in other news...

...family news...

I'm feeling a little more settled in my newly expanded family these last few months. Granted, it's not all smooth sailing, but my stepson and I are starting to connect a little more than we initially did. That was when he moved from Kelowna to live with us, back in August, less than a month before his dad an I got married and only 2 weeks before school started and I officially entered my BSW program.

We had a bit of a rough patch over Spring Break in March. I took my stepson to stay with his mom in Kelowna for a weekend, and he was pretty cranky for a week after. He also had a virus that hung around for just over a week, which didn't help. And then his mom and her husband and their toddler and baby came to Vancouver over the Easter weekend, so he spent 24 hours with them, and he was crabby for another week following. But lately he's been wanting me to pin him down and tickle him. He's not always one for physical contact with me, he can be surly about it, like I'm intentionally hurting him if I give him a playful poke. This creating attachment from nothing with a 7 year old is not an easy task!

Other than our struggles to develop our attachment bond, I've had the joy of having to explain another person's poor parenting choice to my stepson's community. While he was in Kelowna over Spring Break, he told his mom he'd like to have blue hair. So she bleached his brown hair and dyed it bright green (using blue dye - the colour didn't come out quite right). Can I repeat, she bleached a barely 7 year old's hair!!! Sure, there's no lasting physical damage to the kid, but, come on! Why would that be considered appropriate? Then, over Easter weekend, she brought me the extra blue dye so I could touch it up!!  His mom isn't the most mentally stable, and is a little touchy. As well, there's no generosity in her relationship with my husband; he is incompetent and unworthy in her eyes. I haven't had the words to respond to this in a tactful way, so I've just bit my tongue. But I'm embarrassed!

On a more positive note, I put my family on the list for SelfDesign for next fall, a distributed learning school that is unschooling-friendly. I looked through some of the profiles of the learning consultants (teachers), and can see myself working with several from the Vancouver/Lower Mainland area alone  :)

The kids are excited. I am, too! But I'm also a little scared...