Easter break and no alarm clocks!
It was good to get away with Peter for a weekend, even though the hotel was a bit of a disappointment: over-decorated with kitsch and seriously under-staffed, and it was frustrating to be presented with a wonderful breakfast buffet but have to spend 20 minutes chasing someone down to get coffee, and the sauna was nice, but they ran out of sauna towels in the afternoon ...
So on the whole, I think we might like to try something like that again, but definitely not at this hotel.
In the meantime, although Paddy was looking low and lonely when we got home, it was reassuring to hear that our neglected children were not entirely abandoned while we were gone. Paddy was obviously quite intrigued by a phone call from Jean to check that he didn't have tonsilitus and described how she sent him to check for white spots while she waited on the phone. Oma came by with more food than our poor children normally see in a whole week, and later she was full of praise for what a good job Christopher had done looking after things, washing the dishes, doing laundry, picking up. Paddy was less satisfied with his brother's performance, but I think there was some altercation, because Christopher was looking forward to having a party while we were gone, and was disappointed that Paddy didn't feel up to it. Amy sounded almost shocked that we would actually allow Christopher to have a party while we were gone, but since we had clearly stipulated that the house had to be in good shape when we got back and none of the neighbors upset, I don't think it would have been a problem.
Then we all got through one more week of school before Easter break (although Christopher didn't pass a single test he had that week) and were all greatly relieved to reach the weekend and ten whole days of no alarm clocks.
Christopher started off celebrating the holidays by going to a weekend workshop organized by the Socialist Party youth organization. He had signed up for the workshop on solidarity with Latin America, but that was full so he ended up with his second choice, a workshop on Open Source. This is obviously not something he could possibly learn from his parents! One day when he was talking about trying a new sound program, I offered to let him borrow a CD I have with a free software sound program on it. Christopher's response was to pat me on the head with an affectionate grin and the comment, "you're cute". What kind of a response is that, if I try to tell him about Dyne and the philosophy behind it, which would be far more in keeping with his purported political positions?
Nevertheless, the new blog he made with his thoughts about similarities between graffiti and open source was interesting to read. I suspect, however, that all the kids who put comments about their experience of the weekend online in various formats that they were working with in their different workshops, were not really thinking about the possibility that curious parents could end up reading them. Being curious, I did read them, of course, so I hardly found it surprising that Christopher looked absolutely shattered when he finally got home. At some point this week, he really needs to get some sleep.
So on the whole, I think we might like to try something like that again, but definitely not at this hotel.
In the meantime, although Paddy was looking low and lonely when we got home, it was reassuring to hear that our neglected children were not entirely abandoned while we were gone. Paddy was obviously quite intrigued by a phone call from Jean to check that he didn't have tonsilitus and described how she sent him to check for white spots while she waited on the phone. Oma came by with more food than our poor children normally see in a whole week, and later she was full of praise for what a good job Christopher had done looking after things, washing the dishes, doing laundry, picking up. Paddy was less satisfied with his brother's performance, but I think there was some altercation, because Christopher was looking forward to having a party while we were gone, and was disappointed that Paddy didn't feel up to it. Amy sounded almost shocked that we would actually allow Christopher to have a party while we were gone, but since we had clearly stipulated that the house had to be in good shape when we got back and none of the neighbors upset, I don't think it would have been a problem.
Then we all got through one more week of school before Easter break (although Christopher didn't pass a single test he had that week) and were all greatly relieved to reach the weekend and ten whole days of no alarm clocks.
Christopher started off celebrating the holidays by going to a weekend workshop organized by the Socialist Party youth organization. He had signed up for the workshop on solidarity with Latin America, but that was full so he ended up with his second choice, a workshop on Open Source. This is obviously not something he could possibly learn from his parents! One day when he was talking about trying a new sound program, I offered to let him borrow a CD I have with a free software sound program on it. Christopher's response was to pat me on the head with an affectionate grin and the comment, "you're cute". What kind of a response is that, if I try to tell him about Dyne and the philosophy behind it, which would be far more in keeping with his purported political positions?
Nevertheless, the new blog he made with his thoughts about similarities between graffiti and open source was interesting to read. I suspect, however, that all the kids who put comments about their experience of the weekend online in various formats that they were working with in their different workshops, were not really thinking about the possibility that curious parents could end up reading them. Being curious, I did read them, of course, so I hardly found it surprising that Christopher looked absolutely shattered when he finally got home. At some point this week, he really needs to get some sleep.
posted by Aileen at Wednesday, April 12, 2006
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