Lessons from a 7 year old

After I picked my kids up from school yesterday, we drove straight to look for new school shoes. Yes, I am a slacker. As usual, I asked the girls how their day was and what was the most exciting part. The Kindergartner replies immediately with a list of things. I tell the girls that I am so proud of them because they are such big girls… but that I also miss them so much while they are gone. I let out a little “wah” right after. Pig Will replies… “uh mom, don’t wah us… we are right here. You can wah when we are at school.” Wow, so true. In other words, enjoy the time you have with your kids when you are with them. Don’t dwell on the fact that they are gone all day while you are with them. Miss them when they are gone, kiss them when their not. Such wonderful insight from a seven year old.

The shoe shopping was unsuccessful. I mean, $55 dollars for a good pair of school shoes… really? I don’t even spend that much on MY shoes. Okay, well, yes I do… but they will last me. Kids shoes last maybe one year before their feet grow again. So, we will try another place today… otherwise I will resort to ordering them online. I found Stride rite shoes on sale @ shoes.com. A whopping 12% off. Thanks shoes.com.

In other news, tomorrow is the big day! I am getting processed for substituting. Hopefully the day is not too painful. They make you watch “the movie” on appropriate things to say said and do and what not to do. It’s from the 70’s and I’ve already seen it 3 times. I wish you could test out of it.

So, I’m off to clean the house from top to bottom… since I had the last two days of absolutely nothing bliss…

so, what's the secret?

and then there was just me…

well, and the dog.

6 hours, 5 days a week. I’m sure things will be a bit different once I start getting calls to substitute, but boy was today strange. Wait a second… I’ve only been alone for an hour and a half, I still have 4 and a half hours left. So, what have I done? In attempt to clean the office -yes, again, but this time instead of organizing the piles, I will be getting rid of the piles. Poof! – I have managed to look through 8 rolls of pictures from before the digital age. I am determined one day to scan them all and put them in a proper book. I know, I could just put them all in an album… but I want to preserve them. I can’t believe the difference in my kids. The one I’m holding now is them at 6 months and 15 months. They are now 5 and 7. Seems like yesterday they were chasing each other around and I was constantly filming them.

PW @ 15 months, PMT @ 6 months

Funny how being all alone in your house will do that to you. Reflect.

So, what else is on the agenda? Since it is the weekend, I plan to scrub down the entire house in the next four hours so that we can relax. Tonight is our family movie/game night. I’m trying to think of something special to make for dinner… maybe fish tacos?

all grown up, off to school...

bye mom...

Sometimes life just happens…

So, I am done with the alphabet posts. It was mentally draining to try and come up with topics for V-Z.

This week was our first week back to school. My second grader went in with a roar and even had homework on day two. They don’t waste anytime in second grade! As far as my other child, she met her Kindergarten teacher on Tuesday and does a staggered entrance. A third of the class went in yesterday, a third are there today and my little girl will go tomorrow for the final third of the class. Then on Monday, the whole class will attend and start a normal routine. She is pretty excited, but I have to say that my emotions have been on fire since Monday.

It has been a yearly debate on whether to let the girls ride the bus. So far, they have only been on a bus for field trips. Yes, I am “one of those” moms. The overprotective, worst case scenario mom. Depending on how my substitute schedule looks, as in… if I am working everyday – or close to every day, then I will still be driving them. However, if it seems that it is easier, I *might* let them start riding the bus. They are the first pick up and the first drop off on the route and I timed the bus today… it entered the neighborhood as I was leaving and by the time I was back at home, it was leaving the neighborhood to head to school. So, not a long ride for the kids at all. We shall see.

In other news, I had a successful Tapas party last weekend. I forgot to make and set out one of the dishes, but thankfully a friend brought a tapas plate to share. I made fried wonton chips with an asiago cream sauce for dipping and a tray of goodies for the top of the “nachos”. It was basically the Mac Grill recipe of their famous Bella Napoli that they don’t serve anymore. I also had two kinds of salmon, some angry shrimp and cheeses out. A very fun time!

U is for Um…

The past week really hasn’t been all that busy. I, however, have been stumped on the letter U which caused writers block. This week will be filled with tasks, as the children go back to school the following week. My how fast the summer flew by…

I have scheduled eye appointments for Tuesday and Thursday is the “meet the teacher” afternoon at school. On Wednesday, I am going in to get finger printed so that I can substitute in our county. I thought it odd that I had to redo this since I subbed in the same county 12 years ago. I mean, my finger prints don’t change.

We just got home from a long weekend at my in-laws house. Both my husbands brothers and families were there along with his sister. It was a full house and a time of fun activities. My sister-in-law has transferred colleges to be closer to home and we went to visit her new apartment and went swimming in her complex pool. They also took us to see a show at the Planetarium which was all about the Magic Tree House series of books. The kids in the books go on adventures all over the world, planet, etc… in this magic tree house. When we arrived home today, the girls teacher assignments were waiting in the mail! They are both really happy with who their new teachers are… in fact, my 2nd grader will have the same teacher that she had for Kindergarten. She had moved up to 2nd grade last year, so we knew there was a possibility. How cool!

