Monday, September 20, 2010

First Day

I love back to school time. I always wish I was starting school again. It's just about my favorite time of the year. Mr T just started kindergarten and he is spouting Spanish words and phrases already. He has been gleefully reading Captain Underpants books lately. One of the cartoon characters said, "We kick butt." He showed it to me and I told him it wasn't the nicest thing to say. He said, "I know. But it's really funny." Hmm. A boy after the manner of his father and uncle.






This is how Z looked on the first day of school. We went for a walk one night and were devoured by mosquitoes. His eye was just about swollen shut for a couple of days so we called him Quasimodo. He is struggling against the taunting of an older brother, who loves to call him a "weirdo" to which Z screams, "I'm NOT a weirdo." (Both boys can't pronounce their R's which makes it all the more entertaining.)














It's hard to believe MJ is in 4th grade already. She is seeming more and more grown up. We had "the talk" with her the first week of school. We had prepped her by telling her we were going out to dinner and had something really important to tell her. After our discussion, she kept saying, "this isn't what I expected at all!" She thought we would be discussing her sometimes strained relationship with T.

5 comments:

Jen said...

Asher loves Captain Underpants as well. If I could undo that initial garage sale purchase I would..... at least they are reading???

I cannot believe that MJ is in 4th grade.... cannot believe it!!!

Belle said...

What else does Asher like to read? I don't mind the Capitan in moderation, but we need variety! As long as they are reading some good stuff, I don't mind the crappy stuff as much.

Maryanne said...

I'd love to hear more details on the talk and how she reacted. Back to school time makes me crave school as well!

andalucy said...

G told me about Z's swollen eye. Poor little guy! She said everyone was complaining about the horrible mosquito year.

Michael loved Captain Underpants so much. I pretend I don't know what's in those books.

Oh dear, the talk. One of our children has had the talk twice and keeps asking questions that show he (ok, now you know who) doesn't remember it. How can you forget something like that??? I begin to wonder if we'll get a call from him on his wedding night.

Belle said...

Maryanne, We used How to Talk to Your Child about Sex by Linda and Richard Eyre for some ideas--it's a little over the top, imo, but it was a good way to start to think about how to approach the issue and in general I like their approach. They suggest having the big talk at age 8.

We also used It's Not the Stork by Robie Harris and Michael Emberly for the picture book explanation. This is what we pulled out to explain the details. It is mostly focused on where babies come from. They start out showing the similarities and differences between girls and boys. Then move on to babies. I really like this book. There's a second one, with more advanced issues, called It's So Amazing. We'll probably use it later.

I was a little surprised that MJ hasn't thought more about where babies come from. She has been reading Greek mythology like crazy, and doesn't it seem weird that Zeus is the father of so many different kids? I guess not to her. I think that the information was a little overwhelming to her and we tried to keep it to a minimum. She has asked several questions and made a few comments since then, so she is thinking about it. And we want to encourage an openness about it.

Lucy--I am giggling about your issues with the talk. I'm pretty sure I could have guessed who it was without the tip off. He's just off in his own world and this information is not important there...very funny.