Some of My Trip to New England

One of my (many, many, many) cousins got married last Saturday and B and I went.  My parents were driving up and let us come along.  The 1st day of driving, B and I did school in the car.  I had intended to teach every day in the car, but that so did not work out.  One of his Language Arts lessons is teaching him how to write paragraphs.  The lessons give him a topic and he needs to come up with 3 things, in order of importance, and then a sentence that incorporates all 3.  That's all we've gotten up to so far. One of the topics on this particular day was "Mom Is Great" and he needed to write down his 3 favorite reasons I am great.  My musical son immediately starts singing the Bill Cosby song, "Dad is great!  He gives us chocolate cake!", and then proceeds to make up his own words to fit the melody: "Go, Na-na! She gives me Nu-tel-la!" and "She won't topple! She feeds me lots of waffles!"  I love that he has inherited my and my dad's gift of creating new words to songs on the spot.  He is hilarious!

One of the other topics he had to write about was "Homeschool Is Great" and his 3rd sentence caught me off guard, "I don't get bullied at homeschool."  I asked him if that happened a lot when he was in public school (he went for kindergarten and 1st grade) and he said, "Hmmm...about 3/4 of a lot."  He went on to tell me that a group of 2nd grader bullied him daily!  While he was in school, he only told us about 2 incidents, and neither one had to do with this group of 2nd graders.  When I asked him why he hadn't brought it up to us before, he just shrugged and said he told the teachers about it everyday and they told him to just ignore the kids.  But ignoring them did not stop the behavior.

We have talked to B about bullying several times over the last 4 years to let him know what is OK, what isn't, what he has our permission to do to a bully and what we will do to him if he bullies others.  And yet, we must have been telling him too much and not asking him enough.  So ask your kids about bullying.  Just because they don't come to you and tell you are getting bullied doesn't mean they're not.

When we got to the hotel in Albany, I took B to the hotel pool to burn off some energy.  He was so good in the car for a boy who needs to move all the time.  I cannot believe how excited he was to get in that pool!  And it was not your standard, "Olympic-sized" hotel pool.  That thing was 6' wide, 10' long and cloudy.  But it was the bomb as far as he was concerned.  I mean, he was last-day-of-school excited!  I love how the little things are all he needs.

The next day I drove, my mom navigated and B and my dad sat in the back, watching a movie.  They wore headphones so we could not hear the movie, but it was so funny to hear the two of them giggle or burst out laughing together.  My dad treated us to Bromley on the way to my Nana's house in Vermont.  We had a blast.  At Bromley last year, B successfully climbed his 1st rock wall.  This time, he did all 4 levels.  We also got to do the water slides this time.  B was his normal, outgoing self and talked to everyone (that boy's never met a stranger) but what really impressed me was how aware he was of others and moved carefully/accordingly.  For example, when he got to the bottom of an alpine slide, he got off, picked up his sled and proceeded to the sled drop-off area.  After a few steps, he realized a man was at the next sled with his camera up.  B stopped and waited and finally a child came down that slide, the man took a picture and thanked B for waiting.  B's never done that before, especially in an exciting place!  I was very proud.

When we got back in the car to head to my Nana's house, B went into the all-about-me's.  I want another movie; read me Harry Potter.  When we got to Nana's it was play a game with me.  Although most of the day had been about him and having fun, now he needed to back off and let us do what we needed and wanted to do - unpack, rest, visit with Nana.  He was frustrated, unhappy and tired.  Instead of whining or continue to pester us, he decided to run laps in the parking lot to burn off his frustration.  I have one smart cookie!

Due to limited room, my parents stayed at my Nana's house and B and I stayed with my dad's brother and his wife.  We had this wonderful carry-out pizza for dinner and my dad asked B if he wanted a knife and fork to eat his pizza.  My little smart-ass said, "No, thanks.  I don't eat like Donald Trump."  OMG, I about fell over laughing!  My dad, of course had no idea what B was talking about and I could not explain it to him.  B was talking about this story on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart where Donald Trump disrespects New Yorkers with his pizza selection and way of eating it.  You have to watch it, it's so funny!