Homework. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:
Having Connor in preschool two hours a day, three days a week is awesome. Unfortunately, I could easily putter around the house for two hours and never actually DO anything. So I made some ground rules about the things I'm allowed to do while he is at school. Those things are limited to cleaning, homework, and exercise. No TV. No internet. It makes me very productive.

I am currently caught up on homework for the whole week. That means 4 whole days of no homework hanging over my head. 4 WHOLE DAYS!

My goal is to get through this semester without having a nervous breakdown. So far so good. :)

The Bad:
I found out today that Maddy has been lying about getting her homework done. Quite a bit of her homework is to do certain things for a specified amount of time. Such as read for 20 minutes. Not really a way to verify actual reading was done, other than to sit and watch her read. And who wants to do that? I've been trusting her that she was doing it. My mistake.

In her defense she really does have a lot of homework. It's not hard, but it is time consuming. Easily over an hour a day. (None on Friday's or the weekend) Add in Girl Scouts and Gymnastics and she has a busy schedule.

Anyways, lately I've been thinking that she might be cutting corners on the amount of time she spends on things. Maybe reading for 10 minutes instead of 20. For example, I sent her upstairs to do her math flash cards for 30 minutes and then take a shower. She was back down stairs in less than 45 minutes. It's possible that she did what she was supposed to do, but not likely. I've known Maddy for over 8 years now and she hasn't ever been quite that efficient.

Today when she came home from school I asked her about it. If she has been skimping on minutes of homework. She said no. I asked again. She said no. I asked again ("Is that your final answer?"). She buried her face in her hands and started to cry. That's what I thought.

The Ugly:
I've taken TV away for today and then all of next week. And I'm sitting on her bed monitoring the homework as I type. No fun for anyone.

Loud Noises!

I wanted to tell you about the bad weather we have been having. The rain and wind. I wanted to tell you about how the tree next to our house fell on the neighbor's truck. Maybe even show you this picture of the truck covered by tree. I wanted to tell you how they propped the tree up with a ladder so that he could drive the truck out from under the tree. And how Connor loved watching them cut the tree up in little pieces and take it away.

I wanted to tell you all that. But I'm too lazy.

Connor had a fire drill at school today. This was very disturbing. It was the first thing he said to me when I picked him and the only thing he talked about until lunch.

"We had a loud noise in our school."
"Oh, yeah? Did you have to go outside?"
"Yeah. We went outside and then it stopped."
"Was it a fire drill?"
"Yeah."

We get into the car.

"It was such a loud noise."... "I had to put my hands over my ears."... "It's nothing to be afraid of"... "It was so loud."

I order into the speaker.

"It went HONK! HONK! HONK!"... "It's nothing to be afraid of"... "It was so loud."

I apologize at the first window because I don't have my wallet.

"We had to go outside and then it stopped.".... "It was such a loud noise."... "I had to put my hands over my ears."... "It was nothing to be afraid of."

I get home and put together a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"I want my sandwich cut into 4 triangles."
"Yes dear."

He picked it up again when he woke up from his nap. He had to tell Larry all about it. Only in the second running of it did I find out there was also a fire truck involved. You would think that a 3 year old boy might mention a fire truck being at his school. But that is how unsettling the whole loud noise thing was.

Off to preschool

I signed Connor up for preschool. I've been kinda thinking about it since the end of last semester since he loved the preschool at MCC so much. He even told Larry that he likes it better when he goes to school too. He just loves to do stuff. He loves to be active, and learn, and be around other kids. I felt bad that he was going to be stuck home with me for another year and half.

They have a preschool at Maddy's school. My friend is an aide in one of the classes there and she is always talking about the fun stuff they do. I knew Connor would LOVE it. So on Thursday I called over there to see how much it cost and if they had an opening. I figured they would be full and it would be expensive.

Nope.

It's $190 a month for 3 days a week. Which isn't too bad. It's a little more than they charged at MCC and it's for fewer hours per week. But still, it's not terrible and it's actually at the school that he will be going to Kindergarten. They had one opening in the AM class so I went right down there and signed him up. Like RIGHT down there. I was racing an imaginary mom who knew also knew about the very last opening. But she isn't as put together as I am. Her son isn't as well behaved as mine. So while she was trying to find her keys and struggling with her out of control toddler, I was already on my way.

First I had to go the district headquarters to submit my application and pay my money. Then I had to go the school and fill out a stack of paperwork. This is a public school after all. I might be paying with my own after tax money, but it's still a government agency. And with the government comes plenty of paperwork. I would think they would know my name, Connor's name, Connor's age, his birthday, our address, and every contact number I have after the first 10 pages. But I guess not since I had to fill everything out on every single page. And then they just put it in a folder and file it. No one even looked at it. Whatever.

