Moses loses his first tooth.

Moses wanted me to buy brussel sprouts at the store. Our dinner was macaroni and cheese, little smokies and those brussel sprouts. Rainbow expressed her contempt by depositing the sausages on the floor. She didn't know what to do with the "litttle cabbages." Carolina complained a tad but ate them. Moses was excited, began eating and complained his tooth was hurting from eating them. I rolled my eyes as he and Adrianna bantered their reasons of abstaining. Moses took my attitude for a directive that he'd better eat them. He chewed and then burst into tears. Impatiently, I asked him "What is your problem." He sobbed and said, "My tooth hurts!" And then I realized the crimson tinge couldn't be brussel sprouts. Those things dislodged that tooth of his. I told him his tooth had fallen out and his tears morphed into a joyful giggle. He rinsed his mouth and plotted all he would do, "Tell Mrs. Hunter, tell Joshua, and Jaden...and put it under my pillow, drink from a straw with the hole in my mouth!" The possibilities are endless. Miss Jaded Carolina was swift to inform her naive brother the Tooth Fairy was not real. She tried to help by having Moses leave the room and extracting his tooth herself from underneath his pillow and planting a nice, shiny quarter. Moses wants to believe and so I ruined her good intentions. Mr. Moses is growing up.

A day at school.

A trip to school.

Publishing Party in Sunny's class today! Parents were invited, Eli thinks the reason I took the opportunity surrounded the donuts and fruit punch. Had he have gone he would swiftly realized this highlight paled in comparison to a certain young lady, Miss Sunny Carolina and her presentation of her narrative story, I quoth "One sunny day I was going fishing with my Dad. I caught a really big fish. We were just about to leave when I noticed something. That's when I saw it. An island!(which she pronounced 'is-land') I was so excited that I nearly fell out of the boat. My Dad swung his arm at me. He pulled me into the boat and I pointed at the is-land. He nodded his head and turned the boat around. As soon as we were on dry land I picked up my gear and began to fish again. The end." Quite a rousing performance. She pointed out some of her friends, Claudia, Victoria, a boy went on and on thankful that he had an audience about his parents being from Europe-Bulgaria. He told me the story his grandmother told him of how the Americas were discovered, they thought it was Asia, etc, and etc, of how he went to Bulgaria when he was four. She beamed and smiled a pleased, shy smile and politely applauded her peers as they took their turns reading. Sunny took part in cleaning of the tables in preparation for the event-even sacrificing a recess for the cause, noting to me that she even cleaned Cecilia's spot-the messiest of all. Her efforts did not go unnoticed. The room had "Publishing Party" signs and a great appearance. It was a great event.
Before, I stopped into Moses' class to return the loaner bear, Taffy so another friend could take it home. He forgot to take it back yesterday. Taffy has a journal each child writes about what he does the whole evening with his buddy. Moses was coloring a "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around" book when I stopped in-so excited to see me and to give me a hug. Apparently, this was the 'best day ever' largely in part to my grand appearance. Way to make a mom feel like a million bucks, Moses.

A trip to school.

Publishing Party in Sunny's class today! Parents were invited, Eli thinks the reason I took the opportunity surrounded the donuts and fruit punch. Had he have gone he would swiftly realized this highlight paled in comparison to a certain young lady, Miss Sunny Carolina and her presentation of her narrative story, I quoth "One sunny day I was going fishing with my Dad. I caught a really big fish. We were just about to leave when I noticed something. That's when I saw it. An island!(which she pronounced 'is-land') I was so excited that I nearly fell out of the boat. My Dad swung his arm at me. He pulled me into the boat and I pointed at the is-land. He nodded his head and turned the boat around. As soon as we were on dry land I picked up my gear and began to fish again. The end." Quite a rousing performance. She pointed out some of her friends, Claudia, Victoria, a boy went on and on thankful that he had an audience about his parents being from Europe-Bulgaria. He told me the story his grandmother told him of how the Americas were discovered, they thought it was Asia, etc, and etc, of how he went to Bulgaria when he was four. She beamed and smiled a pleased, shy smile and politely applauded her peers as they took their turns reading. Sunny took part in cleaning of the tables in preparation for the event-even sacrificing a recess for the cause, noting to me that she even cleaned Cecilia's spot-the messiest of all. Her efforts did not go unnoticed. The room had "Publishing Party" signs and a great appearance. It was a great event.
Before, I stopped into Moses' class to return the loaner bear, Taffy so another friend could take it home. He forgot to take it back yesterday. Taffy has a journal each child writes about what he does the whole evening with his buddy. Moses was coloring a "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around" book when I stopped in-so excited to see me and to give me a hug. Apparently, this was the 'best day ever' largely in part to my grand appearance. Way to make a mom feel like a million bucks, Moses.

