Friday, May 30, 2008

New

My new fridge is here! It looks just like the old one, but bigger. I'm not going to tell Maddy and see if she even notices. I wanted to keep the box and make a play house but it didn't come in a box. Boo! It just came wrapped in styrofoam and saran wrap. I was bummed.

We donated the old one. I really think it can be fixed and it still looks nice. Even the guy who took it away commented on how nice the outside looks. He didn't believe me that it was broken. lol. I didn't tell him that it looks nice on the outside is because it's had a head to toe covering of papers for the past 3 years.

I think Connor is brewing an ear infection. I'm pretty much planning on taking him to the dr on Monday. We'll see how the weekend goes. OH! I forgot the biggest news. Connor slept in a big boy bed last night. Awww. He resisted but when the time came he did great. I was curious to what he was going to do in the morning. He cried once and then was quiet for a minute. Then I heard him crying in the game room and I called his name. He came running into my bedroom all excited. Big smile and an "I did it!!" He was very proud of himself. And oh my goodness was he cute sleeping in his bed. I went and peeked three different times.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Broken Fridge

There are a lot of fun and interesting things to do in the world, unfortunately buying a brand new fridge on 12 hours notice isn't one of them. There are about 12 billion things I would rather do with that money. But cold food does top the priority list around here.

Right now we have a cooler filled with ice sitting on the kitchen floor. Inside are some things I hope I was able to save. I still have to move everything out of the freezer into the deep freeze and then empty out the fridge into the trash. Fun fun. Can you see that I'm not procrastinating on that task even one little bit?

I will say that if your fridge is going to fall apart, Memorial day weekend is a good time for it to happen. We saved about $200 on the new one because they were having a sale. That never seems to happen, that you are desperate to buy something and it is actually on sale. Amazing. The fridge gods were looking out for us. We bought this one. Pretty much like the one we already have except it's quite a bit bigger. Which is nice. Right now getting stuff in and out of there is like doing a puzzle. Take out the milk, slide the juice over, grab the jelly, move juice back, put milk back. Make sandwich. Take the milk out, move the juice over, put jelly back, move the juice over, put milk back. And heaven forbid if we have leftovers. Then it's like the the leaning tower of Tupperware in there.

And the new one has the door compartments that are big enough for a gallon of milk. How much am I going to love that? There was one that had a little door in the fridge and you could grab the milk without even having to open the whole door. OMG that would be so cool. And I really love the ones with the freezer on the bottom with the french doors on top. So nice! But at the end of the day I have a hard time spending extra for these features when the fridge itself does the exact same thing. The food in my $900 fridge will be just as cold as it would be in a $2,400 fridge. Of course it would also be just as cold in the $400 fridge, but lets not go there.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Connor's ears

Connor loves music. He really really loves it. A lot. And he has opinions too. If a song comes on he doesn't like he will let you know. And if you change the station while a song he does like is on, he will also let you know. Which kinda stinks because sometimes we don't have the same taste and I'm forced to either listen to a song I don't like, or I'm unable to hear a song I do like over the screaming of "NO MUSIC!" from the back of the van.

He also knows which song it is by like the second note and he will sing a line from it. Or if he heard the song in a movie he will point it out right away, like that song "Life is a highway" is in the movie Cars, as soon as it starts to play he yells "Lightening McQueen!"

His favorite show is Little Einsteins, I think because it has lots of music in it. Classical music particularly. So today he was getting really pissed off by the songs that were on the radio. I couldn't find a song he was willing to listen to, so I thought I would try some classical music. He did like it. He wouldn't let me change it, so I guess he was liking it. He thinks it's all Christmas music though. lol. He calls it "Deedah", which is Connor for "Santa". I think he likes it cause it's very layered. Lots going on. And I don't think he really cares about listening to the words in a song. So classical music it is!

He has very sensitive hearing, which is why I think he likes music so much. When I was cleaning for Marie she noticed his love for sounds he likes and distaste (to put it lightly) for sounds he doesn't like. She mentioned that maybe his sensitive ears and chronic ear infections are somehow related. I really had never thought of that before. Maybe his inner ear is shaped in such a way that makes his hearing extra good but also leads to more infections. I have no idea if that's the case, but it's interesting.

