4th grade

Today's Excite fortune said something like: "Take a moment to remember 4th grade."
I actually did that over the weekend, thinking of my tenth birthday party in fourth grade. Leila turned 10 this weekend- a busy weekend with only time for a family and friends dinner, but no real party. Apparently, double digits is too important not to celebrate, though, so the party will be happening, and soon.
In any case, my tenth birthday party started down at the lake with all the 4th and 5th graders, and then it rained so we had to go back to my house. The 5th grade class was super big, and the kids were older, and thus not necessarily thrilled to be at the party. I remember some sort of fight. I think the birthday girl probably cried, as happens at many good (and all bad) birthday parties. I don't remember the cake, but my mother used to make elaborate ones, so it may have been the year she did the piano.
In any case, it was 33 years ago. And Leila is now 10, which makes me a mother of 10 years. (I KNOW- always about me.) Most of the 5th graders are my friends now on Facebook, and we never fight.
Not enough of the 4th graders are ON Facebook, at least, not often, which is too bad since the other big even this year is our 25th year anniversary of graduating from high school.

Magic

Having a creek behind our house was a selling point. Children should have a place to explore and imagine, and this place is full of that kind of magic.
The neighbor kids are good for playing there with, as are various friends. We've learned that one must wear old shoes and not care about getting dirty down there. When G and G spent the night on Sunday, they came prepared with old sneakers to mess around in, which was good since everyone got wet. The boy G went across a dangerous, rickety bridge even though Leila told him not to, and the girl G, who is younger than the others, got stuck on the other side of the creek for a bit. At some point everyone stepped into the rather yucky water, too.
A week ago I came home from the grocery store and heard screaming and crying as I got out of the car. I ran inside to find out where the kids were, and H told me the neighbor kids had gone down to the creek with them. By the time I raced back out, the scary noises had stopped, and I yelled out for them. They were on the other side of the creek- Both Leila and Ali had fallen in. Leila had slipped, and when Ali went to help her, she pulled him in, too. (Accidently!) The other kids had been smart enough to take a different route and didn't suffer any damages.  My two stripped off their dirty, soaked clothes in the garage and then went up for a shower.
I wish the magic included some sort of laundry doing.

Nostalgia

On Wednesday Ali and I went to the eye dr. A year ago, the pediatrician said Ali's eyes were 15/20, and, while it wasn't urgent, he might need glasses in the future. So, I finally took him in to see the eye dr. Mostly because we skipped over their annual physicals this year, and I figured I might as well take him for his free eye exam. Except, it wasn't free. When I called the new insurance company, they said I had a $40 copay. And the doctor's office said they couldn't even submit for Ali's insurance. Of course, they told me that AFTER the exam.
The good news was that Ali doesn't need glasses. His vision is 20/20. He was disappointed, but I told him I was very glad. "Because glasses are expensive," he said. No, I told him, because it's awful to wear glasses all the time and not be able to see. Remember how Harry Potter has to put on his glasses first thing in the morning? And when it rains they get wet, and we don't have an impervious charm.
Then we went to pick up Leila from our friend's house in our old neighborhood. Of course, Ali had to play for a while, too, and Sami had to crawl around and I had to have a cappucino. Then we stopped by our neighbors' house to pick up some mail she had called to say was there. I left the kids in the car, intending to run in for only a minute. Only, it turns out she didn't actually have the mail- it was still next door at our old house. I knocked on the door, petted Charlie*, the cat, while I waited, and got the bag of mail, but then the new owner had some questions. The stove had quit working- but she had just activated the "lock cooktop" function, so it was an easy fix. Then she gave me some things I'd left behind in a drawer, including some silver coffee spoons from my grandmother. That would have been a big loss.
I finally got back out to the car, where Ali told me- we've all been crying. It took me a moment, but then I realized the sniffles from the back seat were all about the old house and missing it. Poor babies. We talked for a minute, and then I turned on Harry Potter and we took our minds off the past.

* Charlie was our outdoor cat that was living under our deck when we moved into the house. We adopted him, but didn't let him stay inside once Leila was born because he made his displeasure known. When we moved, we didn't want to take him with us because he is so used to that neighborhood we thought he might get killed trying to make his way back. The new owners said they were happy to take him, and we were very thankful.

