duh

Ok, so some things got cleared up. I met the boy's mother today. The reason I couldn't picture her is because she never comes to pick him up - her son takes the bus every day but she was there today. She actually didn't invite the whole class, just 4 of the boys, and she seems like a pretty cool funny lady.

She works at the Senior school, that's why they have access to the gym and fields for the party, and they're using a school van to take the kids to the movies. I still think it's too much time so I let her know that we'll maybe just come for part of it.

I was in full-on social retardation mode this afternoon. I hate when that happens! I don't even want to go into it but if you are a computer person like me then you probably know exactly what I mean. Sometimes the conversational skills just aren't there. Hopefully that other mom didn't get the wrong impression of me - maybe I seemed totally normal. Like, maybe if I saw a video of myself from today I'd be relieved but I tell you I felt completely inept.

Darren and I don't get out much ... Oh well! Better luck next time.

Peek through this hole!

See into her brain!

Will she survive the Birthday Party Anxiety?

$1.00 per guess!

***~~ { !CLICK TO VIEW REAL LIVE NEUROSIS! } ~~***

Ugh, now what.

Since Jackson's birthday is October 6th there hasn't been a lot of time for us to get to know everybody well in his class - kids and parents alike. I had been putting off planning a party for him that would include his whole class because it just seems to soon for that, and he seems too young (and my house seems too half-painted) to have everyone over here. And I am pretty sure that at this age you are not supposed to invite just a few kids from class. If you're going to have a party, pretty much everyone needs to be invited.

So I was thinking, since it's Thanksgiving in Canada that weekend and they don't have school on his birthday, I would take him and a couple friends from outside school to the movies that afternoon and just have a low-key day.

HOWEVER ... In his take-home bag today there was a party invitation from a boy in his class for October 6th. Everybody is invited. They have rented out the Senior school gym and field for them to play on. They have rented a bus and are taking all the kids to the movies. Drop off time is 11:30, pick up at 4:30. That's a really, really long time.

There isn't any mention of who will be looking after the kids all that time. It's not like being at school - they're going to be running all over the place, and the theatre they're going to is MASSIVE. Easy to get lost in. I know the boy's name, but I can't even picture his parents in my mind.

I kind of don't know what to do. I don't want Jackson to miss out on a great time ... but it also might not be such a great time and I think that's way too long. Plus, that is HIS special day. I wouldn't want him to spend his whole birthday celebrating somebody else's birth and watching another boy open all those presents.

But maybe he'll really want to go. Maybe by then he will have forgiven the fact that this boy apparently socked him in the stomach today. I don't know how hard, I don't know what the circumstances were... I do know that Jackson didn't cry but he said it hurt. He said that this boy was angry about something and that they'd had an argument but he couldn't remember what it was about, or he didn't want to tell me.

When this kind of thing happens it's often just a misunderstanding and they forgive and forget by the end of the day, but then there is another kid who spits on his classmates and gets regular time-outs so it's hard to tell what is an exaggeration and what is more serious. I don't know why I thought there wouldn't be any of this kind of thing at his school.

I was particularly disappointed to hear about the hitting though, by this boy with the birthday invitation, because on previous days I saw how genuinly happy he was to see Jackson at school and I felt glad to know that he already had made such a nice friend. Now Jackson says that he thinks they might not be friends anymore.

I'm dying to prod Jackson to tell me more but I know if I wait until later this evening I'll get a better response.

So basically, I think it's probably not a good idea to send Jackson on this all-day thing with these faceless parents who may or may not be capable of looking after eighteen 5 year olds, and possibly some siblings, with or without hired assistance.

Also, WHO GETS THE BIRTHDAY TAKE HOME BAG??? There is this special birthday bag in the classroom and it goes home with the birthday kid full of special things. I'll have to talk to his teacher about this.

By the way, I fully do not expect anybody to really care or even read all of this. This is sort of just helping me think ...

Maybe the answer is to pack up the presents and the suitcases and head up-island somewhere special for the weekend right after school on Thursday. Hmmmm ...

Expect a similar post this time next year!

