Guess!

No, really, guess what Luke did at Sunday School today.

Here is the exchange in the car on the way home:

Me: Luke, did you have fun at Sunday School?

Luke: Yeah, but I didn't like this finger being a light.

Preschool, Month 1

Luke has gone through a month of preschool now, and he's got it pretty down pat. The teachers report that the class is a smart group, they were involved and ready to go from day one, though they are acting up as they get more comfortable with the routine and each other.

He has never cried when I leave and is always happy to head to school. He has two best pals, one of whom is a friend we've known a couple years, and the other is a new kid they picked up. His friend's mom volunteered in the class last Tuesday (we're required to) and she reported that the three of them spent much of the time playing together. When I picked Luke up last Thursday, I saw all the children on the playground, and those three were chasing each other.

At the end of the day, they march in from playing outside while the parents wait in the hall - a three year od parade. Luke always has a proud cat-that-ate-the-canary smile on his face, and never runs to me as others have done to hug their moms. They have to go sit down in class, you know, there's none of this hugging in the halls! (He always gives me a big hug in the classroom).

He's done more art in preschool than he does at home, which is something I really wanted him to get from classes. I do as much as I can, but there's so much to gain from seeing other kids doing something.

Girls Are Different Than Boys

I think I've mentioned it - stereotypes suck. Get your son a doll and your daughter a truck. BUT... girls and boys ARE different, and it rocks.

We've made a couple purchases over the past few days - small Cabbage Patch Dolls at a garage sale and dress up from the dollar store - including a police helmet and police vest with walkie talkie...

Courtney loves the little dolls, she stripped them naked and carries them everywhere. Luke likes them, too, he tucked them all under his blanket in his room, but he also named them Hammer, Nail, and Drill.

Luke loves the dress up - he has another shield and a skeleton mask and he spends his time yelling and roaring and screaming. Courtney likes the police hat and vest in particular, refusing to take it off at the store and blindly stumbling around in it (because it's far too big for her head and falls over her eyes) at home.

The two worlds collided when Courtney tucked her dolls into the police helmet and began 'feeding' them with the stem of the walkie talkie. Sometimes, nature wins!

Take Your Kid to Church

If only for the humor...

Luke had his first day of Sunday School this past weekend and of course there was singing. Singing for Jesus. I like a lot of church hymns, they can be beautiful. But children's church songs are insufferable. There were 17-18 kids in Luke's three year old Sunday School, and for the singing portion, they brought in the equally large 4 year old and kindergarten classes. Picture 45 children in a room. (Remarkably well behaved, though, I think they were confused. Also, they didn't know each other.)

The singer has a guitar and starts singing The Jesus BeBop or some such thing. *shudder* The kids were supposed to JUMP UP every time she 'beeped'. There was one kindergarten-er in particular who was actively instructing her younger brother to jump at the appropriate time (across four children), and Luke happened to be standing next to her. Standing. Absolutely still. Arms at his side, as 44 other children jumped and bounced and BeBopped with Jesus.

It was really hard to stifle my laughter in the back of the room. Luke does not do the BeBop for Jesus.

It got better when the older kids left and we moved onto the creation myth for the three year olds. (Yeah, myth. I really don't understand why some Christians have to cling to a LITERAL interpretation of the Bible, because it doesn't make scientific sense. I like science.)

They had a big giant book about the six days of creation. You know what they didn't have pictured in the big giant book of creation? Dinosaurs. And Luke is a tad obsessed. So of course he had to add in there that "Dinosaurs came before people". I don't think the teacher heard him... is it wrong to want her to address dinosaurs?

Five Years Approacheth

In two weeks we celebrate our five year wedding anniversary, and can I just say HOLY CRAP THAT WENT FAST?!?! I mean, we do have two kids and all, but we've also been in this house four years. The last couple-few years have been pretty slow on the ol' accomplish-o-meter, as in travel/life experience shit like that, but I guess the "two children" are a pretty big thing and decent reason to have slowed down on the travel. They kind of rock.

Courtney, easiest child on the planet. This is where the second child wins because she could possibly not be the easiest child on the planet, but after the first one, my perspective says she is.

Booking a hotel in downtown Chicago to celebrate 5 years without spending $350 is chafing my ass.

Parenting Happy Days Style

As we are all waiting, desperately, for the new TV season to start (anything, people, ANYTHING), I turned to MeTV for entertainment tonight, and found first year episodes of Happy Days. You know, when the Cunninghams lived in a different house, there was an older brother Chuck, and Fonzie didn't even wear a leather jacket?

And yet, in the episodes I watched, Richie went to a stag party - after asking Mr. C if he could go, of course (Mr. C agreed, easily) - and he and Potsie got drunk. When he got home drunk, Mr. C tucked him into bed and made a few jokes at his expense. Marion woke up and tut-tutted a bit and then went off to bed.

Is it just me that thinks this is a far better reaction to a kid drinking than the hard core, zero tolerance insanity we have going on now? Let's teach people how to handle alcohol, not ban them from it so it becomes a prize to attain. But then, I also credit people with a modicum of intelligence, and that' not always a good idea on my part...