The Rasmusens in Oxford

    All  three children had a good first week.   Lizzie ‘s teacher chose her as “Worker of  the Week”,  and one girl has asked her several times how she’s doing. She’s  trying to  catch up in  math, since her fellow students did  multiplication and division last year, and  she hadn’t even started on  those topics.  Benjie’s busy learning phonetics and how to write  letters, since his class knows how to do  that.  Both are happily working on catching up.

Well, not an entire day, but an hour and a half gave us enough of a trip,   time for our sandwiches, and time to learn how to steer.  I have the exact wrong instincts on boats, though–pushing left when  I should push right and so forth.  The Cherwell Boathouse was pleasant, though,   the river uncrowded, and the children well-behaved.  And on the way there Benjamin found an interesting puffball/earthball/earthstar growing out of an ancient  wall.

After church at St. Ebbe’s, we stayed and talked for a long time, and then ate hot pasties and ginger-chocolate cookies from Sainsbury for lunch, on the steps of a nearby building. After doing some shopping, Helen went home with everyone but Eric, Elizabeth, and Lily, who had a snack and went shopping for men’s clothes. The girls had fun in Marks and Spencer adorning the stroller with men’s shoes and shirts while Daddy shopped more. After a stop at Nuffield and a look at the base of the castle hill, we walked home. Elizabeth did marvelously over the long walk, only taking a small spell in the stroller, and they arrived home in high spirits. The picture above is while we were taking a rest, perhaps along Kingston Street.

We discovered the day before school started that Benjamin would be in Year 1, which is for students his age, but follows a Reception year of half-day “kindergarten”. So he is going straight into all-day school, with children who’ve already started to learn to read, and who’ve been together for a year already. But he was content with his first two days. His big gripe is that the classroom walls are painted pink. After school we’ve started teaching him how to write “bit” and “bat” and suchlike.

As Faith, Benjamin, and Faith played some variance on their “Chubby Babies” game:

Benjamin: …there was a world war and all the other babies died, but this is a fighter baby…

Lily: How about if we stay up late always at night time and how about if we don’t get any nap… and how about if everybody told us not to take naps..

Benjamin: and the baby stays up forever

Lily: Hey, I found candy. And how about today we’re going to England on an airplane and how about if I sit on the balance beam because you tell me to? How about if we always sit on the balance beam?

Benjamin: The baby can stand up and do anything. Lina, I’m going to drive.

Lily: Can I bounce?

Benjamin: No, you can just play with the baby.

We’re going to take off. Buckle up. Now we’re going off! Maow! Br Br. Lam ro blow blow… Whoa. We’re there. It’s the baby birthday.

Lily: How about there’s going to be all the birthdays in the whole world? And first it’s my birthday? And I’m going to get a princess and a unicorn for a present because I like those?

Benjamin: Faith, I’m going to give you a new sword, Faith. I’ve got Faith’s present!

Lily: Where’s my present?

Benjamin: Well, I don’t have them yet.

Lily: I found a ticket, Papa. We need that. Hey, the ticket costs … one dollar. We have to buy one dollar only.

Benjamin: Faith, here’s the holy sword. Okay. I’ll take out the ticket. Any scissors?

Lily: Hey. Some guns shoot. Some guns shoot. Some guns shoot. And how about we put the mystery jewel in the mystery jewels spot where all the mystery jewels are, and how about if all the people have mystery jewels and all the people have the same name as us? And how about if they have a baby with that name?

Benjamin: No, no., They never got a ticket. And we’ve got the most tickets and that’s why we have the most babies. I like the baby so much (singing). She’s a navy baby! And “Navy baby” is her middle name.

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Lily had to get a big spanking this morning, though, for lying about some little misdeed. She said something funny the other day, too. She was outside and I heard the doorbell ring, so I said through th4e door, “Did you ring the doorbell, LiLY?” She said, “No. It was someone else.” I asked “Where’s the person who rang it, then?” She realized she was in a bind: “He ran away.”

I then asked if she was sure, and she admitted that she had rung it herself.

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LILY (very seriously): Daddy, when Faith grows up will she be a boy, or a girl?

DADDY: A girl.

LILY: Good. She can be my friend.

DADDY: She’s your friend already.

LILY: Yes, she’s one of my best friends. Because she already has teeth!