Picture of the Day

It's 80's day at school today.  Andy is dressed how I would envision his Uncle Ivan to have dressed in the 80's.  He definitely got the hair right.  Sarah may not have the look right, but it was hard because I was a tomboy and didn't dress girly back then.  Plus, this was the best I could do at 6p at Target last night.  At least they wanted to try.

Lockout

Yesterday I got a blast email that there was a lockout at the school.  A lockout is when they lock the doors and don't let anybody in or out, bring all the kids in from outside (which means the playground and the portables, which is where Andy is), but they continue with their normal classroom activities.  It is not the same as a lockdown.  The notice was for our school and several others.  The only thing it said was that it was due to police activity in the area.

I'm really not one of those moms that worries.  When I do start to worry about things regarding the kids that I have no control over, I remind myself of that and try to stop.  I am not a helicopter mom and I try very hard to let my kids figure things out for themselves without endangering themselves or others (or being rude).  However, there is a slight amount of panic that sets in when you find out your kids are in lockout.  Or, there is less than a month after a school massacre.

I know that there are thousands upon thousands of elementary schools in this country and that Sandy Hook is very far away and that guy was extremely sick in the head and the chances of that happening here are slim to none.  But I also now live within 30 minutes of both Columbine High School and the Aurora movie theater.  Again, not to say that would happen at my kids' school but I do find myself looking around a little bit more as I walk Sarah to school in the morning and I'm no longer excited about Andy walking by himself to his before school activities.   Even though we live about 100 yards from the school, we don't live close enough.

It wasn't a big deal, the lockout was called off less than two hours later and the kids weren't even worried about it.  They wouldn't have even told me about it if I hadn't asked.  That shows me that my kids are in a great school, where they can do drills or have a real life exercise and the kids don't know the difference and it's just part of the day.  As far as Sarah was concerned, "It just means that we have to have inside recess, but that's fun too."

I know I have three kids and sometimes I joke about how if anything happens to any of them it's not a problem because I have an extra, but that's all talk.  I love my kids more than I can tell you and I worked really hard to get them and I want to see them grow up and have kids of their own.  That shouldn't be too much to ask.

Picture of the Day

April, look what Sarah found while she was playing in the backyard today.  It makes it look like we had a rip roaring time on New Year's.  Yep, that's what we'll tell everybody.

To You and You and You

Sadly our guests left Tuesday and Charlie went back to work on Wednesday, which means our vacation was practically over.  The only thing that truly prevented it from being finished was the fact that the kids don't go back to school until tomorrow. 

On Wednesday I dropped Andy off at a friend's house and the girls and I went to Lifetime so I could work out.  Afterwards we came home and miraculously everybody kept themselves busy most of the afternoon without any fighting.  I had a ton of laundry to do because I have this crazy thing about doing laundry when we have company over (even though I have no problems doing it when we are the company) so I folded while the kids watched t.v. or played their electronics or whatever.  Even Charlie was impressed when he got home that everybody was in a pretty good mood.

Thursday I took the kids to Lifetime again but this time the kids club was packed, so packed that we had to wait until some kids left before they would let us in because they had met their limit of 145 kids.  Holy cow!  Needless to say when I finally picked them up they were a bit cranky because it was a little too full to have any fun.  Well, the girls were pretty good about it, but Andy was not happy at all.  We had lunch at the cafe to make up for it and then I went home to do even more laundry but again everybody was in a pretty good mood.  I was starting to think that we could even handle another week away from school.  The only problem I find is that when the kids are home I don't do a lot around the house, so another week really would be a bad thing.

But then it was Friday.  The kids' last day of winter break.  On Friday I really needed to go to the gym because I had to do four miles according to my training schedule.  I didn't want to go in the morning and risk the chaos that we had on Thursday so I put it off until after lunchtime.  Right before we left I started to get a sore throat, but I chalked it up to allergies because it was about 20-30 degrees warmer on Friday than earlier in the week and any time the weather changes that much weird allergy things happen in our family.

Except it didn't go away.  That night I took an allergy pill hoping it would help.  The next morning it felt like I had a golf ball in the back of my throat.  I went to the clinic inside our Walgreens since I still don't have a primary care doctor since we moved and the nurse practitioner confirmed my self-diagnosis.  Strep.  Damn kids.  Two weeks ago Andy got it, a week ago Amanda got it, and this week I got it.  I really hope Charlie and Sarah can fight it off.

So yesterday when I was supposed to be putting all the folded laundry away (at least I got that far) and taking down the Christmas decorations, I did pretty much nothing except lie on the couch.  Thankfully my husband is a rock star and picked up the slack for me and took care of the kids and me.  Today I was slightly better and got up long enough to help him take down the Christmas tree and put away all the ornaments.  The kids helped too if you call sitting on the couch and playing their electronics while telling us which box to put the ornaments in helping.

I'm hoping to feel much better tomorrow and since the kids are going back to school maybe I can be a slacker for one more day and just rest.  After that, I just may have to parent them a little bit.

