Guest Post...Mom and Dad report on Africa

Here is a small sampling of Mom and Dad's adventures in Africa.

The sun setting on the Zambezi River. Beautiful!

A little school in Zimbabwe. A school teacher here makes $200 a year. Four teachers quit because the government was not paying them anymore, so mom and dad's tour group collected $800 among them to pay the salaries of those teachers, on the condition that the money go directly to the teachers and would not pass through the dirty government hands.

You have to look sideways to see this incredible view of Victoria Falls.

Mom and dad in front of the falls and the multiple rainbows.

The falls again...

Airplanes, again

Patrice has an old computer that is basically useless to us, and to avoid the destruction of the computer we actually do use at the hands of a curious and compulsive 3-year-old mouse clicker, he decided to give Nicco the old laptop. Nicco loves his computer and likes to watch...airplane videos! So while I tutor, Nicco sets up his lot of things...you can see Sponge in his lap, his soft blankie on his left side, one airplane in hand and the others lined up in their "airport" as well as his picnic...his sippy and bowl of bread and chicken. He is content to watch the same video over and over for an entire hour while I work.

The Joys of Tutoring

So, after an interesting day of tutoring, Diana and I decided that we would like an amnesty day at Tutor.com. A day when anything goes for the tutors. A day when we can tell the darling students what we really think. For example:

• For a student who has to write a persuasive essay about why "cheer" is a sport, I could say I don't care who you are, but clapping in rhythm and screaming is not a sport. (Granted, cheerleading these days is more like gymnastics, but in my school it was pretty much clapping and screaming, and no, that is not a sport.)
• To this same student who proceeded to suggest I am fat and should go to the gym to "loose" some weight, I would like to let her know that I am probably among the most skinny people she could hope to meet and no, I didn't get that way from cheerleading. (thanks for the genes, mom and dad!)
• When a "college-intro" student can't even formulate a proper sentence let alone a paragraph or HEAVEN FORBID AN ENTIRE ESSAY, I would like to just say "perhaps you should pursue other interests...the world has great need for secretaries, waitresses, garbage collectors, etc." (No, I am not a snob...I mean that seriously and respectfully to those workers!)
• When a student logs in as a kindergartner and does not know how to do 1+1 and thinks I actually BELIEVE him, I would love to let him know that I was not fooled for a second and I played along with his stupid game because I made more money. HA HA! Joke's on you!
• When a student tells me what to do, I would like to just say that I am in charge, and the session will proceed as I dictate it. (Yes, I am a dictator.) Oh, and by the way, it won't hurt my feelings if you log off on me. Ouch.
• I would like to be able to tell the students that contrary to what they might think, every piece of writing is not actually available online. And if you are looking for a book at 11:00 p.m. on Sunday night, yes, you are pretty much screwed. And when they say "What if I fail my test?" Or "I have to read that by tomorrow" I would REALLY like to say I just don't care, and maybe next time you will prepare more than a few hours in advance.
• Last but certainly not least, to all of the foul mouthed little dears, I would like to forward their vulgarities to their parents (some of whom pay for the service in which their children are so disrespectful to people trying to help them) and I would also like to let them know that sometimes, I actually utter silent prayers hoping they will swear at me so I have a reason to end the session and therefore terminate any further interaction with them.

So, while I am extraordinarily thankful for a work at home opportunity as flexible and relatively easy as tutoring is, there are days when I would like to tell all of my students exactly where to go.

Yom Huledet Same'ach

Every Friday at school, we have a little "Tot Shabbat" service where the kiddos sing and dance traditional Jewish songs, sing the blessings, and perform the rituals to prepare for the Sabbath. Kids who celebrate a birthday during the week get to help the Rabbi with the rituals of lighting the Shabbat candles (you cover your eyes until the blessing is over...you can't see the fire until it is Shabbat), blessing the wine (grape juice in the case of the preschool...), washing hands to break the bread, and blessing and breaking the bread. So this is Nicco with the Rabbi and his co-birthday celebrant Dylan, and mommy! Nicco is saying "cheese" with a mouth full of challah. Lovely. (By the way, Nicco's birthday crown is covered in airplane stickers. He had to come out on the playground especially to show me. He pointed to each one and said "I think I will ride on an airplane soon. I think this one, and this one, and this one...etc.)

