Hi Folks,
Just a minor fail today. Nothing catastrophic. Katie's bangs are way out of control, to the point that she's constantly having to sweep them out of her face. That would be OK, but her hands are nearly always covered in some sort of goo: Play-doh, oatmeal, peanut butter, moon sand, paint, or just plain old dirt. It makes for a very wobegone-looking child. Add to that a sleep-deprived pregnant mama who's been wearing the same clothes for 3 days, and we are quite a sight.
Anyway - today I just didn't feel like running any of our usual errands. We're only somewhat low on milk, we have makings for Dada's sandwiches, and (gasp) I actually have meals planned for the rest of the week. Sure, some of them are Trader Joe's freezer meals, but let's not split hairs. So we didn't really need to go grocery shopping. I figured I'd save the library for tomorrow, since it's supposed to rain. It was too cold for the park (I hear you chortling, readers in snow country!) I was casting about for outing ideas when it hit me:
"Katie, would you like to get your hair cut today? They might have a hair dryer you could play with!"
Katie looked at me, and said "Yes!" (Ok, granted, she probably understood "play" and "hair dryer" out of all those words, but still.) And off we went to the new kids' hair salon that's been so highly recommended. Katie's previous (and diastrous) haircuts were at a different salon, so I'd been asking around for other ideas.
We arrived three minutes after the salon opened, but somehow a stylist was already finishing up a little boy's haircut. I sat with Katie and we talked about how nice and still the boy was sitting in the big chair, and we watched with glee as the stylist got out a pink hairdryer to blow away the extra bits of hair when she was done. There was nobody else in the salon, and, judging from the ample parking out front, nobody else in the entire downtown area.
"Do you have an appointment?" asked the stylist. (I think she's actually the owner.) We didn't have an appointment, but the place was a ghost town. Plus, there was an enormous sign on their window proclaiming "WALK INS WELCOME!" So far, I wasn't feeling particularly welcome. But, undaunted, I said, "No, we don't." The stylist/owner seemed to sigh a little, then said, "OK, have her come sit down."
At this point I thought it prudent to briefly explain that Katie is going through a stage where she's a little wary of strangers. (I didn't mention the previous haircuts with screaming and angry puking.) I asked if Katie could sit on my lap for the haircut, since that's probably the only way it would work. They stylist said no, it would be best for her to sit by herself so she could cut the back of her hair. (Really? No?) So I gamely asked Katie, "Want to climb up and sit in the big girl chair, sweetie?" (Usually climbing is a big enticement.) "No!" OK then, haircut-nazi-lady, she's gonna have to sit in my lap. I swear I saw an eye-roll at this point.
I sat down in the chair and pulled Katie onto my lap. She was OK for a few seconds, distracted by the flat-screen TV in front of her. But then the stylist tried to put a smock over me. "NO! NO! NO!" Katie wiggled down off my lap. I explained that Mama was wearing a pretty purple dress. This seemed to mollify her a little, and I was able to sit her back on my lap. But then the stylist brought out Katie's smock, with cute little animals on it. "NO!!!! NO!!!!" I decided to pull the plug at this point. The lady hadn't even tried to go near her with scissors, and she was already starting to freak out. "Sorry," I said, "she just isn't comfortable with strangers. Do you have kids?" The stylist said "Yes." "Did they ever go through a stage like that?" I asked. "No," she said emphatically.
Well! Needless to say we high-tailed it out of there. Wow, for a place that only does kids' haircuts, you'd think there would be a bit more friendliness. Or warmth. Or some attempt to engage Katie in conversation. Not so much as a "Hi, what's your name!" Doesn't that just crack you up? I've never seen anything like it.
I guess it's back to the original salon! Hope they've forgotten all about Katie's angry-puking incidents. Maybe we'll go under an assumed name. LOL!
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Katie's easel
Despite our general malaise over the 49ers loss, everything is officially back to normal in our household. Anthony made it back from Vegas, exhausted and hoarse but otherwise fine. I'm washing the secondhand-cigarette-smoke "Vegas funk" out of his clothes right now. Katie had a minor meltdown when he came back, and I have a weird feeling she'd been saving up all of her sad feelings about him being gone. Well, she let us have it - LOUDLY - for about 20 minutes yesterday. I just held her and walked with her and let her scream it all out. Boy, was she mad! But after she was done crying, all was forgiven and we went back to our normal routine.
