Six Degrees

You know how sometimes, you find yourself thinking about something, and you realise you don't know how you got there from what you had been thinking about?

Rest-time. A sound like a chainsaw starts up. Of course. They couldn't do it when the kids were awake. S and I go to have a look at what it is. Yep, chainsaw. Cutting up some of the wood from the tree stump they'd cut down.

I go back over to Mark, who tells me: "If there's one ring, the tree's one year old. If there's two rings, the tree's two years old. If there's three rings..."

Amazing.

The complicated web of friendships

Last week, for some reason everyone wanted to sit next to Jessie. We had about five three- and four-year-old girls fighting over Jessie at every single meal.

Mark and Damon together are pretty smart. Mark being older and wiser is a good influence on Damon, who is prone to silliness and easily led that way, in my opinion. However, Mark's eating habits are questionable at best, although he has been improving heaps since we've had the handling of it. Still prone to loudly telling us what he doesn't like (which is 'most everything) so we don't want Damon next to him at mealtimes lest he pick up on these unfortunate tendancies.

Jack and Damon are increasingly hanging out together. Jack's parentes aren't thrilled about this as apparantly Jack has picked up a habit from Damon of calling people "silly dragons," something I've never actually heard Damon say, but we're monitoring it. However, it would be good for Jack to be hanging out with the older boys some more instead of constantly with his trains (which are now no longer there anyway). And Damon with Jack and without Mark can be quite silly, excitable, and annoying.

Just on a side note, Jack has picked up the D-word from somewhere:
Me, Damon and Eleanor? Molly? someone anyway were doing a puzzle when Jack comes up with a cheeky little grin on his face:
"What doing little dragons?"

And Mark is moving up anyway. *Sniff* I'll miss him.

J&H

Hugo has really been so much better at lunchtimes lately. Instead of getting lunch and either throwing it or taking it straight to the bin, he'll take it to the table, take two bites, then go to the bin. Progress right?

Well progress took a backwards step last week.

We were having lamb and potatoes and gravy for lunch. The gravy was in one of our two water jugs. Therefore it must be something to drink, and in Jack's estimation, was chocolate. What a disappointment it must have been to him.

Even more so to Hugo, who couldn't have any of it. "More, more," he asked shoving his cup. The water jug when offered was shoved at, clearly we weren't paying attention. This ended with two cups flung across the room, and S rocking him forcefully to sleep cos I was being too nice to him. Just cos I understand what he wanted.

PS. Goo is now dairy, gluten and soy free. Poor kid.

More Sage Advice

I had my left elbow bandaged following a slight mishap with a bike, and consequently had to endure about seven thousand "What happend?"s.

Mark: "What happened?"
Me: "I have a sore on my elbow."
Mark: "Why?"
Me: "I fell off my bike."

Mark: "You need to be careful."

Gee thanks.

I Can Sign A Rainbow

My signing class starts this Monday.

T and everyone else has been going for four weeks so far, but I couldn't make it to the Wednesday class. They're all addicted to the signing thing now, even the people you wouldn't expect to be. The instructor must be pretty damn good.

T's been giving me updates every Thursday morning, so I'll be all prepared on Monday. Then we can start her revision every Tuesday after my classes. Hopefully this won't just be a fad.

H.U.G.O.

Thought it was about time for a Hugo update.
Especially since most of my Jack-and-Hugo-stories have been about Damon lately.

He thinks he's the luckiest kid in the world since his name starts with 8: "8.U.G.O. Hugo! J.A.C.K. Jack! Missy!" (As I'm trying to teach him to spell my name next!)

He's been mostly cheeky and energetic lately.

He reads a very wide range of books now, especially compared to when we started.

We're back on the fruit with morning and afternoon tea thing. So far he hasn't been very receptive. Although the one day we gave him banana he at least put it to his lips and, I think he too the tiniest bite. Progress.

I did make a mistake with him the other day. Since he'd been so good lately, I jumped him down instead of letting him go down the steps. Cracked it bigtime. Change in set routine is bad. Don't know why I thought he'd let me get away with it.

He is vocalising and signing a lot more, which means he's not as frustrated with us poor stupid people who didn't understand what he wanted.

He needs a haircut.

A Different Planet

So we're having afternoon snack, frozen yoghurt cones. I have the director at my table, which was packed full of kids, as well as two parents who'd come to pick up their kids but were hanging around til we'd finished eating. Slurping. Whatever.

