A possible future career in Stomp? I hope not. That would hurt my delicate ears.
Busy
February 13, 2009 at 8:12 pm (kiddos)
I’ve been busy lately keeping up with the kids in the daytime and doing lots of work (part-time web design job) in the evenings. Here is one event that I felt should be documented:
Quinn, on his way out of a room, said (and I’ll write it out the way he pronounced it so you can get the full effect): “I’ll be back faster than you can say jig-a-ling jig-a-ling bellies!” I can’t imagine where he would have gotten the idea that bellies are jiggly! (she says backing away from the M&Ms) Sigh. It was hilarious, and though my belly does a lot of jiggling, I don’t think he was referring to me.
Mama, you’re a hor
January 21, 2009 at 8:19 am (kiddos)
True, these words we’re uttered to me last week. School ended up being canceled on Thursday AND Friday of last week (and yes, there was no school Monday for MLK day, so we had quite an unwelcome long weekend). On Friday, I took the kids to the Y to play in the gym. We took tennis rackets, tennis balls, and basketballs. They had a great time. Kate and I played “Horse” for a while (though Seth tells me I didn’t play it right; I’ll call my version “Speed Horse”). I was doing very badly. I quickly got an H, and then an H-O. At this point, she said, “Mama, you’re a ho!” And then, as I’ve given away by the title of this post, I got an R and she said, “Mama, you’re a hor!”
Ah, good times.
Bad Blogger. Bad, Bad Blogger.
December 18, 2008 at 9:00 pm (family, husband, kiddos, philosophy)
I’m not a good blogger. I admit it. The fact is, I compose blog posts in my head all the time, but then I never really want to sit down and actually type them out. Lazy? Scared? Mostly apathetic, I guess. I’ve mostly just been apathetic about life in general these days. Which I guess beats being depressed, but just barely.
For weeks and weeks I’ve been thinking I need to post something, and each passing day puts more pressure on it to be a good one. But it won’t be. This will just be a whole lot of randomness. So here goes:
- Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday (32, for inquiring minds that want to know). Happy Birthday, my sweet. I can’t imagine my life without you.
- We returned from a (roughly) 4-day trip to Disneyworld, aka Parental Masochistic Capital of the World. It’s not so much the idea of a trip to a bunch of theme parks or that the vacation is geared toward the children. It’s that it gets taken to ultra-nauseating levels. I won’t confess to going quite that far, but it did seem depressing to watch it play out in other families. (It probably was us, too, but I don’t want to believe it.) Parents dragging their kids around, trying to ride as many rides as possible, get as many character autographs as possible, remortgaging their houses to pay for the flight, hotel, and theme park admission, then remortgaging them again to pay for the collectible/tradeable pins. They were $6-$15 each, and there were many kids wandering around with at least 25 on them. I don’t know. I can’t really find the right words to describe it, but it was sad. And it feels like a lifestyle being jammed down our generation’s throat. Child worship. I mean, I don’t want to go back to the “old days” when children couldn’t speak at the dinner table until spoken to or when they were expected to go away and play somewhere – anywhere – to be out from under their parents’ feet. But now with the world trending toward more danger for children every day, I don’t even dare let my kids out of my sight. I know I’ll have to let them be more independent at some point, but it’s scary to think about right now. So I clutch them to my chest, and alternate between feeling like I spoil them and feeling like I neglect them. Our culture really jams the child worshipping message down our throats. Ah, I’ve digressed. But I can’t help but feel sad at the things I witnessed at Disneyworld (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, thank you very much). Trying to buy happiness for our children, when often times all they want to do is sit down and play a board game with us.
- P.S. If such a thing exists, I am to a vacation what a party pooper is to a party. Seth informs me I was better this time. But here is a picture of me, and I’m pretty sure this is how I looked the whole trip:
Bitchy me at Epcot
Don’t believe me?
Bitchy me at Magic Kingdom
I actually find this one quite humorous. I had to crop the picture so my facial expression would show up better, but in the complete picture, my scowl seems to be directed at my mother-in-law.
My goal, though, is to try to document more of the good things in my life, in the hopes that writing about them will help me savor and appreciate them. Examples of this include:
- When Quinn and I were having a conversation, and he cocked his head to the side and said, “Well, you could just stonk it.” He had a very clear definition in his head of the word. It cracks me up even writing about it now.
- When I was carrying Paige down the stairs, and she reached around and hugged/patted me on the back and said “We friend.”
- When Kate offered to shovel the driveway for payment. When finished with the driveway, we asked if she was going to do the sidewalk, too. She asked if she would be paid more. (After all, we had agreed on shoveling the driveway, though the implication was the sidewalk, too.) When we agreed to pay her more, she went to work on the sidewalk. We have a LOT of sidewalk. I sent Seth out to offer to help her, and before agreeing to it, she wanted to know if she would still get paid the same amount. A shrewd businesswoman already. Good for her.
That’s all for now, but I’m going to try hard to write more often. Hopefully lots of good stuff amongst my ramblings on the state of my little part of the cosmos.
Coffee Table
October 31, 2008 at 3:04 pm (kiddos)
I see the coffee table as a piece of ever-changing art. It’s interesting to sit down and see what has bee haphazardly left there.
Underneath the covering is a wooden table, but long ago I feared a child might scratch it up with toys, and I sewed this cover. Given that it’s 7 years old, I’d say I made a good choice on the fabric. I think it’s still “in style”.
So, you’ll see 3 remotes, which is what it takes to operate our TV, dish DVR, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii. Can thank the hubby for that. His parents still look like deer caught in headlights when we suggest they turn the TV on.
