Kid and Caboodle

The weather has finally gotten cold enough to prevent A.J. from wearing shorts all the time. When I pulled out his winter wardrobe, though, I realized A.J. had pretty much outgrown all of it … again. Drat! I’m glad to see A.J. is such a healthy boy, but it’s a real challenge to keep up with him.

I ran out this afternoon to get A.J. some jeans that were long enough to cover his ankles. Once again I forgot to account for how slim he is, though. Whenever I buy a pair of slacks long enough for his legs, it is usually too large for him at the waist. My husband joked that we should encourage A.J. to be more sedentary and feed him lots of fattening foods so his clothes will fit. Ha ha. But seriously, I guess we’ll have to see if A.J. is old enough to deal with a belt now.

This week my son’s school started a “Healthy Choices” challenge. Every single day, from October 1 to December 12, A.J. must read for 20 minutes, exercise for 20 minutes and eat a healthy snack or food. This doesn’t sound like much, but the last three days have been very tough.

The healthy food part of the challenge is no problem, as I can easily make my son eat a piece of fruit during dinner, but finding the time to fit in 40 minutes of required activities is really hard during the work week. The three or four hours A.J. spends in his afterschool care program running around the gym/playground or reading don’t count toward this challenge. This means that between the time I pick him up from school at 6:15 and the time he has his evening shower at 7:30 I have to prepare dinner, feed my son, make sure my son does his homework (yes, first graders get homework), and make sure he gets in at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise. To fit in his 20 minutes of required reading, we have sacrificed the time we used to spend talking about his day as I prepare him for bed. I think both my son and I are beginning to resent these new requirements. I personally think they must have been set by someone who doesn’t have a full-time job outside of the house.

The new activities I have to fit in for A.J. every day are also hurting my own ability to stay healthy. I am having a very hard time finding time to exercise since I am so busy in the evenings before bedtime, and I never seem to get away for lunch. This means that I would have to exercise in the morning before getting ready for work; i.e. I would have to get up at 4 a.m. to get in a useful amount of exercise. I am starting to depend more on prepared foods for meals rather than cooking, and I am getting less sleep per night because I still have to do things like go through the mail and clean dishes after putting my son to bed.

Maybe I’ll have a chance to catch my breath this weekend.

September 2 will soon be here.  That’s the day A.J. will start at his new school; he will be going to his current school only 11 more times.  What a strange, sad feeling.   I feel as though we are about to lose a family friend.

Took advantage of the fantastic weather we had today and spent all afternoon with friends at a local park.  Grilled tons of food — steak, beef burgers, Boca burgers (vegetarian patties), kielbasa and hot dogs — and snacked on everything from dumplings, chips, potato salad, multigrain bread and zucchini bread to watermelon, three types of fresh berries and grapes.  After stuffing ourselves, we packed up and enjoyed the rest of the facilities.  The park has a lot of large fields where one can play frisbee or tag, as well as volleyball courts, miniature golf, a carousel, a train ride, a large lake where one can rent rowboats or feed waterfowl, hiking trails, an ice cream parlor and of course tons of playground equipment.  All the kids seemed to be having a grand time, and I daresay the adults did, too!

Just got word from A.J.’s school this afternoon that one of his teachers died of cancer last week.  Apparently the school hasn’t told the kids yet.  Should my husband and I tell A.J. ourselves, or wait until he hears the news from his other teachers or classmates?  If we tell him, how should we do so?  I heard that the school is trying to get a bereavement counselor to come in to talk to the kids, so perhaps we should just wait and see what happens.  I don’t want him to get an unpleasant surprise or hear rumors, though.

Today we took A.J. to a trial Mandarin Chinese class.  The class is set up like a regular preschool class; children learn through playing games, singing songs, doing art projects and other fun activities.  After the trial class, we asked A.J. what he thought about his experience.  He said he had fun and would like to do it again.  The teacher said A.J. would fit in with the class just fine even though it is already the third week of the summer term, so we happily registered A.J. for the rest of the term.  Since we were there already, we decided to register him for the full 2008-2009 academic year as well.  Hope this works out!

This means, of course, that Chris and I will have to start studying Mandarin again so we can keep up with our son ….

