11/7/2010 Rain Walk

I had all sorts of ambitions for today, but they interfered with my #1 top priority: sleep. I wanted to sleep late and wake up when I was ready, and detox my strung-out body from being completely exhausted and running on empty all the time. The time change supported this endeavor, and I rolled my lazy rear end out of bed around 10am (old 11am).

I did manage to go to the Y and then grocery-shopping, but my ideas of getting the kids out of the house by bringing them to the Y with me ran into the realities of time and the ChildWatch closing at 12:30. So I went by myself.

Then at Trader Joe's, I ran into a Mom I know from school, who also has 3 kids and whose oldest was in Gabriel's 1st-grade class and whose 2nd was in Julian's kindergarten class. This year we have no common teachers, but we run into each other a lot and always enjoy catching up. She's about to start a full-time job, and was already feeling very pressed with keeping up with her 3 kids' lives, and I never have anything very encouraging to say about adding full-time work into the mix.

However, our conversation fueled my growing fire to change our after-school child-care from CDC to a nanny, at least for some days. This is something I'm seriously considering for next year, when all 3 are it the same school. Right now, it'd add yet more to an already hefty child-care expense.

But maybe we need to do it sooner anyway. Julian keeps asking about Tae Kwon Do, and the truth is, the absolute last thing I want to do on Saturday mornings after a long week of work is to have to be anywhere at a particular time. That is a weekday after-school thing. I hate the idea of a nanny taking them there instead of me, but the alternative is not at all, which is what's happening now.

Also, Gabriel and his blues piano playing really gets me thinking. I'm not sure he'll take well to lessons yet; he's not exactly Mr. I Must Do What Teachers Say -- but we can't give up on some musical outlet for him. Music is just so woven through his fabric; his brain is so hard-wired to it, I hate to deprive him of the opportunity to develop that now.

So, no grand outing today, but I did come up with the all-time lamest way to get them all out of the house: we did a rain-walk to Starbucks to get them all a treat drink.


This was fun actually!! Julian and Katrina got hot chocolate, and Gabriel got what I would have gotten: a vanilla milk.


But you know, boredom on a rainy day with a lame lazy exhausted Mom isn't necessarily a bad thing for kids. They have to dig deep and find things to do, and they did.

They all three spent at least half an hour huddled around this book, one that is a huge favorite around here. I'm pretty sure it technically belongs to Julian (a gift from Bonne Maman and Papa Paul, who never fail to hit it it out of the park with books), but they all love it. Gabriel spent a fair amount of time reading it to Uncle Ryan last weekend in fact!


Julian considers himself to be the science expert around here, but with funny, nicely written, humorously illustrated, attractive books like this that are packed with facts and make science interesting for kids, they're truly great for everyone. (Sorry for the ad copy but I really do like these books.)

I had been tempted to rent a movie for this rainy day, but the need never really arose. Perhaps my lameness wasn't such a liability after all!

11/7/2010

11/6/2010 Laura and Ryan head home

Laura and Ryan drove home today to be reunited with their new cat and their own lives. But only after greatly rocking our own lives, always for the better!

Last night, Ryan showed me again how to make his phenomenally perfect salmon.

After which we ate and drank and talked well into the night.

This morning, I made breakfast while Katrina enjoyed her favorite place to be.


After a leisurely morning and a big breakfast, it's time to say goodbye.




But not for long -- they'll be back in 2-1/2 weeks for Thanksgiving!!

11/6/2010

11/4/2010 Mouth mess

Oh my poor Julian. He was born with the most beautiful mouth, and look what the ravages of age have done to him.


He has a baby tooth that's ready but just won't let go, two permanent teeth growing in overlapped, a horrible canker sore, chapped lips and bad breath.

That canker sore has really been a problem for him the past 2 days. It's in a bad spot, rubbed against for all eating and talking. It's festering and swollen, and it really hurts him.

