Yikes, so much going on. The real shocker was on the 14th, a 5th grader at Owen's school died. You might have seen it on the news... his heart stopped when he was hit with a football in the chest. Really random, really horrible. I really don't like talking to my 6 year old about death.
The kid turned out to be the son of the woman who runs a house cleaning business. Her mom cleaned our house. It brought it home a little more, but really, it was just a hug your kid week. Really depressing.
We have a new deck, which is nice, though now I wonder whether we should be spending any money at all.
Crazy weekend coming up with anniversary Thursday, Nathan's birthday Friday, Nathan's birthday party Saturday. Nathan is a good boy.
Please win Barack.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Game on
I'll gloss over the things giving me IBS this weekend, and get to the theme of the weekend: Games. Ok, it is a weak theme, and it is only based on 2 things, but here they are:
1) Showed up at Owen's soccer game Saturday morning (drizzle, wet field), and one of the coaches couldn't make it. I volunteered to be a coach for the day, which essentially meant being on the field and trying to help manage a 3 on 3 game. I had Owen, a boy named Connor, his twin sister Claire, Jillian, and Catherine. Owen can play, Connor can play, Jillian can even play, but Claire and Catherine... it isn't so much they can't play is that they can't pay attention. I also had to shuttle kids in and out while quelling my inner instinct to stick with Owen, Connor and Jillian. This was fine except for:
a) One point where I had the 3 girls in, 2 of which couldn't pay attention, and even served to distract Jillian to the point where the other team scored like 5 goals in 5 minutes; and
b) The Euro kid (Marcus), who seemed like he was on the Danish U7 team. No kidding, he slide tackled Owen. Kid was 6. Now if I'm on the sidelines, I'm not sure what to do, but when the kid is playing intense like this, it took everything I had not to yell at the other coach on the field. Also took a lot to get Owen not to smack him one (and Owen would have taken out the trash).
Anyway, I learned that coaching 6 year olds is exhausting, but also that I can set up a really good corner kick at this level. Almost the goal of the year.
2) Sunday, Owen has his quiet time after lunch, which usually involves him being in his room, listening to CDs of stories, and reading or making a fort. After quiet time, he came downstairs and shows me this series of 9 drawings he made on pieces of paper about 1" square. I have to say, they were pretty creative. Including: a) A globe b) His desk at school c) 2 trees (an apple and a pine) d) The "Ratmobile" e) A picture of a mountain with 2 guys going up the mountain, and 2 guys skiing down the other side; f) Another picture of mountain climbers; g) A "farm" (read: Garden) with vegetables growing, complete with little signs with pictures of carrots, etc.; h) A picture of a dog, with a leash extending off the picture (implying someone is walking the dog; and i) Of course I can't remember the last one.
So he explains all these drawings to me, and I'm just tickled with his creativity and initiative. Then he asks me to rank them in order of preference, and does the same with Katie. Then he decides he is going to come up with a game for these, and talks a completely convoluted nonsensical game that I kind of dismiss. But then he comes up with another game; which involved hiding each paper, then Katie and I try to find them. When you find one, you get the points associated with it, which are 9 if you find your personal favorite, 8 for 2nd favorite, etc. The trick is you get the points associated with your ranking if you find it. Anyway, he hides these and Katie and I spend awhile looking for them, and he's tallying up the points, and all I can think of is, well, WOW. This was done all on his own, with his own initiative, his own thoughts, his own creation. The game was even fun! And competitive (Katie accused me of shoving).
Good times.
1) Showed up at Owen's soccer game Saturday morning (drizzle, wet field), and one of the coaches couldn't make it. I volunteered to be a coach for the day, which essentially meant being on the field and trying to help manage a 3 on 3 game. I had Owen, a boy named Connor, his twin sister Claire, Jillian, and Catherine. Owen can play, Connor can play, Jillian can even play, but Claire and Catherine... it isn't so much they can't play is that they can't pay attention. I also had to shuttle kids in and out while quelling my inner instinct to stick with Owen, Connor and Jillian. This was fine except for:
a) One point where I had the 3 girls in, 2 of which couldn't pay attention, and even served to distract Jillian to the point where the other team scored like 5 goals in 5 minutes; and
b) The Euro kid (Marcus), who seemed like he was on the Danish U7 team. No kidding, he slide tackled Owen. Kid was 6. Now if I'm on the sidelines, I'm not sure what to do, but when the kid is playing intense like this, it took everything I had not to yell at the other coach on the field. Also took a lot to get Owen not to smack him one (and Owen would have taken out the trash).
Anyway, I learned that coaching 6 year olds is exhausting, but also that I can set up a really good corner kick at this level. Almost the goal of the year.
