Eskimo Kisses. Sounds cute right? Wrong! I made the mistake of introducing the concept to my 5 yr old a few weeks back. Mistake #1, the concept. Mistake #2, telling him when he had a gooey cold going on. Now every day - multiple times a day - I get eskimo kisses. And "nosey nosey". And he has to kiss my nose. And then he wants me to kiss his nose. The only good news is that his nose is no longer gooey...

I caught Aidan reading books - on his own! After school today he was reading through a book on sharks while he nibbled on his snack. Later on he spent some time with the Children's Atlas of the Universe (or something like that). He decided there were quite a few words in that one that he didn't know but the shark book clarified his "favorite shark" preference - the Maco (along with the Blue it is one of the fastest sharks going). Of course later on this evening just before bed Quincy was sitting at the table having a little cereal snack "reading" the shark book. That didn't impress me nearly as much - I have seen him enjoy quiet time with a book many times before. I think Aidan has finally realized he can truly read almost anything he wants to - until the words get pretty long anyway.

Pete and I had a nice week sans kids on Oahu a couple of weeks back. Brother Chuck was kind enough to come and stay with the younguns. We were not missed. I did call home a couple of times and Aidan was willing to answer the phone and chat - but Quincy happily passed up the opportunity to talk to me - he was much too busy having fun with Uncle Chuck! Apparently Uncle Chuck also let them enjoy "Mythbusters" and "Dirty Jobs" on TV and treated them to dinner at Burgermeister twice, crepe place once, dinner at the Reiffs another night. And cookies in their lunch boxes EVERY DAY! Lucky kids. We returned late Friday and Chuck headed off to the airport in the dark the next morning. Chuck reported that Quincy had complained of a sore throat "from talking too much" and it was clear when he woke up that he didnt' feel well and soon was in full throttle of a 102 degree fever. He spent the day mostly snoozing. Aidan didn't eat breakfast Monday (nor much of anything til late afternoon) and complained of sore throat and funny tummy so he got to stay home with Quincy on Monday. Quincy was mostly fine on Sunday until dinnertime when he had a low fever come back. I shooed both kids back to school on Tuesday. I had taxes and the like to tackle! I think they may well have had different viruses - and Pete ended up perhaps with Quincy's (aches and general crumminess) and me with Aidan's (sore throat). I read Rob's blog about their problems with Jack's virus and am thankful ours are so minor. Several kids at both schools were really sick - out for days - so we got off lucky (so far!). And best of all - Chuck didn't come down with anything. Maybe he'll consider doing it again sometime :-)

So what is a parent to do? Aidan reported home on Monday that he hadn't been able to finish his lunch as he had been accosted by a "mean" boy in the bathroom who "double dog dared - which means you HAVE TO DO IT - to show him his privates" {privates = my term not his}. I wasn't quite sure how to receive this information. So... a pause... did you show him? "No" (Phew!). I told him I was glad he didn't do something he didn't think was tight and I was proud of him. I emailed his teacher Tuesday a.m. mentioning it - here is where I wasn't quite sure what I was "supposed" to do. I didn't really expect her to do anything - and Aidan didn't seem traumatized altho clearly it was important enough to him that he brought it up to me. I subsequently learned that he mentioned it to a buddy when he got back to the lunch table who said he knew "exactly who it was" as he had been mean to him the previous year (something to do with a stick). Turns out Aidan's teacher asked Aidan to identify the child (a 2nd grader) at lunch and he and his friend did and the other teacher and principal were notified and I understand that the parents are being notified. It seemed a bit much perhaps! I have been told that the boy has done something similar before and is ADHD (?) and on meds... not sure what being on meds has to do with this but teacher seemed to think that Dr should know about it in case a med change should be made (I can't imagine!). Aidan didn't appear to actual feel threatened although he also says the boy wasn't just joking around. Clearly all kids go through some sexual curiousity and I don't know if this fell into that catagory or bullying exactly. Pete felt I should have kept this info to myself. I asked Quincy's teacher (who I respect tremendously and who has been working with kinder age kids for over 20 years, has her masters and is teaching other teachers) what she (as a mother) would have done. She said she thought it was useful or important to pass along to the teacher so they can know about it and see if it is an isolated incident or more of a pattern or something that needs attention. Also that most importantly that I let Aidan know how proud I am of him doing the right thing and that he can get help if he needs help etc. I was really happy that Aidan felt he could tell us and even more that he didn't feel like he had to do something. I worry about him being suspect to peer pressure and making poor choices because of it. I don't worry about Quincy and peer pressure (we'll see if I'm right!). He is much more confident in and of himself. He is also much less concerned about right and wrong than his brother. So he may well decide to do the wrong thing - but it will be his decision not someone elses... He is happy to try to sneak candy or something like that - Aidan always asks (and points out when his brother hasn't!). I also can't imagine Quincy necessarily sharing the incident with me - in many ways he is much more private than his brother. Interesting how you can see all this at such young ages. We truly do have our personalities from birth IMO.

I love this time of year in our neighborhood. Somehow with our microclimate we are able to support trees in their autumn life next door to trees in full spring blossom while outside my bedroom window the trees are in full winter slumber. Several places within a block or so there are maples (or what look to me to be maples) in full glorious fall color especially gorgeous red leaves right next to fruit trees (plum and cherry?) with little pink blossoms breaking out all over. Pretty darned cool IMO. San Diego was a bit seasonless and to some extent you could argue the same about San Francisco - after all our summers aren't exactly balmy! But somehow with the changing trees especially in our neighborhood I get the sense of passing seasons much more (without the ick of Boston winters or muggy east coast summers). I did love visiting Joshua Tree or other desert lands to the east of San Diego - it was amazing to see them in full spring bloom - little flowers popped up everywhere in the middle of the sand and appearing so fragile yet in reality pretty darned sturdy. It helps to be able to drive to mountains of snow in just a few hours for a few days of "winter". That is about all I need!

the family on the Valley floor with Half Dome beyond

Pete & Quincy coming down the slope - a typical view of the 2 of them.

Sunday afternoon on the green "easy" slope.