Today I sent him to school with an over-the-counter canker sore tube, so that he could numb the painful wound just well enough to eat his lunch. But, it turns out, no medicines at school without prior approval. It came back in a plastic bag with his name on it, and his lunch uneaten (rare for him). That explains the bad breath. He told me that I had to send an email to the principal about the canker sore medicine. CDC is even worse: no outside medicines at all.

I've lost count of how many canker sores Julian has had. They started when he was 4, and he's gotten them regularly ever since. Gabriel has never had one. Then again, Gabriel always has a bad plaque problem when they go to the dentist, but Julian's teeth are much cleaner (and it's not because of better tooth-brushing technique). Amazing how different body chemistry manifests itself in the mouth.


I do feel bad for my little boy. At least kids heal quickly! And with a smile and a giggle.


11/4/2010

11/3/2010 The ah-HAH

This blog is supposed to be about kids, not work, but in these past extraordinary weeks, work has been on my mind a lot.

Especially in learning how to keep conversations under control, how to keep a master-distractor from taking over a conversation, getting out from the defensive position, in handling criticism with grace. What is this, diplomatic negotiations? These are not things most engineers ever have to deal with, and manipulating discussions isn't my forte.

Monday during a one-on-one meeting intended for me to give constructive feedback to my awful boss, he immediately turned to what is wrong with my performance. He opened with a controlling rhetorical question, "You know I hired you, right?" When I didn't react as I awaited the point, he prompted, "Right?" Yes, obviously I know he hired me. (Note to self: find a polite way to take back control when someone tries to defuse you with a stupid rhetorical question.)

When I started this job last February, I was given a task I had no direct experience with -- but this is my element, I'm good at learning, and this was not rocket science. I dove in, asked a lot of questions, learned quickly and immediately started reporting problems and bugs and suggesting improvements to the vendor. That's my job.

But this boss has a completely different take on this. He said that a learning curve, lack of training and inexpertise on the product is why I was encountering all the problems. He didn't directly deny that I'd found real problems, but criticized me for "lack of humbleness."

Humbleness? Is this for real? Is there even a checkbox for that for evaluating engineer's work?

Never in my career have Ieven been accused of overconfidence, let alone arrogance. I don't doubt I come off self-assured sometimes (and good, I wish I did more), and I don't hold back at all when there's something I know well. But lack of humbleness? It's so asinine that I have to wonder if I'm encountering a subtle form of sexism. Would he accuse a man who'd pushed as hard as I had and learned as fast as I had of "lack of humbleness" ?

He went on to say that the vendor I've worked with had complained about me. I stopped him and asked point-blank, "Who complained?" Evade, brush off. "Who said what, and when?" More tutting and shaking his head, like "oh grasshopper, you must learn when to let these things go." I would not let it go: "WHO SAID WHAT." Finally he retorted the name of a sales manager, someone with whom I have very little direct interaction, but had to work with one of his employees early on. This liason was a nonresponsive, technically weak, dismissive sales engineer, and I did ask the sales manager if there was anyone else who had "more time" to support me.

Since then, I did finally get a line to a true support guy, who's worlds better. Things started moving. Now I've spent many many hours, written countless messages, talked on numerous conference calls, responded immediately to requests for information from this company, and in return received much gratitude and appreciation: "We've never had a customer give us this feedback," "Thanks for finding that, we never knew that was a problem." Their top software engineer that they never ever let talk to customers started emailing me for guidance in how to redesign some of their features.

We've developed a solid working relationship, and long since eclipsed that early rocky start.

But rather than sticking up for me when the incompetent guy's sales manager boss said something about our strained working relationship months ago, my boss took this as only more evidence of my inexperience, of my need for training, of my weakness, of my lack of tact and grace -- and, apparently, lack of humility. And he has not updated his opinion, or facts, about my working relationship with this company since.

So for this boss to bring up a complaint from this company as a problem with my performance as worthy of formalizing is pretty outrageous. So outrageous that I'd welcome an attempt to write it up and formalize to submit to HR. Go right ahead. I know any investigation or attempt at corrborating my "bad behavior" would turn up nothing but accolades. Oh dear, there I go being un-humble again.

