Halloween: Part II

That's her in the middle with the pony tails. This isn't the best picture. I've got some others, but they're still in the new camera and I don't have a dock for it yet. More to come.

Meanwhile, guess what we got in our treat bags at about 9:00 a.m. the day after Halloween?

Amoxicillin.

3 out of 4 ears are infected...again. It's all good though, she IS in the medical field after all.

Halloween: Part I

Pretty cute hey? Lesson learned though, do not let the boy take his fangs to school. Or at least, buy him 2 sets. He lost the first one and I found myself doing a Target run at 5:15 on Halloween night. I do NOT recommend it. There were no fangs to be had anyway (naturally). Then...wonder of wonders, 2 days later I found his school trick or treat bag and someone had actually given him fangs. Grrrrrr.

Up next, my five year old veterinarian.

Robin

Spending my time killing trees

Not blogging lately. Big report due at work. A narrative justification for my existence. It's currently 2,000 pages long and takes up 4-3 inch binders. I exist...a lot, apparently!

September is almost over!!!!

Robin

For one brief shining moment...

I've said before that I am not crafty. I am not patient. Anything I try to do of an artistic bent turns into a hoary black mess with glue everywhere. There is usually swearing involved. I do not scrapbook (and when exactly did Gen X-ers decide that word should be a verb?).

What I can do, sometimes passably well, is pay attention. Lots of people hate the Christmas/Holiday season. I do too...sometimes. Honestly though, I really hate the back-to-school season most of all. I fear change. I hate feeling like a hamster in a wheel all the time. I don't want that to sound like complaining, call it merely an observation. That said, this evening, we had a moment that I think I'm probably going to remember for pretty much ever.

When we started, I had a feeling like maybe I shouldn't even try today. We added a layer of CCD frosting to the Weekly Activities Cake. It was 8:00. I wanted to absolutely positively get them into bed by 8:30. But...we had to do our spelling words. I'd promised to finish the Halloween chapter of Harry Potter #1 (there are troll boogers...we've been waiting for the troll boogers!) It was go time.

My 7 year old sat next to me, like he always does. My daughter the squirel draped herself on the other side hanging upside down with her feet resting on my shoulder (what can I do...it's kind of how she sits). She ended up sitting next to her dad in the recliner so he could keep her still. First, we did our spelling words. He did pretty well. 6 out of 8 and we've still got a few days before the quiz. Then I read the rest of our chapter. As expected, the troll boogers were a huge hit and even made my daughter sit upright like a normal human, for once. I was asking my son if he remembered why Harry and Ron didn't like Hermione at first ("she was bossy") and what she did to make them like her ("kept 'em out of trouble with the teachers...but you're not supposed to lie!")

Quietly at first, my daughter started singing a song she's learned this week about an alligator and some monkeys in a tree. She remembered every word and intricate gesture. It's a song I'd never heard before tonight. Then she started on a silly song called tooty-ta. My son knows that one so they did it together. Then, he realized she was REALLY silly, so he sat down next to me again and watched her finish. By the time she did, we all had laughing tears streaming down our faces. We stood up and clapped. She's going to perform again at her Open House (which I have to miss...but Daddy's going so it's all good)

They went upstairs. They brushed their teeth without me asking and went straight to bed.

I should have gotten a camera or my camcorder. But, if I had, I probably would have missed it (remember, I'm not patient or crafty).

It was a good day.

Robin

Frick and Frack on the Night Before School Starts

Frick was a basket case. He always is. He cried coming off the bus on the last day of school because he was going to miss his teacher. He cried tonight because he said he was nervous. What if there are bullies? What if he can't find his room. Frick hangs on pretty tight. He's like his mother that way. We talked him down. Showed him the yearbook picture so he'd recognize his new teacher (bad mommy...we went on vacation the night of Meet the Teacher...I blame Frick's father...it's his role after all). Frick is sweet and sensitive and his new teacher is about to experience how great a kid he is (I'm his mom...this is my role).

***short attention span break in, Anderson Cooper is picking on Joan Rivers 'cuz her face is too tight! Original, cutting edge stuff AC!***

Oh, Frick. I'm hoping he has a good day. I think he's going to be great.

Frack.

I can't fully explain the experience with just words. But...imagine the parental handling and pretzel twisting we were doing with Frick. Meanwhile, overlaying it all is Frack. She is flitting...and I MEAN flitting...(What's with me and my compulsion to use elipses AND parentheticals? Oh well...it is my way). Flitting around the house with her newly acquired Hello Kitty backpack (See earlier post. I lost the 5 lbs too!) She is trying to stuff every pencil, crayon and scrap of paper in the house into it. She is squealing in the background during the aforementioned intervention about her lunch. (Mind you, this is 1/2 day kindergarten. She eats at home. I hadn't the heart to tell her). "Gotta have an apple! Ha! That's not an apple. That's a PEAR! Silly pear. Ooooh...jello!" We hear the sound of crushed ice spilling across the vinyl tile floor from the dispenser. "I gotta fill my cup!"

The good news is, I'm working first thing in the a.m. so Father of Frick/Frack is getting him to school. I told him good luck breaking it to Frack that she can't take the newly packed and matching Hello Kitty lunch box w/ her 'cuz she won't need it. He's gonna be in truhbul!!!!

And this is how we roll. I hope to have pictures soon.

Tuesday Afternoon

I need to figure out how to upload audio files to my blog. I just want the whole world to hear the conversations I've been having this summer. Or at least, when I'm seventy-hundred, I want to listen to them.

On discussing w/ the 4 year old what to make for lunch...

Me: What do you want to eat?

She: Uh...chicken noodle soup.

Me: Sounds like a plan.

She: Cuz I gotta sore froat. It's vewwy vewwy sick. That will make it feel better.

Me: Ok.

She: And I gotta get doggie slippers.

Me: Doggie slippers?

She: Yeah. For Christmas. And I need ta get a new doll house cuz my doll house broke. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Me: We'll make a list.

She: What's gravity again?

I kid you not.

Robin

P.S.

Here's where I am on my back-to-school list:

1. Finish reupholstering chairs (um...1 down, 5 to go)
2. lose 5 more pounds (4 more to go...yay me!)
3. teach 7 year old how to read (he read Rat can tap dog. Wag, wag, wag!)
4. teach 5 year old how to read (She finds me tedious and boring. Also headache inducing.)
5. Find Hello Kitty back pack (grandma's on it)
6. Find 4 pairs of tennis shoes (1 velcro for each kid, 1 lace-up for each kid) (DONE! Plus saddle shoes, and van knock offs)
7. Write 45K words of latest manuscript (HA! HA HA HA HA HAHAHA!!!!)

Not bad!

Robin