""Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"
"All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. ... "Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
"What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!" said Gandalf. "Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won't be good till I move off.""
--JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit

I am reminded how much I loved this book. There is an elegance to the writing that one sees so rarely these days. I think perhaps I shall have to re-read it, when Jason is through with it, of course. He decided, and truth to tell, I am not sure why, that he wanted to read 'The Hobbit' and the Rings Trilogy. I am a little leery of this -- the books have some darkness to them and he is a creature of light but he is unconcerned. So I will, as Eliza says 'Save my breath to cool my porridge' and watch. I cannot complain, however, as regards the quality of his choice. If he must read, then reading something that is well written with graceful prose would seem to me to be the best way to go. I remember noticing, in grad school, that I often wrote in much the same style as the authors I was reading at the moment... osmosis, perhaps? It will be interesting to see how Tolkien affects Jason's writing/thinking.

Ah well, off to 'defend the day' -- may all of you have a wonderful one.

Shakespeare Redux

Okay, the truth will out. Shakespeare wrote for children -- or at least, he wrote his humor for the younger crowd. And, as Beatrice was wont to say 'And I am sunburned'

What? You don't understand? Let me explain. I told you earlier, I think, that we had been watching 'A Midsummer's Night's Dream' in the mornings. The boys loved it... though Xander, who for reasons unexplained became attached to Bottom, was a little worried that Tatianna might harm him. At any rate, the boys laughed and laughed through the movie. At the end of it, Xander, wicked imp, sparkle in his eye, looked at me and said 'And my Bottom's my ASS!' Chortling he went dancing off while I stood stunned. DO you know -- in all the years that I have read and watched the play, I never clicked on that particular pun? And it is not as if it were a subtle one either but no, it took a four year old to pick up on it... and pick up on it he did. He was absolutely delighted with all of the puns that poured like water from Bottom's mouth (YECK!).

Other deep insights from the play -- Xander decided that he prefered Tatianna to Kate(Taming of the Shrew) because, and I am quoting here 'Tatianna is stronger and I like strong women!' Jason was quite firm in his decision that Oberon was the baddest of the bad guys in Shakespeare to date -- and that includes Prince John. Quite a condemnation. Xander, after momentary thought, agreed with his brother. 'Oberon is just plain bad.' said the pint sized Socrates. Both boys felt great sympathy for Bottom, interestingly enough and worried how he would take waking from his fairy dream. They were relieved that he suffered no ill effects. They were not impressed at all with Hermia's father nor yet with the Duke, though they forgave him somewhat when he supported the lovers' marriages in the end.

It has been truly educational watching them watch and listen to Shakespeare. As I said, they are quicker to pick up on the puns -- and they laugh harder and longer at them than most adults. They also seem to have a clearer vision of the rights/wrongs/goods/bads of the whole thing. I am truly impressed -- and reminded, of course, that a great deal of the plays were written for the pit, not for the highbrows. It is only our warp understanding of the production of the plays that makes them something to be reserved for the 'highly educated.' It will be interesting to see what they make of Twelfth Night... LOL

Sunshine, Pussywillows, Soft Rain and Roses

The sun has returned to Seattle and not before times either! Everyone here in the Pacific Northwest was beginning to fuss and fret at the insanity of the weather. One day 70 degrees and sunny then weeks of hail, sleet and 40 degrees. Not pretty. As might be expected of such temperatures, illness has struck anew -- Jason, who is almost never ill these days, came down with a bad cold and Xander developed dueling ear infections. His cough was horrible -- is horrible -- a choking mess that denied him sleep unless I sat up (literally) holding him upright through out the night. That meant, of course, that I was denied sleep. Then inspiration struck. I checked and we had some Axid. Axis is a reflux medication. Last night I gave him Axid, along with lathering his feet in Vicks Baby Rub, and for the first time in several nights, he slept the whole night through with nary a cough. Hallelujah!

Today, well... today it is I who is the slug. I finally got around to checking the medication that the doctor gave me for my headaches. Turns out that the painkiller she proscribed is not to be used more than three times a week or it will create backlash headaches. Would've been nice if someone had told me that. So today I am suffering the headaches again. Good news is that I managed to get an appointment with a headache specialist for tomorrow. Maybe he can help. I do hope so. These headaches have been plaguing me for almost two months and everyone is suffering as a result. Even Tom commented that my energy levels have dropped markedly. Now is not the time for that!

