Tomorrow marks one week of the kids being out of school. How are we doing you ask? Well, last Friday, their first official day of summer, I grounded Sarah and Amanda for four hours. Yep. I probably should have started smaller, like ten minutes at a time, but started with one hour, which in turn got them two hours and then three and, well, you get it. They only served an hour and a half, but it was not a good start to the summer.
The next day they continued with their antics and I got really upset with them at a restaurant and threw another hour at them. Obviously my tactics were not working. Thankfully Charlie did not say a thing even though I'm sure he wasn't happy with the whole thing. Sunday Andy had two baseball games and then we had people over so they didn't have time to drive me nuts.
On Monday I took the girls with me to get a recall fixed on the car. They actually were pretty well-behaved and it wasn't until Monday night that I found out that Andy and Sarah had missed the first day of a three day art camp because it started on Monday when I thought it started on Tuesday. Mommy fail once again.
Tuesday they went to camp in the morning and I took them to the zoo in the afternoon to meet some friends who were in town for the week. Andy complained about how hot it was (nothing compared to how hot Texas is going to be next week) and the girls were all crazy as usual. When those two get together they just get silly and crazy and purposely ignore me because they know it pisses me off. And it does.
Yesterday was Wednesday and I can't even remember what we did so it must not have been too bad. At this point in the week I needed to go grocery shopping and do a few other errands but I refuse to do them with both girls and Charlie is on a business trip. Only 10 or so more weeks to go.
Today we went to take pictures for Father's Day (it's supposed to be a surprise but we do it every year so Charlie guessed and both the girls told him on the phone tonight anyway) and then came home to get ready for our first trip of the summer. We cleaned up a little, we got packed and yet the girls still found themselves in their rooms for not listening and being disrespectful. Ugh.
On the drive home from Sarah's therapy today Amanda was singing a song in the sweetest little voice. It went something like this:
"I hate Mommy, but I love Sarah and Daddy and ladybugs and butterflies and rainbows."
I said, "Amanda, did you just say you hate me but you love Sarah and Daddy and ladybugs and butterflies and rainbows?"
Her answer? "Yes, it's my new song." As if she were singing about something beautiful. Well, except for that first part all of it was beautiful.
Now I'm not going to take too much stock in this song because she said she loves rainbows and just a couple weeks ago she hated rainbows because they have yellow in them and for some reason she had a huge yellow aversion. I guess yellow is okay now, but she wouldn't eat off yellow plates or drink out of yellow cups and holy cow she was not going to wear anything that had yellow in it, even rainbow things.
Hopefully all these trips are going to mix things up give them something to do other than be mean and disrespectful to me and keep all of us sane. That is my hope. We leave for Dallas tomorrow. Please keep me in your thoughts!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
I Want That For My Birthday
On Wednesday night I took the kids the the Spring Fling at school. It was the night before the last day of school so everybody was in a fabulous mood. The kids had a great time and Amanda especially liked the three bounce houses that were there. On the way home she asked if we could get those three same bounce houses for her birthday party.
Seems like a normal, legitimate question. A kid asking about a bounce house for their birthday. Except that her birthday is in August and she has been asking about this party since January. I am not kidding or exaggerating in the slightest bit. A few weeks after Christmas she started talking about her birthday. We explained to her that everyone in the family had to have their birthday first, then we had to get out of school, then we had to go on several trips and THEN she would have her birthday. She doesn't care, she talks about it non-stop.
If you take her to a store that has toys, such as Target, she will go up to just about every toy she sees and tell you she wants it for her birthday. If you are worried about what to get her. Don't be. Whatever you pick I am sure she has told me at least once that she wants it for her birthday. I told Charlie several times how time consuming and annoying it is to take Amanda to the store because she stops and tells you she wants everything for her birthday. He believed me, but never experienced it for himself until one day when his brother was here and he took her with them to Ross. During their shopping trip he texted me the following: "Amanda might need a gift card to Ross for her birthday. I think that she wanted everything there for her birthday." Um, yeah, that's what I've been telling you for months.
She also has pretty much planned out her party. She wants it to be here in the backyard and she wants a princess/castle bounce house. She also wants to fix it so the kids can slide down the playset into the bounce house and wants a pinata on top of the bounce house so they kids can bounce while they try to hit the pinata. First of all, I haven't had a birthday party at the house for the kids in a very long time. When I was pregnant with Sarah I had Andy's somewhere and I swore I would never have one at home again. So she's already breaking my first birthday party rule. Second, we're not even sure a bounce house can fit in our backyard. Third, if it can fit in our backyard you cannot rig the slide to slide right into the bounce house. Fourth, you just can't do that with a pinata.
