The advice of strangers

Hello! This week flew by like the neighbors past my house. (Like a blur.)

Connor pooped his pants at school on Monday. Poor guy. Here's the kicker though. They aren't allowed to wipe his butt. Which of course, being 3, he can't really wipe it either. So where does that leave us? With a poopy butt. I felt so bad.

On Wed or Thurs of last week he had pooped at school (in the potty) and they didn't help him wipe. He was covered in poop when he got home. I asked him if he had asked for help to wipe. He said he hadn't. So the next day I told them that someone needs to help him if he poops and they told me that they don't wipe the kids.

They said "You need to be working on it at home with him... it's part of potty training." But I heard "You have really failed at potty training him if he can't wipe himself. We told you that he needed to be fully trained. If he comes home covered in poop it's all your fault."

I really do understand why they have decided not to wipe the kids. But other than being a sad commentary on society, it's gross. Connor had walked around for several hours covered in poop. I mean, come on. Why is that ok?

So I think that experience is what caused him to poop his pants 4 days later. I'm sure he was trying to wait til he got home. And we have been working with him at home. I'm trying to redeem myself.

This whole poop situation was hot on the heels of being chastised at the dentist for allowing Maddy to brush her teeth alone. Alone! I'm a terrible person, I know. I took her for a cleaning and they said "You should still be brushing her teeth for her. We recommend the parents help until the child can write their name in cursive, legibly." But I heard "You are such a lazy and inattentive parent. What the heck do you do all day? Obviously, a 7 year old isn't able to brush her own teeth. All her teeth are going to rot and it will be all your fault."

So, I am supposed to allow my 3 year old to wipe himself and brush my 7 year old's teeth. Ok, yeah, that's logical. How about I just keep doing what I'm doing and they can deal with it? Yeah, that sounds better. I think I'll do that.

I worked out four times this week. I decided that I needed to put this in a higher priority slot. It was behind homework which wasn't working out. (haha.. get it?) Homework is never done. I have gained 2 pounds in 4 weeks. blah. So there you go. Homework or no homework... the elliptical machine calls. I also haven't been sleeping as well, working out helps that. I easily fall asleep and stay asleep when I've worked out that day. And I really don't mind doing it. The hardest part is getting up off the couch and going up stairs. Once I'm up there I don't mind doing it.

The weather is starting to get nice. We went to the park yesterday and played some baseball. Connor can hit! And Maddy is still calling her glove her mitten. Which continues to crack me up. So we found the shade of a big tree and were playing nicely. These two kids come by on their bikes and stop to watch. Not off to the side, mind you. Practically between Larry (pitching) and Connor (hitting). They ask to play. I tell them no. So they ride around between us all on their bikes and sit on the grass like two feet away from me. The proceed to talk loudly to each other. Arguing about who gave who gum. Very annoying. So I casually suggest that they go on ahead and do whatever they were planning to do today. "Oh, it's ok... we didn't have anything to do." oh... ok, good. Just stay here and annoy the heck out of me then. So I suggest we move over to the other big patch of shade. But just then the wind came up and we could see a dust storm moving in... so we went to Subway instead.

Brownies

Maddy started girl scouts on Monday. Well, she is a Brownie, technically. So cute. I was a Brownie once. I never really got into the girl scout thing myself. I didn't understand the whole badge situation. It just didn't make much sense to me. I was supposed to get badges? For what? Just to wear around on this weird brown sash? No thanks, I'll just watch TV.

But Maddy on the other hand. I think this is something Maddy can get into. Seems like her kind of thing. I think she will be very proud of her badges, and the whole ceremony of it all.

I was asking her if she wanted to do it and explaining kind of what I thought it would be like.
"You will go to your troop leaders house with a bunch of other girls. You will do activities and..."
"I LOVE ACTIVITIES!!"

She might not know what these activities are... but she's for them. So signed her up. They meet every other week and then like once a month there is a Saturday activity. Good stuff too, like Skateland and the Zoo. I think she is going to love this.

Because breathing is important

I'm sure it's typical... but Maddy has a habit of slowly not doing the things she is supposed to do if I stop asking about it.

For example, brushing her teeth. She does fine if every single day I say "Did you brush your teeth?" The answer is yes. Since the answer is always yes I don't feel the need to ask her every day. I think she is doing it. I walk around with my smug assumption that I have impressed upon her the benefits of tooth brushing and that a 7 year old is capable of staying in the habits I've helped her establish.

