Yep, just as I predicted My Honey jumped right on my re-arrange-the-family-room bandwagon and did his part too. He had been wanting to move the desk and computer around so once I opened the room up he did. Amazing aren't I?
Right now the kids are up here in the living room playing with dolls. Both of them. Its very cute. Miss I has to do everything her brother is doing, including spreading a blanket on the floor. She wants it perfect, so it doesn't have a wrinkle in it. Needless to say its reduced her to tears twice already. Perfection. Hmmm, wonder where she gets that? And she wants to do it all herself. Miss I. Unfortunately she doesn't have the words to ask for help yet. She just squeals. And squeals. But when I try to help her she doesn't give in, I have to ask if she is ready for help and what does she want me to do? Then she tries to show me and we are all good. Its quite a difference from Bubba. When he was 2 he was speaking very, very well. She tries but just doesn't care to make her words any way than her own right now.
On my list of accomplishments yesterday, I also took the Christmas tree down and put all the decorations away and cleaned up the living room too. As for the rest of the house, maybe on Monday. Although the Finance Committee approved the house cleaner to come back every other week so I think I will make that call and get her back on board.
Finance Committee. That's what one of my sis-in-laws referred to her husband as the other day and I liked it. Hopefully its just the mental image I need to help me to remember to run purchases by My Honey. So far so good.
Showing posts with label punkin head story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label punkin head story. Show all posts
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Count down
Only a week until Christmas. I still have shopping, wrapping and card-sending to do. Where did the time go? Oh I know - to work that's where. Bastards took 30 extra hours this past month. Oh well, it will all get done, it always does. I have the majority of this weekend off which is a good thing. Maybe I can duck out for a cross country ski on Saturday or Sunday? That would give me something to look forward to and a way to relax.
It snowed here today. It was nice. It warmed up though during the day so a lot of it melted away - bummer. It is cooling down though and appears we may get some more snow tonight. Bad thing is that the roads are bare and wet so it will freeze then new snow on top of that could mean really bad driving conditions but that will mean a really busy day at work tomorrow! yay
A funny thing happened the other day. Miss I was being naughty, I don't even remember what she had done now, but I was telling her how naughty she was and she PLUGGED HER EARS. She looked me right in the eye, said "Mama" and then plugged her ears without batting a lash. And continued to stare me down. I totally cracked up! I had to lower my head so she couldn't see me, get rid of my giggles and then look back up to finish our conversation and there she was with her ears STILL PLUGGED. I could not believe it. She is only 2. TWO! What happens when she is 12 or 14 or, heaven forbid 16??? Anyway, we ended our session with her taking a time out in her room for being disobedient and disrespectful. I am still reeling from it though. Plugged her ears. And stared me down. Little punk.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Miss I
I am thinking Punkin Head no longer suits my youngest. She is growing up and into herself and forcing us along the way. She is quite the sassy one, a careful observer and independent. Her new pseudonym shall be: Miss I. "I" for independent. I also like it because she has these EYES and I fear as two creeps up on us "I" will become a staple in her vocabulary. Miss I suits her in many ways. So from here forward "Punkin Head" is officially retired and "Miss I" it shall be.
Just today she pulled a Miss I. She went to the craft area, pulled out a bag of play dough and another of clay, marched herself to the table, set the bags on it then helped herself into her chair to play. And there she sits. Playing contentedly with clay. Its great having kids who like crafty junk. They get paper, pens, crayons, clay or play dough out and area occupied for awhile. Its interesting because each of them already have a preference. Miss I likes to play with clay. She is experimenting with drawing, but so far seems to prefer clay. Bubbas is drawing, and now writing stories with his pictures. Its been fascinating to watch his writing get so much better since the beginning of the school year and watch him put words and pictures together.
There is a school carnival coming up in a couple weeks. Bubba is selling raffle tickets (just a dollar each, pretty easy sell.) I took him into work to sell them a few days ago. He went to each person, used their name and asked if they wanted to buy a raffle ticket. His little sales pitch went something like this: (clears throat) "Lisa, would you like to buy a raffle ticket? I am selling them for my school carnival, they are one dollar each." Then he would answer their questions. It was precious. Who could resist? It was cute though, one gal wanted to buy more than one ticket and he said no. "Because then there wont be enough for the others to buy." Isn't that sweet?
Just today she pulled a Miss I. She went to the craft area, pulled out a bag of play dough and another of clay, marched herself to the table, set the bags on it then helped herself into her chair to play. And there she sits. Playing contentedly with clay. Its great having kids who like crafty junk. They get paper, pens, crayons, clay or play dough out and area occupied for awhile. Its interesting because each of them already have a preference. Miss I likes to play with clay. She is experimenting with drawing, but so far seems to prefer clay. Bubbas is drawing, and now writing stories with his pictures. Its been fascinating to watch his writing get so much better since the beginning of the school year and watch him put words and pictures together.
There is a school carnival coming up in a couple weeks. Bubba is selling raffle tickets (just a dollar each, pretty easy sell.) I took him into work to sell them a few days ago. He went to each person, used their name and asked if they wanted to buy a raffle ticket. His little sales pitch went something like this: (clears throat) "Lisa, would you like to buy a raffle ticket? I am selling them for my school carnival, they are one dollar each." Then he would answer their questions. It was precious. Who could resist? It was cute though, one gal wanted to buy more than one ticket and he said no. "Because then there wont be enough for the others to buy." Isn't that sweet?
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Catch up
(Well, got caught up on my drafts)
Its just been busy. Work, school, life.
My Honey has been working hard on our driveway. We sit on a high corner and the driveway tends to collect water in mass quantities right where we park. So a rainy day equals a flooded driveway, wet shoes, wet pants, big mud puddle, the whole works. He dug out some of the old dirt and rocks, leveled it better, built up the end of the driveway at the edge of the road and then we got a load of gravel. And then it rained. And there wasn't a puddle in the driveway. My Honey is my hero.
