Keep Up the Great Work

At the dinner table, I found myself looking at Matthew and thinking, Where did the time go? He’s now six years old. It feels like just yesterday when he could barely put two or three words together to form a sentence. Today, he talks like an adult and asks a ton of questions.

“Dad, do you know what ‘objective’ means?” Matthew asked.

“Tell me, what does it mean?” Dad replied, curious.

“Objective means to accomplish something,” he answered, proud of his own definition.

“Well done!” we all said.

After dinner, there was one last piece of homework to finish. Every week, Matthew writes about his week at school, and our homework is to write him a reply.

“Have fun and keep up the great work,” were the last words in Matthew’s journal.

“Oh man, you can’t say that again,” he said after reading it.

Apparently, he takes our journal responses seriously. Telling him to “keep up the great work” every week was starting to stress him out. So, we agreed to switch it up and write that statement every other week.

“That’s great, I like that pattern,” he added.

What Happened To Me for Three Years

Yes, what happened to me? All I can say is, not much—just ventured out into other local community engagement activities that revolved around raising Matthew. Matthew is now over 6 years old. I just read my last blog post here, where I wrote about him being able to write the letter "M." Well, now he writes and reads; he’s even reading one grade above grade one. We’re so proud of him—he’s our very smart little man. From day one, I’ve loved watching him grow up and learn new things every day, and I continue to do so.

Last night, I revisited my blog and went through all the blogs on my reading list, one by one. I noticed that many of them stopped posting one or two years ago, though some are still active.

I’m very active on Twitter (@amlozyk) and Facebook now, but I realized last night how much I miss just spilling my thoughts every day here on the blog, like I did a couple of years ago.

I shall return soon, but let me leave you with a couple of conversations I had today with Matthew.

“Mom, can I eat some of your midnight snack?” Matthew asked.

“Absolutely not,” I replied.

“But Mom, I already had your midnight snack,” he said.

I’m not sure where he got the idea, but he’s figured out that if he eats first and asks later, his treats are guaranteed. This isn’t the first time he’s eaten and then asked. I believe he’s also feeling guilty, so he lets us know in any way he can that he helped himself to the treats.

Today, Matthew had a little accident at school. He collided with another boy from grade four. The impact was so hard that he fell face-first to the ground and broke his sunglasses. The school called, and we went to pick him up. After we settled in and everything was fine, I reviewed his lunchbox.

“Hey Matthew, how come you didn’t eat your lunch?” I asked.

“Oh, I was tired,” he replied.

“Oh, but you managed to eat your treats,” I pointed out.

“That was by mistake,” he said.

Don't Forget Carrot In My Chicken Soup

It’s official—Matthew is now registered for Junior Kindergarten (JK) and will start next fall. We ended up enrolling him in the public school system, as opposed to other options like Catholic or Montessori. The reason is that I thought it would be hard on him to go full-time for five days, so I opted for the public system where they still have two or three alternating days per week. Okay, I’ll admit, it would be hard for me to let him go too.

On Monday this week, we delivered the last piece of paperwork to the school. Matthew is eligible for the school bus, but I thought we’d test out how far we’ll need to walk. Yes, I’m going to walk with him.

It took us 20 minutes to walk with Matthew sitting in the wagon. I think we can do it.

On the way home, we stopped by the playground. Matthew loves kids his age and isn’t afraid to talk and play. As soon as we arrived, he engaged with a boy a little older than him and a girl about his age, who were siblings.

He raced them into the play tunnel, up the stairs, and slid down the double slide with the girl. He loved the fact that they slid together. Afterward, the girl went to play somewhere else, and the boy went back into the tunnel.

Oh, it was a lot of fun for Matthew, so he decided to direct the play.

"Hey, boy, you stay in the tunnel, and I’ll go get my friend," he said to the boy.

"Hey, your friend is my sister!" the boy yelled from the tunnel.

"Okay then, I’ll get your sister," Matthew waved at him.

"Hey, girl, do you want to come and go up the tunnel and slide?" he asked her.

"I want to play on the ropes," she replied.

"Okay then, let’s play ropes," Matthew answered, abandoning the boy.

Well, the rope game didn’t last very long, as the mother of the boy and the girl called them to go home. The girl stayed behind and almost cried, not wanting to leave. The mother and the boy were leaving the playground.

