In Cahoots with the Portertown Family

I love the phrase "in cahoots." I know it's not so very much popular anymore, but I think it may make a comeback. Particularly around our family and friends. I think the Alpha Chugga Milka boys may bring this particular term into popularity. (I'm including Ry in the frat, even though he doesn't have the frat boy look. I'm hoping he gets in just by being friends with the cool kids. For more info, see Jonie's post Alpha Chugga Milka for Life in my blog list.)

When Ry was the age of just walking pretty good, and Cam was 8 months older than just walking pretty good, Cam was in a vacuum loving phase. Vacuum cleaner=best toy ever to Cam. Not so much to Ryder. The boys had been playing in Cam's room, but suddenly were quiet. So of course, quietness has to be checked on because two little boys and quietness surely means some kind of trouble. We open the bathroom door, and Camden has somehow wiggled and maneuvered and coaxed the vacuum cleaner out of its spot in the bathroom closet and he and Ryder are in the bathroom, door closed, playing with the vacuum cleaner. In diapers, and in cahoots.

I suppose Mannienewt is part of Alpha Chugga Milka, too. Maybe he's the mascot. The whole Cam throwing the very patient and very invisible pocket squirrel over the fence story shows more evidence of the boys being in cahoots, but it's not only Cam and Ryder who play together with the imaginary squirrel. At Camp Wetoga, Carter and Ryder were playing catch with Mannienewt across the breakfast table. Usually throwing things at the breakfast table is not allowed, but I suppose Mannienewt will have to learn to run and hide if he doesn't want to play catch with the boys at breakfast. So, even though Carter just turned two, he is very much in cahoots with the boys.

Ryder has been in the three year old Bible school class with Camden for a couple of months now. Cody gets this report when he picks Ryder up for class (following story as reported by Cody:

"Cody, what is your last name? I just went blank in class and could not remember."

Cody tells Ms. Teresa our last name.

"I couldn't remember your last name, so I asked Ryder. He said your last was Portertown. I didn't think that was right, but I just couldn't remember it, so I asked Camden what Ryder's last name was, and he said it wasPortertown, so I thought maybe I had just completely forgotten." I must admit that I don't keep many of Ryder's creations, but I think the Bible school paper with the title "The Portertown family" will have to be saved. So, I love the ways these boys play together. I just hope that their episodes of being in cahoots stay so funny and innocent! I love not knowing what to expect while waitingforRyder....Portertown :)

(And by the way, I have now used the phrase "in cahoots" so much that I'm really starting not to like it. My apologies if you are now supremely annoyed by the phrase. I am just now realizing that it is only fun in small doses :)

Introduction to Shakespeare

In my former life as a freshmen English teacher, I spent about six weeks a year introducing my 100 or so kids to Shakespeare.

In my current life as a mom of the most fabulous three year old, I was told that Ryder introduced my mom and dad to Shakespeare.

I loved teaching my freshmen Romeo and Juliet every year. I was shocked that the Shakespeare unit would become one of my favorites. There are so many difficulties teaching Shakespeare to kids with literacy skills that are overall (for the most part) quite unimpressive. But after a couple of years, I anticipated the groans of anxiety when I told the kids we were going to start the Romeo and Juliet unit because I knew that by the end, they were going to LOVE this story. So maybe most of them never left discussing the advantages of free verse and iambic pentameter, and I'm sure they did not realize how heartbreakingly beautiful the images and wordplay and characters were, but they were so with me on making fun of traditional romantic hero Romeo.

I loved watching the kids rush in to class to sign up for parts and watching the boys fight to read Juliet's part, because every year in at least one class, I had a group of boys who thought that reading Juliet's part was funny. Different kids every year (well, mostly, I had a few who loved me so much they came back for seconds of the same class :); same responses to Shakespeare. And the end...oh, the end, when we were all just over it, and ready for fickle, sissy, whining Romeo to just die in the most tragic of death scenes, and the kids would be realizing how useless the deaths were, and lamenting the decisions the characters had so quickly made to be brought to the tombs. And of course I loved that after we had read, discussed, interpreted, dissected, and then reassembled the story, and we would watch the movie, I would always have at least a couple of kids who would be yelling at the TV, "No, don't drink it....she's NOT DEAD!" (The first experience I had of this was watching it with Jonie when we were teenagers, but Jonie did not KNOW that they both died before watching the movie. Imagine how sad the movie is when you don't know they both die). So, before I started teaching, I loved Shakespeare for his beautiful writing and timeless stories, but now my reasons that Romeo and Juliet will always be one of my all-time favorite stories are reasons such as Ashley, and DeMario, Jessica, and Justin, and many other similar names.

But as much as I loved introducing those kids to Shakespeare, my best teaching efforts were no match for Ryder. He was sitting on our front porch with Mom and Dad, and Shakepeare (our furry, gray and white, neighborhood wondering version who meows in perfect iambic pentameter) came to visit. Ryder said, "Granna, this is Shakespeare," and then, "Shakespeare, this is my cousin, Granna." Ryder totally understands Shakespeare, but we may need a lesson on grandmothers vs. cousins :)

So, Ryder really loves Shakespeare, the wandering cat, and this is huge because he used to scream and hide and be terrified of cats (just ask Hokey, Kyle and Kellee's cat). He has full conversations with Shakespeare. I overheard him talking to him the other day: "Jonie's coming over here. Do you like Jonie, Shakespeare? (Meow...he is a very talkative cat). You do? I like Jonie, too." I asked Ryder after one of his conversations with Shakespeare who his favorite pet was, and he said Shakespeare was. I was feeling bad for faithful Aprilia, who has so patiently allowed Ryder to climb over her since he was born, so I asked, "What about Aprilia?" Ryder looked at me like I had just asked the silliest question ever. "Aprilia's my friend, Mom. She's my buddy." (Ryder really does have real, live people friends for those of you that are concerned about these friendships with cats, dogs, and imaginary squirrels).

And finally, Ryder does know about the playwright and poet Shakespeare, and that he is different from the cat. We can ask Ryder who whe writer Shakespeare was, and Ryder will reply "Milliam Shakespeare." And then when we ask what he wrote, Ryder quotes the witches from Macbeth (sort of). "Bubble, Bubble, toil and trouble. Fire burn and called him TROUBLE!" (And he laughs because he knows the last word is bubble.) He's known these lines for about a year now, because that is what I say to him every time I put bubbles in his bath. I know that it's not something that every mother does, but I thought I was introducing him to Shakespeare in a sweet and cute way. However, I never knew in all the years I planned lessons to introduce Shakespeare to kids, that I would be waitingforRyder to introduce Shakespeare to us.