I am sitting here watching Punkin Head (who is nearly TWO YEARS OLD) play with a necklace and the dog. She keeps wanting to put it around the dogs head so she calls the dog "eer oodie, m'ere." But the dog just sits there. So she goes to the dog and puts the jewels on her. Rudy just sits there and lets her because Rudy is the best dog ever. Then Punkin Head says "der go." Its just so dang cute.
She has been so good the past two weeks with babysitters. We have had several new childcare experiences and she has done so good. She took a fall off the steps out front recently. Face plant onto the "welcome" mat. More like the sandpaper pile. It put road rash on her poor baby skin face from her eyebrow to her mouth. Of course the first thing I think when I see her in the mornings is "will this scar?" Pathetic huh? She is such a nutty thing. Funny how kids in the same family can be so different.
Bubba is doing fine at school. I sense some tough days coming, he is having more meltdowns at home. I don't know what the underlying issue is ... I need to do some investigating on that one. I have heard several times this week that he misses his old school so there is something. When I asked what he missed he said "art class" so maybe its just as simple as planning a craft each week on Thursday or Friday? I guess I could try that. Goodness knows we have the resources. Books, supplies etc... Although it could be that he misses Grandma, she has been gone all week.
And work. Well it goes on. I change back to day shift (3am to 1pm) at the beginning of October so that will be nice. Evenings with the family and all that.
Its just been busy. Work, school, life.
My Honey has been working hard on our driveway. We sit on a high corner and the driveway tends to collect water in mass quantities right where we park. So a rainy day equals a flooded driveway, wet shoes, wet pants, big mud puddle, the whole works. He dug out some of the old dirt and rocks, leveled it better, built up the end of the driveway at the edge of the road and then we got a load of gravel. And then it rained. And there wasn't a puddle in the driveway. My Honey is my hero.
I am sitting here watching Punkin Head (who is nearly TWO YEARS OLD) play with a necklace and the dog. She keeps wanting to put it around the dogs head so she calls the dog "eer oodie, m'ere." But the dog just sits there. So she goes to the dog and puts the jewels on her. Rudy just sits there and lets her because Rudy is the best dog ever. Then Punkin Head says "der go." Its just so dang cute.
She has been so good the past two weeks with babysitters. We have had several new childcare experiences and she has done so good. She took a fall off the steps out front recently. Face plant onto the "welcome" mat. More like the sandpaper pile. It put road rash on her poor baby skin face from her eyebrow to her mouth. Of course the first thing I think when I see her in the mornings is "will this scar?" Pathetic huh? She is such a nutty thing. Funny how kids in the same family can be so different.
Bubba is doing fine at school. I sense some tough days coming, he is having more meltdowns at home. I don't know what the underlying issue is ... I need to do some investigating on that one. I have heard several times this week that he misses his old school so there is something. When I asked what he missed he said "art class" so maybe its just as simple as planning a craft each week on Thursday or Friday? I guess I could try that. Goodness knows we have the resources. Books, supplies etc... Although it could be that he misses Grandma, she has been gone all week.
And work. Well it goes on. I change back to day shift (3am to 1pm) at the beginning of October so that will be nice. Evenings with the family and all that.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Sweetness
Its my "Friday". I am going to spend the next two days tagging, organizing and selling all our useless junk at a yard sale. Unfortunately it looks like it will be yucky weather, but I guess at least we won't be too hot. ("Yucky" means a little cloud cover, cooler temps, you know - 70's)
If she hadn't been up until 2am I might think she was so cute. (The picture is from over the weekend, not at 2am)
If she hadn't been up until 2am I might think she was so cute. (The picture is from over the weekend, not at 2am)
Friday, August 17, 2007
On and on
"Is this real . . . or has this been happening inside my head?"
"Just because it has been happening inside your head doesn't mean it isn't real."
I just finished the 6th Harry Potter. I like how the author tied all the books together in it. There were several of us at work reading it, but we started at different times so we all had to wait until the last person had finished to talk about it. It was kind of funny, those that finished first were using the new IM to talk to each other about it.
The new IM is one of the (few) good things from the upgrade. We can now IM anyone on duty, signed into their MDT/MDC. (Quite a discovery nightmare for those on the legal side of things.) At least it passes the time. One of the deputies and I were making up a story the other night line by line. It was actually fun and kept me awake until 1am when I finally got off work.
Hopefully the 1 am stuff is over soon. The person out on sick leave causing the 2 hour hole in the schedule is being checked off for duty this week. Yay! I just can't seem to get caught up on my sleep even when there is the opportunity. Like last night, I finally drifted off around 11:30, then the dog started to bark at midnight, Bubba had a nightmare around 3am (which brought him to our bed) and then Punkin Head woke around 5. So much for a good night sleep. And tonight is a possibility, but Bubba is talking about dinosaurs and what happened to the cavemen ("did they get eaten?") so I have a feeling it could be another nightmare night. I think that he's stressing about school.
We went for his Kindergarten assessment on Thursday. The school district where he will attend was using an assessment test to determine if kids would be in all day or 1/2 day Kindergarten classes. The "low-level learners" were being put into a full day class and the other were being put into the 1/2 day classes. Guess what Bubba will be in? Yeah, 1/2 days. The assessment went something like this:
"Hi I am Mrs. A and I will be doing the assessment for (checks her clipboard) 'Bubba' "
The first thing they assessed was his recognition of letters. They had a piece of paper with rows of letters on it and he had to point to and identify as many letters as he could in 30 seconds (I think). So off he goes. He gets to the end of the second row and says "Hey, why were there 2 H's in that row?" (So much for full day classes)
The next 20 minutes are a blur of questions like "What is another word for vehicle?" "How are a boat and a car different?" and "What rhymes with mat?" Some copying shapes (not letters) and then number sequencing. Mrs. A said a number and Bubba had to repeat it back to her. She added a number up to 5 in the sequence. When it reached 5 he says "I can't do that many." And he was done.
