The Bird

In honor of my son's fifth birthday, I will tell a tale from when he was just a year and a half old.

My now almost 14 yr old cat Chian is an indoor only cat now in his old age. He just sits around, eats, sleeps, poops, then sleeps some more. In his younger days out at the old house, he used to go in and out as he pleased. He was a fantastic hunter. He caught every rodent imaginable, and then he placed said rodent on the doorstep for me. Typically, the catch would be moles or mice. He could never get a bird, however.

Well, one day I was outside with the kids when we witnessed a bird fly into a window of our house. He landed, unconscious or dead, on the ground instantly as a result. Stunned, we then watched an overjoyed Chian scream out in cat meows, "Manna from heaven! Thank you Bast!" and leap on the bird's form, chomp on it, and run off. The instant and gleeful expression on the cat's face turned a sad moment of mourning for the bird into copious giggles from the children. I couldn't blame them.

Later on that evening, Jared stood about ten feet away from our front door. He seemed to be meditating on the door. He was not verbal much at all at a year and a half, so there was no commentary with it. Ariana stared at him, and she went, "OH NO! Don't DO IT, JARED!" Perplexed, I could not figure out why she panicked until my little son did a running leap for the door, smashed in it very loudly, and then collapsed in a dramatic pose onto the ground, very artistically. As he then sprawled out as if dead, Ari started laughing. "You're NOT the bird, Jared!" I could see the grin on his face. Yup, my son was pretending to be a bird crashing into the house and dying. There was the beginnings of my son's sense of humor.

(Note: my daughter wasn't much better at a year and a half. She WAS very verbal, and when my sister watched her in the high chair once eating raisins, she asked Ari with a smile what she was eating. Without missing a beat, Ariana grinned up at her and shouted out, BUGS!)

*******

So my day was as such: 530a, son wakes up, declares it's his birthday and where are his presents?

*groan*

Then I volunteered at their school for the day. I was run ragged. I have NO idea how my daughter's teacher does it, honestly. Some of those kids need intensive one on one time in order to get where they need to be. They're not getting the help at home, and Ari's teacher has 20 kids so she can't give them what they need in the classroom. I wish that our public schools had a teacher child ratio of 12 to 1 instead of 20 or more to 1. I also realized that my daughter really IS brilliant. I always thought she was beyond genius, of course, but I never realized HOW ahead of the bunch she is until I saw her classmates. Her teacher talked as a matter of fact of "WHEN Ariana goes to the gifted and talented program...." I had no idea something like that existed here, and I have no idea what grade it starts. I guess I should look into it. The most amazing thing about Ariana vs. the rest of the students is that a new concept can be introduced to her ONCE, no matter what the subject, and she's got it, completed it, and moved on. Meanwhile, she waits for the rest of the class to figure it out or helps them. I love my daughter's kind heart.

*****

And my last worry...Alex is supposed to be going into USC for his last year in the dual IMBA program in France and the US. He has the highest Test of English as a Foreign Language score in the school. He already had a 3.82 at USC (the US' number one IMBA school) the one term he was there. His GMAT scores (business exam) were 640, approximately 13 points HIGHER than the average USC student in the IMBA program. His class rank and grades from his school are very high. There's one slot open, and there is no doubt that Alex should get it from his school.

However, he was just informed by his stupid ass French school that there are seven kids wanting US schools, and so he needs to list off a second choice "just in case." Now mind you, one of his professors at USC even wrote one of his recommendations for this program. If USC chose, they'd choose Alex. The end. But we already learned when they placed two girls who had lower scores on EVERY SINGLE THING that Alex had from the French school as higher to go to USC on the one semester they did...that the French school sucks and can't figure out their head from their ass. So now I'm worried. VERY worried. As in, if the kids weren't here, I think Drunk would be in order. I can't stand the idea of him being away for a year...a year...oh god, two hours away has been bad enough. We've been separated regularly for two years already...oh WHY? I can't handle it. He finds out by January if they'll let him in. Honestly, all the stats say it should be Alex and no other that they put in that slot. But we know his school is irrational, and there is nothing we can do about it...

So I worry. Maybe I'll just eat more of Jared's birthday cake and that will calm me down...