Visit the Kelpforest (pt. 2)

Friday morning, Angus's class had a "Mother's Day Tea," for which John signed me up to make banana bread. I skipped my book group (well, I hadn't had a chance to read Bimbos of the Death Sun anyway) to make it because we had to drop it off Thursday - along the something-relaxing-Teacher-Appreciation-Week gift (for which I used a smelly votive I'm no longer able to burn because of John's allergies, and put it in a seafood cocktail cup with some rub-on transfers I already had), and the drawing Angus made for the same. Friday's gift was a booklet of drawings by all the kids - Angus made a bunch of scribbles with different colored crayons and said it was abstract art.

I had asked for Friday morning off; even though we do not see eye-to-eye with Angus's teacher, I didn't want him to feel left out. When I dropped him off at 10:20, there was a big sign on the door - No Moms Permitted Until 10:45. I went home to make my lunch (I hadn't had time to earlier). The flyer for this said "No siblings, please get a babysitter." but I heard one mom ahead of me say "I can't get a sitter for one hour. I'm bringing her and she can just deal." Walking behind her, I grinned.

Now Mrs. K. is one of those ultra saccharine women, who decorates every newsletter with cuteness, and just generally makes me feel as if I'm developing diabetes. Quite a few of the other moms just eat it up. I felt nervous standing around with all those other women, some of them with their designer clothes, perfect hair and cell phones ringing every five minutes. Maybe I should have worn a dress. Nah. Then she opened the door and had our kids seat us at the kid-sized tables, one by one. I sat sideways - my legs didn't fit under the table.

She had the kids bring us a cup of ice tea (with an orange slice and a mint leaf in it), and a cookie, Angus brought me a Madeleine. Then she opened it up for the kids to grab cookies, although admonishing them to only take one at a time. I saw Angus go back and forth 3 or 4 times. He sat by himself near the door and didn't seem to interact much with the other kids. I guess he was pretty focused on the cookies. I chatted with the moms on either side of me. One had grown up in the country and was telling stories of how she had goats for pets when she was a kid. One time they got in the house and ate all her mother's houseplants. Then she started finding them dead by what she thought was dogs chasing around the tree they were tethered to, and strangled. She didn't find out until years later her father was doing it and turning them into jerky.

Then Mrs. K. explained that she had had the kids make portraits of their moms in the style of Picasso (she's kind of an art snob). Then she had each kid tell her why they loved their mom. Everyone had to stand up one at a time with their picture and read their sentence. I couldn't hear most of them, including Angus's, and one little girl was too petrified to speak (that would have been me, in kindergarten). The woman who'd been telling me the goat story son stood up and proudly showed his picture. I think the crayon had gotten smudged, and the picture looked like it had frizzy black hair (hers was brown and straight) and a 5 o'clock shadow. She turned bright red. Apparently I have straight hair, bangs and wear lots of pink lipstick. Heh. Angus brought me my picture - it turned out he'd said "I like my mom because she is my mom and she likes me." He did draw me a purple shirt, my favorite color, and gave me long dangly earrings, which I do wear quite often. :)

It was about time to go, but Angus had to show me the pretend kitchen in the corner. He was quite pleased to show me everything in all the little cupboards. As I gave him a hug and went out the door, I passed the table where the snack were. The banana bread was at the back and completely untouched. I guess it didn't look as appetizing as chocolate chip cookies. I hope she took it to the teacher's lounge or something and didn't just pitch it (john voiced this to John, and he intoned serenely "A gift once given is given from your heart, and whatever the person does with it is completely up to them.").

John phoned me later and told me that the teacher made a snide remark to the woman who brought her daughter (never mind that the little girl sat on her lap and never made a peep the whole time). That particular mom turned around and went straight to the principal's office.

Anyway, Angus's art:



I'm quite flattered, really.


This is Angus riding to school on the scooter, with his dad. John was really proud of this one.


You know, I was going to ask her what she was planning to do for Father's Day