4 posts tagged “zoe”
Zoe woke up this morning with her final front tooth still hanging on. I thought for sure it would fall out in her sleep and we'd never find it and we'd always wonder if she'd swallowed it.
It was that loose.
But no, she woke up to it being even more loose, which seemed impossible last night.
I talked to her about pulling it and she was very against that idea. I mentioned her teacher possibly sending her to the nurse to pull it, like Naomi's teacher once did, and that seemed to scare her, but didn't motivate her.
I mentioned how the tooth would be a distraction at school.
It was still a no. And this battle was not worth fighting.
So then I took pictures.
And I thought we'd all take our guesses on my blog... would she come home with it missing or would it still be there, flapping in the wind? Would the teacher have sent her to the nurse to have it pulled? Would it have fallen out at lunch?
What?
Everyone could leave a comment about how she'd loose that tooth (or not) and we'd see who was right when she got home.
I walked her to my neighbors (we officially started a carpool today) and I kissed her 'bye, I turn and kissed Naomi, then Zoe taps me and I look back at her and she's handing me her tooth.
She said it came out when we kissed 'bye.
That wasn't a possibility I had thought of.
If I was one to title my blog posts, I'm thinking this would be called Shepard's Pie.
Just cause I'm going to layer this bad boy with just a few random-ish things.
Naomi came and got me the other night to show me Zoe sleeping like this.
I love it.
And if I named my pictures, I would name this Zoe Does Stripes X's 3 In Her Sleep.
Although it's her sleep position that cracks me up, the stripes are funny too.
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I don't know how I manage to do this but...
Okay, let me tell this story first, when we lived in Utah it was great to pick up and go somewhere on a Saturday afternoon, there were so many options. So one afternoon we tried to think of somewhere to go visit and somewhere along the way I said, "My friend so-and-so was telling me something about Butterfield Canyon..." and Gary looked at the map and we went.
And took this picture-
When I saw my friend next I said, "Hey, we took the kids to Butterfield Canyon." She said, "Oh, how was it?" I said, "It's beautiful.."
And then she said, "That's where my brother died... I've never been."
Oh! That's what I had heard about it!
Ack!!
And now two days ago Gary and I were at the book store, I picked up a book I remembered hearing about. When I got home and started reading it I remembered.... 'Oh yeah! NOW I remember what I'd heard about it!'
I'd heard that although a classic, the language in it is awful and it's quite controversial because it's required reading in some schools.
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Another cute Zoe picture I took-
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When my kids are grumpy, they get even grumpier when I call them Grumpy Pants.
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Being a slow learner is exhausting. And embarassing. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.
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Look! An itty bitty turtle
I now announce this Shepard's Pie complete.
Completely lamely named!
See, that is why I don't title my blog entries.
I haven't blogged for a whoppin' 3 days because I am in mourning.
I am mourning the end of summer break.
I am in mourning because Wednesday I have to send my kids off to school.
We've been living up this last week as best we can with movies and the water park and the like.
It's not that I never send my children to another room to play or enjoy a trip to the grocery store alone. But that's different. I am in control of that time and I have zero control when they are in school. I have no say when they go and when they return and how often and then when they are home they are hardly mine as they have so much school work that takes away the few awake hours we get.
I'll never forget the first day I sent Zoe to school when she entered kindergarten. Gary knew I would struggle so he made plans to take me out while the kids were in school and keep me busy at the stores I love to visit but couldn't take small children to and enjoy. We weren't there 15 minutes when I got physically ill from my stress/apprehension/hole-in-my-heart and had to go home.
(coincidently, the next day we went to the beach and he was goofing off and got his foot all cut up and we had to leave early again)
I found this short story a couple of years ago and the author sums up how I felt when I had to send my last child, Zoe, to school. I was relieved to find someone else who got what I was feeling, even if over 100 years ago.
The last chapter of the story My Little Boy (after many wonderful chapters of the dad loving the beauty of a curious preschooler at home) hit the nail on the head.
Zoe is "my little boy" and I am the father.
My Little Boy was written in 1899 by Carl Ewald, born in Germany of Denmark parents. This story was translated to English in 1906.
Chapter XVII
Here ends this book about my little boy.
What more can there be to tell?
He is no longer mine. I have handed him over to society. Hr. Peterson, candidate in letters, Hr. Nielson, student of theology, and Froken Hansen, certified teacher, will now set their distinguished example before him for five hours daily. He will form himself to their likeness. Their spirit hovers over him at school: he brings it home with him. It overshadows him when he is learning the lessons which they zealously mete out of him.
I don't know these people. But I pay them.
I, who have had a hard fight to keep my thoughts free and my limbs unrestrained and who have not retired from the fight without deep wounds of which I am reminded when the weather changes, I have, of my own free will, brought him to the institution for maiming human beings. I, who at times have soared to peaks that were my own, because the other birds dared not follow me, have myself brought him to the place where wings are clipped for flying respectably, with the flock.
"There was nothing else to be done," says the mother of my little boy.
"Really?" I reply bitterly. "Was there nothing else to be done? But suppose that I had put by some money, so I could have saved (his teachers) their trouble and employed my day in myself opening out lands for that little traveller whom I myself have brought into the land? Suppose that I had looked round the world for people with small boys who think as I do and that we had taken upon us to bring up these young animals so that they kept right of horns and tails and fairy-tales?"
"Yes," she says.
"Small boys have a bad time of it, you know."
"They had a worse time of it in the old days."
"That is a poor comfort. And it can become worse again. The world is full of parents and teachers who shake their foolish heads and turn up their old eyes and cross their flat chests with horror at the depravity of youth: children are so disobedient, so naughty, so self-willed and talk so disrespectfully to their elders!... And what do we do, we who know better?"
"We do what we can."
Brother Ewald- I say we discuss in the next life, because I understand!
May Day 2008
Today was awesome!
(Well that is after the faculty members at school's grandchildren, nieces and nephews, or their children walked down the court holding crowns and flowers and whatever in fancy clothes.... And once they were done crowning a maid of honor, the two ladies-in-waiting (due to a tie) and the Princess. Some wearing make up.... "From the house of {insert teachers name} *sigh*)
(kids playing dress up = cute. adults playing dress up on children = not cute)
But finally, children are children!
Zoe-
And dancing to The Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride from the Lilo & Stitch soundtrack
And to enjoy this short video, tip your head the the left and sing to The Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride- because my camera is lame and this was the best I could do.
And again-
And Naomi-
With her teacher-
Getting a picture or video of her dance was impossible. She was smack dab in the middle of the field.
They danced to some Elvis and if you look at the tall dark handsome fella' (a teacher) that's almost in the middle, well for one, he can dance, for two, it was hilarious, which is why the camera was shaking, I was laughing, and for three, to the very right of him, in a beige color, you have Naomi. I am so sad you can't see it, but that girls can DANCE.
