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.
Back from vacation. Here are the highlights:
The trip up was long and boring, and the kids watched all but three of the videos. We ate at Macdonald’s, breaking the rule my mother had set for the kids not six hours into the trip. Victoria was beyond incredible, even though she was awake almost the whole trip she hardly cried at all despite being confined to her car seat. We had lobster in Portland, Maine and stayed at a motel for the night. The kids went to the pool and I tried to get some work done.
The next day was to the Children’s Museum in Portland, then on to Tom’s summer house. The property was much bigger than I expected from the descriptions. I could only see one other house, and that only from the fourth floor catwalk. The ocean view was amazing, and the kids loved it. It was good seeing Rachel again, and Claire wanted to spend all her time with Rachel and Tenzin. Actually got some work done at the house, and also got to see the Rockefeller gardens (by invitation only) and a little relaxation. Karaoke late into the night, Tom’s a pretty decent singer.
Back down to Portland to see the worlds largest free-standing globe (it’s huge) and then on to the Sauter’s. Despite being a tight spot for nine people, it was a lot of fun. For one thing, there were plenty of adults to keep track of the kids, for another there was plenty to do. The kids spent the morning at the game farm, and the afternoon boating in the lake. The night we arrived we went out to see the loons.
After the Sauter’s it was Storyland, a fairy-tale themed park. Very clever, no royalties. It was surprisingly elaborate, and the highlight was the mad science lab where thousands of foam balls were vacuumed up and shot out of cannons or dropped from baskets in the ceiling. After an hour the kids had to be dragged out with a promise of shaved ice. Despite that, Avery remembers the five seconds spent on the log flume the most. He also liked the flying shoe (Winken, Blinken and Nod).
From Storyland we pressed on and arrived at Mont Tremblant around Midnight. My parents own a condo in Ste. Jovite. Sadly, it pretty much rained continuously while we were there, but Diana and I did get some alone time for shopping, and we traded off babysitting with my parents for a quite dinner at a wonderful place my father always goes to when he’s up there. There is an indoor pool, but the number of non-outside activities up there is pretty small, combined with the spreading coughing plague pushed us into heading home two days early.
The trip home was pretty dull. The only big stop was at the border. I tried to explain to Claire and Avery what a Duty Free shop was, but Claire seemed uninterested and Avery seemed confused. At least I had Victoria’s full attention, Unfortunately, she chose being in the shop for her first and only crying jag during the trip. I kept expecting a customs agent to show up and demand to see her papers. We did have her birth certificate and our marriage license, but that doesn’t make you feel any better when crossing the border.
Avery spent the night at my mother’s house and, during dinner, she slipped a bit of cube-steak on his plate. Avery asked what it was, but Noni knew if she told him he would refuse to eat it, so she just said it was a surprise and he didn’t have to eat it. Avery ate a piece. As short while later, he ate another. Before long the plate was empty and he was asking for more.
“Noni,” he explained, “I’m a big boy now. I like yucky food!”
Yesterday my parents played hooky. In order to be sure to get home before Monday, they left Canada on Saturday and got home Saturday night (it could have taken longer). Since they couldn’t get caught at the house on Sunday, they snuck out to the beach and we went along.
It was fun to see how things had developed since the last time we were at the beach, August of last year. Claire was willing to get her feet wet, but Avery was afraid to even touch the water. He did have a good time burying himself in the sand, though. Before we left Claire had even gone with Noni out past the breakers and done a little wave jumping. As she was returning to the beach a breaker rolled right over her and she panicked a bit, but she still felt good about the ocean once she was back on shore, so I guess she’s feeling more confident. She is definately a better swimmer than last year.
Avery enjoyed playing in the sand, but by the time we were going back to the car the sand had heated up and he had to run to Diana and get his shoes. I toughed it out, but only because my feet are currently rather calloused anyway.
