3/24/08 The Explanation

A conversation between Gabriel and Julian in the car on the way home, about Miss Cassie, who is the director of Julian's school:

Gabriel: "Who is Miss Cassie, anyway?"
Julian: "She's my Prince!"
Gabriel (puzzled): "Are you married to her?"
Julian: "No, I recognize her!"

Somehow, this made sense to them, in the private language of brothers.

Later, I was talking to them about visiting family back East in July, and ran through the names of relatives: "...Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Andreas, Uncle Ronan, Bonne Maman, Papa Paul..." and Julian cut in: "Oh, Papa Paul! I love Papa Paul!" Lucky kid has 3 grandfathers, but he knows the one he's not related to the best.

Life is night and day when Katrina is in a good mood, starting with walking in the door, setting her down and she doesn't cry. Just that by itself is a huge relief. Tonight she walked right off to find something to play with, giving me a crucial few minutes to form a dinner plan and get her dinner ready. I still had trouble feeding her tonight -- but not because she was so fussy and impossible, but because she was laughing so much. After dinner, she toddled around happily, bursting into a room playing private little game, giggling. She was funny and delightful and playful and only screeched once or twice.

What happened? What baby exorcist secretly descended on us and vanquished the demon? I can't believe how vastly different the day is when she's happy! It's frightening how much power toddlers have over the entire household.

Gabriel got another "report card" this week. Not so good this time. His teacher's comments:

Gabriel meets or exceeds grade level standards in all areas. He is more focused and completes his work quickly. His behavior, however, changed this trimester with teasing of his peers and not following classroom/playground rules (as discussed). He needs to work on improving these areas.

Dave showed Gabriel a standard blues chord progression called 12-bar blues on the piano, and now Gabriel's practicing it himself from memory. He spends at least half of his free time at home (which isn't much, I'm guilty and sorry to say) at the piano these days. We were driving along De Anza Blvd last weekend, and he saw a sign that said "Piano" (for a piano store), and he cried out "PIANO!!!!" with such tremendous excitement I just about jumped out of my skin, reminding us again how much he wants lessons. I've really got to find some. If he's going to get kicked out of school for bad behavior, he might as well have something to fall back on!

3/24/08