I love the passing of time

Annie is Star Of The Week at school this week, starting this morning. They sent her home a sheet to fill in about herself & asked her to bring in pictures to share with the class. She was very excited about this all weekend, as we prepared everything. In addition to sharing this info with the class, she also gets to walk the attendance slip down to the office every morning and be the line leader all week.

This morning, I told Annie & Shelby that, if they got their snowpants & boots on while I was driving Allison to school, I would drive them to the bus stop. It’s only a block away, but they like when we have time to drive there because then they can wait for the bus in the warm car, listening to the radio.

So, they were all ready when I got back from the high school - coats, backpacks & all. We piled into the car, got the seatbelts on, drove the block to the bus stop & waited. While waiting, Annie told me about how she’ll get called up by her teacher & get to tell the class about her Star of the Week stuff, show her pictures, etc.

The bus came down the street. We got out of the car, crossed to the bus stop, got in line & I gave them kisses & wished them a good day.

As Annie walked up the stairs & got onto the bus, I finally remembered that I hadn’t brushed her hair this morning and that it was too late to do anything about it.

I hope it doesn’t look too much worse than it normally does, when she’s up there being the Star of the Week. It usually gets pretty messy when she puts the hood of her coat up, anyway. And, at least it’s kindergarten, I don’t think any of the kids will notice, anyway.

There was a dated threat written on the boys bathroom wall at Allison’s school on Monday. It said something about the Mexican & black kids being in danger on Thursday (today). The school is working with the police department to keep the kids safe - all kinds of extra security measures are in place for the rest of the week (and started yesterday). No bags/backpacks/purses allowed in school. Only one entrance open, with metal detector & search on entry. No loitering in halls. Police & extra faculty on campus. And, parents are allowed to call their kids in for an excused absence this week, if they want to.

We sent her to school yesterday. But, she said that half the students were gone, so it’s not like she’s going to be missing much, instruction-wise. And, while we don’t want the kid who started it all to ‘win’, to basically shut down the school with his prank/insanity… We kept her home today.

She’ll probably go back tomorrow, though.

So, there’s the never-ending debate online (and in real life, I suppose) regarding spanking… One of the arguments you always hear for spanking is, “If my child is going to touch a hot stove (or run into traffic), it is better that I let them feel the hurt of being spanked, and, therefore, learn not to touch - rather than let them be burned (or run over by a car)”.

I’ve always wondered why

1) a parent is letting their child be by a hot stove (or dangerous road) unsupervised if they know that their child doesn’t yet understand the danger of a hot stove (or dangerous road). Why is the child being punished for this?

2) If the parent is able to grab the child in order to spank them, when they are going for the hot stove (or into the dangerous road), why can’t they grab the child, bring them to safety, then *teach them with words, facial expressions, tone of voice, role playing & role modeling* about the danger (or keep them supervised better until they can learn about the danger)?

Anyway, even though we believe that some of life’s lessons are best learned by letting the child deal with the natural consequences of their own choices, we don’t mess around with safety. So, we supervised the kids in all situations until we knew that they knew how to keep themselves safe. And, we taught them to be safe by discussion, tone of voice, facial expression, role modeling & role playing.

Just last night, I was in the kitchen, working on dinner. All nine puppies were in there, too. As were Annie & Shelby. I had heard Annie talking to her favorite little puppini (she & shelby now call that dog ‘little big bark’, but I still call her puppini ). She was saying something like, “You don’t want to be a too hot dog, do you?” over & over again. I started paying closer attention to her when I went to the stove to cook, because she was right there in my way & noticed what she was doing.

She was holding puppini & warning her about the hot oven, which I had pre-heating to warm some pretzels to have with our dinner. She was reaching out & touching the hot oven herself (it wasn’t hot enough to burn), then pulling her hand back, with an exaggerated ‘ouchie’ look on her face, saying “Ow! Hot! Don’t touch!” to the puppy. She was trying to teach the puppy how to be safe, in the same way that we had taught her.

