Kiddie Quotes: Homework

It's rare that I'm around when Kaelan is doing his homework but it happened yesterday. I watched him doing a comprehension and Joanne was asking him to give proper answers in the form of sentences.

For instance, the question was;

What did the children do to the clown?

His original answer was; they put a bucket on his head.

The corrected answer was The children put a bucket on the clown's head.

The comprehension continued and Kaelan started giving better answers without needing to be corrected.

Then we came to the question about the owl.

Jesse was scared of the owl. Apart from sitting on it's perch what did the owl do?

Kaelan's reply;

When the owl jumped off its perch and flew at Jessie it scared the shit out of her.

-facepalm-

Not the best start to the workday

Today started off as a more or less normal Tuesday. I got up at 5.30, got ready and got on the bus.

I had noticed that I was a bit stiff and sore but I only started paying the pain any attention once I was on the bus.

The pain was a bit intense and it was in my chest, slightly to the left. I started to wonder if, instead of simply "sleeping funny", I'd perhaps had a heart issue.

The pain was still there when I got to work, so I decided to go see a doctor when the surgery opened. My description of the problem had scarcely left my mouth when I was whisked away to another room and an ambulance was phoned for.

They gave me something to "open the blood vessels around the heart" and the pain started to disappear immediately. They told me that I'd probably have a headache - and they were not wrong. I have a massive one now.

In any case they whisked me off to St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney (where I am now).

I've given blood a few times (and been told that I'm "not exactly generous with my veins". I've also had an X-Ray and some cardiographs done. So far everything is normal.

If my last blood test comes back ok, they're going to do a "stress test" involving a treadmill - it stresses me just to think of treadmills and "exercise". If the stress test is normal, then apparently I'm free to go.

That'll be good 'cos at the moment, I'm pretty hungry and have a lot of work to catch up on.

Some Tristan-isms

Tristan has been settling down a bit lately and has been coming out with some pretty funny kiddie quotes...

Painting...

Last night, I had a scout meeting and Joanne was trying to find some other paperwork for me to take. She couldn't find it and time was ticking away. She came back to the table where we were eating dinner and said that it was a "pain in the arse".

Both boys burst into laughter and told her that she'd said a naughty word. We cautioned them not to use the word at school. After a few minutes in which Tristan still couldn't control his laughter he asked in a quiet voice... "mum, why would you want to paint your arse?"

Bullying

Tristan has been a bit resistant to going to school recently and Joanne was concerned. She asked him what was wrong, "are you being bullied". He looked at her sheepishly and nodded. She asked him if he knew who the bullies were. He nodded again. On further prompting he mentioned the name... Kaelan (his brother).

Jurassic Park

We recently watched Jurassic Park and I was a bit worried about how Tristan would handle all those scary dinosaurs - he seemed to be pretty much in on the action, judging from how he was jumping and ducking and weaving on the lounge.

We took a half-time break and I asked him how it was going. It's a bit scary he said, prompting me to talk about CGI and how it's not real (though his brother said most of it before I did). To help clarify things I told him that people have never ever seen dinosaurs. "We've only found bones because they all died before there were people".

After the requisite follow-up questions such as "before Nanny was a baby?", "before Jesus?" etc, I figured it had sunk in. I decided on a bit more education, so I asked if they knew how they died and Kaelan managed to answer correctly, though he used "space rock" instead of Asteroid.

Then I noticed that Tristan was crying and asked what's wrong. He said, "did they all die?", to which I replied yes. "Even the nice ones daddy?". He wasn't worried about Tyranosaurus but he was upset that the herbivores had died too.

Kaelan's First Holy Communion

Today was Kaelan's First Holy Communion. Our day began pretty early with a quick tidy up of the house before going out to the shops to pick up some of the food platters we had ordered.

Getting Prepared

A little earlier in the week, Joanne had complained about not being able to find a tie for him to wear (since it was a pretty formal occasion). I had a look around town but although Myers has an entire floor dedicated to children's wear, only a small area of less than 20 square metres was allocated to boys wear. Furthermore, they only had three ties, two of which were pink.

