Odds and ends

Except for this sentence, I will not type "Sara" in this post.  Believe it or not, there have been other happenings in our family.

1.  David and Mary have been ice skating a couple of times.  The first time was when I was in the hospital, and the next time the kids brought their two grandpas who were in town.  This winter was their first experience ice skating.  But David's school does a roller blading PE unit every year, so ice skating was a breeze for him.  And Mary caught on quite quickly too.

Mary's first time on ice skates

David's first time ice skating

Grandpa Mike on ice skates!  Grandpa Steve was there too.

2.  Speaking of winter sports, one afternoon David and Mary had a blast sledding on the hill that separates our house from the chocolate factory. Actually, it was more like free falling than sledding.

Mary faces down the cliff.

David climbs back up.

 3.  Mary lost her first tooth last night!  Hooray!  (And the Tooth Fairy even remembered to come ...  at 5:00 am this morning.)  That first lost tooth really seems to mark the beginning of being a big kid.  The end of being really little.  I am glad we have another tiny kid in the wings, otherwise I would be feeling pretty sad, I think.


4.  Greg and I are in charge of the science fair at David's school again this year.  Now that we have done it once, it's pretty much a breeze.  But it probably couldn't come at a worse time in our lives.  Oh well.  At least this year we remembered David's science project.  Helping him do his project was literally the last thing on our science fair to-do list last year.  Isn't that sad?  This year David is growing crystals, and we didn't start too late.  I don't like science, but I am very glad David does.


5.  Valentine's Day came and went.  Thanks to Amazon 2-day shipping I did get my act together and get nice little gifts for the kids.  I did not, however, manage to wrap them in pink and red tissue paper or hide them at the end of a trail of paper heart cut-outs or attach Valentine-themed candy.  I presented the Valentines's Day gifts in their cardboard Amazon boxes.  This was a huge let-down for the kids.  I guess presentation is everything.  And I thought I was doing so well!  Oh well.

Mary with her loot.  Greg asked me, "When did Valentine's Day turn into Halloween?"  Good question.

Mary wrote about Valentine's Day at her school.  She drew a picture of her class in a circle passing out valentines.

She wrote:  I love valentines because I get to celebrate at school and I love valentines because we can put up hearts.

David was very sweet this year about Valentine's Day.  He was thoughtful about which kids got which valentine.  Then when it seemed he might be sick and miss the party, he was sad because he explained that the whole point it to watch everyone open their valentines and see how happy they are.  (He wasn't sick, so he didn't miss the party, and he got to see everyone's happy faces as they read their valentines.)


6.  We are getting ready to put our house on the market.  It is a lot of work!  And everything is harder with a baby, even an easy one.  We are super busy!  I guess the busy-ness keeps me from feeling how sad I am to be leaving.  Yesterday I was in the car and a rebroadcast of Garrison Keillor happened to be on the radio and he said this thing about the beauty of new snow and a neighbor snow blowing your sidewalk for you without wanting to be thanked and suddenly out of nowhere I burst into tears.  I felt so sad about leaving Wisconsin.  I always describe myself as a Westerner, having spent most of my life in Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, California, and Utah. My roots are definitely in the West. But I think Madison might actually be my home.  It is difficult to leave.


7.  I am very worried about Mary's school situation for next year.  The Montessori school we like in Dayton is not accepting new students for next year, because of her birthday we cannot register her for first grade, and she will simply die of boredom in kindergarten, especially half-time kindergarten.


8.  Speaking of school and situations, I have been talking a lot with David's teacher the past couple of weeks.  Talking a lot with your child's teacher is generally not a sign that school life is problem-free.


9.  At the beginning of the school year David drew this awesome picture of Schoolhouse Beach on Washington Island in Door County.  It looks just like it!  The water in Lake Michigan was super cold.  But he was brave and swam out to the diving platform.  And then he was even braver and jumped into the water.  (Really, it took a lot of guts to do it.)   I love that he remembered that experience and created this picture in art class.

To me, courage is jumping in cold water.  Here I go!

Grammy used David's picture in a recent workshop she taught on facing challenges in our lives.


