Today Diana came upstairs to get Victoria and she had rolled over. She did this once before, but it was obviously just a coincidence from random motion. This time she did it in the bassinet, which means she did it on purpose since there isn’t enough room to do it by accident.
This morning Victoria was baptized. The house was bedlam getting ready, then a great rush to church. We met Rachel and Tom, fresh off the plane, just as they arrived. The ceremony itself went well and Rachel taped it. Michael and Ruth Ann Sauter have been pretty excited about being the godparents, so I hope the actual ceremony wasn’t a let-down. Victoria was her usual good self and didn’t even whimper through the whole thing, she even smiled as grandpa took hold of her (not so much when he poured water over her head — but she did stick her hand in the bowl).
After the ceremony was a nice coffee hour with bagels and cake followed by a reception at my parent’s house. Claire was a bit upset she couldn’t play outside in her dress, she got over it. Both kids were happy to see Rachel, and It was nice seeing Tom again. It’s always fun to talk with him, but I worry I monopolize conversation — a bad habit from when I was a child and everyone ignored my attempts to talk, now I tend to be persistent even when people do listen.
After the party we helped clean up and relaxed a bit before Rachel and Tom headed back to Boston. Diana had promised the kids Aqua-Dots for being good, but unfortunately the toy store was closed before we headed home. I have to figure out how to get the program complete tomorrow and still have time to rush out and get some for them. I also have a strong suspicion they will not live up to the hype on T.V.
I told Avery that he didn’t have school tomorrow because of Columbus day, and he asked what that was. I explained about Columbus, and the queen of Spain, going to China and finding America by accident. I finished by saying he kept searching for China, but only discovered more of America*.
Avery put on his sad face “He didn’t discover me.”
“No,” I agreed, “that was a long time ago.”
Avery thought for a while and made a decision. “So tonight, when all the children go to sleep Columbus will come to their houses and discover them. And then tomorrow will be a holiday.”
* To all those who argue Columbus didn’t discover America because people already lived there, I’d like to point out this lovely little restaurant I discovered, even though the owner was quite aware of its location.
Last night was pretty tough on the whole family. Just as Diana and I were heading off to bed, Claire came downstairs and sat on the floor in the bathroom. When I asked her what was wrong she said she felt like throwing up. After loosing yet another throw of rock-paper-scissors I was on duty. An hour later I was still on duty, so Claire got a bowl just in case and went to bed.
She wanted a sippy, and when I returned she threw up over the bed and floor. I got the bowl under her and she went into the hall while I cleaned up (lots of paper towels and dragging both comforters to the laundry room).
At my prompting Claire went down to brush her teeth (always do this after vomiting — it can destroy your teeth) and threw up again in the toilet. An hour later she had thrown up two more times. That’s when Diana woke up again.
Claire went to bed and so did we. Then Avery came in twenty minutes later complaining about the noise. It was Claire throwing up for a fifth time. Frankly I’m amazed she had anything left, but a little of dinner did come up. At this point it was 1 A.M.
Avery woke me again at 2:15 asking what the name of the music in his head was. I couldn’t help.
He woke again at 3:00 complaining that he wanted his smell back. I don’t even think he knew what that was. I got back to sleep about 3:30 and told Diana I was pretty much finished. Diana says Avery and Claire managed to wake her up three times before she woke me up at 6:30 to feed Victoria.
So yeah, a bad night for everyone.
Had an emergency meeting with Claire’s principal today. He’s an old family friend, so it wasn’t a hostile one, but the problem was serious. The story was told to us by Claire, but confirmed by her classmate Genia.
Apparently the cafeteria had been acting up during lunch yesterday, and when dismissal was called, only Claire followed procedure. The person on duty decided to punish the whole cafeteria (130 children in second and third grade) by making them sit at recess for five minutes while Claire played in the playground.
