Flat Stanley

Tommy goes back to school tomorrow after having last week off.  He looks forward to going back to school because he wants to be with Sophia.  (I could not make that up.)

We receive all school announcements and paperwork on Thursdays.  They make it incredibly hard to miss this important information by (1) sending it all home on Thursday in brightly colored folders which have the child's name on them and say something like "important information, please pay attention" on them and (2) following it all up with an e-mail which reminds you that the folders are coming and also attaches the paperwork in case your child has managed to lose their school bag somewhere between school and home.

So since Thursday, February 9, we have had on our kitchen counter a letter from Miss Jo, asking us to please have our child color in "Flat Stanley" and, to make it easy, and already cut out "Flat Stanley" (essentially a paper doll).  Tommy was charged with coloring it and then we were supposed to take a photo somewhere (on holiday if we went on one, or at football class or even just at the playground).

On Friday, I finally asked Tommy to color in Flat Stanley which took all of thirty seconds.  He was colored entirely in red except the face which was light pink.

And on Friday night when Eli came home, I said, "honey, whatever we do this weekend, we have to take a picture of Tommy with Flat Stanley somewhere a little bit interesting".  And he said, "sure, no problem."

Fast forward to Sunday at three pm, and picture me in the kitchen swearing upon realizing that we had left Flat Stanley on the table every time we left the house.  Then, imagine us, brainstorming.  What could we do before bedtime that would be funny? Or clever? Or just not a picture of Flat Stanley at the playground (showing the rest of Tommy's class for once and for all that we lead a very boring life).

So Eli said we should go to the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666.  We had always talked about going, and as most of you know, we're likely leaving London at some point this year.  So even though I really just wanted to lie on the couch and finish the New Yorker, I said yep, we should go, and off we set.

OF COURSE the Tube had some work happening and the journey was harder than it should have been.  But really, this post is whiny enough without going into it.

 So, we arrived at the monument.  Kids are free and I'm going to tell you why:  because if you try to make your kid walk up 311 steps, they are going to need to be carried at some point and the expression "adding insult to injury" applies when you have to pay to carry your kid up that many steps.

Tommy walked up all of them himself.  Lulu walked up none of them herself.

We stepped out onto the deck and Tommy looked up at me.  "Mommy, I'm feeling a little bit anxious" he said, as he clung to the wall.  "Oh, but honey, look, you can't fall.  It'll be fine."  "No, Mommy.  I'm very nervous."

And I said, "you're a Kent, aren't you, honey.  You're just trying to fool everybody by looking like your daddy and sharing all of his interests."  (Tommy even wants to be an architect so he can go to work with Daddy.)  Anyway, we couldn't have been at the top of the tower longer than 10 minutes, but it was fun.  Nice job, E.

 Guess who walked down these stairs like an old lady??  Tommy.  We had to let what felt like one million people pass us.

 He felt better for this picture.  Eli placed him on top of a four foot high box (no idea what it's for), and then got on the ground to get the picture.  I thought it was weird that Tommy felt so comfortable in this situation -- one in which he certainly could get hurt -- as compared to the (very safe) tower.

Of course, from this entire experience comes my commitment to -- next time -- help Tommy get his homework done at the beginning of his holiday instead of the end.