House of Bounce

Nicco's birthday will occur in phases this year. Instead of some elaborate party for a 3-year-old, I decided to let Nicco play with one friend. For phase one, we went with his little buddy Jordan to the "House of Bounce." Jordan was just as excited as he could be and ran around bouncing in all of the different giant inflatable bouncy rooms, but Nicco was whining and clinging to me. I was glad that Jordan was having fun, I just wished Nicco would have been playing and having fun with him!

By the time Nicco finally settled into the place and decided he would actually play and bounce, Jordan was hungry and worn out and ready to go. He wouldn't even look at me to get a picture with Nicco!

Since Nicco was being a whiny poo, I had to bounce and play with him. It is a lot of work climbing and bouncing with a little guy! He has a lot more energy than I do.

I like this picture of Nicco's little noggin bobbing through the bouncy maze. I ran this obstacle course roughly 50 times. Too much for me! I was glad I finally talked him into going in one of the jumping castles that he could do on his own.

All in all, it was a good day. I just wish the two boys would have been happy at the same time!

Nicco's First Haircut

Nicco was a baldy for such a long time, I wondered if he would ever need a hair cut. I decided to wait until his birthday, just so I could say that he didn't have his first hair cut until he was 3 years old. However, we went to play at grandma and grandpa's house on a windy day in September and Nicco could barely enjoy himself at the park because he was constantly brushing his hair out of his eyes. I gave in and cut his hair a month and a half before I planned. So here is a before, during, and after picture of this milestone. The great thing about curly hair is that it is easy to hide mommy stylist mistakes!

Episode 3 in the Airplane Saga

Wings over the Rockies
The Air Force Base at Lowry has a museum in one of the hangars. I took Nicco there a few days ago, and when we arrived and he saw the big airplane out front, he was literally breathless.

He craned his neck to see inside as I was paying for our admission. I was a little disappointed in his reaction once we got in. I think he was a little overwhelmed and intimidated by how many and how big the airplanes actually were.

He did climb into a couple,

but he liked looking at the smaller displays best

and of course he loved the gift shop. I caved and bought him a B-52 and a couple 20 cent rubber airplanes. He has spent countless hours since then "flying and watching airplanes."


...To Be Continued, I am sure.

Episode 2 in the Airplane Saga

Between August 18 and October 5th, Nicco had been back and forth to the airport 6 times. Occasionally the first words out of his mouth in the morning are "Airplanes are waking up. I want to go to the airport." Poor thing...too bad we don't live closer to an airport. (As if I would drive to an airport, no matter how close, just to watch airplanes.)

Airplanes

This is Nicco's recent obsession...watching airplane videos on the computer, looking for airplanes in the sky, playing airplanes, riding in airplanes soon, going to grandma's house in an airplane...It all started when we went to Bailey to visit Grandma and Grandpa and a couple of "big and huge" military airplanes must have been doing some sort of training exercise and flew by the house, literally through the trees. We could have seen the pilots wink at us, if they had been inclined to do so. It was very impressive. So much so that Nicco spent the rest of the weekend waiting for the big airplanes to come back. He took his "lot of things" out on the deck: Sponge, Soft Blankie, and his bucket of cars, and waited patiently for TWO DAYS for the big airplanes to come back. He was convinced that they would, no matter how many times we told him they went to the airport and would not be back today. His response? "But they might."

Fruits of Our Labors

If anybody wonders what roughly 100 pints of grape jelly looks like, here it is! And if anybody wonders what you will be getting for Christmas this year, here it is! This is the fruit of my labor this year. I was pretty pleased with myself last year when I canned 35 pints of jelly from my little backyard vine. I never really imagined that we could nearly triple that! I spent a day picking grapes, a long day cleaning them, (thank goodness I had help, albeit from a 3-year-old.) and it would have been just a day canning except that I ran out of sugar so I had to add a second trip to Bailey to complete the project.

Nerds Times Three

Okay, it is officially official. Mom and Dad raised at least 3 nerds. (Probably 4...) Here is my first post, to justify my joining the ranks of bloggers in this family. I agree with Sheila, it is fun to read and see what my sisters, cousins and friends are up to. I also agree with Diana that this is a fun and easy way to archive family events. I mean really...who would write in a journal or put in a photo album a pile of laundry and what it means to you? (Reference, http://www.behappyfriendlykindandtrue.blogspot.com/) So, here's to what comes next. Daily laughs, struggles, successes, failures, probably problems (a.k.a. problemly), and definitely solutions.