Alien Eyes

Lake Johnson Loop

One of the things I would think about when I was so sick was my walks I used to do around Lake Johnson with Sarita, one of my friends from work.  It's about a 3 mile loop, with very steep hills on one side.  I remember wondering if I'd ever be able to do it again.  I'm happy to say that today Sarita and I did the loop. It was a gorgeous afternoon.

Present from Simon

Now that Simon can write some simple words on his own, he's back to making presents just so he can write "To Mom."

Evening walks

I went back to work on Monday, and I was nervous, but it went fine. It was amazing how much better I felt compared to the first part of the year when I was teaching when I was so sick.  I don't think I fully realized how hard that was until I felt better.

I have to take my walks in the evening twilight now, if I can get home from work in time. I'm trying to maintain my strength for going in to the second surgery. The nice thing about evening walks is that I'm heading back home by the pond right at sunset, so I can get a beautiful view like this.

Simon loses his first loose tooth!

After supper today, I noticed Simon's loose tooth was missing. He must have swallowed it. His new tooth is already half way in, so it just pushed the old tooth out. It couldn't have been more effortless and painless.

Here he and Alice are, the next morning, discovering the coin and note from the tooth fairy.  The note explained why he was still getting a coin even although he swallowed his tooth.  Simon wouldn't have needed any explanation, but Alice remembered getting a note when she swallowed her tooth, so we had to do it for her. Tooth fairies are very consistent.

Elizabeth's Birthday Party

This afternoon, I took the kids to Simon's friend Elizabeth's birthday party at Mordecai Mini Park, near downtown Raleigh. It was an awesome park that we'd never been to before. The invitation stated "no presents please" so I had the kids make cards for her instead.

There were lots of kids and parents at the party, but Elizabeth pretty much just played with Simon the whole time. It was so cute to watch them together, and interesting for me to get a chance to see Simon interact with another kid. This is kind of rare, as Simon is completely indifferent to most other kids, with the exceptions of Donovan and Elizabeth. (Maybe he gets it from me: I only knew two other parents there, and after talking with them briefly, I mostly just ate Doritos from the party table and wandered around aimlessly.)

The kids had a lot of fun, although as soon as the sun was low in the sky, I was freezing. Luckily the party ended at 5pm.

Marbles Morning

Zac took the kids to Marbles today, while I stayed home and tried to get everything ready for going back to work on Monday.

Bird Park with the Niu Family

Ever since Alice bonded with Victoria during the Halloween bonfire, we've been developing a friendship with the Niu family.  The parents are originally from China and now have six kids who they homeschool.  They live in the next cul-de-sac over, and we've seen them off and on over the past two years at the neighborhood pool and other events.

On Wednesday we all went to our neighboring park together.  Simon ignored the other kids, but Alice played well with everyone.  So then on Friday we decided to go to the Sylvan Bird Park together (leaving husbands at home to get stuff done).

Simon stayed with me and we enjoyed looking at the birds together. Alice might have seen a few birds out of the corners of her eyes as she ran by. But seriously, so was always so eager to see what was next that she barely stopped to look at what was in front of her.

Lizard Eye

Cold day for swimming...

Group Portrait

After going through the park, the kids played at the playground for a long time, then we went to feed the parakeets.

It was a fun day and I got along easily with the mom. It was amazing how smoothly she handled the six kids (with help from the older ones).

Thanksgiving Feast

We had Thanksgiving with Zac's dad's family (plus foreign exchange student Paulina from Guatemala) in Burlington.

This was the best year yet. The kids have finally come around to liking some of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes (although neither one will eat mashed potatoes).  But they like turkey and ham and stuffing, so they cleaned their plates.

I was also super thankful that I could eat everything!

Wild at Heart

Chocolate Monster

Simon's Major Awards*

A week ago, we got two copies of this letter in sealed envelopes from Simon's take-home folder. Since I'm still off work, it was easy enough for me to go (but I kept the secret and didn't tell the kids I would be there).

I had no idea what to expect.  I got there early, and checked into the main office, along with a lot of other parents.  Then we went down to the gym where they had chairs set up on both sides for the adults.  Little by little, the classes started filing in and filling up the floor. When Simon saw me, he just had a blank stare, like his little brain couldn't comprehend what was even happening, let alone why I was there. When Alice saw me, she smiled and waved.

Here is a video of what a gym full of K-2nd graders looks like. In the screen shot below, you can see Alice walking in with her pink shirt and blond ponytail.  Simon is located in the very front on the left hand side. Look for the bright green on the hood of his jacket.

After all the kids came in, they started the assembly, with the MC explaining the significance of the award. Then a teacher from each grade level announced the recipients of the award. 

Conveniently, Simon's teacher, Ms. Liso, was the one to announce the winners for kindergarten.  I wasn't sure what Simon would do when his name was called, and I am still amazed he walked on stage and didn't freak out (as he did at every daycare program ever).

Simon suddenly seems a bit short, doesn't he? These other kindergartners are giants!

Then, surprisingly, Simon also won the award for being the best bus rider on his route.  I wasn't expecting his name to be called again, so I didn't get a video, but now it made sense why they sent us two letters--one was for each award.

After the assembly, once the classes had filed back out, they called all the award-winning kids from each grade level to come on stage so the parents could get a better picture.  Here is where Simon freaked out a bit. I don't think he knew what was going on and he kind of panicked and seemed a bit lost. I found him and helped him get on stage, but his lower lip was trembling. It took a minute for me to extricate my hand from his so I could get out of the picture, but he eventually let go and gave a tepid smile for all the camera phones aimed at the lineup. 