... oh I just had another thought. I'll speak to his teacher tomorrow after school and share my thoughts. Maybe I can send a bunch of party favors or cupcakes or something to school with him on Thursday the 5th and have them take 15 minutes or so just to wish him a Happy Birthday, and maybe she can prepare two take home bags. Anybody still reading this have any suggestions?

What colour is your trash?

My neighbors' trash is white. They got white trash coming out their ears next door. It started out three months ago with an empty propane tank and has grown to include two twin-sized pieces of foam, an old tire, miscellaneous pieces of wood and metal, part of an old door, chunks of pipe, buckets, another propane tank, small appliances, and the best - today ... a massive underground oil tank appeared.

Darren and I have daily conversations about how to bring this up with our neighbor. I keep hoping that we'll avoid conflict and they will have a truck come around to haul it away. I keep thinking maybe he's just getting all the garbage together first before he makes the call. They are renters (a brother and sister - is this more and more like Deliverance?) and therefore probably do not care so much about the appearance of their house and yard (which is putting it nicely...)

Hey, fuck it. This is my blog. Whatever, I do what I want! These guys are unconscious pigs. They have no sense of personal space and wander into our yard whenever they feel like it. Their fatherless nephew takes Jackson's toys out of the storage shed without asking and leaves them laying around, and has even wandered into our house through the back door during dinner. Our neighbor drives his car across our lawn to use our driveway when it's easier than backing out. WE NEED A FENCE.

Just look at this! I uploaded the super big version so you can zoom in and check out all the crap.


I'd like to point out the white trash "hot tub". DO YOU EVEN BELIEVE THIS SHIT? It's a wooden pallet with ceramic tiles glued on for a platform, and an indoor jetted tub rigged up to the outside of the house as the hot tub. There's half a real hot tub cover on top. Could this be a fire hazard? I'm sure the city will tell me when I send them these pictures.


Darren has asked that I not report them until we've spoken to them so that's fair - I'll give Darren two days to go talk to them - I'm not doing it - before I write up my report. We live on and island and are close to the water. In this part of the world that means rats. I don't care how much money you have, if you live here you have to watch out for them.

DOES THIS NOT LOOK LIKE THE PERFECT RAT HABITAT? One of those days when our neighbor was exhibiting his classic lack of personal space he came up the stairs of my deck to tell me about the rats he's killed in his house. They have no insulation in their walls and the walls, from what he says, are open at the top meaning they do not meet the ceiling, and they are hollow except for the rats. (these are $450,000 houses, it's not a slum)

He killed one with a 2 x 4. He killed another with a bow and arrow. IN THE HOUSE. These weren't small rats either, he says. So obviously I am concerned, despite being totally disgusted by the view. We have plans to put in a fence but it hasn't happened yet. I think November it is going in (I hope). But our deck is high enough to see over a 6' fence to this mess so I'm thinking of putting bamboo in pots on our deck. Something that will grow high enough to give us some privacy and block them out.

The owner is some old, old woman who supposedly is not long for this world. I can only hope that something better will happen next door when she dies.

Let's see...

What else do I have to report... Well I never did get around to talking about my parent info night at Jackson's school last week. It was two hours long and I was pretty tired by the time I got home and my hunny and the kids were missing me so I didn't take the time to write it down while it was fresh in my head.

It's faded a little now but here are a few of the highlights. We sat in the gym for an hour while the grade teachers and the specialty teachers (music, languages, sports) gave some really fun presentations. For instance, the Japanese teacher, Mrs. Hayashi, spoke to us in Japanese and had us stand and repeat some things in order to demonstrate how she teaches our children. It was really fun and very effective! Konichiwa!

The head of school, Bob Snowden, gave a little speech and I realized it's him out there at the crosswalk holding the stop sign in front of the Junior school every Wednesday morning. I think that is SO cool. The other mornings it's Nancy Richards, director of the Junior school, out there greeting us and stopping cars.

