on raising a geek*
Geeks rule the world.
If you’re reading this blog, then chances are you’re a geek* too, so you know what I’m talking about. And you get why I’m actively striving to raise a geek. But not just in an I-<3-scifi kind of way. In a I-love-to-read and question-the-universe and take-things-apart-just-to-rebuild-them-all-day-long kind of way.
I don’t talk about Josh’s brains much here because it can get awkward and braggy sounding and I don’t want to be ~that~ mom. But, it’s something I need to talk about sometimes because omg the kid makes me crazy with the smarts. I’m a little bit afraid.
For example. He’s now reading The Hobbit. (Not an abridged version.) I was looking for something to read TO him that would challenge his listening skills. After I finished reading a few pages and Damon finished reading a few pages he took it to bed with him and read it for another half an hour alone.
Of course, reading alone in bed is a nightly event and highly encouraged, but The Hobbit? Really? Surely he didn’t understand any of it? Right? Hmmm. So after the second time he read some of it alone, we questioned him, and he was perfectly able to recount the whole chapter to us. To be completely honest, I am floored.
Remember, he is still 6. Six. First grade.
Anyway, we are encouraging the geek in him:
- He goes to a second grade classroom for reading group twice a week. (Not my idea, but I’m really happy they found a way to challenge him! His reading level seems to be somewhere around the 4th grade.)
- Damon rebuilt a computer and gave it to Josh for Christmas so he could learn how to email and navigate. For extra geekiness it’s running a linux based operating system, just for fun. All extremely supervised by me of course. Cause, seriously, he’s six. (He like to email puns and knock-knock jokes to his grandmother.)
- Next month he starts an 8 week First Lego League session. Cause it’s never too soon to learn robotics. Heh. (And this is where the “I’m a little scared” part comes in. Just what kind of robot is he going to think up?)
Last Friday I asked him if he wanted me to get him anything from the library since I was going while he was in school. He thought for a moment and said “can you get me some good non-fiction?” Um. Yeah. I’ll get right on that.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s definitely a six year old in so many ways. We don’t even push him to do any of this, it’s happening spontaneously, and I’m left stunned by the things he says and does. So I throw as many geeky** things his way, and we’ll see what sticks. If you have any ideas what I should throw at him next, I’m all ears.
*It’s important to note that around here geek is a good word, nay, a great word. We pride ourselves on our geekdom.
**Including some scifi. Ahem.
yes you can have thanksgiving without turkey
Our turkey disguised himself and got away.
So we had a pork roast instead. Mmmmmhhmmm! Okay, the truth is Damon doesn’t particularly like turkey and since we were staying home this year he requested the pork roast. It was a good choice, and frankly it made my day really easy.
We also had the best dang carrots ever! I made them with brown sugar, agave nectar, (I was low on honey and it was a fantastic substitution) butter, and vanilla. I’ll never make honey glazed carrots with honey again!
It was just the three of us, simple, quiet, and lovely. A day to be thankful for.
Did I just hear a collective “awwww” :) or was it just me?
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! xoxo
this little piggy stayed home
Wednesday evening I noticed Josh had a little cough. Last night when I put him to bed I noticed he was a little warm. Yep, he had a slight fever, 99.2. This morning it was 101. Josh doesn’t get fevers very often so I figured since it’s Friday I’d better take him to the doctor while I had the chance. Why do kids always get sick on Fridays?!
By the time he had his temp taken by the nurse it was up to 102.5. That with a bunch of other symptoms meant the dreaded flu. They won’t test for H1N1 because he is otherwise healthy. Apparently the state is afraid they are going to run out of testing supplies so they only test those with health problems or who are bad enough to be hospitalized. The assumption though, is that it is H1N1 because that is what is going around, mostly among kids. Whatever, either way the symptoms are basically the same, and it’s no fun.
We did get some Tamiflu for him so hopefully he won’t have a bad case, but we’re stuck at home until his fever is gone for at least 24 hours. I have no idea when that will be and it’s really screwed up my weekend! I’m supposed to be in charge of a haunted house tomorrow, but I really shouldn’t go now in case I’m contagious. (If I’m going to come down with it too I would be contagious before I have symptoms.)
We were also supposed to go to my new baby nephew’s baptism on Sunday and obviously we won’t be going to that either. ~sigh~ Darn it, I really wanted to get my hands on that baby!
At this point I’m just hoping Josh is better in time for Halloween. We’ve worked way too hard planning his costume! (Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi, all in black with a hooded cape, one black glove, and a GREEN lightsaber. Blue will just not do.)