When Connor was a little tiny baby it was extra hard to get him to sleep because of his sensitive ears. I tried several things to block outside noises. One thing I tried was putting a radio on in his room. I put it on a classical station, which didn't bother him but then when DJ would come on, with his low toned, smooth, almost whispering voice he would wake up like jolt screaming. Finally I just got a really loud fan and that works wonders. But imagine if he had listened to classical music while he slept for the past 2 years. He would be playing Mozart on his Playskool xylophone by now.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Dream Girl

Beep. Beep. Beep. A hand appears from under the covers and plops down on top of the alarm. Then a head, with a mop of dark hair going in every direction, immerges. He squints towards the huge curtainless window but the light is too bright and his eye lids pinch off the morning sun.

His bed is set at the south side of his loft style apartment. The east wall is consumed by three floor to ceiling windows. The realtor who showed him this apartment in the remodeled factory said it got great morning light. She didn’t lie about that. He had fallen in love with the exposed brick and the open floor plan. The wood floor is old and rough. It had been painted black at one time but now all that is left of that paint is deep in the grooves.

Finally, after four and a half minutes of internal struggle a foot sticks out from under the blankets, and then another. Then in one motion he is up and standing. Wearing nothing but a pair of light blue boxers he shuffles into the bathroom, opening just his right eye and only letting in enough light to guide his way, no more.

Twenty minutes later he immerges, showered and dressed. Each hair is exactly where it belongs. He is wearing a pair of black suit pants and a dark blue dress shirt, tucked in. Still feeling like his blood has been replaced by lead, he stops at his dresser and puts on a pair of black socks and his favorite pair of shoes. He grabs his watch and wallet and heads out the door.

He normally takes the stairs but today he leans against the wall and waits for the elevator. He checks the time. 7:15. He still has 10 minutes. Feeling like he could fall asleep right there. His head rests against the brick, eyes closed. He can almost feel sleep overtake him when the elevator door opens. He steps in and is lowered to the lobby of his building. He walks out on to the street and the cool air feels good, refreshing. He walks the two blocks towards his favorite coffee shop. As he approaches he checks his watch again. 7:19. Six minutes to early. He makes a stop at the magazine stand. Pretending to read a copy of Newsweek, he keeps one eye open towards the door of the coffee shop. Finally, he sees her, right on time. Coming down the street toward him looking as beautiful as ever. She is wearing a dark gray suit and high heels. The jacket of her suit is unbuttoned exposing a silk emerald green shirt. He quickly pays for his magazine and makes it to the door just ahead of her. He holds the door open for her and smiles.

“Good morning” he says to her.
“Thank you.” She replies.

He stands behind her in line, grateful that the line is long today. He pretends to read again, trying to think of something to say. He feels light headed from lack of sleep. The line moves forward.

“Beautiful morning today huh?” he squeaks out.
“Yes it is” she says smiling. He smiles back, nervously. Now what? The lines move forward again.
“Do you normally walk to work?” he asks.
“Yes, whenever I can. You?” she answers back. He gets excited, she has never asked him a question before today.
“Usually.” He replies. Which is true. He leaves out the fact that he doesn’t have to be to work for 10 hours from now. She reaches the front of the line, orders her usual, pays, and smiles at him.
“See you later.” She says
“Maybe tomorrow.” He replies before ordering his own cup. By the time he gets outside she is gone, disappeared into the crowd.

He walks the two blocks back home. Rides the elevator up to his apartment. Puts his coffee in the fridge for later. He carefully takes off his work clothes and climbs back into bed. Returning to his unfinished dreams.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

I have a first grader!!

Well, Maddy is finished with Kindergarten. I'm kinda sad. She came home today with all her stuff in her backpack. Her name card from her seat, a very used pack of crayons, a pair of scissors with the name "Madison" written in sharpie on the side. All the tools she used to create her masterpieces during the year.

