Influence

I took the boys to a park today since the weather was so nice.  While they were playing, an older boy – maybe  10 or 12 - climbed up a high slide with a big backpack on his back and a skateboard attached to that.  I smiled because Owen and Jack were at the top of the slide and I knew that they would be completely enamored with this boy.  Sure enough, they were soon talking to this kid – giving him their rapt attention that I can only dream of (seriously - where is that focus in the morning when it is time to brush teeth and get dressed and ready for school!?)

Last year Owen was taken in his fifth-grade “reading buddy” who read to him.  The same was true for the lifeguards at the pool this summer and with Kyle, Owen’s speech therapist.  It was sweet to see Owen look up to these guys and to see Owen pick attributes from these boys that he would like to claim for himself.  Owen can’t wait to read  longer and harder books and to be able to go to France (as the students do in fifth grade).  He has added “lifeguard” to his list of possible jobs for when his is older.  And being kind and fair are attributes he learned from Kyle.

So when the skateboard boy smiled and walked away as I approached Owen and Jack to tell them it was time to leave, I wondered what Owen would tell me about him.

Compared to the other older boys that Owen has had access to, I was in for quite a surprise.  “Mom, that boy was telling us to do really crazy things!”  (gulp)  “He said that we should go up to this certain person and just start screaming in their face.”  Owen started laughing – it was a kind of “I think that’s funny” , and “I feel nervous” kind of  laugh.  “Then the boy told us if we screamed in their face and kicked and punched them – then he would give us his skateboard!”  Owen’s response to this boy was, “No way!”, but you could tell that Owen really wanted that skateboard and he definitely seemed confused about why the boy was talking like that.

My first reaction was to run after the skate-boarder boy and give him a piece of my mind.  But I doubt that would have really made an impact on him.  Instead I asked Owen what he thought would happen had he followed the skateboard boy’s plan.  I was surprised at Owen’s answer to that question.  Owen didn’t say, “ I would get into trouble.” or “The boy I hit would be hurt.”  Instead, Owen replied, “that boy would not really give me the skateboard anyway.”   I was really glad to hear that Owen evaluated the boy’s request, and was able to come to the conclusion that the kid was probably not someone that Owen wanted to listen to, much less trust. 

At first, I did not like the thought of Owen being influenced by kids like this.  I have the desire to protect him.  But then I began to think more about Owen’s response and I felt much better.  It gave Owen an opportunity to see an example of a negative attribute – and to reject it.

So I suppose that a negative interaction can give way to learning too.  Though I am not sure I want my boys to learn this way too often…

Superman

Jack showing his superman moves…

Summer Reminder

Lisa and I took our monkeys down to a beach by her house after school on Tuesday.  The weather was beautiful and views were amazing.We spent all of our sunny days at the pool this summer, and while we love the pool, we missed out on joys of digging and playing in the sand.

Owen was the only one to brave the water, but decided it was too cold (or too lonely) to put his head under, so he didn’t really swim.I pointed out the three towers that are on Queen Anne hill (in the background of the photo of Owen).   When I told the monkeys that Eric and I met each other over there, Owen gasped.  “Wow, you met there?” he asked.  “It is so close.  We could just DRIVE there!”  I guess the trip to Corfu was a little bit longer…

“I’m Used To It”

“I’m used to it,” is what Jack now says about school. He is happy to go, and says, “Staying home all day just playing with my toys might get too boring for me now.”

I am relieved.

Jack was quite hesitant about school for the first week or two.  On the first day I lingered in the classroom with the other parents.  Jack was understandably nervous for me to leave, but it was fairly smooth once he became involved in an activity.  At pick-up Jack was laughing and talking to another student. 

The next day’s drop off and pick-up where the same (nervous drop off and very happy kid at pick-up), but after school Jack said that sometimes he feels scared and wonders when I am going to pick him up. His eyes welled up with tears when he told me and I realized that he is at school for 3 1/2 hours each day which is just 30 minutes less than the amount of time he spent in school for the whole week last year.  The days must seem long!

A few days later an annoyed sounding Jack said to his French teacher, “I don’t understand what you are saying!”  I have to admit that I busted out laughing when I heard this – It is just like Jack to tell it like it is!  But I did start to worry a little because the heart of Jack’s relationships with people is wrapped up the the playful language he uses.   Since talking is so important to Jack, I worried that he would have a different (and not quite authentic)  relationship with his teachers that would be vastly different from his relationships that he has at home and with his other teachers (from preschool and from Gymnastics)

During the second week of school, I had to leave while Jack cried and Yvan, the assistant teacher, held him from running out of the door.   (As soon as I was in my car, I stated bawling myself  - and scared the crap out of my mom when I called her – sorry Mom.) 

At pick-up Yvan worriedly asked me if “Today is really Jack’s last day at school????”  Jack looked up at me and smiled his guilty look.  “I was just saying it could be my last day…” he trailed off.  I explained to the teachers that Jack likes to talk to people and play with words  - and sometimes make up stories.  Yvan assured me that Jack was doing well, and had even adjusted much better than some of the other students in the class.  That seemed to fit with Jack being so happy at the end of the school day.  He did seem to be having fun.

After that day, drop-offs have been fine.  Jack still likes me to walk in with him, but then he gives me a kiss and a hug and takes his little name card over to the chart that shows he is present. 

This week his teacher, Caroline, told me what a great student that Jack is: being kind to the other kids, listening to the teachers, staying in his seat if he has work to finish, and being polite!