I picked the best of a bad bunch a gold/black/white striped number and spent quite a while looking for a cashier that was attended. It was much harder than it seemed. In my travels, I compared the tie I was wearing with the one I intended to buy. They were the same length.

Eventually finding a cashier, I asked if the tie was a mens or boys one and enquired about the length. I was told that it was a boys tie but that all ties are the same length. (obviously boyswear only gets the ones that menswear can't sell - like the pink ones).

I didn't end up buying the tie and instead found one in "formal apparel" (with double the price tag). At least it was going to look better. I chose a thin one so that we could shorten it to the required length without it looking silly and wrap the remaining length around his waist under his shirt. I think it ended up looking good.

Arrival

Our church is always packed but on special days when lots of relatives are supposed to attend, it's impossible. Joanne and the boys had to leave early to get a car spot. I still had to get dressed after going to the shops, so I had to go separately. Luckily I made it in time.

Both boys were absoultely fantastic in the church. This particular visit marked the first time Tristan has ever remained on the Top-side of the seat without any visitations underneath. I was most impressed.

Naturally, the church still has to turn a profit and the plate went around twice. Unfortunately their timing seemed a bit off because there wasn't even ten minutes between the rounds and the crowd was full of comments about the economic solution, milking the communion cash-cow and "not again!". Actually, come to think of it, most of the comments seemed to come from our rows of seats.

The Ceremony

The new communion-ites were asked to stand up but weren't taken out the front to be shown off. When the time for communion came, they were mingled in with the parents. I thought it was a bit of a shame since all the kids were so nicely dressed and nobody got to see how good they looked.

Nobody was entirely sure how Kaelan ended up in a photo with a bunch of girls and Father Mick. I think there was a photo being set up and he just "wandered in". Needless to say, it made a nice picture.

When Kaelan's turn came, he excitedly went up with us and everything was going fine until he reached the front two rows - and saw his friend. He waved and said a few friendly words until Joanne bumped him. His turn had come and he was still a few metres from the front of the line. The lady giving communion (the priest had delegated his duties) shot a scowl in Kaelan's direction. I think it made him forget everything because he went up to her and opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out.

I don't know if he said "amen" or not but she dutifully stuck a wafer in his mouth. After all the training about how to hold his hands properly, he forgot to put his hands out at all. Joanne only just managed to recover her composure in time for her serving.

A nice family photo, Me, Kaelan, Tristan and Joanne.

Photos and Party

After Communion, we took a bunch of photos - most of which ended up with my mouth hanging open in funny poses. That's what happens when you're talking out the side of your mouth during a photo. We all had a huge laugh over those photos, they were pretty embarrassing but eventually we got a decent photo.

Kaelan gets a photo with his God-Parents, Jose and Julianne.

Our family and Kaelan's godparents came back to our house to celebrate and everything went well. After days of downpour, the rain had stopped although the new pool is so overflowing that I'm not sure if the filter is still working effectively - and there's mud everywhere around the house.

An admittedly slightly doctored photo of Kaelan with Grandma and Grandad. Joanne said that it was "a pity about the car in the background" (our car, not theirs), so I fixed it.

Kaelan gets in a pose with Nanny and Pa.

There was certainly enough food to go around. We had leftovers for dinner... and I guess we'll be having leftovers again tomorrow night...

The Early May 2009 Update

It's weird but you go months without any news and then suddenly there's a deluge. Aside from the two deaths in the family that I've covered in two posts of their own there has been;

The Great Fish Massacre of 2009
Kaelan got a fish tank about seven months before we moved. We took so long to getting around to it that we decided to wait until we moved back into our new house.

We installed it earlier this month and got seven fish, two guppies and five neon tetras. The first guppy didn't even make six hours but the second did better with about 15. Then the Tetras started going. At least two fish were sucked into the filter and "strained" to death despite the fact that we turned it to a lower setting. Now the tank is empty again and Joanne has been talking about more victims. Personally, I'd rather drain the tank and put mice in it but she won't have a bar of it.

Blinds
I'm sure that there was a collective sigh of relief around the neighbourhood when our blinds finally arrived. Until then, there must have been some sights. We got two types of blinds.

