Hands are for Helping

Ada has started Kindergarten this year and loves it.  I went to pick her up awhile ago (it has taken me a while to post this story) and her teacher beckoned me to the door.  "Ada had a bit of an altercation in class today," she confided in me, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips.  I was a little confused by her expression.  She went on.  "I didn't see what happened.  Her friend Julie was playing with the blocks, I think, and another little boy, Franky, might have tried to take them.... Anyway, when I looked over Ada was threatening Franky with her fist."

"Oh dear," I said.  The small smile on the teachers face grew slightly and I became even more perplexed.

"We try to teach the kids that they can't hit by telling them 'hands are for helping'.  When I saw Ada with Franky, I said, 'Ada!  Hands are for helping!!!'.  She turned to look at me with her first still in Franky's face and said, quite calmly, 'I am helping - I am helping Julie."

Apparently, the teacher took Ada's actions very seriously and Ada was asked to sit in the thinking chair.  The teacher said Ada was very calm about everything until that moment, at which point she became outraged.  Ada told me all about it on the way home, complaining that she had wanted to make it through the whole year without going to the thinking chair.  She clearly felt that the Kindergarten policies weren't clear. 

"Ada!" I said, "You pinned another child to the wall, of course you had to sit in the thinking chair!"

Ada sleeps with lots of friends close by

[link to hi-res image]

That's a rhetorical cookie

Greta:  Do you want a cookie?

Max:  (with attitude) Um...yeah

Greta: (laughing) Your right.  What kind of question is that?!

Max: (pause) A rhetorical question?

Not quite, but I still thought it was funny!

Cargo bike take 2

Four years ago we bought a cargo trike.  I wanted to be able to carry all our kids and gear on a bike.  While that bike was impressive in its ability to carry stuff it was like biking around a semi-trailer with half the agility.  It was heavy, slow and cumbersome.  We sold it at a loss, barely used.

A year later we visited Saskatoon and tried Liz's awesome long-tail cargo bike.  I loved it.  It was SO much more agile and when you weren't carrying kids or cargo it felt like biking a normal bike.  But it was really expensive and I had already burned my cargo bike budget on the cargo trike.  So we settled for a combination of a tow bike and bike trailer.  Cumbersome, but it worked.

This year Darwyn was just too big for the bike trailer.  She and Max are old enough to ride on their own if the trip is close, but they can't ride on any busy roads or longer distances.  I still had my eye on that long tail.  And lucky me, a beautiful long tail cargo bike came up on kijiji for a steal and with electric assist.  I wasn't sure how I felt about electric assist, but I couldn't turn down the price tag so we are once again cargo bike owners!

It turns out I love e-assist.  I often don't use it, but when I need it, it is a life saver.  I take the bike on many more trips because it increases my range and my speed.  Ada is even more infatuated than I am.  She loves the bike and begs us to take her on joy rides.  Once on, she begs you to turn on e-assist to the max and go at top speed (a little over 30km an hour).  She is a total adrenaline junky!  She will come along on any trip where we get to take the cargo bike and has come with me to get groceries, and tow a different bike to the bike shop for a tune up.  The long tail is stable, easy and versatile.  I love it and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to bike around lots of kids and stuff.  Check out some of the cool stuff we've done with it!

Gus and Ada test riding the bike right after we bought it.

I built my own version of a hooptie to provide handle bars for the kids.
This is a prototype made from PVC.  The final version will be made from electrical conduit.
I also sewed washable seat pads.

Towing a regular bike to the bike shop
(No Ada is not dragging the bike.  She just likes to have her hand there.)

First load of groceries + Ada

Full market load, including a half bushel of beans and a half bushel of nectarines

All 3 kids on the bike.  Please ignore the theatrics.

Diet Restrictions

Ted:  I really like tea

Darwyn: Me too!  And you don't need to kill anything to eat it.

Max: You kill the tea plant!

