Trick or Quote

Boba Fett and a monkeyDoc: This is very special. Usually we pick the candy when  trick-or-treaters come, but because you’re our favorite, we are going to let you pick!  Choose three for your bucket.

Owen carefully and slowly chooses three different candies and puts them in his bucket.  A few minutes later, Doc opens a Recess Peanut Butter Cup. Owen inhales deeply and loudly.

Owen:  Man, that smells good too!  (pause with a furrowed brow) But I just have to make my OWN decisions.  (turns away from Doc and the good smelling candy.)

Jack: Who’s eating that?

Doc:  I was.

Jack:  Are you going to eat ALL of it?

____

On the drive over to Lisa and John’s house.

Owen: I like Halloween, and Christmas, and Easter.  I get things on those holidays.  Halloween is all about getting candy.  I mean, it is all about giving, right?  Lots of people want to give us candy.

____

Trick-or-treating

Owen: Um, there are two more people too. (Talking about Sarah and Jack)  Here they are.

Man at Door: You get an extra one for taking such good care of your brother!

Owen: Wow thanks!  Mama, Daddy – That man gave me two because I took such good care of my brother!

Next house.  The man gives out a piece of candy to everyone.

Owen: Um, the man at the last house gave me two pieces because I took such good care of my brother.

____

Lady at the door:  Take a few.

Mama: (watching Owen’s hand move back and forth several times) Owen, why don’t you take two?

Owen: The lady said, “Take a few.” and I think she meant four.

____

Owen: Look guys, I got a snowball at this house!

____

Mama:  What did you say to that man?

Jack: Thank you!

Mama: Why did he say, “We have to save the rest of the candy for some other kids.”?

Jack: (shrugs his shoulders) I don’t know. (sly smile)…

____

Lost in Translation

On Tuesday, while Becca was driving with Jack, he asked her to turn up the song because it was one he really liked.  He then began to sing along.  Becca thought it was pretty funny because it was Teenage Dream by Katie Perry.

Tonight at dinner Eric asked Jack about singing along to the radio.  Jack remembered singing but was feeling too shy to sing a few lines for Owen (who wanted to remember how the song went.)

Eric sang a line or two for Owen who quickly recognized the song, but then became very confused.  Eric and I, in turn, became very confused…

Owen: That song was on the radio?

Eric: Yes. In Becca’s car.

Owen: And they were talking about the song?

Eric: No, they were singing the song.

Owen: Jack was singing the song?

Eric: No the regular people were singing it on the radio.

Owen: And they were talking about the song?

Eric: No, the regular people were singing, and Jack was singing along in his own voice.

Owen: Jack’s voice was on the radio?!!

Eric just looked at me, hoping I could give some insight as to why Owen was so confused.  Or maybe he was hoping I could help Owen understand.  I tried.

Mama: The lady who sings the song was on the radio. And Jack was singing in the car.   Just like when you listen to a song on Media Center.  The song plays, and you sing to it.

Owen: Oh (He obviously was still confused.)

Then, my earlier explanation revealed the problem to me….

Mama: Oh, I see why you are confused.  Becca’s radio isn’t the same as Mama’s radio.  When most people say they are listening to the radio, they mean they are listening to music, not talking.  The radion is like the Zune in Mama’s car.

Success!

Eric rolled his eyes at this point and got up from the dinner table with a wan smile.  Ah, the sad influence I am on my children…

Eric is a music guy.  He has music around him any minute that is not occupied with something he has to concentrate on. It gives him energy and meaning.

I, on the other hand crave information (even if it is not necessarily useful ...)  Thus, in my car, vocab is a little different.  Translation as follows: We listen to…

…the radio = NPR

…a book = an audio book on my Zune

…a CD = kids music

…my Zune = grown-ups music (song the kids request)

 

*Oh, and please keep in mind who plays music in our house when you make comments on the song lyrics that my children are privy to…

Replacement

As I was about to put the monkeys to bed, I got a phone call.  I talked for about 10 minutes, and at the end of the call the monkeys ran up to me both yelling.

Owen: He did it! He did it! I did it!

