Cole’s response to the Tooth Fairy was pretty true to form. He gets sentimentally attached to stuff, and (for the moment anyway) he’s a budding scientist. So, when it was time to put his tooth under his pillow last night, he got a little sad. He wanted to keep it so he could “study it.” So, we left a little sticky note that asked the Tooth Fairy to leave the tooth for now. He has his tooth in a little treasure chest, and I put the chest on top of the note. But Cole was careful to rearrange things so that the chest was not on top of any of the writing. He wasn’t sure if the Tooth Fairy would be big enough to move the chest, and he wanted her to be able to read the note.
Amy, with her mad computer skillz, printed up a responding note in the shape of a tooth that told Cole to just leave the tooth under his pillow when he was done. The Tooth Fairy went ahead and left some money anyway.
This morning, Cole had more questions about the Tooth Fairy. As helpful as I am with trying to provide as much information as he wants on other subjects, I’m very non-committal about the magical creatures. The whole business makes me a little uncomfortable because I don’t particularly like telling him stuff that’s not true. He’s pretty sharp and, on some level, I think he’s starting to figure out that these magical creatures don’t exist. But, I have to admit, it’s kind of funny to hear him bring up “The Diaper Fairy” – a non-traditional magical character we introduced as taking away all of a kids’ diapers and leaving gifts when they were big kids, ready for underwear. I’m always surprised that he still remembers that one.
Anyway, I guess I’ll use this opportunity for us to study how teeth work a little bit. Wikipedia really is a wonderful thing.
Cole lost his first tooth today. Or really, he lost it last night in his sleep. He’s been wiggling that tooth since January and it was to the point I wanted to reach in there and pluck it out myself. He came running into our room this morning, before the allowed 7 AM time, because he woke up and his tooth was gone. He is SO excited!
Then I actually had to search his bed and around until we could find it. Luckily, we found it on the floor next to his bed and we can leave it for the tooth fairy.
Cole was a little confused about why only one of his drawings was on display. (I guess it seems perfectly natural to him that crowds of people should be gathering to look at his work!) But, still, he was proud, and so were we. The exhibit had displays from kids K-8 in the local schools. I don’t know if it was one per class across the board, or what. But Cole’s was the one picked out from his kindergarten class.
As luck would have it, this display comes at a time when Tippecanoe School Corporation is being called upon to make deep, deep spending cuts – a consequence not just of the sour economy, but also knee-jerk opposition to property taxes. (They shifted school funding to sales and income taxes which are more volatile.) So, it’s entirely possible that going forward, Cole and his fellow students won’t even have art teachers, let alone great programs like this to encourage their work. Which is a shame. I think it’s pretty obvious that Cole has more natural artistic talent than, certainly, me and, probably, Amy as well. It would be nice to have a school that could help him develop that as fully as possible.
As you may have noticed, I have not been writing on here lately. The last few posts have been written by Doug. It’s not bvecaues I don’t want to write anything. I seem to have a case of writer’s block.
I login and try and come up with nothing. I tried to write up a bit about the art exhibit that Cole had artwork displayed in tonight, and I couldn’t even come up with a title.
So don’t worry – I’m not having an emotional or physical breakdown. I’m just blocked.
On Saturday, we took the kids sledding at Murdock Park, the first time they’d been sledding on a hill of any size. We thought they might be a little scared, but nope. Pure joy! At least going down. Walking back up the hill was a bit of a slog, but that’s just the name of the game. Cole didn’t even mind that too much. Harper didn’t complain, but you could see her little 4 year old legs were tired, and she stopped making much forward progress.
Harper was the cutest thing ever, rocketing down in her little pink snow suit, pink hat, and purple coat. Cole took to happily yelling “Look out below!” (And an odd number of people needed that warning – seems pretty basic that you’d want to get out of the sled run when you were finished moving instead of just laying in the middle of everything.)
So, Cole has come home telling tales of a bully. It’s always hard to piece together what’s going on at a kindergarten playground, particularly as recounted by a six year old. But, the other day, Cole told us about how a little boy from one of the other kindergarten class wanted Cole to play with him but not with another boy because the other boy was “fat.”
Then, today, Cole says this other kid wanted his help in “beating up” a third kid. Cole’s solution was to wait until the bully wasn’t paying attention and run away, apparently leaving the victim to his fate. A little bit later, more details come out wherein Cole reportedly got a bunch of other kids to chase the bully around.
As a Dad, I guess I’m happier with a boy who is a vigilante ringleader than one who furtively skulks away. But, mainly, I wish there was a way for him to simply avoid this crap altogether. Left to his own devices, Cole would probably treat everybody nicely and things would be groovy. But, there is always a shit heel or two looking to be mean and to get other people involved with their meanness, either as a victim or a conspirator.
I never figured out a great way to deal with such people, so I’m not sure how to instruct Cole. It’s all well and good to tell him the noble ideas you’d like him to talk about when there’s a bully around. “No, Mr. Bully, I will not be mean to another person! Shame on you!” That’s just not realistic. And, maybe not now, but down the road, telling a teacher is probably just a good way to earn some retribution. For my part, I guess I developed a sense of humor and, eventually, a well timed joke or two kept me out of any serious confrontations. But you can’t exactly teach that.
Cole’s instincts seem basically on target, so I suppose he’ll be o.k. I’m just sorry he has to put up with these folks. Guess that’s life, though.
Celebrating their 100th day in school, Cole’s class apparently had a number of “100″ projects. One of them was a 100 day book where it had them fill in the blanks on a number of 100 statements, such as “I would like to have 100 _____.” Cole’s response was toys. Or “I can eat 100 ‘Tedygrams.’” For, “I wouldn’t want 100 ____,” he went with “toylits.” Potty humor never stops being funny, I guess.
But, my very favorite was his answer for “In 100 years, I hope that I can _____.” Cole put “stay with my family longer.” What a sweet, sweet boy.
Hi. I'm Amy and this is my blog. Well, it's mine and Doug's, but I'm not putting his picture here. He doesn't put mine on his blog.
I'm a mom, web designer, liberal, and runner. I use this space to share stories about my family, my life, my thoughts, or anything else that catches my fancy.