Once I had killed a tree and paid my money I asked if we could meet the teacher and see the room. No. That's it.. just "No". Not that I could make an appointment. Not that I could come back at 3:00. Just "No." It was after Connor's nap and I didn't feel like pushing the issue right then. I just left it at that.

But they are crazy if they think I'm going to send my 3 year old off with someone that I've never even had eye contact with. Sorry, ain't gunna happen. So first thing Friday morning I went back down there and said I was there to visit Maddy's class. Which I did.. technically. I went down there and gave her a hug. Then, as I was leaving, I just happened upon the preschool class and just by coincidence came across Connor's new teacher. So weird!

She is very sweet and wasn't at all offended by my appearance. She introduced Connor to the class and gave me a big stack of papers that explained everything about her class. AND it also happens to be the same class that my friend works in. We are all excited about that.

Connor in school means that I will be home alone. ALONE. Which is truly strange. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm excited to have this bit of freedom, but I also feel like I'm losing a part of myself. Who am I if I don't have Connor following me everywhere? Two whole hours, three days a week to do anything I want. It will be nice when school starts. I can get homework done, or work stuff, or clean. Maybe I can even get through this semester without having a breakdown. Wouldn't that be nice?

Party Crashers

The dish guy moved out! We have new neighbors already and they seem nice. An olderish couple. Not old, middle aged. Adults. I'm so happy.

But their last night in the house the idiots threw what I think MIGHT have been a going away party for them. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Don't know... don't care. We were annoyed but tolerating the cars, and people, and underlying knowledge that laws were being broken. We were getting ready for bed and I was picking up some of the kids stuff. I went to put some things at Maddy's door and I heard what sounded like a TV on in another room. I did a little investigating and there were about 5 or 6 people standing right under Maddy's window being drunkenly loud. I watched them for a few minutes and someone threw a can into the bushes across the street. I went to go find Larry to tell him to call the cops and find him already on the phone with them.

We kept watch for about another hour or so but no one ever came so we went to bed. We were leaving for Disney in the morning and I didn't want to start the vacation all tired. I figured they wouldn't come.

In the morning I went around and picked up all the beer cans, soda cans, and gum wrappers (drunk driving much?) and put them on the idiots lawn. Then I emailed my neighbor and told her what happened and asked her to keep an eye on the house for us.

While we were at Disneyland my neighbor sent me an email that said the cops DID show up and blocked off the cul-de-sac and sat there all night. She said people would pull up and just turn around and leave. :) Yay! Well at least we ruined their party.

Then after we got home from Disney another neighbor flagged us down and asked us what we knew about the cops being here. (And sadly I had to ask "Which time?") She told us that the night of the party they arrested some people for underage drinking. Wohoo!

I tried to watch the security camera videos from that night but they had already been taped over. Bummer.

Disneyland.... again

We went to Disneyland last week. Which was a blast as always. We went on Splash Mountain and they put Connor in the last seat with Larry. Larry said as the ride started to go over the big drop Connor said "Oh No!" and then a huge splash came over the side and just drenched him. I turned around after the drop and he was just about to cry. And through tears he said "I think I need to be a little bigger to ride Splash Mountain". Aww. He was absolutely soaked. Dripping wet. Poor guy. He was a TROOPER about it though. We left his wet clothes on until sundown but then it started to get chilly. His shirt was basically dry by then but his jeans were still soaked through. So we bought him a pair of sweatpants to wear. He liked that.

On the first day I lost the camera at lunch. I left it hanging around the back of my chair. Maddy and I went on Indiana Jones after lunch and Connor and Larry went to do something else and then we met up at Pirates. We are standing in line and Larry says "Wheres the camera?" I about had a heart attack. I went running the restaurant but it was gone. I asked one guy who worked there if anyone had turned it in. He left for a minute and then said "no". I was crushed. But I couldn't accept that I couldn't believe that in Disneyland of all places our camera would get stolen. Then I saw a guy who I had seen cleaning the dining area while we were eating so I went and asked him if he knew anything. He left, but this time I followed, and he went and asked someone else. The guy he asked said "Oh a CAMERA! I thought he said Cameron. Yeah it's at City Hall." Yay!!! We went to City Hall and they had it. Phew. I knew no one would steal our camera at Disneyland.

So later in the day we left our stroller in the stroller parking while we rode the red train. When we got back someone had taken my drink off the stroller but left me a half eaten bag of mixed nuts. So they might not steal your camera, but they will trade your iced tea for some cashews.