The "H" word

On Saturday evening, we went to the Fall Festival held at the big honkin' church down the street. Trust me, this church is really big, so big that I use it as a landmark when giving people directions to our house - "our subdivision is .7 miles on the left after the big honkin' church".

Fall festivals are very popular with protestant churches here in Georgia and are usually held the weekend before Halloween, or sometimes even on Halloween night. Children are encouraged to wear costumes and candy is distributed, but the word "Halloween" is never mentioned. I think that if I yelled "Halloween", a hush would fall over the crowd and all would look at the vile person who said the dreaded "H" word.

When did Halloween become such an awful event to a certain segment of the US population? When I was a child in the '60s and '70s, a person could be religious and a regular churchgoer, and still openly celebrate Halloween. I can even remember my parents attending a Halloween party at our church; they were dressed as Raggedy Ann and Andy (if I ever get my hands on a photo of them, I will gleefully post it). Now it seems as though Halloween is something to be preached against and certainly not acknowledged by so-called decent, moral people.

Puh-leeze. Halloween does have its roots in pagan traditions but it also has a healthy dose of Christian tradition mixed in. Yes, many of the images associated with Halloween are witches, devils, vampires and other scary beings. But sometimes a witch is just a little child in a costume and not an evil, spell-issuing crone. And if we are really going to nitpick and over-analyze every holiday, how many of "Christian" Easter and Christmas traditions started with the pagans?

So while we enjoyed the cool weather, the free food and the carnival games that yielded A a good supply of candy and cheap plastic toys, it still grates on us that Halloween has become in some circles a obscene word and that some people are trying to ruin the innocent fun for everyone. Sheesh.

Report card

A brought home his very first report card on Tuesday. It is hard to believe that he has already completed nine weeks of school.

All in all, we are quite pleased with his report; he is working at or above grade level on all levels of academic achievement. He is also "satisfactory" in all specialty areas and character and academic traits except two: "uses self-control" and "stays on task." No surprise there - he is, after all, five years old and still has difficulty not acting on all impulses, and can be distracted if he isn't totally interested in what he is doing. We have no worries; we simply need to keep working with them.

The comments added by his teacher made me smile, and I offer the following tranlations.

Comment: "A is an energetic boy."
Translation: "A can't sit still to save his life."

Comment: "He enjoys adding to class discussions."
Translation: "He never stops talking!"

The third comment, however, stated that the teacher is pleased with his progress...and we are, too. I continue to be amazed at what he has already learned, the words he can read, the basic math he can do. I have no illusions that he is a genius, but he is certainly a bright little boy who is learning on schedule. Life is good.

Halloween party

The mommies group to which I belong had a Halloween party on Sunday afternoon - what fun! The party was held in the backyard of our cruise director's house, and the afternoon was just about perfect: warm, but not too warm, with a light breeze, and the backyard was almost completely shaded. We set up chairs, spread out blankets on the ground and proceeded to have a great time.

The children (and a few adults) were dressed in their Halloween costumes. There was a rooster, several fairies, a princess, a devil and an angel, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, a police officer, a knight, and our own super hero.

When A asked to be a super hero for Halloween this year, I gently steered him away from those licensed characters that I detest, and convinced him to create his own super hero. We already had the Captain Heartbreaker pajamas, and I added a cape and mask...tada! Instant super hero!

The children had a wonderful time running around the backyard, playing pin the nose on the pumpkin, and snacking on the fun Halloween food.

But the most popular event by far was bobbing for apples. Our hosts had filled a large tub with water and added apples; after a few of the older children had successfully procured apples, the little ones took over. They didn't bob for apples, they bobbed the apples! They picked up the apples and threw them in the water, splashing each other and anyone that was nearby. Each time they did this, they would all shriek with laughter. They were getting their costumes soaked but were having such a great time that none of their parents wanted to stop them. And each time one partucular little girl, the devil in the picture, shrieked and giggled, we all laughed with her - she has an infectious belly laugh!

