Thursday, June 21, 2007

Summer and Batman and Robin

The first day of summer! Yesterday was my son's last day of preschool for the year and he was very excited that he gets to "take the summer off". It is the first time in his life that he can do so. He went to daycare starting at 6 months of age and then when I started working from home so I could be with the monsters, he still went to preschool a few days a week even in the summer. A woman's gotta work! This summer we're hiring a nanny part time to help out so I can still work three days. We'll see how it goes. The kids have never had a babysitter and it will be strange to have someone caring for the kids while I'm home working. The nanny is 19 and looks like I wished I looked when I was 19 -- not a pimple on her cute, freckled face.
This is my 34th first day of summer and my son's 4th first day of summer. It doesn't seem like I'm too old when I think... I've only seen 30 more June 21st's than Luc.

My husband often let's the kids sit on his lap while he searches YouTube for theme songs from old tv shows. The most requested one from the kids is Batman. They've never seen the show, but they get all the information they need from the opening song. Son and Daughter often "play" Batman and Robin. I think it is so funny how my daughter had no problem taking a supporting role in their play. She runs around the house yelling, "I'm Robin, I'm Robin". If I mistakenly call her by her real name, she quickly reminds me of my mistake. It's as if the 2nd born automatically knows their place in the world... they will always be Robin.


Bathman and Robin in their capes.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Portraits


My daughter drew these portraits of me and my husband yesterday. She's not quite 2.5 yet, but damn, she blows my 4.5 y/o son out of the water in the art department. Don't cry, son, you were potty trained by the time you were your sister's age and that is a much more important skill.

Things my mom never did, part 1

First let me say I LOVE and respect my mom. She's an amazing woman who raised 7 kids who are only minimally crazy. She is there for me when I need to bitch about how hard it is to raise my two kids and she doesn't even crack a smile.
But when I'm playing with my kids, I often think, my mom didn't really play with me.

Yesterday was a fabulous day with my two kiddos. It was the type of day that made me want to sing out to the world about how wonderful it is to be a parent and about how I love my kids so much I almost can't stand it.
One thing we did was dance around the living room like three monkeys for over an hour. We had our snack set up on the hearth and we would stop and eat a grahamn cracker and then bust out with some more cool moves. We jumped off the couch, played red light, green light and chased each other all over the house.
I can't even picture my mom ever doing this with children.
She didn't have the luxury of an hour of time where she could put household duties on hold. There was laundry for 9, dinner for 9 and cleaning up the scum that 7 little ones left around the house.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Cheese sandwiches... yummy!

There's a crazy article in the L.A. Times today http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cheese18jun18,0,7344584.story?coll=la-home-local

It seems that many school districts are forcing kids to eat alternative lunches if their parents haven't paid their lunch debt. One school offered a veggie and fruit plate to non-payers, while some schools offer cheese and crackers or a cheese sandwich. Parents are complaining that their kids are being ostracised for getting the cheese sandwich. So what! Kids have to learn how to deal with shit like that sometimes. And if you don't want them to go through that, then pay your darn bill.
Man... this is driving me crazy because I brought my lunch to school every freakin' day from K-12. There was the odd day that I might have some piggy bank money lying around and I might bring it to school to buy lunch, but there was no such think as a lunch tab. What is that?
Get up a few minutes early or go to bed a few minutes later and make your kid a PB&J sandwich for God's sake! Throw in a juice box, some strawberries or an apple and tell your child to eat it or be hungry. I sure wasn't teased because I brought tuna on white to school while some of my classmates were eating pizza.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Check it!

Check out my baby sister's Web site to see screencasts of new, cool things on the Web.
http://www.demogirl.com

Back to work....

Sunday, June 10, 2007

PMS can be a good thing

For the past 4 months my husband has had to listen to me give the reasons why having a 3rd child would be a great thing for our family. I've really had the baby bug lately -- part of it is because I'm 33 now and if I want to have a child before that magic age of 35 when you have to start doing all the genetic testing, I should get busy. Husband is definitely happy with 2 kids and I'm not sure there is any argument I could make that would make him change his mind. He came from a family of 2 and that was fine with him. I came from a family of 7 kids and while I wouldn't recommend that number of kids, 2 just seems so sad and lonely to me. Thinking of family holidays when the kids will come home to visit just seems lame with two:) Husband laughs when I say that.

This month I not only had a bad case of babyitis, I also came down with a horrible case of PMS. I don't know where this scary person came from, but I hope she packs up and leaves ASAP. The good thing to come out of it is that for the past two days I could barely stand the two children I do have and the thought of a third just makes me want to put a bullet in my brain. OK... I'm being dramatic, but seriously, I was able to sort of focus on what I do have -- two spirited (GD, I freakin' hate that word, but sometimes it fits) children and I just about have my hands full between them, my husband and my work.