But before Anthony's return yesterday, I had to deal with something I'd been dreading for weeks: my turn for snack duty at Katie's pre-preschool. Snack duty is kind of a big deal. You have to bring four separate choices for the kids, plus a snack for the grownups. Everything has to be nut-free, of course, even though I'm pretty sure none of the kids has allergies. Pretty much every week, the kid whose parent's job it is to make snack has a total meltdown because the snack parent disappears into the kitchen and pretty much stays there the entire class. I wondered, what is involved with snack prep that it takes 45 minutes to set up and 45 minutes to clean up?
Turns out, it just takes a really long time. First you have to unload the dishwasher that was run by the previous class. That's fine, except I ended up opening every single drawer and cabinet, trying to figure out where everything goes. Which takes quite a bit of time! Then I could only find two of the serving trays we normally use, and after searching high and low, realized that there *are* only two even though there are three trays to prepare. The third tray is a flimsy piece of plastic that looks like it was meant to be disposable. Anyway, I somehow figured out where all the dishes went, filled the three trays with goldfish crackers, blueberries, blackberries and shredded cheese, filled three pitchers with water (hope tap was OK, because I didn't know if the bottled water was for our class or not), cut 15 or so croissants in half for the adults and tossed them into a serving basket, and started making trips to the classroom. Four trips later and I thought I had it made.
Teacher Donna asked me if snack was all ready, and I said yes. I tried to get Katie right into line for hand washing, so we could avoid the crowd that quickly forms, but she suddenly got very interested in putting a dolly on a swing set in the playhouse. By the time we got her hands washed, Teacher Donna said something like, "Here, Katie, can you share this towel with Mommy? You guys need to get inside to help with snack!" Oh, I guess I'm not supposed to be out here washing my kid's hands. Oops. Inside the snack room, the tables hadn't been sanitized because someone forgot to put the sanitizer back on its usual shelf. Great. So I couldn't put out the food. Then, once someone found the sanitizer and started cleaning, the president of the school said, "Kim, did you want me to grab the plates for you?" OMG, plates!! Dang it, I thought I'd remembered everything. I even remembered napkins for the grownups and a brown paper bag for composting. Gaaaah! I told the president "Yes, THANK YOU!!!" and she totally saved my bacon by dashing to the kitchen to get the plates. All in all, it went fine, but it sure wasn't easy!
The most amazing and wonderful part, though, is that Katie was SUPER AWESOME the whole time and didn't even miss me. Lucky for us, the easel was set up with lots of paints. One of the moms told me that Katie painted the entire morning while I was making snack! (Again, her clothes are rock-solid proof.) At one point, as I was dashing from the snack room back to the kitchen, I managed to snap a picture of her, mid-stroke:
Teacher Donna was sitting nearby, helping with another project, and I leaned in and said, "That settles it, we're buying Katie an easel tomorrow!" She laughed and said "Yes, she really loves to paint!" So today, that's just what we did. We went back to the local school supply store, armed with a 15% coupon, and bought their double-sided easel. It barely fit in the car! Setting up an unassembled easel with the help of a 2 year old was no small feat. I truly don't know how I managed it! The guy at the store said, "Oh, it's easy, it just goes together with these small wing nuts." True, it did - but keeping said wing nuts out of your toddler's mouth while holding the two legs of the easel and the chalkboard surface together at the same time...I don't know how I did it. But I did. And Katie is enthralled with it. So far, since it's set up indoors, we're only doing crayons (washable ones!) But as soon as the weather improves, I can't wait to buy a bunch of paints!!! Wheeeeeeeeee!
But before Anthony's return yesterday, I had to deal with something I'd been dreading for weeks: my turn for snack duty at Katie's pre-preschool. Snack duty is kind of a big deal. You have to bring four separate choices for the kids, plus a snack for the grownups. Everything has to be nut-free, of course, even though I'm pretty sure none of the kids has allergies. Pretty much every week, the kid whose parent's job it is to make snack has a total meltdown because the snack parent disappears into the kitchen and pretty much stays there the entire class. I wondered, what is involved with snack prep that it takes 45 minutes to set up and 45 minutes to clean up?
Turns out, it just takes a really long time. First you have to unload the dishwasher that was run by the previous class. That's fine, except I ended up opening every single drawer and cabinet, trying to figure out where everything goes. Which takes quite a bit of time! Then I could only find two of the serving trays we normally use, and after searching high and low, realized that there *are* only two even though there are three trays to prepare. The third tray is a flimsy piece of plastic that looks like it was meant to be disposable. Anyway, I somehow figured out where all the dishes went, filled the three trays with goldfish crackers, blueberries, blackberries and shredded cheese, filled three pitchers with water (hope tap was OK, because I didn't know if the bottled water was for our class or not), cut 15 or so croissants in half for the adults and tossed them into a serving basket, and started making trips to the classroom. Four trips later and I thought I had it made.
