Thanksgiving in Alabama

Thanksgiving in Alabama is a far cry from the Thanksgivings I remember as a child. No matter how long I live in the deep South, I just can’t get used to 70 degree weather on Thanksgiving and Christmas! That said, it is hard to argue with a day spent eating, fishing, kayaking, and playing with family. It was a beautiful day. We have so much to be thankful for!

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Meeting cousin Benjamin

On the way to Alabama for Thanksgiving, we stopped in Tallahassee to see Aunt Annie and meet the newest member of the family, Benjamin Boon. He is sooooo tiny and precious! It was much too short a visit, but I’m so glad we got to meet him. Fletcher and Lola Gray took turns holding him, and Lola Gray sang him songs and even gave him a bottle!

 

Thanksgiving Feast!

Today was the Thanksgiving Feast at Fletcher’s school. First the children sang a few songs and then we all had lunch. Lily wasn’t there today unfortunately, and neither was Hailey, but we got photos with some of his other friends. It has been a little odd for me that I just drop Fletcher off and pick him up in the carpool line, and never get to see these children he talks about all the time. It was nice to put some faces with the names.

After school we met our friends at the park, but the visit was cut short when Lola Gray got conked in the head by a handlebar on the ducks merry-go-round. She’s going to have a nice bruise from this one! Everyone is napping now (yeah!) and later tonight we will join Grandaddy Mike for dinner. The tomorrow it is off to Alabama for Thanksgiving . . .

You are driving me crazy!

Perhaps I say this a little too often? To be fair, I always say it in a joking way! Lola Gray’s scary interpretation of my tone of voice cracks me up.

One of these days I’ll take them to see real snow . . .

In search of cool

Fletcher has suddenly become quite obsessed with his clothing and with looking “cool”. Today he came home from school upset because it was too cold to take off his sweater and no one got to see his cool bulldog t-shirt. The kid cracks me up. But it is important to him, so it is important to me. However, cool seems to come at a premium. The Chasing Fireflies catalog has more cool than you can shake a stick at, but it has prices that are way too hot for me. Oh well. I’m posting some of my favorite cool from the catalog, just so you can see the evolution of Fletcher’s fashion aesthetic. Maybe I can pick just one to give him for Christmas . . . Remember when he happily wore those adorable little smocked jonjons and peterpan collared shirts? No more. My boy is growing up!

Yellow light

Fletcher got another “yellow light” at school today. His teacher has a warning system, and first they get a yellow light if they are misbehaving. If they do something really disruptive, they get a red light. So far we haven’t had any red lights sent home (they send home a little circle of colored paper with the reason for the light written on it) but this is now the 3rd yellow light in 3 weeks. Mrs. Hale says it is general silliness and that it has been a problem for many of the children in the class, but I still hate to hear that my child is being disruptive. When I talked to her today, she said she thought part of the problem might be that he is bored. She said they have already moved him to more advanced worksheets because his handwriting is so much better than the rest of the class. Now she thinks he is ready to start learning sight words. Normally they don’t start sight words until they have gone through the entire alphabet. Since they do 1 letter a week, and are just now on the letter K, I think it will be March or April before the rest of the class is up to that point.

Mrs. Hale’s theory is that if he has more challenging work then he will be more focused and better behaved. I hope she is right. Fletcher and I talked this afternoon, and he said that he does get bored at school. I told him that he is going to start learning sight words and since he is already so good at sounding out words it won’t be long before he will be reading. Then, when he gets bored at school, he can just read himself a book. He seemed to think that was a good idea.

It will be interesting to see what happens. If his behavior improves when he has more interesting work to do, then it further reinforces my desire to get him into Charles Ellis Montessori Academy where he will be able to progress at his own pace. . . .

Happy Birthday Aunt Boo!!

Savannah Children’s Book Festival

Today was the annual Savannah Children’s Book Festival. Though it poured down rain last night, this morning was beautiful and mild, a perfect day to spend in the park.

The highlight of the event, for me, was seeing Mo Willams, author of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Knuffle Bunny and many others. He was a fabulous speaker, and a master at entertaining both the little ones and their parents! He read several of his books and then he taught everyone how to draw his famous pigeon – they even handed out paper and crayons and Fletcher drew and amazing pigeon. After the talk, Mo signed books for both of the children.

Fletcher & Lola Gray's pigeon drawings

For the kids, the highlight of the event (besides the cotton candy) was meeting Miss Rosa from PBS. She was wonderful with the kids, and I think they are now both in love with her. Fletcher asked her where Hooper was (Hooper is the animated hamster that hosts the show with Miss Rosa) and she did not miss a beat. She said Hooper was on vacation, then asked Fletcher if he ever went on vacation with his family. That started a whole conversation about camping, and I would swear she seemed genuinely interested!

Raymond also took the kids to see Freight Train author Donald Crews, who again signed our well worn copy of his book.

Rain put a quick end to the festivities, but we had lots of fun splashing in puddles on our way back to the car!

Bad Mommy

As much as I keep telling myself that I will not succomb to “Mommy Guilt”, sometimes it is impossible to avoid. I screwed up this week. It was my week to take snack to Fletcher’s school, and even though it is written on the calendar and they sent a reminder home from school with him . . . I forgot. Totally and completely forgot. Bad Mommy

Fortunately for everyone, another mother was overly on-the-ball and brought her snack a week early. At least I don’t have to be plagued by visions of all those tiny, hungry little faces crying for their snacks . . . Yeesh.

I guess I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately, and I’ve been trying to do too much. Finals are coming up for the Fall term, so I’ve had a lot of grading to do. There have been orders to fill for the business, the vain attempt to make art, the planning of fundraisers for the Ferst Foundation and parties for the neighborhood association, trying to find money for Christmas presents and make holiday travel plans . . .

Oh! And I’m planning Lola Gray’s birthday party! It should really not be this hard to plan a party for a 3 year old! (OK. You know I really love this stuff!) We are doing a girly, fairy princess theme and I am having a ball. But trying to keep the number of children under control without hurting anyone’s feelings or leaving anyone out . . . I just don’t think it can be done. Lola Gray has decided she wants a “girls only” party. She is very focused on gender distinctions and “girl things” right now. Plus, her big brother and his friends do tend to take over and set the tone for pretty much EVERYTHING. So I am OK with the girls only party. But it means telling people they can’t bring older siblings, and I know that makes it harder on some people. And for whatever reason, kid’s birthday parties have started serving double duty as ADULT social time as well, and I want all my friends to be at the party! So silly.

This is Lola’s day, and if what she wants is just her little girl friends then that is what she will have.