She also had her fourth and final report card. And I'm happy to report it was the best one yet! They don't do A B C type grades, they do 1 2 3. 2 is satisfactory and 3 is above grade level. Maddy has gotten 2s in everything except for Phonics, where she has gotten a 3 each term. But today she got 3s in almost every single category. There are 13 different areas and she got nine 3s, and the rest 2s. Wohoo!!! Go Maddy. Her teacher wrote: "I have enjoyed having Madison in my class. She is ready for first grade. She had trouble identifying a nickel. Have a super summer!" That kinda made me laugh.

Did I mention that Maddy was all freaked out about going to first grade? It has been a source of great stress for her. I tried to reassure her but she wasn't having it. She didn't want to go. Until one day when she finally realized that first graders weren't that scary. I think she thought that first graders were the big kids. Like maybe the sixth graders. I don't know, but I'm glad she figured it out.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Water swimming

Connor and I went to the pool today, or "water swimming" as Connor calls it. We had a blast. We just played in the kiddie pool. I'm trying to avoid putting floaties on him. Or "swim pits" as Maddy calls them. So he just walked around. He's not afraid of getting his face wet which is cool. He fell twice and went under. No big deal. He didn't even cry. After the first time he went and sat on the steps for a second but he was fine. Then later I saw him dipping his face into the water but I just watched quietly. He's literally testing the water.

We took a ball with us and we were playing catch with it and then another family came with 4 little ones. They were very sweet kids and everyone played nice. It was a really good time.

We were there for almost 2 hours. Seriously, I when we got home I was expecting it be about 10:00 am and it was almost 11:00. I had to look twice. No wonder we are both just wiped out.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Extreme

Well, summer has arrived. Yesterday's high was 108. Yup, one hundred and eight degrees. Crazy. Too hot. Much too hot.

So Maddy's dad wants to pick her up on Sunday and keep her for two whole weeks. I've never been away from her for that long. Two weeks! That's too long. In one instant I went from dreading having her around so much to dreading having her gone. Funny how that is.

She wanted to give a present to her teacher so we went to Michaels and she picked out a box that looks like a book and an apple decoration to glue on the front. It was very cute. She painted them both and I glued the apple on. She did a really good job and it looked very cute. She also got a card and wrote inside. She said "Dear [teacher's name], Thank you for being my teacher. My favorite part of class was getting jobs. I hope you have great students next year. Maddy" She wrote it all herself inside the card. Seriously, it was heartbreakingly cute. And she picked everything out on her own with only slight guidance from me, she even paid for it with her allowance. Then this morning she was getting ready to leave for the bus and she dropped the box on the kitchen floor. UG! It broke one of the hinges on the box. Oh the alligator tears!! It was sad. She still took it to school and I think it's fixable with some super glue, but boy oh boy was Maddy upset.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Extra care

I haven't told you about my orchid in a while. First off, despite all odds, it's still alive! Surprising in it's own right. But it's also growing a new leaf. Amazing. I did some more research about them and I learned that I am supposed to be watering it with room temp water and fertilizing it once a month. I'm also supposed to put some water and rocks in a dish and put the plant on top of the rocks. I guess that keeps it more humid. Oh, and they also like an oscillating fan on them. Jeeze lousie! The room temp water I can do since we keep an open gallon in the pantry to make iced tea with, so that's easy. And the fertilizer I can see, everyone has to eat. But that's were I'm drawing the line. The plant is just going to have to tough it out in this hot dry climate like the rest of us. I'm not running a spa here.

And Connor is being a total bear. He has his last 4 molars all coming in at once. Poor baby. I can feel all the bumps of each molar right under the skin. He woke up twice last night crying. I hope one or two popped though. I haven't checked yet. The good thing is that these are the last ones. After this we are done with teething! I'm so happy.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Connorisms

If there are two names for something Connor has taken to using both at the same time. For example; something out of the freezer would be "cold chilly" or what he sits on for dinner is his "chair seat". It's pretty funny. I think "cold chilly" sounds like some kind of slang. As in "Those new rims are cold chilly, yo!" He also discovered his nipples the other day. lol. But he thought they were "boo boo owies".

