This evening, while I was cleaning the fishbowl, Xavier came running into the bathroom in a panic.
"Mom! Mom!" he cried. "Gwen got an owie, and it is bleeding!"
Picturing a grim scene of Gwen lying prostrate with pain on the floor (with a trivial injury, admittedly -- the kids tend to overreact), I headed into her bedroom. She wasn't there.
I listened -- nothing. No wails of pain or sobs or anything.
"Gwen?" I asked.
"It was really bleeding!" Xavier chimed in.
"What?" Gwen answered in a normal voice from downstairs.
"Where are you?" I asked, as I started down the stairs.
"Putting a band-aid on," Gwen said, matter-of-factedly, like it was no big deal.
"Did you clean it first?"
"Yeah."
She came out of the bathroom and showed me her spiffy Spiderman band-aid. "It was a paper cut."
I looked down at her with a mingling array of emotions. She is growing up, can take care of minor injuries herself, doesn't cry at the drop of a hat anymore. She stood there, looking up at me, expectantly.
"Um, do you want a kiss to make it better?" I asked.
She held up her hand. "Yes, please."
Oh, good. I'm not completely out-moded.
(Although Gwen now tells me that one of her classmates is teaching her not to cry so much -- probably a good thing.)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Chocolate Fever
No, we aren't dead. We had new floors installed downstairs, new stairs installed, and between work on the house, bouts of illness, etc., we have either been too swamped or too tired to post.
Anyway, we finished our first round of swimming lessons in the meantime. As is the way of the world sometimes, Gwen did not pass to Level 3, despite her best efforts, and Xavier did pass to Level 2, despite not doing anything. Actually, in Xavier's case, he was passed because he is getting too old for that class, even though he still won't put his head in the water.
Anyway, Gwen was devastated, of course, and cried and cried -- and that was before the teacher brought her card over. I had expected this to happen, but by the time the teacher came over, I was bawling too (sympathy pains, I guess.) I'm sure we made an excellent impression. That said, I am really proud of her progress -- considering that on the first day of class she cried twice -- and loudly -- because she was afraid, and by the last class she had passed probably fifteen out of twenty test items on the checklist (and of the five she "failed", she got partial credit on three). I was really impressed by her progress. Actually, out of four kids in the class, only one passed, and she had taken this class -- and private lessons -- before, so I guess the bar is pretty high.
Okay, enough bragging about how my kid failed swim class.
Today was an early release day from school, so we invited a couple of kids over, Teddy and Alexis. Alexis and Gwen have been friends since nursery school, and Teddy -- her older brother -- was kind of along for the ride. Xavier likes him, but he is three years older than Xavier, so when he comes over conflict is inevitable.
Of course, when I confirmed the playdate on Saturday, I was a bit apprehensive, because I was in the early throes of a cold.
I became a tad more nervous when the mother said her husband would pick the kids up at 5:15 (they're nice kids, but they aren't my kids, and my patience wears thin sometimes with other people's kids -- four hours seemed like kind of a lot.)
I probably should have called the whole thing off when Adam came down with my cold yesterday and decided to take today off -- but he said he didn't want to disappoint the kids, so he would just hide in our room. So I didn't call it off.
When I was trying to come up with activities to keep the kids occupied, Gwen showed me an activity that involved dipping various foods -- mostly fruit -- in chocolate and letting them cool to make candy. It was in Highlights Magazine, and given that most of the kids involved were six and up, I figured it was probably age appropriate -- it might be a bit advanced for Xavier, but I could help him as needed.
I was wrong, on so many levels.
First of all, I completely misguessed at what the kids might like to dip in chocolate. I put out a variety of dried fruits, and -- at the last minute -- a bowl of animal crackers. At the end, I still had plenty of fruit, and I had refilled the animal crackers bowl twice. To their credit, Gwen and Xavier mostly stuck to the fruit.
Secondly, I woefully overestimated how long it would take them to do this activity -- within two minutes, Teddy was asking (every thirty seconds) when he could eat his chocolates; after eight minutes of this, I finally gave in (seemed better than killing him), and two minutes after that he was done and wanted to do something else. In the meantime, I caught Alexis using the melted chocolate like dip (and double-dipping), so I had to get a fresh bowl of chocolate for the girls.