Jack:  Mom, mom!   (garbled )  a ant.  It can sit and eat!!

I finished up my phone call and turned to the boys trying to understand what they were yelling about.  They were very excited about an ant sitting?  I didn’t know ants could sit. 

I followed Owen and Jack to the office and they pointed to a story from the book that I used to teach Owen to read from, and am working on with Jack.

Owen:  You need to put another sticker on his chart because we did another lesson. 

My face must have betrayed the doubt that I felt...

So Jack read the “story” in a way that was obvious that he had read the story before.  Owen had a massive grin on his face and said, “Don’t worry mom, I made him do the sound parts that go before the story too.”

Apparently Owen can just take over from now on…at least until lesson 76, where he has left off…

Jack’s Story:

In other news, I took the boys to Gas Works Park today – thinking it would be fun to climb over the neat metal structures. (yes, I do know you are not supposed to…) Don’t worry, the kids found it far too cold to be outside.  And it was definitely  not nearly as exciting as learning to read, or teaching reading.  We left in less than 10 minutes. 

Entertainment

Owen:  We should sing a song for Tyler when we go visit him.  Le’s practice together.

___

Jack:   (singing) I love you, you love me… I love you

Owen: (singing) I love you, you love me…we’re best friends

___

Jack: (yelling) No! No!  It doesn’t go like that!

Owen: (singing) like friends should be.

___

Jack: (singing)  With a great big hug, and…a  kiss from me to you

Owen: (singing) With a great big hug, and… a big kiss for you

___

Jack: (singing) won’t you say…

Owen: (yelling) No! No!  It doesn’t go like that!

___

Jack:  (singing)  you love me too!

Owen: (singing) you love me too!

___

Jack:   You sang it wrong!

Owen: You sang it wrong!

___

After a few tense moments…and some “discussion,” the words were figured out to their liking.

___

Owen: Ok, Jack – we need to practice again.  Let’s start over.  1..2..3…

___

Some very nice renditions of Barney’s song..

Owen:  Now lets move our feet like we are walking into the host-tible room.  (they are in their carseats)

Owen and Jack:  (singing)  I love you,you love me ….

I am sure Tyler loved it!

Mysterious

Jack:  Mom!  I just saw a long skinny bug with lots and lots of legs and it scared me!

Mama: Show it to me.  (I follow Jack)

Jack: It was right here, but it made me nervous so I ran to get you.  I don’t see it.  I guess it must have scampered away.

We found the bug and put it in a container to watch. 

Jack: Let’s call it Mysterious.

Mama: Why did you name it that?

Jack:  I just thought that when it was born, it’s Mama thought, “You are a mysterious little wiggly leggy bug, so I will call you – Mysterious.”

Tyler Landon Carlisle

Today was the day Deanna and Kevin (our Nana and Doc) were scheduled to have their little boy.  Our whole family has been counting down the days.  I have been pressing “refresh” on my e-mail every two or three minutes waiting for the announcement .

I began to get worried because the announcement hadn’t arrived.  Of course my rational brain told me that new family of three was cherishing their first beautiful moments together and making that their priority  - over getting their announcement email out.I had told the boys that we were going to visit the baby at 3:30, and they could hardly wait.  My anxiety and impatience rubbed of on Owen and Jack….As soon as school go out, every few minutes was punctuated with a request for how long they had waited and how much time before they had to get into the car to go.  I finally put a show on to pass the time for them.

When it was finally time to leave, Owen got his serious face on.  “Now Jack, the name that they tell us, you are going to want to listen to because it is a name that you are going to know forever.” ( I knew the name from the announcement, but thought it would be fun for K and D to tell the boys themselves.)  During the drive Owen and Jack  practiced an “I Love You song”” to sing to Tyler together.   This was completely their own idea, and was so sweet.

Our wait was rewarded with this little guy…

Tyler Landon Carlisle

The monkeys   were in awe and needed no more entertainment than to watch Tyler sleep.

I felt that bundle in my hands and Mommy Babble began to flow.  It is strange and exciting to think that my voice is one of the first he has heard since his birth. 