Victoria spent most of her time under the umbrella avoiding the sun, but Diana took her out for a brief touch of the ocean with her feet, which she did not like, and letting some sand get between her toes, which she did like.
Everyone got a bath once we were home, even Victoria.
Haven’t updated in a while. Not much to say.
Victoria is growing fast. her hair has started growing again after thinning out a bit since her birth. This is normal. He eyes have stayed the greyish-blue she was born with. We’ll see what color they choose, if any.
Claire has been playing Pokémon and loves it. We will probably get her Pokémon Diamond or Pearl, but she’s still a long way from real game play. She has a level 39 Bulbasaur and a level 12 paras, and still leads with the Bulbasaur. If you don’t play adventure games much, this means the Bulbasaur will continue to get stronger, but at the expense of all her other pokémon.
Avery is the king of being difficult. he gets away with a lot by being very cute and very very sweet, but when he decides he wants something he can be incredibly stubborn and difficult. He’s also built up a habit of running away when called — not a good one to have. Fortunately, he starts preschool soon and I know he is not going to be nearly the most difficult kid in his class. He should have fun and get in enough play time with other kids to satisfy the hyper-friendliness we see now. He makes friends so easily and his heart is broken every time we leave them, even if it was just a kid he met in Ikea.
Yeah, we went to Ikea to get some baskets for the basement bookshelves and passed a family with a crying child just a little younger than Avery. Avery stopped and gave the kid a hug and told him it would be okay. About ten minutes later, while waiting for Diana to change Victoria the parents and child came out of the register section and Avery ran over happy to see the crying was done. They played for about five minutes, and then we had to go. Avery sobbed that we were taking away his “bestest friend” and sulked the whole way home.
He needs more play-dates.
Eating lunch getting ready to go to the fair, the kids were well behaved. “I guess we’ll keep them,” I said.
“I guess so,” answered Diana, “What do you guys think.”
Claire nodded. “But sell Avery to the Gypsies.”
“No,” Avery argues, “I’m cute.”
“Oh, that just makes the Gypsies want to buy you more,” replied Claire.
Been very busy.
We settled on Avery’s school. Boces seemed the best, even though it is also the farthest, about half a mile south of Old Country Road in Hicksville (actually just over the border in Levittown). Avery liked it there too. It is housed in what used to be a public school, so the facilities are great.
Tori had her checkup today, and clocks in at just over ten pounds. Not bad. She still has gas pains, but the Neocate is doing the trick as far as screaming pain goes. It’s not like there is anything milder anyway — at least nothing that would keep her healthy.
I may be going to Japan in a few weeks. We’ll see.
Today we went to the first candidate for Avery’s school. He didn’t like the name “Oyster Bay-bies”, but he did enjoy the school and we eventually had to drag him away sobbing that he wanted to stay. Four more to go.
Meanwhile, Diana’s aunt Caroline has come to stay in our basement. The house is getting pretty crowded.
This morning I made the kids pancakes for breakfast, then we were off to church. I showed off Victoria’s picture. After church we walked down to Harborfest. Claire wanted to try the rock climbing, but the operator was so slow (and I do mean slow — he just sat there rubbing his chin and sighing most of the time) that we stood in line for an hour with Avery slowly melting down.
Once on the ride Claire climbed about two thirds of the way up before looking to me to see if it was okay to stop. Of course it was, she did great for six. We went to the food lines which were equally as nasty, except for the hot dog line, so the kids had hot dogs, period. After that we made bead necklaces and Claire did some sand art. The kids were pretty tired, but it was a long walk to the car so I had to keep them moving.
Before going home we went to the hospital to visit mommy (and cocoa bean). Victoria was asleep in the room, but we had a good time visiting until Avery started to melt down again. We were going to have ice cream afterwards, but the cafeteria was closed. I finally brought the camera back to the hospital, so we should have more pictures once everyone gets home.
On the drive home it was raining, so it looks like we left Harborfest at the right time.