Crush

Way back at the start of the school year, Leif met a girl.

She is a cute little blonde who wears great shoes, plays the cello and loves little kids. And she is a FOURTH grader!

It all started innocently enough. Leif was nervous to ride the bus, he never had before. I was nervous to have him ride the bus - because what if the bus dropped him at the wrong school... or left him on a street corner... or decided to drive to Texas or something? You just never know these days...

But the cute little blonde at the bus stop (with cute boots) promised me to help Leif out.

And for a few weeks she diligently rode the bus with him next to her.

And AB and I worried when we saw stars setting in Leif's eyes upon gazing at her.

"What if she wants to sit with her friends?" we started asking him.

"She doesn't want to," Leif assured us.

Gone was the crush on the girls his age... now he had his eyes set on an OLDER girl! And he would blush when her name would come up. And he would blush when he would see her at school holding the door. And he would hide from her when her class left the gym and his arrived...

Then just a few short days later Leif complained that she keeps trying to sit in other spots. And he was trying to come up with tricks to force her to sit with him. There started a war at the bus stop whereby she was trying to make him get on the bus first so that she could select her seat afterwards. And Leif tried to make her get on the bus so that he could sit next to her.

And even when she would take a seat with somebody else, Leif would squish in and make it three in the row!

AB and I tried to take the tactic of reasoning with Leif, "you know, she is older and has friends and maybe doesn't want a first grader hanging around all the time?" To which Leif would reply, "she does, she just pretends she doesn't."

Poor, poor oblivious little boy.

Then AB and I took the opposite tactic. Don't mention her at all and hopefully the heart throbbing would subside. I reluctantly followed this path. Reluctantly because to me it seemed akin to sticking my head in the sand.

Then last week the little miss sealed her own fate unknowingly.

"Leif," she said, "if you can answer a math problem that I make up, then you can sit with me for the rest of the year. BUT, if you get it wrong, then you can't sit with me the rest of the year. Ok?"

Leif agreed.

"What is 44 x 10?" she asked.

"That's easy!" replied Leif, "440!"

And so Leif has a spot saved for him on the bus for the remainder of the year.

The wonder that is... field trips!

Remember looking forward to field trips? Field trips, anywhere? Just the opportunity to escape school and spend time somewhere else.

My favorite ever field trip was to Fort Laramie when I was in 4th grade. It was the "big" field trip of grade school - the one that since we were in 2nd grade we heard about and looked forward to. For us it was a full day trip - we left at 7am, boarded a bus and rode it for two whole hours!

I remember nearly every detail of the place, the jail, the houses, the center courtyard, how children who stepped out of line were punished, the stories of "Indians" (because we called them Indians back then). Even as a kid I was always impressed by stories of another time and place. I loved stories of the west - still do - and I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. I remember that Dusty had money to buy a mouth harp and my mom balked because he would ruin his teeth with it and SHE of all people knew how much those braces cost!

We got back that evening at about 5pm. It was a day I will never forget and I would love at some point to go back... though I always worry that my impression of the place would be forever changed viewing it as an adult.

I had a few less than stellar field trips too.

Every year each grade at my school would do a trip to the planetarium (stellar) and a trip to the fish hatchery. One year Phillip fell into the fish hatchery trench.

Yep, into it. Funny, I think it was also 4th grade since I remember the same teacher packing us all up early (before we had eaten lunch) putting us back on the bus and bellowing the entire 30 minute trip back to the school.

One year I was in Girl Scouts and the parent leaders enjoyed organizing field trips. I remember them packing us in their cars - seat belts? Well they don't have seat belts in the back of hatch backs. I remember my back being squished against the back window of a Pinto hatch back while the parent driving smoked and screamed that if anyone touched and ruined her defroster lines on that back window we would be paying for the repair.

We went to the post office once.

Snore.

We went to the blood bank another time. This one gave me a stomachache literally and figuratively. We hadn't been told about the field trip, the leaders just packed us up and took us. My mom had no idea where I was and this gave me a stomachache. I was never to go anywhere without her knowing. She knew I had Girl Scouts, but none of us knew of the field trip to the blood bank and there weren't cell phones back then to make phone calls.

I remember seeing the stacks of bags of blood and feeling light headed. Then watching the blood sloshing back and forth coming out of the people's arms and I could barely get myself to the restroom.

When I got home I was waiting to be yelled at, but my mom simply said, "I was wondering why you were late, but I knew you were at Girl Scouts". I don't think my mom knew until then - which was about the same time I quit, how inappropriate the leaders probably were.

Leif had a field trip today. Definitely not his first.