But wait! This is a schooling blog is it not? So what about school? Well, let me see... Today Jason began learning Microsoft Excel. Yeah, I know. He is 8. Why is he learning Excel? Simple, really. He wanted to do something to help out at the Church we attend (and that is a whole OTHER story!) so I asked the Religious Education coordinator what jobs he might do. She answered promptly that there were two that she knew of right off: weeding around the buildings and organizing the library. Jason, ever the bibliofiend, volunteered immediately and vocally for the second. So yesterday, after Church, we went to meet with her. She explained that what she needed him to do was to log all the books into her Excel database. She wants to be able to search Author and Title when she needs a book. Jason was, of course, thrilled. Not only does he get to look through books but he gets to work on computers! As we were leaving he expounded on what he planned to do: Once he has mastered Excel he wants to learn computer programming with an aim to, what else?, creating computer games of his own! Myself, I think just mastering Excel will be enough of a challenge to keep him occupied for awhile. But then, I may be wrong. He certainly taught himself to read fast enough!

And speaking of reading, his reading these days is eclectic. He badgered his father until Tom dug up his old copy of 'The Hobbit' -- that is Jason's latest rabbit trail. In addition to the Hobbit, he is also reading through the "Horrible Histories" by Terry Deary as well as every Garfield, Peanuts, Asterix and Obelix comics books he can find. He reads voraciously and one of the most common refrains in our house these days is 'Jason, don't read while walking down steps' or 'Jason, please, close the book and eat' or 'Jason, mark your book and go to the restroom!' LOL.

Another recent, and to my mind hysterical, development is the 'adding' phenomenon. It began with Xander, really. One day, for no apparent reason, Xander started adding two to everything. Indeed, one day while we were in the grocery store I came in on the end of an apparent argument between the boys when Xander demanded of me 'MOMMY! Two plus Two IS FOUR, ISN'T IT?!' Puzzled I said 'Yes, I believe, under most circumstances it is.' Xander turned to Jason and said fiercely 'SEE!' Jason said 'I wasn't arguing.' Xander said 'And 1 + 1 +1 +1 = 4' and Jason responded 'and 3+1=4' and off they went, still coming up with ways to get to four. A woman walking past starred at them and then at me as if we had all sprouted horns. I just shrugged. A short time later, Jason came to me and said 'Mom, there sure are a lot of ways to get to 10, aren't there?' Uh, yeah? Jason has also picked up on his father's dreaming habits: he wakes up on occasion and spouts mathematical equations at me.

Then there is the zoo... I found an interesting book called 'How to build a miniature zoo' by Vinson Brown. The boys and I have been reading it and, of course, the boys are intrigued and ambitious. Now I admit, I sort of set this up. Months and months ago I introduced the boys to the writings of Gerald Durrell through his book 'My family and other animals.' The boys were delighted with that book and fascinated with Durrell's mini zoo of bugs and birds and beasties. Now here we have a 'how to' manual. It really is a nice book, I must say, and I am myself inclined to think that if we do end up in a place with sufficient space, a mini zoo of the type suggested by Brown would be a wonderful introduction to science.

So far as science goes, the boys' favorite subjects to date are: biology, astronomy, and chemistry. We haven't really done that much in the way of chemistry mostly because Mom has been lagging. The boys would be more than willing to do 'experiements' of all sorts if only I would let them... Again, space and my energy are the issues at hand.

Hmmm... what else? Well, soccer is over and done and baseball is upon us. I have found myself in the position of coaching Xander's tee ball team. That is interesting. I am rather frustrated with Jason's team and so do my best to stay far away for fear that I will open my mouth and make unwelcomed comments. I leave Tom to help out. He is, in this case, the more diplomatic of the two of us. I blame it all on these headaches.

Updates

Wow, it has been awhile since I wrote here. That seems to be my refrain these days... oh well.

