Quirky kid meme

For once, I'm being quick on the meme uptake (thanks, Cristy).

First, here are 'The Rules':

1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share 6 non-important things/quirks about your kid
4. Tag at least three people at the end of your post and link to their blogs
5. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog
6. Let the fun begin!

1. F bought me a stuffed dog for Valentine’s Day this year. The Husband bought me a dog for Valentine’s Day two years ago, and when he was in Mexico, F became very attached to it and started taking it to bed at night and carrying it about the house everywhere – to eat dinner, read stories, watch telly. So, it became his. About a week before Valentine’s Day, I was putting him to bed and kissing him goodnight, and I gave the dog (Puppy) a hug too, saying ‘it’s my only to cuddle him since you stole him’. Ten minutes later, he was up, saying ‘I’m really sorry, mum. You’re right. I did steal him from you. I’m going to save up my pocket money and buy you another dog’. I insisted that I was only joking and there was no need to spend his money, but a day before Valentine’s Day, he asked the Husband to take him to buy me a dog. His name is Sidney and F is very pleased that I like him. He likes to check in the morning to see if I slept with him. I brought Sidney to Adelaide with me for company.

2. F has an imaginary friend named Dexter. He’s eight years old and he’s a scientist. One day, a few months ago in fact, he told me that Dexter had been alive for a million years, and he had been eight years old for nearly all that time. He found a crystal that was cursed and it killed his parents but gave him everlasting life so that he had to live on without them. There was an elaborate story that went with it about Dexter’s adventures through the ages. A few days later, he told me that Dexter had admitted it was all ‘a myth’ – he really was just eight years old; no everlasting life. He said he’d made it up to tell his teacher as part of a school assignment and had just trialled it on F. Dexter has come and gone over the past few years. Sometimes he rides with us to school, or eats breakfast with us. At one point, Dexter had an evil twin brother named Bexter. He used to follow us, or suddenly the Dexter eating breakfast with us would be revealed to be the evil Bexter instead. I wonder how long he will last.

3. Last week, F very solemnly came up to me as I was getting him ready for school and asked if I would put Surf Wax in his hair and spike it up and then put eyeliner on him, so that he’d look like Billie Joe from Green Day. I compromised and just did the hair. I didn’t think his teacher would appreciate the eyeliner. After school, I put the eyeliner on him after dinner. He posed with his electric guitar we bought him for Christmas (lucky child, I know!) as we enthused over him and then I washed it off and tucked him into bed with some books.

4. F loves doing homework. He’s in Grade Three and it’s new to him. They get the homework on Monday and hand it in on Friday. After the first week of school, he wrote a note on the back of his homework paper saying ‘Dear [Teacher], Please give me homework every day. Sincerely, F.’ I watched him give it to his teacher and point it out. His teacher laughed. He doesn’t give him homework every day.

5. F doesn’t like sandwiches. I make him bread-and butter sandwiches (which are acceptable) with sliced carrot sticks, cucumber and cheese on the side, or said sliced items with seaweed rice crackers and BBQ shapes for school lunches. His dad makes him wholemeal bread sandwiches with cheese or ham, often with ziplock bags with sliced tomato and cucumber on the side. He NEVER eats them. Ever. He brings them home in his lunchbox or in his bag, whole and perfect and untouched. I asked him why he doesn’t tell his dad he doesn’t like them. He said that he did tell him - and told him what I give him - and his dad said ‘FORGET it. I will never make you something like that for lunch.’ I guess I remember that I wouldn’t eat sandwiches either, and threw them under the transportable classrooms every day for a year, until someone found all my mouldy sandwiches and called my parents up to the school. My mum started making me crackers and salad for lunch. The circle turns ...

6. F gave us all verbal report cards for parenting the other day: me, the Husband, his dad, his stepmother. We were marked in categories: healthy eating, active, general parenting, and book learning. We all scored well. Me, the Husband and his dad all got five out of five as parents. This was done in the schoolyard before the bell went. The Husband’s Active report began: ‘He’s very active. T is very agile at football. He flies through the air to catch the ball and he usually gets it ...’ I don’t know why he decided to do this. But it was really interesting.

I tag ... ThirdCat, Helen and Penni.