I told my boss that if he couldn't "remember" what the sales manager said, then I'd just ask the manager myself. "Ohhh, I wouldn't do that," my boss says. "Let it go. It's important to maintain a good relationship with the company." I said cheerily, "That's exactly why I'm going to call him, so I can straighten out any remaining problems." Once again, he said not to -- and then, "I'm not lying, he really did complain about you."

Not lying? Who said anything about lying? Why did "lying" even come up? Who's thinking about lying? Unless....

Fascinating, these little slips.

Regardless, this boss will forever be unmoved. The very thing I did to do a good job is, to him, a sign of a lack of humbleness. A comment from a sales manager early on about my frustration with a molasses employee has permanently fixated in my boss's head that the problems, both in relationships and in technology, are with me.

This stuff shouldn't bother me, and it bothers me a lot less now that I've talked to his boss and I know the door is open to discuss any future untenable situations. If my boss brings up my "performance" ever again, I will not discuss it until he puts it in writing , and we discuss it with his boss too. I'm tired of the guy railing on me in private, using words and tones of voices that are far outside acceptable work decorum.

That's the huge weight on my psyche. Then it got better.

Yesterday, a 5-minute meeting with a high-level engineer I've not worked with much, turned into my favorite situation: a one-on-one whiteboard in which I get to ask 1001 questions of a skilled engineer and finally put some pieces together. It got me thinking, and that night, I went home and did a lot of reading and studying and drawing to understand. This is fun! Learning new network protocols and methods is exciting, and there's a lot there I sort-of know, but not well.

This afternoon, something else came up that led to my asking more questions of my wonderful coworker Yoon. In 15 minutes, she put it all together with the sort of progressive, organized, clear detail that makes it all fit in my head. And I had a rare and welcome ah-HAH moment. It's all spinning around in my head now, and I can't wait to get to work tomorrow so I can follow up on some of the things she explained, and maybe borrow a book before she gets to work and needs it herself. (For the geeks out there, it's about MPLS and transporting Ethernet over it.)

As a network engineer, it's not often I work with other women at all, let alone so closely -- and even rarer with one who is so so sharp and explains exactly what I need to know, and explains it really well. Having a great mentor at the ready is what any engineer lives for! No doubt there is a similarity in communication style too, likely one that comes from being of the same female yakkity-yak species : I need detail laid out perfectly to "get" something, and she thinks and easily explains at that level (even if she understands things 10 times faster than I do).

A former coworker and boss and current friend (you know who you are Sean) asked me recently, "Why do you stay there?" Well, that's why. It's for the ah-HAH moments, few and far between as they are. The ah-HAH is so powerful that it even trumps the verbal abuse and criticism and childish interactions I get from a childish, insecure, incompetent manager who twists a good job I did into a bad one. But the geek in me won this week.

11/3/2010

11/2/2010 The tower

Lately when Katrina gets home, she makes a beeline for the "music room" (which has become something of a de facto playroom) and plays with Legos. We have the kiddie Duplo legos, but she also plays with her brothers' "big kid" Legos.

Today she was very very proud of this tower she made. "Look Mommy! It's almost as tall as me!!"


Later she was building ships and making Star Wars blaster sounds. Much more boy-like playing than girl-like, though she did make a "good ship" and a "bad ship." I like the balance of functional and imaginative play! She does her share of tea parties with her My Little Pony playhouse (a birthday present), but there's no question she likes building things. I'm sure she gets that from me :).

(Let's keep it happy and just not talk about her brothers today.)

11/2/2010

11/1/2010 A Star Wars weekend

Would you believe, we watched four movies this weekend?!

