Snow!

Whoo-ee!

I just don't get them, Mom!

Last week at school Theo was in the 'music' rotation for resource class. Normally this is not his favorite. Science tops his list with gym a close second. But last week in music the topic was folk dancing. You might think this would give a second grade boy the heebie-jeebies. Not Theo. On Tuesday he came home from school, sat down for a snack and gave me this speech:

Mom, I just do NOT get the boys in my class. I mean they do NOT like to be paired with a girl during folk dancing in music. They won't do it- they kind of freak out. Me? When it comes time to pair up for the dance I make CERTAIN that I am between two girls so that I will end up with one for sure! Today it was Caroline. She is the greatest. We laughed so hard....

Throughout the week he continued to come home shaking his head at the stupidity of his fellow male classmates. They just did not get it. He on the other hand had manuevered his way into dancing with Lucy, then Caroline again, over to Maddie, back to Lucy- each partner carefully and skillfully pre-identified and then the teacher's choosing methodology slyly and quietly manipulated to land him in the arms of the girl of the moment.

Second grade. Oh boy.

Skiing!

It has been delicious to be able to get out on skies on a regular basis before Christmas. Admittedly the snow is not deep, but it is enough and is a welcome break from the dreadmill and the stinky unventilated cardio room at the Y. Last weekend the sun was out, the wind was not, and the temp was in the 20's. I convinced Eli to head over to the local golf course with me to check out the skiing. We found a little skier-groomed classic track circuit and did a quick loop. Eli is efficient and strides out beautifully on the flats. Hills make him nervous. After one loop his hands were frozen so we went back to the house. I will find his warmer mittens for the future. He was done, but I was not, so I loaded Theo into the car and returned to the course. Theo is a different animal than his brother on skies. He is not efficient nor particularly 'beautiful' as he strides out. But his attitude is fabulous. He falls about every 20 feet, but he is never on the ground for more than 3.5 seconds. One thing he has mastered is the quick recovery. And the wipeouts don't seem to mar his mood at all. And hills. They do not make him nervous. They make me nervous when I am with him. He points downhill and tucks. And lets out some whoops and hollers. Then falls, jumps up, tucks, hollers, falls.... We did the one hill out at the golf course at least 20 times. Then Theo headed off into the distance - veering out of the tracks and off into the deeper snow. He stopped every now and then to scratch a 'T.L.' in the snow as he went along. For 'Theo's Loop'. His aunt and uncle had trails named after them over at Theodore Wirth this fall, and Theo is not to be outdone. So if you are down at Highland skiing around and happen on to a path marked with his initials and dotted with little nest-like indentions every 20 feet from his wipeouts, you are on the soon to be famous "Theo's Loop". But you might want to keep that to yourself. Theo is thinking about asking for a fee from all users. Right now his price is set at 1 cent per loop, so it is still affordable. But I sense a rate hike in the near future.

Clearly, I do not understand

Last night as I walked by the boys' room I saw Eli's little sparkly eyes peeping out over the railing of his top bunk. It was nearing 10 and I fully expected him to be asleep. He called me in. Then he explained to me how he had JUST realized that the answer to one of the problems on his continental math test (these very challenging logic/math tests he takes every few months at school) was 5. He had put 8! But now that he is thinking about it, the answer is obviously 5! He then explained his reasoning- which I did not come near understanding, but listened to patiently. When he finally summed up, I said, "Looks like you have it figured out, now close your eyes and get some sleep." From Eli: "Mom. Clearly, you do not understand the mental anguish I am in." Clearly, I don't.

Post-Dinner Pronouncements

Tonight after a nice dinner conversation that centered around math and how much both of my sons enjoy their math classes, as Theo was working his way over to help me with dishes, he stopped in the middle of the kitchen, cleared his throat and made this pronouncement: "I have learned something over MUCH time. And I have studied this for MUCH time." Pause. "Older brothers NEVER get in trouble." At this point, Eli, the elder statesman of this particular brotherhood, injected his much studied theory.

"NO. As a matter of fact it is YOUNGER brothers who never get in trouble. The older brother always gets in trouble."

Theo respectfully disagreed. I then took the two of them by the scruffs of their necks and said, "Let me tell you two something that I have learned over MUCH years-forty of them. That is that it is the MIDDLE child who always gets blamed for everything."

To my astonishment, both of them readily agreed. And then from Theo:

"Yeah, and I am the middle brother in this family."

"No, I am the middle brother!"

Apparently there is a need for more studying on this issue. That, and some more work with numbers.

Kitchen Renewal by the Amish Envy Club

It's been awhile since I have praised the genius of the Amish Envy Club. This is a group of four families who gather four times a year to undertake home improvement projects. Each family gets to claim a Saturday. The other families show up with tools, sandwich fixings, their kids, and good attitudes. What could have been a weekend with one spouse grumpily working alone and the other one unhappily herding their children out of the way becomes a party. Theo woke up this past Saturday saying, "It's Amish day! Amish day! When do they come?" He then went to the window and waited for the next two hours. When the families did arrive the pack of boys quickly disappeared up to the legos and the adults got busy redoing our kitchen floor and taking care of some other small projects. Little Harriet stayed close to mom and dad- but there were no noxious chemicals in this project, so that was fine. She was a fabulous help tamping down the carpet squares by stomping on them. And just about when she would be getting bored the swarm of boys would be coming through and they would catch her up in their tide and get her laughing for a while.
We spent the day chatting and laughing with friends, watching our boys delight in the company of like-minded kids, and getting a new kitchen floor. The old lineoleum was completely worn out when we moved in 7 years ago. Now, because a delivery did not arrive in time, the 'intestinal' chandelier (so named the day we moved in by a friend who was sure we would be replacing it immediately) still sways magestically in the dining room. The new light should arrive any day and I think we can replace it without the aid of the Amish Enviers.

Our project was just the right size for an Amish Envy Saturday. After a hearty communal dinner the crew departed and Jon only had about an hour of work to finish up while I put the boys to bed. Well, the cabinet doors that were removed for cleaning and possible restaining still lean against the wall in the dining room, and will probably still be there in 2010. But that's how it goes. Yesterday I stopped by the Spencer household, the site of the last Amish Envy meeting in October, to drop of a left over stuffed animal and saw that a ladder still leans against their garage. Propped there in late October from the Amish roofing experiment. For the record, the roof appears done. The ladder is just there as a reminder of good times.