It is funny how a feeling or an event can feel so big and then just grow smaller over time.  Then you just “get used to it” somehow.  I don’t really get it, but I will take a happy Jack over a sad Jack any day.

Pool Closure

Even though we had spent all morning and afternoon packing and driving home from Hood Canal, the warm water of our pool called us. On Labor day, the pool closes for the season.  So, the very last day of pool season also called us.  Closure called us.  (I really need closure on lots of things…but that is another story)

So we packed up once again for a final day at the pool to get closure.

Closure on the little snack bar…

closure on sunny days with ice cream..

closure on the diving board…

closure on Jack’s funny dives…

those dives are so great, let’s have one more closure…

closure on seeing Jack in his big blue goggles…

closure on death defying Daddy throwing games…

and closure on attack Daddy games…

and closure on Mama swimming across the pool with a boy on her back. (sorry – no photo – I was busy swimming)

The Hood

An update from the rest of Hood Canal weekend -

The monkeys spent as much time as they could collecting crabs on the beach.  Owen started out picking up only the smaller crabs, then bigger and bigger ones.  There was never enough in the bucket so the collecting task lasted quite some time…

The daddies went out in the canoes by themselves for awhile then took the monkeys out as well.

Ahhhhh!  No hands!

I painted my toenails in the sunshine while I overlooked the canal.  Very relaxing!

On the first night the men made a meal of seafood and steak.  On another night, Nana and I made a kind of Mediterranean meal with Tzatziki, pita, a spicy pork, and a quinoa salad that was so yummy!  Even though Jack said “that’s not my favorite” (Eric and my attempt at polite-ing up Jack‘s normal comment of “that’s disgusting!”) Jack ate quite a bit hen he actually tried it.

The mamas took a go at canoeing on the last morning.

Another more Tyler-friendly beach wasn’t too far away so we took a little excursion there and to a restaurant with huge burgers -which are apparently an enormous draw for biker gangs…

Three or four seals popped up to bid us farewell as we were leaving.  The lens I was using has no zoom at all so I couldn’t get a picture of the seals, but  how cute are Dock and Owen watching the seals!  

Pedouins

Owen, Jack and I were  walking down a street in Seattle today when we saw a very old bus with a bike rack on the side.  The bike rack was holding a very long tandem bike that fit five people!  We were all intrigued and stopped to talk about it.  The middle seat on the bike was obviously for a very young child.  As we talked a man got off the bus and told us that he and his family rode the bike from Kentucky to Fairbanks, Alaska.  At the time his children were 2, 4, and 6!  They went over 7000 miles in just over a year.  Owen asked a million questions and the man answered them so kindly and with such enthusiasm. “He was one of the nicest men I ever met!” Owen exclaimed after we walked away.

The family was giving a talk at the Seattle REI store a few hours later, so the boys and I stopped at a restaurant for dinner, played at a park and hung out at a coffee shop to kill time.

The presentation was incredibly interesting and inspiring.

Definitely check out their site!

http://www.pedouins.org/history.html

 

Hood Canal Weekend

After school, we drove down to Hood Canal to spend Labor Day weekend with Dock, Nana, and Tyler. 

The house we rented is right on a rocky beach and today the boys enjoyed exploring.(Tyler explored from the Bjorn…)

We found oysters which we collected to go with dinner, and Dock lifted a big rock and showed the boys how they could find little crabs.  Jack would not touch one, but after some initial hesitation, Owen was hooked.  After awhile he apparently found a crab that he really liked.  I say this because Owen carried him around in his shirt pocket.

Both boys brought a crab up to the house (I carried Jack’s) and put them into a tiny aquarium (aka a juice glass.)  Owen named his crab, “Lucky”  and I think that might have been a good name as the crab  survived into the evening under the care of a six-year-old and was released (still alive!) before bedtime. 

Jack named his crab, “Crabby Anderson – or you can say, Crab Abby Anderson.  Actually he is Henry Anderson which is like me only not the Jack!” 

One of the boys offered licorice to the crabs as a special dessert.  We cannot tell if the crabs liked the licorice or not…

Tyler spent quite a bit of time crawling around exploring the house.  He did not find a tiny crab, but that didn’t seem to bother him at all! 

(Tyler doesn’t usually use a binky, but Jack felt the need to give the binkies to Tyler at random times – and also take them away at random times. Luckily Tyler was content either way – and simply found Jack to be a very entertaining toy!)

They boys went wild when they realized that they got to sleep in bunk beds.  They climbed right on the beds and put their nai-nai guys away as soon as we arrived.  Bedtime was a breeze!

Eric and I lucked out on our room as well.  It was a beautiful room with a king bed and a huge window overlooking the lake.

The Cousins

Yesterday I picked up my nieces Lauren and Hannah.  They hung out with Jack while Owen was at school.  Owen joined the fun after school.

Jack thought playing in the dirt was the best thing to do.

Lauren and Hannah thought throwing the lawn-dart, cartwheeling and walking on their hands was more interesting.

Jack thought running around looked fun, and joined in in his own unique way.

I am not sure that Hannah knew the power of a 50 pound 4-year-old…

Luckily, she is a good sport

…most of the time.

Lauren is pretty good at all of the lawn sports, but  is not partial to the camera…

Owen was much more interested in watching Hannah play the guitar and listening to her sing.

He was especially pleased with the little lesson on playing chords that Hannah gave him.  I wouldn’t mind if a little of her songwriting skills rubbed off on him. ..

Hannah’s songs that she writes sound like they could be on the top 40.  Of course no one will take me seriously because they will think I am biased since I am her aunt.  But the lyrics are really that good.