Kim (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grammarwoman) wrote2010-10-27 02:20 pm
grammarwoman) wrote2010-10-27 02:20 pm
Entry tags:
The hard business of mothering
Yesterday was the Emperor's 6th birthday. It had extra resonance for me, seeing as he was born on a Tuesday, and he's passed the kid milestone of Starting School. I may have gotten a little weepy on my husband last night.
School is continuing to be a challenge for him. He got 8 stars Monday and 12 out of 14 stars yesterday, mainly because he was the Big Cheese for the day because of his birthday. Then he got written up in the after-school program for hitting a kid. *sigh* But then he was awesome at the capoeira Halloween party, so he came full circle.
We threw him an actual birthday party (where the kids outnumber the adults) for the first time this past weekend, with tumbling at a YMCA. The eight guests loved it, and their parents loved it even more that they got to drop off the kids and have a free period in their weekend. Every other birthday party the Emperor has attended has had the parents sticking around, so we were not prepared and got way more pizza and cake than we needed. (At least most of the pizza got devoured at a party we attended later.) Most of the gifts were Legos, and none of them were repeats of each other or ones he already had - I think some Lego fairy was looking out for us. Since he had lost all his privileges (TV, computer, video games) for the weekend by getting 3 stars on Friday, he spent all day Sunday happily building his new sets. I love my little geek, even as I'm in sheer bewilderment at his inability to think ahead.
Oh! I almost forgot - we had a downright cake emergency before the party. I tried to order a Star Wars sheet cake from a bakery, only to be told that they were all out of those toppers, and that they'd heard that everyone else was, too. The next bakery I called told me they had plenty of Star Wars decorations. When the husband picked up the cake Friday night before the Saturday party, they handed him a Star Trek cake. My husband tried to protest, but evidently they had written Star Trek down on the order sheet, so we had no proof.
Now, I love both of the franchises, but they are not substitutable for each other! I felt like my geek cred was hanging in the balance, even if it didn't matter to the Emperor - who, when polled, told me it did. (That's my little guy!) So I pulled off the offending piece of plastic (to save it for later - it did come with a light-up Enterprise that can go on the Space Battle tree), frosted over the gaps with some left-over icing (I gave myself so many points for actually having homemade buttercream frosting in the fridge), and did the ugliest job of lettering CLONE WARS across the top you've ever seen. But at least it fit the theme! (Of course, when we got to the party room and found it all decorated and supplied, down to plates and napkins, I wound up returning most of the stuff, but it was the principle of the thing!)
Speaking of Star Wars geeks - the Emperor has been looking forward to using a hand-me-down costume of Darth Maul for Halloween, but he lacked the appropriate light saber. I researched the options, and everything looked like a complete piece of crap. So I assembled one from a pair of LED flashlights, a piece of aquarium tubing, red cellophane, some plumbing joints, and black electrical tape. It cost about $10 in supplies and trips to various stores. It looks wicked AWESOME, especially in the dark. I'll have to post pictures of it later. The Emperor is very appreciative, though we haven't let him use it much. To a boy with a light saber, everything looks like a target. I think that the construction makes me an honorary Jedi. Now where are my Force powers?
It's ruefully funny to look at all the strengths and difficulties of the Emperor and seeing them as a combination of my husband and me. My tactile inclinations are his inability to keep his hands to himself; my unconscious fidgets are his annoying "Stop what?"s. His short temper and questioning of authority comes right from his dad, as does his little devil grin when he knows he's pushing people's buttons.
Yet he is fundamentally a sweet, bright, funny kid, something everyone points out after listing his faults. The other day, my husband found something gross growing in my water bottle. I thought at first it was a fungus explosion. After some examination, I discovered it was an expands-in-water shark that the Emperor had crammed into the bottle, not out of mischief but wanting it to see it grow in the water. The fact that the bottle's opening was less than half as wide as the body hadn't occurred to him. (I'm still working on sawing it up and removing it.) I know it's a lot better than a cheese sandwich in the VCR. *grin*
Another event to remember was after watching some classic Looney Tunes and playing Battlefront with his dad (which involves blowing up the enemy only slightly more than blowing up each other), he pasted signs all over the house proclaiming it [husband's name] Season. We laughed so hard at that.
He's on a kick now where he calls us by our names and not Mom and Dad. I have no idea what's up with that, but I don't mind it. I appreciate that he sees us as having our own identities and not just existing as his mother and father. Maybe this means we'll get the teenager's classic disaffection gotten out of the way ahead of time... Nah, probably not.
My parents are visiting this weekend, so I'm fighting off panic mode when I glare at the crap stacks around my house. There is so much paperwork and assorted stuff coming home from kindergarten that I'm getting really annoyed, especially since a lot of it is time-sensitive documents that need feedback and/or signatures from us. I'd shove it all in my to-do pile, but that's already precariously tall and something I avoid for weeks on end. His school should not be giving us homework! At least I have a menu and some activities planned - more grownup points for me! I plan on being partially fueled by candy to power my way through cleaning and prepping the next several days.