Several of the mommies had prepared goodie bags so each child took home some candy, snacks and toys. It was a lovely afternoon to enjoy the pleasant weather, the good company, the yummy food and the delight of the children.

There is no joy in Mudville

First, the good news: over the next ten days, I will have more time to read, I will go to bed at a reasonable hour, I will not pace the floors and, unless I eat something that does not agree with me, my stomach will remain knot-free.

The bad news: the Cleveland Indians did not win the American League championship last night and will not be playing in the 2007 World Series.

"Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out."

And this morning, I hate baseball.

Pins and needles

The Cleveland Indians are doing it to me again. They are causing me to pace the floors, furrow my brow and get a knot in my stomach. Oy, vey.

After Tuesday night, the Indians were up three games to one over Boston in the American League pennant race. Things were looking really good for the Tribe and I felt reasonably comfortable. On Thursday night at Jacobs Field, the Indians began to falter and lost the game 7-1. Still not too bad but I started to feel a twinge of that old familiar feeling. Of dread.

Last night, the dreadful feeling came back in full force and socked me in the gut: Boston won game six by a score of 12-2. Oy, vey indeed. The series is now tied at three games apiece and the winning game will take place tonight at Fenway Park - whoever wins tonight will meet the Colorado Rockies in the World Series.

The Cleveland Indians last won the World Series in 1948, so I think we are due a championship (please don't confuse the issue by saying that the Rockies have NEVER won a World Series - it's all about the Indians and me, not about them). I want to see my team succeed, which is a rarity for a Cleveland anything fan. I want Kenny Lofton to finally get his World Series ring!

So I will be in front of the television tonight, pacing and occasionally uttering "I hate baseball" and other unprintable phrases. Please please please let the Indians win tonight!

The Kindergarten Master Pickup Artist!

My friend Stephanie, back in NC, sent me an email message yesterday about her son, who is six weeks younger than A and also in kindergarten this year: "The little Lothario came home with his first telephone number from a girl yesterday. It was only four digits and one of them was written backwards, yet he was very proud of himself." As well he should!

Lunch date

Today I had lunch with my favorite cutie-patootie, A, and 17 of his closest friends. I volunteer in A's kindergarten class every other Wednesday morning and today was my day at school. The class goes to lunch immediately following my scheduled time, so I told A that I would stay today and have lunch with him. What an experience.

A is permitted to buy his lunch two days each week and today was a buy lunch day. There are three choices each day, and I told A that he could choose for both of us. So I lined up with the class, by lunch choice, and marched in to get my cheese pizza and peas. A and his classmates showed me where to get my tray, fork and napkin, and then how to move down the line. I followed them to the assigned table for the class and sat down to "enjoy" lunch in less than 25 minutes.

"Bedlam" is the only word that comes to close to describing the atmosphere in the cafeteria! It seemed as though every child in the room was talking at the same time and my child was one of the ones doing the most talking. The five children sitting around me competed to talk with me and I now know more about hair bows, fishing, coloring, jump rope and playing "bad guys" than I ever thought I would know. Or ever cared to know.

Despite the noise, I was impressed that most of the children stayed in their seats, ate a good part of their meals, and followed directions. The staff know how to keep the students on task with only minor aberrations. And once again, I am thankful that I do not spend more than a few hours every other week in an elementary school!

Into the wild blue yonder

On Sunday we went to The Great Georgia Air Show in Peachtree City. What fun! J's parents came into town to go with us - J's dad is quite fond of air shows. It was a gorgeous day, about 80 degrees Fahrenheit and a clear blue sky.

The event was very well run; we parked in a satellite parking area and then rode a school bus to Falcon Field, and there were no traffic congestion problems either at arrival or departure. I struck up a conversation on the bus ride back with a couple from Cleveland; he was wearing a Cleveland Indians' cap so we enjoyed a good conversation about the series with Boston. Go Tribe!

