Bradley’s school has a Valentine’s dance every year, and all the kids from Grade 3  upwards have to attend.  So this year it’s his first dance experience.

Hectic!!

I thought that it was just a little dance.  It doesn’t last very long, and I think it ends really early (from what I can remember, and no I haven’t studied the newsletters yet).

Well, clearly not!! Bradley’s best friend Angelique has been asked to “go” by one of the other boys.

I did ask him how he felt about Angelique going with another boy… his answer “well, I can’t ask my best friend to go with me, that would be weird” LOL!

Call me strange, but aren’t 8/9 year olds a little young for this?  He’s stressing now.  He’s so nervous to ask another girl to this thing, and I actually don’t think he should be.  I don’t see anything wrong with him going with his friends… in a group.

Am I strange?

Anyhoo, this evening I was a little more relaxed about the whole thing when he told me that some of his boy friends had asked other boy friends to go with them. Clearly it’s not “that” important.

Connor, on the other hand, thinks it’s hilarious that Bradley’s going to a dance, and he’s going to “shake his booty” LOL!! There was a lot of wrestling going on this evening after the teasing.

I’m not ready for this… I’m not ready for this angst.  I’m not sure I’m equipped to help him deal with girls saying “no” to him asking them out.

Bloody hell he’s too young for this!! I’m too young for this!!

Being a working mom is not easy.  Seriously, it’s not.  You have to juggle time, and find ways of leaving work at odd times to just be there for your kids.

That’s what happened this morning to me.

If you have chatted to me offline recently you would know that there’s a few changes pending at work.  And I’ve been waiting for a meeting with someone that was hopefully going to resolve part of the obstacle.  That meeting was set for this morning.

However, Connor’s Playball demo was scheduled for a hour before my big meeting was supposed to start and it takes at least 40 minutes to get from the school to Sandton, and I was determined to be there too.  You may think that this is trivial, but it’s the only extra mural he does, and this demo is the only time I could see what he’s been doing.

So, I tried to do both

Thankfully the Playball started in time, and I watched 20 minutes of his thing… and then had to leave just before the medal ceremony… and then I zooted to Sandton to get to my meeting… which ended up being postponed to tomorrow!!

Connor, of course, was very sad to see me go  He really loved that I was there, and kept looking for me and smiling and then ran up to me a few times to give me a hug

I’m glad I went, but sad that I had to go before the medal ceremony.  I really don’t feel as guilty as I would have done if I’d not gone at all.

And shame, the one little girl, looked around the room after a few minutes, and said “But my mommy’s not here to watch me”… the teacher tried to save the day by saying that all the other mommies will be watching her instead.  I’m sure that didn’t make her feel better though.

I took the day off today, the main reason was so that I could go and watch Connor’s school concert.  It was so very sweet! And we are so very proud of him!! His little skit was Jack and Jill, and he sang and did all the moves beautifully!

I really liked how the whole concert was done actually.  It was so nice that the kids were all in small skits with about 6 of them in each… so they all got their moment in the spotlight.  And the rest of the time they sat on the stands and sang along to the music.

Bradley and his best friend Angelique managed to sneak in the beginning, and were watching from the entrance until their break was over and they had to go back to class.

If you’re wondering how I did the photos, I didn’t use a flash and my ISO was 1600… so had to adjust the colours quite a bit because the spotlights on their faces were red and purple.

I went to Bradley’s school assembly today to watch him in a skit that his class put on for the school.  He played the part of the mayor (and no, I didn’t manage to buy him a new shirt as per my previous post, he wore his school shirt).  The skit was about the fable of the stone soup.

I was so impressed!! He did amazingly well.  He spoke so clearly with the microphone and didn’t look at all nervous! I was so so proud of him.

I was also amazed by his voice on the microphone actually, he had the same tone in his voice as my brother does.  Maybe that’s what he’s going to sound like when he grow up… daunting thought that he’s growing up so fast!

Long time no speak, blog reading peeps   Missed me?

I’ve been around… very busy (check out my photoblog)… and I haven’t had much to say here.  But today was a mare of a day and it warranted a post.

It started like it starts most school mornings with the rush to get dressed and the kids fed and out the door… while I multitask and package photos that need to be delivered that day.

That part went as planned, and that was about all.

I had so much to deal with at work… apart from work, that by the end of the day, my heart skipped a beat whenever my mobile rang. This post only covers 2 of the “things”… there was more!

We are using a transport company to take the kids home from school for the next few weeks… and guess what… second day with the new arrangement and Bradley gets left at school!! OMG my heart sank when the school phoned me to tell me that he’d been left behind and he was in the office.

Turns out it was a mix-up with the karate that caused it… and strangely enough Bradley seems to have handled it perfectly.  He’s normally completely stressed when something happens that’s not in his routine… but he took it so calmly without tears.  On the other hand, I was in a state!! I can’t believe my child got left behind.

I remember the feeling of being stranded at school, and it’s not a feeling that I EVER wanted my kids to feel

Anyhoo, apart from that, we have a visitor at home that’s causing a little bit of chaos.  My parent’s jack russel has come to stay for a few nights because there was a drama at their house and there’s no-one to look after her until Saturday when my sister comes back to Joburg.

I was really really worried about how the huskies would react.  And in fact, the first few minutes were a little hairy because Kimo started growling and looked like he was going for her.  But after we seperated them for a bit, and then tried reintroducing her into the garden, it went a lot better.  They’re tolerating each other, and the huskies just want to play with her.

