Least Favourite Hour, Take Two

Wanted to write an update on today's Least Favourite Hour, because it really wasn't so bad. We had a pleasant walk home (always one of the best parts of the day), chatting about Safety Village and forts and French (AB was apparently cheered this morning when I assured her that other children in her class were also not fluent in French, and in fact, that if she already knew French, she wouldn't need school to teach her. Poor kid. She's a bit of a perfectionist. Wonder where she gets that from).

When we walked in the door, A was very excited about opening and displaying the contents of his backpack--which turned out to be all kinds of thrilling material about fire safety (field trip to a pretend burning building, apparently). A was insistent that we immediately check all fire alarms, and forevermore test them weekly; and that we make a family escape plan. All wonderful advice, I am sure, which I recall fretting over, oh, about twenty-five years ago: My bedroom has no handy rope ladder for escape! My family refuses to sit down and make an escape plan! Our house is a certain fire trap! We're doomed!

First, I assured the kids that our fire alarms are in good working order--in fact, they go off regularly over cooking incidents.

And then, instead of heading toward the kitchen for the lunch-/supper-making quest, we ran some fun pretend fire drills in the living room, acting out potential scenarios (besides, baby CJ was starving and I needed to sit down to nurse him; many things I can do, but nursing while cooking is not one of them). A rolled on the floor to demonstrate precisely how he would extinguish the flames, were he on fire ("strangling" the fire, according to AB). His escape plan goes something like this: "First, I put the back of my hand to the door, and if it's hot, I open my window and kick out my screen--" (here is where he was interrupted by his mother, "Whatever you do, don't jump out that window!" [his window is two-and-a-half storeys above flat concrete]. "No, I'll grab a big blanket and wave it. And scream." "You can yell for someone to call 911," I suggested. "I can cry really loud, too," says A. "Maybe as loud as I can yell."

AB also had a fun surprise waiting in her bag. "I have a pink piece of paper, Mom," she says.

"Oh great," sayeth I. "I'll bet it's a lice notice."

Yup. Lice in her classroom. Last year we got about one of these pink pieces of paper every other week for months at a time. You have to sign and send back confirming that you've gone through your child's hair. So we got out a pick, and went through the hair, A's too. If you're familiar with my kids, you will know that they have a lot of hair, and it's tangly too. It took forever. And was oddly entertaining. While I didn't find lice, I did find a few odd things that I otherwise would not have. Like what looked like sparkly blue pencil shavings in both kids' heads. Weird, huh.

Anyway, by this time a good half hour had escaped, (who knew--fire safety and lice notices equal good times), and the kids ran happily to the backyard (oh fleeting summery weather, how I will miss you), and baby CJ hung out in his gigantic bouncy device, and I whipped up some new lunches (by Friday, my inspiration is running thin; but hey, hummus and pita is a healthy option), and made supper.

Which my family is clamouring for this very instant.

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