10.  Sara--oops, I mentioned her name--has been to visit both Mary's and David's classes.  Last week we visited Mary's class twice.  Anna, Mary's teacher, stopped everything so the sweet little kids could come see Sara.  Mary was so excited she couldn't even stand it!  In fact, she bawled when I left because it was so emotional for her.  And today I took Sara for a special Sara Show and Tell in David's class.  The whole class gathered around while David, beaming with pride, talked about his sister.  Oh, Sara, you are so loved and adored.

Valentines

These are my sweet valentines, working on their valentines.

I am head over heals infatuated with these two kiddos.

I am so grateful and humbled  and blessed to have them in my life.  Happy Valentines Day to me!

Stack of stuff

I've begun to resort to stacking things up as a way of "cleaning" my house. Sigh. That's never a good sign.

But in honor of the stacks on my kitchen counter, the computer desk, and the chair in the corner of the dining room, as well as the stacks in my closet, the basement, and the laundry room, here is a metaphorical stack of stuff all squashed together in one precariously balanced tower for the blogosphere.

I will number the items in this stack, lest you become lost in the clutter.

1. LOST TOOTH. David lost his second tooth! And this time he didn't lose his lost tooth. It fell out yesterday afternoon during Lego Club. Another volunteer happened to have a little plastic baggie, so the tooth was safe until bedtime. Incidentally, David was grossed out about putting a nasty bloody tooth under his pillow, even though it was in a plastic baggie. He insisted on leaving the tooth on the other side of the room. To be honest, I can't blame him. Fortunately, the tooth fairy found the tooth in its less than traditional keeping place.

2. PARTY. A few weeks ago we drove to Milwaukee for a party. My kids are always game for a party! We were there to visit Leah, a very dear friend from my mission in the Dominican Republic, and to celebrate her son Ian's third birthday.

This is David, Ian, Noah, Mary, Cole, and Benson.

A good time was had by all. Best of all, I finally got to meet his beautiful baby girl, Sage.

You can see more pictures of the festivities here. I highly recommend you check out the cool pinata Ian's dad made. But then come right back because I have more stuff for you here.

3. CAREER PLANS. Mary announced, unprompted, that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. Oh, it warmed my heart. She also told Daddy that he should be a doctor when he grows up.

4. COUSINS. Back in November, just in the nick of time for Thanksgiving dinner, we discovered real, live cousins here in Madison! This past Saturday I got to go to Deserae's baby shower, then on Sunday she and her husband Mikhael came to dinner AND Deserae's mom was in town too. So we got to visit with Aunt Rula as well!

Here we are with Deserae, Baby Elim, and Rula. Mikhael kindly took the photo.

Baby Elim was a pretty busy that evening. At one point, Deserae let David put his hand on her belly--and Elim gave him a big kick! You should have seen David's face. It was like he'd just seen Santa Claus. Later on, he bragged to Mary about how he'd felt the baby kick. The next morning he was still thinking about it because he asked me if he had ever kicked me when he was inside. When I said that he had--a lot--he wondered why. His theory was that I had poked him with long needles, prompting him to give me a big kick. I assured him that wasn't the case. We look forward to meeting Elim face to face next month. And maybe some more baby kicks.

5. BASKETBALL. Right now would be as good of place as any to post pictures of David playing on his kindergarten basketball team. Except that I haven't taken any. Which is okay because I think this is one of those things we'd all rather forget. (Help!! What do you do when your kid is terrible at something???) I have to give David credit for going faithfully and happily to every game. But he definitely doesn't come home happy. He comes home every time broken-hearted because he knows he's the worst player. The problem is that he won't not go! He never says no to something that could potentially be fun. But we're running out of potential. Quitters never win, but quitters also don't get their confidence flushed down the toilet by a bunch of double-dribbling, traveling, fouling five-year-olds. How I wish my son would say, "I quit!" Do you think it's wrong to conveniently not tell him about the last game? Is that lying? Is lying to your kid in a situation like this wrong? I just don't think his self-esteem can take another game--and I know my heart can't.

