Growing A Brain

I've been telling Jack lately that he needs to play (or color, or do puzzles, etc.) in order for his brain to grow so that when it's time for him to go to school he'll be ready to learn - just like the big kids (because he's been obsessed with cartoons lately - but luckily he's also always obsessed with being just like the older kids).

He was STOKED about this new concept (of brain growth) and after running of to play with toys for a while he would run back to me saying, "Can you see my brain growing, Mommy!? It's getting bigger! YAY for going to school!"

Sweet little guy.

He was so excited about it all that while I was folding clothes and watching HGTV yesterday, he ran up to me and said, "Mommy! Your brain won't grow if you watch that!" To which I promptly replied, "It's okay, I can watch all I want - Mommy is all done with school." Ahem.

Anyway, I was so ecstatic about how well this was all working out and how excited he was getting about not watching cartoons until this morning when he plopped his little body on the couch and just blurted out, "I don't care if my brain grows tiny. I miss Curious George."

I'm gonna take a guess that...

• ...the the first reason stated in the email titled, "Top 3 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight" was "You Delete These Emails!"

• ...my kids start screaming at each other and throwing fits the second I'm talking to any doctor, dentist, or social services employee on the phone because they want to see how fast they can make my head literally explode into a million pieces.

• ...the high school student in the school office this morning who was wondering if her outfit was within the dress-code already knew the answer before she walked in there. Seriously sweetheart, if you have to ask...

• ...when I ask my kids if they want to sit in a time out the answer is always going to be a whiny, "Nooooo!" So, why do I find myself still asking?!

• ...not everyone would classify the activities I do to stretch out my jeans as exercise - but I do. Hello - Yoga, anyone!?

• ...when I signed in to volunteer at the school this morning and wrote down the date as, "February 29, 2010" it was just because I was so tired - not because I didn't remember that the 29th of February isn't even a day this year. I promise it was the exhaustion... Promise.

Laugh It Off.

Boy, parenting is not easy. Ever. But, if nothing else, it's comical. Most of the time. In a lot of parenting situations I've found myself in I really could cry, but eventually (emphasis on the eventually) I just laugh instead. Take yesterday, for instance, when we learned that our 6 year old son told his whole class (plus his teacher and the aide in the room) that Jeff and I are "splitting up" because we "fight all the time" and that Carter (and everyone but Jeff) is moving in with Grandpa and Grandma. I know, right - wow.

Lucky for us (for some reason that just doesn't seem like the right wording for this story) they now go to the small school we went to as children (so most of the faculty and staff know Jeff and me) and his teacher went immediately to the school secretary to confirm or exterminate the "news." The secretary had no idea (but doubted it was true). Still, they prayed all morning - just in case. We do have actual family members who work at the school who could exterminate the rumors -but not before word had already spread across the campus.

What a headache. Oh, well. I'm finding out (especially as a parent) that life is one big learning curve. I'll probably perfect parenting right when my last child moves out, and all I will be able to do then (with my parenting expertise) is aid my kids with fantastic advice when they start having their own kids - whether they ask for it or not. After all, it's stories like this one today that the kids inflicted on me that eventually will make me a better parent and it gives me the right to hand out my opinion to them as often as I feel like it, so - children of mine - whether you take it or leave it, the parenting advice will be doled out. You can count on it.

Well, would you look at that? The cup is half FULL!

Whew - what a week! First day of school for the kids, first day of "freedom" (with Jack attached to my hip) for Mommy, and then, two days later, first day of staying home from school sick.

We are all under the weather, so today we are "resting." I guess resting is a relative term when you've got three kids and a huge puppy in the house. No one slept last night and we are all on the grouchy side - but I'm determined to make the most of it. We're going to watch Sesame Street and have hot oatmeal for breakfast. We'll take naps and eat homemade chicken noodle soup and snuggle on the couch with warm fuzzy blankets. Doesn't this sound wonderful? Do you actually think it will happen euphorically? I know, right? I just laughed, too.

So maybe it won't be the perfect day. Maybe we'll all suffer from sleep deprivation and be on each other's nerves. Maybe we'll have a hard time getting anything productive done today - but I'm fine with it. You want to know why? Do you want to know the real reason I'm not in self-pity mode? It's because I had a dream last night (nightmare) that all of my kids had head lice. I woke up sweating! So, today will be a great day, colds and all included, because if nothing else - at least we don't have head lice.

Don't you feel just a little bit itchy now?

It's September - School's Starting!

Six days. I have a lot to do in order to prepare for the first day of school, but I just don't feel like starting. The biggest thing is to have the kids practice getting up at the time they will for school - and waking kids up when they would be perfectly content to sleep another hour and a half (at least) is just plain wrong.

This year, since they will be going to a different school, I will be driving about 2 miles down the road to meet the bus (last year the bus picked them up outside of our house - blissful!) so I have to have all of us at least bundled up with shoes on to meet the bus. Most days I'm hoping Jeff can drop them off on his way to work - but that sort of thinking might just be a coping mechanism to get through right now.

After going school supply shopping I realized that an hour of my life just disappeared and I'll never get it back - what a headache! Mostly because I didn't know there was a difference between a composition notebook and a spiral notebook. I also didn't know what protractors were... or where to find them because they weren't anywhere even close to the "elementary school supplies" isle. I majored in Sociology - yes, that's the best defense I have for not knowing what a protractor was and come on - they're going into the first and second grade, not high school! After I got all of the supplies I called my sister (in law - but saying that makes her sound less like my sister and we're about as "sisterly" as you can get) who laughed at me (like I said - we're sisters) and then said they probably will use the protractor - that took me 35 minutes to find - for maybe one "small section" of the whole year. Nice.

I'm not ready for school to start and I'm realizing that it really has nothing to do with what's left on my "get ready" list and everything to do with not wanting my kids away from me all day. They are so great - really - and I'm going to miss them! I'm so thankful that they will be going to a four-day schedule and I will get 3 full days with them every week - plus, well, they're just super stoked to go back to school so that makes it easier to let them. I just love those little monsters so much and I really don't know what Jack's going to do without them (seriously - what are we going to do!?!) but it will all work out. Somehow (thank you, Lord!) it always does.