Sleeping Arrangements

The week before school started, Habtamu asked to rotate his bed so that his window and fan were at the head of his bed. On the surface this isn't much of an adjustment, but what's interesting is that H no longer has direct line of site of his sister's bed. For 3 years the kids have slept with their doors open and their beds situated so that they could see each other. Neither of them like to sleep upstairs alone when the other one is out at a slumber party or whatever. But I guess we've finally hit the point where they don't need to see each other to fall asleep.

I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but I thought it was noteworthy.

The System welcomes you

So something that we haven't discussed on the blog yet is the fact that the kids started school outside the home this fall. It's true. Thank the stars that the kids can now get socialized! (If you've been following my writings you'll know that's sarcasm.) Anyway, it was pretty much a unanimous family decision and everyone was ready for a change of pace.
We enrolled Habtamu in 8th grade at a local private Christian school with the hopes that the small class and steady routine (the whole class stays together for every subject) would help him adapt quickly. Yordanos is now a 5th grader at the public school across the street from Habtamu's.
Chris is looking forward to having time to work on house projects that have been forgone for 3 years and is trying to figure out where all the time goes even with the kids out of the house.
We're 5 days in and almost every afternoon H comes home frustrated and worried. He's never had to write down his assignments, or remember homework sheets, or remember to bring home the right books so he can do his homework. All that used to literally be arms length away. So there's been a learning curve, but he's catching on quickly. He wants to succeed. He wants to be at the level of the other kids. He wants to have it all figured out already. That's a lot of pressure.
Yordanos is reading and writing like a champ, and is certainly enjoying the social aspect of school. Math will be her struggling point, but that's no surprise.

So the adventure begins!

I am right, amn't I?

This week on "English is just stupid" I would like to make the motion that "Ratio" and "Patio" should rhyme. I don't care if it's RAH-tee-Oh or Pay-shEE-Oh, one of them has to change.

Over, Cover, Clover, Hover. Yeah, I'm coming for you next.

On a separate topic, Chris noticed the kids using "amn't I?" instead of "aren't I?" and reluctantly corrected them. Not because they're are wrong, but because English is just stupid. If one of you educated types has a better answer, we'd love to know what goofball verb disagreement rule causes that one.

Of course, maybe I are wrong.

Photo Challenge Vacation

Chris brought a '30 Day photo challenge' that I decided to complete during our stay at Cedar Campus, Michigan. You're supposed to take one topic/technique picture a day for a month, but since we only had 6 days, I fast tracked it. I'm posting the results [here]at my other blog. There's also a link in the right-hand sidebar.

It's not the usual assortment of pictures you usually see of other peoples vacations. And although there aren't any posed pictures of children giving each other bunny ears in front of beautiful landscapes (I have a bunch of those too,) I think you'll still be able to get an impression of what our week was like. It was fun to have an excuse to take close up shots of peoples feet, or chase after chipmunks, or throw frisbees at myself, or whatever was required in the name of art for that day.

Summer 2011 highlights

Well, you may have noticed that we've been pretty quiet on the blog front this summer. It's not because we haven't done anything noteworthy, it's mostly because we're too exhausted to retell anything that's been going on.

The summer started with the kids both coming in first in their divisions at a soccer tournament. Complete with trophies, rain, soccer drama and everything. I'd like to know where my “Wait 6 hours for a rain delay... I mean rain cancellation” -trophy is, but hey, I'm not bitter.

This has been an action-packed, cinematic season for Habtamu. Through luck, general resourcefulness, and charity, he has found his way into Thor 3D, X-Men, Green Lantern 3D, Transformers 3D, Harry Potter 3D and possibly Kung Fu Panda2 but that was so many movies ago I can't remember. Captain America and Cowboys vs. Aliens would get him through July. I keep telling him that “this isn't normal” and that he shouldn't expect to spend every summer in the theater. He keeps looking at me like the hero waiting for a monologing villian to shut up.

H's other big event this summer is that he really wanted an iTouch before we left for camp in late July. He wanted it for the 10 hour car ride, and was willing to mow a lot of lawns to get it. Well, he beat his own expectations and picked up a glorious 8Gb iTouch in June which gave him plenty of time to pine for a NintendoDS before we actually left for vacation. More on the reason for that stint of jealousy is in the next paragraph. The learning curve of such “intuitive technology” for a boy who reads at a 3^rd grade level and his father who would much rather be blowing out Atari cartridges, has been steep but suffice it to say that not tying my credit card to his Apple account was my best financial decision this year. (You can set everything up with just gift cards but it's tricky. Apple reeeeally wants your cc.) The 'Buy' button is easy enough for him to avoid when it's not popping up mid-game, however 'Confirm Purchase' is just a little too long to bother reading and it's much easier just to push it and see what happens. Fortunately since he doesn't keep much more than 10 dollars in his account, the damages have been contained to one mispurchased Coby Calaye (?) album. Considering the boy pounds on that 'entertainment device' like crazed monkey, I'm calling that a win.

Yordanos generally isn't as gadget-driven as Habtamu, but she did lay down the cash for a NintendoDS a week ago. She then learned the hard way that the DS does not come with any games, which stinks under normal circumstances, but is a really tough lesson to learn when you've drain your savings account just to get the DS in the first place. Not surprisingly though, Yo socially engineered (ie charmed) a fistfull of games from a friend. That makes a lot more sense to me than spending 99 cents a pop, but I'm old school that way.

Yoyo also bought herself a BIKE at the beginning of June. Chris and I both approved of that purchase and she has shared her joy with the rest of the neighborhood, smiling and making housecalls to everyone she finds.

Honesty is not always the best policy

Scene: Son leaps out of parked car and runs out to Dad without checking for traffic

Mom: What are you doing! You need to look both ways before you get killed!

Son: (immediately goes into guilty, self-flagellation mode) I KNOW! I'm just DUMB!

What Dad *should* have said: You're not dumb, you just need to keep your head on straight and be careful even when you're excited.

What Father-of-the-Year actually said: You're not dumb, you're just stupid. (Pause) Sometimes. (Awkward Pause) Like when you don't... think. ( More awkward pause) But I still love you!

I feel safer already

Boring summer day?  Have no fear, SuperYo to the rescue!  TowelCape optional.

A league of his own

Of course its amusing to me that he's more embarrassed and irritated that I pulled him over for a picture than he is about the color of his new uniform.
Shouldn't have any problem spotting him on the field... or from an airplane for that matter.
Smile!

Getting comfy

We went to a plant nursery today that had a couple Adorondak chairs of various sizes.  I believe Habtamu's eyes are bigger than his butt.

Your guess is as good as mine

So I came home from work at lunchtime and pulled into the driveway to see this.  Anyone want to take a stab at what I missed this morning?   I'm guessing it wasn't left up there from someone sweeping the garage roof.