I admitted to him the absurdity of parents coming in to complain that their child wasn’t unfairly punished, but he isn’t stupid and understood immediately why what happened was a horrible mistake. 130 angry children punished by being forced to watch our daughter play in the playground? As Diana said, it’s almost Lord of the Flies level of twisted. Who was getting punished?
Claire is still oblivious to what happened, and in a week or so we’ll see if it blows over or blows up, but either way we needed to find out what the #%$@# they were thinking.
Update: Apparently they weren’t thinking at all.
Diana heard back from the principal and it turns out Claire’s description was accurate. The aides actually thought they were rewarding Claire for her good behavior.
Once again it is confirmed: no good deed goes unpunished.
Last night was Avery’s open house at school. Noni watched the kids while we toured the school, met his teachers, and saw what he was doing. Some stuff was pretty well on target, and some seemed horribly below his current development. Hopefully they can keep the alphabet stuff interesting for a kid who already knows his phonics, especially since he’s known the alphabet for about two years at this point.
The teachers were nice, and since the BOCES school is actually based in a real school the facilities are great.
We took Claire and Avery to the science museum in Queens today. Victoria stayed with my mom, though we were prepared to take her if necessary.
The kids loved it. Avery was pretty excited about the rockets at the entrance, but we headed for the Cyberchase exhibit that had just opened first. Claire loved that, Avery not so much. They had a bunch of puzzles from the shows that kids could try to solve, and since it had just opened everything worked.
Avery, however, spotted a demonstration of the standard normal curve in the mathematics section next door and couldn’t be dragged away from the falling marbles. I looked in on a case of topology examples made physical. Nearby were a bunch of optical illusions that kept the kids busy until hunger took over.
Lunch was expensive and not very good. But afterwards we went to the space section and the kids had a lot of fun. Mostly it was about the possibility of life elsewhere in the solar system. Upstairs was a section called “networks” that seemed to be more about connection machines. Claire had some fun on the surfboard simulator, but Avery hated it.
Overall it was pretty fun, and we have to go again. hopefully next time we won’t get lost on the way.
Went on our annual apple picking trip with the Birnbaums. The kids enjoyed it, but not as much as last year because of the heat. The heat didn’t dampen their enjoyment of the rest of the day, however, and the kids had a such great time playing in the pool and later in the house that they didn’t want to leave, even as the clock hit eight.
On our trip back home Avery begged to go back, but we explained it was too late and he should just nap in the car.
“I’m too hungry to sleep,” he complained, despite the enormous dinner leaving everyone stuffed, “I’m so hungry and thirsty. We need to go back to Jason’s house so I can get something to drink.”
Avery had his first day of school yesterday. We waited outside with him until his bus arrived. Even Claire wanted to be there and we drove her to school afterwards. He must have liked it because he was eager to get back on the bus again today. His only complaint was that he took too long to eat a cookie at lunch and the teacher had to take it away.
Hopefully he will continue to love school.
Tonight, as I read Avery his bedtime story, the space facts book once again, we turned to a page he hadn’t seen before.
“That is an atom,” I said, “everything in the universe is made of atoms.” (I wasn’t about to start a discussion on the nature of dark matter.)
“Even the Earth?”
“Yes,” I said as he looked closely at the floor, “but they are too small to see, even with a microscope. Everything you can touch is atoms.”
“But even the Earth?”
“Yes, even the Earth. Even you are made of atoms.”
“No, I don’t want atoms on me!” he shouted, trying to wipe them off.
“You aren’t covered with atoms, you are made of atoms,” I explained.
“No! I’m made of food. I don’t want to be made of atoms!” He started sobbing uncontrollably.
I realized this had got out of hand and held him tightly and tried to turn the revelation into something good. “It’s okay. Do you know where atoms come from? Stars make them. We are made from stars.”
“I don’t want to be stars, I’m made of food, not atoms!”
At this point I decided it was best to let t drop and he calmed down after a while. At least he was willing to go to bed without looking at the book anymore. I think he was just as afraid to restart the conversation as I was.
It’s just a matter of time before he discovers the awful truth, though.