Well, it was supposed to rain, and Aunt Laura and Uncle Ryan are in town -- they're famous for movie marathons. So we rented all 6 Star Wars movies, the "first" 3 of which (first in the story, last in the release dates, the prequels) I'd never seen. The boys did all their laundry eagerly to "earn" the privilege, and even trick-or-treating had to be persuaded to interrupt the shows. And it's SOOOO fun watching movies with Laura and Ryan -- and since it's Halloween weekend, the boys had the outfits for it!

First, Return of the Jedi (third movie released, but last in the story), since the boys had seen the previous 2 in previous weekends.


We did take breaks for might Jedi light-saber battles outside.


As well as general run-around fun. The kids just love playing with Uncle Ryan -- and it doesn't seem to be much imposition on him either! He's a terrific big kid himself.




I'd never seen, or had much interest in, the "first" three movies -- the prequels, if you will -- but I was surprised how much I enjoyed them. There's actually a lot more to the story in the first 3, and some of the acting and action I loved. I'm a die-hard Yoda fan now.

When the original Star Wars came out in 1977, my father took us to it, and I went along begrudgingly because I had to, but ended up loving it (despite my embarrassment ay my father's standing up and cheering when the Millenium Falcon went into hyperdrive). I gooed and dreamed about Han Solo for months!! Well, I was just 13; 13-year-old girls tend to do that. But I've been a fan of the movies ever since.

Now, as an adult, I'm a little bit more critical (hmm, Mark Hamill isn't exactly the best actor!), so I wasn't expecting much of the prequels. But I loved the stories and I loved how it all tied in (mostly) with the "sequels." My new favorite character is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and how he develops and contributes to the whole story. So, watching all this with my in-laws and children (Dave was away for the weekend at a track event), it was great fun.

I think this whole family is going to be into Star Wars for some time now. Maybe I should get my own light-saber!

11/1/2010

10/30/2010 Decadent Star Wars day

We sure didn't do much today! Well, I didn't, anyway. Ryan and the boys played games for the better part of the morning, and also showed them how to use his super-duper camera. Julian in particular took interest in this. I went out grocery-shopping and lunch-getting once, but mostly hung around, napped, and then watched two Star Wars movies with everyone.

Reviewing the photos the boys took is always good for a laugh.



Later, the dream weavers! This lasted about 5 minutes, but everyone sure was having a good time.


Passing on the craft!



Tomorrow maybe we'll actually do something or go somewhere....but on the other hand, why mess with a good thing?

10/30/2010

10/29/2010 Halloween Parades

I took the day off work today in what's becoming an annual tradition: Halloween parades. How could I not attend the costume displays and events? And this time, I had reinforcements: Laura and Ryan!

This year, the boys were in the same costume parade, since last year, Julian's kindergarten parade was separate. You'd think this would simplify things, but in fact, it made it harder to watch either of them, and I kept losing track of them during the parade. Still, it was so much fun watching what I could of each of them.

Gabriel's class.


Gabriel and Parth were Luke Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi, respectively.


Julian's class.


Julian is Anakin Skywalker. (Same costume, different color, shhh.)


The whole school gets into this! I'm amazed that Halloween is such a big deal among kids whose parents, most of them anyway, didn't grow up with a Halloween tradition. I guess it's a really fun tradition to join. As Laura astutely pointed out, who doesn't like costumes?


In Gabriel's class afterward.

I chatted briefly with his teacher and learned that he gets so tired in the afternoons that he even falls asleep on the floor. She has to remind him to eat his snack, or eat anything -- today his lunch came home untouched. Mr. Low-Energy. What's up with that?!

We went home for a while before moving on to Katrina's class performance. How cute is this, a group of preschoolers singing these Halloween songs. It struck me how much smaller this group looked than last year's though. Katrina participated happily this time, but still wouldn't sing.


Then we "paraded" to a nearby pumpkin patch,



I left Katrina at the pumpkin patch (really just a bunch of jumphouses) with Laura and Ryan and picked up the boys. There, a CDC staffer told me that Gabriel had refused to leave the building during a fire drill, and then was defiant and resistant when they implemented consequences. They even ended up calling me (couldn't reach) and Dave about it.

