One of Those Days

Today is "one of those days" in which I have a long list of things I want to get done: mow the lawn, move the laundry along, fold the laundry, get supper started, straighten up the kitchen, schedule an eye exam, turn the compost, fix the ladder, bring in the garbage cans, enter receipts into Quicken, clean up the basement, pay a traffic ticket, troubleshoot my mother-in-law's internet connection.

I manage to actually finish three of them (ladder, compost, garbage... yeah the simpler stuff), forgot about two of them (traffic ticket, eye exam), try to start two of them (move the laundry along, straighten up the kitchen), all the while being interrupted three or more times with whines, cries, complaints, turf wars, screams, protests, demands, tantrums, tears.... And that is it; that's everything I get done. That is how my time has been spent. The rest has yet to be finished or even started. It is no wonder that I'm often satisfied if I manage to accomplish one major task during the day.

It is days like this when I think of people like my old boss, the one I told I was quitting to be a stay-at-home dad, and who replied that he wished he could do the same (thought he didn't have any kids)... so that he could go fishing. Hmmm.... fishing. I didn't say anything at the time because I was pretty clueless about what this entire adventure was going to be like. As far as I knew, he could be right, I might be able to get a lot done and have some nice free time. But now my thoughts are pretty clear: Yep, he OBVIOUSLY didn't have any kids.

Fishing must be the male equivalent of eating bon-bons while watching the soaps.

Guess I need to add that to my list of things to have interrupted: purchase fishing pole.

Who's the Boss

Sofia has been, as of late, preoccupied with who is the boss. It did not take her long to decide that we, the parents, are the boss. But that doesn't mean that she found the conclusion satisfactory. Occasionally there is protest: "You are NOT the boss!" Occasionally there is reassignment: "I'm the boss." Occasionally there is favoritism: "Mom is the boss."

One evening at supper when it was just I and the kids the topic came up again. And I suggested that perhaps what she needed was a "Kids Are Boss Day".

So I asked her, "What day do you want to do that?"

"Today."

"I'm thinking sometime next week. What day would you like: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday?"

A slight pause, a tilt of the head, and then: "Both."

Pickin' Plums

Tis the season to harvest. So today the kids, Ardelle and I ventured all the way to our front yard to pick our plum tree clear. The kids had been sneaking them for the past couple of weeks when we'd hang out in the front, even when they were more tart than sweet. Sofia really really wanted to climb the ladder, so this is the first year that she actually climbed up and picked. I enjoyed her confidence and her willingness to help out. Even Isaac was willing to help out, by picking up the ones that fell to the ground, even though what he really wanted was his turn on the ladder.

All the credit for this activity goes to Ardelle, because this was all her idea. Just one of the many blessings of having grandma live right next door.

Hanging Out

Last week was the first week of preschool for Sofi, and I will get around to blogging about that later, believe me, I will. It's all a matter of time, as is most everything, right?

Anyway, Sofi went off to preschool again today, and today is the first day where Isaac and I got to go back home and just hang out, just the two of us.

And I have to say, it is SO nice. The air is crisp and cool, and the vibe is SO relaxing. No yelling, no bickering, no screaming, no crying over this and that being taken away without asking. We're justing hanging out, right now in his bedroom, picking up the floor, organize clothes, getting them ready for the autumn season, listening to last.fm.

It reminds me of those days when it was just Sofi and I, and we were able to just be. It's amazing how busy things have gotten since then.

First Day of School

Today was a big first for Sofia, her first day of preschool, which she has been eagerly waiting for since her fourth birthday back in January. The first day was actually a short one, in which both her and I went to her school for a meeting with her teacher, Ms. Kylie. This is how I managed to get photos of her at school and with her teacher. She is going to Coulee Montessori, a charter school part of the La Crosse School District, at a school near where Mary works.



The next day, Wednesday, she actually went to school by herself for the full session, which for preschool is from 8:15 am until 10:45. The plan was for her to ride the bus to school, as that would work best with the juggling of daycare and work schedules.



But it turns out that the bus company that won the contract for busing the district’s students does an EXTREMELY poor job of communicating their schedule to the school staff, let alone the parents of students. To make a long story short, I think we missed the bus because two busses came at once, and while I got on one bus to find out if it was Sofi’s, the other bus left. But I’m not certain that was really her bus either, because it turns out her bus’ pick up time was changed from 7:45 to 7:15 (which neither the parents nor the school had been notified about).

So, unfortunately, we were late for her first day of school. Late for the first two days of school actually, because I didn’t learn about the change in pick up time mentioned above until I talked with Sofi’s principal and he called the bus company to also learn about the change in time.
Sofi actually took this difficulty with the morning bus schedule much better than I did, telling me in a reassuring voice “It’s OK Dad” on the second morning as we all left the bus stop on foot rather than one of us by bus, with dad visibly frustrated.



The second day being Sofi’s first full day at school, she also rode the bus home for the first time. The bus home is just for preschoolers, 11 total preschoolers to be exact. I have to wonder what this ride on the bus is like, 11 bundles of post-school energy sitting on firm green pleather seats. I would guess the first couple of days were pretty sedate, but I’m guessing it has become quite the social club, as Sofi has leaked that the driver (a sweet, quiet woman named Vicki) has assigned seats to her 11 preschool passengers.

The bus ride home is a bit of issue for me as well, however, as it is quite long. Without giving it much thought, we choose the Montessori preschool furthest from our house because Mary had heard lots of good opinions about this particular program, and the school grounds offered a lot more to do outside (fields and a playground) than the other preschool closest to us. It was a no brainer we thought. But the bus ride home is about an hour long, and to daycare it almost an hour and a half. In the end when you add this to her morning route she’s on the bus almost as long as she’s in preschool.

This whole thing bothered me so much that I actually brought it up with people I work with at the Coop, people who are still in college, with preschool bus routes being the furthest thing from their minds. The thing that caused me to give up completely on this bus ride home was the day she arrived at daycare so late that she missed lunch, and she wasn’t offered one because the daycare assuming she received it at school.

I eventually decided to leave work early every day (the church I work is very gracious about my work schedule and how and where I fit my 20 hours a week in) in order to pick Sofi up from school and take her to daycare myself, shortening her hour+ bus ride to a 15 minute car ride to her daycare.

The one factor I failed to take into consideration was Sofi herself. The bus ride home must have become a pretty fun place pretty quickly, because the day I decided to picked her up at school to drive her to day care she threw a fit and melted down right there on the sidewalk next to the bus. So I chose a compromise, and let her ride the bus to a daycare that she doesn't go to, but is only a half hour away. So she got her bus fix, but it didn't take her an hour and a half to get to her daycare on the other end of town, because I picked her up at an much earlier stop and drove he directly there myself.

It is this compromise that in the end I finally settled upon, though it took several weeks to finally figure it all out.

In regards to Sofi's first full day at school, she is pretty mum on the subject. She doesn't say that she didn't like it, but she doesn't say that she did. She just doesn't say much about it period. If pressed she will say that she likes playing outside, and Mary told me that Sofi had said that there are other students in her class who know more than her (she is in a mixed class with kindergarteners) and that she has a lot to learn. But that is about it.