Candelight

We dined  by candlelight last night for the first time in our new house. I used my wedding present candle holders from Angela and Curran and Laura.
There were 29 of us for dinner. Well, three of us were babies, but Sami and his friend Yusef put away some turkey! Habib cooked 2 turkeys, and I made a huge pot of mashed potatoes, and a sweet potato casserole and a corn one, as well as green beans and a big Cesar salad. Majda brought seafood bastilla which went very quickly. Other friends brought various desserts to round out the pumpkin pies Leila had made, and the 11 apple variety crisp that I made*.
As usual, the bulk of our guests were immigrants and foreigners. Two of my students even came, and had  a great time. One is Iranian and the other Iraqi, and quite good friends. Since many of our other guests were Arabic speakers, and Majda's husband is Iranian, everyone got to speak their language- (except no Spanish for me!). We had Moroccans, Tunisians, an American-Egyptian, an Iraqi, Iranians, a Colombian, and a Native American here.
I talked despite my almost non-existent voice (from a cold)**. About the time we had dinner I was overcome by exhaustion, but powered through. We did a big buffet table in the kitchen, stretched our new dining table to its fullest, and set up another table in the office/living room. Habib threw together a couple of benches for our old Ikea mattresses- (the kids have claimed them and fight over them now). I took Sami up to bed after everyone left, and Habib did all the dishes (the plates were easy- paper! I can't find all my china dishes yet.) Today I've done practically nothing- managed a turkey soup for dinner.
Habib said it was the best party we've had- and we like to party!
*Whilst in the store the other day, Leila said, "An apple is an apple," so I asked her to get one of each apple and we ended up with 11 which we taste tested on Wednesday night. She learned that an apple is not just an apple. Some are sweeter and others juicier.
**Wednesday morning I dragged into class late and wrote on the board: "Good morning. I made it. But my voice didn't!" My students were very understanding.

7

It's interesting to have a seven-year-old boy. Ali is different than his sister was at this age. Less independent, but getting more so. I told him he had to clean up his room today, because tomorrow a lot of people are coming over. He fussed and moaned as he usually does. And then I came home this afternoon to a very neat, organized room. I asked Leila if she'd helped him, but she said she only moved one box. It's a miracle, I tell you, a Thanksgiving miracle!
A week or so ago, I had the two boys taking a bath together. "Are you sure Sami is a boy?" Ali asked me. "Yes." "How do you know?" "He has a penis." "You DON'T have a penis?" Ali asked me. He had just assumed girls had one, but in a different place!

Cleanliness

Ali was doing some nose picking on the bed tonight and I told him to go and get a tissue and wash his hands. "Why does everyone have to be so clean all the time!" he complained, but complied.
Last night the hot water heater somehow got turned down to low, and when we got home from Tae Kwon Do, I told Ali to hustle into the shower, but warned him it would be cold. I guess it wasn't too bad, and he enjoyed it as much as he enjoys any shower, I guess. (Though it might have been a bit shorter than normal!)
Leila then insisted on taking a shower to wash her hair, today being picture day. It confused her- just turning on the hot water and not needing to add any cold, but she figured it out. Afterwards she confessed that she'd only washed her hair- not the rest of her- because it was way too cold! But I realized, she's going to one of those that's willing to suffer for beauty.
This morning I went to the assembly at school because Ali got a Very Major Award for being such a great kid at school.

"A surprise announcement will free you."

This was yesterday's fortune- and it was true- sort of. I was supposed to facilitate a workshop in the afternoon, but my co-facilitator canceled, freeing me up, to!
I had a headache when I woke up. I looked around at the mess we'd made from the house and all the stuff needing to be put away from our trip- ughhh. The phone rang. It was the real estate showing service. Could we show the house in 45 minutes? No Way! My realtor quickly called to reschedule- how about in 2 hours? Luckily I had already unpacked and put a lot of things away. With H's help, we managed to get the house pretty spotless, and were almost out the door when the people showed up.
For his Eid present, Ali had gotten a new DSi chip, but Leila told her dad she just wanted love for Eid. (She's very non-materialistic).
I decided she should at least get some new clothes. She doesn't really need much, but it's fun to have some new things for school, and she's been wanting to go clothes shopping at the mall. After a food court lunch, we went into H & M and she got a couple of new outfits. Then we stopped in Macy's and got her the LOVE t-shirt we'd seen on the way in. After all, Love was her request for Eid.  She'd already chosen a first day outfit from her closet, but I think it's been usurped by something we picked up.
(I did go to work yesterday- we had evening meetings.)
Today we're going swimming with girl scout friends.
I hope today's fortune "A long, lost love will cross your path," won't come true, unless it's something like a food or activity I have forgotten.

"Write a letter to an old friend."

