Boy Terror turns six.

Boy Terror is six years old today....amazing. Suddenly, he is a boy. Tutus have become superman capes. Every vehicle makes a loud noise. Superheros have taken over his mind. Sadly, he has started refusing to hug and kiss me in public. This, of course, breaks my heart, but he's so cute and adorable I keep forgiving him.
Recently he informed us of his career plan changes. He is now in training to be a world champion Olympic weight lifter. I am actually encouraging this plan, since it requires vegetables and meat to grow muscles.
Going to kindergarten has given my baby a whole new world of friends and struggles, french and playground politics, vocabulary and problem solving. He's changed and grown so much it's hard to believe it's only been 8 months since I sent him off, worrying about finding the right bathroom.
My hope for him is that he will always be happy. Every morning he will wake up laughing. The love of his life will love him back passionately. And he will always remember to hug his mother.

Moments in class

I teach a class of grade 12 boys, and they are my favourite group by far. There are 4 girls in the class, but they rarely show up, so it's usually just the boys. At this age they are comfortable having actual conversations with adults (me) and most days they are willing to talk about almost anything if it means avoiding work. The best moments, however, are when they forget I'm listening. If I sit quietly, and keep my head down, I hear the most interesting things!
On Wednesday we were talking about love songs. This is not so far fetched, since I'm doing a poetry unit right now, and music fits right in. I asked them to bring me the worlds best love song, and then we listened to each selection and talked it through. They were brilliant. Girls listen to a lot of love songs, and are fairly predictable with their choices. The boys, however, surprised me. They had unique songs, ones I hadn't thought about, and they had excellent reasons for their selections. They looked for acceptance, humour, intelligence, and reality in the songs. They chose music about empowering women. Physical attraction was NOT the top of the list.
After the lesson, while they were working quietly on an assignment, a few guys were still chatting about relationships. Yes, really. This led to one of the most brilliant statements made by a student this year. I kept my head down, and my ears open. I also let the topic wander a bit, to see where this would take us.
"A" was talking about his girlfriend. Incidentally, she is also about to be the mother of his child. Apparently, he discovered that she is cheating on him with a mutual acquaintance. His reaction was to declare that he would now go sleep with that guy's girlfriend, to show him what it's like. To get even. To hurt them as much as they hurt him.
A few of the boys were in favour. One smart guy pointed out that it seemed risky...a girl "like that", with a guy "like that" probably equaled a hot bed (ha!) of STI's.
Then "B" said "If you do that, will it make you a better man than he is? No. It will make you just as low."
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A bout of brilliance. From a seventeen year old boy.

Not a blog-worthy week.

I swear, I haven't forgotten the blog world. I've just been occupied in the "real" world lately. Here's a brief rundown of the last week and a half:

Wednesday: I blogged! See? I did remember you! I also sat through a torturous Professional Development Day, and had an evening of parent-teacher interviews.

Thursday: No school. More parent-teacher interviews. Well, in theory. The reality is, if parents do not show up to meet me I just sit there, smiling stiffly, wondering how much longer I can be polite.

Friday: I'm sure I did important things....Oh! I remember! Hubby came down with the flu! Right after I cleaned the toilet!!! Poor guy. We had to cancel poker, so I went and saw a horrid movie with friends. What, you thought I stayed home and played Florence Nightingale?

Saturday: Yummy turkey dinner with friends!! Poker night!

Sunday: Happy Easter! Hoppity, hoppity. I don't really have an excuse. I just didn't blog.

Monday: I had plans to go get my passport photo, and all sorts of other fun things. Instead, I got the flu. See, that's why I don't like to be nice to sick people. They give you germs.

Tuesday: No idea what I did. I went to work. No excuse for not blogging.

Wednesday: I thought about blogging. But I'm lazy.

Thursday: Still no blog. But! I got a cell phone! My very first one! Yay me! Now I just need to learn how to use it....

See? Boring life. Nothing to write about. Lots of words, but no deep thoughts. Have a good weekend, and I'll work on finding something interesting to write for next week.