We did go to Hawaii and the boys both fell in love with the place: Xander decided to become a professional shell collector and Jason decided that he was moving to Hawaii as soon as he was old enough to get a job... Grin. We all loved it. Then we came back. We were greeted by rain, snow and cold -- and everyone became ill. What a surprise:>

But the sun has finally returned to Maple Valley. Thank heavens. Yesterday we went for a long walk/hike at a place called 'Squak Mountain.' It was gorgeous -- a place where we had never been before. The boys raced about the trails, hunting and fishing for monsters while Tom and I took pictures. Xander found a variety of letter and number shapes in nature and the elders duly took pictures. One of these days I will actually put them together into a book!

Schooling proceeds at its usual stop and go pace. Things have been made more challenging by the presence of a third child, the son of a friend. We had him everyday for a week and have been collecting him from school since then. The drive out to collect him is about 1/2 an hour and when he is here, the whole dynamic is different. His passion/obsession is a video game -- it is all he talks about and all he wants to do. What a difference from Jason and Xander! They are literally bursting with creativity -- all over!

And they are constantly astonishing me: the other day, for example, Xander was wandering around adding 2 to everything -- and announcing the sums. His favorite target for these pronouncments was his brother who, of course, was attempting to read one of his novels. Finally, after having been pounced repeatedly by Xander's sums, Jason looked up and said 'Okay, so... what is two plus ten?' Xander was disgusted, as are most people when a pop quiz is tossed to them. He let it lay where it fell and went off to do something else:> A quick and effective way of stopping a brother from bothering you. Wonder why I never thought of it?

And then there is Jason: Always creating -- he is currently writing up the rules to a new card game that he is creating based on the book 'Around the world in 80 days.' (We have been reading the book at night. Xander was especially excited about the rescue of Aouda:>) One of these games may actually be marketable... Yesterday he built both the Space Needle and the Empire State building out of legos -- they were kits that he got for his birthday but they were both for ages older than he. Hmmm.... And last night, he talked himself to sleep figuring out the multiplication tables: "2 times 10 is twenty. 10 times 10 is one hundred. 3 times 10 is 30. 10 times 100 is 1000" If you ask me why, I don't know. He just started doing it...

The boys have also recently watched the Taylor/Burton version of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew.' Xander immediately fell in love with Taylor, of course. And Jason? Well, watching TOS set him off -- we ended up discussing the differences in the characters of that play and those of 'Much Ado about Nothing.' Jason decided that Benedict was the better person -- and listed the reasons and Xander asked me (after I had said that it seemed to me that Shakespeare always had a strong woman contrasted with a silly one -- Kate/Biana, Beatrice/Hero etc) 'Is that true of the men too?' Hmmm, good questions. So, when we went to the library the other day, nothing would do but we had to borrow the plays and as soon as we got home, I started reading TOS. I finally stopped despite my sons' protests because my throat was sore!

Flight to the Sun!!!

Yessir, the day approachth! Soon, oh so soon, we will be winging our way to the Islands. Tom, bless his soul, has even agreed to leave behind his work cell and computer and to actually make this a vacation -- the first one that he will have had since starting work at Boeing.

Meanwhile, until that time, life goes on. And there are developments:

Jason has fallen in love with an older girl in his class, Michaela. She is a lovely girl and has a brother Jason's age, Cobin, also in the class. She is amazing, actually -- seems to know all the right things to say. She laughs at Jason's jokes, tells him that he is funny, and asks to hear more. And yesterday... as we were leaving the Dojang, he leaned in against me and said in a bare whisper, cheeks pinkening, 'Michaela hugged me. We really ARE friends!' Oh child. Part of me aches for him. Part of me smiles. The other morning, he woke up all smiles and informed me that he'd had no bad dreams, only good ones because "I dreamed of Michaela." Sigh.

Now when I told my mother all this, she commented that 'Well, I guess we know who the lover is in your family.' Mr. Big Ears heard this, of course, and immediately announced 'HEY! I am a lover too! I love ALL pretty girls!' Grin. Yep, that'd be Xander. The man who does NOT discriminate about girls/women; he just loves 'em. So that led into a discussion of that Italian fellow, Casanova. I explained to Mom that Casanova had gotten a lot of bad press, mainly from husbands. His abiding fault, it turns out, was his inability to allow women to be abused, so he was constantly 'rescuing' them from abusive situations -- and, of course, that got around and women began seeking him out. Puts a whole different spin on the 'seducer', does it not? At any rate, I have no difficulty whatsoever, seeing my youngest following a similar path. He does, in fact, like women -- of all ages and sizes and colors and shapes. Even as a wee bit, he smiled preferentially at women whereas Jason just smiled at everyone.

