What Would YOU Think?

I agonize over knowing how my kids spend their day and the lack of communication I get about it from my 4-year-old. Are they really happy? How are they dealing with the massive schedule change of attending a new daycare?

Katie has been spending a lot of time in the afternoon drawing with the grade school kids. Friday, she proudly presented this drawing to me. I didn't take a look until after she had gone to bed...and I was worried. I wondered what my sweet, mild-mannered, pre-schooler was picking up from the "big kids" that she is now spending her afternoons with. Incidentally, I had just finished watching a Private Practice episode on my DVR where 13-year-olds were sucking each other's blood like vampires. So, with that in mind - what would YOU ascertain from this photo?

I'll circle back and provide the actual artist's thoughts a little later. But seriously, wouldn't you be concerned, too? How creative can you be in your guess? I challenge you to be as creative as the actual explanation ;)

Commentary from the artist:

*The person in the top right hand corner (that looks like an alien or spaceship) is a person with spots on their face because they didn't know they were sick.

*The redish thing in the top middle (that looks like a boat) is a hat. You have to turn the paper clockwise and you will see it is on "someone's" head.

*The brown squiggles is the title of the piece. I can't remember what she told me it was "called" but don't worry, I'm pretty sure she made it up at the time that I asked her.

*The curved blue thing on the bottomish right is the letter J. Duh!

*The blue on the bottom is the street and the redish circles next to it are the sidewalk.

*And finally...the redish devil looking thing is a kid eating a popsicle. And the mysterious black figure is a kid flying a remote control airplane. The plane is the shape right above the kid, with the black line/tip. He also has spots all over his face. It may be because he is sick or they might be freckles. He is frowning.

Well thank goodness it's not a vampire killing the devil with a sword, with flying boats and spaceships like I thought.

Thanks to those of you that played along and provided a guess ;)

Read more...

The Good, The Bad, and the Crazy

The Good

My first week of work was great. I really like my coworkers and the kids cry when I pick them up from daycare because they don't want to leave yet.

I am getting psyched for Bloggy Bootcamp in a few weeks. I'm excited to meet some of my favorite bloggers and excited to get away and spend time with my SIL.

I called our old cleaning woman and set up a consult for this week for her to decontaminate our house from the 1 1/2 years that I was in charge of cleaning.

To my extreme relief, I did receive an offer to have my driveway shoveled today. They wanted a ridiculous amount of money, but I negotiated down. One Mexican man was at the door negotiating in broken English. At our agreement he signaled to the man waiting in a pickup truck. I then watched in amazement as men emptied out of the pickup truck like clowns from a clown car. They were done in about 25 minutes. Two feet of snow was no match for them.

The Bad

I am exhausted - but really - that's nothing new for me.

I was HORRIFIED at my annual gyn appointment this week to realize that I either forgot to put on deoderant or that my deoderant was no match for the heat of my new office and a sweater. I suffered through THE most uncomfortable and embarrassing breast exam ever. Note to self: carry deoderant in purse for all future gyn appointments.

The one year old was up screaming from 4:00am to 4:45am this morning. And then his older sister was delightful enough to go in and WAKE.HIM.UP at 6:45am today.

The Crazy

The fact that my husband was away for the very first weekend of my employment. The weekend that I should have gotten to sleep in and take naps to recover from my first week of work. My birthday weekend. (Technically the weekends before and after my birthday are my birthday weekend if my birthday falls on a weekday.)

The fact that my husband was in the Poconos and only got 1 inch of snow. Yet, we got two feet of snow here in South Jersey.

Last Tuesday, February 2, after pulling teeth I finally got my 4yo to open up about her day at preschool. She finally admitted that oh, they cut stuff...and then she exclaimed, "and oh yeah! Happy Beaver Day Mommy!"

That same 4yo picked out her most grownup looking dress to wear this past Thursday because her great aunt would be taking her to her speech lesson for the first time. She confided to me in the morning that she hoped maybe her Aunt would think she was a grownup in that dress. Then, as she put on the stretchy tank top camisole that is a part of the dress, she looked down at herself, patted herself down proudly and professed excitedly, "Look Mommy, I look like I have boobies!" I assured her, in no time at all, that she would likely have a quite ample bossom and she would rue the day she wished for bigger ones.

Read more...

Oh really?

Tomorrow is the big day. First day of work (meaning paid by an employer) in 1 1/2 years. Sigh. Katie is more hyper than usual has hit the ground running at daycare. Timmy is having a ball and completely f'd up sleepwise adjusting to the new schedule. I will immensely miss the possibility of an afternoon nap. And I will miss catching the funny things the kids say and do during the day.

To my delight, Katie has been extremely forthcoming in telling me everything that she and Timmy are doing at their new daycare. I'm frankly pretty surprised since she is so tight-lipped about her pre-school class. Most recently, I'm told it's a secret and she can't tell me. Although, last week she did tell me that they did Tai Chi. Huh...what?!?!? And then she laughed and told me, "Well...they did do that on Kai-lan" (a cartoon).

So, either she is asserting her individuality and trying to set boundaries ALREADY or she's stuck in a fantasy land and thinks that her life really is made up of clips of Caillou, Max & Ruby, and Kai-lan. She does seem to be very informed on the behind the scenes action of those shows. She very seriously told me that Max & Ruby have no parents because they're dead. They were SO old.

And with that...the 1yo is up crying again. It's only the 4th time tonight. Yay for schedule adjustments. Good night!

Read more...