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I'm so relieved my relief squeezed out of my eyes.
Maybe I'm too picky. Maybe I'm a book snob. I grabbed a book from the library last week from the "what's hot" section called Undead on Arrival. I thought it looked pretty crappy but kind of trashy, perfect for a girls' weekend at the beach. I didn't get around to looking at it again until last night. I barely made it through the dedication and I was already biased against it. I forced myself to read the first chapter but had to put it down in favour of crappy Friday night T.V. after that. I was cringing at her writing style, her limited vocabulary, and the fact that she apparently used a thesuarus without knowing how to, in order to beef up said limited vocabulary. I chose this book from the rack of "what's hot" because it says on the front it's a New York Times best seller author, so it couldn't be that bad, right? Unfortunately it can. Turns out she had one book on the "extended" best seller list.
I don't know if there is really something wrong with me, or with society. I suffered through the bad writing of the Twilight series, in fact I loved it, because she really had a story to tell, a way with words, something. Yes I'm a book snob but I can put that aside for a good story. I think this was written on a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom stall of a dive bar when the author thought up one good idea after a night of drinking.
If this crap can get published, I really need to finish my novel.
Beyond my own selfish reasons for wanting the preschool program to remain intact, I want it to be there for my younger son. He will not need the program himself, but when it comes time for him to enter kindergarten I want his peers to have had the chance to be in the preschool program. If cutting funds for classroom size keeps the preschool program, I believe that the tradeoff would be worth it. If there are one or two special education students in his classroom that have not had the opportunity to learn the skills that come with the special ed preschool, that will more than negate the lower student to teacher ratio.
The cost for a year of preschool is slightly lower than the cost for two days of teacher training (professional development days). This boggles my mind.
So that's why I haven't been around all november, if anyone noticed. Back to life as usual now :)
join nanowrimo. Write a novel. I'm like ... 5% done.
( The room, so far ... )
Yesterday Xander really wanted a bubble bath while Scott was outside grilling dinner. I sat inside with him and when dinner was ready gave him his 5 minute warning. When he was done I joined dinner in progress outside (it was gorgeous out by the way!!) but Xander wanted to stay inside, we were at a birthday party so he was full. No biggie right? Booger locked us out. He got some Backyardigans playing cards at the party so he was sorting them and lining them up, and nothing can disturb that. 20 minutes we yelled and cajoled, finally when he was done he listened to Scotts bribe of juice and let us in.
I just wish I could say it's the first time he's ever locked me out :(
I heard a rumour somewhere that there are actually children out there that don't wear diapers, but instead eliminate into something called a "potty". Armed with this knowledge, I went today scoured the bookstore shelves for confirmation that this is, indeed true. Lo and behold, I found an entire bookshelf dedicated to something called "potty training". Gabriel and I grabbed all the books we could carry, and thus armed, hit the underwear store. Well, they do sell some items other than toddler underwear. After this afternoon I'm not sure why, I'm positive they could make a living just from me.
Armed thusly with my books, underpants, and naiveté, I hurried home with toddler in tow, best intentions of getting him and his brother to go on the potty just once today. I know full well it's not an instantaneous process. How nice would that be - on go the underpants, and that's it, no more diapers! "Just put him on the potty once an hour, he won't pee more than that" I was told.
Apparently, whoever says this has not met Gabriel. Apparently, he can pee all day. Except, of course, when he's sitting on the potty. He does have the ability to hold it in just long enough for me to get underpants on him. I think we're on pair 8, I've given up putting pants over top, however he's not complaining. At all. I check him every 10 minutes and more often than not he's wet, which doesn't phase him at all. It might be a little early for this experiment.
The whole purpose behind trying to potty train Gabriel, at a mere 2 years (besides the obvious desired effect of not changing his diapers), is to help his brother with the process. I think if Gabe can get it, Xander will be more curious and apt to try. Therefore, when he got home from school, we sat down and read his new book, "The Potty Train". Anyone that has heard a peep about Xander knows he is obsessed with trains, so the book was a hit. My favourite page is the one that says "Chugga chugga POO POOOOO!!". Xander got very excited to try sitting on the potty train and wear Thomas underpants, but when we got up to the bathroom he discovered there was no potty train, only a potty. I really should have thought that one through. This is the boy that takes everything as literal, and gets upset if I call him Sweetheart because "I'm Xander, not sweetheart!". However, he did let me put him in underpants. Ten minutes later he was wet. Ten minutes after changing that, he came to me to tell me he peed again, though he was completely dry. This really validates my thought that he has no idea how it feels when he pees, how it feels when his bladder is full, or could even predict when to use the potty. How can you train someone that doesn't feel this, is it even possible? We took one more try at underpants, which he pooped in, so when he asked for a diaper I relented.
I'm not yet convinced this "potty training" is anything more than a suburban legend. As far as proof in the form of waste in the potty, I've yet to see it.
My ass is not, as I feared, broken! I had a bad fall backwards on Thursday and I swore my tailbone was broken. It's only mildly painful now, so I don't think anything fell off. I'm really pleased because I was sure it was going to hurt for weeks, but really it was only very bad the first day. Not only that, I didn't get sick from the raw chicken, so I win.
