Saturday, May 15, 2010

Jiggety Jog.

Home again. My own little Vermont family seems to have managed to avoid a complete collapse in my absence, which is a good thing of course. I missed them, but I'll admit I was very preoccupied down in Texas with the nephew/Niblet. I had a real pang when I had to walk away from him, sleeping peacefully in his bassinet. His anxious mother has told me she doesn't think they will be traveling with him for a long time (read "years") to come - germs on airplanes etc.

Sigh. I have been thinking of the new little family hourly since my return. The hackneyed phrase "24/7" gets thrown around a lot and usually is an exaggeration of the demands it is meant to describe. Not so with newborns.

Shackleton Speaks VIII

On my return I found a school paper, a spelling test, recently completed by Shackleton. It had a smiley face on it in red, rather incongruous considering it was marked with a grade of 4 percent. That's right. F O U R percent. Whusband largely blamed the messy handwriting which made it impossible for the teacher to really see which letters had been included.

Me: "Shack, neatness counts. You have really got to try harder or we're taking away privileges."

Shack: "Like what?"

Me: "Like something you really enjoy - like X-Box."

Shack (instantly): "I don't really enjoy X-Box. I really enjoy studying hard."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh. Like giving up self-flagellation for Lent.

BTW, the yearning for little ones is not unusual. My wife and I occasionally muse longingly about another one.

Then we snap out of it.

Cheers.

Lulu LaBonne said...

hahahaha - kids eh?

That one's so sharp he's gonna cut himself one of theses days

oldmanneill said...

Shack is THE MAN. In college I scored a 3% on a Physics Exam. Alas I had neither a quick comeback nor a red smiley face to dull the pain.

Kim Velk said...

R - It passes, though, doesn't it? I only wish this Niblet were closer to VT so I could participate a bit more.

Lulu - We think so. It would be a little better if some of his brain power were directed at his school work. Thanks for the note.

Wow, OMN. Not even something for putting your name at the top of the paper? Ouch.

Denise said...

Ha! I don't think you have to worry about him.

My brother's writing is something to see, you would think by looking at his signature that he is either a serial killer or extremely constipated.

By the way, my mother says '7/24' and has been doing so for years. She wouldn't be my mother if she got it right!

Anonymous said...

oh gee - which one of us should tell them THIS that the time to travel with Infants and NOT the insane 2 or 3 yr olds????

p.s. how are you doing? thank you for wandering into my area. i am so busy with the online shops i don't read the blogs as i should -

are you in 'The Last House' now?