Now, beyond their curious social developments, people may wonder how school is going -- indeed, I actually had a complete stranger ask if I didn't think that Xander was suffering by NOT being in preschool. Nope. As I answered the questioner, Xander learns what Jason learns. Last night, for example, he was cogitating on math: 1+1= 2, Mommy! he said and 1+2 =3! Yes, I agreed, and 1+2+3=6! He thought about that a moment and announced, in tones of deep satisfaction 'I am a MATHEMATICIAN!' Grin. Why all this excitement? Well, last night, as one of our bedtime books, we read 'Mathematicians are People Too', a collection of short biographies of famous mathematicians. We read about Thales -- and then I stopped. Jason wanted to continue, of course. He always does. So I promised to read more today. But apparently Thales was enough to spark Xander's ambition yet again. Now he is interested in being a Mathematician!

Similarly, I gave Jason a book to read called 'The Grapes of Math' -- it is a series of verbal Math riddles. Jason had a blast. The riddles require real thinking -- and the developing of methods for resolving the riddles, including multiplication. Jason now wants to 'do the math' in any book we read. Gotta love it. Most kids hate word problems. After I demonstrated to Jason how he could translate the words into equations, he became fascinated and spent a good morning working them out.

On other notes: Jason is creating a new Legos universe and he already has quite a backstory worked out:
Space Explorers is the name of his new Universe. The characters are Captain Pixel, First Mate Bits, Engineer Axle, Navigator Johnnie, Doctor Knowitall and Communications engineer Hullothere (an android). There is a crew of 1000 souls, including a monsterous creature created by Xander who is the designated scout (he is too big to fit on the main ship so he has his own)

The story: Captain Pixel and his crew are sent off in a hurry, on a refitted ship, to melt Mar's polar ice-caps. The water is needed to terraform the planet and there is some urgency in the operation. Unfortunately, the ship that they are given was originally created for a vastly different purpose and there is, on the command console, a special button -- a warp button -- that should never be used. Through some set of unspecified circumstances, the Captain accidentally HITS the warp button and the ship is thrown two MILLION lightyears away, directly into the path of a meteor shower. As might be expected, the ship is badly damaged and now is seeking food, fuel and repair materials in order to get home.

Jason has already created the mini figs for the the story and is working on the ship. Xander is creating the backdrop. I think I shall see if I can get Jason to illustrate his story as well as build it. It would make an interesting comix.

What is truly impressive to me is the fact that, as far as I know, this idea just came into his head. He announced to me yesterday morning that he wanted to create a 'new universe.' I said 'okay, tell me about it' and began asking him questions to help focus his thoughts. Within moments, he had laid out the bones of his ideas (as indicated above) and was happily building away. Wish I had the same ability!

Finally, after legos and math, we watched the Imax film "Space Station" and the boys decided that, in addition to being Paleontologists and archeologists, they are going to become astronauts. This led, of course, to a serious discussion as to what skills astronauts have/require and that in turn, led to a discussion about what the boys would need to do in order to be able to try to become astronauts. As I told Tom later that day, even if they don't become astronauts ('It is an extremely dangerous job' Tom muttered darkly), the skill sets that astronauts are required to have would stand the boys in good stead. So... we will see where this ends up. Their interests expand geometrically these days!

Last but not least, Xander has decided that he is in love with the Dentist's office. For one thing, they have a camera that takes pictures of your whole face -- and Xander got to see the X-rays of Jason's teeth (Teeth like rocks, according to the Dentist). Xander was in ecstacies. And then there were all the cool tools and a TV screen that can be moved all over... he can hardly wait for HIS appointment. Tom laughed when I told him and said 'I wonder how many times X-rays of teeth have enticed little boys into going willingly to the Dentist!' Don't know but it seems to have worked for Xander!