I am fit to be tied -- what I am I to do about this?! Dave is out of town for the weekend, Laura and Ryan are here, and we plan to make it a fun relaxed totally decadent weekend of movie-watching, eating and Halloween-ing. Something has to be taken away for that behavior -- but that ruins it for everyone else. On the surface it seems clear he shouldn't be allowed to watch any movies at all this weekend, but that means a tremendous and unpleasant struggle for me. Giving this kid consequences means seriously negative repercussions for everyone around him, and it's never clear that those consequences do much more than make life miserable for everyone else. Not that they shouldn't be applied, but I'd rather at a time when there isn't such a hefty cost to me. And taking away a movie isn't enough to get the message across -- even if it is a Star Wars movie. Hmm, on the other hand...

Quelling irritation, I took the boys back to the pumpkin patch, where they joined their sister in jumphouses and on inflatable slides for an hour. Pumpkin patches have little to do with pumpkins anymore. We didn't buy any pumpkins.

Late to bed, everyone tired, but a fun costume day. I could do without the weight of wondering how to get across to my oldest son that he has to follow the rules, and do so respectfully. Something has to change, and big.

10/29/2010

10/28/2010 Tooth Fairy

Drat, didn't get a photo -- Julian lost his first tooth today!! He was at lunch; I guess he went to the principal's office where they had a little plastic box marked "tooth treasure" or something. He's very close to losing the second bottom one too, and the teeth growing in behind have been visible for a few days.

Once again, the evening was spent chatting and exchanging stories and laughing with my wonderful in-laws. Laura joined me for the tooth fairy excursion, which thanks to the little green Tooth Treasure box was pretty easy. Julian once asked me point-blank, very sincerely, "Mom, are you the tooth fairy?" I managed to avoid giving him a direct answer, but truth is, I don't want to give up being the tooth fairy yet. I like it, and it's a pretty easy thing to do right (and I've still messed it up by forgetting Gabriel's past 2 teeth).

I'm taking tomorrow off work, because after all it's a REALLY big day -- all 3 kids have Halloween events at school. Having a wonderful aunt and uncle to share it with makes it all that much better!

10/28/2010

10/27/2010 In-laws

Laura and Ryan visiting, their 2nd night, yayyy!! Too busy cooking and being family to write, but we're all having a great time.

10/27/2010

10/25/2010 School Photos

School photos are all in!

I don't know how this has happened, but I'm building up something of a portfolio now. I have these studio shots for all of them now, dating back to pre-pre-K. They're never my favorite shots, but they are a nice way to track their growth, since they're always taken at the same time of year and are a clear headshot. (Gabriel looks funny though, he's not quite so chickenlike in real life.)

When the portrait studio at preschool does this, it's a painfully elaborate affair in which they present these enormous blowups in black velvet frames, with all sorts of collage options. I always get the cheapest package, which is just 3.5x5s and wallets.


Speaking of photos, I had to get this one today of Katrina in her new costume dress, a hand-me-down from Cousin Remi. It's almost too small for her unfortunately, but she loves it. Here's she's being a ballerina.


I think she might be better suited to hip-hop though.


Not that I know the first thing about teaching kids to dance, but I made a stab to see if she -- and I -- could do it, borrowing from the few minutes we'd seen of kid classes last weekend. To my amazement, Katrina was cooperative, and capable of the few very very minor steps I showed her. I think it's time for dance classes! And she might inspire me to rejoin that world I so love too!

10/25/2010

10/24/2010 Halloween Party

Today the 2006 Las Madres group held a Halloween party, with food, games and friends. My friends, anyway -- poor Katrina hasn't had much park time with this group, a real shame. I really like this group of Moms, and I hardly get any time to see them now.

Katrina was very excited to put her costume on again.


At the party, she sat and ate some lunch, mostly to get desserts. Then she sat and decorated a paper bag for a while, until it was time for games. This was a twist on trick-or-treating: at each station, instead of just grabbing a goody, you play a simple game first, then grab a goody. This was really nicely done, with cute manageable games and the stations manned by nice Dads.

