Brrrrr!

Just returned from taking Belle to school this morning.  It was a whopping 46 degrees when we left the house!  It’s warmed ALL the way up to 48 now.  It’s going to get up to about 75 this afternoon.  

Ahhhh, I love fall!

One down, one to go!

So we survived Little Lamb’s big day, but wow was I exhausted!  We took Belle to school, came home for a bit, took Little Bear to school,  then drove around some (LL fell asleep on the way back home and we had to be back at LB’s school to help with an activity, so I just let her sleep in the car).  By 10 we were back at LB’s school to oversee the tricycle/bike fun.  We stayed through playground and snack time, then we all zipped off to meet Belle’s class by 11:30 for lunch.  After a soul-satisfying school lunch of pizza and fruit, we had cupcakes in Belle’s classroom followed by recess!  Because nothing says, “Wasn’t that a great lunch?” like running around in circles on the playground!
It was about 12:40 when we left Belle’s school and headed back home.  We collapsed on the sofa, snuggling and snoozing together for about an hour.  LB kept on sleeping while I dug around for recipes.  The afternoon involved much butter, sugar, and flour as I decorated cupcakes for soccer, made a cookie pie for LB’s birthday and brownies for Belle’s birthday.  
When J called to say he was on his way home, I threw together a simple dinner (bacon, pasta, corn, broccoli, and parmesan cheese-don’t forget to save some pasta water to use to make a “sauce”).  The kids love these meals, exclaiming them to be the BEST DINNER EVER!  
After dinner was present time.  Watching LL meticulously tear the paper was so fun, but having to hold LB back like a bull ready for the fight-not so much.  We ate cookie pie for dessert, then the kids set about playing with LL’s new toys.  It was close to 9:30 before I wrangled them all in bed.  
Then I collapsed onto the sofa again, but with J this time.  Surfing through old clips of “You Can’t Do That On Television” on YouTube.  I rested my head on his shoulder and promptly fell asleep.  After a while he woke me up and I moved to the bed.  And that was that.  Another birthday down.

You might think that was too much activity to throw at such a wee girl on her birthday, but she couldn’t have been happier.  She got to be part of LB’s and Belle’s worlds at school and that made her very happy!

My favorite parts of the day:

Overhearing LB telling LL “You’re two today, Sweetie!” in his happy sing-song voice.  I was making dinner, so I didn’t see it.  But I didn’t have to see it to know what it looked like-his little arm wrapped around her shoulders, his head bent down to meet hers.

Reading Belle’s card to LL:
Happey Bithday [Little Lamb] who is a cowgirl I love you!    (With a picture of a cow underneath)
Serve’s up girl just renumber I love you!   (With a picture of Belle and LL on surf boards underneath)

Today looks to be just as exhausting with “The Big Game” (Belle’s first soccer game) and celebrating Belle’s seventh birthday.  How am I the mother of a seven year old???  When did I get this old?

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Do you like apples?

Well I got her numbah!  How do ya like them apples?

 

Can you tell what movie I’m watching while assembly/wrapping Little Lamb’s birthday gifts?  Yes, my sweet baby girl turns two tomorrow!  Easily the fastest two years of my life.

Updates all around!

First, on the lavender spray-I sprayed the sheet 3 times and sufficiently ridded the sheet of any musty basement smell.  I wouldn’t say it was noticeably lavender smelling, but hey at least it didn’t stink anymore!

On Belle’s school issues.  Hmmm, where to begin.  So I believe I’ve told you that her teacher is pregnant and was having some swelling issues.  It seems that Thursday afternoon her doctor placed her on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy.  The administration scrambled (my word, not theirs) to find a suitable long-term sub and had her there on Friday with the sub the kids had earlier in the week.  I discovered all of this Friday morning when I showed up to help with the pancakes.  

There was one other mom there, as well as a set of grandparents to help with the pancakes.  The room was a flurry of activities as administrators, aids, and the counselor scurried in and out.  We set about making the pancakes, the teachers tried to keep the kids on task, and the administrator oohed and ahhed (read: tried to make sure we parents were sufficiently happy with their level of involvement).  

I was able to observe a few things while I was there:
Dodger and Belle don’t sit at the same table, don’t work in the same small groups, and really don’t seem to interact that much.  I’m sure there’s some recess time, gym time, or free time for them to talk, but quite honestly it seems to have blown over.  Kids are still pretty forgetful about that sort of stuff at this age.  Wait a couple of years and they’ll never forget the day Amy B peed all over the floor because the teacher said she had to wait to go to the bathroom.  Oops!  But I’m willing to bet almost no one noticed the time I wet myself in first grade because I was too shy or stupid or Idon’tknowwhat to ask to go to the bathroom.
I’m keeping a close eye on this new sub’s choice of dress.  Let’s just say I saw a bit more of her upper half than I’d like!  I have a good feeling that the admins noticed this too, but I’m not above saying something about it should I need to.

I’m thinking my stress level over this new teacher so early in the year has pretty much taken over my boy worries for now.  Belle is really good about talking to me about things, so I feel confident that I’ll know if there is any more trouble.  On the other hand, I can’t ask her about the competence of her teacher.  Why does this all have to be so darn complicated??!!??

In other news, I have a few new recipes on my other blog.  Go!  Check them out!

