walking up and down the shallow end (the “shallow end” of this pool is one foot deep - the deep end is two feet), clinging to the wall. After some fifteen minutes of this he braved the deep end, still hanging on to the wall. He started to “make triangles” as he called it, walking along one edge for ten feet, cutting across to the other edge and then back to the corner. He kept watching the other kids, especially a pair of brothers who, we discovered later, were 7 and almost-5. He started imitating some of the things they were doing. They all started racing back and forth across the pool, crouching down and hopping like frogs, and pretending they were in quicksand. That made it so much fun. JediBoy only got out once everyone else had left.

He’s never had that much fun in a pool. I don’t know if it’s nature or nuture (ah, my favorite discussion) but I’ve never been comfortable swimming either. Now, my discomfort I trace back to my first set of torturous parent-child swimming lessons where they did Ring Around the Rosy and dunked us! Ack! I’ve hated swimming ever since then. But I tried to overcome that for JediBoy. We did about a year and a half of parent-child lessons (they don’t dunk anymore) from the time he was 6 months old. But he’s always disliked water on his head, hated getting his hair washed, and for the last two summers I could barely get him in a pool. His friends have loved the two local wading pools and always invited us along, but he would never go in. Towards the end of last summer he did enjoy going into the big pool, but only if he was clinging to an adult. He had fun in the same way when we were at the hotel pool in August, and started talking then about how much he liked swimming - but each time a new session of swimming lessons started this year - his answer was a resounding NO. Was he picking up on my discomfort, or are we genetically descended from water-fearing folk?

Either way, I was thrilled today to see him really enjoying the wading pool. Since his birthday party on Saturday will be at the same park, I’m glad that he’s comfortable there and I’ll definitely take a suit for him.

Birthday Boy

So far, he’s loving being 5.

He woke us up at 6:45 am saying, “Do you know what today is?” PisecoDad tried to encourage him to go back to bed, but they were both downstairs by 7:10.

He had three presents from us: a big castle tower (made from faux stone, not wood, to be the “other” castle when he plays with his big wooden one), a Star Wars Lego set (Slave I, which he started assembling at 7:15 and just now finished) and the DVD set of Planet Earth, which we’re all watching now. He is THRILLED with all three things.

We went out this morning to have his portraits done and stopped at the bookstore for an air conditioning break on the way home. He has been telling anyone and everyone, “Did you know, I’m already five?” His favorite photographer had a blast doing his portraits today, and the lady sitting next to us at the bookstore cafe told us what a wonderful boy we have. And then she went on to say “What a perfect way to spend your birthday, here, at the bookstore, with your parents!” We agreed.

It’s back to Planet Earth for me, then in an hour and a half we meet the Honorary Aunts & Uncles at Chuck E. Cheese for a big birthday celebration. I love to see him so happy. He looks SO OLD to me today too, it might be the haircut, and it might just be that - gasp - he’s actually five.

Four No More

Tomorrow at 5:06 am, JediBoy will turn 5. Here’s how he spent his last day being four…

Slept in his bed, listening to the Jim Weiss King Arthur cd, all night until around 5 am, when the sun came up. He got up then to pee and came into our big bed for snuggles. He went back to sleep between us.

Woke up for good at about 8 am, in time to say a few words to PisecoDad before he headed out the door. Came down to me on the couch in the living room and we looked at a big pile of garage sale book finds from this weekend that we hadn’t read yet. I pulled out two Brand New Readers (Puddles and The Big Fish, both featuring the Mouse from Pizza, one of JediBoy’s favorites) and said I’d read them to him the first time. That’s a big part of the idea of the Brand New Readers, that reading them is based on familiarity and repetition. They’re not meant to be phonics readers, so the parent is encouraged to read them to the child once or even several times before the child takes it on as his/her own.

But JediBoy knew the format of these books and knew they were books for him to read aloud, and so he did. He needed me to tell him the words “puddles” and “catches” (he said “caught”), but he did the rest independently. And they were funny books, especially The Big Fish, and we laughed aloud together.

Then he asked me to read him The Magic School Bus Chapter Book #2: The Search for the Missing Bones. We hadn’t read a MSB chapter book before and towards the end it was a little heavy on the details, he started moving around more and watching out the window, but the plot held it together fairly well.

When we were done with the book, about 9 am, he said he wanted to fight, and so he took his inflatable sword upstairs where his stuffed dragons are, to battle.

The battle took about half an hour, during which time I was able to read a little bit and check my email and Google Reader. I saw that the new Country Fair of Homeschooling is up - celebrating diversity - and I’m eager to check that out when I have more time to myself with the screen.