We had a boring weekend, like normal. We're such an old married couple. Highlight of the weekend is I took off yesterday with NO kids attached, and went to the craft store. Gabriel turns 2 on the 18th so I was getting some stuff for his birthday party. I'm so geeked, I'm doing a Blue's Clues party for him. I'm going to have clues around the house to tell the kids to go to our spare bedroom, and there I'm going to set up theroom like Joe and Blue's house. I'll have some blue balloons and a pinata, and that is where they can play if they want. I'm doing a Blue cake, and lunch is pizza, but instead of slices I got some different "dog" related cookie cutters, so they will be paws and doghouses of pizza. Instead of loot bags I'm giving each kid a stuffed dog, which will be in a "pound" for them to choose from when they go home. Yes, I'm a nerd!!
I start my third cake class on Thursday and I'm really excited, it's the fondant class, I'll learn all those gorgeous roses and flowers. I also have a whole bunch of 50% off coupons so I want to get some new cake pans, especially the large cupcake pan, yes again, I'm a nerd!!
Oh, I almost forgot, last Thursday I made a cake for my friend's mom's birthday. My first paid cake lol. I made one that I thought was too plain so I added some of the extra flowers from my class cake, which put it a little over the top, but they liked it. And it was, of course, delicious. Chocolate cake with chocolate pudding in the middle, buttercream icing.
We just ate at Olive Garden. My chicken was RAW in the middle. I had 3-4 bites, luckily I'm really super paranoid about chicken so I analyze every single bite to make sure there is no pink. Good thing I ate so many breadsticks, I definately lost my appetite after seeing that. When the waiter came he could see it before I said anything, standing a couple of feet from the table, it was so raw!!
The funniest part of it was both DH and I had Gordon Ramsey in our heads. "It's RAW!!! You could have killed someone you fucking donkey!!"
They comped my meal and gave us a $20 gift card. Which is fine unless I get sick and I'm puking for 3 days, then I'll really be upset.
By the way, no, you're not imagining things, it really is the leaning tower of cake!! Seriously, lots of mistakes means lots of learning, right?!
Xander had last week off of school for parent teacher conferences. The first day back is always so hard on him. Usually it's a Monday and he doesn't go until the afternoon, so at least we can ease him into it, but as yesterday was Memorial Day he went back today. Getting up at 7 AM is about his least favourite thing ever. I was hit and kicked for 15 minutes until I finally convinced him it was OK to wear a new t-shirt (it has a soccer ball on it and that finally won him over). I finally got him to the point he was OK with going to school by the time we went outside to wait for the bus. And wait for the bus. And wait for the bus. Turns out the driver thought it was Monday, not Tuesday, so she left him. I had her come back because breaking his routine and driving him to SNAPS (his morning class) was the last thing he needed on his first day back.
This is where I get silly. I know I'm overreacting but I can't help it. Xander is generally the first kid on the bus, obviously today he wasn't as she doubled back to get him. All of the seats had at least one kid in it, so we went down the row and asked each kid if he could sit with them. They all said no. He chose the boy he wanted to sit with and this boy was literally pushing him away, saying no no no!! The driver had to stop the bus and come back and force a kid to let him sit there. Yes I understand these are 4 and 5 year olds, but they are his peers and they are going to grow up with him. It hurts my heart so much to see him being ostracized. I actually started crying on the bus. He of course was upset because he couldn't sit where he wanted, so my last memory of his for the day is him crying and screaming; of course this is fairly common but it doesn't make it any easier.
I just love that kid so much and I just want everyone to see how wonderful and sweet and loving he is.
Well here I am. We are having intermittent power as we have an electrician rewiring our house. FUN!! Actually it kind of is, seeing the end result at least :)
Well, this weekend. What can I say. I had a baby shower (for Fiona who is 4 months old, but she was 3 months early). I brought cupcakes which went over so well. They were just frosted white with flowers and ladybugs on top. I forgot to get a picture. While there I discovered I'm allergic to dogs, after I broke out in hives all over my face. That evening I went out to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall with some friends and pulled out a filling on some Sour Patch kids. So my Mother's Day was interesting. We ended up working on the playset some more, we are so close to finishing we hope to have it done this weekend!
This week has been uneventful except for the electrician being here. We did have a playdate today though, as I was supposed to be finishing up my cake class and I wanted to pawn it off on others, though my class has been pushed back (we'll finish in 2 weeks). However I couldn't promise a cakedate and not have cake, so I whipped up a simple strawberry cheesecake cake with strawberry whipped cream. It was simple but delicious.
At least he was trying to be helpful. He was so proud of himself. It could have been worse I guess, he could have gotten into the toddler poison.
Speaking of school, they started sending a teddy bear home with one of the kids each day, so they can come in the next day to talk about what they did with the bear. Xander got to go first and we had "Jake" over the weekend, and Jake went back to school yesterday. Well last night Xander freaked out and would not go to bed without Jake, fortunately I found another soft bear in our stash and gave that to him, which he promptly named Jake and cuddled up with. He is now inseprable with his new Jake, I hope school doesn't mind him bringing his own teddy bear, because there was no prying it away from him this morning.
So, even though it SNOWED this weekend (damn you Al Gore!!), there were still nice breaks in the weather where we were able to go outside and work on our playset. Four or five hours of work, and we have a frame!! Of course now it's too heavy to move to the yard, so we'll have to wait for our big strong friends to come help us move and build it this weekend.
The grass is coming in pretty well, and I just got some seed from Costco and I'll keep seeding the bare areas until I see green.