6. VALENTINE COOKIES. On Monday night, my good friend Skye offered to watch our kids so Greg and I could go out to dinner . . . ALONE. Aaaah, it was so nice. In our absence, the kids all had a blast together, but they didn't get around to decorating the valentines cookies. So we all got to go back to Skye's house together the next day for a big heart cookie decorating extravaganza.

Fun, fun!

And yummy!

Though, as you can see from this little friend, decorating cookies can be a bit tiring.

Skye is also David's fabulous Primary teacher at church. (David is learning so much this year!) What a sweet woman to happily hang out with David three days in a row!

7. WEATHER. I am going to complain just for a moment about the weather. (Deal with it.) Everyone else in the state is walking on clouds of joy because we've been experiencing some balmy 40-degree days. But it's making me grouchy. First of all, I think I'm colder than ever. That's because it feels so dang warm that I don't bother to wear a coat or blow dry my hair. This winter is messing with my brain. Secondly, it feels like spring, but it's not really spring. I don't like Mother Nature lying to me. The world is dreary and soggy and muddy and brown and goopy-green and covered with a patchwork of dirty snow. Dirty snow! I hate dirty snow. I can find nothing aesthetically pleasing about dirty snow. All this warm weather has brought to us is ugliness. And in a few days the temperature will drop, and the ugliness will be FROZEN IN PLACE. We'll be stuck with it, and the feeling of hope will be gone. (Can you tell I am having a glass half empty week?)

8. PROTEST DAY. School was cancelled today. No, it was not because we're drowning in an ocean of MUCK (see item #7). In case you haven't heard, the teachers--and a lot of other folks--are down at the capitol today. We heard an audio clip of the protests on the radio this morning, and David proudly declared, "I think I hear Mrs. Q!" (Since then, I've been careful to avoid audio and visual news accounts today--there is a lot of protesting going on these days and it can be confusing for a little kid to understand the difference between what's happening in Bahrain and what's happening down the road.) I suppose today proves that, as much as I love living here, I am not a true Madisonian: Instead of taking my kids to the capitol for an educational experience in democracy, we stayed home for play dates. And to stack stuff up....

Which brings me to the end of this stack of stuff.

Mary's message

Mary loves nothing more than to disappear with my camera. I never know what I'm going to upload. Mary must have commandeered my camera at some point this weekend because I found some unusual pictures on it this morning.

I uploaded this.

Isn't that sweet? Perfect timing! Is it possibly, really a message for me?

If so, then the message behind this picture

is "Mom, you really should not take showers, lest a can of syrupy mandarin oranges ends up right next to your computer." Now, I do not know if the can was open at the time of the photograph, but I do know the can was open after my shower. So there is reason to believe the can was open right next to my laptop. Scary! I am henceforth removing "showering" from my schedule. Sorry for the smell.

This picture says

"Hey, Mom, check out the depth of field action I can get on your point and shoot without even trying! Ha ha, I'd like to see YOU get any bokeh with that little camera!"

Also,

"There are crumbs on your table."

And then there was this picture.

I believe Mary's message was, "Mom, are you ever going to wipe the crusty snot off my face? Or the remains of that Oreo cookie?"

Actually, that's not fair. I think Mary's message was simply

"Hi!"

I love you too, Funny Bunny.

P.S. As for my message to you today, I refer you back to Mary's first picture.

I'm an admirer

Along with a load of pencils, candy, and temporary tattoos, David brought home this valentine from his teacher.

I am so grateful for this lady! She is competent, caring, consistent, confident, comfortable, creative and a lot of other good words that start with 'c'. She is also a lot of things that start with other letters too. For instance, 'e' for experienced, 'o' for organized, 'u' for unflappable, and 'p' for patient. Actually, that would have to be Patient with a capital 'P'.

I love this sweet picture of David and Mrs. Q. I think I'll always have a special place in my heart for the kindergarten teacher of my first child. How grateful I am for the positive experience she's provided for David and our whole family.

P.S. You want to know how amazing she is? At Friday's party, the children all opened their valentines carefully, thoughtfully reading each card. Stickers and suckers were removed with care, and cards were lovingly saved to take home. There was none of that ripping off the sucker and tossing the card business. Told you she was amazing. She can teach those kids anything!

