Wow! What an interesting week! I thought last week’s bit of clean up would unearth some treasures or at least some hidden secrets… But no! I was clearly - Oh so clearly - wrong! All the hidden treasures and secrets are in the shed! And I had to wait until this week for them to surface!
For the uninitiated, the shed is Dad’s domain. You know, where he hides all his stuff… Or, at least, the stuff he thinks is important until the partner suddenly declares, “It’s clean up time!” Suddenly, Dad’s tactics kicked in – Must Hide That. One Last Look At It. And OH! My personal favourite – The Diversion Tactic – Look what I found! (Don't forget to be proud of the discovery)
My old Walkman turned up! Who even remembers the classic cassette tape Walkman? I thought we’d thrown that away years ago but dear Dad claimed it as his. When I challenged him on ownership though, he could not remember when and why he first received it. Not to sound too smug but I did! He also couldn’t remember how to open it but I did…
---Memory Begins --
It was my Christmas present the year my mom died (10 October 1990). We had gone away because a very dear family friend, Elaine, had decided that we should not be left to wallow in misery. And so, she invited us to Irene’s place for the holiday. (Irene was her daughter by marriage – long story and probably not for now)
I woke up on Christmas morning, not really expecting anything from Santa (or Father Christmas as we called him), but I do remember being more concerned about whether he had remembered my younger brother and sister. I have absolutely no idea what Santa gave them but I had my very own Walkman! Complete with a cassette and batteries that lasted about an hour. From what I was told, Elaine bought the Walkman and listened to it on her long drive to Irene’s. That explained the bonus cassette and almost flat batteries. To give her full credit, she HAD bought more batteries and let me keep the cassette tape, as “the beginning to my collection”.
-- Memory Ends--
Dad had used the Walkman on train trips to work and back – which explained the ownership claim – but when it stopped functioning, we bought him a Diskman for a birthday pressie. Now who remembers the Diskman? (It played CD’s instead of cassette tapes) Guess what else Dad found in the shed! The blasted Diskman too! Again – I thought it was long gone!
We decided to test both and, unfortunately, the Walkman still does not work. The Diskman does though, so I guess I’m stuck with that one for another few years.
We let the boys have a go at inserting cassette tapes and CD’s just for the experience and Foal’s response was, “Oh! That’s from the olden days!”
I can’t wait until his kids say that to him about DVD’s, MP3’s and IPODS.
PS Today’s state election (QLD) – Cub was the only one interested enough to come with me to vote. Obviously he can't vote yet but I can. I let him put my Ballot Paper in the box and he was so proud!
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Achievements
This past week has been full of achievements. Mostly mine - but achievements nonetheless.
Last weekend, I actually let Pup leave the house without an adult escort. There, I said it and I actually did it! I’m proud of me but, to be perfectly honest, I stressed the whole time he was out of sight. In reality, he was probably only gone for about 40 minutes… You know, usual stuff like riding your bike around the streets…
I never had that. I went to school, came home and had to phone mom at work to let her know we were home. Immediately, and not negotiable. No walking the streets! I lived in a different country with different rules. But those old habits are hard to kill and not instill.
(To prevent confusion, “The Friend” is now Friend C and “Potential Friend” is now Friend J. All clear? No, not really but back to the story…)
The best way of putting it was that I was tricked into letting Friend C sleep over on Saturday night. I won’t go into details because then we’d be here forever, sufficed to say, I was not amused.
Friend J turned up on Saturday afternoon and the three decided that it would be fun to go get Friend C’s bike and then go to Friend J’s street, where apparently it is safer to ride. I felt brave and agreed. Friend C had to phone his mum to find out whether he could come home to pick up his bike! I kid you not – the phone call began with, “Hi Mum, it’s me. Can I come home to pick up my bike?” She finally consented. And then Friend J asked to phone home to find out whether his dad was home from work or not. His conversation started with, “Hey! Is this Mum?” Now, if I had answered the phone and was asked that, I would have replied with, “No, Mum can’t come to the phone right now, she’s left the country.” Perfect opportunity to play with their mind, but maybe that’s just my sick sense of humour. The end result was now they had the “All clear” and they left. This was when I started the stressing.