From left to right (roughly) after those first two remotes, you’ll see Paige’s handiwork of the morning. Coins, plastic bugs, tampons (regular and super), a cup with a chocolate brochure in it, flushable wipes (She was unloading the bathroom cupboard. Can you tell?), a book, a paper towel, and the eyeglasses container used to hold aforementioned tampons. I hope this will be a regular topic on my blog, as it’s interesting to see what’s on the table at any given time.
Our sweet Kate
October 31, 2008 at 7:44 am (kiddos, philosophy)
Kate is our 8-year-old. She joined swim team this year because, as she puts it, she is “a fish”. She loves it so far.
I emailed her coach about getting her race results, and this is part of what he wrote back: “Kate is a joy to coach, she loves to do well, she loves to do things properly, she loves to lead, and to make it all better, she is always happy and pleasant to be around.” That’s what we hear from teachers, coaches, etc. We’re very proud of her for that. I’m writing this post in part just to brag about her for a little bit.
Partly, though, I’m writing this post because she’s decidedly NOT like this at home MOST of the time. If she’s getting her way, she’s fine. But of course she doesn’t get her way all the time. She has a very bad attitude when we practice piano. She says she’s horrible at it (she’s very good, actually), that she hates it, that I’m hard on her, that I expect her to be perfect. That’s hard to hear, because I don’t want her to feel we expect perfection. But to move on to the next song in piano, you do have to play the song you’re on without any mistakes, i.e. perfect! (Not really perfect, though, because I don’t insist on perfect technique on every single note, perfect rhythm, etc., but she doesn’t acknowledge that.)
We originally signed up for Suzuki piano lessons because we wanted to have a woman from our church as Kate’s piano teacher, and she happens to teach Suzuki. I think I’ve mentioned that before. It’s very demanding (of the parent), but I do like how well she can play music, scales, memorize pieces, do theory, etc. One quote of his is:
“The main concern for parents should be to bring up their children as noble human beings. That is sufficient. If this is not their greatest hope, in the end the child may take a road contrary to their expectations. Children can play very well. We must try to make them splendid in mind and heart also.”
The goal of this intensive program is not to produce a professional musician. It is for the student to play to the best of their abilities, while cultivating much more inside of them. For us, we wanted the kids to play piano. Now we see it (especially for Kate) as an area of emotional weakness for her. She really is a good piano player, but she doesn’t think so because it is hard for her. She doesn’t have to work hard at school; it just comes naturally to her. (She still doesn’t understand that.) So this is an area where I can sit down with her, one on one, and teach her how to deal with frustrations. Yes, this is hard. Yes, you want to quit. How are you going to handle that now? How are we going to reach the goal (of mastering a particular piece of music or scale)? If you get angry, does that help you play better? If you stay calm, does it?
Thus, piano is not only the hardest thing she does, but it’s also the hardest thing I have to do right now. I have wanted to quit! I’ve wondered lots of times if the time commitment is worth it. I think I have to remind myself that the results of it will not just be knowing how to read music and play the piano; it will be time spent together, and time spent teaching her how to handle the hard stuff in life.
Sigh.
September 23, 2008 at 6:52 pm (kiddos)
Why did he have to outgrow his swim suit at the end of the summer? Ah, well, thank goodness for online shopping, which knows no seasons!
Wrestling
August 19, 2008 at 8:20 pm (kiddos)
Quinn said to me today, “Mommy, you’re sweet to wrestle.” He went on to say that he could be rougher with daddy than with me, so I guess it wasn’t a compliment. But I just like how it sounded.
Wacky Paige
April 30, 2008 at 3:45 pm (kiddos)
Well, she’s officially 2, so here are the antics of late. Caught blue-handed:
And:
That’s all for now, since she’s sitting next to me now screaming. After all, she’s 2.
Miscellaneous – Nothing More, Nothing Less
April 11, 2008 at 6:24 pm (kiddos)
Feeling expressed by 7-year-old daughter this week: “I like these shoes about as much as I like vomit… which means not very much.” I was glad she added the last remark, as prior to that I was unclear as to how she REALLY felt.
4-year-old up-chucking (again). He christened the car last week. The first of many car+vomit episodes in our parenting life, I suspect. Surely someone has invented barf bags for the car? They would have to be fancy, though, and fit in a cup holder. Have you seen those tissue containers that are in the shape of a can of pop (or soda, depending on where you’re reading this from; I’m reading it in Minnesota, so it’s pop). Ah yes, and hot dogs have upset his little tummy before, and he had mini hot dogs that day. 7-year-old says “I knew you shouldn’t have given him hot dogs.”
That reminds me of another precocious comment by her. Our toddler didn’t like getting her coat and hat on at the beginning on the winter, and I mentioned it was probably because she knew when she was getting her coat on, it meant she was getting buckled into her car seat and she didn’t like that at the time. 7-year-old says, “Maybe you should put her coat on at other times, so she doesn’t know if she’s getting in the car or not.” She’s about ready to write a parenting book, I tell ya!
Hmm, the theme of the week must have been vomit. Unfortunately that was last week’s theme, too.
Almost-2-year-old sleeping badly again. Therefore, mama and daddy sleeping badly again. Teething? Too cold? Too hot? Doesn’t matter.
I did have an actual topic I was going to write about, and now I have totally forgotten it. I know, I know, you didn’t come here to read such drivel. Or maybe you did!
More sometime… when my brain turns back on.