He's been singing the alphabet. Cutest thing ever! He really knows from about K on but if he starts from the beginning he says "ABCWXYZ Now I know ABC's, chunker meeeeee" lol He loves to sing and that is his favorite song.

We got cupcakes yesterday and he was telling Larry all about eating his "pupcakes".

I'm also going to sign Maddy up for a baseball training camp thing. It's 4 days this summer and they teach each position, and throwing and hitting. Someone might also want to teach her how to catch. I'm assuming they will work on that. Should be cute.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Do you notice how loud I'm speaking?

Connor is having trouble controlling the volume of his voice. :) He's gotten into the habit of yelling quite a bit. Yesterday I decided I'd had enough, it's seriously been giving me a headache. So I've been saying "No yelling." every time he yells. Yesterday I said it probably about 100 times. Today, only like 10 so far... so we're getting there.

I went to Costco today and spent an even $100. I'm always so surprised how fast you can spend money in that place. I thought I had done well. But never fear, we now have a year's supply of toothbrushes. One thing I went there to check out was their diapers. Connor is now in a size 6 and since they get more and more expensive the bigger the diaper I thought I would look around a little. See if I could get a better deal. I can't. They cost 20 cents per diaper at Wal-mart and 27 cents each at Costco. Granted, that is store brand vs. name brand but still. Costco doesn't make their store brand in a size 6. Boo on them!

Connor was Mr. Friendly at the store. Just saying "hi" to everyone. Most people ignore him or don't notice but he really got this one lady's attention. She came over and started talking to him. Which just made him all shy. It was kinda funny. So to tease him she pretended like she was going to take the tiger off his shirt. He didn't say anything but when she left he got all mad. For the rest of the time we were there he had both his hands over the tiger and was saying "My shirt!" and "Connor's tiger!"

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Summer

There was a time in my life that I never thought I'd say this but... I'm so dreading the summer. The heat, the boredom, the driving mommy insane by following her around and asking ten billion questions about every little thing. My hope is to live at the pool. I want to go to the pool a lot. I've said that before though and we went like twice. It's hard cause it's... you know, hot.

It's hard to convey a Phoenix summer to someone who has never lived here. I will probably spend the next few months trying to do just that. But imagine if you lived inside your oven. It's something like that. The valley is just a big giant oven, cooking all it's inhabitants til they scream for mercy. Then the thunderstorms come and provide just enough relief to trick you into thinking it's over. But it's not... it never is!

But enough about that... it hasn't even gotten over 100 yet. I should enjoy the last few days of "spring" while I still can.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Ants

Thanks for all love for my Wii poem. It got an editor's pick over on BlogHer which gave this blog the most traffic it's ever seen by far. Big smiles from me!

But on with the show...

There is a hook next to the door that I hang the diaper bag on. Yesterday when we were leaving the house I noticed a line of ants coming from the door jam over to the hook. I announced my findings and Larry made quick work of them with some bug killer. I didn’t think too much about it.

While we were out I noticed that I had forgotten to take Connor’s sandwich out of my bag from lunch the day before. So when I got home I put it in the sink, container and all. Again, I didn’t think much about it.

Then Larry went to do the dishes and found a ton of ants inside the sandwich holder. Oh yeah… peanut butter and honey. Those ants were after the honey in Connor’s sandwich. I can’t believe they found it so quick. Less than 24 hours. And it was in a ziplock baggie inside a Tupperware container. Neither one was shut all the way apparently.

Which means I had a diaper bag full of ants the whole time I was out. Gross.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

T'was the day the Wii was due to arrive

T’was the day the Wii was due to arrive,
I didn’t know how I was supposed to survive.

The Wiimotes were hung by the TV with care,
In hopes that UPS would soon be there.

I peeked through the blinds, “When will it be here?” I said,
While visions of Mario Kart danced in my head.

I had given up hope, “It’s not coming today.”
I sat down with the kids and started to play.

When out in the street there arose such a clatter.
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.

Away to the door I flew like a flash
I stumbled on the front porch and made a big crash.