So, she may be a little disappointed by her party, but she knows what she wants. When the other two were her age, they didn't even talk about their birthday that far out. A couple months before their birthday I would ask them where they wanted their party and they had no clue. It usually changed by the day or week depending on where we were going and where the other birthday parties they attending were. Never would they stick to the same crazy idea for six months. They also didn't ask people to come to their birthday party months in advance. Almost all of our friends (granted that's not very many) have already been invited to her party and know when it is because she has been planning and inviting people for so long.
Now that school is out she thinks her party is just days away. I have tried to explain that she has two months to go, but it's like talking to deaf ears. The kid is centrally focused and will listen to no one. Luckily we should have lots going on this summer to distract her, but I seriously think she might explode from the excitement when she finally turns four.
Oh, and a bonus for me, she says when she is four she will finally start wiping herself. That would be the best gift of all!
Seems like a normal, legitimate question. A kid asking about a bounce house for their birthday. Except that her birthday is in August and she has been asking about this party since January. I am not kidding or exaggerating in the slightest bit. A few weeks after Christmas she started talking about her birthday. We explained to her that everyone in the family had to have their birthday first, then we had to get out of school, then we had to go on several trips and THEN she would have her birthday. She doesn't care, she talks about it non-stop.
If you take her to a store that has toys, such as Target, she will go up to just about every toy she sees and tell you she wants it for her birthday. If you are worried about what to get her. Don't be. Whatever you pick I am sure she has told me at least once that she wants it for her birthday. I told Charlie several times how time consuming and annoying it is to take Amanda to the store because she stops and tells you she wants everything for her birthday. He believed me, but never experienced it for himself until one day when his brother was here and he took her with them to Ross. During their shopping trip he texted me the following: "Amanda might need a gift card to Ross for her birthday. I think that she wanted everything there for her birthday." Um, yeah, that's what I've been telling you for months.
She also has pretty much planned out her party. She wants it to be here in the backyard and she wants a princess/castle bounce house. She also wants to fix it so the kids can slide down the playset into the bounce house and wants a pinata on top of the bounce house so they kids can bounce while they try to hit the pinata. First of all, I haven't had a birthday party at the house for the kids in a very long time. When I was pregnant with Sarah I had Andy's somewhere and I swore I would never have one at home again. So she's already breaking my first birthday party rule. Second, we're not even sure a bounce house can fit in our backyard. Third, if it can fit in our backyard you cannot rig the slide to slide right into the bounce house. Fourth, you just can't do that with a pinata.
So, she may be a little disappointed by her party, but she knows what she wants. When the other two were her age, they didn't even talk about their birthday that far out. A couple months before their birthday I would ask them where they wanted their party and they had no clue. It usually changed by the day or week depending on where we were going and where the other birthday parties they attending were. Never would they stick to the same crazy idea for six months. They also didn't ask people to come to their birthday party months in advance. Almost all of our friends (granted that's not very many) have already been invited to her party and know when it is because she has been planning and inviting people for so long.
Now that school is out she thinks her party is just days away. I have tried to explain that she has two months to go, but it's like talking to deaf ears. The kid is centrally focused and will listen to no one. Luckily we should have lots going on this summer to distract her, but I seriously think she might explode from the excitement when she finally turns four.
Oh, and a bonus for me, she says when she is four she will finally start wiping herself. That would be the best gift of all!
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Kid Quote of the Day
"Mommy, it looks like it's time for a rescue mission. It's going to be dangerous out there."
-Amanda, completely out of the blue at dinner.
-Amanda, completely out of the blue at dinner.
Cleaning House
If you are keeping up with me, you know there is only two days of school left. TWO DAYS! I am both excited and horrified at the same time. Around this time every year, when I am not up at the school as I was this afternoon helping Sarah's teacher pack up her classroom because she is leaving to go to another school (that's a story for another day though), I am trying to get excess clutter out of the house before the kids are home for the next couple of months.
Usually about this time, I go through the art closet or cubbard or cabinet or whatever it is, and clean it out. Like throw out a ton of stuff. Stuff that the kids never remember that they drew or colored or won or received as a party favor. Things that have just sat for months just waiting to be thrown away. When I do these clean outs I have learned to have very little mercy. If this stuff isn't gone by the time the kids are out of school then it will be there all summer long and the new clutter that they create will just pile on top of the old.
