Mornings....by Dad

With Reed in 4th grade and Amy in 2nd grade our morning routine works pretty well. The kids mostly get ready on their own, make their lunches and their breakfast. Often we don't talk much. Reed leaves for school when he's ready and then Amy and I walk to school shortly after. She is usually very chatty so it's a nice time. However...we have a little game that makes it memorable. The school librarian, Mrs. Lombardo, always stands at the school side entrance where Amy enters. Almost every day after Amy hugs me goodbye I say, slightly loudly..."Have a great day in Library!" Amy laughs and sometimes gets embarrassed and Mrs. Lombardo seems to like it. Sometimes Amy preempts me by shushing me or saying "blah-blah-blah" or something. But it's fun.

-Dad

Elementary, my dear Watson...

A month or so ago, Reed said he wanted to read Sherlock Holmes. Now mysteries are really not my thing - nothing against them, I just haven't ever gravitated to them. I figured why not, I'll get him the books.

I bought these two Sherlock Holmes compilations, with little clue what was in them. The books are each about 4 inches thick, and the print is really small.

What's turned out to be interesting....well, a few things have turned out to be interesting with our friend detective Sherlock. First is that Reed won't read the books on his own, he prefers to have us read it to him. This is highly unusual - our read-out-loud speed is entirely too slow for Reed 99% of the time. He'd just rather read on his own, so he can get done faster.

Second, these books are hard to read out loud! There are a lot of words that are hard to pronounce, or that we don't know the meaning of. There are lots of footnotes and endnotes in this book. That might be one of the reasons that Reed wants us to read it to him - it's a bit over his head. Heck, it's sometimes over our heads.

The third interesting thing is that both Tod and I have really enjoyed reading the book! Really a surprise to me, probably more than Tod. As I said, I'm not usuallly a mystery reader so it was a pleasant surprise to find the stories so appealing. Turns out there's something to this whole "Sherlock Holmes is a classic" thing.

The final item...well, imagine my surprise as I opened a new chapter to find Sherlock shooting up, and Watson inquiring...

“Which is it today? Morphine or cocaine?”

“It is cocaine. A seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?”

Well now. Did not see that coming. Apparently everyone in the world except Tod and me already knew that Sherlock Holmes was a junkie. "Haven't you seen the movies?" they'd ask. Nope, not a one. Never read the books, never saw the movies. Thankfully Reed didn't seem too phased by this (of course, he has no frame of reference here). I just kept on reading and then delivered a "What Sherlock is doing is REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY bad" mini-lecture afterward. Holmes' explanation of his drug use is basically that his mind whirs so fast, and when he doesn't have a case, he can't handle the boredom, so he uses drugs. Well now. Just now did a bit of online sleuthing myself and discovered that these drugs were completely legal and commonplace in Holmes' Victorian era - that adds a new wrinkle that I guess we'll need to explain to Reed as well.

Never a dull moment!

Deep thoughts from second grade

Just found an old notebook from when Reed was in 2nd grade. He wrote a note to his teacher which said (among other things) "You help me learn in fall, winter, and spring, but not in summer. Summer I am all alone. I am my only teacher." Hysterical.

A way with words

Amy called our dog Shelby a "wacky bag of fleas" the other day. Where does she come up with this stuff?!

Still missing her

Kiki, Reed and Amy, on Amy's birth day

It's been not quite three years. Feels like forever and yesterday at the same time. I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that my Mom is gone.

Today would have been her 62nd birthday. I hate that she is not here celebrating, enjoying her grandchildren. She loved them so very much. I miss her.

Getting all growed up

As time goes by, we see more and more signs of maturity in Reed. Thinking back to when he was a preschooler and gave us a hard time every single morning when we told him he had to go to the bathroom right away ("but I don't have to go!!" followed by...well, really having to go) and lo and behold, he just takes care of such things on his own now. Not too long ago - maybe a year? - daily showers resulted in daily fights about showers. Now he (mostly) showers exactly as frequently as we want him to. Hooray! When you're in the middle of daily fighting about such mundane activities as using the bathroom and getting clean, you think that perhaps it will always be that way - what a relief to know things pass!

And both kids are really great about making their lunches each day. Which is not to say that they don't grumble about it sometimes, but in the end they go ahead and make their lunches. And they've been doing that for a while! Some kids in 4th grade with Reed are still eating lunches made by their parents. Heck, Aunt Jennifer was even still making cousin Aly's lunches for her every day, until I think the 7th grade! The kids both know what constitutes a complete lunch, and they go about putting theirs together with a minimum of fussing, most days. We still have to remind them to make the lunches, but the making is all on their own. How awesome is that!?

Both kids are pretty much completely responsible for their own schoolwork - homework and quiz/test preparations. Other parents will say "Can you believe that math homework the other night! Took us an hour to get it done!" - well, we don't even know what the homework was, much less spend time participating in it. We feel the kids' schoolwork is just that - the kids' schoolwork. If they forget to do it, it's their grade that's going to drop, not ours. Sometimes I feel guilty for not knowing more about their studies, but I would guess I know a heck of a lot more about it than my own parents knew about mine. And I turned out okay, I think. 

Reed is even getting better about cleaning toys up when we ask him to. He seems to be really growing up this 4th grade year.

And Amy, well she's always been a bit more mature than Reed at the same age - I guess that's a girl thing. She is usually eager to help out and pitch in around the house when we ask - and sometimes she offers on her own.

These kids are pretty terrific!

Reading rituals

Reading together on Reed's 4th birthday.

Reading together each night has been part of our lives ever since both kids were tiny. And we didn't even truly know the benefits when we made it a ritual – once we got into elementary school, the teachers never failed to remind parents how important it was to read to your kids. We were always like "well of course we read to the kids!" We would switch off which parent read to either kid, and it was a lovely one-on-one time that we could all count on. I vividly remember little Reed, probably 2 years old, holding up one finger and asking "One more book?" even though we'd probably just read him 5 books.

These days it's becoming more rare for Reed to ask to read with us at night. Once he was reading more involved chapter books, he quickly realized that we were just slowing him down. So he retreats to his room and reads on his own – much more efficient for him. (Or he wants me to read comic book style books that have print that's too hard for my older-by-the-minute eyes to see.)

Amy has also come to the same realization that she can get a lot more pages turned if she reads on her own, but most days she still wants one of us to read to her (or she reads to us). It's a great way to keep involved with them and have something we can talk about, although some of the books she chooses make me a little nutty (the rainbow magic fairy series – don't even get me started – but she loves them!). I wonder how much longer before she sends us on our way too. Sigh.

We will just enjoy every last chance we get to spend this time together. And maybe one day it'll be a tradition they'll carry on with their own kids.

P.S. We have several pictures of other people reading to the kids – but not a single one of me reading with the kids. Let the record show that I read to the kids every bit as much as Tod did....disadvantage of being the family photographer!