Finally, I severely underestimated how long it would take to clean up after the kids. Teddy looked like he had chocolate pox when he was done (he even had chocolate behind his ears), but he was easily outdone by Alexis, who had been two-fisting the chocolate from the bowl once Gwen was done, needed a complete wardrobe makeover, had chocolate even in her hair, all over her chair, and then she tracked it across the kitchen floor. By comparison, Gwen had spilled a spoonful of chocolate on the table -- not too bad. Xav's area was spotless.
So, when all was said and done, I ended up with a fifteen minute activity that took over an hour to clean up after. And a new appreciation of how great my kids are.
Finally, Xavier lost his favorite book, Chocolate Fever, several months ago. I have no idea why this is his favorite book, especially since it is a "chapter" book and he can't read, but who can fathom the ways of kids? Anyway, I finally broke down and ordered him a new copy on Saturday.
He found the old copy on Sunday.
Anyway, we finished our first round of swimming lessons in the meantime. As is the way of the world sometimes, Gwen did not pass to Level 3, despite her best efforts, and Xavier did pass to Level 2, despite not doing anything. Actually, in Xavier's case, he was passed because he is getting too old for that class, even though he still won't put his head in the water.
Anyway, Gwen was devastated, of course, and cried and cried -- and that was before the teacher brought her card over. I had expected this to happen, but by the time the teacher came over, I was bawling too (sympathy pains, I guess.) I'm sure we made an excellent impression. That said, I am really proud of her progress -- considering that on the first day of class she cried twice -- and loudly -- because she was afraid, and by the last class she had passed probably fifteen out of twenty test items on the checklist (and of the five she "failed", she got partial credit on three). I was really impressed by her progress. Actually, out of four kids in the class, only one passed, and she had taken this class -- and private lessons -- before, so I guess the bar is pretty high.
Okay, enough bragging about how my kid failed swim class.
Today was an early release day from school, so we invited a couple of kids over, Teddy and Alexis. Alexis and Gwen have been friends since nursery school, and Teddy -- her older brother -- was kind of along for the ride. Xavier likes him, but he is three years older than Xavier, so when he comes over conflict is inevitable.
Of course, when I confirmed the playdate on Saturday, I was a bit apprehensive, because I was in the early throes of a cold.
I became a tad more nervous when the mother said her husband would pick the kids up at 5:15 (they're nice kids, but they aren't my kids, and my patience wears thin sometimes with other people's kids -- four hours seemed like kind of a lot.)
I probably should have called the whole thing off when Adam came down with my cold yesterday and decided to take today off -- but he said he didn't want to disappoint the kids, so he would just hide in our room. So I didn't call it off.
When I was trying to come up with activities to keep the kids occupied, Gwen showed me an activity that involved dipping various foods -- mostly fruit -- in chocolate and letting them cool to make candy. It was in Highlights Magazine, and given that most of the kids involved were six and up, I figured it was probably age appropriate -- it might be a bit advanced for Xavier, but I could help him as needed.
I was wrong, on so many levels.
First of all, I completely misguessed at what the kids might like to dip in chocolate. I put out a variety of dried fruits, and -- at the last minute -- a bowl of animal crackers. At the end, I still had plenty of fruit, and I had refilled the animal crackers bowl twice. To their credit, Gwen and Xavier mostly stuck to the fruit.
Secondly, I woefully overestimated how long it would take them to do this activity -- within two minutes, Teddy was asking (every thirty seconds) when he could eat his chocolates; after eight minutes of this, I finally gave in (seemed better than killing him), and two minutes after that he was done and wanted to do something else. In the meantime, I caught Alexis using the melted chocolate like dip (and double-dipping), so I had to get a fresh bowl of chocolate for the girls.
Finally, I severely underestimated how long it would take to clean up after the kids. Teddy looked like he had chocolate pox when he was done (he even had chocolate behind his ears), but he was easily outdone by Alexis, who had been two-fisting the chocolate from the bowl once Gwen was done, needed a complete wardrobe makeover, had chocolate even in her hair, all over her chair, and then she tracked it across the kitchen floor. By comparison, Gwen had spilled a spoonful of chocolate on the table -- not too bad. Xav's area was spotless.
So, when all was said and done, I ended up with a fifteen minute activity that took over an hour to clean up after. And a new appreciation of how great my kids are.
Finally, Xavier lost his favorite book, Chocolate Fever, several months ago. I have no idea why this is his favorite book, especially since it is a "chapter" book and he can't read, but who can fathom the ways of kids? Anyway, I finally broke down and ordered him a new copy on Saturday.
He found the old copy on Sunday.
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