They were rating the kids 1 or 0. 1 meant they answered the question correctly, 0 meant that they didn't. Bubba might have had 10 zeros out of maybe 80 questions. Pretty sure he's going 1/2 day. Last year I wouldn't have minded, this year I think he's ripe for a full day experience. Oh well. (Maybe I will send him back to Montessori for the second half of the day? hahaha).
And then there's Punkin Head. She's . . . I don't even know how to describe her right now. Growing? I took her a bottle at 7:30 this morning thinking she would drink it then get up since she went back to sleep at 5 without any trouble. Apparently I was wrong. She slept until 11:30!! I could hardly believe it. She then took a nap from 3-4:30 and back to bed at 7:30. So I wonder what tonight has in store for me? She won't eat, she won't poo, she won't behave nicely.
Everyone seems to be going through a transition. Its making me crazy and angry. Nobody listens to Mom, they all just insist on disobeying. If this is the way the next few months is going to go, I am going to ship them out until they are better. The only thing they are doing nice is trying to play together. For about 5 minutes. But at least they are trying.
So that's the last week. I think. It was a long work week. We did get to take the boat out though. That was a highlight, how could I forget? We invited some friends of ours to go along. They were single and didn't have kids when we first started to boat together. Now they have been married 12 years and have 3 kids. It was a good time!
Today we took down the pool. It got, well, lets just say I could have sustained a pond with the water. It was a nice shade of green. So its all cleaned up, put away for next year. And soon the top will be on the jeep too. That's a sad day. Maybe we can get away with the soft top for a few months? Its so nice to have the top off, just the way a jeep should be driven right? Maybe we could take it off road once this season? Just to say we did. There's still Labor Day Weekend.
"Just because it has been happening inside your head doesn't mean it isn't real."
I just finished the 6th Harry Potter. I like how the author tied all the books together in it. There were several of us at work reading it, but we started at different times so we all had to wait until the last person had finished to talk about it. It was kind of funny, those that finished first were using the new IM to talk to each other about it.
The new IM is one of the (few) good things from the upgrade. We can now IM anyone on duty, signed into their MDT/MDC. (Quite a discovery nightmare for those on the legal side of things.) At least it passes the time. One of the deputies and I were making up a story the other night line by line. It was actually fun and kept me awake until 1am when I finally got off work.
Hopefully the 1 am stuff is over soon. The person out on sick leave causing the 2 hour hole in the schedule is being checked off for duty this week. Yay! I just can't seem to get caught up on my sleep even when there is the opportunity. Like last night, I finally drifted off around 11:30, then the dog started to bark at midnight, Bubba had a nightmare around 3am (which brought him to our bed) and then Punkin Head woke around 5. So much for a good night sleep. And tonight is a possibility, but Bubba is talking about dinosaurs and what happened to the cavemen ("did they get eaten?") so I have a feeling it could be another nightmare night. I think that he's stressing about school.
We went for his Kindergarten assessment on Thursday. The school district where he will attend was using an assessment test to determine if kids would be in all day or 1/2 day Kindergarten classes. The "low-level learners" were being put into a full day class and the other were being put into the 1/2 day classes. Guess what Bubba will be in? Yeah, 1/2 days. The assessment went something like this:
"Hi I am Mrs. A and I will be doing the assessment for (checks her clipboard) 'Bubba' "
The first thing they assessed was his recognition of letters. They had a piece of paper with rows of letters on it and he had to point to and identify as many letters as he could in 30 seconds (I think). So off he goes. He gets to the end of the second row and says "Hey, why were there 2 H's in that row?" (So much for full day classes)
The next 20 minutes are a blur of questions like "What is another word for vehicle?" "How are a boat and a car different?" and "What rhymes with mat?" Some copying shapes (not letters) and then number sequencing. Mrs. A said a number and Bubba had to repeat it back to her. She added a number up to 5 in the sequence. When it reached 5 he says "I can't do that many." And he was done.
They were rating the kids 1 or 0. 1 meant they answered the question correctly, 0 meant that they didn't. Bubba might have had 10 zeros out of maybe 80 questions. Pretty sure he's going 1/2 day. Last year I wouldn't have minded, this year I think he's ripe for a full day experience. Oh well. (Maybe I will send him back to Montessori for the second half of the day? hahaha).
And then there's Punkin Head. She's . . . I don't even know how to describe her right now. Growing? I took her a bottle at 7:30 this morning thinking she would drink it then get up since she went back to sleep at 5 without any trouble. Apparently I was wrong. She slept until 11:30!! I could hardly believe it. She then took a nap from 3-4:30 and back to bed at 7:30. So I wonder what tonight has in store for me? She won't eat, she won't poo, she won't behave nicely.
Everyone seems to be going through a transition. Its making me crazy and angry. Nobody listens to Mom, they all just insist on disobeying. If this is the way the next few months is going to go, I am going to ship them out until they are better. The only thing they are doing nice is trying to play together. For about 5 minutes. But at least they are trying.
So that's the last week. I think. It was a long work week. We did get to take the boat out though. That was a highlight, how could I forget? We invited some friends of ours to go along. They were single and didn't have kids when we first started to boat together. Now they have been married 12 years and have 3 kids. It was a good time!