Last weeks "be a slacker" fortune was up for a couple of days, making me suspect it was really directed at the fortune posters..
I was a slacker though, which is nice in the last two weeks of summer vacation.
Today's post is apt, as I did send a Facebook email to an old friend. Does that count?
Yesterday there was no time for letter writing as we went up to a nearby dam with a lake for sailing and canoeing. Ever since my sister has had her little sunfish sailboat, I've wanted to go out in it. We took a very short sail at the beginning of the afternoon, and when I jumped out to keep the boat from hitting the shore, I scraped my foot on a stone. That slowed me down a bit. It was also HOT! We were hoping for cooler weather, but no luck with that. We were in an area with no swimming, so a lot of us "accidently" fell into the water, or capsized the boat out in the middle, or helped push the boat out a little ways before we got in.  The kids had a great time canoeing and going out in the sunfish with their cousin. Sami played on blankets set up under a tree. My mom said it was a fun day, but with a small "f." Had it not been Hot, we could have put the capital letter on fun.

Current obsessions.

And I mean, OBSESSIONS!!!
Ali- Pokemon. At a friend's birthday party at a jump house, he spent a long time talking Pokemon to the teenager tending the trampolines. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of Pokemon has his/her brain picked clean, and he spends hours with his friends playing on the ds, or playing with the figurines, or looking at cards. His were very organized until they fell on the floor. I would know more about them but I kind of tune out Pokemon information, just "uh-huing" at the right moment. A friend from Sweden was visiting with his family, and when Ali found out his son used to love Pokemon, he immediately latched onto him.
Leila- mermaids. She's watched every episode of an Australian show called H20, in which three girls happen upon a magical pool and become mermaids. In every episode they get wet, transform, and have to avoid detection. Today she wanted the scales off the Salmon* I was preparing for dinner in the hopes that by applying them to her legs she would one day just start growing a tail.
She also wants to buy a mermaid tail and/or find a magical pool.
Sami- the telephone. I'm afraid one day he's going to dial 911. He still loves the remote control, too. I got him his own cell phone and remote, but they are bright colored and clearly kids' toys. He wants the real thing. He also likes cords, and like everything else, they go straight to his mouth.
*Salmon deserves to be capitalized. Even on sale it's expensive!

"Money is the root of all evil. And man needs roots."

These are just getting ridiculous! I'm not even a man!
But speaking of money- the kids are a bit funny with this. Leila has several gift cards for Target, and some cash, but she doesn't really think about spending it. Ali, on the other hand, gets an idea of something he'd like to buy, and then that's all he can think about. Last week he was trying to earn a couple more dollars to up his total to $30, which is what he thought a Pokemon DS game would cost him. I owed him some allowance, so he had enough. But then he found a stuffed Snivey (Pokemon) and decided he wanted that too. He has no concept of saving for the future, so he spent more money on that, even though I warned him he might want to spend that money on something else, later.
Sami would probably just eat any money given to him.

"You will say yes when you should say no."

Oddly enough, this isn't entirely true of me. Well, I do say yes too much, but I also am willing to say no, especially about work things. This is strangely intimidating to some people.
One of my tactics is to let other people who have a tendency to say yes say it first. Sometimes this works.
I actually need to work on saying "yes" more to the kids. That's what some moms do. I also, incidentally, need to take them bowling. (Did you click on that link?)
Yesterday I said "yes" to taking Ali to the store to buy a new Pokemon game. You'd have thought it was Christmas. He woke up excited, and when he'd picked out the game, even thought it wasn't the exact one he'd gone in for, he thanked the store clerk "very much" and very enthusiastically.
Leila got a new Monster High doll. The only one of this doll had chewing gum on the plastic packaging, and had obviously been opened, though nothing was missing. When we checked out, we asked for, and got, a nice discount. (Christmas indeed!)
Sami's yes is the freedom to crawl around as he likes, with the occasional rescue from under a chair.

toothless

 At the Fourth of July get together- "Mommy, can somebody pull my tooth?" And so H did.

Meanwhile, this guy has five new teeth, including the top two to match the ones Ali lost. But this picture is about his eyes.
I am the worst tooth fairy ever! I don't think I've ever remembered to actually put money under the pillow. For his first tooth, Ali looked first thing, and then told Habib about it. Habib gave him a dollar and said the tooth fairy had put it under HIS pillow. I usually pretend that it fell on the floor of the kids room. For his second tooth, Ali's tooth flew out of his mouth and got lost on our friend's patio. However, the tooth fairy still visited Ali. In fact, she remembered in the morning before he did, and slipped a dollar under his pillow. Then Mom reminded him to go and look. He reported back that she hadn't come. Apparently, he'd put the dollar from his last tooth under his pillow, so he thought it was just that one! Arghhhh! I can't win!

altered

Ali lost a tooth today, unexpectedly and somewhat violently, as Leila caught it with her fingers while grabbing Sami. He was very upset, and it did bleed quite a bit, but it must have been loose to begin with, though none of us knew that. It was one of his front teeth, and the other one seems loose as well, so my beautiful little boy is going to be not so much this summer.
Oh, well.

