Somehow we have to channel this

My 5 1/2 year-old son is, well, a nag. There is simply no other way to put it. This child doesn't let go of an idea, question, comment, complaint, etc - ever. Distraction doesn't work, at least not permanently. He'll go along with the diversion for a while, but then immediately u-turns back to his topic du jour. The other night, he wanted us to do something for him on the computer involving giving him a password. We're having pop-up problems due to the downloads and such being done by the kids, so we told him no. Even as we patiently responded to the "why can't I have a password" pleas, he continued on with it. For, like, an hour. Never gave up, nor even diminished the amplitude of the whines and pleas. I think it finally took bedtime to get it out of his head. Truthfully, I was surprised when he didn't wake up asking the same thing.

This is just one example of the DAILY nags he performs. Somehow, somewhere, there is a good side to this; some sort of positive quality that, if "channeled" properly, will serve him well as an adult. But for the love of you-know-who, I don't know how to do that. For now, he just drives us crazy. I love him like the dickens, but sheesh, learn to take "no" for an answer. How do you teach a kid that?

On another front, I was helping out in M's classroom yesterday when one of the kids had to be removed for a behavior issue. He normally is the sweetest little guy, but he has some kind of issue, that, frankly, I don't know about and it's none of my business. But he's usually off in his own world, and doesn't like to do his work and, in particular, write (we encourage him by us writing a word, then he writes a word). Apparently, his behavior is deteriorating. Yesterday, the teacher simply told him that if he was stuck, he needed to ask for help, rather than just sitting there doing nothing. He wouldn't do it, and he became pretty unpleasant, even calling the teacher some names (nothing horrible, but things like 'meanie'). Since the rest of the class couldn't focus, someone was called from the office to remove him. That's when it really got bad; he had a pretty bad outburst. And the teacher told me that last week he had an even worse episode that really frightened the class, especially M. She hid under a table. So I had a talk with her about it after school, and reassured her that nothing bad was happening to anyone, that they just took the child somewhere where he could calm down. I think she thought that he was being taken to a torture chamber or something. I was surprised she never told me about it last week, but when I brought it up to her last night, she really had a lot to say about it. So I'm glad I was able to talk to her about it. I don't want her to think that going to the "office" is always a terrible thing.

When I was a kid, in about 1st grade (M's age), I was summoned to the principal's office. OMG, what have I done? I was absolutely terrified. I thought for sure that I would be given some sort of beating or something. Turns out they just had a question for me, but by then I was so worked up about it that I dissolved into tears while I was there. Obviously, it traumatized me, since I still remember it so clearly.

Isn't it funny the things we remember from childhood? Lots of stuff our parents forget about almost as soon as it happens, but our little minds retained it forever. As a mom, it really makes me think about what I do; I never know what seemingly insignificant event, statement, or detail will become a lifelong memory for my kids. Even now, they'll surprise me with "mom, do you remember when you/we.....?" Uh, no. They do, and they've been thinking about it, whatever it was, for quite a while.

She Stayed

The Divine Miss M decided that she was just too busy this weekend to run away. "Maybe another time", she said.

On another note, both M & L have discovered this website www.creationsbyyou.com.
This is a site where the kids can author and illustrate their own book, and then get it "published" (actually bound and printed). A friend of mine's daughter has one of these books, and they turned out really neat. This is so up M's alley; she has done nothing else since Saturday when she first found out about it. She loves to write and draw. L is giving it a go, too, and I'm actually rather impressed with what he's coming up with. His first title is "Max and the Magic Car". I don't know what the inspiration for this is, and I hope it's not already taken, but I think it's kind of neat.

Some of you may remember M's Spongebob drawing - a while back she did this totally from memory and it just blew us away:



So I think we have an artist in the family! Well, at least until she runs away......

Cookies, cookies, everywhere

M is a first-year Brownie Girl Scout this year. She was a Daisy last year, but ----

Daisies DON"T sell cookies.

This year, her troop of 11 1st graders sold more cookies than any other Girl Scout troop, of any level, in our local service unit of about 12 troops. Since I'm the troop's cookie mom, I had to organize all the orders and pick up the cookies yesterday. Well, actually Rich and I had to pick them up, and we needed a big truck (including a lift-gate) to do it. Our little girls sold 166 cases (or 1992 boxes) of cookies! That's a LOT of thin mints, samoas, do-si-dos, tagalongs, etc. And they're all in my front yard, in the truck, right now. (I take that back - 4 thin mints, 2 tagalongs, and 1 do-si-do are in my tummy by now ;)

If my neighbors only knew of the prized stash sitting in my yard......

Today I've got to sort all those boxes to give to the girls. That should help work off the ones I ate yesterday. My diet doesn't work real well if I'm pushing cookies into my face..... surprise, surprise.

Oh, and I'll post an update on our runaway as soon as I know what she's doing. She still says she's running away to the back yard, but L is so upset about that that she might reconsider. Or at least take him with her.