The final icing on this no good very bad day was finding out my laptop bit the dust. It wouldn’t boot up this morning and my go-to computer guy just couldn’t make it better. The system board is deader than dead. (The laptop killer strikes again!) I either need to replace it or get a new computer. About the same amount of money either way.
I think I’d better get crocheting. I’m gonna hafta sell a lot of scarves to pay for a new computer.
Filed Under family, life, the boy Tagged bad day, computers, flu, life, sick, the boy
first first
Josh’s first day of first grade was yesterday. (Wednesday.) Finally!
He needed to go back to school to keep that big brain of his occupied. Not that I mind having him around! That’s not it at all, I love the time I spend with him, it’s just that I can’t play with him all that much and it’s hard to come up with enough to do to keep him busy so I can get my work done on deadline. There are only so many age appropriate chapter books out there for 6 year old boys, and I can only fit so many Legos into my house!
Anyway, we’ve both been looking forward to school starting but there was something we didn’t anticipate. That is how much he would miss me by being at school all day long.
He cried. At lunch. Hard enough that he ended up eating with the new Vice Principal in his office instead of with the other kids. Because he missed his mom. Me. Because he wanted to have lunch with me. All together now: awwwww!!
I only found out because a friend of mine was volunteering in the first grade lunchroom yesterday and sent me an email as a heads up before school let out. I tried to prod Josh to tell me about it when he got home but he refused to discuss it.
It didn’t help that the bus was an hour (an HOUR!!) late bringing him home. Major bus fiasco that I can’t even try to explain because I still don’t quite get it myself. Seriously, I spent and hour and fifteen minutes waiting at the bus stop, knowing he’d already cried at least once. Ugh.
Today was a little better. He told me he only cried a little at lunch and he stayed with his classmates the whole time. He also said that he made a friend. (Yay! None of his friends from last year are in the same class this year so he has to make new friends.) And the bus was only a half hour late dropping him off. Only a half hour. (So yes, I waited at the bus stop for 45 minutes! Grrrr!)
Anyway we got some great first day of school pics:
When did he get so tall??
And ridiculously cute too. This smile slays me every time I see it:
Cute little bugger.
But this was the picture he really wants everyone to see:
Gee, I wonder why! He’s very proud of that backpack!
Even though I have bedhead this one might just be my favorite:
I think I’ve said it before, but I really love this kid.
(And just to clarify - he’s one step up from me! He’s tall but he’s not that tall.)
the week that disappeared
Josh had swimming lessons every day this past week. It seems that half hour in the middle of each day sucked all the time an energy out of the rest of it. This was no regular pool, I think it was a black hole pool.
He had more fun and learned more in 5 short sessions than I ever believed possible.
I got almost nothing done all week. Except watch the vortex pull time right out of my hands. It was totally worth it to see this grin on him non-stop:
Of course I forgot to bring my camera all week, but on the last day I remembered my new phone has a camera! It came out better than I thought it would. I didn’t even play around with it in photoshop because I thought the colors looked neat the way they were.
Next up: How do I schedule an entire summer into the last four weeks of vacation? You know, since the first month of my summer is gone and I have only one beach day to show for it. Sigh.
keep scrolling
Seeing as I’m going to a blogging conference I probably ought to post something on this here blog eh?
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Nope.
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Got nothing.
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Um. So what are you doin’ this week?
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I’m packing….sort of.
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Flying alone. Yep. I am. Not worried though. Nope.
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Oh, and did you know stupid United Airlines charges $15 extra to check just ONE bag? The outrage!
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Yeah, I really got nothin’.
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Oh, wait! News! I actually changed my twitter avatar to a REAL picture! I know! It’s so people at BlogHer can, you know, recognize me. If they can recognize me off a itty bitty thumbnail that is.
Anyway. I’m working, and packing, and generally getting ready for my first alone vacation in, well, um, ever. Ever. Alone. Can’t wait. Can’t wait. Can’t wait. I wish I was leaving NOW instead of Thursday.
Let me leave you with this. In my pre-BlogHer preparations today, I charged up my camera battery and cleaned off the memory card. And found…the reason I need a vacation:
There’s a whole SERIES of them. And of the cat, and of his toys, of the back of my head, and of half-black bananas and…you get the picture. (~Snort~ I crack myself up.)
God I love this kid.
But I am soooo tired.
all the stars
(Note: I wrote this just before school ended about a month ago. I never quite finished it or had a picture to go with it. I just found it in my drafts folder this morning and decided today was a good day to take a pic and hit publish!)
You know I’ve been teaching Josh all things Star Trek lately. This is required learning in my family, just as it was mandatory when I was growing up. (My father and my four older brothers were are all scifi geeks too, whether they admit it or not.) Like me, he enjoys both the original and TNG fairly equally. I’m a child of the 80’s, what can I say? (Although Voyager and Enterprise are unwatchable, and DS9 is just meh. Opinionated? Yes I am!)
