A RealFamilies RealFun Blog

Jul 25 2008

Return of the king

Category: At Home

From the kitchen, we hear the bedroom door open. "Woo hoo, daddy's up!" yells Nathan as he charges up the stairs to greet his father.

"Daddy's awake! My daddy's awake!" screams Lucie as she runs after her brother.

I'm amazed at the pandemonium generated by Paul as he leaves our bedroom. After eight days away on a business trip, his arrival at the breakfast table is treated like a visit from a rock star. Knowing that it'll be business as usual tomorrow, I just hope that he's soaking up his children's adulation. (He is.)

Me, I'm just glad that I'm not the subject of all the noise and screaming. It's way too early in the morning for that sort of thing.

 

Jul 24 2008

Chess kings and queens

Category: Kids & Growing Up

Nathan loves board games, card games, video games, and ball games. It's games, games, games all the time with that boy. Paul and Nathan occasionally play chess while they wait for dinner to be ready.

Chess is popular with the boys in Nathan's class, too. Seven of them play chess during free time, and I know of at least one other student in the afternoon class who plays. According to Nathan's teacher, they follow the rules and play real games using the proper moves. She figures that by next year, they'll surpass her chess skills and knowledge.

It's hard to believe that these boys are kindergarteners! Hoping to encourage them, I'm going to suggest that the principal form a chess club next year. It'll be nice for the younger kids to have a club to participate in, since many of the extracurricular activities are for third graders and up. Maybe they can teach the big kids a few moves, too.

Still, I'm disappointed that there aren't any girls playing chess. Maybe Lucie will start a chess trend among the girls when she enters kindergarten. After all you can't play chess without the Queen!

 

Jul 23 2008

A basketful of buddies

Category: At Home

In her bedroom, Lucie has several laundry baskets full of stuffed animals. She's got big stuffed pigs, and little beanie anteaters, realistic baby dolls, and fuzzy teddy bears. Many of her buddies are Nathan's castoffs that he never warmed up to. One is a larger version of his Mr. Bunny, and wears an old sized 2T dress of Lucie's. (Yes, it's that big.) She also has old stuffed animals of mine, including two Opus penguins from when Bloom County was all the rage back in the '80s.

Except for a stuffed doll named, Baby Shelby (after her buddy Banks' little sister) they have generic names like kitty or puppy. Even so, Lucie is an equal opportunity stuffed animal caregiver and loves them all, except for a couple of stuffed black widow spiders which she hides under her bed. "Too scary, mama," she explains.

She's always thrilled to rediscover buddies found under bedding or pillows. Not having seen her little beanie leopard for a couple of weeks, Lucie will exclaim, "Oh kitty, I love you." and give it a big kiss. Still she has her favorites, like Angelina Ballerina, which sleeps with her every night.

Lucie is always accompanied by an entourage of stuffed animals, whether it's playing tea party, watching a video, or going on errands in the car. However, Paul and I have different rules for the buddy posse. Usually, he wants all stuffed animals to stay at home. Nevertheless, I'll sneak one or two in her backpack. I don't care how many she wants to bring along as long as she can get them all in a small basket. However, they must stay in the car, since we've lost too many in grocery stores. Still one has to come with us, and usually ends up in my jacket pocket or in the diaper bag.

At the end of the day, I'm the official buddy wrangler, gathering them from the car and living room, and taking them back to Lucie's room. Still I'll miss a few, like the ones in our bed that Paul inevitably finds.  "That girl has too many buddies," he'll say. I'll reply, "You can never have too many buddies." As a man who has a few too many toys of his own, he usually agrees.