And last but not least....

John - feigning boredom on a BC ferry during our epic trip to Dryden.

I don't think I have nearly enough time to discuss everything with John here. But that's why I'm doing this - try to catch up as much as possible, then it'll be easier to get it out bit by bit from here on. Just a warning - I've been using Mike's little notebook computer. He doesn't use it for work anymore, But it's very frustrating, because it's so freaking tiny my fat fingers are all over the place, pressing things they shouldn't be pressing. So if you see strange symbols or really bad typos, that's why. The bad spelling - that's me, unfortunately. Hopefully my old editor doesn't come here! LOL! 

John's been doing great! he was having a hard time with a boy at school. They were getting into fist fights and everything. The teacher said they were both at fault - sometimes John would antagonize him, by calling his books dumb during library time - which resulted in a big fistfight in the middle of the library. The teacher was trying to just keep them apart. We managed to get John to cut it out on his side, by trying to convince him to find something in common, or make a point of saying something nice to him. He didn`t like the sounds of that, so he decided by himself to just stop saying anything at all, which is just as well. But the other boy was still slinging names, so the teacher finally kept him late one day to discuss with his parents, and since then things have been much better. She`s even gotten them to do stuff together, like being partners in gym, without it coming to blows! They still don`t much like each other, but they`ve learned to be civil, which is all we really cared about on our end. 

It`s really been a lot of adjustment for John. He`s a big talker. I`ve never seen anyone who can talk like that! It`s a talent to be able to dish out such a constant stream of words about anything, everything and nothing. I guess this particular talent resulted in one of the kids at school telling John to shut up, even though he was saying all nice things. I told him that not everyone in his class is used to such a busy household and so many people talking all at once (many of his classmates are only children or just one of 2 and many to older moms, so I imagine they live in pretty quiet homes). So I told him to try not talking so much, and to just listen to how much others talk, and that will tell him how much noise other people are comfortable with. I think he took it to heart - he seems to be having a much happier time at school and making friends easier these days. When he gets home, it`s a whole other matter entirely! But we`re used to the chaos, so it`s alright.

The only time it becomes a problem is over dinner, because he`ll completely gab away the whole mealtime. We`ll all be done, and he won`t have had a bite, because he`ll be so busy talking! We have to remind him to take bites. And during TV. We`ll be watching, and we`ll think `what is that annoying drone in the the background?`And it`ll be John, just chattering away during the whole show. Or if it`s something he doesn`t want to watch, he`ll start counting, to see how long the show is.

To give him a little more of a social outlet at home, we started `family game night`. it`s not a designated night - it`s whenever we all have a bit of time free. He likes Uno and Life best. If he had his way, EVERY night would be family game night. It was so cute, the last time we played Life, we was getting really upset, because Mike had so many kids he needed a second car, I had one, and he hadn`t gotten any yet. He was so happy to finally land on a baby spot, he jumped up and down and yelled ``I have a boy! I have a boy!``. It was cute.

He has lots of fun when the babysitters come, because he can usually squeeze in a game with them, too. He taught our teenage babysitter how to play Uno, so they play cards together. He managed to convince Sophie to play chutes and ladders and Connect 4 with him. His ranking of our babysitters is largely dependent on how willing they are to play board games with him, after the middle kids go to bed. We have one sitter who loves taking care of Tom more than anything - she`s firmly in last place.

We just went through Remembrance Day, and John was very moved by it. He asked for his own poppy, and wore it faithfully every day. After school was over, he`d tuck it away safely so it wouldn`t be lost. he asked lots of questions about all the wars - how they started, why they happened. I told him as much as my high school education would allow. Mike filled in the blanks at night. I wound up telling him all about Hitler and the Holocaust. So when he got to class, Mr Joe, the music teacher, asked everyone what they knew about the wars. Most didn`t know anything. Some knew that the guy the school is named after was a local fighter pilot. But John was able to tell his class that ``a very bad guy named Hitler killed lots of people``. Apparently Mr Joe, who`s one of his favourite teachers, was really impressed and told him that was a great answer. John was so proud of himself, he talked about it for days, and thanked me several times for telling him who Hitler was.

Anyway, I`d better go. All the kids need me. I`ve promised Joan a chocolate if she can pee on the potty, and she`s trying right now. It worked once. I`m seeing if I can get it to work again. Dave needs a cuddle, and Tom is about to wake up to eat, so off I go! I have a new picture of Dave to post next- it`s a shocker!