Afterwards, he was really confused, still, about why I was there and thought I would take him home, so he was disappointed that I wasn't (it was still the morning, and anyway, I had errands to run).  In the end, he gave me a hug and a kiss and went back in line with his class.  He's come a long way.

We're proud of our little guy for winning two awards right out of the gate, but we remain humble and don't take full credit for his good behavior. We know it's just Simon's nature and not really our doing, in the same way that we don't take full responsibility for our other child's inherent nature that so far, has not produced award-winning behavior.

~~~~~~~

*In the Shogren family, anytime anybody gets any award, especially the more meaningless it is, we call it a Major Award. My dad would get lots of Major Awards from his company's incentive programs over the years (little plaques and other paraphernalia with the company's logo on them) and in a self-deprecating way, they were always referred to as Major Awards. It is a reference to this scene from A Christmas Story:

Ornament for 2018

After the SOAR assembly, I stopped by Target to pick up a few things. As I walked in, I chanted my mantra of "Only buy things on your list, only buy things on your list," to try and strengthen my resolve. But with Christmas coming up, and my surgery date preventing me from doing any last-minute shopping, I just had to browse in case anything caught my eye....

Well, in the ornaments section, I noticed this rainbow-colored, glitter-enhanced, smiling turd. At first it struck me as an absolutely absurd Christmas ornament, even although the poop emoji is apparently quite popular.  But the more I thought about it, it seemed to be the perfect metaphor for this crappy year in our lives. Zac's sister died, I got really sick, my sister is going through a rough divorce, Trump is trying his best to destroy our democracy...and those are just the major things.  But then, there's also the glitter and rainbows. We got to see distant family and meet Bevin's son and his parents; I ended up getting surgery that essentially cured my disease, we experienced the kindness and generosity of our friends, and I get to appreciate things like bagels and walks so much more; my sister may end up much happier in the long run; and voter turnout was super high and democrats regained the house.  And so, just like this little pyramid of poop, we're still smiling. Reader, I bought it.

Despite deviating from my shopping list and picking up a few presents for the kids, I still made it home in time to take my precious walk through the rainbow colored woods.

Heritage Feast with Alice

Leading up to Thanksgiving, Alice had a school project where she had to make a family tree and then research a country that her ancestors came from.  I think this is all part of the wonderful liberal agenda to remind everyone (even white folks) that we all came from somewhere else and are only here due to immigration.

Anyway, getting Alice to make the family tree was quite a challenge. 

Then we had to get her to do research on Italy and write a report, which was a problem we solved by just having her watch videos about it. Getting her to write was quite a chore.

The culminating event was the heritage feast in her classroom. 

 Since I am still off work, it was easy for me to go. I ordered a big tray of spaghetti and meatballs from a local Italian restaurant and brought it, hoping to get some awesome Indian or African food in exchange.  No such luck.  The event was poorly attended, and the food was pretty minimal. The other main dish was a tray of lasagna, then there were some cookies, some dates, some rolls, and some popcorn, and some Mexican sodas.  What could I do?  I just had to eat a lot of the cookies in order to experience British culture.

The set up was kind of weird. It started out with the kids sitting on the floor eating their lunch from the cafeteria. Then the adults got plates of the food that was brought and sat at the desks (but it was unclear if the kids would be joining us). Then the kids were allowed to get some of the food, and some of them sat with the few parents who came.  It was just weird.

But, it was fun to see Alice in her classroom and with her peers. And she was only a bit bonkers by the end.

Dinner Date with Donovan

On Sunday evening, we had Donovan and his parents over for supper. Donovan's dad made ribs, to make up for the time I couldn't eat them on the camping trip. They came around 4pm and the kids played mostly happily until supper time, while the adults visited. 

After supper, the kids played some more.  Mostly they ran around the house screaming. But they also played in the living room.

Alice and Izzy GO APE

Alice has been wanting to do the kids version of the Go Ape canopy walks and ziplines since I did the grown-up version last year.  She asked about it all summer, and we made a deal that when I was better, we'd go.  So, finally I was better. I arranged to go with Izzy and Natasha, since Izzy had done it before and could help Alice learn the ropes. When the day finally arrived, Alice was beyond excited!

Alice and Izzy got trained on the equipment and rules by a very nice and friendly employee.

Then they did the practice crossing.

Then they were off!  They had one hour to do the course as much as they wanted. Here is a video of one loop; there were four loops total. Simon just played nearby in the woods while the girls where up in the air, and I sat and visited with Natasha.

After their hour was up, we had a picnic lunch.

Native American Heritage Celebration

On Saturday morning, we watched the Raleigh Christmas Parade on TV and relished not having had to find a parking spot or withstand the crowds and cold.

On Saturday afternoon, Simon had a playdate with his friend Elizabeth, so after I dropped him off, Alice and I went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch.  She behaved much better without Simon around to mess with.

Then we headed to the Native American Heritage Celebration going on at the history museum downtown. There were lots of members of the tribes in their traditional clothes, which made it really fun just walking around looking at all the amazingly beautiful outfits. I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of any of the real people, so here is Alice with a statue that is in front of the museum.

There were also lots of activities for kids, such as archery using a bamboo bow,

looking at animal furs,

making bead bracelets,

and whatever this was.

After doing some of the craft tables, we walked through part of the actual history museum.

Then we tried to find a spot to watch some of the dancing. Spiderman joined us briefly.

Then we picked up Simon from Elizabeth's. He had a great time playing with her and riding this really slow battery-powered scooter.

On the way home, I asked Simon what he had for lunch with Elizabeth.

"A sandwich."

What was on the sandwich?

"Meat and leaves."