You think I'm kidding? Today I threw away or recycled shoe boxes colored with marker, other shoe boxes decorated with paper, fuzzy pom poms and foamy stickers, Valentine boxes that were still filled with candy (amazingly even Amanda's little Valentine bag still had candy in it), candy, McDonald's toys, and about 100 sheets of paper with some form of coloring on it. I also chucked bouncy balls, plastic toys that had absolutely no redeeming value, rings, bracelets, flowers and dogs made from perler beads (the ones that you iron and melt so they stick together) and more candy.
I distracted Amanda with t.v. while I did all of this on the built-in bookshelf behind the couch, with her occasionally turning around to see what I was doing and being very hurt that I was getting rid of some picture that she made probably six months ago. All in all it took me at least an hour but the bookshelf looks a million times better, is way less cluttered and now actually contains things for the girls to do this summer instead of things they have already done.
I usually like to do the same thing with the playroom, but this year I just wasn't fast enough. Most of the toys are in the basement but there are a few baskets and bags in Sarah's room that need to have their contents visit the trash bucket and Amanda has a few boxes and a toy box (not really a box, it's awesomely shaped like one of the Fisher-Price Little People). I might be able to get to those on a nice afternoon when I can send the girls out in the backyard, but again that may need to wait until fall.
The basement itself is a huge undertaking because when we unpacked it we just put everything wherever there was room. It's time for it truly to get organized. Plus if there are things the kids don't want anymore it's time to get those ready to sell or give away. That may be a several day project when it's just me, myself and I.
So I feel a little better that I was able to perform my annual cleaning ritual and that at least the bookshelf is ready for summer. If I have time on Thursday I will address the cabinet where we keep all the markers and crayons, more than some small schools have, and once that is in order we will be ready to go. We won't be here to use it much, but that's not the point. As long as I know we could use it if necessary, then I'm ready for summer to begin.
Usually about this time, I go through the art closet or cubbard or cabinet or whatever it is, and clean it out. Like throw out a ton of stuff. Stuff that the kids never remember that they drew or colored or won or received as a party favor. Things that have just sat for months just waiting to be thrown away. When I do these clean outs I have learned to have very little mercy. If this stuff isn't gone by the time the kids are out of school then it will be there all summer long and the new clutter that they create will just pile on top of the old.
You think I'm kidding? Today I threw away or recycled shoe boxes colored with marker, other shoe boxes decorated with paper, fuzzy pom poms and foamy stickers, Valentine boxes that were still filled with candy (amazingly even Amanda's little Valentine bag still had candy in it), candy, McDonald's toys, and about 100 sheets of paper with some form of coloring on it. I also chucked bouncy balls, plastic toys that had absolutely no redeeming value, rings, bracelets, flowers and dogs made from perler beads (the ones that you iron and melt so they stick together) and more candy.
I distracted Amanda with t.v. while I did all of this on the built-in bookshelf behind the couch, with her occasionally turning around to see what I was doing and being very hurt that I was getting rid of some picture that she made probably six months ago. All in all it took me at least an hour but the bookshelf looks a million times better, is way less cluttered and now actually contains things for the girls to do this summer instead of things they have already done.
I usually like to do the same thing with the playroom, but this year I just wasn't fast enough. Most of the toys are in the basement but there are a few baskets and bags in Sarah's room that need to have their contents visit the trash bucket and Amanda has a few boxes and a toy box (not really a box, it's awesomely shaped like one of the Fisher-Price Little People). I might be able to get to those on a nice afternoon when I can send the girls out in the backyard, but again that may need to wait until fall.
The basement itself is a huge undertaking because when we unpacked it we just put everything wherever there was room. It's time for it truly to get organized. Plus if there are things the kids don't want anymore it's time to get those ready to sell or give away. That may be a several day project when it's just me, myself and I.
So I feel a little better that I was able to perform my annual cleaning ritual and that at least the bookshelf is ready for summer. If I have time on Thursday I will address the cabinet where we keep all the markers and crayons, more than some small schools have, and once that is in order we will be ready to go. We won't be here to use it much, but that's not the point. As long as I know we could use it if necessary, then I'm ready for summer to begin.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Field Day
Friday was field day. The kids were pretty excited. Well, what kid wouldn't be? You get to run around for a few hours outside and don't have to do any school work. Not that they are doing any school work at this point in the year anyway. I mean, there's four days of school left. They aren't learning crap.