Gus:  I won't eat anything that casts a shadow.

Max: (between heaves of laughter) Bad news dude.  You can eat glass and not much else!

Mommy can I pleeeease get a puppy???

The kids want a dog.  I'm not sure what got them on this kick, but they are all sure their life is not worth living if it does not include a puppy.  Ada is more flexible and declared to me that she would accept "a puppy, a kitty or a baby."

Gus and I are more realistic and understand the energy involved in having a dog, but it did not help our resolve when we stopped at Mapeltons one afternoon to discover these:

With some effort Gus and I held the line and we did not leave Mapeltons with a puppy.  We decided that rather than get a dog we would borrow one.  This, we explained to the kids, would allow them to demonstrate their dedication to actually looking after a dog and would help them understand the work that goes into a dog.

My friend April has a lovely German Shepard named Yoda and they were going away for 10 days, so we decided to watch her dog for her.  Yoda is very sweet.  He is sociable, loves fetch, and he is very patient and kind with the kids.  This last trait is especially fortuitous because Ada absolutely loves Yoda....a little too much.  She follows him around all day talking to him and cuddling him.  I'm not certain he loves the cuddling, but he is quite patient about it.  She loves to tell him "No Yoda!"  I have explained to her that she shouldn't say no unless he is actually doing something wrong, but my wisdom fell on deaf ears.  Fortunately, Yoda ignores Ada's admonitions.  Ada is so fond of saying "No Yoda!" that Darwyn has even heard her doing it in her sleep, while she giggles.

Yoda loves to play tug with the kids.  We bought them a long rope so they could safely play with him and he drags the older kids all over the yard, while they shriek and laugh.  Ada wanted in on the fun and they dutifully gave her a turn.  Ada does not know how to tug.  She jumps up and down while holding the rope.  Yoda gave her one "are you kidding me?!" look, groaned and laid down (still with the rope in his mouth).  After that he laid there while Ada tugged and pulled to no effect.  It was quite cute.  Unfortunately, we did not catch it on video.

Yoda's other quirk is that he loves water hoses...something we discovered when we attempted to fill the kiddy pool.  He lunges and bites at the stream of water as though he thinks he can catch it like a  ball.  It is hilarious.  The kids caught it on video:

The kids did come along when I walked Yoda and Max even agreed to pick up some poo....although he was quite disgusted by the practice and took more than a little prodding.  Unfortunately, most of the work still fell on me.  Still, everyone loved to have Yoda visit.

Trigator take 2

This past June the kids did their second year of the trigator triathlon for kids.  Everyone did well and had a great time.  Ada managed to halve her time from last year, owing largely to the fact that her biking has improved dramatically.  She was still reluctant to swim on her own, however, and Gus once again carried her across the pool.  But she loved it and as soon as she finished the race she asked to do it again.  I am sure she is the only person in history that wanted to repeat the triathlon the instant they crossed the finish line!

Both Darwyn and Max also improved their times from last year.  Like Ada, Darwyn was much better on her bike.  Last year she used an impromptu balance bike.  This year a month or so before the trigator Dar decided she wanted to ride her regular bike and she devoted a huge amount of effort to improving.  She looked like she had been riding for years by the time triathlon day rolled around.

Max made record time on the bike portion and also chose to swim the pool this year without a life jacket.  Max is about as buoyant as a stone with arms, so I was a little skeptical that that was a good idea.  But there is a personal volunteer for each kid that stays with in arms length of them for their entire swim, so I couldn't see the harm in it.  Max did a great job and swam almost the whole thing without any aid.  His head was above the water (if barely) most of the time, except for when he stopped to wave at grandma and grandpa (see photo below)!

Below are pictures and videos!  Special thank you to Aunty Sue for taking all these awesome photos.

Darwyn the athlete!

Just high-fived grandpa on his way past!

Waving to onlookers while swimming is not a recommended activity.

Another awesome trigator for all!