Today we took down the pool. It got, well, lets just say I could have sustained a pond with the water. It was a nice shade of green. So its all cleaned up, put away for next year. And soon the top will be on the jeep too. That's a sad day. Maybe we can get away with the soft top for a few months? Its so nice to have the top off, just the way a jeep should be driven right? Maybe we could take it off road once this season? Just to say we did. There's still Labor Day Weekend.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Week from Hell
Let me tell you a little about the saga that is my life the past few days.
Back to work Monday was THE WORST. We had a computer upgrade ... yeah, it didn't go so well. I walked in after being gone for 10 days without knowing. Just let me say it sucked ass. Literally, I didn't know how to do my job. It was a hellacious 12 hour shift.
Ready to crash at 1am, I go home, go to bed. 4:00 am (yeah, less than 3 hours after I went to bed) Punkin Head wakes up. For nearly TWO HOURS. Pretty much I think life sucks at this point. My Honey got up with her and I tried to sleep for a few more hours.
Tuesday things weren't much better at work. Just a bad atmosphere. The upgrade hasn't been so slick. The program has a lot of flaws for dispatch. Exhausted after another 12 hour shift, I crash and burn at around 1:30 am. Guess what? Yeah, she woke at 4:00 again. I am so tired today that I don't even remember how long she was awake, it might have only been 30 minutes. Either way it totally screwed up my sleep. Not only that, I had THE WORST call of my career. I take that back, it wasn't the worst call, it was the worst circumstances for my responders I have EVER dealt with. Hurt men on the lose with guns. The suspects ended up flagging down the aid crew that was on the way to standby at the house where the homeowner had shot an intruder. That is the most stressed I have ever been about responder safety EVER. I was physically ill. It all worked out, the bad guys are in jail and the homeowner is not injured. But can you imagine? The other sucky thing about this call is it was a minimum of a 45 minute response by law enforcement. His house is in BFE. It is by far one of the longest, and THE most stressful call I have ever handled. (On the bright side a nice letter went into my file about how well I handled it. The third such letter this month - yeah, you know it. I rock.)
And then (yes there's more) my MIL (babysitter) called yesterday at around 11 to ask if I could arrange for someone to watch the kids for awhile, she needed to see the dermatologist and they had an appointment at 11:30, she didn't know if she would be at my house in time for me to be on time for work. This rarely happens, so I am nto angry plus Wednesdays are our heavy staff day, so I was able to call out for a couple hours - which was nice. I got off at 11 pm (after only working 8 hours!!!) thinking I would get 2 extra hours of sleep. HAHAHAHA. The joke was on me. Punkin Head was awake when I got home. We hung out for a bit, I tried to feed her thinking she might be hungry and then I put her back down. She played in the dark until 1am when I finally went in and told her to go to sleep. No more playing (or something like that). Finally she complied and I got around 5 hours of sleep in a row. But I am toast today. Lucky for me I have an extra kid around! Bubba and his cousin are playing nicely outside and I have a few minutes to myself. Not long, they will be in soon to ask to swim.
So that's the week from hell. OH, and during all this, I am taking Bubba to swim lessons every morning and Punkin Head to a parent tot class twice. Crazy I tell you. Crazy.
Back to work Monday was THE WORST. We had a computer upgrade ... yeah, it didn't go so well. I walked in after being gone for 10 days without knowing. Just let me say it sucked ass. Literally, I didn't know how to do my job. It was a hellacious 12 hour shift.
Ready to crash at 1am, I go home, go to bed. 4:00 am (yeah, less than 3 hours after I went to bed) Punkin Head wakes up. For nearly TWO HOURS. Pretty much I think life sucks at this point. My Honey got up with her and I tried to sleep for a few more hours.
Tuesday things weren't much better at work. Just a bad atmosphere. The upgrade hasn't been so slick. The program has a lot of flaws for dispatch. Exhausted after another 12 hour shift, I crash and burn at around 1:30 am. Guess what? Yeah, she woke at 4:00 again. I am so tired today that I don't even remember how long she was awake, it might have only been 30 minutes. Either way it totally screwed up my sleep. Not only that, I had THE WORST call of my career. I take that back, it wasn't the worst call, it was the worst circumstances for my responders I have EVER dealt with. Hurt men on the lose with guns. The suspects ended up flagging down the aid crew that was on the way to standby at the house where the homeowner had shot an intruder. That is the most stressed I have ever been about responder safety EVER. I was physically ill. It all worked out, the bad guys are in jail and the homeowner is not injured. But can you imagine? The other sucky thing about this call is it was a minimum of a 45 minute response by law enforcement. His house is in BFE. It is by far one of the longest, and THE most stressful call I have ever handled. (On the bright side a nice letter went into my file about how well I handled it. The third such letter this month - yeah, you know it. I rock.)
And then (yes there's more) my MIL (babysitter) called yesterday at around 11 to ask if I could arrange for someone to watch the kids for awhile, she needed to see the dermatologist and they had an appointment at 11:30, she didn't know if she would be at my house in time for me to be on time for work. This rarely happens, so I am nto angry plus Wednesdays are our heavy staff day, so I was able to call out for a couple hours - which was nice. I got off at 11 pm (after only working 8 hours!!!) thinking I would get 2 extra hours of sleep. HAHAHAHA. The joke was on me. Punkin Head was awake when I got home. We hung out for a bit, I tried to feed her thinking she might be hungry and then I put her back down. She played in the dark until 1am when I finally went in and told her to go to sleep. No more playing (or something like that). Finally she complied and I got around 5 hours of sleep in a row. But I am toast today. Lucky for me I have an extra kid around! Bubba and his cousin are playing nicely outside and I have a few minutes to myself. Not long, they will be in soon to ask to swim.