An experiment

I’ve been trying a few new methods for cleaning that are kinder to the environment and the pocket book.  I generally don’t miss the old products, but I do sorely miss the “clean” smell to my laundry with my homemade detergent.  I do think it smells a little “fresher” when I use about a 1/2 cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle.  But, given that the washer/dryer are in the basement, I rarely happen upon the washer during the rinse cycle.  Yes, I can re-run the clothes on only the rinse cycle, but that sort of defeats the water conservation efforts.  I’ve had a few friends say they’ve put some essential oils in with the vinegar, but that the dryer seems to remove the lovely smells with the high heat.

Today was finallychangethesheetsalready! day (good luck reading that one!), but the fitted sheet just smelled a little, well, basement-y.  Perhaps that week it spent clean, on top of the dryer didn’t help…

So, as an experiment, I put cool water in a simple spray bottle, added about 30 shakes of lavender essential oil, and misted my fitted sheet.  I’ll let you know if it helped once it’s dry.

Just a quick note

Thankfully, nothing happened at school yesterday.  I’m going in this morning to help with pancakes, so I’ll get a chance to observe him as well as find out if this sub will be back next week.  If so, I’ll ask her to keep an eye on things.  Thanks for your thoughts and kind words for Belle.

We just don’t do that.

Boy is first grade different than Kindergarten!  A few days in to the new school year, Belle exchanged phone numbers with a boy in her class.  I didn’t think much of it at the time-she said she wanted him to come over to play basketball in our driveway, but rarely follows through with this sort of stuff.  I was rather surprised that the little boy (we’ll call him Dodger) called the next day to speak to Belle.  They didn’t seem to talk about much, at least Belle didn’t.  Mostly “Yeah” and “What?”.  A few days later he called again.  We weren’t home so he left a rambling message.  I didn’t tell Belle about it as we were rushed to eat dinner, take baths, read books and get to bed.  Which, in my opinion, is how children should spend their evenings!  Except without the rushing part, but hey, we’d driven into town to pick up the coveted soccer uniform.  

At 7:40, just as I was pulling everyone out of the tub, he called again.  I told Belle she could talk for just a moment, but to tell him it was almost her bedtime.  She did, and they chatted a few minutes while I dressed Little Lamb and Little Bear.  Then I heard her saying “No, no, no, no, no…We just don’t do that.”  My ears perked immediately.

I kept listening, having never strayed far from Belle, and she repeated, “We just don’t do that.”  I told her it was time to read books and she needed to get off the phone.  She told Dodger she had to go and then I began questioning her.  

It turns out Dodger has an older sister who was saying that Belle is Dodger’s girlfriend.  Belle knew that wasn’t ok with J and I, and I’m so proud of her for speaking up.  I quizzed her a bit more to see if she might have wanted to be his boyfriend, but said no because of me, and she said “No!  That’s gross!  And we’re too young for that.”

I gave her a huge hug and told her how proud I was of her for knowing the right thing to do and say.  I was hoping that might be the end of the story.  

We left town for NC Friday and returned Tuesday evening.  There was the usual backlog of messages which I expected were mostly hang-ups.  Little did I know that Dodger had left 5 messages for my sweet Belle, 3 in one evening, all ramblings about how he was about to go to the store.  Except in one message, he said “My sister says I love you, and I really do love you.”  A first grader pledging love to my sweet Belle????  There is something very wrong with this picture!

J wanted to call his parents right away.  I suggested Belle tell him he couldn’t call anymore the next day at school.   As fate would have it, Dodger called just a few moments later.  J intercepted the call, asking to speak to his mother or father.  The father got on the phone and J nicely asked that he speak to Dodger, asking him not to call anymore.  He seemed nice enough on the phone, even called back a few minutes later to say that he had indeed spoken to Dodger and it should be taken care of.

Only we didn’t think to mention to tell him not to talk about it to everyone at school.  Belle’s teacher is pregnant and has had some swelling.  There’s been a sub in the class since Tuesday.  Behavior was not at it’s best Wednesday, and it seems Dodger spent a good bit of the day telling classmates that his sister says he and Belle “hooked up”.  This embarrasses poor Belle and angers J and I.  I wish the teacher were there to help squelch things.

I don’t yet know how today went, but I’ll be asking her soon.  Man, I don’t want this to go any further!  Do we call the parents back?  Do we talk to the counselor at school?  Ugh, I really did not want to have to deal with this crap this young!

Yes, I do realize that many parents laugh off the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing with kids.  But that’s simply not the standard J and I want for our kids.  And she’s not even interested in it either! [Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord!]

As for the phrase “we just don’t do that”, it’s something I started telling Belle early on about what we felt was appropriate and what was not.  I don’t even know when it started, really.  But boy am I thankful!  It totally takes the pressure off her to have something to say, and it feels much more like a joint decision rather than “my parent’s won’t allow me to…”.  

Please share your thoughts, even if you think I’m overreacting.  I don’t personally think I am, but you’re welcome to think differently!  Oh, and I’m sure there are tons of mistakes in this, but I’m just gonna hit publish and maybe look over it later.  So forgive all those typos, mmk?  Thanks!

Staying dry in NC

We’ve come to NC to visit J’s parents.  They’ve just moved here from TX and are living in a corporate apartment till they find a house.  We hit the mall today-perfect rainy day activity!  And tomorrow we’re hoping to check out some houses.  The kids are soaking up all the Mimi and Grandad attention they can get.  J and I are hoping to get a date night in some time.  It’s been FAR too long.

They have a cat that loves to chase a laser light.  As I write, Little Bear and Little Lamb are running about the apt. giggling uncontrollably as the cat jumps up the walls and darts all around.  

We’re about to sit down to dinner, so I better give Mimi a hand setting the table.  I’ll try to post something of actual substance soon, I promise!