I’m not sure that the puppy learned much last night. But, I know that I learned that Annie’s going to be an awesome mom one day! And, I felt good that she remembered the gentle lessons that we had taught her.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. - Mark Twain

The more aggressive puppies went on to their next step on the underground puppy railroad on Friday night. I hope that they find nice homes at the adoption fairs over the next few weeks - homes where they are the only dog, or where they are clearly the lower dog in the pack - homes where they get lots of cuddle time & attention, so that they learn to be gentle & lovable.

On Saturday evening, we got these ones… They have an interesting story.

A rescue worker down in Kentucky was at her local gas station. She saw a hitchhiker & an older man standing looking at something between the ice chest & the wall. She went over to take a look & saw a dog, about 2 years old, clearly in labor & clearly in distress. She told the hitcher that the dog really needed to be at a vet, or somewhere warm & nice, anyway, to deliver those pups. He told her that she would be fine, that she had been like that for a few days now, as he traveled on from place to place (he was on his way from NC to CA, I think).

She convinced him, by paying for his motel room, to let her bring the dog to her vet. A few days before Christmas, she delivered 10 pups, but one died shortly afterwards.

A couple days later, he wanted to take his dog & go. Now, when she was at the vet, he examined her & found a gunshot wound on her. Additionally, the rescue worker said that he said he had lots of dogs, but that he did not really take care of them - said that if one died, he’d just go out & get another to replace it. She just didn’t think he was a very responsible pet owner all in all (besides the obvious lack of care for his dog in labor & postpartum)

It took lots of convincing & a promise to send the dog on to him after the pups were weaned, but he finally let her stay with the rescue worker & her babies.

She’s not going to send the dog back to him. Mom is here, with the people who run the adoption/rescue place that we’re fostering for. We’ve got the pups.

So far, they are very well behaved. Most of them know how to go on the paper. A couple of them whine to go outside when they have to go. A couple of them don’t have any clue about going on the paper at all, yet (sigh…).

A few of them like tearing up the paper & running all over the kitchen with it.

Today’s goal, for me, is to teach them all to go on the paper or outside -and- that the paper is not a toy.

They also love romping around outside, chewing up things in the yard that they probably shouldn’t be chewing up.

And, once they settled down last night, all nine of them were quiet in the basement puppy pen until I went down there this morning at 8am!

And, they are gentle, gentle, gentle. No aggression at all here. Very little puppy fighting for position in the pack. Maybe that will change once they realize that mom is gone (they separated from her yesterday afternoon). Annie & Shelby will come in the kitchen & cuddle with them, while they jump up & lick their faces. But, they are a little shy of big people, so far.

One of the big furry brown ones seems to be the one that mom put in charge, in case she was gone. He rounds them up, keeps them quiet, is the first to approach people on behalf of his family, keeping them safe until he’s sure of the person involved. Then, there’s Annie’s favorite - the tiny little one. Smaller than one of our cats, right now, but spunky & not picked on by the others at all.

More pics of them here http://public.fotki.com/gazoogle/2008-march/20080302a/ and here http://public.fotki.com/gazoogle/2008-march/20080302/page9.html

Annie, telling me which Pokemon I am…

You are a Mr Mime, because they work all of the time.

Dad is like a Happini, because they are strong and they are happy most of the time.

Sitting in the kitchen. Kids are looking at e-cards online, for the sheer fun of it. I’m putting new paper down for the puppies.

One of the newspapers has a story about some kids who, on their birthdays, asked their friends to bring donations for Toys for Tots, instead of gifts for the birthday child. So, being a good parent, I showed it to my kids, hoping they’d get inspired.

Shelby was holding the paper, reading the headline, “One good deed inspires another”. And, looking at the kids’ picture. I said, “And, someone thought that was such a wonderful thing to do that they wrote a story about them, took their picture & put it in the newspaper.”

Shelby waited for proper comic effect, as I put down some other papers for the puppies, then said… “And, now, the puppies are going to pee on them” & put the paper down.

:D