The teachers gave the kids opportunities to earn pennies. Then when "everyone" got to 100 pennies, they got to go to McDonalds. McDonalds is a treat to my kids. We don't go often and tend to reserve McDonalds for traveling. The main reason is because I find the Play Area kind of... well just not exactly the place I want to hang out with my kids for more than one reason which I don't need to go into now!

Leif prided himself on being one of the first to hit 100. Actually he hit 126 before the teachers counted them up and told he and his close boy friends that they had to stop. I found it odd that it was a few of the girls who had a hard time hitting their 100 - and really came down to the wire with at least two not hitting the mark.

The McDonald's trip was today and all week Leif looked forward to it. I wish he had the interest and drive to get to school on time everyday. Every few minutes he asked if we were still on time? Yes, I told him. We will make it there by 9am. We normally aim for 8:30am and occasionally make that. I didn't tell him that it is rare that we don't get there by 9am, I just enjoyed the morning of him hurrying around and prompting his sister to hurry as well.

This morning he told me that he had ordered (pre-ordered) two brownies. I told him how I loved brownies and I knew that he did too.

He was quiet for a minute, then he looked at me and said, "I am going to bring home one brownie for you, okay?"

I reitterated to him how sweet that was, really, but that no, he earned his brownies and he should eat them there at McDonald's with his friends.

I have the sweetest boy ever!

My two readers

So Leif brought home a book the other day from school to practice reading sentences. He hasn't been so into reading to this point - dyslexia may play a role, or just lack of interest. Somehow though his teacher managed to psych him up for "a challenge". She took me to the side and encouraged me to just let him read a page or so at a time as he tires easily when reading.

That first night he sat down and read the book. He was so proud of himself!

And we are so proud of him. I have always been a reader and I just love that a whole new world is opening up to my little boy.

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The flip side is Skadi who is much more like me as a kid with books. Leif enjoys books, but Skadi loves herself a stack of books. And lately she wants to do the reading.

I spent the other evening laughing out loud while she read a book to me. It amazed me how she had every word on the page memorized PLUS! The plus being all the silly things I say on any given page. There is one book "Hug" with only one word in most of the book. Well you have to ad lib there. And then the few pages of "Where the Wild Things Are" that have no words... well you have to add in there too. I had never thought about the fact that the spoken words are associated with the page and not words on the page.

About midway through I stopped giggling and just listening. Apparently my lack of giggles didn't go unnoticed...

Skadi: "why the surly look on your face?"

Me: (surprised) "What?"

Skadi: "why the surly look on your face?"

Me: (Laughter.)

I still have no idea where she heard that, I certainly don't use the word "surly".

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As Skadi was "reading" one of her books there is a snake on a page.

Skadi: "Yikes, a snake!" she recites. "I don't like snakes I step on them".

And I hate to say that she isn't joking.

Over Thanksgiving break she and Leif and I went out for a walk (where I snapped the picture in the new header that I had to change to black and white because Skadi was wearing a purple shirt and Leif a yellow one - but it works black and white).

Skadi was bringing up the rear through the field while Leif and I examined a dead snake. Surely Skadi had to see us there. Right? RIGHT?

NM: "Umm Skadi watch where you are walking!"

Of course she stops dead ON the snake.

Leif: "SKADI! You are stepping on the snake!"

Skadi: (slowly looks down, screams and runs the rest of the way to the park.)

She talked about stepping on a snake for days.

Things I wonder

Leif is enrolled in Spanish class for the fall. It was a big of a cramp to my style in that he has to be there by 8:25am on Tuesdays for Spanish. But he loved it so much this past summer, he really missed it in August and still talked about Spanish through that month. When she sent out the enrollment information, I knew it was a must do.

This morning he was up early and ready to go in order to get to school in time for Spanish.

We arrived at the school and Senora Susan was setting up in the commons.

"Senora Susan!" Leif yells. "Hi Senora Susan!"

He was ready for class and beaming to join her in walking around to get the other kids.

What I wonder... do you think he understands that Spanish is another language that people speak? And not just a different way to talk? He knows that things "translate" - like "did you know naranja is orange in Spanish?" And "did you know diez is ten in Spanish?" So he knows that there are equivelent words. But I am not sure he has ever heard anyone speak Spanish outside of Senora Susan, or the occasional counting to ten exercise in class.

Just something I wonder.

"Teal isn't a color anymore"

It is funny to me how some things affect Leif deeply. Things that I wouldn't normally think about.

A few months ago - about the beginning of summer I think, his class was learning about the planets.