So that's the week from hell. OH, and during all this, I am taking Bubba to swim lessons every morning and Punkin Head to a parent tot class twice. Crazy I tell you. Crazy.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Doolz
Punkin Head has a new favorite thing "doolz".I spent a couple bucks at yardsales and acquired a dress-up box of stuff from Auntie D and Punkin Head is in heaven with her doolz.
And, yes, finally she is walking. It's not 100% of the time but at least she is doing it.
And talking. Oh my. My Honey, Punkin Head and I were sitting on the couch today while he ate breakfast. Down the stairs came Bubba. "derz eewee" she says pointing at him. (translation "theres Harry"). She's putting a lot of stuff together. She wants to sit at the table like a big kid, she wants to play with play-dough like a big kid, she wants everything her brother wants. Not suprising, just exhausting.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Training
I am in a "Situational Leadership" class this week.
No, I didn't re-apply for a supervisor job (although there were 2 openings posted recently) I am going as a trainer, and to develop myself.
It had actually been very good. Kind of intense for me. It has given me words for my shortcomings. Words, but not solutions. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to take a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants person and teach her how to pre-plan? If stuff mostly gets done anyway, whats the point?
How to take a functionally disorganized person and help them to put order to the things that need to get done? Re-direct me, give me the website, the book, the tools to learn these skills. I am a great coach, its the directing stuff, the breaking something apart to explain it ... any way.
Its kind of like sewing a dress. I can take a pattern, measure out the fabric, cut it out, get all the pieces there, but the actual assembly of the project - sometimes I just lose interest by then. Or I get part way through and go "this isn't fun anymore." Certainly I know what has to be done, I can see what the end is going to look like but somewhere I just lose motivation.
So it has been a good class. Now for the application. How will it look in my life next month? Like another book on the shelf? Maybe. I hope not.
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Punkin Head is nearly walking! WHEW!! She is over 18 months old now. Its pretty cute. She is standing on her own, actually standing herself up in the middle of the room and building the confidence to get herself going. It's fun. Maybe she can teach me about taking steps, follow through, motivation?
No, I didn't re-apply for a supervisor job (although there were 2 openings posted recently) I am going as a trainer, and to develop myself.
It had actually been very good. Kind of intense for me. It has given me words for my shortcomings. Words, but not solutions. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to take a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants person and teach her how to pre-plan? If stuff mostly gets done anyway, whats the point?
How to take a functionally disorganized person and help them to put order to the things that need to get done? Re-direct me, give me the website, the book, the tools to learn these skills. I am a great coach, its the directing stuff, the breaking something apart to explain it ... any way.
Its kind of like sewing a dress. I can take a pattern, measure out the fabric, cut it out, get all the pieces there, but the actual assembly of the project - sometimes I just lose interest by then. Or I get part way through and go "this isn't fun anymore." Certainly I know what has to be done, I can see what the end is going to look like but somewhere I just lose motivation.
So it has been a good class. Now for the application. How will it look in my life next month? Like another book on the shelf? Maybe. I hope not.
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Punkin Head is nearly walking! WHEW!! She is over 18 months old now. Its pretty cute. She is standing on her own, actually standing herself up in the middle of the room and building the confidence to get herself going. It's fun. Maybe she can teach me about taking steps, follow through, motivation?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
What did you miss?
Starting with yesterday:
"Good times" in Chelan. Oh yes, the Lake beckoned and we answered. My sister was at her in-laws condo and so were we. Beautiful weather, comfortable pool, lotsa food, lotsa Mike's Hard something or other and cousins. All 4 of them were together, and they did pretty well. Turns out my son is kind of a brat. He hits a little more than I think is okay and we need to work on this. I don't observe him playing very often so I had no idea. Although I am pretty sure that the school would tell me if it were a problem. It might have been more an excited thing, being there with the cousins and all. Trying to share, toys, attention, that kind of thing.
I say "good times" because the other day we were driving somewhere and I hear my son say "good times Mom, good times" out of nowhere in the back seat. Funny stuff to me because a couple people use that phrase at work when things are out of control and I KNOW I didn't bring that one home with me. So I ask him where he heard that ... TV. Of course.
Sunday, Saturday and Friday - work, work, work. And it was busy, busy, busy. Friday night I was dispatching fire and EMS and I was pretty sure I would need a book to pass the time. Boy was I wrong. Not only was I busy, I was super busy. So busy that the fire folks (chiefs, firemen and EMS personnel) I talked to the next day even commented how busy it had been. Its must have been busy for them to notice.
The rest of last week? Uneventful. I don't remember anything major, I have a couple Bubba stories, but for the life of me I cant think of a single one right now. Punkin Head is practicing her standing alone. And she can finally walk behind her push toy she got for Christmas. All these are good things. She just might walk before she is 2 years old after all.
"Good times" in Chelan. Oh yes, the Lake beckoned and we answered. My sister was at her in-laws condo and so were we. Beautiful weather, comfortable pool, lotsa food, lotsa Mike's Hard something or other and cousins. All 4 of them were together, and they did pretty well. Turns out my son is kind of a brat. He hits a little more than I think is okay and we need to work on this. I don't observe him playing very often so I had no idea. Although I am pretty sure that the school would tell me if it were a problem. It might have been more an excited thing, being there with the cousins and all. Trying to share, toys, attention, that kind of thing.
I say "good times" because the other day we were driving somewhere and I hear my son say "good times Mom, good times" out of nowhere in the back seat. Funny stuff to me because a couple people use that phrase at work when things are out of control and I KNOW I didn't bring that one home with me. So I ask him where he heard that ... TV. Of course.
Sunday, Saturday and Friday - work, work, work. And it was busy, busy, busy. Friday night I was dispatching fire and EMS and I was pretty sure I would need a book to pass the time. Boy was I wrong. Not only was I busy, I was super busy. So busy that the fire folks (chiefs, firemen and EMS personnel) I talked to the next day even commented how busy it had been. Its must have been busy for them to notice.
