Friday Hodgepodge

Four Things

1. Earlier in the day, my wife and I had had a virtual meeting with his teacher about our son's reading, which turned out to better than we had feared.

That evening, Mrs. Van Horn woke me to tell me that he had a friend's birthday party to go to that weekend. Half-awake, I grabbed the invitation out of my in-box and noted the time and place. "It will be a little bit after his game this weekend, but we can make it," I said, and returned to bed.

That weekend, the one time his soccer team's perpetual email thread wasn't just noise, the game time got delayed -- information I learned by checking that thread at the field when my son and I were the only ones there ten minutes before the game.

I told my son we'd miss most of the party, but we'd make it near the end.

Then, I fielded a call from my wife, who was buying the gift, and was going to meet us to hand it over. "Go to the party, give it to them, and tell them we'll be late. The game time got changed," I told her, and sent over a photo of the invitation.

Just before time to leave, I got another call and a texted-over picture: the venue was at a different "town center" than we'd assumed, and one that was 45 minutes away.

I had to tell my son that he wouldn't get to go to the party. He was a really good sport about it.

During his game, I got another call: The party was for the next week.

It was funny and a relief to tell my son he'd get to go to the party after all.

He had a great time: It was at an indoor parkour/ninja warrior gym.

I can think of two other people in this vignette whose reading is suspect!

2. My son is quite the log when he's asleep, and getting him up in time for school becomes difficult when it's not as bright in the morning.

And so it was one morning this week: It took several attempts to roust him. "We're running out of time. I need you to get ready," I told him as I handed him his clothes.

I went to the kitchen to pack lunches.

Right around time to leave, he shows up in his pajamas. "Why aren't you ready?" I asked in a frustrated tone. He then smiled and took off his pajamas, which he had slipped on over his school clothes.

"You got me, son!"

He tried it again a couple of days later, but I caught it because I could see his shirt collar.

Image by Sharon McCutcheon, via Unsplash, license.

3. I went to my daughter's room one evening to give her her good-night kiss. (And yes, we still take turns doing forehead-kisses!) When I found her in her bottom bunk, she closed her eyes and smiled. "You can't see me!" she said. It was obvious that she was joking.

Her joke caused me to remember something that my father once told me, long ago: When he was a toddler, he believed that he could become invisible by shutting his eyes.

So I got to tell her that fun fact about her grandfather, whose artistic bent she shares.

4. Speaking of my daughter's artistic bent, we're taking her to art classes on weekends, now. There's a good children's art class optionally offered after dismissal at her school, and she'd been taking it, but was becoming bored with it.

The class she's in now is focusing on a weeks-long project, which I am looking forward to seeing. I'm glad of her growth as an artist, but will miss the very different (but also very good) takes on the same models she and her brother did when in the same class. My son goes for realism, and my daughter is more whimsical. Amazingly, I don't think I've posted an example here before.

Since I can't do so this morning, that's a great idea for a future post about the kids...

-- CAV