It was a brutal day for Leif when the teacher announced that the 9th "planet", the one called Pluto, was recently declared "not a planet anymore". This bothered Leif a lot and generated lots of follow on questions.

(For the record, I still live in denial and Pluto will always be a planet to me.)

"I don't think Mars is going to be a planet any longer," he said.

Another time he expressed concern that "Earth maybe won't be a planet anymore either like Pluto, and then what happens to us?"

And then they moved on to studying different things... however, the fact that things we once believed and relied upon are subject to change.

"I think that maybe a triceratops is not going to be a dinosaur anymore," he declared one day.

Another day he said that maybe Spanish wouldn't be another language anymore.

Then today he was listing off (correctly) the colors of the rainbow in order of energy. I was highly impressed.

"Where does teal fall?" AB asks him. (I rolled my eyes... why complicate the matter?)

"Dad," Leif says, "teal is not a color anymore."

A new topic

I keep meaning to post a Leif update, and I will. I just need the time to sit down and write it out. Leif has grown so much in the past few months. He is such an amazing little boy.

One new thing that has started to surface lately in his concerns is death. It started a few weeks ago when he asked me in the car how long something had to be dead, before it was alive again. I did my best to softly explain to him that dead is unfortunately, forever. This was the start of a lot of questions.

What happens after something dies?
(They go to heaven.)

What is heaven?
(Heaven is a wonderful place where we live forever after, but not on earth.)

Who is there?
(God and other people and animals who once lived.)

What does God look like?
(No one knows what God looks like.)

Is God a boy or a girl?
(That is disputable, but I believe God is a boy because he is Jesus' father. Leif replies, "well yeah, he is a boy then mommy!")

What happens if God dies?"
(God doesn't die honey. God lives forever.)

But what if God got hit by a car?
(God wouldn't get hit by a car because He is too powerful.)

What color is a dead person?
(Ummm uhhhh ummm uhhh... well kind of the same color as they are now, but I have never seen a dead person. Leif replied that he hadn't either.)

This conversation has stayed with him and he has over the past few weeks talked about things going to be with God and going to heaven with God. This makes it easier and I am happy we have our faith in conversations like this and it further reminds me that we need to start going to church/Sunday school on a more regular basis.

This evening at dinner Leif told us that a couple of the crabs in Rainbow room -- which is not his room, but his sister room -- died. The kids spend a lot of time between the two rooms everyday, so I frequently have to ask which room he is talking about since his room doesn't have animals his saying "the teacher that has crabs" wasn't going over very well at dinner time.

Leif went on to say "but it was okay because they went to heaven to be happy with God".

“Can she bake a cherry pie?”

Earlier this week Leif came home from preschool with a new obsession. Cherry pie.

I don’t believe that he has ever had cherry pie. Like most kids, Leif isn’t a big fan of pie in general – though he will be – it is inherent in our family’s genes that you must like pie.
Four days now we have had questions about cherry pie.

“Can we bake a cherry pie?”

“Mommy, do you like cherry pie?”

“What goes in cherry pie?”

“Can we bake a cherry pie?”

“Can I take a cherry pie to school?”

“Who all likes cherry pie, raise your hands!”

Repeat the above over and over and you have the jist of it.

I love making pies (now that I have mastered the crust) and so my answer to “can we make a cherry pie” is invariably yes. Of course I need to find the time, and I really wish this question was coming in another 2 months whereby we could go the really yummy route with fresh cherries since I am not a fan of jelly fruity fillings that you buy at the grocery store. But to indulge my son a little, we will get at least frozen cherries or something.

I asked him how he would make cherry pie and he said, “Weeeelllll [how he always starts a sentence when he is thinking] I would mix ice cream and cherries, and more ice cream…”

Hmmm…

I am not sure he really KNOWS what cherry pie IS!

I talked to his teacher on Friday who found this to be just the funniest obsession she has heard about. They are learning about Australia, not cherry pie in school and she has no idea where he got that from.

I checked with his teacher and she agreed that sure, if Leif would like to bring cherry pies in for snack day one day, she is fine with that. We will probably throw in a quart of ice cream too.

"Do Re Mi!"

Leif has been learning about "the arts" this past month at school They have been learning different art media as well as all about different instruments and music. I had hoped there would be an increase in art projects coming home this month... but nope.

There has however, been a burgeoning interest in music though. Like any other parent out there, an interest in music is a great thing in a preschooler. The zylophone has been a mainstay in the living room the past few weeks. It has also been our source for humor lately.

Leif (as he hits each key on the xylophone): "Do Re Mi Do Head"

Or how about this one?

Leif (as he hits each key on the xylophone): "Do Re Mi Dan-Ger-Ous"