charles is away in australia right now. every person under four feet has asked at least twice today where he is, which serves to reinforce the crap job i am doing parenting in his absence.

this morning i took sebastian to his first rugby practise. it was actually pretty good, there are basically only two, two word phrases that you need to repeat for the first year. they are:

THROW BACKWARDS

and

RUN FORWARDS

many of the kids were confusing those two concepts today.

rugby ended at 10am and then there was a short talk where the volunteers asked for another parent volunteer to be the contact, to send out weekly emails and be an organiser. during the speech, as they were trying to make eye contact with the parents who were all examining their shoes, adam's dad, chad was right beside me and we tried to flip each other's hands up in the air and then tried to sucker the person next to me into doing it by taking a step backwards. all i know is i cannot commit to doing that right now.

rush home, change clothes and head off to church.

then home, lunch, nap....thank you. i watched a couple of episodes of friends. we have cable now, but i don't have the time for a two hour movie or the mental capacity for that matter. what i DO have is a good time watching 22 minutes of sitcoms and i have to say, 30 rock is a very good replacement for arrested development, although i miss the dysfunction.

however, naps end, and the kids woke up and we headed down to the playground. oh the trama and dramas !! charles, need your good parenting to balance out my snarling ways and "natural consequences" style of parenting.

the other night we took sebastian to see the watoto children's choir. www.watoto.com the children are from uganda, and at least one of their parents has been killed due to famine, disease (mainly hiv) or war. they come to the watoto communities, which were founded be canadian missionaries and are given a home, parents and an education. the choir travels the world.

the children we heard the other night ranged in age from 6-13 i would guess. they spoke of losing a parent, and how before they came to the watoto community they were starving, lonely, and scared. this concept struck sebastian hard. "how can they travel on an airplane if they have no mummy or daddy?" "will they grow up if their mummy is dead now?" and the question that tore my heart, "how come they are smiling if their mummy is dead? i want to know."

sebastian wanted to keep one of the singers, and we explained that they weren't for sale like a luke skywalker doll. but i said that besides money, one of the things we could do to help the children was to appreciate our life. we may not like having cheerios instead of waffles, but at least we have food.

"tomorrow i will eat all my breakfast" he promised. and he did.

and today, when he was whinging about the fact that he had to do his reading words for school, i asked him if he wanted to read the "second chance" book, a story about a little boy that goes to live in a watoto community. he said yes, then gave me a hug. i guess he feels one parent who is trying is better than none at all.

Comments

[Charles]

I will pray for you in my absence... I think we need season two of "My Name is Earl" for when Friends dries up! xx

[joeinvegas]

Awwww

[SouthernBell]

- How sweet is your hubby for that comment!?!?

- Sebastian sounds like a precious little guy.

- "Friends" is the best sitcom EVER!

I commented back to you on my potty issues with Cora.
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/southern/2007/08/its_the_hose_for_you_kid.html

[Tammy]

God bless you Tess. Your children will make this world a better place.

xoxo

[Trinie]

So do Mike and I need to come over and show Seb how to play rugby (we both love touch rugby which is a much more refined version of the game)? Of course NZ is all fired up with rugby and the commencement of the World cup soon.

Anyway, sounds like you are doing a fab job in spite of parenting alone.

[Dad aka Granddad Blake]

I have been asked by 4 charming youngsters,all of whom live in Hong Kong, as to where Charles is.
Please advise ASAP.

thanks and love to all....Dad

[SouthernBell]

Come read about my romantic date night that the waitress tried to sabotage.
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/southern/2007/09/date_night.html

[Penny]

Thanks for the introduction to Watoto. What an enriching experience for Sebastian.

[karyn]

My daughter and I saw the Watoto singers in Manitoba last spring. Wonderful stories, and definitely helps to make us appreciate what er ahve and how to use what we ahve to help others.

[karyn]

"what we have and how to use what we have to help others."

Sorry for ghastly typos