Thursday, May 21, 2009

Word words words

There was a lot of talking going on in our house last night. All three boys. Mike was apparently writing code in his sleep, because I heard all about the parameters, and the number 30 was extremely important somehow. That, and he also told Jack not to spill on the new carpet. Jack was fast asleep yelling “Ethan, it’s not fair!” and “I’m thirsty!” to the world in general, whereas Ethan was just incoherently mumble-shouting periodically. I have no idea whether I joined the sleep conversations in my few snatched minutes of slumber. They all woke up looking pretty refreshed... me, not so much.

I read a passage recently and I will (pitifully) attempt to paraphrase it here. The author was speaking about growing old, and how it starts off with you waking up and thinking, “gosh I look tired today”. It’s a process so gradual that before you know it, you’ve thought you looked tired for a year or more and you have to realize that – you guessed it – you are actually old. I had to quickly breeze over that part of the book because it felt a little too real. Age 35 has hit and there is no helping the bags under my eyes or the endless new grey hairs appearing on my head!

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Ethan can read now. Which is - don't get me wrong - awesome, but also presents parenting problems. I always said I'd never lie to my kids but sometimes it was really handy when they couldn't understand something I was trying to say to another grown-up. Now I can't speak French, spell something out or even write it down to get around him knowing what I'm saying. Darn kid's too smart.

And speaking of smart, Jack had his kindergarten orientation. So so cute. He already thinks he owns the school, of course. The principal asked why we had bothered to come; Jack didn't need to be "oriented"! But he is ecstatic to practice his first "homework": the exercise book they gave them to get ready for kindergarten. He can't wait to give it to Madame and he has been working hard on it every night.

All right. Better foster these kids' smarts and actually get them to school on time!

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