2) Sunday, Owen has his quiet time after lunch, which usually involves him being in his room, listening to CDs of stories, and reading or making a fort. After quiet time, he came downstairs and shows me this series of 9 drawings he made on pieces of paper about 1" square. I have to say, they were pretty creative. Including: a) A globe b) His desk at school c) 2 trees (an apple and a pine) d) The "Ratmobile" e) A picture of a mountain with 2 guys going up the mountain, and 2 guys skiing down the other side; f) Another picture of mountain climbers; g) A "farm" (read: Garden) with vegetables growing, complete with little signs with pictures of carrots, etc.; h) A picture of a dog, with a leash extending off the picture (implying someone is walking the dog; and i) Of course I can't remember the last one.
So he explains all these drawings to me, and I'm just tickled with his creativity and initiative. Then he asks me to rank them in order of preference, and does the same with Katie. Then he decides he is going to come up with a game for these, and talks a completely convoluted nonsensical game that I kind of dismiss. But then he comes up with another game; which involved hiding each paper, then Katie and I try to find them. When you find one, you get the points associated with it, which are 9 if you find your personal favorite, 8 for 2nd favorite, etc. The trick is you get the points associated with your ranking if you find it. Anyway, he hides these and Katie and I spend awhile looking for them, and he's tallying up the points, and all I can think of is, well, WOW. This was done all on his own, with his own initiative, his own thoughts, his own creation. The game was even fun! And competitive (Katie accused me of shoving).
Good times.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Biden my time
Yesterday was hectic. I really wanted to watch the debate with others and yell at the TV, but I had agreed to deal with the kids while Katie had her book group at the house. I made the mistake of taking the kids out (tired, as they are wont to be on a Thursday night) for dinner and basketball.
So we are on our way home at 7, and Owen is being contrary, egging Nathan on, and Nathan is being his almost 3 self, bitching about whatever happens (good or bad), and them both exhausted. So I promise:
1) Chocolate milk
2) Licorice (in straw form)
3) Movie (upstairs, in mommy and daddy's room, to avoid the book group).
So once we get upstairs (which was no easy feat), and my temple veins are throbbing, we finally get Space Jam on. A short aside here: Space Jam kicks ass. From the horrible Barkley/Ewing/Shawn Bradley acting to Danny DeVito voicing the bad guy, to my kids loving to sing along with "I believe I can fly", the movie really has it all.
So what happens? 5 minutes in, Nathan craps his pants. This is a bigger deal than it used to be, because Nathan wears underwear now. Now this means he's gonna need a bath, which we were going to get away without. It also means I have to drag him away from Space Jam, just before Barkley's talent gets drained away and Vlade Divac gets worried that this is a strange virus he can get from the locker room.
This involved a lot of screaming. Not so much fun. Then the bath, and Nathan flat out refuses to sit down, screaming constantly. It's a battle. It's on. I lose. I take washcloths and clean the crap off his butt and legs. Then come the jammies. And I'm close to snapping here.
Long story short: Nathan crashed hard... Owen was a saint, and I watched the debtate on TiVo. It all worked out, but man...
Tonight: The Silly Sox Hop. Enough said.
So we are on our way home at 7, and Owen is being contrary, egging Nathan on, and Nathan is being his almost 3 self, bitching about whatever happens (good or bad), and them both exhausted. So I promise:
1) Chocolate milk
2) Licorice (in straw form)
3) Movie (upstairs, in mommy and daddy's room, to avoid the book group).
So once we get upstairs (which was no easy feat), and my temple veins are throbbing, we finally get Space Jam on. A short aside here: Space Jam kicks ass. From the horrible Barkley/Ewing/Shawn Bradley acting to Danny DeVito voicing the bad guy, to my kids loving to sing along with "I believe I can fly", the movie really has it all.
So what happens? 5 minutes in, Nathan craps his pants. This is a bigger deal than it used to be, because Nathan wears underwear now. Now this means he's gonna need a bath, which we were going to get away without. It also means I have to drag him away from Space Jam, just before Barkley's talent gets drained away and Vlade Divac gets worried that this is a strange virus he can get from the locker room.
This involved a lot of screaming. Not so much fun. Then the bath, and Nathan flat out refuses to sit down, screaming constantly. It's a battle. It's on. I lose. I take washcloths and clean the crap off his butt and legs. Then come the jammies. And I'm close to snapping here.
Long story short: Nathan crashed hard... Owen was a saint, and I watched the debtate on TiVo. It all worked out, but man...
Tonight: The Silly Sox Hop. Enough said.
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