Global Warming

Before I get into the meat of this entry ... yes, Gwen did pass her karate test. She is now the proud owner of a yellow belt. Yay for Gwen! We are very proud of her.


And Xavier is still writing his name reliably on any surface he can find. We are very proud of him, but we found a certain irony in a "report card" he got from his daycare center/preschool last week. It said, "Xavier seems to be having a hard time learning his letters." MY COWORKER TAUGHT HIM TO WRITE HIS NAME SIMPLY BY WRITING IT ON THE BOARD AND SUGGESTING HE PRACTICE! Hmmm.


Okay, the meat of the entry ... today, when we got home, I needed to go to the bathroom. I usually endeavor to do this without company by going upstairs to do it when the kids are distracted. Today, I distracted them by turning on the radio and saying, "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be back in a minute, but if you could listen for the weather forecast, I would appreciate it." I thought this would have been a good ploy, because the kids have been dying for a good snow because they want to try out their new sled.

Well, I knew this attempt was doomed to failure when the silence was broken by a scream of, "Mom!" from downstairs.

This was followed by:

Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump ....

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Bump, bump, bump, BANG! Bump, bump, bump, bump ...

And then Xavier bounced through the door. "Mom! Mom!" he panted, jumping up and down on the tips of his toes. "It's going to snow! I just heard it on the radio! It's going to snow!"

"Wow, that's great, Xavier," I replied.

Still bouncing, "Yeah! It's going to snow -- in West Virginia!"

In case you didn't know -- we don't live in West Virginia. Oh, well, at least his listening skills seem to be better than his evaluation from preschool/daycare would imply.


In other global warming news, I got a little hot around the collar this weekend (this probably isn't sufficiently funny for you, so you can stop reading, Joel). I have been trying to set up a playdate for Gwen with a friend of hers for about a month. This is a girl she has been friends with since before she started preschool, and although we don't get together often, when we do, she always has a great time. She still has pictures of this little girl on her dresser.

I guessed maybe the handwriting was on the wall when this girl -- I'll call her "Morgan" -- did not come to our Halloween party; I understand that friendships change when kids start kindergarten, and Gwen and Morgan are not in the same class, but shortly after Christmas, Gwen said, "You know, Mom, it has been a long time since I have seen my good friend Morgan. I really miss her." And I promised I would set up a date.

When I contacted Morgan's mom, she at first seemed very receptive to having a playdate, but every week since, she has asked to postpone. All of the reasons sounded good -- death in the family, weather problems, delayed surgery -- until this weekend, when I got notice the day before (though, admittedly, it was sent two days before) that there was some event Morgan really wanted to go to, could we try for another time, or maybe the girls could just see each other at an upcoming birthday party for a mutual friend? There was no attempt to invite Gwen with them to the "event", or even a definite reschedule date (as there had been the previous weeks), and, of course my phone calls went unreturned and suggested reschedule times ignored.

Now, I may be a bit of a geek, and a tad socially inept (or even severely so), but even I can see what is going on here. The problem is, I have a sweet little girl who doesn't understand why Morgan won't come and play. You can explain illness, weather, and even death; if Morgan's mom had said, "Morgan just doesn't want to see Gwen, sorry," then it would have been sad, but sometimes these lessons have to be learned. To tell your daughter, however, "You can't see Morgan because her mom does not want to have to spend time with me," is a little complicated for an almost-six-year-old.

The last correspondence I received from Morgan's mom said, "I hope we can see you soon -- it has been too long!" I had to laugh. If she does try to reschedule, I'll probably go along with it -- I can overlook a lot for the sake of two little girls -- but I won't let Gwen know in advance this time.

And I won't let this rift in our relationship prevent me from giving Morgan's mom free Kempo Karate coupons.


PS The kids LOVE www.becomeanmm.com Thanks, Jilian!