They're all being impossibly loud, and I'm frantically trying to get cones for all of them, charm the parents, and look competant in front of the director, who wasn't helping a whole lot).Although she did later. Anyway... Out of nowhere:

Damon: Is the bunny asleep?
Me: ignoring him, while I concentrate on getting a cone to another hungry kid. No one else answers him, so I decide I should. I'm sorry Damon?
Damon: Why is that bunny asleep?
No it didn't make any more sense when I was actually paying attention. I look at Alison. Nope, I'm on my own with this one.
Me: What bunny is that Damon?
Damon: That one.

The box of cones had a picture of an ice cream in a cone on it. It had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. No long ears. No whiskers. No fluffy tail. I swear, the kid lives on a different planet.

I just noticed that all my posts seem to be about Damon. This is both suprising and unsuprising. He really does sees things differently. He will grow up to be Gabriel, I'm sure. But I really thought Hugo would provide more food for thought.

Sage advice

So I'd scraped my knee open the night before. Some chick (who plays for Jets) rammed her finger in my eye, I fell over, hence the bandaid on my knee the next day at work.

Scene: Me, Mark, and Damon, sitting cross-legged on the floor, building vehicles.

M/D: What's that?
Me: It's a bandaid.
D: Why? [ok, this is a really bad habit he need to get out of.]
Me: I fell over yesterday and hurt my knee.
D: Why? [see what I mean?]
Me: Cos a girl poked her finger in my eye.
[ok i was fully expecting 'why?' in a whiny tone of voice, but he surprised me]
D: What kind of girl? [what kind of question is that?]
Me: A jet girl.
D: Orh. Was she in a jet? [points for not assuming]
Me: No she just had a jet on her shir.
D: Orh. Why?
Me: Well, I don't she meant to.
D: [very firmly] You should tell her to stop.
Me: I think it was an accident, Damon.
[this is where they both jumped in, to tell me how to be more assesertive and in control of my own life. they were so concerned that i might not know how to deal with this kind of situation]
M&D: No, you need to tell her STOP. You don't like it.*

*This is the phrase we encourage them to use when dealing with each other. Everyone does. Repeatedly. And usually at high volume. Sometime on the verge of tears. But their concern for me, that I might not have heard of this magic phrase, was touching.

Talk about nothing...

The preschool has planted a garden. Watermelons, tomatos, things like that.

So all the kids were standing around looking at it, pointing out what had been planted, big discussions and plans going on. When there a was a lull in the chatter, Damon takes a step back from the fence, sits down, and very deliberately says:

"I'm just going to watch them grow."

For the Fish

With kids, it pays to be specific:

Damon comes over to where I'm sitting with Emma on my lap.
D: Is this a lemon?
Me: Yes Damon, it's a lemon.
D: Ohh. Do you want a bite?
Me: Yes please. [chewing sounds] Yum. Thanks Damon.
D: Emma, do you want a bite?
E: No. [totally uninterested]
D: [holding it up to her mouth] Emma, do you want a bite?
E: No!
Me: Damon, I don't think she wants any.
D: Ohh.
Me: Maybe if you put it on some fish.
D: Ohh.

[holding his hands together at ground level with the lemon in his palms.

D: Here, little fishies, do you want some?

A is For ...

A is for Apple, right? Maybe A is for Ant. But no, these kids have to be smart. Not only can Damon tell you what his name starts with, (a D, in case you were wondering) and recognise every letter of the alphabet, he can also tell you a word beginning with every single letter. None of this boring A is for Apple, B is for Ball crap either.

A is for Anchor.

Too many cooks

In this instance, I'm referring to people who are employed to do a specific job and then think they can have a say in the running of the whole operation.

So far, they've consulted us (me, A, & T), the special school guy, the speech therapist, the pediatritian, the psychologist, themselves, and the postman. Ok I made the last one up, and I'm all for having a good research base, but once you've worked out a system, let us use it and stop giving us all the subsequent opinions you've collected like trading cards.

Especially when one is the speech therapist, who (a) doesn't have a normal accent, and (b) knows nothing about any situation except speaching.

Birthdays Pt 2

Checked out Ysobel's book. Turns out it's her birthday next week. T and I, being the greedy pigs that we are, were going "Yay, cake!" Took a time out from all the drooling to check the day - yep, I'm away that day. Checked again - yep, so is T. No cake for us.

