Month: November 2009

The kids woke up and immediately went to check out the Elf- who was NOT in his spot!

So began the great Elf hunt. Where was he? Why wasn’t he back from visiting Santa? Is he coming back? What will happen if he doesn’t come back? OK, maybe it wasn’t SO great since it only lasted about 20 minutes.

Eventually he was spotted when I asked the lass to check out the temperature outside. There he was, perched up on the shelf above the thermometer, carefully noting all that was going on in the house. The kids stared at him for a few moments, assessing the unexpected revelation that Sparky was not where he had been left last night.

How come he changed positions? Why is he over there? Can he talk to us now? I want to ask him about Santa! Can I ask him for more toys?

Thanks Sis.

The dearth of posting over the past couple of days was due largley to a visit with the family over the weekend. We got there late Thursday night and got back home late Sunday evening. Among other niceties, I finally got to watch some college football- and they were good games as well.

As it happens, Santa had his elves make an early visit to my parent’s home since somehow he knew the kids were going to be there. The boy and the lass were both trying to reconcile that. How’d he know they were going to be there?

They’ll just have to keep wondering.

We just started a new family Christmas tradition. The Sister actually clued us into this particular piece of magic. One of her friends has been doing it with her kids for a couple of years and they’ve enjoyed it. The sister plans on starting it with her kids in a year or so.

I am speaking of the Shelf Elf.

Both kids at school.

Both dogs at the kennel.

One wife at work.

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh…

We have our first parent-teacher tonight for the Boy. Apparently he is keenly aware of this fact based on the following exchange we had:

“Dad, do you know when you’re supposed to go to my school?”

“Ummm, what do you mean?”

“You know, when you’re going to meet with my teacher so she can tell you how good I’ve been.”

Could he really have figured out the the whole thing at such a shockingly early age?

I went to the Y with the Boy the morning. Played some racquetball with him before I brought him up to the child-watch so I could practice a little and then do some other conditioning work before heading home. On the way in, he asked if he could swipe the card at the front desk. Naturally, I let him.

Of course, if the Lass had been there she would have demanded that she be the one to get to swipe the card. I’m guessing that most parents of more than 2 kids who are of comparable age and ability run into this phenomena. Pick any relatively trivial task and assign it to child A. Child B will, shortly thereafter, decide that they’d like to give it a try. Child A will defend their turf viciously- asking if they can do said task up to days in advance (if possible) so they can maintain an edge over their sibling.

The sucker punch of the situation is to play Solomon and let them alternate doing the task.

This seemingly reasonable approach opens up the “He did it last time, I get to do it this time!” wars. Woe be to the parent that forgets whose turn it is. The child, who can barely remember to brush their teeth after breakfast, will retain a detailed history of who did what and when. The ultimate mistake here is to brush off the “turn” thing with “Well, you did this other thing today, so we’ll let your brother/ sister do this now.” There is no bartering in the world of entitlements.

Ironically, the only sane path through all of this ridiculousness is to take the task away from them both. This approach consistently causes no fits, tears, silent treatment. It’s almost like they never really wanted to do it in the first place. Shame on you for trying to give them something different to do.

The lass is going through a phase. I recognize this phase because the boy went through it long ago. We survived his assault, I reckon we’ll survive her assault.

That doesn’t mean it will be more enjoyable the second time around.

Clearly there comes a point in a young child’s life where they really start to assert independence. Or at least the attempt to. Right now, the lass wants to control every aspect of her existence. What she wears, what she eats, which car she sits in, what games are played, who she plays them with, whether she gets ready for bed before her brother… Think of something and she has an opinion on her role regarding it.

The boy had his first skating lesson today. The ice time lasted about an hour- although he and the 30 or so other first timers had all had enough after 45 minutes. There were no formal lessons or anything. The class basically consisted of suiting all the kids up and getting them on the ice. There were about 10 to 15 or so experienced skaters on the ice with them. They busied themselves by going from kid to kid making sure they all got a little one-on-one time. Mostly, though, it was obvious that the idea was to let the kids figure it out for themselves. That seemed about right. By the end, the boy actually finally did a little skating; regardless, he was cold, wet and ready to stop.

The most amusing moment came at the 45 minute mark when I happened to survey the ice. I’d say, conservatively, 90% of the kids were either laying, kneeling, or sitting on the ice. They’d all had it and were ready for ice time to be over.

We didn’t actually mention his playdate to him until the morning of. Upon learning, he started vibrating with excitement. From that point, he was pretty easy to motivate through his brief morning at the house- he didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize going to his friend’s house. So after getting dressed and scarfing down a breakfast that I don’t think he really tasted, he settled into watching the TV and asking when we were leaving every 5 minutes.

Emphasis on date, definitely. The boy has been after me for the past few weeks because he’s been wanting to have a friend over. The first time he mentioned it, he claimed that the girl’s parents had already given permission and all we needed to do was let her come over. The girl’s Mom’s response to this news was “First I’ve heard of it” though it wasn’t the first time she’d heard the boy’s name.

Well, his friend got sick and missed some school so the whole thing was put on the backburner for a week or so. But he didn’t stop asking about having his friend over. I finally was able to speak with the Mom a second time and learned that the girl picks flowers to give to the boy on the bus because they usually sit on the bus together. For his part, the boy did a picture for the girl.

He picked a page from one of his dinosaur coloring books, took a red marker and wrote his name on the page with a little heart after his name. Then he drew a smiley face on the page and had me tear it out so that he could put it in his backpack to give to his friend.

So the two are set for their play date for Friday. The boy will be going to visit over there and they’ll be able to get on the bus together.

Should be an interesting day.