She was resistant about the whole idea at first, as the kids lined up to play. "I don't WANNA do this, Mommy!"


But she warmed up fast at the first station, she really liked this Dad and played the game happily.


And moved on to the other game stations happily too.



Katrina was grumpy today from having been at sleepover last night, and was ready to leave the party before I was, but given that it was a cloudy rainy day I was OK with that. It was so nice to dip my toe back into my old life. I was more encouraged about it than depressed about the complete lack of balance in my -- and everyone else's thanks to me -- life. There must be a way.

10/24/2010

10/23/2010 Activity Shopping

I took Julian and Katrina out "shopping" this morning. We checked out a dance studio.


And a Tae Kwon Do studio.


And took advantage of the cloudy day for a brother-sister photo-op.

So different when it's just the two of them...is this what "regular" families are like? People look at me and smile when they see them being so cute together, and I want to disclaim, "but this isn't what it's really like!"

Still not sure how to work in martial arts or dance on the weekends....our week is so busy the last thing I want is any time commitment on the weekend.

10/23/2010

10/22/2010 Extra-curriculars

This has been one of the most exhausting weeks I've ever had, physically and emotionally. It's work-related, which makes it all the worse, both to experience and to blog about. Why should work trouble be "emotional" ? In this case, partly because the circumstances are extraordinary. There's an investigative journalist article in my future, but for now, I'd just like to get back to work. I've also had a bad headache this whole week, reducing my energy, interfering with sleep and putting a big damper on everything.

Perhaps work becomes "emotional" because of the cost to the family. It's so so so hard to keep up with just the basic day-to-day activities. This week, Gabriel took a written test as part of a spelling bee elimination, and I had no time to prepare him -- not for the content, but the format, just so he'd understand how it would work. The boys (both, it turns out) had a walk-a-thon, which a "good mom" would have printed their pledge sheets and helped them gather pledges for. Katrina's thank-yous haven't been written. I did manage to update a Facebook photo album, but that falls into the "I'm too fried to do anything else" category.

Tonight, though there's nothing more I'd like to do than just lie down and let the world spin around me, I'm at least looking online for martial arts classes and dance classes, for Julian and Katrina, respectively. It's surprisingly hard to find classes on Saturdays -- plenty at 3pm or 4pm on weekdays, but not so many Saturday mornings, and I'll bet they're all full. Most other kids do things on weekdays.

Tonight, though it's a Friday, I insisted Gabriel catch up on his book report due next week (he's behind in the steps he should have completed). Julian now has a "cultural report" due in a month, and the teacher strongly urges us to start right away. Meantime, the CDC has written up a special behavior "action plan," which they wanted to review with me and talk about strategies at home, because of Gabriel's resistant behavior ("every consequence we give him doesn't work and the whole situation escalates" -- yup, that's'a my boy!). Gabriel's teacher has also started a daily behavior contract, to gather data to present to the school psychologist, with us. All of this requires my attention and thought and time. But I can't even get a Scholastic book order submitted before the deadline.

How will I keep up with all this next year when Katrina too is in school?

10/22/2010

10/20/2010 Sharky

Julian has two wiggly teeth -- and permanent teeth behind both of them, showing already! This is the multi-row "shark" effect. Get ready to pay up, Tooth Fairy, it's coming!

Cheesecake and Coffee tonight, yay.

10/20/2010

10/19/2010 Easy morning

I think we warped into a parallel universe. This morning, not a child to be found in their rooms, putzing around, refusing to get dressed, shouting that it's THEIR life and they should be able to do whatever they want.

Instead, all three were dressed, shoes on, backpacks ready, had breakfast, and were playing peacefully together downstairs. Drawing or something.


All 3 having breakfast means that Gabriel facilitated, since there are some things only he can reach. Julian can reach most things, but Katrina can't reach anything yet, so the boys apparently took care of everything for her. (Except her ponytail, Dave did that when he found them all quietly working together. I would be very amused if they did her hair too, but I wouldn't put it past them -- Gabriel has put her to bed completely before, including washing and combing her hair!)

