I've officially moved this blog to a new domain, http://kidandcaboodle.com. Hope to see you all there!

This morning my son decided to surprise my husband with a present.  He got up early, went downstairs to get a can of my husband's favorite soda, then started cutting up paper to wrap it. Partway through, the scissors slipped and cut him slightly on the leg. According to my husband, our son yelled, but did not cry, and seemed just as upset about having to abandon his project as he was about getting hurt. My husband assured him that the present was our son's thoughtfulness as much as it was the soda. And for me, our son's actions were a gift as well.

My husband recently decided to shave off his beard because he thought it contained too much gray. When he explained his decision to our son, A.J. said, "What's wrong with gray beards?  Gray beards are ok for normal life, and dark beards are ok for TV life."

This evening my husband gave me an example of the types of questions he receives at work: "Do you want to program in Restful Services or Java Beans?" (Apparently these are two types of database programs.) I told him that if someone had called me up with that question, I would have wondered if he had dialed a wrong number while trying to reach a nursing home. My husband said the sad thing is that he understood the question perfectly, even though he is not an information technology guy.

Today A.J.'s English teacher sent home a note asking us to help him practice retelling stories using the "take-home reading" books she sends every day. The problem is that the books he brings home are so simple they don't really have plots to retell.

For example, the entire text of tonight's book reads:

Ten
Ten buttons
Ten needles
Ten pins
Ten pieces of cloth
Ten zippers
Ten pom-poms
Ten costumes

So what's the plot in this case? Someone is assembling the materials to sew ten costumes?

This "take-home reading" project has been going on for several months. When it began, the teacher told us that the books she would be sending home would be below A.J.'s reading level "to build confidence." Although I appreciate the intent, I think these books may be so far below A.J.'s reading level that he is becoming bored. At home he is reading the "Magic Treehouse" and "Curious George" series independently, as well as Dr. Seuss books. (The Sneetches is one of his favorites.) I don't think confidence in his reading skills is a problem with him. But perhaps he is having trouble demonstrating those skills to his teacher?

Yesterday I scolded A.J., my 6-year-old son, for abruptly shouting out a question while I was driving. He responded that his voice only has two settings -- yell and mumble.

Here is my version of this meme.

1. My nickname is Pegasus. I got this nickname because of the Buddy Holly song “Peggy Sue,” the science fiction show Dr. Who, and the children’s author Dr. Seuss.
2. I am allergic to artificial food coloring (dyes). This means I can’t have most sodas, children’s cereal, candy or frosting, and I have to be careful with processed foods and over-the-counter medicines.
3. I don’t like coffee. I like the smell of coffee, but not the taste.
4. I am terrible with plants; among the ones I have managed to kill are jade plants, a potted chrysanthemum, a miniature pine tree, marigolds grown from seed, an aloe and a cactus. Please don’t ever give me a plant unless you don’t care if it dies.
5. My favorite season is autumn. One of the reasons I like autumn is that I don’t feel guilty about seeing dead or dying plants anywhere.
6. I hate loud noises such as fireworks, thunder, gunshots and popping balloons.
7. I once took a course in belly dancing.
8. I used to take ballet.
9. I have studied karate.
10. I am now several pounds heavier than when I studied belly dancing, ballet and karate.
11. I did not learn to swim until I was 12.
12. I learned to ice-skate at the age of 5.
13. I was born in Buffalo, New York. My family left the city after the Blizzard of 1976, when Buffalo was hit with 14 feet of snow. That’s 14 FEET, not inches.
14. During a student exchange program one summer I lived on a farm in Wales. I realized that I was definitely not cut out to be a farm girl when I tried to help my host father bale some fleece and broke out in hives all over my arms.
15. My first summer job was as a clerk-typist with the U.S. Army Garrison, Okinawa, Japan. It was a lot easier for me than working on a farm.
16. My first language was Taiwanese, a Chinese dialect, but I cannot remember a time when I did not know English. In addition to Taiwanese and English, I know some French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Welsh, Hebrew and sign language.
17. I play the piano.
18. I used to play the flute. Then I got braces and couldn’t play properly, so I quit.
19. My favorite colors are red and purple. These unintentionally were my wedding colors; red is the traditional color for Chinese weddings, and the only colors that looked good on all four of my attendants were purple and dark green. Since I didn’t want my reception to look like a Christmas party, I went with purple dresses.
20. My parents have been married for nearly 43 years. I hope my husband and I will eventually match, if not beat, their record.
21. I have a younger brother. He lives a lot farther away than I like, but he seems happy.
22. I have 14 first cousins on my father’s side. Most of them live in the United States.
23. I have approximately 12 first cousins on my mother’s side, but I’m not sure. Most of them live in Taiwan.
24. Although I wear glasses, one of my eyes has 20/20 vision. I tried wearing a single contact lens once, but couldn’t get the hang of essentially poking myself in the eye to see properly.
25. I don’t participate in chain letters. I may share a recipe, mail a kid a pack of stickers, or answer a bunch of random questions, but I won’t continue the chain. Chain letters stop with me, so don’t ever send me one unless you want it broken.

Last week my 6-year-old son took a quiz at school on Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the questions he had to answer was this:

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a/an:

A. Canadian
B. Hispanic
C. African American
D. Native American

My son answered "Native American." His teacher marked the answer as "wrong." I understand her perspective, but I find myself absurdly pleased my son was unable to identify MLK according to his race.