Really, how is October almost over? Didn't we just start September last week?
School is continuing to be a challenge for him. He got 8 stars Monday and 12 out of 14 stars yesterday, mainly because he was the Big Cheese for the day because of his birthday. Then he got written up in the after-school program for hitting a kid. *sigh* But then he was awesome at the capoeira Halloween party, so he came full circle.
We threw him an actual birthday party (where the kids outnumber the adults) for the first time this past weekend, with tumbling at a YMCA. The eight guests loved it, and their parents loved it even more that they got to drop off the kids and have a free period in their weekend. Every other birthday party the Emperor has attended has had the parents sticking around, so we were not prepared and got way more pizza and cake than we needed. (At least most of the pizza got devoured at a party we attended later.) Most of the gifts were Legos, and none of them were repeats of each other or ones he already had - I think some Lego fairy was looking out for us. Since he had lost all his privileges (TV, computer, video games) for the weekend by getting 3 stars on Friday, he spent all day Sunday happily building his new sets. I love my little geek, even as I'm in sheer bewilderment at his inability to think ahead.
Oh! I almost forgot - we had a downright cake emergency before the party. I tried to order a Star Wars sheet cake from a bakery, only to be told that they were all out of those toppers, and that they'd heard that everyone else was, too. The next bakery I called told me they had plenty of Star Wars decorations. When the husband picked up the cake Friday night before the Saturday party, they handed him a Star Trek cake. My husband tried to protest, but evidently they had written Star Trek down on the order sheet, so we had no proof.
Now, I love both of the franchises, but they are not substitutable for each other! I felt like my geek cred was hanging in the balance, even if it didn't matter to the Emperor - who, when polled, told me it did. (That's my little guy!) So I pulled off the offending piece of plastic (to save it for later - it did come with a light-up Enterprise that can go on the Space Battle tree), frosted over the gaps with some left-over icing (I gave myself so many points for actually having homemade buttercream frosting in the fridge), and did the ugliest job of lettering CLONE WARS across the top you've ever seen. But at least it fit the theme! (Of course, when we got to the party room and found it all decorated and supplied, down to plates and napkins, I wound up returning most of the stuff, but it was the principle of the thing!)
Speaking of Star Wars geeks - the Emperor has been looking forward to using a hand-me-down costume of Darth Maul for Halloween, but he lacked the appropriate light saber. I researched the options, and everything looked like a complete piece of crap. So I assembled one from a pair of LED flashlights, a piece of aquarium tubing, red cellophane, some plumbing joints, and black electrical tape. It cost about $10 in supplies and trips to various stores. It looks wicked AWESOME, especially in the dark. I'll have to post pictures of it later. The Emperor is very appreciative, though we haven't let him use it much. To a boy with a light saber, everything looks like a target. I think that the construction makes me an honorary Jedi. Now where are my Force powers?
It's ruefully funny to look at all the strengths and difficulties of the Emperor and seeing them as a combination of my husband and me. My tactile inclinations are his inability to keep his hands to himself; my unconscious fidgets are his annoying "Stop what?"s. His short temper and questioning of authority comes right from his dad, as does his little devil grin when he knows he's pushing people's buttons.
Yet he is fundamentally a sweet, bright, funny kid, something everyone points out after listing his faults. The other day, my husband found something gross growing in my water bottle. I thought at first it was a fungus explosion. After some examination, I discovered it was an expands-in-water shark that the Emperor had crammed into the bottle, not out of mischief but wanting it to see it grow in the water. The fact that the bottle's opening was less than half as wide as the body hadn't occurred to him. (I'm still working on sawing it up and removing it.) I know it's a lot better than a cheese sandwich in the VCR. *grin*
Another event to remember was after watching some classic Looney Tunes and playing Battlefront with his dad (which involves blowing up the enemy only slightly more than blowing up each other), he pasted signs all over the house proclaiming it [husband's name] Season. We laughed so hard at that.
He's on a kick now where he calls us by our names and not Mom and Dad. I have no idea what's up with that, but I don't mind it. I appreciate that he sees us as having our own identities and not just existing as his mother and father. Maybe this means we'll get the teenager's classic disaffection gotten out of the way ahead of time... Nah, probably not.
My parents are visiting this weekend, so I'm fighting off panic mode when I glare at the crap stacks around my house. There is so much paperwork and assorted stuff coming home from kindergarten that I'm getting really annoyed, especially since a lot of it is time-sensitive documents that need feedback and/or signatures from us. I'd shove it all in my to-do pile, but that's already precariously tall and something I avoid for weeks on end. His school should not be giving us homework! At least I have a menu and some activities planned - more grownup points for me! I plan on being partially fueled by candy to power my way through cleaning and prepping the next several days.
Really, how is October almost over? Didn't we just start September last week?