I caught him just after he'd read who it was from and got him to repeat that. His smile is priceless (ok ok to me anyway, but I am his mother!)
Incredibly, he hasn't said much about his birthday, even though the subject comes up a fair amount in the context of Christmas. But when he saw this card, he said joyfully, "My BIRTHDAY!!"
Thank you Bonne Maman and Papa Paul! So nice to have artists and musicians in the family.
I heard an interesting little tidbit today, from a most unexpected source...I was chatting with Tonya when I was picking up Katrina, and she said, "So, how did Gabriel feel about being sent to the office last Friday?"
B O O M.
Office?!!!
"Ohhh, you didn't know?"
No, we wouldn't know, 'cause neither he nor his teacher said anything about it!! But Susan, who runs Running Club, saw that Gabriel, usually her most fervent customer, was missing fron Running Club on Friday. She asked Gabriel's teacher, who shook her head in frustration and didn't want to talk about it, but did explain that Gabriel was having his lunch in the office. Susan mentioned it to Tonya, and Tonya only naturally assumed I knew. And I should have.
As it happened, Sunday night, Dave commented that we need to start reading his Friday Folder on Fridays, because this one had comments that Gabriel is starting to lose "free time" and recess time because of his frequent disrupting the class (talking loudly, humming, laughing). So we confronted him Sunday night, intervention-style, unaware of the Friday office visit -- and the little stinker didn't 'fess up to that major event.
Being sent to the Principal's office is supposed to be a very big deal, especially for a first-grader, so we're really surprised his teacher didn't tell us. She probably figures she can handle it, but I'm not sure she knows what she's up against. Unfortunately, this major trump card apparently didn't faze Gabriel.
Dave and I intended to confront him about it tonight, but he got saved by the bell. At the tail end of dinner, our lights flickered and then went off completely. They went back on, then off, then back on again, just long enough for me to find some flashlights. Then they went off for good.
Katrina was shocked into silence for a few seconds, then right away started to cry. It's really dark here with no power! But as soon as I had a flashlight on and was able to find candles, she was fascinated and thrilled by the new turn of events. The boys were beside themselves with excitement to find their headlamps and really make use of them. Tonight was a pick-up-for-the-cleaners night, and incredibly, the power outage made the usual drudgerous chores of putting away toys by candlelight fun!
We had such frequent power outages at home that I had a whole box dedicated to the event, with candles and flashlights, but since we've moved, that box has been scattered and lost. Still, I dug up a few glowsticks left over from -- get this -- Burning Man '99 -- and discovered that they made great nightlights in each room, allowing us to navigate the house easily. Given all the power outages we lived with, I can't believe we never thought of this before. Glowsticks will become a permanent fixture in my next "Power Outage" box.
I had some shopping to do anyway, so drove out and was able to check out the situation. The major road connecting us to the rest of the world was completely closed in one direction, and I could see numerous emergency vehicles a ways down. The power was out for at least a mile. The major road was still closed when I returned around 10pm, but our power was back on.
With my computer up again, I sent a lengthy note to Gabriel's teacher asking her what happened on Friday, please tell us about these events, and perhaps most importantly....why is he doing this? What's going on?
The power outage caused us to skip baths, homework and a stern talking-to, but that Get Out of Jail Free card expires tomorrow!
12/15/08
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