move over Marlon Brando

Today -like every day- when I dropped Liam off at school, there was a group of kids waiting to greet him at the entrance to the school yard.

Today was different though.

In addition to the normal hugs and hellos, two boys draped their arms over his shoulders WHILE ANOTHER TOOK HIS BAG FOR HIM. Two or three girls followed behind. After a few steps, he sat down on one of the school sleds and the boys immediately jumped to pull him and one of the girls around the yard.

I'll worry if they start to kiss him on the cheek and call him "the Don" (I suppose it would be "le Don" in french) or if he asks where he could find a severed horses head...

a busy week

I've been pretty awful at updating this blog, however am planning to get back into it.

We've had a full week since getting back from Regina, so here are a few great and not-so-great highlights:

- Liam's welcome back to school. For a boy who had a hard time making friends because of the language barrier, you'd think he was a returning rock star the way the kids welcomed him back on Monday! Two of his classmates saw him walk up to the gate and immediately started calling for the teacher and other students. He got many hugs from both the boys and girls amid squeals of "Liam! Liam est de retour!". He was just standing there beaming and I could tell how wonderful it felt. It also did this mama's heart good to see her boy thus welcomed.

- "Best" two out of three? Tuesday I was SO BEAT during the day that I found myself falling asleep on the couch at 3pm. This lead to my going to bed at 9:00pm in an effort to catch up on some sleep. Well around 10:30pm, Peter woke me with those dreaded words... "Simon just threw up all over his crib." Great. So I found myself washing the worst of it down the drain around 11pm after we'd gotten him cleaned up and calmed down. Then I hardly slept the rest of the night since he was in bed between us and I was anxious about a round two.

Then Thursday night at 2:30am (you know, that hour that you should be in your deepest, most restful sleep?), I heard Liam calling frantically for me. Yup, you guessed it. More puke. At least I managed to heave his 40+lbs out of bed and run him to the bathroom where most of it ended up in the toilet, but his sheets needed to be stripped aswell. Once again, we ended up with a boy in our bed and a less than restful night.

- Preparing for winter. Some of you in the south may not have heard of this (you certainly don't have need for it!), but Peter and I have gotten into the habit of putting plastic on our windows in the winter. Basically, we shrink-wrap them. It insulates them almost as well as adding another pane of glass would. It's a bit of work -and is kind of ghetto- but it feels good to know that it'll pay off when winter sets in... likely soon.

- Dreaming of fabric. Knowing that all the plastic would soon be up, and now that it's getting dark so much sooner and our lights are on that much more, I've started going through my stash of fabric to see what I can come up with for curtains. I have enough fabric to make the main bodies of all the curtains we'll need, but I'd love to get some new fabric (I know, I know, mom, I don't need more but it's so much fun to dream!). Specifically some from Heather Ross' Mendocino line http://www.freespiritfabric.com/core-pages/gallery.php?gal_id=152 (sorry I don't know how to do a proper link... I'll figure it out someday). I've never been into mermaids or anything like that, but I just can't get enough of this line!

(Sara and Matt, please be having a girl! Pleeeeeease!!)

I do have some fun pics to post, so will try to do that this week.

a better day and more green goodness

Well Liam did much better at school yesterday. No tears, quiet or otherwise. When I dropped him off after lunch, Simon and I stayed outside the fence for about 15mins til they lined up to go inside. Knowing I was there, Liam ran right over to the group of boys he'd played with that morning and started playing soccer. Every few minutes though, he'd run back over to where Simon and I were... with a big grin. Clearly even our very peripheral presence was enough to put him at ease. I noticed more than a few sideways glances from the teacher but, again, Liam is my concern, not her.

(Although it was nice to be able to give Liam the support he needed - and for Simon to get the chance to run around - the whole talking/waving/goodbyes through a chain link fence had a distinct prison yard visitation-ness to it... a small exercise yard surrounded by high fences, patrolled by overseers, full of inmates who speak another language... Liam's kindergarten is like A PRISON IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY! No wonder it's a bit overwhelming at times!)

Another thing I did yesterday was put together a series of pictures for Liam to take with him. The paper is printed on both sides and about 1.5" tall and 4.5" long (a bit wider than a bookmark, but shorter). It has the following pictures on it:

He was thrilled when he saw it, exclaiming, "That was SUCH a great time!" when he saw the picture of he and Peter kayaking. He keeps it in a special pocket of his school bag for when he's feeling lonely. I love that kid!

Other than that, I have some exciting news on the green smoothie front...

While we still haven't found any popsicle molds, we did find something to fill in in a pinch. So here's a series of photos to show the transformation, from this:

To this:To these:To this:The one Simon's eating in the last pic had a bunch of blueberries in it, hence the purple colour. He eats a popsicle at almost every meal now! It's every kids dream to get "treats" at breakfast, but what Simon doesn't know is that that treat is half spinach! Mwaahaha! So I have no problem giving them to him often.