Paleontology Game

It is amazing what the boys can conceive. As you may be aware, they are both in love with Dinosaurs and fossils. Not a surprise. Most little boys love Dinos. But these two take it to the next step. Jason, having read a book about 'the serious game of Paleontology' decided that he wanted to create such a game. And yesterday we worked on it. He has decided to call it 'Paleontology: The Final Frontier.' It is a combination of monopoly and trivial pursuit meets paleontology. We are working to put it together and then he plans to test drive it on his scout troop. I have told him that if it does well, I will help him try to market it. Grin. Another lesson to learn for both of us if that happens! At any rate, it is a fun project and it should be interesting to see how it finally turns out.

Xander, meanwhile, continues with his 'Creature' Creations. We found a big bag of googley eyes at the Childrens' Learning Store the other day and bought it. He immediately wanted to come home and make boy and girl creatures. What is the difference between boys and girls? Girls have eye brows! Ummm... I have decided, as the creatures are multiplying at an enormous rate -- and they really are very cute -- that I shall have to start a 'creature' website for Xander, one where he can 'store' his creations in virtual space and see them whenever he wishes. Of course, I am well aware of where that might lead. Already his older brother wants to learn computer programming so that he can create computer games of his own. Xander will not be long behind. Sigh. So now I need to learn to teach computer programming! Luckily there is an MIT program taht offers a free basic computer programming language and training. The reviews are all good so again, what a chance to do something new!

Jason has also decided that he is going to study the human body and to learn how to 'fix it'. He is vitally aware of all those whom he loves who have serious illnesses and conditions and, being his father's son, is absolutely bound and determined to do something about it. Truth is, given his ability to focus, I suspect that if he does decide to pursue this, he will succeed. He and Xander share the ability to immerse themselves in their areas of interest. I am finding it easier and easier to understand how Alexander the Great conquered his world... LOL.

Belated Inaugural News

Hi,

Meant to write this down days ago but life caught me a bit off guard:>
Jason, Xander and I watch the Inauguration of Barack Obama, 44 th President of the United States and the hope of this nation. Xander, who once expressed the opinion that Presidents were nothing but a lot of noise and confusion, lost interest fairly quickly but Jason was riveted. Prior to the 'show' Jason recorded, on our voice recorder, his own 'Presidential campaign speech' and his own, graceful, acknowledgement of defeat. What was striking about that 'speech' was his campaign focus -- three main points: (1)Universal Health care, (2)lower taxes and (3)All rich people should be good people, not people who kill off Polar Bears in Alaska for their own selfish interests. Grin. That last one was quintessentially Jason, don't you think? I shall have to see if I can upload the speech, which he orated with great vigor, so that those who are interested can hear it.

On a different note, a Xander story which also reflects the spirit of the person. We were at the Dojang, waiting for Xander's TKD class to begin. Xander was already in the Dojang, playing when in charged Heath, another of the students. Heath is about 5, very active, and about a head taller -- and quite a bit wider -- than Xander. He charged over to Xander and they had an exchange which ended with Xander puffing out his chest like a Bantam rooster, standing tiptoe to toe with Heath and announcing 'I am bigger than you and don't you forget it!' What astounded me was... Heath BELIEVED him! As I watched in amazement, Heath wilted and backed off. There was no aggression between them following the encounter. Indeed, they seemed to be in perfect harmony but Heath was definately deferring to Xander. Gawk. The child is truly scary.

Amazing tales continue

The boys really do make me laugh -- and at the most unexpected moments. Take for example the other night: we were curled up in their bed, reading books. Jason, shifting to a more comfortable position, inadvertently pulled my hair. I yelped. He was very apologetic but I told him not to worry about it, it was just that my hair was getting too long. He looked at me thoughtfully and asked 'Why is it getting too long?'

I replied 'Well,right now, I have neither the time nor the money to get it cut.'

He mulled that over and then said, 'Well, I am too young right now but when I

am 8, I can stay home and watch Xander and you can take my piggy bank and

go get your hair cut!'

He really is amazing.

He was at Tae Kwon Do with his dad on Saturday and he and Malia, 8, the other green belt, were practicing their Poomse. Apparently they were able to get quite a bit of conversation in while they practiced ('We talked about geography and astronomy and other stuff' Jason reported) and discovered that they had a great deal in common. Jason was quite pleased. 'Malia and I are friends' he told me happily. And then 'I really like Michaela. She is such a nice girl.' Grin. He is right, of course. She is.

