Tag Archives: family

A Total Blast From the Past….

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I was sifting through some old emails last night that I had archived and came upon this little gem that I sent out to a chosen few back when I was carrying Quinn. It made me laugh to remember exactly how in tune I was to what people said, did, and how they acted around me. Enjoy.
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Nicole Vallentyne wrote:
So…
It would seem that yesterday and today mark the dawn of a new phase in pregnancy, and quite frankly, my least favourite.  This new phase I will refer to as gigantism.  Let me give you a few examples of how I am aware I have hit this particular phase.

Yesterday I am all set to leave the house and pick up Jordynn on the corner from the bus.  On my way I run into a neighbour that I haven’t seen in a few weeks.  Upon seeing me he says, “WHOA-HO!   When are you due?” To which I reply, “About 2 weeks.”  The conversation is ended with him wishing me luck.  Luck how I wonder?

Not even five minutes pass when I see my other neighbour Louise, who says upon seeing me, “OH MY GOD NIKKI!YOUR STOMACH IS SOOO BIG!  You look like you’re going to explode.  That is a big baby.  Oh you poor dear.”

Thanks a million!

So then we have today to reinforce any doubt I may have had about entering this new phase.  Court and I go out for lunch, and I return from a restroom trip only to find many individuals unabashedly staring at me.  Not staring at me in that adoring way of saying,   “Oh, how wonderful.  She’s carrying a new life within.”  Oh no, it’s more like a gawking   “Good Heavens!”   kind of look.

Again, thanks a million!

To top it all off though, and this one really takes the friggin’ cake; I go into Bouclair today to pick up some material for a project I’m working on for Jordy’s room.  To make a long story short, I had some material put aside from another store I was at in order to get all that I needed.  As soon as I walk in, I quietly ask a lady at the cutting counter, “Excuse me, do you have a washroom?”

To which she yells at another worker at the other end of the store, “CAN YOU TAKE HER TO THE BATHROOM, SHE NEEDS TO GO!”

Great.  So this other girl sees me (somehow) and says, “Are you the lady here for the white eyelet?”

I naively say, “Yes, how did you know?”

She replies, “Fern called and said that you were pregnant and big, and that I couldn’t miss you.”

All I could do was smile, and walk up to her and say, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE WHO ABSENTMINDEDLY FLAP YOUR CAKEHOLES AT WOMEN IN THE GIGANTISM PHASE OF PREGNANCY?!?!?!?!!??”

…Unfortunately, that is NOT the correct ending of the story, however it is fun to fantasize about.  All is correct except the last sentence where I actually responded, “Great.”

I pity the poor bastard that says one more thing to me today about my gigantism condition.  I swear to God I’ll go hormonal.

That is all.  Thanks for allowing me that little rant.
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Diversity

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Today was the first of monthly visits I’m scheduled to make to Quinn’s classroom to help out in the mornings. I agreed to once a month, thinking I would do this for both the boys and be at the school once every two weeks. Turns out that the kindergarten class doesn’t need me, but the Grade 1’s were happy to have the help. After today I may be offering up more of my mornings.

Everyone knows every child is different and it is impossibly hard to compare any one child to another. Personalities, learning styles, comprehension, focus, and the general willingness to please (or not) are just a few of the characteristics that you find crammed into one classroom. All of these characteristics can make a classroom very crowded despite the number of children there are inside. Quinn has 16 kids in his classroom. This was amazing news for us considering Jordynn has had up to 31 kids in her classrooms over the years. I think it is wonderful to have a smaller class. You would think it would give a teacher an abundance of time for individual attention. This is not necessarily the case.

I spent the morning with a beautiful little boy who I was told has yet to be “assessed”. This particular little man needs one on one attention to be able to stay focused on a task and unfortunately he does not have an EA. He and I had a very successful morning together and the teachers were happy with his progress. This progress only happens for this little trooper when he has someone working with him. Unfortunately all the other days, when there isn’t the one on one, he does not find the same success or achievement. This broke my heart. This is also hard on the teacher who is unable to give what she obviously wants to give to this student as it would take from all the others. 16 is a rather big number now in my eyes.

Then I saw children who just seemed to not have any respect for the teachers repeated requests to be quiet, pay attention, work on the assignment, or put up their hand. I was however told that today they were a little excitable (likely due to my presence), but I know some of these kids from Quinn and his teachers in past years, and am fully aware of what the teacher has to face every day with some of them, mainly their lack of respect.

Of course among these children are some that have been desensitized to the regular distractions and disruptions of others and coast through their day, following rules, and looking forward to recess to burn off the boredom/frustration.

I guess in a way it is like any job where you are subjected to all different types of personalities, opinions and behaviours. Call it a wakeup call for me though to see firsthand the skills our children learn at such a young age. Given the restrictions put upon our teachers for maintaining order, it appears to me that our kids are forced to grow up a little sooner with the life lesson of tolerance, or sadly, the disservice of just being tolerated.

Let me finish by saying this; I left that classroom this morning with a warm fuzzy in my heart having given to a kid who deserves more that what is presently available to him. We had success. We did the assignment…albeit not easily…and not without steady redirection to the task at hand, but the smile on that little boys face made my cup runeth over. He beamed, puffed out his chest and took his work to the teacher for his well deserved praise. We even did the extra bonus work damn it…and by God he felt good about it. Our shared high-five at the end of that made my day/week/month. The sad part is the ache in my heart for I know that tomorrow may not be as good a day for my new little friend.

There is an ache in my heart for those who will potentially never learn respect for others, and will unfortunately grow up being tolerated, never knowing that isn’t a good quality in life.

There is an ache in my heart for those who are held back from their full potential as a result of having to tolerate others.

Hats off to teachers. Whitney, I think of you often and admire your perseverance, your patience, your tolerance. Today reminded me of my respect for teachers. Especially the good ones. We need them.

So the next time the form comes home in your child’s back pack to see if you are willing to offer up some of your time to volunteer in the classroom…and you could actually make some time….don’t recycle it right away thinking you are already too busy with life and its demands. Think of my little buddy who may only have one morning a month with a mom who didn’t realize how badly she was needed in the first place.

Father’s Day

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This weekend we were lucky enough to be up at Cedar Cove for Father’s Day.  We rented a trailer there for the weekend (it’s the usual gig, we do it every year).  We were lucky enough this year that the forecasted rain held off long enough for us to have our whole weekend, pack up, and we were just finishing our ice cream as all heck broke loose.

Of course it then rained all afternoon on us at the house, but it didn’t matter by then.  I attribute this fortuitous timing to Nikki, who manages to make the impossible happen on a regular basis.

In short our weekend was relaxed, and very fun.  We spent most of it in the pool with the kids, with short breaks for food, bingo and cards (with the exception of Cael, who decided to brush up on an old hobby instead of playing cards: screaming).

So, there’s not a heck of a lot of news here, really.  We all had a great time, as we always do, and I was very spoiled.  Pretty awesome for me.

Thanks Nik, you rock.  I love ya, baby.