The rest of last week? Uneventful. I don't remember anything major, I have a couple Bubba stories, but for the life of me I cant think of a single one right now. Punkin Head is practicing her standing alone. And she can finally walk behind her push toy she got for Christmas. All these are good things. She just might walk before she is 2 years old after all.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Practice
Here is part of my class assignment. We were supposed to practice shifting the focus from the subject near us to the subject behind that. So here is Punkin Head's shoulder or the grass. The grass picture came out a little light, but I have the idea. I actually have several more pictures, Punkin Head and I spend an hour at the park having lunch one day after we dropped Bubba off at school. It was a really nice way to spend a little time with her.
(Unlike the time we spent together last night, oh wait that was THIS MORNING. She was awake from 11pm until after 3am. So much for sleeping through the night. I have no idea where we, make that I, went wrong last night.)
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Memories
We went to the park yesterday. What fun we had! It was at probably high 70's, clear blue sky, no wind. Ahhh. Both the kids soaked themselves in the river which might be 40 degrees right now. Bubba waded, well you can see how deep and played in the rocks with a little girl he met at the park. Punkin head decided she was not afraid of the water and crawled right on in. It was a funny experience for me. Bubba was this little fraidy cat of everything, and here was Punkin Head going balls to the wall to find out about it. They are so different!
We went to the play area after the water and I realized, for the second time this week, how far behind (physically) Punkin Head really is. Twice this week people have guessed her to be 8-10 months old because she still has a cute, fat baby face. Not to mention the lady who guessed her to be 10 months old had a kid born just days before Punkin Head who was running all over playing. (sigh.) I try not to worry, I really do, and I think I do a good job of not getting defensive about her, but alright, already . . .
So the best part of the park was that My Honey went with us. As I was getting ready to pick up Bubba from school, I almost called and invited him to come along but I thought that would be just mean "hey, wanna skip work and go to the park?" As if. On our way to school he called me to see what we were doing, I told him we were on the way to get Bubba. "Oh, I thought you might want to visit me at work." So I told him we could, but we were going to the park first, "do you want to come?" I teased, because the last thing he would do is leave work in the middle of the day. "Sure, I will be there at 3." And he was. It was a fun treat.
p.s. Happy 100th post to me. Its nice that Blogger tracks these things, I would never have known. To celebrate, I will finally post "nearly 100 things about me." Its been a work in progress. I think I only have 70-something.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Free Time
I don't quite know what to do? (Cut my fingernails, I had 17 typo's in just the first 5 words)
Bubba is at a friends house, Punkin Head is sleeping, I have FREE TIME.
There's always laundry, cleaning, eating. Yeah, eating. That sounds good I didn't have breakfast. But what else? I read all the blogs I love, I could surf for other things.
If I had planned better, I would have had a babysitter here when Bubba was gone so I could leave. Oh well, it's still QUIET. Except the dog snoring in the sun. I wish it were warm enough to snore in the sun outside, but for some reason we are in the midst of a cold front and there goes spring for a few days.
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Bubba found a baseball cap in his room yesterday. He has several but hardly wears them so when he came downstairs wearing his Mariners cap it was really cute. Not only that, it was near opening day of the season, which he had no clue about. So I told him he had made a good choice in caps, baseball season starts tomorrow and the Mariners will be playing. "I want to go to the game" he tells me. I wish I had thought of it, that would have been a fun spring break activity. Instead we're going to watch it on TV. For the 10 minutes he's interested anyway. I hope I can answer his questions about batting, running, pitching, rules and all that. I never watched baseball (or any other sports stuff) until I was married and then I just learned the rules by accident. I have no idea about strategy though. How do you teach that stuff if you don't know or understand it?? Leave it to the men.
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Punkin Head is making progress toward walking. Slowly but surely. She is already "late" but not where there is any concern. Give it 6 weeks (she'll be 18 months) and then they may start to test her to make sure she is okay. Her progress gives me hope though. She is actually pulling herself up to standing now (huge progress from sitting on her butt holding her arms up and saying "uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!" in baby-whine.) And she can side step if she chooses. She isn't standing without holding onto something yet, she doesn't seem to have figured out balance, so we shall see.
I taught her to say "help" in sign language last week. This is helping with the baby-whine. Her other sign language words include please, more and all done. Her word-words are coming along. She has been saying "whoo-zat?" (who's that) when I walk into her room in the mornings. She will also point to her nose and say "wha-zis?" (whats this) which is pretty cute. She can say nose, dad, Harry, dog, Rudy, woof-woof, bye bye, bottle and hello (as she holds her hand to her cheek like she is answering the phone). She can identify her belly, nose, ears, eyes, toes and mouth. I think she's pretty smart. She just doesn't walk.
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I turned down the supervisor position at the end of January and have been fighting with the employee guild ever since for seniority. What a PITA. The last thing I can do is plead my case before the Board. I am on the agenda for the April meeting.
Bubba is at a friends house, Punkin Head is sleeping, I have FREE TIME.
There's always laundry, cleaning, eating. Yeah, eating. That sounds good I didn't have breakfast. But what else? I read all the blogs I love, I could surf for other things.
If I had planned better, I would have had a babysitter here when Bubba was gone so I could leave. Oh well, it's still QUIET. Except the dog snoring in the sun. I wish it were warm enough to snore in the sun outside, but for some reason we are in the midst of a cold front and there goes spring for a few days.
