Saturday, December 29, 2007

Christmas is for visiting

One of our first visits was over to Mike and Erik's to see their tree... and to listen to records, go for a walk...
Admire the local decorations
We went to Lumbini to see Miss Leslie and everyone. Miss Janet made sure Theron got his fill (3 servings worth) of her inari sushi and marinated cucumbers.
Theron and I went to Morro Bay ahead of Ashley, who had work to do. Theron has never met the older boys and he and the youngest, Orion, haven't seen each other since they were babies. We rang the bell, Ori opened it, took one look at Theron and ordered him into his room. We were standing there for about 3 seconds. Then for the rest of the trip they virtually inseparable, except when they had to be separated because they couldn't stop bickering. Still, I think Ori was especially gracious, though probably disgruntled. He let Theron time share the Spiderman suit since we didn't bring ours. Sometime during the trip Theron lost his first tooth and it was a big event as there was a full house of little boys from ages 5 to 10 who gathered round to congratulate him for being so tough, to give him paper towels for the blood, and to admire the new hole. The tooth popped out when Ori either hit him in the mouth with his head or slapped him - I'm not clear on that part. However, Theron hugged him and told him Thank You.

It takes a village

Sunday Joan's mom watched the boys and fed them lunch while Joan and I and her stepfather went to Costco. Before we left she said to Theron, 2 rules - I'm in charge and you do what I say. Theron laughed. I told him it was actually not that funny, it's true. For some reason Theron decided to go on a hunger strike while we were gone. Kathy said, Don't you like noodles? Yes, he says. Then she explained to him that not eating meant he was holding everyone else up from watching a video, which constituted bad behavior, and Santa might not come. He thought about it. Then he told her, it was okay because Santa would come anyway because of Ori.
After we got back Hal took all four boys to the movies so we could wrap presents. He said he only had to tell Theron to be quiet once.

Christmas Eve Ash came up on the train along the beautiful coastal route to San Luis. He brought the Spiderman costume.
Christmas was in Santa Maria where Theron found that Santa did indeed read his list. Isn't it great Santa was able to make it over to the Rite Aid to pick up this fabulous Spy Guy kit?


We took a lovely drive through the hills to see Grandma Mary and Grandpa Richard and of course, the beagle, Sam. Then it was home again to our little house which was much cleaner than how I left it thanks to Ashley. There was a mini emergency because we couldn't immediately find the Spiderman suit and in order to watch Spiderman 3 he needed the Black Spiderman costume (the outfit you see above is reversible). It didn't reappear until we unpacked everything and thank goodness because Theron was ready to call 911 and/or end up in the longest time out of his life.
Ashley went through the newspaper flyers and catalogs that accumulated while we were gone and said, We don't really need anything right now, do we? And I agreed that we don't. So we're pretty fortunate.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Oh, no, where did December Go???

There's been a lot going on, so I haven't posted. So much holiday running around. Below see the picture of Theron's school Christmas pageant. His group sang the only non-secular song, called something like "We Work Together". Ash and I were pleasantly surprised to find, contrary to our previous experience with that song (Theron practicing it every day as part of his homework), the song actually had a tune. You're seeing the last line of the song where they all shout, "YES we CAN!" That's not a glow necklace, it's just the regular zipper on his shirt, but it glowed in every picture.

Last Wednesday Mike and Eric (Top Male Model Names: Benito and Hazel) came over for the finale of ANTM. We ate pizza. Benito says it was the worst Top Model ever. Oh, well, I'm sure we'll be back for the next Cycle.

Last Saturday Ash and I did something unheard of - we went out! And got a babysitter! My star volunteer told me her 17 year old brother sits so we gave it a try. Theron was fast asleep when we got home and the next morning he crawled into bed with us and asked when the babysitter was coming back. Then he talked about him all day, how cool he was, how nice he was, how he likes his voice, how he likes that he's so cute. A big hit.

The next day we went to Santa Monica. Here's some pictures of the fake snow corral at the 3rd Street Promenade.


Notice the girl in the spaghetti strap top. Brrrr. Doesn't she know it's winter?

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Sponge Bob Deconstructed

Theron woke me up out of a sound sleep this morning to ask did I want to hear a song. No, I did not. But after a bowl of cereal for each of us, okay. He had discovered karaoke in his Sponge Bob videos special features. The song is Ripped Pants. Theron warned me, "It's really a sad song". Okay, I nodded. The song is how he is rejected by a certain someone because he ripped his pants. When it was over he says to me, "See, I told you it was sad". Okay, I say again. Then he looks at me with those serious blue eyes and says, "I really don't understand how it can be that he ended up with no one". I was speechless.
Theron went throught the lyrics trying to figure it out and finally concluded that since the song was from the episode entitled "Ripped Pants" what we really need to do is find that episode and hopefully that will explain what happened.
Then we watched a song called Fun where I made the mistake of saying I like Plankton because he's funny and Theron reminded me that Plankton is actually a bad guy. "He's the arch enemy of Sponge Bob, Patrick, Mr Crab and all of Bikini Bottom. Remember that time he put chum buckets on everyone's heads and controlled them?" No, I didn't remember that, but I will now.
Yay, Ash comes home today! Theron says that's the main thing he's excited about, but after that he's really excited about something that starts with Ch. Ash said he must mean cheese, he's really excited about cheese.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Theron told us today that the class is working on a letter to Santa in Computer Lab. Basically they are learning how to write a letter - "Dear Santa COMMA I have been good" then they are to explain HOW they have been good. Anyway, the content is mostly true, Theron has been rather good lately. Not perfect, but pretty darn good. He does tend to have bursts of amped up frustration he needs to learn to control. I told him to pick up his clothes yesterday, several times. I pointed at the socks his x-ray vision missed - WHERE? he shouts. THERE! I point. Theron goes right up to them , does kind of a double take and with one raised eyebrow shouts, "WHAT THE HELL?!?" I had to leave the room.
Poor Ash started his travels to New Orleans today around noon, and tonight he called us from Charlotte, North Carolina where his late flight from LA left him stranded. He doesn't know where his suitcase is spending the night. The airline gave him a little stick with a couple of bristles on it and a ketchup-sized package of toothpaste. Travel is just so dreadful anyway. Why is one hour on an airplane soooo bloody endless? Then put five of them together. We looked at the map. Why did they send him to North Carolina to go to Louisiana? Well, so it's just me and the boy till the weekend, and I have had a sore throat since Monday. It's not bad enough to stay home for, but bad enough to make me cranky all day. The good news is I can pretend when I sing that I sound like Patti Smith.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

At Daddy's Work
In the Children's Discovery Room
Thursday we had a parent/teacher conference which was delightful. The teacher is really exceptional and we can see how the children would have no choice but to fall in line with the routine that leaves little room for goofing off - but also it would be very enjoyable. He is very animated. One thing we were confused about though was that the teacher hadn't been given Theron's test scores - actually hadn't even seen them until we were sitting there with him. He showed us the first report card he'd filled out giving Theron 2 (out of 4) for language arts, then he showed us that he had changed it to 3 - proficient. Ash and I just kind of looked at each other and said, Well, we think you'll find he's better than proficient. So while we were talking the assistant principal handed him the 2nd Grade language arts exit exam that Theron took over a month ago. He only missed one problem on the whole thing. Also, for fluency, Theron's scores were more than double what is required. So the teacher changed his marks to 4's. I think it's kind of interesting that this teacher was willing to take Theron in without even knowing this. Anyway, things are still going well and HOPEFULLY the Boy's and Girl's Club reopens tomorrow.

Here are some cuties I've been working with this last week. The one in the yellow shirt has a smile made of beads.