The sun was so bright I could hardly see
I shielded my eyes and was so filled with glee.

Then what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a big brown truck, it was getting so near.

With a little old driver, dressed in all brown,
I knew in a moment he’d been all over town.

The truck shone in the sunlight as it pulled to a stop,
The driver grabbed a big box, from right there on the top.

“Here is your box.” He said with a smile.
“Thanks” I replied, “I’ve been waiting awhile”.

His eyes were quite blood shot, his wrinkles were deep,
The tattoo on his calf kinda gave me the creeps.

He gave a small sigh and climbed into his truck.
I could tell from his face he’d had some bad luck.

But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
“May you kick Larry’s butt at Mario Kart tonight!”


Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Poor Maddy

Awhile ago I got a letter from Maddy's school asking if I wanted to have her tested for the Accelerated Learning Program. I said yes. I honestly didn't think she was going to get in but might as well have her tested, right? Well we got the results of the test last night. She didn't get in. No surprises there, but we also got her scores. She was in the 81st percentile for nonverbal communication which is awesome, but only the 27th percentile for verbal communication. That kinda worries me, especially considering how much that girl talks. Larry pointed out that while she talks a lot she doesn't ever really listen. Which is a big part of communication, the listening part. She does do a very poor job of telling stories or describing something. I pretty much never know what she is talking about. She will tell me things that happened at school and I'm totally lost. I just figured it was cause she is 6. I don't know how well 6 year olds are supposed to communicate. But I guess 73% of them communicate better than she does. I don't know how to improve this skill.

The paper said not to worry as long as their grades are ok then they are doing fine. It tried to reassure people like me that these scores are not a big deal. And I don't doubt that. I know she is doing fine, but still...

Oh and then just to top off my failures as a mother Maddy brought me a cryptic note she had written that said "You spend time with Connor and Larry but you don't spend time with me." UG! Which isn't entirely untrue. There are only so many hours in a day. She gets home at 3:30, we go over her school work together. I start cooking dinner at 4ish and when dinner is over and cleaned up it's time for baths and then it's pretty much bed time. Then every other weekend she goes to her Dad's house. So it's hard, everyone is busy! But I asked her to think of some things we can do together. I will try to think of some things too. I also taped the note up in the back of my closet so I will see it at least twice a day. Hopefully that will keep her feelings in the front of my mind.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

A moment of panic

Most mornings Connor and I stand at the door and send Maddy off to school. We give kisses and hugs and then watch til she is across the street. Then Connor closes the door and locks the deadbolt. Such a big clever boy that he knows how to lock the door himself. It's a very proud moment for him.

Well, I went grocery shopping yesterday. When I was bringing in the groceries, I would say I had about three trips worth. (Can you see where this is going?) Anyways, first I load all the groceries onto the front porch. Then from the porch onto the coffee table. Then from there into the kitchen. I do this so that I can keep a better eye on Connor. I don't want to leave him unattended while the front door is wide open. Anyways, so I had all the groceries on the porch and I was bringing them into the living room. I brought in one trip and went out to grab some more and Connor closed the door behind me. No! No! No! OMG!

He didn't lock it though. phew! I then took my keys off the coffee table and put them in my pocket.

Friday, May 2, 2008

The library is backwards.

The library has story time at 10:30 on Thursdays. I intend to go every week but for some reason I never do. This week I actually got my act together and we arrived at the library at 10:20, only to find out that the last story time was last Thursday and won't be starting again til September. Why?? It seems like the summer time would be the best for kid things. I don't get it. The other time we were there was during spring break and they didn't have anything going on that week either. It makes no sense.

So instead I wandered around and found the chapter books for kids. I don't know if I mentioned this but I've started reading chapter books to Maddy. We are reading Charlotte's web right now and she is loving it. I even got a very high compliment about it yesterday during breakfast. She said "I didn't think about seashells one time while you were reading Charlotte's web." Wow, that is quite amazing. Especially since she lays on her side facing away from me while I read. I didn't even know she was listening, let alone not thinking of seashells.

If anyone has any suggestions for good chapter books for a 6 year old girl please let me know.
 
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