Birthdays

Jack just had his birthday. He's a big kid now. The conversation the whole day was about his party, and the other kids' plans for theirs.

It started out ok.
Jack: It's my birthday!
Me: Really? Wow etc
Nicholas: I'm going to your party hey Jack?
Jack: Yep.
[Followed by all the other kids checking to see if they were coming. Jack going around the table saying everyone's names and that they could come.]
Me: Can I come?
Jack and Nicholas exchange glances: No. [Cheeky grins.]
Me: [Very disappointed.] Why not?
Jack: [Searching for a reason.] Cos no girls!
Me: What about T?
Jack: No, she's a girl.
Me: What about A?
Jack: No, she's a girl.
I refrained from telling him I was having a girl's only party and he couldn't come, so there.

Clearly I missed a bit, because when I came back from my break, they were all at late afternoon snack, and Jack and Nicholas were telling everyone they saw that:
"Sexy boys and sexy girls are coming to my party."

I really should have asked for a definition.

Gets Everywhere

I am also really sick of sand. Really really sick of it.

Yesterday as soon I got there, I got a great big hug from Emma. It was very nice. Until the sand (which covered about 90% of her body) became ingrained in the lipgloss I had applied about ten minutes before. Yum.

Not to mention the sand has completely ruined my Kayanos.

A day without...

It wouldn't be a normal day without...
{Also entitled, Things I Am Really Sick Of Saying}

Would you like milk or water?
Slowly, and up to the line.
Walking on the concrete!
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...
Pack away first.
Plate on the trolley.
Cup on the trolley.
Chair away.
Did you wash your hands?
Soap, this time.
Where's your hat?
Hat on your head.

On a side note, I have never seen Kaitlyn or Ysobel with their hats on their heads. Never ever. They are also somewhere lying on the ground.

Reading

It is interesting the different ways the people (children in particular) choose and respond to books and reading.

Hugo only likes ones with some sort of repitition eg We're Going on a Bear Hunt, We All Went on Safari or pattern, like the counting or alphabet books. Also, inexplicably, the big world altas, maybe as it has lots of pictures, and a lot of them are in oval frames (one of his fav shapes).

One of Jack's fav's (one which I don't like and never read to him) is one about the phases of the moon. I don't think he knows it's about the moon. It has a cat looking up at a moon, and I think he likes it for the cat, with the moon being a bonus.

Em currently likes one of the new ones, Where is the Green Sheep? which I'm sure she has at home. When we get to certain parts, she always tells us the same thing, putting herself into the story.
Em: I climb up that ladder and splash into the water [pointing to the bottom of the page].
Also I'm not sure if she knows it's all about 'sheep'. She can recite almost the whole thing, but I don't know if she knows all the fluffy things are sheep.

Mark, Damon, and Samuel all love the Space and Spaceships books. They will read it to themselves, with great discussions, and also enjoy us reading it them, asking a lot of questions. I had a big discussion with Mark the other day about listening to what the book says, then asking things he still doesn't understand.

They really do know their space stuff.
T tried to argue with one of them, Mark again I think, about which planet had rings, and which was 'the big planet'.
T: The biggest planet is called Saturn.
Mark: No [turning to the right page and obviously repeating from somewhere] Jupiter is the big planet.
T: No Mark [fully believing she was right] Jupiter has rings.
Mark: Jupiter is the big planet. Saturn has rings around it.
Me: Um, yeah he's right.
T: [Actually looking at the book] Oh yeah. You're right Mark.

When it comes to these boys and space, that's a given.

It's Contagious...

Cos cos cos cos cos.

She says it all the time. Annoying, not to mention doubly so as it's contagious. T and I always find ourselves doing it too on the days Molly's here.

Also her never-ending "My mum's coming to pick me up?" which she's got some of the other kids asking too. It's not like she doesn't know the answer either. I think she just wants the reassurance.

I had to laugh though. I think it was something like her second day here. First day we'd let her sook a bit as she was new. This day though I wasn't going to go through a whole day with her crying so I went the the day's schedule with her:

"First we're going to have a play outside, then we'll go inside, then we'll have lunch and a sleep, then you'll wake up, then we'll all go and have a play outside and a snack and then... you're mum's gonna come and pick up!"

She seemed happy with the plan.

"So you wanna go on the swings now?" Hopeful of me I know. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

"Can you tell me that story again?"

Gotta love it.

Everything in Nothing

Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything.

- Giacomo Leopardi, Zibaldone Scelto.