Tales from the Steppes

2005-04-22

9:01 a.m.
Big bottom, big bottom, Talk about bum cakes, my girl's got'em

I am the Master of the Universe! I have achieved parental nirvanna, at least as much as I am likely to at this stage of their lives. Yesterday, I found a camp that will handle all three Mongols for about $600 a week. Woohoo! So the camp isn't on my way to or from work. At least it isn't too far out of my way. And it seems to have activities that all three kids were excited about, including go cart racing. Apparently even the YM will get to drive a go cart. Scary.

Actually, the YM was the biggest problem as far as finding a camp. I talked to a number of places that advertised camps that included 5 year olds but it seems that they only wanted 5 year olds that had completed kindergarten. This is a little puzzling because the current cutoff for kindergarten is turning 5 by September 1 so this applies to a very small percentage of 5 year olds.

One of the other tricky aspects of finding a camp this year was figuring out the total cost. It seems that most camps run from 9am to 3:30pm, or thereabouts. If you want a longer day, so you can actually work, you pay for "aftercare." Seems straightforward enough. But the costs vary and can really make the difference in a camp being affordable and ridiculous. This camp seemed much more expensive than the Y until the aftercare costs were factored in and then it was cheaper.

Of course it is not all about the money. I really did try to factor in the quality of care but sometimes that can be hard to judge before the camp starts. Every summer we have some incident, whether it be a child being put on the wrong bus or not being notified to bring swimsuits the first day of camp. Or having another child crawl into the MM's toilet stall to show him his privates. Ewwww, yuck! These people at least seem caring and conscientous so hopefully we can keep these problems to a minimum.

In other Mongol news, the YM learned to ride a two-wheeler this last weekend. I had asked several times if we could ditch the training wheels because he was obviously more than ready. He was not all that interested. But the MM took him over to the park and gave him one of his old bikes and off he went. Now he is the physical embodiement of the phrase "hell on two wheels." He is still wobbly but he is generally travelling at a pretty high rate of speed so it is just scary to watch. I have tried to teach him some etiquette ie. pedestrians have the right of way, but it is still a bit dicey. On the positive side, I have not seen him hit anyone yet. On the down side, he has already started jumping what few curbs there are in the park. How long will it be before he starts building ramps? Everytime he wipes out, his only comment is "cool." I guess I understand.

One of the favorite games to play as a parent is "That's your child, not mine." Maybe everyone doesn't play this game but we do. For example, when the MM gets into an intense argument with the SU about which one of them is right about a particular topic, I get to give the SU a particular look that indicates that it is his genes that cause this behavior. And when the EM loses her glasses, book, shoes, insert any item here, he gets to give me that look right back. With the YM though, it is a little different. It is like he has normal personality traits and then takes them up to 11 occasionally. Sure, I usually think about how dangerous something is after I do it, sometimes during. Yes, I have broken many bones and scars galore. He just seems determined to outdo me at a young age. Besides his bicycle incidents, he managed to slam his finger in a car door and climb up a log pile that rolled out from under him. All within the space of half an hour. I asked him if he was trying to go to the emergency room and it just seemed to have never occurred to him. Perhaps he is really just a large ferret and not human at all.

It is a good thing I do not take the Mongols report cards that seriously. Otherwise, I might be disturbed or at least curious. For example, the MM gets all of the words correct as well as both bonus points right on all of his spelling tests, yet receives an "S" in spelling on his report card. Ok, perhaps there is another measure that I am not seeing. And then his teacher checks off that he is performing at grade level on math, yet has repeatedly said that the MM was doing 3rd grade math and we are seeing him multiply in his head. Hrrm, ok, whatever. I don't really care that much because it is not like his report card has much meaning in the second grade. My attitude is that if he needs to work on something other than controlling his mouth, which goes without saying, let me know and we will work on it. Otherwise, I am glad he is doing well.

Last night, his teacher held a math game session for kids and their parents. I knew the MM would want to attend so I had mentioned this to the SU several times. When the time to leave approached and I started suggesting they would want to leave soon, the SU looked at me and said "Oh? Were you thinking I would take him?" I indicated that I felt this was fair given that I had taken the EM to her magnet school meeting the night before. So the SU proceeds to turn to the MM and tell him that it was his choice who would take him to the math games. After all, I am so good at math games and well, he is good at some types of math but not all. My jaw totally dropped. Not only was this the first acknowledgement I have ever heard from the SU that I might be his equal at math but the self-serving timing of it made it completely hilarious, as well as a bit suspect. What wouldn't he say to get out of this? But he underestimated his son's desire to demonstrate his mastery of math to the men in his life - his father and his teacher, at the same time. Hah hah hah. Of course he wanted his father to take him! And the MM was not disappointed. My. Gray said that these games were too easy to help the MM with math and used him to demonstrate how to play them. And then MM got to play and beat his teacher and others. What more could he want in life?

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned the EM hardly at all in this entry. It is not that she has not been busy. Far from it. It is that I do not have the time to write about the current EM topic. Boys. Ugh. Long have I dreaded the start of this phase in her life. But it will wait until next time.