I have decided to stop playing the X-Box games Mater-National and Carbon. Both involve driving a car at very fast speeds to win races. I hate driving in real life, and I don't find these virtual versions any better! I cannot control my game piece properly, so I find myself constantly smashing into walls and ending up in last place. At the end of the game, I wind up with a very sore hand and a murderous mood. I've decided I'm not going to play any more, no matter how much my son begs. I see no point in playing a game that does nothing except frustrate me; I have far better things to do with my time.

My mother called last week to say she and my dad would not be able to join us for Christmas because he has to go back to Taiwan for a funeral, so she wanted to come by this weekend to drop off our presents. We decided that, since she and my dad would be making the drive down, I would prepare lunch for everyone today. I spent much of the morning cooking and picking up around the house.

When my parents arrived, they realized they had forgotten the presents!

Well, it finally happened: an electronic magazine I've been helping write since 2005 officially folded this week. I'm a little sad, but I'm proud of the work we did for so long. I'm also a little relieved I don't have to face writer's block every month anymore! In memory of the column I used to write, I've now changed my LiveJournal blog to the same name, "Kid and Caboodle." Even though the E-zine is no more, my random musings will continue. Ha ha ha!

The last few weeks we've been going to or hosting a lot of social gatherings.  Starting with A.J.'s birthday party November 23, then moving to two family gatherings over the Thanksgiving weekend, a black-tie shindig celebrating this year's winners of the President's Quality Award, and today's holiday potluck party for the D.C. chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, Chris and I have been very busy.  This Friday we also have a holiday party for A.J.'s taekwondo school, then I have a bunch of office Christmas parties, then a family Christmas gathering, then New Year's.  Whew!

A.J.'s teacher e-mailed me to reiterate the school's policy about birthday party invitations and suggested that I look in the PTA handbook for the phone numbers of the classmates A.J. wants to invite to our place next week.  Good idea.  The only problem is that I have no idea how to spell the names of some of A.J.'s friends.  Nevertheless, I looked in all the first-grade class lists at A.J.'s school and made a bunch of calls.  I managed to talk to two parents, and left hopefully comprehensible messages at three other numbers.  It was a little weird, since I don't know anyone's names, and vice versa.  I'm just hoping I got hold of the right families....

A.J. will be turning 6 on Tuesday.  He wanted to invite some friends from school to a party at our house to celebrate -- one or two from his morning class, his afternoon class and his afterschool care program apiece -- so I put together some invitations for him to pass out.  When he tried to hand them out, though, he was told by his morning teacher that unless he was inviting everyone in the class -- about 26 kids -- he could not invite anyone.  Oh.

I wonder if this policy holds true for all parties, or just birthdays?  I want A.J. to be able to get together with classmates outside of school so he can deepen his friendships.  But how can we arrange get-togethers if the school is so concerned about hurting the feelings of kids who are not invited to a private event?

This afternoon I spent a few hours outside with my son and two of my neighbor's kids. At one point all three boys were busy drawing chalk pictures in the middle of the cul-de-sac. One of my neighbor's kids, who is about 8, drew a picture of himself and his parents. "How cute," I thought at first. Then he wrote at the top, "I miss my dad. I love my mom and dad."

When I asked him about the note, he said that for the next two weeks his father would be away on a long business trip ... again.

My neighbor's other son, who is around 4, then also drew a picture of their father.

Not to be outdone, my son wrote, "I love Dad." Then he drew a picture of me and wrote, "You (referring to my husband) love Mom." Note that he didn't write, "I love Mom." Hmm.

 

The weather has finally gotten cold enough to prevent A.J. from wearing shorts all the time. When I pulled out his winter wardrobe, though, I realized A.J. had pretty much outgrown all of it ... again. Drat! I'm glad to see A.J. is such a healthy boy, but it's a real challenge to keep up with him.

I ran out this afternoon to get A.J. some jeans that were long enough to cover his ankles. Once again I forgot to account for how slim he is, though. Whenever I buy a pair of slacks long enough for his legs, it is usually too large for him at the waist. My husband joked that we should encourage A.J. to be more sedentary and feed him lots of fattening foods so his clothes will fit. Ha ha. But seriously, I guess we'll have to see if A.J. is old enough to deal with a belt now.

This week my son's school started a "Healthy Choices" challenge. Every single day, from October 1 to December 12, A.J. must read for 20 minutes, exercise for 20 minutes and eat a healthy snack or food. This doesn't sound like much, but the last three days have been very tough.

The healthy food part of the challenge is no problem, as I can easily make my son eat a piece of fruit during dinner, but finding the time to fit in 40 minutes of required activities is really hard during the work week. The three or four hours A.J. spends in his afterschool care program running around the gym/playground or reading don't count toward this challenge. This means that between the time I pick him up from school at 6:15 and the time he has his evening shower at 7:30 I have to prepare dinner, feed my son, make sure my son does his homework (yes, first graders get homework), and make sure he gets in at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise. To fit in his 20 minutes of required reading, we have sacrificed the time we used to spend talking about his day as I prepare him for bed. I think both my son and I are beginning to resent these new requirements. I personally think they must have been set by someone who doesn't have a full-time job outside of the house.

The new activities I have to fit in for A.J. every day are also hurting my own ability to stay healthy. I am having a very hard time finding time to exercise since I am so busy in the evenings before bedtime, and I never seem to get away for lunch. This means that I would have to exercise in the morning before getting ready for work; i.e. I would have to get up at 4 a.m. to get in a useful amount of exercise. I am starting to depend more on prepared foods for meals rather than cooking, and I am getting less sleep per night because I still have to do things like go through the mail and clean dishes after putting my son to bed.

Maybe I'll have a chance to catch my breath this weekend.