Fortunately, I have a clear view of most of the street they need to go down from one of our bedroom windows. So have a wild guess where I stood until they were out of sight.
After school on Monday, Friend J hightailed it here in the pouring rain, and Friend C followed shortly after.
On Tuesday, Friend J arrived here and they both left to go to Friend C’s house. Pup was supposed to be home by 5, and just as I was writing a text message to tell him to get his butt back home, I noticed that I had a message. It was from Pup, asking for 5 more minutes. I agreed and then took up the position at the window. I am so proud of him! He came home by himself! He also now knows about my vantage point, because I had to correct him on crossing the road. He’s asked me not to spy on him and I replied with the classic, “I do it because I care”. He was actually relieved though, because he didn’t go the way we normally walk because there were 2 older males walking towards him from that direction and didn’t feel comfortable heading their way. I figured that was fair because I saw them too and was again, proud of his judgment. My baby is growing up!
On Wednesday, Dad and I finally went bed shopping because we desperately needed them. We had compared all the catalogues and websites and we ended up with new beds and mattresses all round. It was really good value too because we spent almost the same amount on each of us.
On Thursday, the first delivery arrived, and we got to play, “Bed Building”. And begin my all time favourite, “Clean Up”.
On Friday, my ‘Unofficial Transcript’ from Uni finally read, “Admitted to Award” and I could register for Graduation. Since then, I’ve amused myself with the thought that I am now a Bachelor. Not too bad, considering I’m an ‘old’ married women with 3 sons.
On Saturday (today) the boys’ mattresses arrived and we got to finish playing “Bed Building”. Pup is still working on his version of “Clean Up” but he has until Monday to sort out the mess in his room. Then it’s my turn… Hee hee hee…
Last weekend, I actually let Pup leave the house without an adult escort. There, I said it and I actually did it! I’m proud of me but, to be perfectly honest, I stressed the whole time he was out of sight. In reality, he was probably only gone for about 40 minutes… You know, usual stuff like riding your bike around the streets…
I never had that. I went to school, came home and had to phone mom at work to let her know we were home. Immediately, and not negotiable. No walking the streets! I lived in a different country with different rules. But those old habits are hard to kill and not instill.
(To prevent confusion, “The Friend” is now Friend C and “Potential Friend” is now Friend J. All clear? No, not really but back to the story…)
The best way of putting it was that I was tricked into letting Friend C sleep over on Saturday night. I won’t go into details because then we’d be here forever, sufficed to say, I was not amused.
Friend J turned up on Saturday afternoon and the three decided that it would be fun to go get Friend C’s bike and then go to Friend J’s street, where apparently it is safer to ride. I felt brave and agreed. Friend C had to phone his mum to find out whether he could come home to pick up his bike! I kid you not – the phone call began with, “Hi Mum, it’s me. Can I come home to pick up my bike?” She finally consented. And then Friend J asked to phone home to find out whether his dad was home from work or not. His conversation started with, “Hey! Is this Mum?” Now, if I had answered the phone and was asked that, I would have replied with, “No, Mum can’t come to the phone right now, she’s left the country.” Perfect opportunity to play with their mind, but maybe that’s just my sick sense of humour. The end result was now they had the “All clear” and they left. This was when I started the stressing.
Fortunately, I have a clear view of most of the street they need to go down from one of our bedroom windows. So have a wild guess where I stood until they were out of sight.
After school on Monday, Friend J hightailed it here in the pouring rain, and Friend C followed shortly after.