After the presentations, some of which had everybody cracking up, we split up to go to our kids' classrooms. We all sat on tiny chairs in Mrs. Lincoln's room and listened for another hour about her program, what we can expect, how things have gone so far, etc. She had a folder full of things for us to read and when she was done we all wandered around the class looking at what the kids have been working on so far.

I wish I had brought my camera. There was a section on the wall where the kids each drew a picture of themself. When I saw Jackson's I laughed so hard that my eyes teared up ... I'm sure every parent there thought their child's drawing was very special but I swear there was something just altogether different about Jackson's. It had this intensity that I can't even describe. This little stick man with a crazy look in his eyes - I don't know when we'll get to have it at home, maybe not until the end of the year, but I will be sure to post it here when I can. I just loved it.

I left the evening feeling so up. I love that school and each of the teachers so clearly cares about what they are doing there. I couldn't be more pleased that Jackson is having this opportunity.

I'm so lucky!

Today is my birthday, and my wonderful husband completely surprised me with a giclee print by my one of my favorite artists, Duane Keiser.

I'm now the proud owner of number 86 of 500 of this delightful piece, titled Strawberry PBJ:

Low-grade Hooliganism!

Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod! My favorite writer-mom visited meeeeeeeee?? I am so flattered and I think I might be blushing! (aaack, stay cool man. keepittogether keepittogether).

whew.

Ok, I LOVE that you think I might be funny, but to be fair you do know that I didn't create that excellent prank, right? I just wrote about my experience doing it. That's all Rob Cockerham's brilliance and I was just one of his minions ... His whole site is fantastic and you should have a look through if you have a couple of hours.

Frannie's dance videos are posted here but if you can't see them for any reason the one on Salon is this one.

The Marauder's Map! Hmmm, I would have taken you for a Harry Potter fan. Not bitten by the bug? The Marauder's Map is a magical map that is activated by the words, "I solemly swear I am up to no good!". Then the ink rises to the surface of the paper to show you a map of your location, along with footprints and the name of anybody in the vicinity. The footprints move around on the paper as the person they represent moves around, so since my little family always seems to be within 4 square feet of each other no mater what we're doing - brushing our teeth, taking a shower, working in the office, watching TV, making dinner - we'd look like a little clump on that map.

Thanks for visiting, please come again. I was so excited to see your comment!!

What did you do today?

It's the second question I ask Jackson when I pick him up. First I ask him how he's feeling, but really I can't wait to hear about everything that happens during those six hours he's off having his own life.

Today's answers:
We played in the gym,
I got to draw a picture of myself,
Our Japanese teacher came in! We say, "Ohio Gozaimasu, Hayashi Sensei" (Good morning, teacher Hayashi)

I am going to want to start learning Japanese to keep up with this kid.

Dancy Pants

Frances is famous! She's front-page news on Salon.com. I submitted one of her dance videos when my mom mentioned that they were having a "dance off" in their Video Dog section.

Check it out:


And on the Video Dog page:

The text here reads, "Frances, at just 17 months, shows a lot more rhythm than most of the hipsters we've watched try to move to the Arctic Monkeys. (Thanks to mom Serena for the video!)"

This isn't the first time she's appeared on a popular website though. You might also have seen her special appearences on Cockeyed.com, here and here.

She's destined for greatness!

Preview

Here's a corner of the living room with its new blue color. The facing wall is pure white, but this is all I'm showing for now since I haven't finished the trim or anything yet. No artwork up on the walls yet either so that's why this is a preview.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey.

Kindergarten!

Today was the official beginning of the Kindergarten year and all the children and their families met on the school grounds for orientation. There was coffee and tea, little introductions, and the classes split up with their teachers for an hour. Jackson's teacher is Mrs. Lincoln (below in the pink sweater and skirt).

Rick and Suzanne are visiting and got to come see the school and watch Jackson mingle with his new classmates. I met with the volunteer coordinator and signed up for library duty, every other Tuesday from 8:30 to 12:30. I lucked out - the Kindergarteners come to the library every Tuesday morning to check out books so I'll get to see our boy in his new environment while Frances has some good bonding time with her Papa. And ... it will make the transition to Kindergarten a little easier for me.