She's leaving us

Yesterday evening, M decided to be in her bitchy-princess mood, and decided she was NOT going to do her homework. Uh-uh, no way. Well, since I'm bigger than her, and can talk circles around any kind of kid-logic she throws at me, I eventually got her to sit down and do it. BUT, she announced that she was going to run away. I did my normal, "I'm sorry to hear that", and "we'll miss you", etc, but she stuck to her plan. Even after we kissed and made up, so to speak, she told Daddy at bedtime:

"Uh, Dad, I love you, but I'm still running away Saturday".
"Where are you going, M?"
"Outside"

(we have 10 acres, so "outside" can be quite a ways away)

"Where outside"?
"Out to those trees out there" (about 100 yds out behind the house)
"Well, be careful".
"I will, Dad".

When she got off the school bus today, she again pronounced her intent to run away tomorrow. Something tells me, though, that it will slip her mind. She has cheerleading in the morning, then straight to a friend's house to play, then home in the evening. It will be dark by then, we now have GIRL SCOUT COOKIES, and she'll see how good she's got it. I guarantee it.

But then again, she's a pretty darn stubborn little thing......

Woohoo!

I just got word that my flute choir, "Flutes on the Brink" has been invited to perform at the National Flute Association Convention this summer in Pittsburgh. As geeky as that sounds, trust me, it's a big deal. Over 3000 flutists attend this convention. Not that all of them will hear us, because we are a very small item in a very full convention agenda. But since the choir is only 4 years old and has never done anything of this magnitude, we're very thrilled. We'll be playing a lunchtime concert on Sunday, August 13. Now we have to decide what we're playing, etc; we have to turn in our program by the end of March.

This is really cool!

After the 'big" snow

The view from our front porch this morning.

Saturday was the first big snowstorm for us, after a VERY mild winter so far. The sun was shining all yesterday afternoon, which helped melt a lot of it. This morning, the kids are out of school (why, I don't know), so E went out to explore the icicles that formed overnight. He went to pull one off, and got this big chunk instead.

Remember the Scene from "Marathon Man"...

..... where the dentist is "working" on Dustin Hoffman? Well, that's what I felt like this morning.

Not Dustin, either.
The wacko dentist.

L woke up this morning with a bottom tooth dangling from his mouth by the tiniest little strip of flesh. It was really bothering him; he wouldn't eat, and didn't want to go to school. So dh convinced him that we needed to pull it out, because it would hurt more if we didn't, and what if it came out at school and was lost?! Anyway, at the last minute, L changed his mind and wouldn't let daddy near his mouth. So, we basically had to tag team him, with me holding his arms, dh holding his head, M screaming "don't hurt my brother!", and L screaming bloody murder. It was.....HORRIBLE. If L isn't in therapy later in life over this, I will be. The tooth, however, came out very neatly, and quickly. After about 2 minutes of screaming (and hugs), L got over it and ate his breakfast and was showing off the tooth.

Meanwhile, all the construction guys working on our house probably called social services on us. It really sounded like we were torturing the child.

Super Bowl 2006

The big party was yesterday. (Oh yeah, and there was a football game, too). Since the Redskins weren't playing, I really didn't care who won, but I suppose I had a small preference for the underdog Seahawks to win. But since I think I watched about 5 minutes total of the game, I couldn't tell you anything other than the final score.

We had close to 15o people at the party this year; a good-size turnout. Waay too much food, as usual, and this year marked the return of an overload of tortilla chips. For some reason, we didn't have ANY tortilla chips, this year, just about every other dish brought to the party involved them in some way. Now, I love Tostitos as much as anyone, but, sheesh, a little variety would have been nice. Okay, 'nuff about the stupid chips. I think everyone had a good time; we had about 20,000 (or so it seemed) children running through the house (because they could care less about the game going on in the tent outside - Xbox was what they were after). But for the most part, all of them were well behaved, nothing seems to have been broken or stolen, and they made sure that there we no leftover cookies. Late last night and this morning, hubby and I were picking up, cleaning up, that sort of thing. The tent comes down tomorrow, the floor hopefully a few days after that.

And next year, we'll do it all again. But next year, GO SKINS!!!!!!!

Hi, Remember Me?

It's only been, what, THREE months? Again, I fell prey to the "why would anyone want to hear about my pitiful life?" syndrome. Well, after thinking about it for a while, I decided that this is mostly for me, anyway, and anyone who feels inclined to take a peek once in a while. So, HI MOM & DAD!

On the kid front, everyone is doing great. L got his first-ever report card yesterday and was just beside himself. He gets that way about many things, but this was his very own REPORT CARD! I wasn't surprised. They don't get grades in Kindergarten, but his "marks" were very good. He's very advanced in math and reading. He needs to work on his comprehension a bit, but overall, he's doing great. M had a similarly impressive report card. Both of their teachers had very nice things to say about them. E, my struggling high-schooler, didn't fare so well, but there were definite signs of improvement. I'm afraid Harvard will not be in his future (oh, DARN!, say I in my most lock-jawed, Thurston Howell voice).

Our home is now in shambles as the renovation got going about 3 weeks ago. So far, so good, but of course it's not happening fast enough. I want it NOW! (my alias is Veruca Salt).