And that’s actually quite funny to see. Kimo and Kitara’s playtime is really really rough.  They grab each other by the neck or tail and literally drag each other around the garden.  They’re really not sure how to play with her.  Kitara keeps swiping Jackie with her paw, and batting her on her neck, and standing on her.  LOL!

For tonight, we’ve decided that it would be best to keep her inside, and the huskies outside… just in case.  She’s a night sleeper… and they play at night… all night long… so if she stayed in the garden she’d be wide eyed and exhausted by morning

I really hope they calm down tomorrow.

And tomorrow of course, is Bradley’s 8th birthday!! More chaos in the morning because we have to squeeze present opening time into the morning chaos But it’s fun, and he’s going to LOVE his gifts!

Well, I’m happy to report that Bradley is happier.

Since he’s realised that we’re all trying to help him, the tummy aches, headaches and vomiting has stopped and he gets dressed with a smile in the mornings! Coo hey?!

We had a chat to the head of Junior primary yesterday and she’s determined to find the boys in question, and they’ve had a few meetings with the Senior primary head to discuss what they’re going to do to find them.  The senior primary head wanted to do a line up… there’s NO way we’ll allow that so they have to find another way!! She’s also spoken to Bradley and he knows she’s on his side, and she’s told him he has to stand up for himself! YAY!  Hopefully he’ll listen to her.

Since he told us about it, the bullies haven’t bugged him though, so we’ll just have to wait and see and keep making sure that he’s ok.

Apart from that, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with the response from Twitter and Facebook and my blogging friends.  I can’t tell you how much all the support means.

I’ve also received so many DM’s and private emails about it.  Mostly from people (mostly men) who were victims of bullies at school.  Broke my heart to hear how it’s affected them all.

I also got a FB message from a school buddy who asked me if I remembered certain bullying incidents at our high school… I actually don’t… I had my own little protection mechanism going on… I flew way under the radar at school to keep away from trouble (cos there was LOADs of it).

I knew it… I just knew there was a reason for his morning headaches and sore tummy and occasional vomiting.  There was no way that it was a tummy bug.

This morning, after he complained again of a headache and sore tummy and said that he didn’t want to go to school, I decided that I wasn’t going to let it slide again.  It took me half an hour of talking, but eventually the truth came out.

He’s being bullied at break time in the school play grounds by a “gang” of Grade 4′s (he’s in Grade 2).

If he’s on his own, they hold him, and pinch him and tease him.  If he’s playing with his friend Angelique they laugh at him.  If he tries to play with the boys, they hold him back until his friends disappear and then he can’t find them.

So he’s playing alone most of the time.

It makes me SO SO mad! The school is adament that their bully policy works.  But it’s clearly not working at all.

I tried to tell him to stand up for himself, but he doesn’t want to be a bully too (which is what the policy says).  So he refuses.

You see, a few years ago he was bullied by a kid in his class.  We got him to stand up for himself and the bullying stopped, and as a result he eventually got labelled a bully too… and now he doesn’t want that to happen again.

AAarrrrggghhh!

No wonder he hasn’t been wanting to go to school.

Lance spoke to his teacher this morning because Bradley actually doesn’t know the names of the boys in question.  They better do something about it.

This makes me a VERY unhappy bunny, and I’m uber grumpy today as a result.

Lance got a call from the school yesterday asking us to attend the assembly this morning because Bradley was going to get a merit award.  Now, for those who can’t remember last year’s similar story… the school has a system for the junior grades where every child has a turn to get a merit award in the year.  They’re given to the kids weekly in assembly, and Bradley’s happened to be the first one.

He got it for being kind and courteous and being a gentleman.

Awww, my boy )

When I took him home (he wasn’t actually feeling very well today but I made him go to assembly before I took him straight home), he told me that he thought it was because he lets the girls go into the classroom first.  He also told me that he’s been teaching the other boys in his class about girls having to go in first… and he waits for his teacher too.

Sweet hey?!

On the subject of teachers, I’m hoping that she’s going to be ok.  She doesn’t seem very at ease with the kids, and she’s very quiet.  Now, I know she’s new to the school and all that… but I’m not getting a great level of comfort from her at the moment.

Seriously, could the teachers not have eased the parents into this school lark a little gentler?  Oh no, not Bradley’s school… first weekend of Grade 2 and he had a project!

So I spent a few hours today trying to find photos of him for a Life Snake. My oath what a lot of effort… by me of course! If this is a taste of the next few years, I’m going to have even less spare time!

It was interesting for me though… I got to see how much my photography has progressed in the last 7 years!! And one of the photos we chose in the end, was taken by Bradley.

Connor goes to school tomorrow.

He’s not a happy camper.

We decided during last year that it would be best to move Connor to Bradley’s school for Grade 000.  We felt that the level of education at his current school wasn’t fabulous… I didn’t see much artwork coming home or displayed and that worried me.  I also wasn’t wild about the playground which had slowly but surely shrunk in size and become more and more sandy, and eventually partly tarred during the time he was there.

Kids need grass. I’m adamant about that.  SEriously, we live in Africa, what’s this rubbish about kids playing on tarred playgrounds?!

So, we decided it was best to move him to Grade 000 at Bradley’s school.

But… he doesn’t want to go tomorrow…at all.

And now I’m feeling bad about our decision.  We can’t change it, because we’ve already paid for the entire year for him.

But he’s only 3 years old… to wear a uniform at the age of 3 sounds a little cruel.  Big school is a massive step, and we only started Bradley at that school in Grade 00… there’s a big difference between age 3 and age 4.

So wish us luck for tomorrow (