2 little crocodiles

Here is a photo of yesterday's project team
(and dad would be a great big croc, not a little one)

Mom fell asleep on the sofa and woke up at 4:30 when roomba started going. Go roomba! and then there were a few more awakenings. but everyone woke up in the morning and were good troopers at breakfast. Ruskin took them to school and dropped them off. It was K's first day as an older toddler. And R's last week as a Caboose. So everything is in transition.

They seemed to have a good time at school. R was playing blocks with Luca when i got there. He did not want to leave and kirsten the teacher had to ask a few times for him to clean up his blocks. Her tone was tired and frustrated. Along the lines of "In engineers, Linda will only tell you once to do something." I can appreciate her frustration and it played on my anxiety about his readiness. I think he is ready to move on. However, I know that they have more demands on the kids. R can be resistant to direction. We shall see. I asked Luca and R if they thought they could beat the bell at the count of 10 in putting the blocks away. And of course, the positive challenge was much more fun than the more punitive and threatening one. But, of course can we do that all the time?

k came running as soon as we got there. I did not even get a chance to see her play. her note said that she had a good day, pretending to cook for the teachers and hanging out with tricia. she was happy to go. So we all got ready to go swimming. as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, K started saying all done. She is so funny. We got inside and R just ran around the pool. We played crocodiles crawling on the bottom of the pool. That was popular! K liked getting the rings. R just threw his further and further to fetch it. It was nice to see him so comfortable and confident in the water. Unfortunately, he does not always remember to close his mouth and his odd habit of licking the ball was a little peculiar. K got a little fussy in the deep water. She wanted to be carried around. She enjoyed some of the games -- usually the ones involving an object of distraction. She also really liked walking in the pool holding hands. R crawled out of the pool still a crocodile and was a crocodile all the way home.

K and i stopped to see Tom Masa on the way home; he seemed to be working inside and gardening. He gave K ice cream which made her very happy. She was ready to say good bye once he brought us the pints of ice cream despite mom telling her that we were still talking. we got home and then both kids seemed to need lots of attention all at once. so dinner was chaos. K was extremely sensitive and would only eat dinner sitting in mom's lap and eating from mom's plate. well this was fine with mom except that it was spicy ch'kn patty. so she would eat some and then point to her mouth and say owie. and i would tell her do drink her water and then she would ask for more. she also ate some mashed potatoes, rice, and beans. We were quite messy. R asked if we were eating real chickens and we said no; ours were made from tofu. He asked how chickens are killed. we said to ask grandma sue since she grew up on a farm! sorry grandma sue.

Everyone had reading, bowel movement, and bath time afterwards. a gentle ending. The challenge tonight was reading a magic tree house book. for those of you who do not know of this series, it is almost as big as harry potter for the young crowd. it is about a brother-sister team who travel in time and space as "master librarians" saving books. what a great premise and children seem to love them immensely. the author has written over 40. we are on book 21 or 22. but the one that R had picked was about the civil war, so i had the joy of explaining war, slavery, and freedom to him. i am not sure he quite got it. the hardest part came when one of the characters said that he had no family to go back to as they had been sold. R asked what that meant. And i explained. he asked if they were sold in a store. I said no, usually, people were sold outside. He told me that it was unfair. he thought the idea of working on a farm was a good idea but did not like it when i explained that they did not get paid or to keep any of the food and that sometimes they got hit. But the part that seemed to really bring him to the brink of tears was when i said that they would separate the families, moms, dads, kids from each other to sell them. He was appalled. hard to explain human cruelty and yet it is clear enough for a four year old to understand. the next one we have is about tornados. R learns about segregation and the weather. sexism and volcanos. the science stuff sure is easier...