Lovely Fall Afternoon
Its been bitterly cold this week, though today the sun finally came out and it warmed up to about 60 degrees.
Gabe had today and tomorrow off school for Parent-Teacher conferences and after the debacle that was dinnertime last night (chicken pot pie is apparently worse than death) he woke up in fine spirits this morning seeking approval from the highly unimpressed parental unit that is Mommy. We decided to go on a long walk down to the park. After much deephearted conversation we arrived at the jungle gym and Gabe decided it was time to haul out the spongebob football. He punted it right into the top of a juniper. I scolded him for having no regard for tall trees! Forlorn, I offered to just get him a new one though it did nothing to console the matter because this one was 'special'.
The tall tree was scary, and we went back and forth about what to do. Eventually he decided to try and climb it, since it really was the only option. "I believe in myself."
I pushed back the instinctual sissy Mom-fear and boosted him up to the first branch. He'd never even climbed a tree before, if he falls he could break his neck!
Besides, it was unlikely he could get up high enough, and even if he could, he couldn't shake the mighty branch free of the ball. But it wasn't impossible. So I coached him where to put his feet and how to hoist himself here and there... of course, being an 8 yr old boy, he did just fine. But of course, he couldnt shake the branch hard enough to make the ball fall, and I was afraid he might lose balance if he tried much harder. I told him to wiggle his way ONTO the branch and then bounce (hoping it didn't break under his weight). He wiggled. It didn't fall. I told him to wiggle out farther towards the middle. Then more bouncing, and the ball fell to the ground. Much cheering ensued!!! The park was empty except for sub-human teenagers in the pavillion who were now noticeably glued to the tree-climbing, ball-extracting drama and my shouting of pointed direction.
Climbing DOWN was harder than climbing up, and there were a few whimpers of fright. There was no way down the trunk, so I told him to monkey himself out on the lowest branch and then drop and I'd catch him, which was precisely what he did and we both fell to the ground in giggles.
Climbing every tree in the park.
Spoony after she realized there was another dog in the park.
Then it was off to the teacher conference where I got Gabe's S.A.T scores from last April. He got high scores in Math and Phonics, but did average in everything else, and crappy in reading comprehension and sentence structure (language stuff).
Strangely enough, Gabe's new favorite book he rented from the school library is a dictionary, which he totes with him EVERYWHERE now. In this dictionary is the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" which he was quite amused by. I told him the word was from Mary Poppins, and sang him the song. He has pestered me to watch it since then. So tonight after going out to Mom's (only to realize I forgot the keys) and after Gabe promptly puked a bucket on Mom's lawn (7-11 slurpie didn't agree with him) we jetted off to Hollywood Video. The clerk got a giggle out of us renting Mary Poppins (especially after Gabe loudly drooled over the new Incredible Hulk display), but agreed that it was a classic.
We whipped together some peanut butter cookies and happily cuddled in for the movie. Gabe made it til right after the SuperCaliFragilistic song when he dozed off but he enjoyed it thoroughly.
Gabe had today and tomorrow off school for Parent-Teacher conferences and after the debacle that was dinnertime last night (chicken pot pie is apparently worse than death) he woke up in fine spirits this morning seeking approval from the highly unimpressed parental unit that is Mommy. We decided to go on a long walk down to the park. After much deephearted conversation we arrived at the jungle gym and Gabe decided it was time to haul out the spongebob football. He punted it right into the top of a juniper. I scolded him for having no regard for tall trees! Forlorn, I offered to just get him a new one though it did nothing to console the matter because this one was 'special'.
The tall tree was scary, and we went back and forth about what to do. Eventually he decided to try and climb it, since it really was the only option. "I believe in myself."
I pushed back the instinctual sissy Mom-fear and boosted him up to the first branch. He'd never even climbed a tree before, if he falls he could break his neck!
Besides, it was unlikely he could get up high enough, and even if he could, he couldn't shake the mighty branch free of the ball. But it wasn't impossible. So I coached him where to put his feet and how to hoist himself here and there... of course, being an 8 yr old boy, he did just fine. But of course, he couldnt shake the branch hard enough to make the ball fall, and I was afraid he might lose balance if he tried much harder. I told him to wiggle his way ONTO the branch and then bounce (hoping it didn't break under his weight). He wiggled. It didn't fall. I told him to wiggle out farther towards the middle. Then more bouncing, and the ball fell to the ground. Much cheering ensued!!! The park was empty except for sub-human teenagers in the pavillion who were now noticeably glued to the tree-climbing, ball-extracting drama and my shouting of pointed direction.
Climbing DOWN was harder than climbing up, and there were a few whimpers of fright. There was no way down the trunk, so I told him to monkey himself out on the lowest branch and then drop and I'd catch him, which was precisely what he did and we both fell to the ground in giggles.
Climbing every tree in the park.
Spoony after she realized there was another dog in the park.
Then it was off to the teacher conference where I got Gabe's S.A.T scores from last April. He got high scores in Math and Phonics, but did average in everything else, and crappy in reading comprehension and sentence structure (language stuff).
Strangely enough, Gabe's new favorite book he rented from the school library is a dictionary, which he totes with him EVERYWHERE now. In this dictionary is the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" which he was quite amused by. I told him the word was from Mary Poppins, and sang him the song. He has pestered me to watch it since then. So tonight after going out to Mom's (only to realize I forgot the keys) and after Gabe promptly puked a bucket on Mom's lawn (7-11 slurpie didn't agree with him) we jetted off to Hollywood Video. The clerk got a giggle out of us renting Mary Poppins (especially after Gabe loudly drooled over the new Incredible Hulk display), but agreed that it was a classic.
We whipped together some peanut butter cookies and happily cuddled in for the movie. Gabe made it til right after the SuperCaliFragilistic song when he dozed off but he enjoyed it thoroughly.