In other news, my iPhoto has decided to stop downloading pictures from my camera and just recently deleted ALL of the pictures in the library. Fortunately, I had them all backed up on our external hard drive. Even stranger though is that they all still appear on my Mac hard drive too… just not in the iPhoto application. Hmmm… so, no new photos for now. Any experts out there?

T is for Trouble, with a capital T

I babysat my 2 sweet nephews over night at their house. Enough said? The girls had a blast playing with their cousins and all four kids were really well behaved.

One thing that is obvious is that babies need routine. Skip one part and they are likely to throw a fit! Last night at bedtime, I followed baby Coop’s bedtime routine to a tee… he had been fussy and crying since dinner ended so I took my time getting him ready to try and soothe him. He listened intently as I read through 6 or 7 books and then said “nigh nigh” to me. So I put him in his crib and he started to cry again. After a few minutes, I went upstairs to see if I could calm him and realized that I had skipped a part of the routine… his sleep sack. As I was trying to zip it up, he fell asleep in my arms. I sat there a minute longer to make sure he was zonked out and then put him back in his crib. He woke up around 2:30 am and was chattering about wa-wa… so, I took him his water bottle and walked back out. I heard him on the monitor saying, “wa-wa!” in a sing-songy lovey voice. Then he slept in until 7 am.

I was up with husband at 6:30 and thought I heard laughing. The three big kids had slept up in my sisters bed together and were awake giggling. (They had also giggled themselves to sleep!) We had milk and coffee out on the patio and breathed in the beautiful air and sight. My sister lives on the water… it is like a vacation every day. Hm… maybe they will let us move in with them?

cell phone pic...

Rusty going swimming

S is for Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

A few nights ago we all sat down and watched Mary Poppins. I remember it as one of my favorites from childhood. I don’t think I’ve seen the movie in almost 20 years, but the scenes and songs came flooding back. The really sad part of the story, which I never once noticed as a kid (thank goodness!), is that the mom and dad don’t take care of their kids… at all. The nanny does everything, even tucking them in at night. The dad just waves them off at bedtime and the mom is always running off to her women’s rights events. Granted, Mary Poppins teaches the family a lesson in the end and they all go fly a kite together… but no doubt they still hire another nanny to watch the kids during the day. I don’t know, it really rubbed me the wrong way. Some things just need to stay in our childhood.

On the funny side, while in the car yesterday the girls had one of their many conversations about heaven…

“Mommy, can God see us?” Yes honey. “Can He see what I’m doing right now?” Yes honey. “Are there clouds in heaven?” Maybe. I think heaven might look a lot like earth. “Yeah, because you know the song, ‘ooo heaven is a place on earth!’ ” um no. Not what I said… but oh, so cute!

I’m trying to get the girls to pray and think on their own. Since they were babies we have said the same “now I lay me down to sleep” prayer. It really felt like the routine was beginning to be just that… a routine. I wanted them to start praying from the heart more, so they quietly said what is on their hearts. Here was Pig Me Too’s precious prayer from last night. “Dear God, thank you for mommy and thank you for daddy. Thank you for the birds chirping and the pretty flowers. Thank you for our house. Please protect me. Amen” ~Words from a 5 year old!

In other ramblings… swim lessons are going great. Pig Will is a natural like she is at every sport. Her form is right on… now, if she would only breath when she turned her head. Poor girl. The teacher has them in the 5 feet, so she treads water to take a breath and then keeps swimming until she reaches her teacher. Since she was trying to breath right, she turns her head – doesn’t get a breath… and then keeps going. Then she is out of breath when she reaches the wall. I’m proud of her… but she is nervous. She told me last night that her heart beats really hard and loud while she is swimming. I told her that was a good thing… that meant that she was aware of her situation and her surroundings. (In other words, she can’t reach and could sink!)

R is for Ridiculous

Absolutely ridiculous. Don’t upset the hormonal mom.

Today at swim lessons the girls did great. Pig Will actually jumped in and then swam to the teacher about 20 feet away. She had to stop for air and since she can’t touch where the lessons are, she had to tread water and take another breath to keep going. Pig Me Too jumped in all by herself, which is a huge step (or leap, ha ha ha).

