June

June is nuts.

I'm referring to the month, not some poor crazy girl unlucky enough to be under my scrutiny. I'm talking about that month in which school ends, my husband and son were both born, and Father's Day is celebrated.

That may not sound like much to some people, but I don't do birthdays well. I tend to stress unnecessarily about them. My husband's will be easy because we won't do anything, but my son's will be this gigantic backyard barbeque bash that I'll worry and fret over, that will turn out just fine as it always does, and yet I'll worry and fret as I always do.

Father's Day will be frantic last minute calling on my part (I'm never organized enough to send cards) to my Dad, Father In Law, and Step Dad. Then there'll be some kind of present for my husband from the kids.

Then there's school. My daughter finishes Kindergarten this June. Even reading the last month's schedule makes me well up - never mind making it all happen.

"Grade 7 graduation - Kindergarten students will accompany the Grade 7 grads down the aisle in the ceremony". You're kidding me... pass the tissues now, and stock me up for later.

"Next year's Kindergarten students visit" ...as in, the little guys starting in the fall get to come and see my big girl as she's finishing her first year. I remember her being the "newbie starting in the fall" and I think I must have blinked or something (where's the darn tissue already!!).

"Last full day of school - final report cards will be given out today". What do you mean last day??? She has to say goodbye (never mind her - I have to say goodbye??).

Aw geez. I just don't think I have the stomach for this. Bring back the poopy diapers... that I can handle.

Waiting For The Other Shoe...

...to drop.

She's in her bed, after having fallen asleep early on the couch. I picked her up and carried her in there, which woke her up. I told her it was her bedtime, and she just said "OK" and snuggled down into her bed, still in her clothes, not saying a word about her missed bedtime stories. Now I can hear her talking to herself, seemingly wide awake, and yet she still hasn't called me to ask about the stories.

An explanation might be her dental surgery yesterday, which necessitated 1.25 hrs of general anaesthetic. I was NOT happy about having to do that, but that's a whole other post. Anyway, she's been, uh, "recovering" (a.k.a. acting weird) since.

Not alarmingly weird. Not call the doctor, start to panic, omg what did they do to her weird. It's all very subtle, which leads me to think that it's just her body and brain still detoxing a bit.

For example, this morning, the Queen of Dawdling was inexplicably ready for school twenty minutes early. She dressed herself in about ninety seconds flat. She then said "Mommy let's go!! I want to be first in line." To put it in perspective, we have never left early before. She's never gotten dressed without me nagging at her to hurry up. We've never left the house for school without me playing the roll of "Let's Move Or We'll Be Late" drill Sergeant.

The fact that she's at the moment wide awake and not concerned that she's not had her bedtime stories has me shaking my head... as in, Oh my GOD the universe is on it's EAR shaking my head. I'm not sure what to expect next, but I'm on the edge of my seat waiting...

Duct Tape Update

(Hey that rhymed). Wow, did that work like a charm. The only tricky part was that I had a hard time getting it to stay on her foot, which seems strange considering how sticky it is. She's been a good girl though about trying to keep it on, and I've been using really large pieces which seem to stick better.

What a difference. It's gone from gradually getting worse to being almost gone. Within a day or two of starting with the duct tape, I noticed it turning around. Wahoo...

Sell 'em on E-bay!!

HA so there - I'm not the only parent who jokes about selling my kids on E-bay.... I keep telling them they better smarten up because, hey - I have a seller account and some pretty darn cute pictures. Plus now that Mr. Stinkey is finally potty trained day and night, it's a much easier sell.

Of course I've never gone as far as the German couple in the CNN article did - placing an actual ad. I reserve my lapses in good judgement for more benign things, like letting my son run free in the store (and may I take this opportunity to yet again apologize to Wal-Mart and their customers). My sell-my-kids-on-eBay endeavours at this point remain nothing more than dreams oops I mean "parental motivational tools" (yeah, that's it...) !!

I'm baaaaack!!!

I was back a week ago, actually. Too busy licking my "they didn't even miss Mommy" wounds to blog, ha ha.

The Boy responded to my return by nearly poking me in the face with his index finger:

"Look at my finnn-go, Mommy! I have owie!!" (No hugs, no "Mommy!! Mommy!!! Yay!!! You're back!!! I love you!! You're the best!!!")

Nope.

The Girl, meanwhile, sat beside me, endured my hug, and started to cry. I finally pried out of her that the tears were because now that I was back, her grandparents would be returning to their house.

I console myself with the idea that their lack of joy upon my return was because they have been raised in a stable and secure environment, and they have inner peace (Sounds good, doesn't it!!).

We'll just go with that ;-)

Vacationing Without Kids

We leave on Sunday for an out of town family wedding, and we're leaving the kids with my husband's parents. To say we're stressed about being away from them is an understatement! We'll only be gone four days, but that's long enough.

Everyone I've talked to has assured me it'll be fine. I'm going to do my very best to not blog daily about how much I miss them ;-) Maybe they'll miss me enough that when I return, they'll be so happy to see me that they'll actually eat the broccoli that I serve!! No? Hey, I can dream...

How Big Is He

Me: "Buuuddy!!! Hey Mister!!!"

The Boy: "What?"

Me again: "Whatchya doin'?"

Silence.

"Joseph!!"

"Nuuuffiiing...."

This is never a good sign, and requires immediate investigation. In this case, he had a spray bottle (filled with water) and was "washing" things. I can only hope he has the same interests when he's old enough to know what's actually dirty.

Speaking of mess, this morning I was washing the latest off his hands (finger paint) and it occurred to me that he could reach the stream of water without standing on his toes. When did that happen?

He finally outweighs his sister, which did not go over well because she's been desperate to move into a booster seat since Kindergarten began in September. She now weighs 37 1/2 pounds, and he's at 39.

("I'll always be older than him, though, right Mommy?")

I can't believe that in just 60 days he'll be four. FOUR!

Aw, now he's turned on the water to the bathtub... that's never good either. Gotta run!!