In 30 second intervals, Eric kept trying to steal the baby from me! I don’t like having to share, but I love that proud look that Eric has on his face.    When we were about to leave, Owen said to Deanna (who was surrounded by tables and machines, and the baby bassinet), “I really want to give you a hug, but I don’t know how to get to you!”

Eric and I went on a date afterwards, and the majority of the time was spend discussing Tyler !

We are so glad you are here little guy!

Kind Kid

Last week I got a strange and slightly garbled message on my answering machine from the principal of Owen’s school.  The message sounded slightly pre-recorded and said something about asking my child about eating lunch with the principal in connection with the Kind Kid Award.  Since Owen goes to morning Kindergarten, and leaves before lunch, I figured that the message was announcing the installation of the program at school or that it was sent to my number by mistake.

Later that day or the next, Owen began explaining a new award that he had learned about in school called the Kind Kid award.  I wondered if maybe that message was talking about Owen after all.

Mama: Wow, that sounds like a nice award to get.  Tell me more about that!

Owen: It sounds TERRIBLE to me!!  I hope I NEVER get it!!

Mama: Aaaaaaaa

Owen: Do you know what happens if you get the Kind Kid award?!?!

Mama: What?

Owen:  You have to eat lunch with the principal! (Mouth hanging open)

Mama: I think it would be an honor to eat lunch with the principal.  I would get to sit next to a special person in your school and people would know that I was a kind person even if they had never met me.

Owen: I NEVER want to do that!  And I don’t want to win that award.  There is NO WAY that I am going to stay at school for so so long and eat lunch there.  I would be home so late!

It wasn’t that Owen didn’t want the award.  It was that he was  worried about staying “after school”. My poor worrying baby!  This is the first week that he has easily gone to school without being upset (even though he loves it when he gets there.)   I tried to convince Owen that half-day kindergarteners would do something else with the principal other than eating  lunch– maybe eating snack together?  Owen wasn’t buying it.  There was no way he was going to take a chance like that.  The next day, at some random part of the day, Owen told me again that he never wanted to have the award.  I began to worry that he would start to be an “un-kind kid” in order to avoid that award…

___

Yesterday Owen ran out of school yelling, “I know what they do instead for the Kind Kid Award!  They principal just gives you a necklace!”  And he held out this.

And later I saw this paper in his backpack.

It read, “Owen is a wonderful kindergartner.  He always comes into class ready to learn and with a smile on his face.  I notice that Owen is eager to read and write.  He is so kind and polite to all the kids in our class. I’m so grateful he is in our kindergarten class and can’t wait to see all the learning he does this year!

Mrs. Perry  “

Prank Calls #2 Mama Plays Hardball

Mama:  Hello?

Owen:  Hi, it’s Lisa.

Mama:  Oh Lisa, your voice sounds a little different than you usually sound.

Owen: Yeah… I guess it does.

Mama: What are you up too?

Owen: I am wondering if you want to set up a play date for Thursday.

Mama: Ah…didn’t we set up a play-date already for Wednesday?

Owen:  We did?

Mama: Yeah, remember we were going to get together after the kids’ gymnastics and make some dinners together?

Owen: Oh yeah!  That was really fun last time!!! Let’s do it at my house this time.

Mama: What do you mean?  We did have it at your house last time.

Owen:  Oh!  I mean YOUR house.  (embarrassed laugh).

Mama: Hey, Lisa, I have been meaning to ask you for that really good Bean Soup recipe that you make.

Owen: (long pause)  Oh um, um beans and ahhhhh carrots.

Mama:  Is that it?  I thought there was something else in it?  Does that soup have chicken?

Owen: Oh yeah, it has chicken too.  Ha, I forgot.  So, bye.

