Solomon and Tinsaye started a "Jump Start" program at school this week. They go every morning from 9-noon to work with a group of kids and teachers on literacy. They could not wait to start "small school" as they call it, in contrast to "big school" which involves Thomas, Meredith, and the school bus (Solomon asked me hopefully the other day, "school bus have food, like airplane?" Unfortunately, he learned there are no flight attendants serving food on the 2 mile drive to school). Small School was a huge hit for everyone... the kids love the teachers, the school, meeting new kids, and reading and writing every day,Thomas and Meredith love having mom all to themselves for three hours a day, and mom loves the slightly diminished chaos level.
Everyone finished their summer reading club program at the Wixom library this week. You would have thought they won the lottery when Miss Jane, the children's librarian, gave the kids stickers, a fake tattoo, a bookmark, and a crappy inflatable ball from China for reading 8 books. The only problem was that Tinsaye had read like 20 books and got all her junk two weeks ago, Meredith and Solomon both read like 15 books but could never remember to bring their reading logs but skated in this week before the deadline, but Thomas has found excuses to NOT read all summer and had only read about two books, couldn't find his reading log, and suddenly realized that his siblings were getting all this priceless booty and he had nothing. He threw himself on the mercy of Miss Jane (who has known him since he was a chubby little two year old and his dad brought him for story time) and she gave him everything except the inflatable ball and made him promise to come back by Saturday with his log and having finished 8 books. So this week he has raced through 6 more books so he won't break his promise to Miss Jane. If I'd known that sibling rivalry and Miss Jane were so persuasive I wouldn't have wasted my time nagging him all summer to read.
We needed to get Tinsaye's glasses right away, so the kids and I headed to LensCrafters in the mall one afternoon this week. Just when I think we've been everywhere new and we're past the "shock and awe" phase for Tinsaye and Solomon, we end up someplace unfamiliar... like the mall! And not just any mall, Twelve Oaks Mall, shopping mecca. I realized this as I was pulling into the parking lot and thought, "This is not going to be the quick and easy trip that I planned." We went in the closest entrance to LensCrafters, I could see it from the door, but between the door and the store was an astonishing world of American consumerism. The pet store! "You can buy ANIMALS here????? Can we have dog? Maybe just cat? I love she so much!" and I wish I had a photo of Tinsaye's face when she learned that those weren't baby clothes in the pet store, in America some people put clothes on their DOGS! When I managed to drag them all out of there, we passed a nail salon ("why big chairs?") a hair salon (Tinsaye- "me hair need working, we go here too?"), the escalator ("lift! lift! like airport! we go on lift?!?!??"), the children's play area ("play inside? where swings?"), before we finally made it to Lenscrafters. Then I suddenly realized I had four kids who find it impossible to not touch everything they see in a store full of thousands of pairs of breakable glasses. I would have given anything for a roll of duct tape right about then. So after about 5 minutes of trying on glasses wherein a poor frazzled employee tried to help Tinsaye while Solomon put on every pair of women's glasses he could find, Meredith tried to convince me that she REALLY couldn't see well AT ALL and also needed glasses especially these sparkly purple ones, and Thomas The Enforcer kept ripping the frames out of Solomon and Mere's hands and replacing them in the wrong spots, I sent The Enforcer and his minions out to ride the escalator. We managed to find some cute frames for Tinsaye, fill out the paperwork, and pay before they came back in arguing that Mere and Solomon don't listen/Thomas is mean. Getting back to the car was faster, but still required several trips up and down the escalator and another stop at the pet store "to say goodbye my small dog, I love she so much".
Can you see why I'm so exhausted all the time? We do need to go back to the mall and really go through the whole place, or better yet, next time I'll send them with Brian.
Oh honey, I feel your pain. Thank GOODNESS we don't live near a mall! I will always remember the first day we took the boys out to play in the sprinkler...they were trying to catch it in buckets to save to drink later. We're so wealthy here in America that we PLAY in water when so much of the world walks miles to even get to dirty water to drink each day. I'm really seeing our lives through new eyes!
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