On another note, I got some more flowers put in the ground today. Let me just say that I freaking hate my backyard -- oh, yeah, we've already established that I hate everything today. The backyard space itself has so much potential because it is quite large, but the retirees who lived here before designed it in such a poor way. There are ugly planters, plants that I hate and a patio cover that totally makes the yard feel closed in. There's not much we can do with it at this point in time besides minor cosmetic changes... like changing out some of the plants. So, I was out there today and got a bunch planted. Hopefully they'll live at least until the 4th when we have our bbq.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Sleeping

Sleeping... it's something I wish I did more often. I go to bed way too late and my kids wake up way too early. Something's got to change and I have a feeling it is going to have to be my night-owl tendencies.
When I'm playing the the kids I often lie on the floor and pretend to be asleep. I'm not really asleep, but my brain and eyeballs get a minute or two of rest. My daughter used to be fascinated when I would pretend to be asleep. She would snuggle up next to me on the floor and say, "OK, mommy, it's naptime." She'd give me about 45 seconds to 2 minutes of rest before she would say, "morning time!".
Apparently that is all over now. When I was playing sleep today, she quickly bent over me and tried to pluck out my eyelashes. While I didn't get quite the rest I was looking for, I was definitely energized again.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

New bike, old 'hood and Prairie Home Companion

We've been thinking about getting son a real bike. He's mastered the Big Wheel and his scooter and I really didn't want to see what happened to me happen to him. You see, I didn't get a bike until I was eight years old. My parents had a total of 7 kids and there were 5 in front of me, so I guess they forgot. Anyway, on my 8th Christmas I got a bike. I was so excited until my dad tried to teach me to ride -- they skipped the whole training wheel thing. The neighborhood kids were pointing and laughing as an eight-year-old was being pushed down the street by her dad. Folks, it was humiliating and I carry the scars to this day. I want to make sure son has mastered at least riding with no training wheels, if not riding with no hands, by the time he is eight -- he's 4.5 so I think we'll make it.
Last week I found a nice bike at a local sporting goods store. I wanted to talk it over with husband before I made the purchase. We decided to go ahead and do it, so this morning son and I headed over to the store to buy the bike. It was gone. Sold. Another one might be in on Tuesday. Son was a bit sad, but not as sad as me. We decided to head to another store in our old 'hood (more on that later) about 15 minutes away. It is a huge sporting goods store. Guess what? They don't sell bikes! The young teen who I was asking for help told me to go across to Target to get a nice bike. Target for a bike? NEVER! I didn't want son to get some lame superman, spiderman, or whatever flavor-of-the-month character would be splashed all over the bike. I wanted a real bike, a quality bike, one he would be proud to take care of.
My first bike was used and that never bothered me. It was a beautiful, blue schwinn. Our family got all of our bikes from "The Bike Man" in Venice -- he was some old dude who sold new bikes but also refurbished used bikes. It was a great bike and I rode it and cherished it for years. Anyway... I'm going on and on... while daughter napped, husband took son out to a bike store a few miles away and came home with a great bike. It brought tears to my eyes to watch son proudly peddling around the cul-de-sac with his little helmet on. And we have the added bonus of buying from a local small business.

While son and I were on our morning search we ended up in our old neighborhood. Son said he wanted to drive by our old house -- it's been almost exactly a year since we moved. As we drove up our old street I was hit with nostalgia big time. We moved to that house about 2 weeks before son was born. I started thinking about our first walks, first trips to the local park, first time trick-or-treating. We hit the neighborhood park for a few minutes and I almost started crying. I love my family now, but there is something so tender about that time I had alone with my son. I really enjoyed it and I remember thinking when I was pregnant with our daughter how I would lose out on time with my little buddy. He and I were pals. He would go with me to get coffee and shop for towels at Kohls. We would play in our front yard all the time. Since his sister joined our family I don't have as much one-on-one time with him. I love my daughter more than anything and I often wonder if she feels ripped off because she never got that same time with me. I really don't think so, she is a pistol and happy and funny and all that. The family expands and the love keeps growing.

As I type this I'm listening to A Prairie Home Companion. I admit it, I'm a public radio addict. If I don't have the kids in the car, it's all I listen to. If husband takes the kids out for a bit, that's what is flowing through the airwaves in my house -- yes, I'm lame. Husband doesn't care for this particular program, but for some reason, I do. Anyway, I was folding laundry a few minutes ago and listening to the show... a musical act came on and people were applauding at certain points and I'm like, yeah, that was some awesome fiddlin', but then in the middle of the music, everyone in the audience starts laughing and I'm like, what is so funny?