I didn’t even have a chance to say, “Good-bye” …

Prank Calls

Owen’s room generally looks like a tornado hit it.  He and Jack play almost exclusively in Owen’s room, thus, it gets most of the mess.  One of their favorite games is one  I (not so) fondly refer to as Reappropriate the Storage Bins. In this game, one dumps the entire contents of several storage bins onto the floor.  Following this, one pretends that the bins are something else.  Depending on the size of the bin, one might pretend it is a car, a car seat, the trunk of the car, or a crib for a “nai-nai guy”.  Thus, one might sit in one, sit on one, or fill one with all the “necessities” that one would take on a car trip.  The game can turn an immaculately clean room into a tornado before I can clean up the lunch dishes…

And, as you can imagine, the clean–up of this exciting game takes a great deal of time, and is quite an overwhelming job to a five-year-old, and his side-kick (especially when his side-kick tries to help…) 

After some frustrating cleaning sessions where I did all of the work while yelling at Owen and Jack to keep cleaning, I came up with an idea that has worked wonders.  I give Owen our home phone and a small specific job in his room like, put all of the blocks in a bin.  When he finishes, he calsl me (a THRILLING event for him…) and I consult with him on what he sees in the room that he can do next.  Owen LOVES this “game” and we are both much less frustrated about room cleaning. 

This afternoon Owen and I played our phone/clean room game.  Later, as the monkeys were changing into their pajamas, and I was doing dinner dishes, my cell phone rang.

Mama: Hello?

Owen:  Hi, this Lisa.

(hysterical laughter on the other end between the monkeys)

Mama: Oh hi, Lisa!  How are you doing?

Owen: I was just calling to see if you wanted to have a play date.  Maybe this Friday?

Mama: I think Owen already has a play-date this Friday; would Wednesday work for you?

(fits of laughter heard)

Owen: That’d be great!

Mama:  Oh, ok bye!

After peals of loud laughter, Owen ran downstairs with a toothy grin and a hand behind his back.

Owen: Mama, did you just get a phone call?

Mama: Yes, Lisa called to set up a play-date.

Owen: That was me, NOT Lisa!

Mama: Oh you!  You got me you silly goose.  That was a crazy trick!

He pulls the phone out from behind his back and shakes it at me the phone to clarify the situation.  Then he pivots and runs back upstairs. Surprise!  My phone rings again.

Mama:  Hello?

Owen: Hi, this is Becca.

Mama:  Well, hello Becca!  What’s up?

Owen:  Can we have a play-date on Thursday?

Mama:  I think that should work.

Owen: Ok, bye.

Owen and Jack come downstairs.

Mama:  Owen, I just got a call from Becca, and she wanted to set up a play-date for Thursday.  You guys are going to have a very friendly week this week!

Owen: HA! That was me!  That was me on the phone AGAIN!  I called you; it was just me.

So, I guess five is the age for first prank calls.  I wonder how old Owen will be when he figures out that his voice is slightly different than Lisa and Becca’s???

Teacher Jitters

I have been scheduled to teach an art lesson in Owen’s class, and taught it today.  Before anything was firm, I was very excited at the prospect of teaching and confident that I would be successful and at ease during the lesson.  There were a few other parents that are going to teach this same lesson in their child’s class later in the month, and some were nervous as it wasn’t something they  had done before.  So, I invited them to be the volunteers for my lesson, hoping that would ease their anxiety.

The minute I did that, strange things began to happen to me.  I began to have  Teacher Dreams.  “Teacher Dreams”  are strange dreams that teachers usually get at the end of summer as they are preparing their classroom for the new year.  I have asked many teachers about this phenomenon, and they all get them, though they come in different forms.  Some dream they forgot to get dressed before going to school, some show up to a class who speaks only French.  I usually dream that I show up, and have done nothing in my classroom at all – I just showed up at the exact same time as the students did.  I also dream that when I show up for the first day of school, the kids have actually been there for six weeks and I just got the start-date wrong.

I became worried that I would do a terrible job teaching the lesson.  Even though my rational mind would correct those thoughts, they continued to sneak back in.

Last night I stayed up late reviewing the lesson (you know, in case I would forget what the primary colors are and how they mix to make orange and green and purple…)

Becca laughed at me when she saw that I had written her last name on my “notes” page…

Before the lesson, I was very sure I was going to throw up.

But, the minute I said, “Class”  I was free.  I was excited, enthusiastic, and loving every second of being with the kids.  The lesson turned out great, of course.

