Too cute

I picked Alex up from the kids' program at church this evening. I think he only goes so he can see Miss Edie, who leads children's education. He loves her. They went to part of a youth program this evening and there was a band. Apparently Alex "rocked out" - doing his full dance number, head banging and all. Edie said it was hysterical and she definitely was going to make sure they had music again so she could see the whole performance. On the way home Alex told me about it:

Alex: "Yeah, I rocked out."
Me: "Really?"
Alex: "Yeah, I'm too cute. She kept saying that."

No swelled heads there!

School went well this week. Alex didn't have any notes, but the ants did go marching. I ran into his teacher one afternoon while she was leaving the school. Apparently he didn't get into enough trouble to get a note, but it was a close thing. Same trouble as before, too much talking, not enough listening. We agreed that everyone involved would continue working on it.

He did dodge the behavioral bullet on Friday. There is a science program on Friday afternoons and Alex goes there for an hour after school is dismissed then goes on to his regular after school activities. Now the all-important thing at after-school care is the star on your card. If you don't get a star every day, there is a real reason and there's a report. I've only seen it happen once or twice and usually the kid in question is led away in tears when the parent signs them out. Anyway, I got there Friday and the after-school staff had posted a sign at the check-out window: "No One Gets Stars Except for Mad Science and Chess Club." What could have happened? Apparently there was some sort of general mutiny during snack time and it was so widespread that stars were withheld from everyone in the cafeteria at the time. I'm just glad Alex wasn't there.

He hates homework. He thinks it's boring. We sit at the dining room table and suffer together. You'd think I was pulling his fingernails out with pliers instead of making him copy 4 lines of the letter D. I don't have high hopes for the rest of elementary school. I didn't expect kindergarten to have homework but so far it's been practicing his writing, reading over a small book on the letter of the day or coloring something that he should have done in class but was too busy to do.

We had our first piano lesson this week, very exciting. They're only 15 minutes long, and she cuts it off as soon as he loses interest. Apparently I'm going to learn, too, since I have to sit through the lesson and make him practice the rest of the week. We've managed to pick out part of "Ode to Joy" so far - I was impressed. Alex learned about Beethoven the first week of Music at school so he was pumped. Hopefully he'll stick with it. He loves the whole singing, dancing and entertaining thing, so we thought this would help us channel it.

A recent conversation overheard from the other room:

Alex: "I'm going to have a moustache like you when I grow up."
Art: "You are?"
Alex: "Yeah. You'll be old then."

Art took it better than I expected.

One interesting new part of our morning routine is breakfast together. Alex's TV time has been cut drastically with the start of school. He doesn't have time to watch in the morning and homework curtails it in the evening. Unfortunately, he still retains all sorts of stuff that he does get to see.

1st breakfast informercial: Alex is eating Chocolate Cheerios. I'm having Special K Vanilla Almond. This is about as health as my breakfasts get. We are eating in companionable silence when Alex announces that I should really be eating Cheerios like him. Why? Oh, it reduces your cholesterol and makes your heart healthier. I didn't point out that the chocolate version can't be much better than my Special K.

2nd breakfast infomercial: Mom, I saw this great thing on TV that you need. (There are many great things that we need on TV. They usually cost $19.95 and are not available in stores. Thankfully Alex misunderstands the whole "You must be 18 to order." He thinks that means you can't play or use the product until you are 18. Whew.) I was ironing a shirt at the time. What do we need? Some sort of spiky ball thing that you fill with water and put in your dryer so that your clothes are steamed while they are dried, knocking the wrinkles out. This makes it so you don't have to iron. Perhaps I lack vision but I thought I put clothes in the dryer to dry - why would I add water to the process? I did see them in CVS today and was very glad Alex wasn't with me.

Art is finishing a project up this week. He tore down the louvred doors on the hall closet and replaced them with the solid doors from Alex's closet, which I'd had him rip down in an attempt to create a toy storage system. (That's still in the works, and believe you me, when it's done, there WILL be photos.) It really looks different. There's the usual trouble with trying to hang doors in a 50-year-old house but he hopes to be finished with 2 or 3 more hours work. Translation: 2 weeks.

I had a fun time at the 1st Annual Indie Craft Parade in Greenville Saturday. I had to wait about 20 minutes to get it but it was so worth it. It was a juried show and had all kinds of artists - paintings, paper, crochet, knit and jewelry. I found some really cool stuff but some of it was Christmas gifts, so no details here.

I gave blood for the first time today and was amazed how easy and pain-free that was. The worst part was the heat inside the bloodmobile. They were having generator problems until a kind church member (Yea, Dale!) fixed it while we were filling out our forms. I will definitely do it again, especially now that I'm in the system and don't have to fill in all the forms. Tomorrow I'm trying to jump-start my health regimen with more exercise and better nutrition. Let's all hope that it lasts for more than a day!