The first type is a thick venetian which apparently doesn't have the same problems as the old venetians, though I'll decide whether to believe it or not in a few years time.



The other type is a simple roller blind, we got them for the entertainment area and kitchen where the blinds will be up and down all day long.



Kaelan's Confirmation
Last Monday was Kaelan's Confirmation. It was at night, after work so that meant that I had to rush home and stay in my work clothes. Tristan was pretty upset when I got home. Apparently he, Kaelan and his teddy bear had been jumping on the trampoline when the bear got an unexpected height surge and ended up in the tree above - quite high up too.

I took a long stick and climbed onto the trampoline and started jumping for the bear. It must have been a funny sight but it was really difficult trying not to rip my work clothes, not to lose my balance and fall off and hoping that the already torn mat would support my weight. After quite a number of goes, I eventually got the bear.

By this time, it was getting late and we had to go. We quickly got Kaelan dressed into neat clothes but couldn't find his shoes. After a lot of prompting, we eventually discovered that he'd used both unsucessfully as throwing objects in the quest to retrieve the bear. Both were now over the fence. We hurriedly found his tattered (and almost toeless after only 3 months) school shoes. Hopefully the priest wouldn't look down.

Then there were the vows. The priest is supposed to ask the kids to re-accept the vows their parents took on their behalf during baptism. These include such questions as "do you reject Satan and all his works?". The kids are supposed to respond with "I do". Kaelan was silent for the first vow, not knowing what to say (despite several weeks of preparation). Then, suddenly he remembered and loudly proclaimed his "I Do!" in the silence that followed everyone elses. Luckily all his others were on time but their loudness was such that even the priest cracked a smile.

The rest of the night seemed to go well. Joanne's sister Catherine was Kaelan's sponsor and his saint name was "Michael" which matched his school. Funnily enough my saint name of "Leo" matched mine too.

Catherine and Kaelan in the Church looking "excited".

Stairs
I learned the hard way last week about using our stairs while wearing socks. I've always been a person who needs to rush everywhere and I frequently run in situations where normal people wouldn't. Apparently, stairs are one of those places. I did some amazing Jackie Chan style acrobatics and managed to avoid killing myself on the tiles but it was a close one. I was very surprised to find that I could still walk the following morning.

Pool (Coming Soon)
We signed up for a pool, though somehow we went from a $38K 12 metre one down to a normal sized 8/9? metre and saved a lot of money. Of course, now Joanne is talking about putting a glass fence in. She's obviously forgotten how stony the ground is at the moment - and what lawnmowers do with stones.

Anyway, as I write this, the hole has been dug and we now have a tree stump which is almost the same height as myself littering the lawn. Somehow we're going to have to cut it up and move it. Sometime today, they're going to crane the pool over the house. I'll be at work and Joanne has an appointment, so I don't think anyone will be there to see it. (a pity because I'd love to get some pictures).

The Hole, all ready and waiting for the Pool

Lawnmower
Speaking of lawnmowers, our ground has been so bumpy and our grass has been so long (and so full of hidden building materials) that I've had to whipper-snip the whole lawn.

It proved a bit too much for old Mr. Whippy and it refused to run for more than a minute at a time. I was about to try and fix it when I realised that fuel had started pouring out the back of it. I decided to use the lawnmower after all.

The wheels broke off. Yep, that's right, I decided to use the lawnmower and got a little way around when the front wheels just fell off. I turned it off and turned it over to see if I could fix it and that was when I discovered that one blade had shorn off entirely and the other was about one quarter of it's original length.

I talked to Joanne about the problem and we agreed that the mower was probably dead but we didn't have the money for a new one and we had to have the grass cut in time for the pool. Eventually, I invented a kind of "wheelie mowing" style that only a half crippled mower can do. It wasn't pretty but it was effective.

Helen May - A Difficult Farewell

It's hard to know where to start with Helen. Joanne and I first met her by chance almost twenty years ago when she and Annette had a room in May street, Hornsby available for rent.

Helen was always a great friend who managed to bring a lot of humour to every situation whether it was telling us stories about the giant room-invading crabs in Fiji or the "joke of the day" from work. Sometimes it was simply pointing out humour in our day to day activities that we overlooked in our rush-rush lives.