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Bubba found a baseball cap in his room yesterday. He has several but hardly wears them so when he came downstairs wearing his Mariners cap it was really cute. Not only that, it was near opening day of the season, which he had no clue about. So I told him he had made a good choice in caps, baseball season starts tomorrow and the Mariners will be playing. "I want to go to the game" he tells me. I wish I had thought of it, that would have been a fun spring break activity. Instead we're going to watch it on TV. For the 10 minutes he's interested anyway. I hope I can answer his questions about batting, running, pitching, rules and all that. I never watched baseball (or any other sports stuff) until I was married and then I just learned the rules by accident. I have no idea about strategy though. How do you teach that stuff if you don't know or understand it?? Leave it to the men.
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Punkin Head is making progress toward walking. Slowly but surely. She is already "late" but not where there is any concern. Give it 6 weeks (she'll be 18 months) and then they may start to test her to make sure she is okay. Her progress gives me hope though. She is actually pulling herself up to standing now (huge progress from sitting on her butt holding her arms up and saying "uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!" in baby-whine.) And she can side step if she chooses. She isn't standing without holding onto something yet, she doesn't seem to have figured out balance, so we shall see.
I taught her to say "help" in sign language last week. This is helping with the baby-whine. Her other sign language words include please, more and all done. Her word-words are coming along. She has been saying "whoo-zat?" (who's that) when I walk into her room in the mornings. She will also point to her nose and say "wha-zis?" (whats this) which is pretty cute. She can say nose, dad, Harry, dog, Rudy, woof-woof, bye bye, bottle and hello (as she holds her hand to her cheek like she is answering the phone). She can identify her belly, nose, ears, eyes, toes and mouth. I think she's pretty smart. She just doesn't walk.
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I turned down the supervisor position at the end of January and have been fighting with the employee guild ever since for seniority. What a PITA. The last thing I can do is plead my case before the Board. I am on the agenda for the April meeting.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Oh the guilt
Punkin Head. She needs to sleep through the night. Every night, starting about a year ago. So we work on it. And by "we" I mean I. It is tough to let her cry it out. I just cant stand it. I try to tell myself "just 5 minutes" or what ever arbitrary time-frame I choose but I rarely make it.
So last night I tried again. I heard her at 1:30 ish, talking to herself. No need for me to even think of checking on her. About an hour later she sounded like she was trying to sleep, just a few wah-wah's here and there (every 4 minutes if you must know). Then she was quiet for about 30 minutes. Then she was wah-wahing again. This went on until around 4am. Finally all was quiet and I didn't get up to check on her a single time. I was pretty pleased. Exhausted, but pleased. And, bless his heart, My Honey seemed to sleep through the entire thing.
At 6 when she was awake and sounded like she needed a bottle, I delegated it to the one who slept through the night so I could get a few extra minutes of shut-eye. I hear him make the bottle, change her (messy) diaper and put her back to bed. All the while I am not getting any extra shut-eye at all, I am listening to them thinking "wonder how long she had that messy diaper? I really should have checked on her at 2 or 2:30 or 3 or 3:30 ..." So My Honey comes back to bed, tells me something about not feeling guilty for letting her cry it out. And I try not to feel guilty.
At 8 something, Punkin Head wakes for the day. I go into her room and the first thing I notice is the SMELL. I smell puke. So then I start to feel bad for not checking on her at 7-ish when I heard her fuss a little. Only then I realize its not from 7 am its probably from way, way, way earlier than that. Maybe from when she went to bed last night. I have no way of knowing. Except that I could have known if I had checked on her last night.
But don't worry about it, there's no reason to feel guilty.
So last night I tried again. I heard her at 1:30 ish, talking to herself. No need for me to even think of checking on her. About an hour later she sounded like she was trying to sleep, just a few wah-wah's here and there (every 4 minutes if you must know). Then she was quiet for about 30 minutes. Then she was wah-wahing again. This went on until around 4am. Finally all was quiet and I didn't get up to check on her a single time. I was pretty pleased. Exhausted, but pleased. And, bless his heart, My Honey seemed to sleep through the entire thing.
At 6 when she was awake and sounded like she needed a bottle, I delegated it to the one who slept through the night so I could get a few extra minutes of shut-eye. I hear him make the bottle, change her (messy) diaper and put her back to bed. All the while I am not getting any extra shut-eye at all, I am listening to them thinking "wonder how long she had that messy diaper? I really should have checked on her at 2 or 2:30 or 3 or 3:30 ..." So My Honey comes back to bed, tells me something about not feeling guilty for letting her cry it out. And I try not to feel guilty.
At 8 something, Punkin Head wakes for the day. I go into her room and the first thing I notice is the SMELL. I smell puke. So then I start to feel bad for not checking on her at 7-ish when I heard her fuss a little. Only then I realize its not from 7 am its probably from way, way, way earlier than that. Maybe from when she went to bed last night. I have no way of knowing. Except that I could have known if I had checked on her last night.
But don't worry about it, there's no reason to feel guilty.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Think In Blog
Do you ever "think in blog" and then forget to post because you were thinking about it? I do. I can't believe its been over 10 days, I keep thinking of things to write about...
One of the things we did recently was go to an informational dinner for a private school. Yes I am still obsessing about Kindergarten. This school, The River Academy is a "Classical Christian" school. They use a classical approach. I found a blog that talked about just such a thing yesterday in my drive to obsess fully. I totally see this approach working for Bubba. But the parent involvement ... am I up to that? And I heard the families are mostly stay at home moms ...
Now I appreciate and respect that they have what it takes to stay at home with their kids all day and all night serving their family, its just not for me. I was involved with a group of mostly SAHM's and it was really hard for me to relate to them, and them to me. I felt judged, unaccepted and shunned. Some of this was me. I will admit to having a chip on my shoulder too. I feel guilty, ashamed and selfish for working sometimes. I mean, why would you bring kids into this world just to send them to be raised by someone else. I totally understand. But I know my limits. I know I can't be home all the time, that I need a break and a place to not to be a mom. Not only that, I choose to work when it will have the least affect on my family. I still spend a large portion of the day with the kids and I am blessed with a MIL that watches the kids lovingly (yes, I am justifying).
