Wednesday, February 08, 2006

The 100th day of School and The Lost Shoe

The 100th Day of School
Today is the 100th day of school and the kids are allowed to go to school in plain clothes. Since this whole week was Book Week, they are also expected to come as a character from their favourite book or a fable/tale/traditional story that they like.

Keeping in-line with the frog prince bookmark that Ilham made , he went to school dressed as The Frog Prince. We don't have a frog suit, so Ilham just put on khaki-green pants, a green t-shirt and we made a frog prince hat.



Ihsan had brought "Have You Seen My C@t?" to school as his favourite book, so he decided to dress up as 'the boy who was looking for his cat'. (I asked him whether he wanted to be a cat instead, coz then I'd make him a cat hat or mask or something, but he insisted on being the boy). So he put on regular clothes and I made him a sign saying "Have You Seen My C@t?" and he drew a fat cat on it. He brought it to school instead of putting it on straight away, because he was afraid he would accidently tear it on the bus. He's going to ask his teacher to help put it on his shirt when he gets to school.
(oh, Ihsan also went to school with a tupperware of cucur keria (sweet potato doughnuts, which he will share with his friends).

The Lost Shoe

I was in such a bad mood yesterday, I don't know why.. I think I'm still a bit off today.
Anyways, the kids went to play at one of the playgrounds while I was preparing tea. When they came home, I found Ihsan missing one shoe. He said one of the boys threw his shoe up a tree and now they can't get it.
I told them to go to Moham@d Jund1's (that's the boy's name) house and tell his mother about it. From my kitchen window I saw them run past the boy's house and towards the park instead. It was starting to get dark and I was starting to get really irritated that they didnt follow my instructions, so I put on my head scarf and went out to look for them.
They really got an earful from me. It was like question after question and their answers were too slow and were never good enough.
They showed me the shoe up the tree. It was really high up on the date tree. They had propped up one of the plastic slides against the tree but they couldn't reach it.

We went to the boy's house, but nobody answered the door and the house looked dark. I guess they had gone out while we were at the playground looking at the shoe.
I berated my kids again.

Why did you take your shoes off in first place?
Why did you let Moham@d Jund1 play with your shoes?
Why didnt you go to his house like I told you?
That's it, you're never going to the playground again.
Wait till your father comes home.


Well, Taufik came home and injected some rationality into the whole situation. He suggested we call the parents and just ask them to retrieve the shoe for us, in a calm and rational way. I said okay, but he would have to be the one making the call, because I wasn't in the mood to be calm and rational.
Unfortunately, the Jund1 household were out the whole evening.
damn.

This morning I was mulling about the the shoe, and I decided, I am definitely not in the mood to call Moham@d's mom. I don't think I am in the right mood to be able to talk to her without sounding accusatory and creating animosity.
So I decided to call the grounds security. I told them what happened and asked them whether they could help me get the shoe. I had to go to the playground and show them exactly where the shoe was. They said they will ask one of the gardeners to help get it and send it to our house.

A few minutes ago the doorbell rang, and there was the gardener with Ihsan shoe.
:)

*phew*

But wait till I see Moham@d Jund1.... I hope I will be in a better mood by then

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