We made it to McKinney with plenty of time this morning. We were the first guests to arrive, in fact, and that was good. It gave Mo some much-needed transition time before the other kids arrived, not that the transition time did all that much good. She still required, if not physical contact from a parent at all times, no less than two feet in proximity to a parent at all times. Once the camera guy showed up, us dads took the kids across to the neighbor’s house.

First off, that was fun — hanging out with another home school dad. Second off, the dad is a creative director for his company, and I could relate to him on that level, too. (Random Kit fact: I was an Art director (or something like it) for a number of enterprises during the dot.com brouhaha.) The nice lady who opened up her yard to us had a daughter hanging out with her. I didn’t think much of it at first: The girl was about Christopher’s age. Then I saw her son who was about 8. Then her teenage daughter came out, and it clicked. Here was another homeschool family, and right across the street from our hosts for the morning. I mentioned to her that this was a nice change for us. Many people have been noting Christopher’s age and remarking how we must be getting ready to send him off to school. It’s about all I can do to not laugh in their faces. They never seem to know exactly how to react when they face the obvious contradiction of me telling them about our homeschooling. Here’s how it breaks down.

Kit’s a nice guy — really down to earth.
He just told me he’s homeschooling.
Christopher is a delightful, well-mannered child and not at all socially awkward.
They have four kids.

And right about then their heads explode, or at least their preconceptions about homeschooling. Awkward stammering with long pauses follow as if we just announced that we’re contagious or something. But we didn’t have to do that here. And more and more our little circle of friends is becoming densely populated by other homeschooling families. It’s a nice change.

So there we were, talking a little shop, when I see what must be the clumsiest hummingbird ever flailing around a tree, or a cicada finding a place to land. I get closer and it turns out to be the latter, and I point it out to the other homeschool dad. This starts to draw a crowd, and the nice lady’s son fetches a bug net and captures the cicada and suggests they feed it to their pet tortoise who lives in the bushes.

“Oh? You have a turtle?” I ask.

“A tortoise,” the youngest daughter politely corrects. Of course. Because this particular reptile is completely land-dwelling, and these homeschool kids know the difference. Before they feed the insect to the turtle tortoise, our hostess gathers the kids around for a brief lecture on turtles and tortoises, lets them hold the critter, has them wash their hands because of the sleight risk of salmonella — the whole spiel. Not only did they get a playdate, but they got a science lesson, too. I love this lifestyle!

Well, not everyone got the science lesson, because the nice lady fetched out a bubble table and a half dozen giant bubble wands. Bennett was merrily playing in the sudsy tub up to his elbows (and all over his shirt, hair, pants…) while Mo was spinning around making bubbles at a dizzying pace.

Let’s see, Christopher was introduced to tetherball, there were slides and swings, and that was just the older kids’ experience. From what Heidi tells me, Emy was a total charmer and will very likely be on TV again for this family’s blanket venture. If we see it, we’ll get it posted for you to coo over.

Incidentally, the camera guy is a homeschooler, too.

On the way home, we crashed Ikea for lunch and to grab a new dish set. We’re letting the kids start using the glassware now, and we anticipate fumbles, so we hit a sale and are now prepared with replacements. For lunch, Heidi and I sat near the kids’ section feeding Emy, and the three older kids all sat at a table, by themselves, ate their lunch, and didn’t dump anything out on the table or floor (not purposefully, anyway — C dumped his soda, but he also cleaned it up). I was so proud of them. We all went out to eat, and the kids were so well behaved, that I’m seriously considering trying such a thing again in the near future.

Heidi made a pie, Bennett dumped out a container of nutmeg… let’s see… what else?

Oh! Emy wanted in the dishwasher and couldn’t get it open so Bennett opened it for her. He also opens the fridge door for her so she can sit in there. They are now partners in crime.

We had another run-in with the fire ants and Bennett. He went to check out the mushrooms growing out of a root next to the house, and that happens to be a fire ant nest, too. He came in crying, plopped himself on Heidi’s lap, and it took us a moment to see what was going on. Once we saw the ants, Heidi realized they were crawling all over her by association, so I got Bennett into the kitchen as fast as I could, and Heidi ran to get the ants off of her pants, but it was already too late. One bit her hip. Two little bites. Bennett got at least 20 across his hands and legs, and they swelled up a bit, but that went away almost immediately. Heidi, on the other hand… Well, here are some pictures for comparison.

Bennett — little bit of mottled color, few spots. This is at least a dozen bites, poor guy.

Heidi — note the size of that one welt and the size of her finger. Two bites!

I gave them both some antihistamine and hydrocortisone cream to help with the reactions. Hoping Bennett won’t itch himself awake tonight, and Heidi has already konked out here at 9 from the drugs. But when she told me that she was really allergic to fire ants, I guess I didn’t fully realize just how bad she meant. I sat in a fire ant mound when I was three, and my reaction, while in the moment was filled with howls of pain, didn’t persist — much like Bennett’s. Heidi expects her swelling to last for at least a week. Small wonder she doesn’t like ants.

Last thing:

This may be the cutest minute of video you will ever see. At least today. Heidi ran for the camera as soon as she noticed Emy was saying, “shoes.” And we have Bennett on tape saying, “mama.” (finally) Then Ben and Emy fight over the little view-screen so they can watch themselves. And finally, Emy starts shooting the camera some seriously dirty looks for no reason whatsoever. Totally cute, and it clocks in at just over one minute. ~2MB.

How’s that? Rambling enough to keep you from missing Heidi too much?

Heidi adds - counted the bites on Bennett’s worse leg this morning. Swelling went down, easier to identify the red spots now. 47 on one leg. Then I quit counting… Also, camera explanation - our video camera has a screen that you can flip out and turn around so the kids can see themselves being taped. It’s to the left of the camera which is why they are knocking each other out of the way getting close - they were fighting to see themselves in the screen.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Bennett, Christopher, Emy, Family, Kids, Moira. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.