So, what is ridiculous? There was only one life guard on duty the entire time we were there. He was all the way down in the deep end. Sure there were instructors in the pool with their students… but is one really going to let go of their student and let them sink so that they can go resue someone else? Nope. Is the one life guard who is staring at his feet and looking up at the ceiling going to be able to jump in and swim down to the shallow end or run around and jump in before someone drowns? Nope. Is a mom on the side going to have to jump in and pull the kid up? Yep. That is what they rely on. This happened to us two years ago at this exact pool. By the time a life guard would have reached my child, she might have drank so much water that she could quite possibly be unresponsive or worse. I usually have on my bathing suit and usually get in, but on this day I had jeans on. Did I get in and rescue my child, you bet. Since that day, I am always fully prepared to jump in – bathing suit or not, and I usually get in and stand there in the pool.

Back to today. After two hours of only one life guard, I had enough. When we left I asked to speak to the manager on duty. I very nicely said that it was absolutely ridiculous that there was only one life guard on duty, that he was at the deep end (not in the middle) and that he was bored and not even looking at the people in the pool. The man was very apologetic and looked embarrassed. I texted my friend that was still at the pool to tell her that I talked to the manager and she texted back saying that there was now two life guards on duty!

It pays to be a proactive, hormonal mom.

So now I leave you with some pictures of the girls swimming:

Pig Will, age 7

Pig Me Too, age 5

during lessons

scooping "ice cream"

Q is for Quiz

Did you know that there are quite a few “q” words that don’t have a “u” after them? Most of them are words that I’ve never seen or heard like, Qats. I don’t know what it means and I’m not gonna look it up. Curious?

In other news, my kids once again have made their momma proud! This summer the girls have been having mini swim lessons with a high school student. She basically was getting them over the fear of water. They really trusted her and after 8 times in the water with her, the 5 year old was dunking herself under and the 7 year old was kicking her feet and “swimming” with her head out of the water for a few feet.

On Monday, the girls started formal lessons at the swim center. The super bubbly teacher had them both dunk their heads 10 times in the first 3 minutes. My eyes nearly popped out of my head to see the 7 year old do this! What did the teacher say? By day two both girls looked really confident and again they both put their faces in the water. (This is also huge for the 5 year old who used to scream when she got her hair washed!) After the lesson, I got in the shallow end with the girls and let them play. Since Pig Me Too has been using goggles to go under water, I asked Pig Will if she wanted a to try. She has always said no, so I was shocked to hear her say yes! She put the goggles on and kept dunking herself. Then, the most amazing thing happened… she started swimming. Real swimming. She put her face in the water, did her arms and legs right and then came up for air. All of this from the girl who wouldn’t put her face under last week!

Today the swim teacher is going to take them to the deep end. I’m a bit nervous since the teacher can’t touch there either… but I’m not going to tell that to the kids! She said that she will put life jackets on them down there – so, I hope that doesn’t cause them to back track. Since the goggles are what made both kids want to go underwater, they will both be using them in today’s lesson. Stay tuned for pictures!

P is for Pet Peeve

Everyone has certain things that make them cringe. I’m sure we have many in common (like drivers that only care about themselves), but that is not my biggest pet peeve right now. I’d have to say that the little creatures that make their home under my back yard are the most selfish things I know. We have moles – and maybe voles too.

This morning I looked out the window to see 2 little squirrels playing on my swing set. They were chasing each other up and down each side and one even jumped onto a swing and took a quick ride. Oh, I see it how it is… they are mocking me! They are in the same crowd as the moles. Digging, burying and frolicking around my back yard. The most noticeable creature is the rabbits. They have completely taken over. They take the mole tunnel holes and make them their own hide out. They graze on the clovers and wild strawberries that have grown year after year in our yard. They sit there twitching their noses and planning their next move. Then somehow, they all disappear for the rest of the day.

Last week when I was mowing the lawn, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was fast. I stopped mowing and chased after it to get a closer look. It looked like a mouse without a tail. I guess the vibrations from the lawn mower had scared him out of his home underground. The place I was mowing is where my loyal dog has deemed his duty spot, which makes clean up rather easy. This is also the moles favorite tunnel spot. So, not only is the grass grow tall and green here, but the ground is super soft and the mower tires always sink.

So my dear little backyard creatures. Watch out. The humans are taking back over.

O is for Oh!

Yesterday we had the nice treat of getting together with my nieces and nephews of both sides! That’s right everyone, for only the 3rd time since I got married 9.5 years ago DepecheMom meets Mommyblog! The funny part is they have never met each others kids!

It was a fun filled day of learning about trains and the railroad. The only silly part was our “train ride” consisted of a modern day train taking us 1.5 miles down the old beaten path and back. It was the original track from the first train. I think, I couldn’t really understand the deep lulling voice coming from the recording. The only thing I caught was, “Sit back and enjoy your ride!” and then the recording looped back to the beginning. The kids had a blast though. They got to tour old trains and even push and pull on old knobs and levers.

Here are a few pics of our adventure!

all the kids loved holding hands... well, LB on the end said, "no thanks"

Mommyblog, HalfMyHeart, DepecheMom

really creepy talking Irish head above in the window...