So there's that, and I also heard that they expect the man to take the lead in dealing with school problems. Now ... this would be a problem. I try not to nag My Honey. Sometimes its an effort,, there is nothing I would like more than to call every day and ask "did you do laundry, did you do the dishes, did you spend some time with each of the kids, did you ...") But I choose not to. If he had to deal with all school issues, there is the possibility of some serious nagging. I also heard that the parents are snobs. Understandable, it is a private school. So all these things added up pretty much make me wonder if its worth the trouble just for a "classical education."
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A few weeks ago Bubba was watching Tom & Jerry cartoons. I mentioned that I used to watch Tom & Jerry too. He gets all wide-eyed and asks "Did you have Cartoon network when you were little too?" Which made me laugh and answer "No Bubba, we didn't have Cartoon network, we actually only had 5 channels on our TV and cartoons were only on in the morning before school and on Saturdays." He thought about this for a moment and then, in his child-like innocence said "Did you have cable or dish network?" Talk about funny! To think that my kids will never know less than 75 channel choices, cartoons available 24/7, and whippy-skippy fast Internet. They will never know a house without at least 2 TV's, 2 computers, DVD's and video games. Technology.
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Punkin Head is quite the character. She was touching my lap top recently so I told her "No." She touched it again, I told her "No, and if you touch it again I will slap your hand." She looked at me and chose to touch it again, so I slapped her hand and told her "No, and you will get slapped again if you touch it." She touched it a final time, was slapped and that was that test.
A few days later she was near something that is dangerous and she shouldn't touch, Bubba told me so I went in and told her, "Don't touch that its dangerous and I will slap your hand if you touch it again." The booger looks right at me, reaches her hand out and then pulls it back, GIVING HERSELF THE SLAP ON HER HAND. I was slightly startled and then thought it was funny. And brilliant. She remembered from at least a week previous (or longer). Yikes, another smart one.
A few days later when I was on the lap top she was in my lap for a minute and she slapped MY hand for touching it. Still quite smart.
She is 16 months old now and still doesn't walk. But she climbs the stairs?? She is making progress though, she is just choosing a slow path. Wants to get every step perfect (literally). She is at least pulling herself up on the furniture now, she still won't take steps, but I am getting over worrying about it.
One of the things we did recently was go to an informational dinner for a private school. Yes I am still obsessing about Kindergarten. This school, The River Academy is a "Classical Christian" school. They use a classical approach. I found a blog that talked about just such a thing yesterday in my drive to obsess fully. I totally see this approach working for Bubba. But the parent involvement ... am I up to that? And I heard the families are mostly stay at home moms ...
Now I appreciate and respect that they have what it takes to stay at home with their kids all day and all night serving their family, its just not for me. I was involved with a group of mostly SAHM's and it was really hard for me to relate to them, and them to me. I felt judged, unaccepted and shunned. Some of this was me. I will admit to having a chip on my shoulder too. I feel guilty, ashamed and selfish for working sometimes. I mean, why would you bring kids into this world just to send them to be raised by someone else. I totally understand. But I know my limits. I know I can't be home all the time, that I need a break and a place to not to be a mom. Not only that, I choose to work when it will have the least affect on my family. I still spend a large portion of the day with the kids and I am blessed with a MIL that watches the kids lovingly (yes, I am justifying).
So there's that, and I also heard that they expect the man to take the lead in dealing with school problems. Now ... this would be a problem. I try not to nag My Honey. Sometimes its an effort,, there is nothing I would like more than to call every day and ask "did you do laundry, did you do the dishes, did you spend some time with each of the kids, did you ...") But I choose not to. If he had to deal with all school issues, there is the possibility of some serious nagging. I also heard that the parents are snobs. Understandable, it is a private school. So all these things added up pretty much make me wonder if its worth the trouble just for a "classical education."
-------------------------------------------------------
A few weeks ago Bubba was watching Tom & Jerry cartoons. I mentioned that I used to watch Tom & Jerry too. He gets all wide-eyed and asks "Did you have Cartoon network when you were little too?" Which made me laugh and answer "No Bubba, we didn't have Cartoon network, we actually only had 5 channels on our TV and cartoons were only on in the morning before school and on Saturdays." He thought about this for a moment and then, in his child-like innocence said "Did you have cable or dish network?" Talk about funny! To think that my kids will never know less than 75 channel choices, cartoons available 24/7, and whippy-skippy fast Internet. They will never know a house without at least 2 TV's, 2 computers, DVD's and video games. Technology.
--------------------------------------------------------
Punkin Head is quite the character. She was touching my lap top recently so I told her "No." She touched it again, I told her "No, and if you touch it again I will slap your hand." She looked at me and chose to touch it again, so I slapped her hand and told her "No, and you will get slapped again if you touch it." She touched it a final time, was slapped and that was that test.
A few days later she was near something that is dangerous and she shouldn't touch, Bubba told me so I went in and told her, "Don't touch that its dangerous and I will slap your hand if you touch it again." The booger looks right at me, reaches her hand out and then pulls it back, GIVING HERSELF THE SLAP ON HER HAND. I was slightly startled and then thought it was funny. And brilliant. She remembered from at least a week previous (or longer). Yikes, another smart one.
A few days later when I was on the lap top she was in my lap for a minute and she slapped MY hand for touching it. Still quite smart.
She is 16 months old now and still doesn't walk. But she climbs the stairs?? She is making progress though, she is just choosing a slow path. Wants to get every step perfect (literally). She is at least pulling herself up on the furniture now, she still won't take steps, but I am getting over worrying about it.
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