I am really hoping that my overactive brain will give me a break for the next lesson now that it knows my “teacher mode” kicks in readily, when needed.

According to Jack

Becca drove Jack to pre-school today, and in the parking lot, he pointed to the handicapped space.

Jack: Do you know what that is, Becca?

Becca: What?

Jack: That blue sign there.  Its a handicapped spot.

Becca: Yes, Jack, it is.

Jack:  That means that someone died in their car there.

A Jump on Fall Leaves

Some of my favorite photos of the boys that I have are in fall leaves.  Every year I think to myself that I really need to take them, and then fall is practically over before it happens.  But, so far, I have had really good luck with how they have turned out.

2006

2007

2008

2009

So now I feel that it is an official tradition, I am paranoid that I am going to miss the opportunity.  (Last year I waited until early November, and when there was finally a sunny day, the park we went to had a huge lawn-mower-turned-leaf-vacuum driving around stealing the last few leaves of the season!) 

So when I saw some changing leaves today, I panicked.  I gave the boys their official sweaters (yes, I know the boys will probably hate me for making them wear these when they are older and looking back on their photos – but I think they look cute in them now – so I am making them wear them anyway, but thank you for your concern.)  Then I paced, waiting as long as I could for better evening light.  I was too worried that the sun would turn into showers and finally left.

Unfortunately, when I drove to the spot where I have always taken photos in past years, there were approximately four leaves on the ground.  I looked around and realized that most of the trees were still green.  

I guess I haven’t missed the opportunity.

We drove around on a leaf hunt anyway (as I had greatly talked up the event – focusing on leaf throwing over photo opportunity) and the monkeys were insisting we find some.

The lighting is bright, and casts lots of shadows.  But, the boys had lots of fun, so I will call it a success.

And try again in three weeks at our favorite spot.

Good Example

Jack is in awe of his big brother. He just can’t get over the fact that Owen can read.  Jack has always loved being read to, and that now includes being read to by Owen.  Jack loves it, even it the stories aren’t  thrilling. 

From the beginning,Jack had always wanted to listen to every book that Owen has read, no matter how slow the going was. If Owen decides to read to me, Jack will interrupt any game he is playing and come curl up on the couch along with us.

When Owen was working on his first 100 book chart, Jack wanted one too.  So I made one with 40 squares, and let him begin with the book that Owen started to read with.  I thought he was too young, but decided to let him decide that.  Jack loved the idea of reading, but didn’t really like working on it.  He doesn’t know all his letters yet, and I play much fewer sound games with him than I did with Owen at this age.  He learned the sounds /s/ and /m/ and /a/ and then completely lost interest, scribbling all over his chart when Owen put a sticker on his own chart.

Since then, Jack has pretended to read lots and lots of things.  He pointed to random things (even if they didn’t have words written on them) and told me what they ‘said.’  At first, most of it was nonsense; he’d say, “that says, ‘ peanut butter’.” or something random like that didn’t have anything to do with the situation.  Later, he would say a word or sentence that had something to do with the item.  He might look at a Lego box  in Target and ‘read’, “Darth Vader’s ship.”  if it looked like that was what was inside. 

More recently, he has picked up books that Owen has finished reading, and pretend to read a page for himself.  He opens to a page, then very slowly says a sentence, “The….dog…..likes….. to…..”  then he squints his eyes, leans closer to the book, and finishes, “ddddddddiiiiiiiiigggggg……in…the….sssssssssssssand.” 
“Oh, the dog likes to dig in the sand!”  Then he looks around to see if anyone caught him in the act, and gives you a goofy grin if you are looking at him.

A week or two ago, Jack started asking again to read out of his book.  He gets SOOOO excited when I say I have time and jumps onto the couch like I am about to hand him a huge birthday present.  It makes me laugh every time.  I  figured this excitement would last for a few days like it did last time, but he shows no sign of stopping.  He always asks for a 2nd lesson (which I say no to.)  Yesterday his was out of his mind thrilled because he got to read his first “story” out of this book.  His story was,

See me eat. 

I have to admit that I was pretty proud of him too.