A Little Thing Called the Alphabet

On our drive from Texas to Colorado, we had some DVDs that had been converted from video tapes from when Andy was little and we popped them into the player in the car.  We had no idea what was on them, but soon saw him reciting his ABCs and counting to 20 and higher.  He couldn't have been more than two and a half in these videos/DVDs and definitely wasn't over three.  By the time he was three he was practically ready for Kindergarten.

Switch gears to Amanda.  When she started potty training, which was just over a year ago, we decided we would teach her the ABCs while washing her hands.  Charlie and I had both read articles and heard in every child forum known to man that when you teach children to wash their hands you sing a little song that is at least 15 second long so they are sure to wash their hands long enough to get them clean.  What better song than the alphabet?  We would kill two birds with one stone, she'd be clean and would know all her letters.  She had just turned two, but there was no reason she couldn't learn it if she was singing it on a daily basis and if Andy could do it, so could she.

Except she couldn't.  Or better yet, she wouldn't.  She had no interest in learning that song.  So much so that I gave up early.  Charlie would still sing it with her, but months after we started all she would say is, "ABC ABC next time won't you sing with me".  If you asked her what came after C, she would just say A.  Those were the only three letters she ever mentioned.  She didn't get to D for forever. 

I pretty much gave up with her learning it at all, and then one day in October Charlie asked her to say her ABCs.  "A B C D E F G."  She got all the way to G.  I was amazed.  That was as far as she could go, but still a major improvement.

About two months ago, I took this video.  All I said to her before I turned it on was can you sing your ABCs for me.  This is what she came up with:



Cute, but not quite there.

Fast forward to this past week.  Riza is very well versed in his alphabet and know most if not all of his letters as well.  He was playing with the letters on our fridge and when he walked away Amanda began playing with them.  So I started asking her if she could name any of the letters.  Surprisingly, she knew six or seven of the letters I asked her.  Definitely not all of them, but more than zero.  I think we may actually be getting our money's worth at that school she goes to, even if she's only there two hours a day twice a week.

At least now I'm a little more confident that she will know her alphabet by the time she goes to Kindergarten.

Picture of the Day

Yesterday Amanda was looking at pictures of animals on the computer.  All of a sudden she said, "Wait, I need to get a better view", and grabbed these Harry Potter glasses that Andy wore two Halloween's ago that have clear plastic lenses.  Sarah and I just looked at each other and laughed.  Sometimes Amanda can be a very silly little girl.

And So It Begins Again

The last week and a half have been a whirlwind.  Usually that's not the case when the kids are home all day, day after day, but this time it went fast.  We had a great, but really short, visit with my family in Michigan for Christmas, but the kids made the best of it.  They had such a fabulous time with their aunts and uncles and grandparents and, most of all, cousins that I was again remiss that we don't see family more often.

We got home around 8p on Christmas Eve and then had a nice pajama filled, relaxing Christmas Day.  We finished opening presents by about 1p, and then Charlie and I spend the rest of the day and the entire next day trying to get the house back to where it was before the present-opening began.  We had the traditional Jewish meal of Chinese food for Christmas dinner and then all crashed kind of early.

On Wednesday night, April and Refet and their little boy, Riza, arrived.  They pretty much bought their tickets to come visit as soon as they heard we were moving here and we were so excited to have them.  Our first non-family visitors.  We did a lot of eating, but not as much as the last time April and Riza visited us in Texas (I think I gained about 10 pounds that week) and a lot of sitting around, which was pretty much fine with me.  Overall the kids were good and got along, but it did help that they got new electronics for Christmas and we didn't put many limits on how much they played.  That will have to change once school starts, but I still have six days before they have to go back.

Last night we had a lame little New Year's party for the four adults and three kids (Amanda gave up and went to bed before 9p, smart girl).  We started with an amazing steak dinner, but in our normal fashion didn't do anything too rousing after that.  I hope April and Refet still enjoyed themselves, I'm sure they party much differently when celebrating in New Jersey.  Plus, we found by watching the ball drop on tape delay that New Year's Eve really does revolve around New York City in this country which was humorous and depressing all at the same time.

As for resolutions, I don't really make them.  I'm a believer that if you want to change something about yourself you do it right away, you don't wait until January 1st.  You're just setting yourself up for a fall or for more procrastination if you wait.  However, as April made me think, the end of the year is a good time for reflection, to make sure you are where you want to be and are doing the things you want to be doing.

So in that mind set, I do have some things I want to accomplish this year.  I want to spend less time on the computer and more time with my kids.  I want to continue my exercise plan and training for my next half-marathon, but pick it up a little with some additional cross-training.  I doubt that I will ever love running, but I want to try a little harder to see if I can at least do a 5k.  I want to try to see family more and spend time with those I love and I don't want to worry about the rest.  I want to eat better without dieting or starving myself while at the same time truly enjoying what I eat.  Most of all, I want to spend time with my husband and enjoy where we are right now and not worry about where we're going to be in the future, physically or mentally.  Just cherish the here and now.

2012 was kind of a shitty year, so I'm hoping things start to look up in 2013.  As the countdown to summer begins, and I have a feeling it will come much quicker that I think, I wish you a happy and healthy 2013 and all it has to bring.