We spent the next hour in the living room, doing several different things. We munched on yesterday’s leftover doughnuts (PisecoDad loves ‘em, bought them for Father’s Day, and always buys more than we could possibly eat in one day). JediBoy is a doughnut sampler, really, and rarely eats more than half of one doughnut before choosing another from the box or asking if anybody would like to trade. We played with his new Pixter toy - this was one of those 50 cent garage sale purchases made mostly to keep JediBoy happy while I continued to shop. It’s a touch screen electronic toy with games and drawing, and kept us entertained for at least fifteen minutes this morning. That’s worth fifty cents, isn’t it?

As JediBoy continued to play Tic Tac Toe with his Pixter, I started sorting through the bottom shelf of our small bookcase in front of the window. I’d been keeping his phonics readers and Hooked on Phonics sets there. JediBoy hadn’t asked to “work” on reading since before Memorial Day, when he finished the Kindergarten level and dipped his toe into First Grade. Of course he’s been interested in reading signs, video game text, simple books and other print materials, but he hasn’t gone for the phonics stuff. But of course it’s more interesting while I’m trying to pack it away, so he asked to do a few pages in the orange workbook - ch- and th- blends, a story, and a little work on the next page of blends - about 15 minutes of interest. I was very impressed that he remembered the story very well, since we’d only read it the once.

This does leave me with the question, though, of whether to put it away as I’d planned to, leave it where it is for a while, or try and find a new home for it. Hm.

JediBoy started digging in the closet - I’m not sure what inspired this - and he came out with the bin that has his disc shooters and ping pong ball catapult in it. I’m sure that bin hasn’t been out since well before the new year, so it was all exciting to him. Fortunately (for me) the disc shooters were out of batteries. He contented himself with playing with the ping pong ball catapult, and then taking it upstairs to launch balls at his big castle.

We played a few hands of Go Fish with the deck he’s liked most this week - the drawings are of aquarium fish (zebra danio, red platy, angelfish, clown loach, etc.) and he has finally really figured out how to remember what I have in my hand, based on what I’ve asked for, and he squeals and laughs in maniacal delight when he asks for a card he’s certain I have.

Then, around 10:30, he said he was hungry again and made his own way into the kitchen to have a second breakfast of yogurt and something that sounded crunchy - dry cereal, maybe, or crackers? I try not to pry. We had a talk about whether or not he’d like to get his hair cut today before doing pictures tomorrow, and he said yes.

I ran a bath for him, so his hair would be clean for the hair cut. He played and I sorted bandaids - he’s been on a big bandaid kick this spring and I was shocked to see that of normal, finger-size bandaids we were down to about 20. I’d had a huge collection from my heparin days, when we’d routinely pick up a box of fun bandaids every time we went to the store.

We left around 11:30. He was fine getting his hair cut - the woman we usually go to wasn’t working today so he had a new stylist. That just meant he was shy and suspicious instead of happy and outgoing. But the hairs, they still were cut.

We walked over to big box store to pick up bandaids. I was looking for storage bins too, but of course the kind I saw there two weeks ago were gone. JediBoy loves pushing the cart, testing video games and wandering up and down the toy aisles, asking for a treat. I had to patiently explain to him (about a hundred different times) that tomorrow is his birthday and he will be getting a pile of treats then. He wore me down: besides the box of 100 generic bandages, we also bought a box of 25 Dora ones.

I told him I’d take him out today to a buffet, since they always ask how old he is (and charge accordingly). He chose Chinese (no surprise) so as we ate I told him the story of the summer he turned 3. He really loved the Chinese buffets and we went often, because kids who are 2 and under are free. In the month before he turned 3, I think we went two or three times a week, trying to cram in all his free meals! Today he laughed when he told the server that he’s 4, and we shared a knowing smile. He wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous, though, and just had pizza, teriyaki chicken, sweet and sour chicken, and green beans. And ice cream. One scoop of each of the six kinds of ice cream.

His fortune said:

After lunch, we stopped at the playground on the way home, even though my back is still sore. (But much improved from yesterday, thankfully!) He played a bit - we were the only ones there and he enjoyed having the freedom to crawl slowly up the tunnel slide, and slip slowly down the twisty slide. It occurred to me while we were there that the big climbers have stickers on them that say “For Ages 5-12″ - so tomorrow he’ll officially be big enough to play on the climbers he’s been using since he was 2. He is one of the more hesitant kids, though, and won’t try thinks like the caterpillar ladders or monkey bars. He likes to take things at his own slow pace.