We do however, need to work on comprehension.  There is a picture that goes with each story (that I cover up until the story is read and ask Jack what he thinks will be in the picture.)  When I asked Jack about the picture for the “See me eat.” story, he said some random thing about someone looking in the water.  I am not sure what that was about (maybe he was thinking ‘sea’ instead of ‘see’?   Who knows?)

I am very curious to see how long his enthusiasm will last. 

Take My Order

Jack: Can I take your order, sir?

Bridget: I will have some oatmeal.

Jack: We are out of oatmeal.

Bridget: Oh, okay, I will have a sandwich.

Jack: We don’t have soup and sandwiches here.  This isn’t Subway, this is Starbucks!  Do you want a latte?

____

Jack: Take my order, Mama.

Mama: Can I take your order, sir?

Jack:  Yes, I will have a tall america with no cream.

___

Jack:  I’m hungry.

Mama: I am just making dinner, it will be done soon.

Jack: NO!  I’m not hungry for dinner. 

Mama: You’re not?

Jack: No, my tummy is only hungry for a  snack.

Diversion

It was such a sunny day today, Lisa and I couldn’t bear to take our kids to their scheduled indoor gymnastics class.  We made a spur of the moment decision, and headed off to Fall City Farms to pick apples.

Apparent apples aren’t in season at this time of year here, but we did find some….      

carrots!

Lisa dug the dirt around the carrots with a shovel to loosen the ground enough for the kids to pull out the little orange guys. (Look at that love and dedication from a mama willing to wield a shovel despite the fact that she is carrying her nice purse, wearing a skirt, and treading around a field in flip-flops)

The carrots were picked.

Then they were escorted to the end of the row to join their friends in the wheel barrow.  (Lisa and I thought ourselves quite clever to prolong the entertainment by having the kids run down the aisle to deposit each carrot individually as it was picked.  Ok, so Katie didn’t buy it, but the other three did…)  

The monkeys and their haul – four pounds of carrots. 

You could smell the sweet scent from the wheelbarrow (I don’t normally think of carrots as even having a smell…), and they tasted wonderful!  (after they were fully washed at home.)

Owen kindly explained that “locally grown food tastes much better than other food.”  Then, “Are these carrots locally grown?”

I stopped at a farm stand on the way home to get some eggs.  Unfortunately they were out of eggs, but these drew my eye.   I bought a half-dozen.  They made me feel so happy that I went back and got some for Lisa and two of my neighbors.

Independence

I like to let my monkeys learn things for themselves when whenever possible.  I want them to learn what works and what doesn’t work too.  In general, I think trying things out for yourself is the quickest means to that end.  And a whole lot less annoying than having someone tell you…

So, I have been trying to let Jack decide more things on his own – especially things concerning self-control (Let’s just say the he has less self-control than I would like to see.  He often knows a “sad” outcome of a decision he is about to make– having tearfully lived it the day before, but is too excited in the moment, and just acts on impulse without reality entering into his brain.)

So, I am starting small – with this.  Gum.  It is a very desirable object in our house. In case you are not familiar with this particular type of gum, it is six feet of pink heaven - to the preschool group anyway.

In the past, I have bought this for the boys, kept it in the cupboard, and monitored the amount removed from the container at gum-time.

A month ago I bought a pack each for Owen and Jack, and decided to let them keep it in their rooms.  They could decide when and how much to eat on their own terms.  They just had to spit it out when we were having a meal.  A few days later Owen got some of his gum, and Jack wanted some too, but found his container was empty.

Owen offered to share, but stingily doled it out in very small pieces – making Jack ask for more several times before he had accumulated enough for a normal sized mouthful.  Owen also did not allow Jack to touch the container (which is half the fun of this gum.)    I couldn’t help suggesting that Owen be a little kinder in his dealings with his brother, but let most of the interaction slide as Owen was the one who had saved his gum. 

Owen’s gum lasted for a few more frustrating “sharing” events.  Jack did not like that he was at the mercy of Owen, but did not have much choice.