Goddess of Love and Beauty

I love my little girl who is not so little anymore. She has wanted my help in detailing a Halloween costume. She's got a great getup basket of costume items with sashes, scarfs, dresses and you name it that i am constantly sifting through and eliminating things from(and constantly being called on my actions, "Do you know what happened to my cat mask...It would have been perfect for "Kitty Pride" (the X Men girl, I guess). She tried a variety of things. We brainstormed characters she likes, books she likes..Jean Gray, Matilda? Ramona? (She kaboshed that one indicating she didn't want to be a pest), Word Girl? And then out came the mother load of brainstorm resources. Her heavy volume of Greek Gods and Goddesses. She devours these morbid twisted tales of husbands eating wives and children sentenced to the underworld, it is worse than Daytime Soaps for SAHM's. She begins to browse through the wealth of long, prism haired maidens, topless mermaid waifs (desiring some in the modesty category) and sees on the cover one of her personal favorites, Aphrodite. She fingers through the pages until she finds a story with Aphrodite in it. Inspired by a gossamery, light reflecting gown she begins to create a costume. A bright, dark blue dress of mine is the foundation.. A tulle pink ballet skirt is tied into a shawl, looking a little like wings. We cut a piece from a gold curtain to make a skirt addition for some sparkle. A black veil as a headdress frames her pixie bob. On the way out of the house I told her to put socks on. She furrowed her eyebrows in distress but came back with Alaska socks (which she hoped no on would notice). I put some magenta lipstick on her and she asked if she could spray some perfume in her hair (Of course!). The kids paraded around the church gym for the trunk or treating activity. I stopped Carolina and whispered to her, "I think you have the best costume." Little Aphrodite floating amongst the princesses, Hannah Montana's and witches. She's an original, my girl.

The bus stop

Like a vigilante, today I stopped the orange-yellow cheese, size of an elephant mobile-the school bus. Sunny took just a little too long getting ready this morning. In her zombie stupor each morning she insists she must be the one to pick out her outfit (why, oh why don't I insist the night before she make her choice, I am a masochist, that's why.) I tried giving her a variety of options, knowing full well she would not approve of any of them. Sensible long sleeve shirts, cute prints on all of them. Her stylish pants she's not into either, she prefers the Mahona sweat pants and comfy capris. Some one's got to teach this girl fashion is not about comfort. Ever heard of stiletto's? I saw the bus through the blinds called to Sunny and told her I had her backpack and encouraged her to high tail it out of there and forget the rest of teeth brushing. The bus driver paused and was about to give up since Sunny was not surfacing. I ran back to the door and fed her to the mouth of elephant cheese slice. Luckily for me I don't think this incident was anymore than a moment for her but I had flashbacks of what a bus means to me.
"Run, Forest, run!" "Run home to your mommy!" Familiar calls directed at me as I leaped off the bus running as hard and fast as Florence Joyner Kersee (remember those nails...see Sunny, fashion has its merits...fashion saves!) down the pebbly, dust-ridden hill-I wouldn't stop until I turned the corner, I triumphed every time. I high tailed it as quick as possible primarily to distance myself from those tobacco chewing, shorts-wearing in twenty below Alaskan winter weather teenage boys whom I had developed a healthy measure of contempt for. Then, there was each cold, dark morning walking to the bus stop, alone. Being the oldest by six years in my family I grew accustomed to solo so it was fine but waiting the 12-20 minutes at the bus stop was not on my top ten list of favored past times. Being a blindly obedient child my parents, sensibly told me to bundle up in such weather. And I certainly had proof the insulation made a difference: my winter attire reminds me of the brother and sister bears in Richard Scarry's "What People Do All Day"-each has every article of clothing imaginable including petticoat, rubbers, legwarmers, over coat, dust coat etc. My junior high get up warmly included light blue snow pants (suspender, zipper-type style), a neat invention of a polar fleece neck warmer, mittens (keeps your fingers warmer as the fingers each other to produce warmth-some kindergarten science for all), a warm, double lined Colombia jacket and a warm hat. The only problem, which isn't necessarily a problem, although if I find cause to hash it out 10+ years down the road... These pesky teenagers, all older than me would mock me to no end with my snow pants and my mommy and obviously how much better they were than me. Do not worry, oh, I showed them who was who-by day by day standing on the opposite side of the road from them. Social suicide complete. Another chapter on the yellow submarine: Clinton, my cub scout younger brother I was so proud of is going on his first Cub Scout Day Camp trip. And thanks to me, his last. He conceded to let me go with him kind of as a junior chaperone. I was excited to spend some fun, outdoor time with him. Archery, leather work, scavenger hunts, pond exploration, swimming (something we both enjoyed) all on the agenda. The change of the weather had brought on a cold for me so on the bus, in route to the lake campsite I retrieved a pre-used gnarled tissue from my jeans pocket. Gingerly unwrapping it like a lace doillie made by Aunt Louise I held my receptacle up to my nose and blow long and hard, three times I believe is what it took to empty the phlegmish substance from my nostrils. Glancing at Clinton I realized something. That a 15 year old sister focused on determining the most effective way to dislodge mucus from a most stubborn nostril is a hair away from the epitome of cool for your average nine year old who works hard on his image (he even trained his hair part to spread in the middle for a slick surfer look, all it took was two pinkies and plenty of repetition) Tragically, although I realized my thoughtlessness, I got so caught in the moment of how hilarious this was that my laughter bubbled over like bubble and squeak on some English dude's stovetop. I did not improve the situation. For the record, Clinton did not pursue scouting, leatherwork and lives in a box today. But hey, a man is his own agent, right? Can't sit around and blame your problems on everyone else. Still, maybe I better cool it with the bus hold ups if I want Sunny Carolina to have any chance at going to college.