We have long conversations on our car trips about who’s the best captain, Kirk or Picard. Let’s just say we have differing opinions on any given day, and depending on what episodes we’ve seen recently. ;) He’s also waffling between Data and Spock for his all time favorite character. It looks like Spock might just win.
Now it turns out that the Vulcan hand sign I taught him is spreading like wildfire through his Kindergarten class. “Mommy,” he says, “some of the kids didn’t even know what Star Trek is! But I told them all about it.” I’m very sure you did!
Then it gets confusing when he jumps over to playing Star Wars. (You know we’re equal opportunity Scifi freaks here.) Usually he’s Luke, but when he plays Legos, he makes Anakin and Darth Vader battle each other. I try to explain the paradox but the existentialism boggles both of our minds.
At the park a couple days ago he and his friends were choosing characters to play. One was Luke, one Leia, one Han. I’m innocently sitting on a swing playing with my new phone when I hear “wait, we don’t have a bad guy.”
“That’s okay,” Josh says, “my mom can be Darth Vader.” Wha?! Heh. I think not.
Now, I can’t wait til he’s old enough to watch Stargate with me too. (Okay, he might have seen a select episode or two already.) It’s a sickness I tell ya.
heart hurt
It’s not always easy, or fun, for me to handle everything when Damon is away on business. Especially when the trips are close to a week long. This one has been no exception, other than that we hadn’t been able to get out an do things to distract us.
Today was different, I finally felt okay to drive. I needed to get over to the library and since we were out anyway, I treated Josh to lunch too. It was a pretty good day, spent reading, working, playing, and poring over hand me downs for Josh from one of my friends.
We spent the weekend being lazy. I read actual books. Junk books, but still, I took the opportunity and just read, read, read. Josh played in the sunshine, watched some movies, and um, did my laundry.
See, I’m not supposed to lift anything, laundry baskets included. So Damon had done a load for me before he left, but it was still in the dryer. Josh wanted something to do so I told him to take the laundry out of the dryer, put it in the basket and bring it over to the bottom of the stairs. I figured I could at least get what I needed out of it from there. Next thing I knew he had that basket all the way up 2 flights of stairs, up to my bedroom. Needless to say I was a little surprised. He’s strong but I didn’t know he’s THAT strong! He got $.50 for that chore!
It’s been a tough couple of week for Josh. He’s trying not to show it, but he was very worried about me while I was in the hospital. He asks a lot of questions and he’s very gentle around me, but I can tell it bothers him that I hurt. He hasn’t expressed fear, but I know it is, or at least was, there.
Then right on top of it, his dad has to leave for six days. Not a trip he could possibly cancel. This is always hard for Josh, every night of every trip. But this time seems different, sadder. At midnight last night he appeared in my doorway, not crying, not wailing, not whining. Just full of sorrow.
He spent the rest of the night in my room curled up on his dad’s side of the bed, finally peaceful. Of course I let him stay with me, I couldn’t possibly had done otherwise. The thought of sending him back to his own lonely room just seemed downright mean.
The days are a little easier, they seem normal, like Damon is just at work. But the evenings, it’s the evenings where I have to be gentle with him. We read forever, sometimes me to him, sometimes him to me, sometimes side by side, each with our own book. I let him stay up a little extra, to let him get more tired. It doesn’t really help.
A few minutes ago he cried again. We sat on the stairs in the dark and I held him close while he told me that his heart is broken in two. If this is only day 3, how bad will his little heart be by Thursday?
I’m just glad this is the last business trip for a very long time. Because my own heart can’t take much more of my boy’s sadness.
escape
Sometimes you just need to go to the beach.
Josh and I went to Maine for a couple of days to hang out with some of my family. It was nice to play a little hooky from work!
On the way back home today we turned 3 hour trip into a 6 hour one by detouring to the beach. We had no schedule to follow and since Damon is in Pittsburgh for a couple of days we had no reason to hurry back.
It was a perfect day to play.
(More photos on Flickr.)
end of half days
Kindergarten is over. I surely didn’t cry! More like doing the happy happy joy joy dance!
Today was “move up day” - he spent time with his new teacher, met his new classmates and did a little science project. And now he’s happy about going to first grade next year. Yep, just about what I figured would happen.
Of course he’s only been home a few hours and he’s already told me he’s bored. I told him if he was really bored that I would find something for him to clean. Heh. He disappeared to his room pretty quickly.
So here was Josh on the first day of school:
And here was Josh today:
It’s a little hard to tell with the perspective being so different, but holy cow has he grown! Same little half smile though!