And then there is Xander...

Again, it was evening. Xander was hugging me and declaring his undying love:

"Mommy, I love you more than the Moon!"

I pretended shock, 'Wow, I didn't realize that the Moon loved me!'

He gifted me with that look that children have when parents are silly.

'Mommy, the Moon CAN'T love you! It is inanimate and besides, it

can't speak so it is dumb!!!'

Ahhh....

He is also learning at an incredible rate: Jason and I were doing mental math sums where I would call out a problem and Jason would try to solve it in his head. I mix the simple with the harder to keep the frustration level down. I called out 'So what is 3 plus 2?' and before Jason could get the answer out, Xander piped up 'Oh, that is 5, of course!' Hmmm...

Today the wind is blowing like nobody's business and Jason is still asleep. He woke in the middle of the night again and finally, after an hour and a half, went back to sleep. I am debating whether to wake him now that it is nearly 8 am. We have started going to the Eastshore Unitarian Universalist Church in Factoria and the boys have really been enjoying it. But the service we attend is at 9 am and it is a bit of a drive. Still, I hate to wake him.

Jason

Everytime I think I know my children, they surprise me. Yesterday, on our way home from Tae Kwon Do, Jason said, 'I think Micheala is lonely. I think she needs a friend.' I said 'I thought she had friends, Sklyer, for example?' 'Yes,' he agreed, 'Sklyer is her friend but Skyler and all her other friends are in a different class now.' I said 'I thought that you were her friend.' 'Yes,' he said thoughtfully (with Xander piping up 'I'll be her friend!!!') 'but I think maybe she wants a friend who is... well, her own age...' I asked, 'Why do you think what you think?' He explained that at water break, while everyone else is playing, Michaela stands on the side, looking sad. I thought about it and asked 'So, you have identified a problem now, what can you do?' We discussed it a bit more and he came up with a plan. At the next meeting, before the class, Jason will talk with his friend and fellow green belt, Malia. Then, at water break, he and Malia will ask Michaela -- who is a higher belt -- to help them with their poomse and balchugee.

Jason amazes me. He has a kindness and compassion that seem to extend well beyond the normal range. He has a gift for understanding people -- for example, he noticed, while at a playmate's house, that whenever the boy was angry with his parents, he took it out on the kids he had over. Jason had been hurt by this boy's behavior and I talked with him, trying to make sure that he understood that HE was not at fault (Jason tends to take responsibility for other peoples' emotions and behaviors, sigh.) and it was at that point that he explained about M's behavior and his theory of its cause. He was not approving of M's behavior but he felt compassion for him, for his frustration and his inability to handle it. We agreed that it can be hard when you are angry or frustrated with someone who is bigger or more powerful.

Xander, of course, was quite vocal about his opinion of the situations. He is MORE than willing to be Michaela's friend -- will she like me? Jason was reassuring. 'She already likes you.' And as for M -- Xander was all set to go punch him in the nose. Jason discouraged that saying, 'M. can be nice. He just gets angry sometimes. We all do.'

I worry sometimes. Jason is so sensitive and so willing to accept responsibility for other peoples' behavior and actions. It seems that a big part of his education will be how to differentiate between what is his responsibility and what he must let go.

On the other hand, he is better than most adults in the latter. He was very upset the other day -- don't remember why. I asked him 'Do you remember what the Buddha said that cause of suffering is?' He nodded 'Suffering comes from attachment.' He breathed in and out, a hiccoughing kind of breathing but calming nonetheless. He said to himself, 'I need to let go.' He breathed for a bit more and then took an extra deep breath. 'I'm okay now.' And, amazingly enough, he was.

The new year -- 2009

Wow! Hadn't realized that I hadn't posted in that long... ah well, life has a way of getting away from me!

What has happened since Thanksgiving? Let me think: Well, Tom and Jason took the belt promotion tests at Tae Kwon Do -- Tom is now High Green and Jason is Green. There was a lot of worry for awhile since Jason didn't have the stripes he needed to test but, bless Master Lewis, he went in the last Saturday before the test and Master Lewis, noticing the absence, asked about it. Jason explained that he hadn't had the oppurtunity to try for his stripes so right there, Master Lewis tested him on all of them. He approved the stripes, telling Jason only that he needed to 'get up higher with your back kick.' Jason was thrilled -- so was Xander. When he heard, he immediately sat down and made his big Bah Bah a congratulations card.