"Hey, boy, you forgot your sister!" Matthew yelled after him.

"Matthew, don’t worry, they know," I replied.

Today, I told Matthew he would be having chicken soup for lunch.

"Okay, Mom, and don’t forget the carrot," he replied.

I just hope that all the demands from this three-year-old don’t grow proportionally, but I will definitely miss him when he goes to school.

No I Am Not Ready For School YET!

Matthew will be 3 1/2 next week, and soon we’ll be looking for potential schools for him. He’ll be starting Junior Kindergarten (JK) next September. Where did the time go? It’s been spent raising this wonderful little boy, who will soon be going to school, learning, and spending most of his days on his own—five days a week. Deep inside, I’m not ready to let him go just yet, but I know I have to. My boy is growing up.

So, really, what’s all the fuss about?

Well, it’s just JK, right? But our provincial system has implemented full-time Junior Kindergarten. It used to be two full days a week, but starting next year, it’ll be five.

That’s the fuss. Typical mother worries, I guess, but I still think that going to school full time at 4 years old might be a bit much. I’m sure there’s an economic benefit behind the system, but I’m not benefiting from it. I’m sure he’ll love it, though. He really enjoys being around other little people.

Let’s see what my little bright child thinks about it all.

"So, Matthew, you know you’re going to school next year?" I ask him.
"Yes, and there will be children to play with, a teacher, and I’ll learn," he replies.
"But Matthew, what am I going to do all day without you?" I ask.
"You will cook and wait for me, Mommy," he says.
"I guess I’ll have to give you a lunch box to take to school," I conclude.

Well, he’s right. This is what I do most of the day: I cook for him, we walk, visit other children, go to playgrounds, hike, read, play, watch TV, and play games. He knows that cooking is the one activity he can’t do with me, so I guess I’ll keep cooking while he takes most of his activities with him to school.

I thought it was entertaining what he said about me cooking and waiting. We asked him again in front of my family. His answer was always the same, but he added:

"And wait, Mommy will give me a big box of food to eat."

We all laughed. I’m amazed that he remembered the lunch box, and lately, he’s been asking me if he can have chicken soup in his big box of food.

Can you see? We just have too much fun together. "No, I’m not ready to send him to school yet."

Sleeping During Lecture

It is good to remember good times, and university was one of them. I only remember good times. All other times where we had to study hard and sometimes results were not so pretty are gone and I never looked back once. But then let me tell you this funny and memorable story.

In our fourth year of university we ended up having tough professor for one of the solid mechanics course. He was a happy individual, but tough. He was one of those professors who wants you to pay attention in class - so guess what, he would ask questions, and if you didn't know then you are shining star on the spot light.

Well, one day the lecture wasn't very interesting, but we all tried hard not to show how bored we were, otherwise, this usually initiated question and answer period. Well there is always that small percentage of the population that will surprise you. So we are vividly paying attention, and suddenly professor points at one student in the auditorium - 'Hey you in the brown jacket, would you be kind enough to wake that guy up beside you' - he said. The student in the brown jacket looks back at the professor and answers - 'You put him to sleep, you wake him up'. I could see that probably every hair including mine, on every student got stiff when hearing the reply. But to our surprise, the professor started to laugh, and said - 'That was good one, I guess I will have to wake him up'. We all laughed, and the sleepy head didn't know what did just happpen.

We Used to Drink on the School Trips

Imagine this, twenty five kids on the bus going on the school trip, and once in the while some of them would take a bottle of Vodka from their knapsack and drink, including me. Yes, we used to drink, but it wasn't a Vodka, it was a tea or some kind of juice. Back then we didn't really have good drinking plastic bottles to bring our drink in, so we used whatever we had at home. Since the Vodka bottle was the only bottle with the screw top, that was the most popular bottle taken on the trip, some of them still with a label on it. So this is how we used to drink on the school trips in the elementary school. The scary part was that they actually let us drink on the bus while bus was in motion. Luckily we didn't damage our teeth. So one day here is me, drinking my Vodka from the bottle, suddenly I stand up on the bus and yelled out to my friend beside me - did you see this, wow? And suddenly my teacher gave me a look that I had to bury myself in the bus chair, turning red, and trying to drink my Vodka, and of course to pretend that nothing happened. Can you guess what I saw? I will give you some clues: it was in Europe, it was a big tree, parked bike on the side of the road.