I'm a fool.

The desire to quietly disobey me is more ingrained then I could ever have imagined. This finally became apparent when I noticed I haven't refilled her asthma medicine in quite awhile. You know... the medicine she needs in order to breathe. It's always during the fall that she has her big annual asthma attack and we spend a long sleepless night in Urgent Care. So with September upon us I've been paying extra attention to her breathing, and therefore to her medicine intake.

I noticed a disturbing trend. She's not taking it. I mean, she's taking it because sometimes I would ask her. Maybe once a day, or once every other day.

"Did you take your medicine?"
"oh I forgot!" and then she would run up and take it.

I didn't realize that this was the only time she was taking it. I don't understand why she decided to stop taking it. It's quick, literally two inhales twice a day. It doesn't taste bad. It doesn't make her feel weird. And the benefits are great.... being able to breathe. There is NO reason not to take it.

Which means she would rather pull one over on me than breathe. And that, my friends,... is what chills me to the bones.

Love thy neighbor

We called the cops on our neighbors again. I hate them... have I mentioned that?

If you don't think I have then click here. Cause you will see that I most certainty have!

Anyways yesterday afternoon at 3:10, I was getting ready to leave when I saw my neighbor start to pull in across the street. This is the guy who can't seem to leave or arrive without driving in our yard. So I was was watching. He pulled (what seemed to me but then was later disputed on the video tapes) about half way into our driveway. That pissed me off... so I go outside.

"Could you please not drive on our property?"
no response
"Your tires were all the way up here" motioning to how far I saw him pull up "There is no reason for that."
"So. Get over it."

Well, sir, I dont' have to get over it. I have Google on my side. So I started looking up the trespassing laws in Arizona. Turns out that "Knowingly entering... any real property after a reasonable request to leave by the owner..." is called criminal trespassing in the third degree. It's a misdemeanor. A third class misdemeanor, which I have to assume is the absolute lowest possible crime in the American justice system... but it's still a crime.

So we called the cops. The cop watched the video and said that he didn't pull in far enough to be able to prove that he did it "knowingly". I haven't seen the video but Larry said that he didn't pull in as far as we had thought from our angle downstairs. Fine. Whatever.

So I don't know. I'm sure I can get video of him pulling all the way into our driveway but it will have to be a time when the van isn't parked there. And then... I don't know. Is it worth pursuing? I just want him to stop doing it. Maybe seeing the cops at our house shortly after our little interaction will leave him chilly... and he will just stop on his own. Doubtful... but I can dream.

WTF Costco?

A few weeks ago we were at Costco and noticed that there were only two packages of Sweet Baby Ray's left. Since it is the worlds best barbecue sauce and I didn't like the look of this situation I went ahead and bought both packs. (That's four huge bottles in total.) I figured that would be enough to hold me over until Costco realized their grave mistake and ordered some more.

Nothing yet.

Then Friday I was innocently poking around over by the fresh salsa and over heard another customer ask a Costco guy where the Peach Mango Salsa was. To which he responded that they weren't going to carry it any more. This, people, is a travesty. Their Peach Mango Salsa was the best! I'm crushed that it's gone. I totally butted into their conversation with an "but it was sooooo good!" and then the other customer and I looked at each other and just shrugged our shoulders. I did tell him of another salsa that is pretty good... my second favorite. He grabbed a jar, I hope I saved the day for him.

But my disappointment didn't end there. When I got over to the jelly I found the Knott's Berry Farm strawberry preserves that I have been making sandwiches with for the past 3 years has been replaced by Wall's Berry Farm raspberry jam. I got some, we'll try it... but honestly, where is the Knott's Berry Farm stuff?

What is going on over there? What crazy good thing are they going to stop carrying next? Come on Costco... get it together!

He is so cute!

I had about 15 minutes to kill before class today so I sat in on Connor's class for a bit. They were sitting on the "circle rug" and the teacher was going around the room pointing out each area of the class room.

"This is the writing table. You can use the markers and make a book." She said holding up some construction paper that had been folded and stapled into a book. Then she moved to the next area, "And this is the science table" and she held up some test tube looking things with stuff inside. "And this is the housekeeping area where you can play dress up or play in the kitchen."

Connor was watching all of this with extreme interest. Then leaned over to the little girl sitting next to him and said "This is amazing!"