So the kids were excited. Me? Not so much. First of all, I had to miss my class at Lifetime to go. Not that I love 5K Friday and the torture my trainer puts me through, but I've already paid for the class and I've been doing really well that I hate to skip. Second, Amanda is out of school already so she had to come with me. Field Day is okay for parents, but really boring for siblings. Sarah went from 9a-11a and then Andy went from 1p-3p so we were there all day. We didn't even go home after it was over, we just hung out on the playground until it was time to pick them up at 3:30.
On top of that, it was super windy. So, it was a nice, sunny day but it was so windy that I had jeans and a sweatshirt on. The weather here is so weird I just can't get used to it. If we were in Texas we would already be getting 100 degree days, and I'm wearing a sweatshirt for warmth on May 31. Weird.
Of course all Field Day did was make me miss Texas. The Field Day that our old school put on was amazing. It was an entire day of activities plus the PTA would have a little snack bar where the kids could buy chips and candy and even the snow cone truck came. It was a big class competition and everybody got into it and loved it. The Field Day here was fine and the kids enjoyed it, but there were no winners or losers and they didn't even really do class competitions. There were even a few games that I didn't even understand. Plus it was only two hours and there weren't any snacks and the only thing they had for the kids was popsicles. I know, I should shut up and join the PTA and maybe I can make a difference and it will get better. I might do that if I cared a little more, but I don't.
This is where to post takes a turn. I need to get more involved and get the kids more involved too. But somewhere in my head I keep thinking that we aren't going to be here that long and why waste the time or the energy and is it really worth it and I don't get involved. You would think a school with 850 students would have a totally amazing PTA but there are like five people that do everything. I could bring some great ideas just telling them about all the awesome things our old school did. Some of them they could easily implement and others would be really hard because of the lack of parent involvement. I guess we were really lucky at out old school. Some times it seemed like there was too much parent involvement and everything was over the top, but I'm starting to realize that's not a bad thing. We had room moms who were given direction from the grade level room moms who were given direction from either the K-2 or 3-5 room moms who were given direction from the head room mom. I thought it was all a little much until I came here and realized that some of the classes don't even have room moms.
End rant. So the kids had Field Day on Friday, they had a blast, I got wind blasted and had to listen to Amanda whine for four hours, and I came closer and closer to having them home for the summer. Four more days. I think I can do it.
So the kids were excited. Me? Not so much. First of all, I had to miss my class at Lifetime to go. Not that I love 5K Friday and the torture my trainer puts me through, but I've already paid for the class and I've been doing really well that I hate to skip. Second, Amanda is out of school already so she had to come with me. Field Day is okay for parents, but really boring for siblings. Sarah went from 9a-11a and then Andy went from 1p-3p so we were there all day. We didn't even go home after it was over, we just hung out on the playground until it was time to pick them up at 3:30.
On top of that, it was super windy. So, it was a nice, sunny day but it was so windy that I had jeans and a sweatshirt on. The weather here is so weird I just can't get used to it. If we were in Texas we would already be getting 100 degree days, and I'm wearing a sweatshirt for warmth on May 31. Weird.
Of course all Field Day did was make me miss Texas. The Field Day that our old school put on was amazing. It was an entire day of activities plus the PTA would have a little snack bar where the kids could buy chips and candy and even the snow cone truck came. It was a big class competition and everybody got into it and loved it. The Field Day here was fine and the kids enjoyed it, but there were no winners or losers and they didn't even really do class competitions. There were even a few games that I didn't even understand. Plus it was only two hours and there weren't any snacks and the only thing they had for the kids was popsicles. I know, I should shut up and join the PTA and maybe I can make a difference and it will get better. I might do that if I cared a little more, but I don't.
This is where to post takes a turn. I need to get more involved and get the kids more involved too. But somewhere in my head I keep thinking that we aren't going to be here that long and why waste the time or the energy and is it really worth it and I don't get involved. You would think a school with 850 students would have a totally amazing PTA but there are like five people that do everything. I could bring some great ideas just telling them about all the awesome things our old school did. Some of them they could easily implement and others would be really hard because of the lack of parent involvement. I guess we were really lucky at out old school. Some times it seemed like there was too much parent involvement and everything was over the top, but I'm starting to realize that's not a bad thing. We had room moms who were given direction from the grade level room moms who were given direction from either the K-2 or 3-5 room moms who were given direction from the head room mom. I thought it was all a little much until I came here and realized that some of the classes don't even have room moms.
End rant. So the kids had Field Day on Friday, they had a blast, I got wind blasted and had to listen to Amanda whine for four hours, and I came closer and closer to having them home for the summer. Four more days. I think I can do it.
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