Gabriel and his pal Parth have been working on their airplane company again. This is what Gabriel would rather be doing than his book reports, and I can't entirely blame him:


So they were all pitching in to the airplane company ("Super Airlines") today. They had Katrina designing and drawing airplanes this morning, praising her like a 6-week-old puppy. The boys compete for her attention and to guide her, and she's come to expect it. One very spoiled little sister!

But this morning it was parents who were spoiled. What an easy, relaxed, and -- dare I say it -- enjoyable morning! Can we do this again tomorrow please?

10/19/2010 (DaVE's 44th birthday today! We had tiramisu cake, mmm :) )

10/18/2010 late to write

Spent much of the night writing ... sound like me? Just wish it were for things other than the increasingly ugly work situation. It weighs on me too much. Since when did I care so much about work? Maybe because of what it keeps me from.

Now I can take care of thank-yous for Katrina's party, submit a recipe for Collins' first cookbook, help Julian collect donations for a walk-a-thon, fill out a survey for Collins CDC, get my Dad's Medicare Rx address straightened out, fill out forms confirming Dad's income for the V.A., figure out why my Nebcom company got charged almost $400 in taxes....that's the tip of the iceberg and it's making me sink!

10/18/2010

10/17/2010 Maple

Julian's class does "Star Of The Week," in which one kid is the "star" each week. This means putting together a poster with pictures, writing your interests, your favorites, and about your family. The "Star" also brings home "Maple," the class teddy bear, and the kid is supposed to take Maple everywhere with him and then write about their weekend in Maple's Journal, with photos.

This is a lot of work for parents, especially when it's handed to us Thursday night due Monday! Going away for the weekend? Good luck with that! Good thing we all have digital cameras and photo-printers at home.

Fortunately, despite some initial resistance, Julian is overall very cooperative and into doing projects. He spent hours today working on his "Star Of The Week" poster, and then the Maple journal entry.

For the journal entry, I was very surprised, and relieved, that he did all the writing himself, with just a little spelling help. I had taken some photos the day before, and much of my afternoon was invested in sizing and printing photos for both the "Star Of The Week" poster and the Maple journal, as well as general guidance, spelling help, and trying to keep him from spending too much time on it.

One of the Maple photos.


Looking through Maple's journal, it looks to me like Julian has some very studious classmates! Their handwriting is all really, really good, and their writing is very coherent and grown-up too. I'd never have guessed these entries to be from a first-grade class, but what do I know. It's hard to say how much help the kids get from parents; the only clear indication of help is lines drawn for writing, but otherwise I'd have to say the kids really did the writing themselves.

Julian's entry was done with no help at all, and no lines drawn for writing (I offered!).

Translation:

My fun weekend with Maple
By Julian
My teacher gave me Maple on Thusday.
I went slideing on a blanket with Maple. But my dad told me to stop. I played Piano for Maple. Maple liked my music a lot. I sat with Maple. She fell asleep on my lap. She was a lot of fun! Thank you for giveing me Maple!

Julian's is by far the hardest to read of all his classmates; like Gabriel, his handwriting is, er, "outstanding" in his class. Here's a typical example of a classmate's entry.

It's also clear that Julian's classmates have a lot more activities on the weekend than he does!

Today's weekend activity, aside from all this schoolwork, was cleaning up the house for the cleaners tomorrow, and watching a highly coveted Star Wars movie as the incentive/reward. We did the retro thing of going to Blockbuster, in a strip mall where I also checked out a Tae Kwon Do studio. It is time for some activities for my deprived little brood -- martial arts for Julian, and dance for Katrina. Gabriel hasn't stated a strong preference yet, but two is all I can handle right now anyway.

Besides, Gabriel's next weekend -- and likely much of mine -- will be spent finishing his October book report.

10/17/2010