Pronuncations and Perceptions

Driving home from school today Eli asked Moses questions about his day. He has been struggling with recess and lunch time. Problems encountered with recess include loneliness, boredom and the hot sun. It's easy to see your problems magnified when their analyzed. He sulks in the shade and feels sad. Once Sunny showed up at his recess-unfortunatley this was because she lost track of time, didn't hear the bell ring and spent some time with Moses. This made his day. He reported he was so happy to see her but felt so sad when she had to go. He was all alone. Tears came in his eyes. Cafeteria dilemmas include: too many people, a general feeling of chaotic commotion and it doesn's smell good in there. He is his father's son. No Christenson in their right mind would turn their nose up at cafeteria food-we are the ones known to visit the town hospital to visit the "restaurant" there-and that is what we call a treat. Each day recess and lunch are the low points of his day. Then lunch and recess have to happen. Mrs. Hunter makes him feel safe and loved, there is organization and fun games to play. But today great things happened. Moses made friends with Angelo at recess. He is so funny and so crazy! They laugh and play fun games together and he had hot lunch for the first time and loved it: waffles, sausage and chocolate milk-maybe that makes the smell tolerable. Eli checked in with Carolina while she read her Box Car children book looking up to show us the 1/3 portion of the book she had already read. He asked her if she hads made any new friends. Silence. Asked again. "What?" She was busy reading, we dropped it. Walking to the park last night we reached the intersection where the kids are well trained (most of the time) to wait until slow Mommy and Rainbow in arms catch up to cross together. Carolina tagged with me and told me of the book she is reading. Benny had found a clue and they were already at the Blue Bay...(Box Car Children Blue Bay mystery). I delight in her joy reading the series, I loved them when I was young. She told me, "They are are on an 'is-land' " Her reading prowess made known through pronunciation. Tonight I checked in on her as I could still hear her mulling about the room when the others had zonked out. She had a piece of tarp like fabric spread out near the heater register, three bent curtain rods, a pile of beads, rope caulk tape mangled into a ball of funtional gray clay and several clay forms: a duck complete with breathing nostrils above the beak, a snail, a whale which was smaller than the snail and a few sharpened and unsharpened pencils. Obviously, she had undergone a surgical procedure to extract carelessly dropped beads from the heater's cavity and found inspiration in that resurrection and was forced to create by the divine powers within by whatever inspired materials she could accumulate. This could not wait until morning, the magic would inevitably be gone. I could take a lesson from this girl. Stuck to her bed was one more creation: a clay sign with writing etched. I couldn't decipher the writing yet. She told me it says, "Sunny's caf." I thought I heard her wrong and asked, "A baby cow?" "No, you know the food place..., a restaurant." "Oh, cafe!" I can tell she has been reading an awful lot.

1st day of school.

They are at school. Moses just started afternoon, Sunny has been there all day. As Moses' class line followed his gray-haired grandmotherly smiling teacher, Mrs. Hunter his class passed Sunny's class. She said hi to me but I don't think Moses saw her. He was focusing on the procedure he was in. This morning we met Sunny's teacher, Ms. Mulligan, a tall, athletic blond. She introduced herself to Sunny and asked what school she had come from and what grade she was in. She told her she had a desk just for her. Then we joinied the other 2nd and 3rd graders in the library. Gabrielle, her assigned helper friend was given the duty to show her all around the library. Then the bell rang. All morning Moses has been asking, "Is it time for school yet?" Phew, am session would have been better but finally the time came. Also waiting were a pile of girls, a small blond boy with a Mohawk whose Dad had several piercings, a chubby hispanic boy. He pleasantly took his place in line and gave me a hug. No tears, no worries. What a brave guy. See you at 3:00.