There were many airplanes and since this is not my subject of expertise, I won't even try to detail which ones were there...but it was great fun looking at them. J's mom stayed with our chairs as the rest of us wandered around, oohing and ahhing and peeking into those airplanes that we could access. A enjoyed climbing into the cockpit of an airplane - unfortunately, we did not note which type it was, although J thinks it was a Warhawk. Here is a photo of A and a new flygirl friend:


I particularly enjoyed the performances by he Talon Eagles from Red Eagle Air Sports and the AeroShell Aerobatic Team, and flybys from a World Airlines MD11 and the Delta Air Lines' pink Boeing 757, aka the Delta Pink Plane. I also bought a Delta Force for Global Good t-shirt, which benefits The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

We were there about five hours in total, so we were tired and a bit sunburned when we left, but a great time was had by all.

At last, a chill in the air

We woke up to delightfully cool temperatures this morning: it is about 50 degrees F with an expected high of only 71. Yippee! I am so tired of hot weather so the cooler air is a welcome respite. I have most of the windows in the house open, filling the rooms with the fresh air. Spenser Cat loves it - he runs from window to window, pressing his nose against the screens.

Of course, the only person in the house born in the southeast - A - grumbled that it was "cold" this morning (see "Baby, it's cold outside - not"). I did dress him in long pants today, but a short-sleeved shirt. 71 degrees is hardly long-sleeve weather!

I hope that the cooler temps hang around for the duration. Now, if it would only rain...

Monday, Monday

Can't trust that day.

Well, we are three games into the Indians-Yankees series and the Tribe has a 2 games to 1 lead. I fully expected the Yankees to win yesterday's game and they did - they are an excellent team and were back on home turf, so it just made sense. But now it is time for the Indians to finish off the series and get ready for Boston.

J is back home - yay! Always good to have everyone back under one roof.

Sick day

It's fall and here in the castle, our allergies are going wild. We sneeze, we cough, and generally we sound awful, but at least we sound worse than we feel. A seemed fine when he got up this morning, coughing just a little more than yesterday so I gave him a dose of the cough suppressant / nasal decongestant before we left the house to wait for the bus.

The school nurse called around 9:30 to tell me that A was running a low grade fever, coughing, and complaining of a headache...and I needed to come and get him. Sigh - so much for running errands today. We got home and he immediately asked to eat a snack and watch television, in that order. We had to have the "how it is when you are home sick" talk; in other words, we don't play and watch television all day. I fixed him a snack of toast, then made him lie down for a rest. Funny, but until he climbed into bed for his rest, he had not coughed at all since I picked him up!

Since the school said he was constantly coughing but he has coughed only sporadically at home, I think one of three things happened. 1) A was coughing a little but quickly realized that coughing a lot would get him attention; 2) A coughed a little at first but as he coughed, he got hot, which caused him to cough more; or 3) the school overreacted. In regards to the last one, I know that many children are sent to school when they are sick, but rather than give A the time to relax and calm his coughing, they called me to get him. Last week they sent him home for having pink eye, which turned out to not be pink eye but just allergy-irritated eyes.

So while I appreciate that the school has a difficult job determining which children are truly ill, I hope that a pattern is not being established and that I will have to fight to convince them when he is fine. In the meantime, I need to make sure that he does not have too good of a time being home sick today!

Or are you just happy to see me?

Yes, that is my child with a toy telephone and flashlight in his pajama bottoms. And, yes, that is a toy airplane - that is also a whistle - in his mouth. But there is really a good explanation...

A was feeling a little puny yesterday because he was missing Daddy. He asked if he could stay in his jammies all day and I said sure, why not. So he did. I was fixing our dinner when I decided I hadn't heard much out of A in a while and needed to check on him. I walked into the sun room and there he was, just as he is in the photo.

When I asked why he had a telephone and a flashlight stuffed in his pants, he told me that he was a police officer and he had his airplane whistle in his mouth because "police officers have whistles to tell people to stop." He then proceeded to walk around the house - telephone and flashlight still in his pants - and write tickets to any law violators.

I got a ticket for leaving my library bookbag on the floor.