Wednesday, September 14, 2011

School and things.

Well this month marked the start of a new era for us. Grade 1. Sheesh I'm not sure how the last (nearly) 6 years went by in a matter of weeks but they have and so we embark upon school. School is cool, especially Nadine's school.
These days of school have been very different for me and the boys. It's been really interesting to get to know Ryan separate from his older sister. Therein lays the bright side. That is I'd far rather have the kids home, but school does offer a few benefits as well, so when looking for the bright side...that's the one I found. I'm not actually mushy about the kids growing up, I didn't cry when Nadine started school like I've heard happens for so many moms. But lets not equate that to how much I love them because that love is immeasurably enormous.

Nadine made it 6 school days and today has powered out and taken the day off. It's apparently really hard to be a full time school girl when you're not quite 6. Truthfully I think it's remarkably hard to do when you're any age, but I keep thinking this would be so much easier if I could just get her to sleep.... But I can't so it is what it is. She's learned a lot already this year. She's reads well, she tells me all the trials and tribulations of math but in the end "I just tried my best and I got all my numbers right!" success :). She's also quite excited about the Terry Fox run coming up at the end of the month. Running, as far as athleticism goes, is really her thing. Which makes my heart happy.
As far as other things go Nadine's love of animals is really really her 'thing'. She and I taught Cleo to jump over an obstacle the other day. She was pretty darn proud of herself (Nadine that is) Cleo was just waiting for the cookie at the end of the project. There is a long list of animals that "we should get" according to Nadine. It's an exhausting list including zebra's, rabbits, horses, a giraffe, and includes any other animal we encounter. She was also going to try and hatch an egg under her pillow. She'd spend all her time in the chicken pen if given the opportunity and thought it would be fun to have a baby chick hatch in her room. "Why do you always know to look under my pillow at bedtime?" I was asked with exasperated tone. It's been challenging this summer to keep a menagerie of animals and critters out of our house. We seem to think inviting in all the frogs, grasshoppers, caterpillars etc is where it's at. Thereby when we walk in sideways with our hands in our pockets or behind our back it's always a good idea to ask.
Nadine: Why do you always know!?
Me: Same way my mom always knew.
Ryan is fascinating. He's got a memory like a steel trap, he's developed a love of coloring, drawing, writing letters (he's really good at all of them) and likes to learn some new words to read every day. He is going to start playschool. That is a bit nerve wracking for me. We've discussed the fact that he'll have to do what his teacher asks of him. When it's time to put away the toys and come for story time he'll have to do so. The funny thing about Ryan is he can be very politely disobedient.
"Ryan it's time to do ______"
"No thank you."
God bless his teacher.
Strangely I think playschool will probably be a great experience for him, and if he surprises me and doesn't like it he sure doesn't have to go.
Ryan: Mom I want to go to school. I want to go to school and I want to have a flying desk.
Me: I don't think they have flying desks Ryan.
Ryan: Yes mom, and I want one.
Me: We'll see.

It's challenging for Ryan to enjoy watching Nadine get on the bus and not be able to get on with her. Last year, when Nadine was in Kindergarten and boarding the bus just 2 days a week we did OK. We wanted to get on but it wasn't a huge deal. Now the darn thing comes every single day and he's not been on it even once. He was unsure why Nadine chose not to get on it today. Who wouldn't want to get on a bus? It's what he's been waiting years for.
But alas as she sweetly walked out to the bus with her dad, her dogs, her backpack, and her brother, the whole group, Nadine included, returned.
As we established earlier school is tiring when you're 5. This morning the first question from Nadine before any other utterance was...
Nadine: Is it a school day today
Me: Yes and good morning
Nadine: Again! Every single day! Every single day is a school day! When is it not going to be a school day? Good morning mom.

Usually if I can get Nadine through breakfast and a leisurely morning ritual she's happy to go to school. Today she was happy to go as far as the end of the driveway, then there were tears and "I can't do it" for today. :) What a girl.
Today while skipping school she outlined that "Ryan's going to go to playschool, he just has to play all day. Just play. I have to do ALL the work!!" It's evidently quite challenging to be the oldest...I wouldn't know. But it's interesting to observe the birth order fantasticness within my little test group here.

Braeden is a menace, I'm just going to come out and say I'm afraid for life as we know it as he gets older and only more independent. Right this moment I'm ignoring the fact that he's doing his level best to create a swamp in the kitchen. I'm ignoring it because right now I'd rather have an uninterrupted cup of coffee and a few minutes at the computer. Water is fairly easy to dry up so for now I will pretend I don't know about it and drink coffee and blog. Something I enjoy to do but the blog part I often neglect (I've started several but finish almost none of them). The coffee part I am far more diligent about finishing.
Anywho, I've seen far more of Braeden's blood in his 1.5 years of life than I have from my other 2 kids in the nearing 6 years of life I've been a parent for both the other kids combined. Statistically that makes me a bit leery about our future. I'm going to have to pick up some krazy glue... Split lips, bloody noses, scraped up limbs he tries so hard to keep up to his siblings and he has NO IDEA he's half their size.
He can show you where his hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly button, toes, and chub is. He's got words coming like crazy, each day is many many new ones and they're all fabulous. His little voice is darling if I do say so myself.

Tim's business is busy. Really busy but in a good way. He has hunting tags for us an elk and a deer this season and has high hopes of getting both. He found a herd of elk that he's been talking to for the last 2 evenings. We've butchered most of our chickens that we plan to butcher. We've 13 more roosters that I'll look forward to beheading this weekend. They've make me love the rooster we do have so much more, and they've made me better at football...I'll enjoy eating them.

I've been enjoying taking pictures. I really do love it. It's therapeutic and it's helped me like people again, or most of them. I spent the summer not very fond of the human race but somehow photography helps me with my new found poor attitude. Photography and running, running really does get the snot out of my brain as my children put it. I've made more time for it recently. That or biking. I finally after many years without, have a bike, and a trailer for up to 2 of the kids which often leaves the 3rd disgruntled, but if you bike away fast enough you don't really hear that much about it...kidding...sort of.

I was going to add some pictures but I've run out of time and the swamp is approaching the dining room so, there ya go. :)