4/9/09 Open House

Gabriel's school had an Open House tonight, meaning his classroom was open to look around at their work and chat with the teacher. Also, there was a book fair going on, a great way to get parents on campus to open their wallets. And it worked!

Dave is out of town until Sunday, so I'm playing Single Mom. Whew. It's hard! And that's even with working, which makes it much easier. Today, however, I was also Homeowner ExtraOrdinaire again, as painters, heat guys, electricians, and kitchen cabineters finished up punchlist items that have emerged since we've moved in.

To further complicate matters, Comcast decided that our Internet account shouldn't have a cable modem associated with it anymore, so I spent quite a bit of time on the phone getting back on the air. And, Katrina has the mother of all diaper rashes, meaning more phone time and scheduling -- it's been going on almost a week and I have an appointment for her tomorrow.

So it was a busy, stressful day -- oh yeah and I went to work too -- but Gabriel was very excited about his classroom Open House. So, we went to the book fair and then his classroom at 6pm.

First, the requisite photos. Perfect, a nice cloudy day.


This boy loves his sister. The other boy does whatever he can to be silly for the camera!


Oh, what I wouldn't do for this shot to be in focus!


Katrina seriously complicated the book fair. To her, racks of carefully organized books must be methodically dismantled and all books tossed in a big pile on the floor. All parental intervention must yield loud and furious protests. I was saved by a younger toddler having a screaming meltdown, which Katrina watched in frozen fascination. Professional courtesy, apparently.

All three kids got to pick a book. The girl picked the dinosaurs-ride-the-train book, and the boys picked the fairy books. Well, duh!


Katrina had great fun showing off in Gabriel's classroom, and Gabriel had a great time showing her off. His teacher told me that he talks about her a lot, and only occasionally mentions the brother that he shares a room and most of his time at home with. I was surprised how many other moms commented on Gabriel's dedication to Running Club; apparently he's quite the devotee and is known as a serious runner. My boy!

It was interesting seeing Gabriel's work compared to his classmates. I had no idea they could write so neatly or draw so creatively. Gabriel's is among the worst writing in the class.

I had to chuckle at his Haiku poem on the wall:

Spring
Flowers are growing
Hydrangias, Irises
Let's pick some flowers

This is funny because we were living on Hydrangea Court until recently, and to get there, you had to turn left on Iris Avenue! You gotta use what you know!

Thank goodness for some new Rainbow Magic fairy books to keep the boys completely engrossed during dinner-making. Gabriel's "book" from the book fair was a twofer (a package of two), so Julian got to read one too. They had to be pried from their fairy books for dinner.


In Gabriel's classroom, Julian was reading the book he'd chosen, a relatively easy Benny and Penny comic book, and Gabriel's teacher remarked at his reading even that: "he's not even in kindergarten?" But Julian reads the far more advanced Rainbow Magic chapter books -- he's slow and his comprehension is about par with a 5-year-old, but still. He really does read well, much better than Gabriel did approaching kindergarten.

This might be awful of me, but I'm secretly happy when there's a rare instance in which Julian exceeds his domineering older brother. At the risk of pegging them, I don't think it's going to happen a lot. Few people are blessed/cursed with Gabriel's dogged persistence.

But there is one other person who inherited at least some of the same trait.


4/9/09