Let's Talk About Sux

Collin left on Wednesday to do some research in Madrid and stay with Dale and Valerie in Alcala. Elena, the kids' tutor went to Barcelona to visit her brother during the same amount of time. On Wednesday we did homework and then I took the kids to soccer. During soccer, Ian and I shopped for fiesta de otono items that the kids had to bring to school: chestnuts, walnuts (some in shell, some out), almonds (some in shell, some out), and pomegranates. I may have also bought some Kinder Happy Hippos for the kids and some marzapan for me. I meant to study Spanish for the remainder of the time the kids were in soccer, but ended up playing trompos with Ian. I have gotten to the point where I can wind up my top and get it to spin, but can't do any cool tricks yet. It seems like EVERY kids here has a trompo (top) and can do all sorts of complicated tricks. Aidan has managed to break two tops and Ian has broken one.

I went with Flor to the library to check out some movies for the kids: Atom Ant, Trollz: Best Friends for Life and The Borrowers. My Spanish teacher was sick for a couple of days this week so I had a little more free time. One day I had a language exchange with Juan Carlos followed by one with Flor followed by one with Rocio. And they all overlapped so everyone got to meet each other.

The kids had a Fall Festival at school on Friday, which I missed because I wasn't aware that parents were allowed to go. At recess they all got to try to the different foods that are harvested in the fall including: pomegranates, membrillo (quince), walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds and roasted chestnuts. I roasted the remainder of the chestnuts at home for us to eat along with popcorn while we watched all three of our movies. We went to bed at midnight. I told all the kids that they had to sleep in and then I put all the blinds down. Emma and I slept in until 9:30 am, but the boys were up by 8 am. I think the call of Saturday morning cartoons is too strong to ignore. On Saturday, after a little homework, we went to the library to exchange our movies. The kids loved the big library and were content to look at books after they selected their movies. You are only allowed to check out 2 DVDs at a time per library card, so I sneakily used Collin's card after taking out my earrings, undoing my bun and putting on a sweater and going to a different librarian to check out my second batch of DVDs. Emma picked Groove Squad (superhero cheerleaders), Ian picked Lunaticos (Looney Tunes in space), Aidan picked Space Jam and I picked The Joy of Life (sex ed via cartoons). The cover of The Joy of Life said it was appropriate for children ages 5-10.

I watched The Joy of Life with the kids and told them that I would pause it if they had any questions. The premise is that a grandmother is telling her grandchildren in twenty 5-minute stories the differences between men and women, behavior in sexual relations, etc.,. All three kids were GLUED to the screen. Here's how the chapters were broken down:

1. Boys

2. Girls

3. Cells

4. Chromosomes

5. Puberty in Boys

6. Puberty in Girls

7. Sexual Instinct

8. Discovering my Body

9. Discovering Love

10. The Adventure of Love

11. Fertilization

12. A Baby Comes into the World

13. The First Moments of Life

14. Mom, I'm Hungry!

15. Twins

16. Girl or Boy?

17. Contraception

18. Growing Up

19. Family Tree

20. Life in the Family

They each had a question or two per chapter. The entire movie was cartoons, but showed the sperm, egg, naked bodies of both boys and girls and gave simplified explanations of how private parts work, how a baby grows, what changes the body goes through during puberty, etc., We have discussed some of this stuff with the kids, but kind of waited until they had a question before saying anything. This movie laid it ALL out. At times the kids covered their faces or laughed, but most of the time they seemed interested. Ian was mostly interested in belly buttons and umbilical cords. Emma in milk production in the mammory glands. Aidan was interested in armpit hair and birth. We watched it twice. There are three off key, badly sung songs that the kids kept trying to sing that I would love to record on Garage Band. Also, each chapter started with the grandmother and her grandkids laughing and looking at a photo album. The chapters always ended with the one of the grandkids asking a question about what happens next in the sequence of events and the grandmother always said, "Well there's more, ah yes, much more, but that's another story." At first the kids were annoyed by the repetition of the grandmother ending each chapter saying the same thing, but after awhile, they just started saying it with her and laughing. So I think they repeated that phrase at least 30 times in the last two days. There were a few things in the movie that I wasn't totally comfortable with, but figure that the kids will ask me if they are confused about something. I'd rather have reproduction be a normal topic of conversation, rather than tabu, in our home. And now Ian calls sex, "sux."