surprising trip

I can see our house from here!

Catching up on the Safety Procedures Manual

Martha Rose, Schuyler, Charlie, Dexter, and Hugo

 

 

So, in the same week that Daddy was away for work, Mama had to go away for a week long training programme.  So Daddy was alone with the kids.  Then Daddy remembered that Uncle Will and family were in the Bahamas with Kim and Ward Baby.  I thought about the fact that I only see my twin and his family once every three years or so and if all goes well and we live an average life span, we'll only see them ten more times in our lives.  Well, that's just not enough.  So we coordinated with Kim and Wardy Baby and made a trip down here, just Daddy and the Kids, to surprise Uncle Will and his family.  It was truly one of the best decisions I've made.  To make such a spontaneous trip with the kids reawakened me to the fun of life.  The kids were pretty good on the plane rides and everything on the way down and we succeeded in surprising Will and Lou and the kids!   Let the games begin!

a bermuda style snow day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We don't get snow days here.  We don't wake up to a beautiful blanket of snow dampening all sounds and signaling a day of snowballs and sledding.  We wake up to rain thrashing against the windows, wind howling outside, and a small craft warning issued for mariners.  That was today.  A tropical storm brushing our little island and the confused school system reacting haphazardly to the threat with some of them opening and some of them, including Somersfield, deciding to close.  This would be fine if our offices reacted the same way but they didn't.  Not only that, but Daddy was away on business.  The one day Daddy has been away all year, the schools closed, leaving Mama to fend for herself with two kids who just want to play.  She made the most of it and trooped to the aquarium (aka "the place you go when it rains").   For the kids, the good news was this meant they got to use their little umbrellas (which is almost as high on their "fun list" as sledding and snowballs).   Unfortunately, umbrellas and storm force winds don't work as well together.

Hit me, Dad

Charlie's orientation stickers from Somersfield.

You try and teach lessons. You try and instill values. You use lots of techniques to do this. Lots of them fail. Charlie's been up since 6:24am but in a Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde mood so it feels longer. In Mr Hyde mode we had this conversation after he hit me on the arm:

Me: No hitting, Charlie! Would you like it if I hit you?
Charlie: (screaming) YES! Hit me, Dad!
Me: it would hurt.
Charlie: I want you to hit me! Hurt me, Dad!

I wonder if this would hold up in court?

naked playdoh

 

 

 

This is part of our evolving (slow) maturity as parents.  Not the naked part.  The Play Doh.  We just hated the mess and cleaning up all the little bitty parts of Play Doh that seemed to collect in every crevice in the floor.  So we would always balk at letting them play with it.  Then one day we said Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and just let 'em go at it with the colourful clay... and they loved it.  It was kind of all they would do for a few days which was very cool (if you account for the guilt I felt for depriving them of this all this time).

our carlito's first day of school

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so it came to pass that Charlie left the confines of Baby Jail and entered the Big School.  We were uncertain of how he would react.  He'd been to Somersfield a lot to pick up his sister and had played on the playground a lot on weekends but he loved Baby Jail so we just weren't sure.  But he took to it instantly, and just walked on in.  His lovely big sister walked him to class in a moment of heart rending sibling beauty and his parents reluctantly drove away to let him explore his new world.  Good luck, Carlito!  (Although it doesn't look like you need any).   As a parent, part of you wants them to be a little scared and need you a little - need a hug or that solace that only a parent can provide - but the other part, the part that dreams about your kid's future wants them to march into the unknown with confidence and that's what our little Carlito did today.

our P1's first day of school

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's a photograph of Will and I standing on the steps at Windrush, lunchbox in hand, and clad in white shirts and khaki shorts.  It was our first day at Saltus and I can remember it to this day.  I remember walking into the classroom with a very different kind of trepidation than I feel in similar situations now.  It was the kind of anxiety that could be quelled with one word of comfort from my Mum.  So here was Schuyler.  Already a seasoned Somersfield student with a bevy of girl friends and heading of into the uniformed world of P1s.  She was now the Big Kid in her class with responsibility for the layers of younger kids in her class.  There's no good reason why this moment should feel like such a watershed - after all, it's just a different set of clothes - but it does feel that way.  She's joined the bottom of the big school and will rise (hopefully) up through it from here on out. She seems proud, like she somehow gets that this is now different.  But she won't be prouder than we are.  I look at the beaming smiles in these photos and I want to bottle it up so she can have that proud glee whenever she wants.  Who wouldn't want to feel that way all the time?