Huh? I didn't procrastinate?

I just sent Mary off to school with a sack of valentines, each one carefully signed "Mary". . . by me. Excepting two, she didn't see or touch any of those valentines until this morning, when she dutifully handed them to her teacher--

--who explained that Mary could pass them out on Monday. Monday! Yes, I know Monday is Valentine's Day, but TODAY is the party. Silly me, I just assumed they would be passing out the valentines at the party. Oh well. No harm done. The teacher will hang on to Mary's valentines for safekeeping until Monday.

I guess I didn't have to force Grouch-of-the-Universe to do her valentines yesterday afternoon after all. We could have spread out the lovely process all weekend long. Perhaps we could have even improved each valentine by putting a bird on it.*

But I think I'll just be proud of myself that I didn't procrastinate....even though I didn't know I wasn't procrastinating. That still counts as not procrastinating, right? And I'll be happy that we're all finished with valentines this year. Well, until December 26 anyway.

*Perhaps chickens are more your kind of bird.

Valentines

The other day I was at Target and I overheard a woman, whose young children were begging for Transformer and Dora valentines, say rather too loudly, "Noooooo. Those are PACKAGED valentines. We're going to buy supplies and MAKE valentines for your friends. We don't buy PACKAGED valentines in our family."

Of course she was saying this at the exact moment that I was putting PACKAGED valentines into my cart.

To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty sure she wasn't saying it expressly for my benefit. I caught her eye, and she looked a little embarrassed, like, "Whoops, I shouldn't have said that so loudly." I do believe she'd said it for her kids' benefit. And her own benefit. Anyway, I know I sometimes say things too loudly at the wrong moment. I tell you all this because this post is not about what a jerk the lady at Target was (she probably wasn't), and it's also not some kind of unfair anti-craft tirade.

It's just a confession that I will never be the one to say, "We're going to buy supplies and MAKE valentines for your friends." At least, not unless my kids get some serious tutoring from Martha Stewart and also have class sizes of no more than three. Otherwise, we will be sticking to PACKAGED valentines until high school graduation, thank you very much.

I mean, packaged valentines are painful enough as it is. My oldest kid is only five, and already every time I see the Valentine's Day aisles appear at Target each year, I want to stick a fork in my eye. I guess the problem is that I insist my kids participate in way with their valentines. Even if they can't write, they can stamp, sticker, and scribble. Maybe I'm too principled, but it seems a little lame for my kid to not even set his hands on the valentines until the day he passes them out at school. It's good to have principles, right?

The problem is that my principles lead to long, excruciating afternoons, usually February 13th, full of coaxing and bribing.

At least David's teacher was looking out for me this year. A month ago she sent home a note encouraging us to get started on valentines early. All of the children are expected to clearly address each valentine as well as clearly signing their names. I was feeling validated in my belief that the kids themselves should be involved somehow with the valentining. But I also recognized that a few stamps, stickers, or scribbles wouldn't be enough. This was the real deal: Legibly addressed envelopes and clear signatures. This was going to be a big undertaking for David.

And so it was with kids like David (who'd rather run than write) in mind that Mrs Q. sent home the note encouraging us to start early. And start early we did. We worked on just a few names every other day for a few weeks, and then they were finished. Just like that. And I didn't stick a fork in my eye! And David only cried once, and that was when he fell off his chair and had nothing to do with the valentines. It was wonderful!

The lesson here is that procrastination is bad.

So don't grumble when the Valentine's Day aisle appears on December 26. I will be there buying my PACKAGED valentines.

Sigh. If only I LEARNED my lesson. Of course, I put off Mary's valentines until this afternoon, when she happens to be Grouch-of-the-Universe. Normally, she loves this kind of stuff. But not today, OF COURSE. She traced her name in cursive on one (she can't write her name, but loves to trace her name in cursive), put a sticker on another, and then ran downstairs bawling hysterically for inexplicable reasons. So I signed the rest myself, and she won't even see them until tomorrow when she's passing them out.

Principles are overrated.