A.J. also expressed interest in taking tae kwon do classes recently, so we’ve signed him up at a place where many of his classmates go.  I’m wondering whether Chris and I also should take some tae kwon do classes so we can defend ourselves from A.J.’s new repertoire of punches and kicks ….

A.J.’s bike riding also has inspired Chris to buy a proper bike rack for my car and to look into getting his own bike cleaned and repaired.  I should probably get my bike checked out at the same time.  Maybe we can all do some family bike rides and thereby get exercise while enjoying ourselves!

It’s amazing the influence that little kid has on our lives ….

All week one of our neighbors has been setting off fireworks.  I can hear them going off right now, in fact, and it is past 10 p.m.  I understand tomorrow will be July 4th, and I’m all for having a good time, but I think it is fairly inconsiderate to make a lot of noise when people around you — particularly small children — could be trying to sleep.

While riding his bike yesterday, my son rode directly into the path of a moving car.

Fortunately the car stopped in time to avoid hitting him.

I’m still upset about what happened.

How can I keep something like this from happening again? My husband and I spoke to our son very sternly about being careful when crossing the street, but A.J. just keeps complaining that he didn’t see the car. My husband keeps telling him that “it’s the car you don’t see that will hit you,” but our son does not seem to understand. He just continues to protest that he was not at fault; he didn’t see the car.

What can I do? I don’t want to take away A.J.’s bike or force him to only play inside until he’s older; that would drive us both crazy. Standing in the middle of the street trying to block oncoming traffic is impractical. Driving A.J. and his bike to a park so he can ride there is not really feasible either. There is a reason we bought a house at the end of a cul-de-sac — to minimize incidents like this.

For now I have told A.J. to stay within the circle of the cul-de-sac and to triple-check before crossing the road at the top. If he disobeys, I guess that’s when I’ll have to consider tougher measures.

Had a nice night out with Chris — and without A.J. We took A.J. to my parents in the early afternoon yesterday then had dinner at the Melting Pot in Arlington. It was great being able to eat dinner and talk without constant interruptions. It was also lovely to be able to sleep in this morning and to get a few things done around the house without A.J. underfoot.

My parents brought A.J. back at lunchtime today, and we all celebrated Father’s Day and my mother’s birthday with a fine lunch of assorted sushi, vegetable lo mein, chicken with snow peas, bean curd with mixed vegetables and mango sorbet. My parents said they enjoyed taking care of A.J. and would be willing to do so about once a month. I think Chris and I may take them up on their offer! We love A.J., of course, but it is nice to have a break from parenting duties once in a while.

A few weeks ago, A.J. insisted that the training wheels on his bike come off.  My husband complied, and spent a somewhat frustrating evening trying to teach A.J. to balance and ride.  He wanted A.J. to practice on the grass so he wouldn’t be hurt if he fell.  I think riding on the grass might have contributed to the difficulty, though, because the surface wasn’t very smooth.  The next day my neighbor Kevin and I took turns pushing A.J. around in the street.  Soon he was zooming around the cul-de-sac.  My husband was astonished when he came home.  He commented that he didn’t learn to ride a bike without training wheels until he was 7; A.J. is 5.  A.J. now has learned to stop his bike without having to run into a curb first or simply falling over, and he can almost start riding if he first positions his bike on a downward slope.  He’s still trying to figure out how to start from a standstill.  I look forward to the day he can really ride properly; perhaps I’ll get out my own bike, then, and we can have a family activity.  I need more exercise anyway ….

Today I’m hoping to finally receive my new laptop.  I ordered one from Dell, which produces a few under the (PRODUCT) RED line.  DHL left an attempted delivery notice on my front door Monday night.  I called them as soon as I saw it, and asked them to deliver the machine today, Thursday, when I would be home.  The customer service representative said she would make a note in my file.  The very next evening, though, I came home to find another attempted delivery note.  I called DHL again, and once again explained the situation.  Again, the customer service representative said he would tell the courier.  Yesterday at work, I received a call from the DHL courier department complaining that they had been trying to deliver my package all week.  I told them that I had been calling them all week to tell them to deliver on Thursday.  She said she had not received any such notice.

I’m sorry the DHL courier has made three wasted trips because her company has bad internal communications.  I don’t see what else I could have done, though.  Since the package is a computer, I absolutely refuse to allow DHL to just leave it on my porch.  I really hope it gets here today!