Hmmm... and what else? Well, Christmas, of course. And it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. Tom was sent off to Texas on the 19th (I think) and it had just started. Mom arrived on the 22nd -- and had trouble getting out of the airport (which had been closed due to weather and a severe lack of de-icer for the airplanes!) but thanks to Old John, was collected and taken home. Ice and snow everywhere for more than a week shut down a lot of things -- and then, after Mom left and Tom was home, the snow went away and it rained and rained and now there are flooding problems. On Thursday last, Tom found himself stuck in a two hour traffic jam as a result of flooding on Highway 169. The police shut it down and the traffic went via Petrovitsky. Problem is, Petrovitsky is a small road with lots of stop signs -- and the police never bothered to provide any traffic control! Sigh.

What else? Mind you, I am writing this is the dark of the morning. Everyone else is asleep though I shall have to wake Tom soon. (He is planning, poor man, to work this whole Sunday.) Haven't had coffee or a shower yet so my brain is not functioning at full capacity! (LOL)

Boy stories:

1) The other day, as we were rushing off to go on a field trip to the Enumclaw city hall, a small red and white dog appeared. No collar and looking rather nervous, it approached the car. It allowed me to pet it and pick it up but I could find no clue as to where its home might be. When I put it down again, it immediately headed for the car. Jason got out and talked with it and it answered him politely and shyly and... headed for the car again! I finally figured out that the person it was interested in was Xander! I didn't know what to do. We had to leave but I didn't want it to get hit by a car. I saw that our neighbor across the way had arrived home. They seem to know many of the folks in the area so I went over and asked him. He allowed as how, no, he hadn't seen the dog around but if we had to leave, he would be happy to see what he could do to help. Gratefully I left the dog with him. But still, I keep seeing that little red and white face looking hopefully at Xander... I think the Universe may be trying to tell us something here!

2)Jason has a crush. I noticed it Thursday at Tae Kwon Do. The kids came out for a water break, Jason right behind Micheala, the older sister of his friend, Cobin. With his chin tucked to his chest and a bit of a strut to his stride, he said (deepening his voice) 'HELLO Micheala' She looked at him and smiled 'Hello Jason' but as she started to say something else, he turned towards the wall and posed! (Grin). She gave him a puzzled, rather quizzical smile and got herself some water. When she returned to the Dojang, he followed on her heels, still in that posturing pose. Later, I asked him if he 'liked' her and he said 'yes.' Tom, who hadn't been there, said 'Well, of course he likes her. He likes lots of kids in his class.' Jason and I looked at each other and I said, 'Yeah, but I think maybe Micheala is special.' Jason agreed. A while later, Tom came to me, rather puzzled and said 'Isn't he a bit young?' I said 'No. This isn't what it will be when he is 15 but it is not that unusual to like someone older...' Grin.

3)Several evenings ago we were having a discussion with Jason about authority figures. Tom asked him, 'Who should you obey?' Jason said 'Well, Mommy. And Daddy...' And a small voice piped up 'And XANDER!' We all looked at him and he gave us the sweetest, most impish smile...

4)We are back to Dinosaurs again in our studies. We started with Darwin and Evolution -- mostly because the boys had been using the words re: Pokemon and I wanted to be sure that they understood what the word meant. (Please note, my youngest said to me, very firmly when I was fussing about this: 'Mommy! Pokemon is Make Believe! The same rules don't apply!') Jason was/is fascinated and we have been reading books and watching videos on the subject. We even had the oppurtunity to go see the Lucy exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. Well, I didn't see much of it, truthfully... the boys were eager to see 'the bones' and so skipped through much of the background. They did like 'the bones' though and Xander surprised one of the docents when, at the interactive skeleton, he proceeded to put all the bones in their right location! (grin, she should've seen what he did AFTER THAT!) Xander, though, while he likes the bones part, is not so interested. He likes FOSSILS! So we are doing Dinosaurs again.

People are starting to wake now so I will continue this later.