Kid's corner

Today we had an appointment to have Elias' eyes checked. At the yearly check-up at the CLB in his school, he received a note claiming his sight was not very good (borderline normal) and his eyes we not positioned correctly. Because we wanted to make sure there actually was a problem, we consulted a specialist today. The first thing he said was that his eyes were positioned correctly, so that CLB claim turned out to be false.

June 27, 2008. The last day at school for Elias. And I was late picking him up :-/ As in 30 minutes late. Somehow my brain thought I needed to pick him up at 15:35 instead of 15:05.

Somewhere around 5 AM this morning. Rain had been pouring down hard the past hour, and we were slumbering and gently falling back to sleep again after Elias had woken us up because he removed his bandage from his finger and wanted a new one (that was somewhere around 4 AM).

Suddenly a noise, footsteps in the hall, shuffling toward our bedroom door. The door creaked open, and lo! there stood Elias, asking if we wanted to read him a story :-)

Luckily, after some encouragement, he shuffled back to his bedroom and tucked in again. Needless to say, he was too tired to get up this morning.

Elias has been in need for new shoes for a few weeks now, but we never found anything that was either to our liking or good enough to support his feet. But today, we dished out €69.70 for a cool pair of Stones and Bones sandals. They look awesome, and they seem to be a very good fit.

After having been ill for the past weeks, both Elias and Nathan have regained a number of hit points. Sufficient to allow them back to school and kindergarten, respectively.

The last three weeks, we have been looking for Elias' second pair of shoes, because his main pair is growing too small. The last known location -- to us, at least -- was the hall. But alas! They seemed to have vanished. We asked everybody who could have put them elsewhere, to no avail.

This evening, Veerle suddenly noticed the shoes lying in the living room, next to Elias' LEGO box. Upon asking Elias where they came from, he answered: 'They were in the LEGO box. They were hidden.'

Right.

Elias has moved to a new class since February 12th, 2008. Apart from the fact that the experience of being separated from his friends -- in contrast to what was promised -- was quite annoying for Elias, it has not been the best experience for us either. Elias has been having three teachers since the change: Jane, Veerle and now Ellen, who replaces Jane as she's pregnant. And none of them is coming close to hist first teacher: Els.

A small anecdote. Elias went to the hairdresser with me today. Not the guy we usually go to; he recently became a father, or so I was told, and he doesn't seem to answer his phone when we ring for an appointment. So we headed out to the Carré Coiffure where one of Elias friends from kindergarten goes. They have a both a female and male salon, and we did not need an appointment, so I took him there, because Veerle was feeling unwell.

If anybody knows what a 'somplaas' is, now would be a good time to tell me, because it is something I have according to Elias and it is dangerous. I cannot make anything from his explanation but he has been going on about it quite insistently.

Update: it is even more dangerous for Nathan, because he can put it in his mouth.

The last ten minutes Elias has been playing the events of yesterday's doctor visit over. Using a toy Lego cannon he found in Kurt's box we received, he checked my ears, nose and throat. He then listened to my lungs encouraging me to breathe deeply. Unfortunately he had no equipment, so after the first try without a stethoscope, he took Nathan's duck, tried to plug its wings into his ears and used it beak to listen to my lungs. The cannon turned out to be multifunctional as he also gave me a shot (did not happen yesterday) in my arm.