Quote of the Day, Bolinas Edition

Boylee to family: Why do we always go to the same restaurant?!?

Family: Because there's only one restaurant in town!

Quote of the Day

This morning, when giving Mama instructions for playing a certain game Boylee had devised: "Be quiet! You can blink, and breathe. But quietly!"

Quote of the Day

First sentence out of Boylee's mouth upon awakening this morning, to Mama: "I love you so much. I love you more than the whole earth. More than a trash can."

Breaking News!

Last night Boylee was brushing his teeth and complaining at the same time: "It hurts!" I wanted him to quit complaining and just get the brushing done, so I wasn't too sympathetic. But after he was finished I took a look -- and discovered that he has a loose tooth! It's one of the bottom middle teeth, and it's only just barely loose, so it'll no doubt be a while before it falls out.

Boylee's reaction? Laughter and tears at the same time, which he himself acknowledged as an interesting combo.

Ten Minutes

Today something hilarious happened. Well, not hilarious to me, but hilarious to Boylee: I forgot his backpack at home. The idea that it would be forgotten was very, very funny. To him.

His absent backpack was full of the following: his completed homework, his lunchbox which held water and a snack, and his lunch ticket for eating in the cafeteria today. Obviously I had to go home and get it. I said, "Boylee, you go into the classroom and I'll be back with your backpack in ten minutes." He said, "Why does EVERYTHING take ten minutes?!?" The answer is...I do not know, but it just does.

Quote of the Day

Just before bedtime tonight.

Boylee (upset): I can't stop thinking about it!

Daddy: Thinking about what?

Boylee (sobbing): Mom in jail!

What?!??

Acting

That's My Boy!

We get a lot of harassment from family and friends regarding the decrepit state of our "media center." We have one tiny TV in the bedroom -- like maybe 8 inches? 10 inches? We have a nice-ish TV in our den. But we have no cable or satellite, and we live in a nook against a hill so we get terrible reception. Both TVs have actually antennae, that have to be arranged and rearranged whenever you change channels. Now we're going to be receiving a very nice, new, fancy TV (thanks Sid and Nancy!), so we were talking about rearranging -- we can get rid of the tiny old TV, and move the decent TV into the bedroom, and have the fancy TV in the den. But this was Boylee's reaction: He burst into tears! He only wants the tiny TV, he never wants any other TV, and he doesn't want to watch Sesame Street on a large TV. Oh, Boylee.

Winter Concert

It was unbearably sweet! It was also exactly like the concerts of my childhood -- the tiny auditorium looks the same as LAUSD schools did in the 70s, the music was the same, the whole aura was exactly the same.




The aforementioned tiny auditorium means they had to do three concerts. At the first, the audience was strictly parents, and because there's virtually no backstage space, the kids were simply brought from their classrooms to perform, class by class. So while the kids got to sing their song, they didn't get to see any of the other classes performing. So at the second concert, half the school watched. At the third, the other half of kids watched. This was great fun for everyone, but I have to say that by the end of the third concert the little kindergarteners were burned out. It was a very hectic day for them. But that was afterwards -- during their performance they had tons of energy, and you could feel the affection the big kids have for the littler ones -- the audience was totally quiet and respectful, and gave the littles a huge applause.

A Conundrum

Thursday morning is Boylee's winter concert. The kinders will be singing "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer," if I'm not mistaken. (It's supposed to be a surprise, but I keep hearing him sing it.) We have been asked to send the kids to school in "winter clothing," and then the teacher will provide a red scarf for each kid. Unfortunately the weather report calls for sunny skies, highs in the low 80s. So I'm not sure just how wintery we're going to get. A long sleeve shirt might be pushing it.

Hates to Color?

Boylee does seem to hate to color -- but on Friday afternoon his teacher sent home two xeroxed game boards, along with dice. He was so enthralled with the games that he did this all on his own:

More About Boylee's Conference

Mrs. Richards gave me an example of how Boylee works. He recently had a writing test. She gave him a piece of paper and asked him to draw a picture of something he could see at a zoo, and then write a sentence about it. He drew a polar bear (maybe because it's white and he wouldn't have to color it?!?) and then wrote: I see a polar bear at the zoo.

Mrs. Richards told me that some other kids might choose to write just "polar bear," or "I see a polar bear," but he wrote that nice, long sentence. That got him a grade of 4.

Parent Conferences

Today was my first conference with Boylee's teacher. I'll post more about it tomorrow, but I do want to tell you that she said this: "If my class was full of Boylees, my job would be a lot easier."

Art

That one says "I am thankful for...my parents, getting presents, playing basketball, my cats."