Student of the Month

Mid-term?

It seems like it's been a while since I put up a post.  I've been working on a project for one of my classes, which included a blog.  It kept me a bit busy whenever I was near my computer.  But it's temporarily over.  I think it was roughly equivalent to a mid-term. 

Big news for Emi this week:  she became a Na Ali'i student.  That is what the 'student of the month' is called here, and she is so excited.  She brought home a bumper sticker ("Proud to be Pahoa Na Ali'i") which I'm sure will proudly ride our bumper once we wash our car.  It's been dusty around here lately, and my kids aren't quite old enough to wash the car without me and well, frankly, I was busy with that class project.  Maybe Charlie and I will wash the car tomorrow.  But Emi is excited because being Na Ali'i means that she gets the special honor of being fed non-stop deserts on Thursday.  She gets to sit at a special table, and she and her fellow Na Ali'i get to eat lunch and then eat as many deserts as they want off the special Na Ali'i table.

Before I go I'll share my Charlie quote of the week:  "Mom, I think I'd like to be a spider."
Me:  "Really?  How would you become a spider?"
Charlie:  "Well, I can't really become a spider, but I think I'd like to be one.  A giant, poisonous spider."

Charlie is smack in the middle of his "kids say the darnedest things" stage.  I find it very funny.  And being that he is a fairly serious little boy, it's important to take it seriously.  Sometimes I have to turn around and cover my mouth and laugh as silently as possible because if he so much as suspects that a person is laughing at what he finds serious, he's ready to throw punches.  We were talking about kindergarten and he asked, "What about bullies?"  I told him it was against the rules to be a bully at school and that the teachers are very careful about that.  He said, after a moment of thought, "That's why I need to control my anger and use my words."

February? Already?

Just when I think the holidays are over, here comes Valentine's Day. And of course this means excitement, especially for a certain eight year-old little girl who loves all things having to do with hearts. Oh well. I've relinquished my life to the excitement of holidays and I'm hoping that red construction paper and lacy paper doilies will be enough this year. Emi's been planning chocolate cupcakes, individualized for the entire class. I'm hoping a bag of chocolate hearts will pass muster.

We spent Super Bowl Sunday in town, at my brother John's place. He bought a new tv in anticipation of the event and Emi and Charlie enjoyed watching about ten minutes worth of commercials. You can tell the demographics commercials aim for when watching them with kids. One commercial made Charlie crack up, but everyone else in the room had a blank look. And I think it was a job search commercial, so any four-year olds looking for work would take notice. I ended up taking the kids out to a beach park, where there were dozens of kids and plenty of Mom's and maybe one or two men, not including the lifeguards. It was pretty funny, actually. I unfortunately forgot to take a book, and so I sat and watched the whales breaching and doing their tail displays. I called a couple of friends, and I actually lasted three hours before I couldn't take it anymore and called the kids in to leave. This particular beach, Onekahakaha (long O, E makes a long A sound, and all the A's make a short an 'ah' sound), is like a sandy tide pool, a kid beach that gets a few feet deep at high tide and at low tide it's a huge wading pool. The kids love it.

We finished off the day with a little fire in the backyard. It was perfect for marshmallows, which was the whole point. Charlie had pointed out the necessity of buying the ingredients for s'mores last time we were grocery shopping, and so the entire week had been him reminding us to have a bonfire. Then what does he do? Stuff marshmallows in his mouth, unroasted because that's the only way he likes them. Then he eats his chocolate, then he says it is time for a bath. Aaron and Emi stayed out and enjoyed the evening for a while, and Charlie got his bath and went to bed.

Charlie always does some deep thinking when he is settling down into bed at night. One night he very seriously asked how people without teeth manage to eat, and I, just as seriously, replied that they eat soft foods like bananas and smoothies and such. A couple of nights ago he told me, "Mom, you are old enough to have your own house, you know. But I'm not." It was very hard not to laugh at this one, but laughing just makes him very frustrated, because these observations are as a result of some very real thinking on his part. I told him that it's true, I am old enough. But he continued, saying that I have to live with him still to take care of him. So we see whose house this is, in Charlie's mind.