Yesterday the boys each got a new pack of dreamy bubble tape.  Again I said that they could be in control of their own “rationing” and reminded Jack to think about how he felt when he ate his gum so quickly last time.

This morning, Bridget and Jack were playing upstairs and came downstairs barely able to talk.  Apparently they each had three feet of gum in their mouth.  (While this wasn’t the outcome I was hoping for, I did find it particularly funny… this is them singing “Grey Squirrel.”)

Yum. 

And this is what I almost stepped on in the garage a few hours later. Double yum.

So, I was not really sure how my little experiment was going.  Jack certainly did not slow down his eating of his gum, quite the opposite.  But that could mean two things.  He was impulsive, or he didn’t care all that much about not having his gum last as long as his brother.

A few hours later, I realized there was a third meaning.  He solved the consequence problem.  If Owen was going to have gum when Jack didn’t, Jack could certainly take care of that too…

A Painting Kind of Day

Eric started his second day of painting today.  He worked from 7:30 AM to 10:00 PM! We have six individually framed windows that Eric had to tape off besides that floor and ceiling.  He was a trooper!!  I hung out with the boys most of the day, but did help in the evening for about 5 of those hours, but much of it was running to the store to buy more supplies.   We did finish tonight, so that is exciting.

One fun thing Eric did was paint the boys’ names on the wall  They thought it was the best thing ever.  I am not sure what they will think tomorrow when they realize it is gone.

I had some of my own painting to do – a sample work for the art lesson that the kindergarten kids in Owen’s school will do next month.  I let Owen and Jack do it so I knew it was kid friendly. 

Since the paint was already out, we decided we might as well get the most fun possible with it.

Owen’s masterpiece is, “A rainy day, and that’s the grass, and that is me and that is my you, Mama, holding my hand.”

 

Jack is big in to mixing colors and filling every tiny spot on the paper.

Jack’s masterpiece: “This is the sun, and this is the moon, and this is me when I was a tiny baby, and this is me when I was growing.  And this part where I was a tiny baby, that’s you, Mama, holding me so tight.”

It Takes a Village

After school I took Owen and Jack on a ferry ride to Bainbridge island with my friend Lisa and her daughters Katie and Sarah.  After taking the ferry back to Seattle, we decided to go out to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant with Lisa’s husband, John.  (Poor Eric was in the middle of painting our bedroom and couldn’t make it...) 

For various reasons that I won’t bore anyone with, we made a staggered arrival in three separate cars.  Lisa ended up at the restaurant first with Katie in tow.  John arrived shortly afterwards with Jack, and I was farther behind with Sarah and Owen - having had bad luck with carseats and parking spots.

As Jack walked up to the restaurant, some old friends- Tom and Di, who have known Jack since he was born, were sitting at an outside table and recognized him.  They watched Jack standing there for several minutes without seeing Eric or myself  arrive, and became alarmed.  Di approached Jack and said hello, and started asking  where his parents were.  Of course, Shy-Jack kicked in.  Lisa claimed him, “He’s with me!” when she realized that Di was worried that he was alone.

I barely came into view of the restaurant before Di called out an enthusiastic greeting and came over to meet me.  Di told me how worried she had been for Jack when she didn’t see me, and was laughing about it, but I didn’t totally understand with she was saying.  In my mind Jack was fine being with Lisa and John, but of course Di would not have associated Jack with them at all.  It wasn’t until I sat down and Lisa was telling me the story again, and described that mom-panic-voice that Di had as she was talking to Jack, that I realized what had happened.

I imagine it wasn’t until Di saw me, that she could make a final confirmation that Lisa wasn’t some nut-job who had kidnapped Jack.

And I felt so great to know that there were so many people out there who care about my kids and my family.  That Di would wait until she knew Jack was safe before going back to her family dinner, that John would make Jack feel comfortable enough to ride in his car, and earlier in the day when Becca waited with Owen after school since I was running late, that Lisa took Owen when Jack was having a lie-on-the-ground-and-scream-tantrum because he didn’t get to cross the street while holding an orange flag and I wouldn’t let him run back into the street in protest.

In a big world, it is nice to know I am part of a small village.