A few quotes from today’s game:
So once upon a time, before it was cool, I had a MySpace account. Last night, I signed up for a new one. Hubby mentioned it for some reason, and when I realized he was finding high school classmates I decided to give it a try.
So far I’ve found my junior high/high school best friend, a good friend from college, and an ex-boyfriend. This is so much fun! I’m hoping this will give me the opportunity to reconnect with some people I once held dear. In particular, I am looking for my college best friend, but I haven’t managed to locate him yet.
I uploaded my favorite family picture (the one where I sport the bodacious ta-tas!), but I haven’t filled out the profile. I have exactly 1 friend, and it isn’t Tom. My first friend looks remarkably like my husband. 😉
Stacia is in 3rd grade now, and there is a huge shift in behavior, responsibility and expectations both at school and at home. I’m even seeing a shift in what she watches on television. Last year she would have flipped straight past any live action shows in favor of Sponge Bob or whatever random cartoon she could find. Now she actually watches shows like The Suite Life of Zach and Cody or That’s So Raven.
The responsibility part is something I’m finding difficult. I have always taught my children to make their own decisions on certain things. I take the whole “pick your battles” to an extreme my mom cannot stand. I pretty much save my arguing energy for health and safety issues—food is a big one for me. Clothing? Not so much. They dress themselves every day and I don’t give much thought to how horribly they match other than to hope their teachers get it.
Her third grade teachers have instructed parents not to direct homework. We are allowed to help if they ask, but it is not our job to check and correct their homework, unload their backpacks or make sure it gets back to school. All of that is their job, including getting parental signatures on certain pieces of homework and their daily assignment notebook. They lose recess time and points if it is not returned properly. I struggle so much with not correcting things I see wrong and I have to force myself not to pickup her notebook and sign it on my own.
I have tried to set her up for success the best way I can—I helped her create a schedule of things to do each day and a list of things to pack, as well as asking her each evening and morning if she is packed for school. A couple weeks ago I knew no one had signed her assignment notebook, so I must have asked her 4 times if she was sure she had everything. Yes, yes, yes, yes! She gets home from school and the first words out of her mouth are “Mom! You forgot to sign my assignment notebook!”
“Did you ask me to sign your notebook?” No, so how is that my fault? We added “get parent signatures” to her afternoon list of things to do. Yesterday, she returned her notebook to school sans signature again. Today it sits, along with her unsigned spelling homework, on the kitchen table. I asked last night if she was ready, and again twice this morning. She said yes every time, but as soon as the bus left I found them sitting on the kitchen table. She got as far as opening them in preparation, but never asked me to sign them. It was all I could do to keep from rushing them straight to school.
I think one of the hardest things about being a parent is letting them fail. Even harder is letting them fail without feeling like a failure yourself.
During her bath the other day, I realized Brenia has indeed been listening. She no longer refers to “it” as her “front butt.”
“I have to wash my china now.”
Yes, please take care in washing the china.
dressing up so as not to embarrass your brother on his wedding day:
I love Chris’s Love Thursday contribution every week. She always has some adorable sibling love story to share and an eloquent way to do so. I don’t have that (if only…), but I do have a picture of me all dressed up! I was very concerned about looking like the frumpy big sister with “all those kids.” I fell in love with this dress as soon as I saw it—enough to pay $62 for the amazing boobie bra that completes the look!
Also, I may or may not have gotten very, very drunk and fallen off my heels. (If I did, it was because someone even drunker than I pushed me down. I would probably have a very sober witness to this fact.)
If you have ever seen me eat, you would be hard pressed to picture me shopping in an organics food store. The recent discovery of my littlest one’s wheat intolerance has found me there quite regularly. I’ve been buying gluten-free toddler puffs and cereal to replace the Gerber puffs and Cheerios she was previously eating. It’s slightly more expensive, but mostly just annoying having to add 1 more store to my weekly errands.
Yesterday I found a new Gerber food that she can eat! I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was to discover the new Mini Fruits freeze-dried foods where just that—freeze-dried fruit with no additives. As long as we steer clear of the poisonberry flavor, we’ll be okay. I can add yet another mainstream food to the short list of Lorelai-safe treats. Plus, I had a coupon! And we all know how I feel about that.
I’m putting together a list for family in case they want her to actually be able to eat her first Halloween goodies as they will need to be both wheat-free and dairy-free. It started out pretty short—banana chips and fruit cups were all I could come up with—but it’s growing by leaps and bounds as I have researched brand names and ingredients.
- banana chips
- fruit cups
- Fritos or Ruffles chips (She should be able to bite into these soon!)
- potato sticks
- Gerber mini fruits
- Newman’s Own organic dark chocolate bars (Actually, a lot of candy is gluten free, but most chocolate is made with milk and most other candy is too hard for little ones.)
- apple cinnamon rice cakes
Since beginning the gluten free diet, Lorelai has had more energy than ever before. I had forgotten what “normal” babies were like, and I am exhausted from learning it so quickly! She had the ability and the development to do the things she should be doing at this age, but not the proper nutrition to actually put it into action.
While most babies step slowly into everything, she has started practically overnight! There was no getting used to her crawling around on her tummy, then her knees, and then learning to stand. She has done it all in one week. Two weeks ago she couldn’t even crawl. Now she can whip her way around the couch, stand up to the bookcase, and yank Mommy’s cookbooks out one by one.
It’s all I can do to stay one step behind her just to put everything away again.
Today is a Disney-only day. We’re having a Charlie and Lola marathon (is it too embarrassing to admit I love that show as much as her?) rather than allow any other channels to broadcast on my television. I don’t need the reminders. I don’t need the memorial tributes.
I definitely don’t need to see those planes fly into the towers yet again to see it clearly in my head. I remember it all vividly. But what I choose to remember most is how everyone came together. I remember the initial shock that it was anything other than a terribly tragic accident.
I remember the feeling of helplessness, wishing there were something—anything—I could do. I remember dashing around the house, emptying pantries, filling boxes, and stuffing bags once I found out a location nearby was collecting items for affected families.
I remember the tears in my little one’s eyes when we were done unloading the car—because she wasn’t done helping. I remember the elation she felt when I told her she could gather up any money in the car and donate it too.
I remember the normally intense homecoming float competition at my high school being abandoned. I remember the United We Stand float the classes created together, donating the remaining funds to the 9/11 families.
I am sad today, like everyone else. I am sad for the thousands of lives that were lost and the thousands more that were changed that day. For the lost feeling of safety since we all realized it was intentional. For the exploitation of the victims and the feelings of 9/11 that some continue daily. For the fear-mongering, hatred, and vast separation those events created. For the last united stand.
For the end of freedom as we know it.