We took our usual fifteen minute settling-in time when we got home sometime around 1:30 - I checked the mail, he checked in on toys that might have missed him in his absence. We were both ready for a rest, and he’d been wanting to watch Dumbo for a couple weeks, just never at a time that was convenient. (Five minutes before we have to go to soccer: Can we watch Dumbo?) This was a perfect time. We stayed in the office together - me back and forth between the couch, watching Dumbo, and the desk, checking emails and Google Reader.

Next, around 3 o’clock, we spent some more time just hanging out in the living room. We read another book from the garage sale pile - Arthur’s April Fool - and then JediBoy said, “I really want to learn more about animals!” He went into the office where I’ve shelved our non-fiction zoology books, and he returned with DK’s Animal Kingdom and a small green book by Weekly Reader from the 1960s called The Tall Grass Zoo. We read The Tall Grass Zoo, which is a peaceful and nearly poetic look at the animals (insects, spiders, toads, newts, etc.) you might find in your backyard. Naturally, we were inspired then to go bug-hunting. We trapped a nice silver and black Daddy Longlegs and gave it a leaf and a cotton ball soaked in sugar water - JediBoy was fascinated to see the spider dip its leg into the sugar water and then put its leg into its mouth to suck the sugar off.

By about quarter after four, my back was quite sore and now my poor, mistreated left hip was tired from taking all the extra limping and aggravation. I retired to the couch with a couple of magazines and the latest Daedalus catalog. JediBoy played with a variety of things, including his inflatable swords and his latest Lego acquisition, the Harry Potter Gringott’s set we picked up on Saturday for $2. He spent long periods of time lying on his back in the living room, talking and singing to himself. Lately he’s done a lot with combining movie or storybook dialogue with characters from other realms. Things like I’m Todd! And I’m Copper. Hi there, I’m Bambi! He carried the story on from there.

He’s also been singing a lot of Laurie Berkner. I made a cd for the van that is a full 80 minutes of music from two of her cds - Buzz Buzz and Whaddaya Think of That? He’s been asking for that cd most days when we go out and so we get snippets of songs throughout the day.

PisecoDad came home and we ate a variety of leftovers from the past few days and chatted about our days. JediBoy got out Shadows Over Camelot and played, with us a little, and by himself when we got distracted. (PisecoDad had to go order a cake for tomorrow and take one of the inflatable swords to Uncle J. who is working on a costume for JediBoy.)

Once PisecoDad came home, he and JediBoy spent about an hour working on making a house out of a cardboard box (the very box that delivered the inflatable swords, actually). It took a little convincing, but JediBoy did eventually agree to simply draw the lines for windows and doors and let PisecoDad actually cut them out. JediBoy designed a house with one door, four windows (one rectangle, two circle, one oval), a trapdoor and a chimney. He patiently added all kinds of crayon decorations around the outside, including a flowerbox with flowers.

A bedtime snack, lingering on the couch with PisecoDad and a pile of books (JediBoy snatches one that PisecoDad is setting down. Is this The Hobbit? The Hobbit! Cool!). A phone call from Grandma that gets JediBoy worked up about his party on Saturday and our eventual visit to Guatemala. The start of a bedtime routine.

One last day at four. Sniff. The years have flown by so fast, and yet - a day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste. The days are so good.

Blog Wave

Hi, L., I’m fine!

To the rest of you who were wondering where I’ve been… in the past three days I’ve been dealing with a malfunctioning muscular system (my too-small kneecap went out on me, causing me to limp for a day, causing my back to act up for two days and counting). Sitting at the computer, not the most fun activity.

But we did spend the afternoon Friday with L. and her kids, P. and son, and a new set of friends too.

We went from there to a pizza party celebrating the end of this soccer season. Our family was very sad to see this season end - the team was a particularly close one, and we have made the difficult decision to move to a different league for the fall season, while the other kids on the team talked about coming back to this league together in the fall. Some coaching friends have told us that in the other league, the coaches are better equipped / trained, the kids get more touches on the ball because they play 3 on 3 with frequent rotation, and that this league extends through middle school and so it’s a good one to stick with. Although we really liked our current coach and team, we didn’t like what we saw from some of the other coaches, the league / sponsor didn’t give the coaches and teams any substantial support, and there isn’t continuity into older teams. So it was sad to say goodbye.

That’s not to say that we might not be back next spring - around here, for kids at this age, there are three organizations that do soccer, but with very little overlap. We’ll be at the Y for winter, BGC for spring, Y for mid-summer, and the local league for the fall - if JediBoy continues to be as in love with soccer as he is now. (PeleBoy?)

We’ve been dealing with the emotions from that ending, my uncomfortable body, and just hanging around together (with the shipment of inflatable swords and morning stars) for Father’s Day. The boys just got home from bowling and told me L. asked what’s wrong with me, since I haven’t posted in three days. This blog-wave is for you!