Lazy Days of Summer

Yesterday was one of those rare and wonderful days during which there were no scheduled activities. No music lessons or play dates, and most importantly, no work. With my new zen-like attitude intact, I puzzled over what to do to fill the time. The boys wanted to go to Raging Waters, but unless the weather is really hot, the exposed plateau on which the water park sits can get unpleasantly chilly as you wait on those stairs, stiff breeze whipping at your wet swimsuit, to get on the rides. Besides, we're going on the 16th for Weston's birthday. In any case, while we pondered, Garrett and Weston got involved in whacking pop gun caps and other boyish pursuits, and I whiled away the day with various activities.

I spent about an hour scuttling around taking photos of my felted creations for yesterday's blog post, then composing (I keep reading that as "composting") the post. Then I spent another hour schedule-wrangling four different families in order to find a day where all the appropriate friends and relatives could attend Weston's Official Birthday Party at Boomer's. I like places like Boomer's for the activities, but there is something unspeakably grim about sitting around those "party rooms", eating bad pizza, drinking warm soda, and trying to drum up a festive attitude. Mini golf, laser tag, bumper boats, and go carts should more than make up for the uncomfortable "party room" moments.

Later, I popped in on a couple of my favorite bloggers and happened on this fascinating link at Dooce.com. Amazing what people get away with, particularly in light of those shows on Animal Planet in which the authorities swoop in to prosecute the owners when they find a dog with mange and it's ribs showing in their yard. Don't get me wrong, I am a dog lover and feel that animal abusers should get the book thrown at them. I guess I just wonder why it's so easy and obvious to remove an animal from a home where it's being abused, but put a human child in the same situation and Child Protective Services bends over backward to avoid stepping in to save her. So that was about an hour and a half of my afternoon spent in horrified fascination.

By 2:00 it was pretty apparent that the day was not going to amount to a hill of beans, so I went to Michael's to buy beads to make eyes, and spent the rest of the afternoon felting a penguin. Et voila!



I don't like it as much as the bunny. I put the feet too close together and made its bum too slim so it wants to topple over or balance drunkenly on one wing. Also, I think I should have chosen red beads for the eyes, but I'm a biologist and I KNOW penguins don't have red eyes. Overall, I think it's pretty good, and that I'm getting better at this felting thing. As a hobby, it is totally absorbing. Even with complete focus on what I was doing, I managed to give myself three or four good hard jabs in the finger. This is not one of those things you do casually while watching an episode of CSI. Thanks is owed to Steve for refusing to give up until he had snapped JUST the right photograph of my latest creation rather than relaxing when he got home, like he probably wanted to.

Couldn't Hit The Side of a Barn at 10 Paces!

Help me out here. I'm not a guy, so I lack the understanding of certain plumbing issues. Twice this year, Garrett (8 years old) has gotten in trouble for "peeing on the wall of the bathroom." Today was pretty tragic because his teacher was so pissed (heh, see what I did there?) she wouldn't allow him to go on his end-of-year swim party unless I could come and supervise him. That couldn't happen because I was stuck in the dentist chair, so his missed his field trip. Both times this has happened Garrett has claimed that certain things stick to certain other things, causing him to misfire and hit the wall behind the toilet for a brief period until he got the flow under control. Then, some other boy (apparently one with better aim) tells on him, and by the time he gets back to class he is in trouble.

Full disclosure: Garrett gets in trouble a lot at school. He has a hard time focusing, he has bad impulse control, poor judgment, and insists on acting as the class clown. As a result, his teachers aren't super fond of him. When someone comes running to tell on him, the benefit of the doubt is typically not his for the taking. I get that his behavior is irritating to his teachers, and probably to other kids. I also think that other kids clue into the teachers' feelings about Garrett and tell on him for small things because, well, it's fun to get another kid in trouble, and it makes the tattler look and feel like the star.

I'm not sure if I'm being totally naive by taking Garrett's side. I tend to believe it was an accident because my bathrooms at home always smell like monkey pee because he frequently misses the bowl. On the other hand, Weston (who is almost 13) tells me aiming at the toilet is no biggie, and that anyone should be able to do it. Here's my question: Do those of you with boys have similar problems at home, or is my kid weird? Oh, and if your kid is a tattle tail, give him a good swift kick in the arse, courtesy of me!

Updated: Turns out my little angel wasn't telling the truth. About 9 other little boys were witness to his whizzing with great abandon ALL over the wall. Upon confrontation with the witnesses that had stepped forward, Garrett 'fessed up that it wasn't a simple case of "missing" the toilet. Furthermore when his teacher got mad at him, he told her that she was "overreacting". Yeah. Turns out I AM totally naive.