On Tuesday, Friend J arrived here and they both left to go to Friend C’s house. Pup was supposed to be home by 5, and just as I was writing a text message to tell him to get his butt back home, I noticed that I had a message. It was from Pup, asking for 5 more minutes. I agreed and then took up the position at the window. I am so proud of him! He came home by himself! He also now knows about my vantage point, because I had to correct him on crossing the road. He’s asked me not to spy on him and I replied with the classic, “I do it because I care”. He was actually relieved though, because he didn’t go the way we normally walk because there were 2 older males walking towards him from that direction and didn’t feel comfortable heading their way. I figured that was fair because I saw them too and was again, proud of his judgment. My baby is growing up!
On Wednesday, Dad and I finally went bed shopping because we desperately needed them. We had compared all the catalogues and websites and we ended up with new beds and mattresses all round. It was really good value too because we spent almost the same amount on each of us.
On Thursday, the first delivery arrived, and we got to play, “Bed Building”. And begin my all time favourite, “Clean Up”.
On Friday, my ‘Unofficial Transcript’ from Uni finally read, “Admitted to Award” and I could register for Graduation. Since then, I’ve amused myself with the thought that I am now a Bachelor. Not too bad, considering I’m an ‘old’ married women with 3 sons.
On Saturday (today) the boys’ mattresses arrived and we got to finish playing “Bed Building”. Pup is still working on his version of “Clean Up” but he has until Monday to sort out the mess in his room. Then it’s my turn… Hee hee hee…
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Learning
How much fun is it learning to read? Actually it would be a lot more fun if Foal didn’t insist on arguing the point with me on each and every word. I am not illiterate and reading is high on my list of hobbies – but when I have to try and prove the word’s existence to a 6 year old, I must admit that I do have my doubts. Surely words haven’t changed that much! I shouldn’t really be surprised though because when we (read His Supposed Know-All) were learning to count, he’d invariably skip the number he knew before. For example: 1, 2, 3. This became 1, 2, 4 and so on. The frustration continues now with words…
Pup seems to have sorted out his ‘friendship issues’ for now. He had a chat with the "friend" and also mentioned some of it to his mum when she picked them up from school. I suggested that bit because that way the “friend” couldn’t weasel out of it and she couldn’t have her rose-coloured blinkers on. It might look as though I was being a coward by leaving him with the problem but I have to learn to let Pup learn how to fight his own battles – mum can’t always go rushing in with tongue blazing, no matter how much I want to. So long as he also learns (and remembers) that we are there for him.
Cub has been floating by and sometimes, I think he may feel a bit neglected because he is the ‘middle child’ and therefore could possibly suffer with “Middle Child Syndrome”. He’s a very smart and active young man. His only issue is that he makes friends and then they move schools. It’s happened to him twice and that has inhibited him socially. He lost the interest in making new friends because, “It hurts too much when they go”. He managed to join a group towards the end of last year but wouldn’t talk much about them – just called them, “My Friends”. This year, he is in the same class as most of them but with an added bonus. He’s also known as the new kid. Fingers crossed that he hangs around for a bit longer than a few months and Cub can learn what it feels like to be and have a friend.
Pup seems to have sorted out his ‘friendship issues’ for now. He had a chat with the "friend" and also mentioned some of it to his mum when she picked them up from school. I suggested that bit because that way the “friend” couldn’t weasel out of it and she couldn’t have her rose-coloured blinkers on. It might look as though I was being a coward by leaving him with the problem but I have to learn to let Pup learn how to fight his own battles – mum can’t always go rushing in with tongue blazing, no matter how much I want to. So long as he also learns (and remembers) that we are there for him.
Cub has been floating by and sometimes, I think he may feel a bit neglected because he is the ‘middle child’ and therefore could possibly suffer with “Middle Child Syndrome”. He’s a very smart and active young man. His only issue is that he makes friends and then they move schools. It’s happened to him twice and that has inhibited him socially. He lost the interest in making new friends because, “It hurts too much when they go”. He managed to join a group towards the end of last year but wouldn’t talk much about them – just called them, “My Friends”. This year, he is in the same class as most of them but with an added bonus. He’s also known as the new kid. Fingers crossed that he hangs around for a bit longer than a few months and Cub can learn what it feels like to be and have a friend.