This was the last full week of summer break. School starts with a half day on Tuesday and the first full day will be Thursday. For all the kids and teachers I know this summer hasn't been long enough. As for me, since I have been back to work for a month now I am ready to get the show on the road. I feel kind of like I've been packing for a trip. Eventually you just want to get in the van and head out.
THE BIRTHDAY BOY. Ben's fifth birthday was Wednesday. His party was held at Chuck E. Cheese's and a good time was had by all. Fortunately for us it was a slow night for the restaurant. Ben had seven guests (Jenna and Nate included) and by the time you added the parents, siblings, grandmas and all in we had a large party. The fun started at 6:00 and by the time we had our pizza, met Chuck, played games, had the cake, opened presents and played more games it was almost 9:00 before we were packing up to go home. Five is really a fun age to have a birthday party and I'm glad Ben enjoyed his.
TORPEDEARS FOR SUPPER. We had tortillas and the works for supper one night this week. This is NOT Ben's favorite menu. Our rule is to get the occasional dessert you must finish your meal. After Jenna and Nate had left the table, Ben continued to sit and stare at his plate. He finally with much sadness asked, "Mom, do I have to finish this torpedo?"
SPEAKING OF SCHOOL, Jenna will be starting the second grade this year. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Phillips. We have decided to wait until next year to start Ben due to his late birthday, and he will continue Mom's Day Out two days a week in a few weeks. Nate will also go one day a week so that Vicki can be more readily available for Pauline, Aunt Mar and Mom for doctor's visits.
NAME CONFUSION. Nate still thinks Ben's name is "Nate." He is convinced of it. We try hard to correct him but since we all know what Nate means when he says Nate we are in danger of it growing on us. One night at supper I pointed to Ben and asked Nate what his name was. He answered "Nate" very enthusiastically.
After correcting him I asked again, "Nate, what is his [pointing to Ben] name?"
Nate replied, "Name!"
I shook my head and tried again, "Nate, who is that?"
Nate pointed at Ben and said, "That!"
Vicki was about to lose it at this point and she couldn't hold her laughter any longer (as well as the kids) when I looked over and said, "This is about as bad as that police officer in Korea."
LOST IN KOREA. To let you in on the joke I need to go back to 1992 when I was a summer missionary in Seoul (Hae-Soon, I don't know if I ever told you this). I spent that summer teaching English to Korean college students. One afternoon I went sight seeing with Hae-Soon, a friend I made in my Bible study class. After eating supper it was time for me to catch my bus back home. While riding home it began to rain. For some reason the bus driver entered our apartment complex from a different side. Since it was raining and dark I failed to recognize where I was until I missed my stop.
I did not panic because our stop was at the end of the route and I thought I'd just ride back up one stop, cross the street and catch the next bus to come through. Well, it was the end of the day for this particular driver and he headed back to the shop for the night and had us all get out just a few blocks from the shop. I was somewhere I had never been before and could not read or speak Korean. I hailed a taxi. The driver couldn't speak English. Realizing I was lost and needing help he took me to a police station and found an officer who spoke broken English.
Now I didn't know the name of the neighborhood I lived in but I could navigate the subway to the Shin-Do-Rim station and take the little "village bus" that ferried people back and forth to our apartment complex (which was at least a dozen high rise buildings). With that in mind I told the police officer I needed to get to the closest subway station. He looked really confused and said, "We have no subway station named 'Closest'." I tried again asking for the nearest station. Again, "We have no subway station named 'Nearest'."
I finally got my point across and got home but a trip that normally took 30 minutes took over three hours that night.
LITTLE BROTHERS! Occasionally Jenna invites Ben upstairs to spend the night with her. He sleeps on a mattress we store under her bed (I call it the trundle mattress). He got to do that one night this week. The next morning he stayed up there to play and when Nate woke up he went up there too. At one point Nate got a bit hungry, came downstairs, poured some dry cereal in a cup and went back up (we let him snack like this on occasion but he must stay in the kitchen when he does). A bit later Vicki, who was unaware of the cereal, heard Jenna really fussing at Nate to leave. Since he would not she came downstairs frustrated and said, "Mommy, would you make Nate come downstairs?"
Defending Nate Vicki said, "It sounds like he is playing well, why do you want him to come downstairs?"
A very aggravated Jenna answered, "Because he is sitting there in the chair!"
Vicki looked at her without any sympathy. So Jenna added, "And...he's CRUNCHING!!!!" She was ultimately surprised that her amused Mom chose to stay out of it.
TOOTH STORIES. I mentioned last week that Jenna had lost two teeth. We went to visit with Uncle Paul this afternoon and she was showing him the gaps in her teeth. In their conversation Uncle Paul, who has had dentures since he was in his 20s, took his tongue and pushed his lower plate out and then sucked them back in real quick. Jenna moved back a bit and her eyes got really big in a look of startled amusement. It didn't scare her but she sure wasn't expecting that to happen. We all had a good laugh.
This all segued into Uncle Paul remembering a prank he had pulled when he was single and living at home. Both of his parents had dentures at that time and when they went to bed they stored their teeth in jars on their night stands. One night uncle Paul came in after his parents had gone to bed. Since they were sound asleep he slipped into their room and swapped their teeth. When they got up the next morning they couldn't figure out why their their teeth didn't fit. They finally got things sorted out but they never said anything to him. But Uncle Paul ends the story saying, "They kept looking at me awful funny."
Joe