For all the skeptics out there, you really can't taste the spinach ONE BIT! It's amazing! The only downside to these green smoothies that I've found is that, since letting Liam watch a Popeye cartoon on YouTube he sings, "I'm strong til the finish cause I eat me spinach" almost every morning... which means that I'm humming it to myself several times a day!

school woes

Liam's first full day of Kindergarten was Tuesday. He wasn't thrilled about having to go back after lunch and being gone "all day", as he refers to it. We were a bit late getting there, so he lined right up with the other kids and went in. Yesterday though, we were earlier so he'd have a chance to play. Although up til now Simon and I have been staying with him til he goes in, at lunch parents have to leave kids at the gate (the Kindergarten has a separate building with a separate playground area that's enclosed by a fence and gate). He said he was okay at first, but then started crying "...but not like a baby with my mouth, just with my eyes into my arm." He said the teacher had him go and take a drink and he felt a little bit better.

So on the way to school today, I asked him if he wanted me to stay til he went in or if he was okay if Simon and I left when we got there. He said he wanted us to stay. Well as soon as we got in the gate, the teacher came rushing over to me to say that I wasn't allowed to stay.

(Last week during the "progressive entry" most of the parents who walk their kids stayed til they went in, but Tuesday and yesterday I was the only one.)

I ignored the teacher long enough to take Liam over to one of the boys in his class and ask for him (in french) if Liam could play with them. Then I had to say a quick goodbye before the teacher kicked me out. I talked to her a bit as we were walking out, but could hardly speak cause I was afraid I'd start crying in front of her. I already get a really critical vibe from her, like she thinks I coddle or baby Liam... but cmon! He's only five! And can't speak the language!

So after having promised him I'd stay with him, I just left him there. I've been crying about it all morning (I'm not discounting the fact that I didn't sleep much last night and am clearly hormonal) and really don't know if I'll be able to make him go back this afternoon if he doesn't want to go.

There are four or five Kindergarten classes there, so about 80 kids all together... not one of which he can speak to. I've heard there are two other boys who don't speak french, but they're in another class (together, nice for them) so I don't know who they are.

Normally Liam is the type of boy to walk up to a group of kids he doesn't know and start playing, with very little encouragement or help. Well on the playground (even with me and Simon there), he'd just walk around by himself watching the other kids play together. I realize that some kids prefer to play by themselves, but I know that Liam really wants to be playing with the other boys. He's had several small meltdowns at home in the last week and I know he's just overwhelmed by school. He still insists that he likes it though (although not being gone "all day").

I just really don't know what to do about the teacher. I really wanted Liam to be at a school that encourages parents to be involved, not one that makes you feel looked down on for wanting to be there with your child. Liam is normally very independant, so the fact that he's having a hard time being left at school shows me just how difficult it is for him. So I really don't care what the teacher thinks about my parenting. It's Liam's needs that concern me... not hers.

So prayers for Liam would be great. And for me to be able to talk to the teacher calmly (maybe I should just write a note!) and let her understand that he's not being silly or clingy or anything else - his behaviour is really out of the ordinary and I'm not just going to ignore it.

I'm very anxious to pick him up and talk to him about it... 45 mins to go.

first day at school

Liam's first day of kindergarten was Wednesday. He was SO excited! I was so nervous.

When we first moved here, we registered Liam at the school in our neighbourhood. After still not hearing which school he'd be going to, I finally found out - the third week of August - that he'd been transfered to the school the next neighbourhood over (the other kindergarten was full). It's not that big of a deal since it's less than a five minute drive, but the other school would've been walking distance. He is signed up for the bus though, which stops right outside our door. For the meantime though, I'll be driving him.

He's quite thrilled with his new backpack, as you can see.

Liam's teacher is Madame Seguin. She seems like she's been teaching kindergarten forever - kind of reminds me of Peter's Aunt Dianne in that sense. Her English is a bit weak, but Liam's there to learn French after all. Here she is welcoming the kids in the morning (this was only half the class since they're doing a progressive entry type thing).

There are four little tables in the class and each has four kids at it. The little boy who sits beside Liam is the tall, black one standing behind him in line above, named Noah, and the little girl who sits across from him is Amelie. I haven't met the fourth. Here's Liam sitting at his table.

So far he seems to really like it. I'm not sure how it will go when the full day starts this Tuesday... It seems like an awfully long time for him to be gone. He's only five! Simon and I will definitely miss him. As it is I feel like I'm looking at the clock every five minutes to see how much time is left...

green smoothie day one

I've been reading a bit lately about the benefits of a raw foods diet. Not that we'd EVER be even close to completely raw, but I certainly see the need for more raw food in our diet, fruits and especially vegetables. Our diet is currently about 90% whole foods (so very, very little processed foods) - more out of financial necessity than anything! - but I still have an awfully hard time getting veggies into Simon especially.

Enter the Green Smoothie.

To give you an idea of what I mean, here's a YouTube clip (if I can figure out how to embed it...). My favorite line is:

“If you do nothing else that’s healthy all day long…do this!”

Okay, so I can't figure it out! I'll be back later to add it cause it really is worth a view. Right now I have to get Simon up and the boys fed so we can get ready for Liam's first day of school. sniff, sniff. Thankfully I get to go with him today.