Archives for October 2008

There is shredded mozzarella cheese on the living room floor. Miley Cyrus (or is it Hannah?) blaring on the cd player in the kitchen, Pumpkin has been running around in her underwear since her naptime and I haven’t been able to get her dressed, and The Princess has what appears to be a big mud splash on her off white pants. Lovely.

I only briefly made it out of the house this morning – to pick up a donut for Pumpkin who has been sleeping so beautifully all the way through the night (oh, if I could only say the same for myself!) and to pick up some coffee for moi. Work, writing projects, extra hooey and I feel just like blah.
And the bad thing is that some days, this 365 picture day serves only to remind me that I haven’t done a whole lot of any significance in my day. And then I realize that I’m wrong. Today, I read stories. Made lunches. Brushed hair. Sang songs. I scrubbed Sharpie off Pumpkin’s hands (aw yeah). I poured juice. I brainstormed with The Princess to determine our meeting spot should our house catch on fire (thank you fire safety week). But most of all, I gave my kids lots of hugs and love. And so when I started trying to figure out how I would define my day in pictures, The Princess finger-spelled LOVE in sign language, and I funkdified it up with random tints. Though I ended up using a picture of Pumpkin’s Sharpie hands, it was a good reminder that my days and the things I do are part of the bigger picture, even if I don’t always see it.

So, I told y’all that I am not the volunteer in the class kind of mom, but I did it today. I went in after dropping Pumpkin off at daycare (and getting coffee). I stayed just over an hour. In that hour I obseved several things:

a) My kid is crazy smart
b) The parents with no landlines and cell phones only? Their kids have a harder time learning their phone numbers. Sounds crazy – but I had to work with kids seeing if they knew their digits and CONSISTENTLY cell-only kids did NOT.
c) The teacher moved The Princess so she now sits next to my ex-boyfriend’s daughter. Whee.

Along that vein, The Princess came home this afternoon with her little address book with the daughter’s name, phone number and address. Can’t wait til THAT playdate. I think I’ll be gone that day.

Later tonight, we had parent-teacher conferences and that went unbelievably well. Apparently, The Princess is topped out on reading levels – she’s reading at level 20+ (they won’t test beyond that, but say that she’s at least on second grade level). Most of the kids in her class are around levels 5 – 8.

Teacher said my daughter is creative, mature, empathetic and a good friend to her classmates. All of that made me feel great because those are all things she got from me. See, one of the things people often say about her is that she looks just like Hubby. And she does. Granted, he’s not blonde anymore, but when he was a kid, he was blonde just like she is. They have similar features. I’ve had people ask if I was a part of her genetic makeup at all (I’m just a recessive gene pool, appearance wise, I guess). From the looks perspective, probably not. But all the inside stuff – the writing, the reading, the creativity and how she relates to people? I hate to get conceited, but, that stuff comes from me. It felt good to hear that.

Granted, she seems to be excelling at everything. That worries me – Hubby and I both had such an easy time right through high school – college was a bit of a reality check, though. Weird as it sounds, I would rather she had a few tough times here and there where she learned to work through things and figure things out rather than sail smoothly until her freshman year of college and have it all smack her upside the head.

I’m off the hook for volunteering for another two weeks.

I’ll be back later with the Thursday Ten, Birthday Style. I’m off to go have ice cream for lunch though.

I just went outside to get today’s mail – and there was a birthday card from my mother- and father-in-law. Those of you who have been reading here for awhile know that I don’t like them a whole bunch, and it’s mutual – they pretty much can’t stand me either. That’s why I don’t feel bad about laughing at their card, rather than repeating the “it’s the thought that counts” mantra.

The front of the card says:

A Birthday Quiz:
A woman is heading to her hair appointment when she spots GEORGE and BRAD hitchhiking on the side of the road. She only has room for one…
WHO DOES SHE STOP TO PICK UP?

On the front, there’s a woman behind the wheel of a car, and cartoon guys that are supposed to look like Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

Inside, the card says:
Trick Question.
A woman would never risk missing her hair appointment for ANYTHING!

Stop and digest that for a moment.

ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME? First of all, I’d miss a hair appointment for far lesser things (I nearly missed an appointment once because I couldn’t seem to shut up on a phone call – sitting in the parking lot of the hair salon unable to find a reasonable ending for the call). I am just not that into my hair (and, my sister is a stylist – so I’m fairly sure she would understand and squeeze me in elsewhere should I need to reschedule).

I don’t know why this card annoys me the way it does – but my god, it annoys me. I guess because I’ve never been such a foofy girl that I am that wrapped up in my hair – and that I would be so much concerned with my hair, that I would miss out on an opportunity to squeeze both George and Brad in my car (and the answer is: She finds a way to take them BOTH).