Ah, the Joys of Parenting

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Ro on his makeshift throne earlier this week

After working three evenings straight, Mark finally had a day off. Up bright and early, Ro was playing with his crayons and his kid-size scissors, cutting scrap paper into different shapes. Somehow he got the idea that cutting his hair would be a good idea, so snip-snip he went. He ended up with a bald spot a couple inches back from the middle of his forehead! Sherry was upset at first, but we soon realized that we had done the same thing when we were kids, and didn't have any difficulty learning the lesson as soon as we got to school...lol. Mark took Ro to school this morning since Sherry had some errands to run.

While Mark was driving him to school, Ronan exclaimed from the backseat that he didn't want to go.

"Why not?" asked Mark.

"The teachers are mean to me," said Ro.

"How so?"

"They tell me to do things."

"Like what?"

"Like not to hit other people with things. And not to climb on the fence," said Ro indignantly as Mark tried to keep a straight face. But, he finally lost it when Ro called out "I can't breathe!" Looking in the rearview mirror, Mark could see the foam yellow earplugs Sherry had bought for Ro ("because he liked squishing them") firmly lodged in each of Ro's nostrils. Fortunately, he was able to extract them himself, sparing us a visit to the ED on Mark's day off.

Ro is getting to be so grown up, or at least thinks he is, refusing to let Mark come with him past the fence bordering the school. "I'm big! I can go to school by myself," he insisted, toddling off with a backpack that looks almost as big as him. Mark and Sherry met up later at McCafe for a late breakfast. Yes, that's right, the local McDonald's has an attached espresso bar, with decadent pastries, gourmet sandwiches, and real mugs - not paper cups. It conveniently overlooks the Playplace, which is one of Ro's favorite places - some things never change, eh?

Even though they get lots of admiring and curious looks on the tandem bike, Ro had been asking to walk to and from school all week, since in his eyes, "all the other kids walk!" Not true, of course, but the majority of them do. We walked to pick him up along Marine Parade, and were waiting for him outside his building when the bell rang. Getting there took about 25 minutes. Getting home, on the other hand, took about 2 hours. Of course, that included a stop at Te Ngaio Reserve to play. Mark showed Ro how to swing from his knees upside down on the monkey bars, which Sherry was less than enthused about. They even have a pretend surfboard mounted on a spring so wannabe surfers can practice their balance, or as Mark refers to it, the "ankle breaker." Ro is quite the babe magnet, and found a couple new "girlfriends" at the park, one of whom he wanted to follow across the street to the beach with her mom. After playing at the beach for another hour or so, we finally made it home for dinner.

Mark & Ro playing Morrowind. Note Ro's little bald spot