It was a sad day when developers decided to level the may street houses and for a while, it looked like we'd all go our separate ways. We did for a while but strangely enough, soon found ourselves in the same neighbourhood at Baulkham Hills.

Helen was a regular visitor to our home and was there for us when the going was good and bad. It was great having someone who could help sampling cocktails and her comments on the drinks, our television and our choice of movies held little back and were always a source of great humor. Joanne and I often called her our sister because that was the sort of relationship we had with her.

Our children grew up knowing that Helen was always around. She would come to our door and say "Hello You", in a loud voice and the kids would scurry around her with excitement. She baby-sat them often and their faces always lit up with joy when Auntie Helen was in charge.

We always knew about Helen's dreams and we kept on the lookout for a suitable partner but she resisted all of our attempts to play matchmaker. I guess she knew she could figure that part out for herself.

Helen would always disappear from our lives for a while if she met someone and so it came as no shock to us when the only one around who could answer our calls was her fish. Of course, we still saw her around a bit but usually only when we were driving and couldn't stop.

After a few months, we got the feeling that she'd moved and we figured that we knew where she'd moved to. We were happy to think that she'd finally achieved her dream. We'd still talk about her whenever we drove past her old street, which was often since she lived only a short way from us but we knew she'd call when she was settled.

We were shocked to receive a call from her partner telling us that an aneurysm had taken her from us. How tragic that having achieved her goal she wasn't able to live the dream for long.

Goodbye Helen. You were our second sister and your departure has left a hole in our hearts that will never be filled.

Me, Joanne and Helen on Holiday at Port Stephens

Sadly Missed: John Reynolds 2 May 1919 - 1 May 2009

This month has been so busy that it's going to take a few posts. Unfortunately, two of them will probably be obituaries.

John Reynolds 2 May 1919-1 May 2009

John Reynolds was not only a great-uncle but also my Godfather. He was so full of fun and I was so proud to have him as my godfather than I'd bring it up whenever I saw him. I still remember him laughing, when I was little and I asked him if he was my Godfather like in that movie (as I pointed to a poster of a famous gangster movie).

Here's a photo of John with this mother and brother and sisters taken in 1936. He would have been aged 17.

The main story of John's life is an unusual one. He'd fallen in love with a girl called Moira Maloney (I'm not sure about the spelling) but for various reasons, it seemed like they would not be able to be together. At some point, I think the second world war intervened and she moved up to Queensland. John sent several letters, trying to get in touch with her but did not succeed. It later transpired that their parents conspired to keep those letters from them.

John married another girl, Beryl Campbell in 1948 and had a son called Ross. When Ross was still an infant, John discovered the truth about Moira and ran off to join her. He changed his name to avoid alimony and to avoid pursuit.

If this all sounds awful, then I guess that on a couple of levels it really is. Certainly it was unfair on his wife and his son - especially in that day and age. I won't dwell on that past because nothing can make that any better.

I guess that to a casual observer, this would make John seem heartless but in fact, he was following his heart and it was obviously how things were meant to be. I've always looked upon John and Moira's story as a sort of modern day Romeo and Juliet. It would have been a major scandal at the time but eventually they won everyone's hearts over.

Being very Catholic, John and Moy lived with the "sin" and although they both longed for marriage, they didn't pursue it outside of the church. For the same reason, they never had children. Eventually my mother got involved having heard about changes to the way the church handled divorce and made it possible for them to marry. By then it was too late for them to have children.

This is the last photo that I have of both John and Moy outside together. It was taken at Robina shopping centre and John is holding Tristan.

John and Moy dedicated themselves to the church, to children and to helping others and eventually retired to Queensland where Moira's family lived. Last year, after a long battle with alzheimers, Moira passed away. John was devastated. He told us after the funeral that although he'd moved into a retirement home with lots of facilities, he'd never actually wavered between his room, the dinner table and Moira's bedside. He said goodbye to us all then and it was clear that all he wanted was to be by Moira's side.

On the 1st May 2009, just one day shy of his 90th birthday and after a few strokes John and Moy were reunited.