Sami, on the other hand, is growing teeth. His third one has popped up, making a little uneven row across his bottom gum.

What can you do?

"I can make(ing) my ears wiggle."
What Ali wrote in school when asked to write a sentence about something he can do.

"him with his foot in his mouth"

What we've done

Sami has been working on his sitting skills. He's gotten really good!

 He attends soccer games and works on his charm skills. Here he's smiling like Uncle Serge.

 He's also been teething like mad. 4 months of drooling have finally resulted in one bottom tooth popping out. It's jagged and sharp, and has been used as a weapon. Here he is enacting the "great white hunter" and eating a giraffe. (Sophie, from France, not Africa).

I've been doing yoga, but my "Happy Baby" pose is nowhere near as good as his, nor am I as limber. I wonder if he hurts his foot when he bites it with that one tooth?

 Leila turned nine. We celebrated with an enormous sleepover that went from applying makeup... (these two weren't interested in applying it properly!)

...to gathering bugs in the yard. This is such a great age! Only one girl cried, and it was her older sister, who had come along as a chaperone, who caused it, so it doesn't count.

13 girls (2 older sisters) were there for the evening, and 9 spent the night. Not a one had to go home during the night, and though I didn't make them sleep until midnight, they were all wide awake at 6:40.

Later that morning Leila had a soccer game. The season is winding down, much to my relief. I love that they play, and value it, but 3 different practices a week and two games at a field on the other side of town on Saturdays during high allergy season is a little much. The weather has been lovely- I just wish I could enjoy it. I also wish that the kids could win at least one game! It's hard getting beaten every week- but they are improving.

Ali has been working on his DS skills, and now that the kids got a Wii for their birthdays, playing on that. My folks came for a few days and played with the kids and helped organize the house.

Ali also got behind the wheel of a very slow go-cart at the party of a friend. When they offered him another ride for free, he refused. I don't know why. I guess "slow and steady wins the race" for him.

That pretty much sums up April. I've been grading like mad and trying to finish up some PhD readings, as well as working on the house. We want to put it on the market by the end of May.

Good Company

Observations of a six-year-old

Last night we drove over to Santa's Village. The moon was just rising above the tree line, round and golden. When it finally got high enough for the kids to see, Ali observed- "It looks like ear wax."  (I see a poet in training.- or an ear doctor!)
This morning he got into bed where I was holding a sleeping Sami and got me to make him an origami fortune teller (also called a cootie catcher.) Then he started telling our fortunes. For Sami: "You will soon drink milk." And for me? "You will soon be feeding Sami." Those aren't exactly hard fortunes- they describe 75% of our daily activities!

Brothers and Colombians

Four Weeks

Sami has been in our lives for four weeks, which have just sped by. Last Saturday we had a "Sip and See" for him- a Southern tradition where people drop by to take a gander at the new child. A lot of folks came, and it was great fun to catch up with people from all areas of my life, some of whom I hadn't seen in quite a while. Sami was passed from person to person- he loved being held and slept through most of it. H was in the kitchen making pizza, and those who didn't leave early got some of that yumminess.
The kids mostly played outside, with excursions to the table for brownies, snickerdoodles, chex mix, and mini pumpkin muffins. The cake read- "Welcome Sami!"
Leila told one friend that she was going to skip puberty and go straight to adulthood. I asked her about that later, and she explained that puberty sounded to scary- I assured her that it wasn't too bad if one did it right- which meant talking to her mom. I hope that works for her!
My folks, who had been here for almost 3 weeks, left the next day, leaving us to deal with laundry, school age kids, and cooking on our own. Luckily it was Thanksgiving week- and my mom cooked us Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night before they left.
Thanksgiving holidays weren't that much fun for the kids. We did go to friends for dinner on Thursday night, and to the local paint your pottery place on Friday, and the library on Saturday. Tonight some other friends brought a delicious Chicken Masala dinner and tomorrow it's back to school. The laundry is part way done, the house is a mess, but Sami is asleep at the breast, despite my typing with the arm that is holding him.