Teacher Donna asked me if snack was all ready, and I said yes. I tried to get Katie right into line for hand washing, so we could avoid the crowd that quickly forms, but she suddenly got very interested in putting a dolly on a swing set in the playhouse. By the time we got her hands washed, Teacher Donna said something like, "Here, Katie, can you share this towel with Mommy? You guys need to get inside to help with snack!" Oh, I guess I'm not supposed to be out here washing my kid's hands. Oops. Inside the snack room, the tables hadn't been sanitized because someone forgot to put the sanitizer back on its usual shelf. Great. So I couldn't put out the food. Then, once someone found the sanitizer and started cleaning, the president of the school said, "Kim, did you want me to grab the plates for you?" OMG, plates!! Dang it, I thought I'd remembered everything. I even remembered napkins for the grownups and a brown paper bag for composting. Gaaaah! I told the president "Yes, THANK YOU!!!" and she totally saved my bacon by dashing to the kitchen to get the plates. All in all, it went fine, but it sure wasn't easy!
The most amazing and wonderful part, though, is that Katie was SUPER AWESOME the whole time and didn't even miss me. Lucky for us, the easel was set up with lots of paints. One of the moms told me that Katie painted the entire morning while I was making snack! (Again, her clothes are rock-solid proof.) At one point, as I was dashing from the snack room back to the kitchen, I managed to snap a picture of her, mid-stroke:
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| See? She couldn't care less what Mama's up to, when there are paints around! |
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| First crayon masterpiece! |
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Gridiron agony and moon sand revisited
Oh, it was awful. The 49ers were just dismal in the Super Bowl. I don't know how, but Joe Flacco made some incredible passes even though I thought our defensive line did a good job of putting pressure on him. He'd be microseconds away from being sacked, and he'd throw it up in the air and somehow, SOMEHOW, find an unguarded receiver. Over and over and over again. Seriously, what happened to our secondary? Those guys couldn't break up a pass if their lives depended on it. Sigh.
The Super Bowl started at 3:30 Pacific time, which is a difficult time of day to watch football around here. When games start at 10:30, we can record the game and watch the whole thing during Katie's nap. Then the only problem is turning off all electronic devices so no one spoils the game for us.
But today, Katie woke up at 3, so I had to just let her watch the game with me. Actually, for the first 30 minutes, she stayed upstairs in her room, playing. I like this arrangement because we have the baby monitor on down here, so I can hear what she's saying. She's pretty good about tipping me off when she's going to do something naughty, like "Katie climbing!" Once I heard a weird whooshing noise that sounded suspiciously like toilet water being swirled and splashed. I took the stairs two at a time, but it was just Katie making swooshing noises with her mouth. WHEW!
As I've mentioned before, Katie is a lot of fun to watch football games with, but I am not crazy about her seeing all the commercials. She's only somewhat interested in football and can usually keep playing while it's on in the background. But when commercials come on, she gets that creepy glassy-eyed stare that is the #1 reason I don't usually let her watch TV at all. It really gives me the willies. So today I encouraged her to play outside with her Moon Sand while I tried to fast-forward through the commercials, the halftime show, and the game analysis.
After about 15 minutes I went outside to check on her. I can see her through the den window but there's some junk in the way so I couldn't see exactly what she was doing. Turns out, she was doing the exact opposite of my instruction to "keep the moon sand in the sand table." Clearly I have to be there every second, reminding her. Duh, she's two, I should have known that. Moon sand was in her playhouse sink. In the water table. In a bucket. In her play frying pan. Squished into the patio. And, the piece de resistance, as I opened the screen door I caught her in the act of tipping the entire plastic bin over on its side, spilling the moon sand everywhere. Sigh.
So much for moon sand. I managed to get some of it back into its plastic bag, but most of the stuff on the ground had dirt and bits of bark in it. After spending a good 20 minutes sweeping the patio and wiping down Katie's toys, I'm feeling kind of done with moon sand for a while. Maybe I'll try making colored rice instead.
Anyway, sigh - 49ers, you had a spectacular season, sorry it had to end that way. Looking forward to next season!
The Super Bowl started at 3:30 Pacific time, which is a difficult time of day to watch football around here. When games start at 10:30, we can record the game and watch the whole thing during Katie's nap. Then the only problem is turning off all electronic devices so no one spoils the game for us.
But today, Katie woke up at 3, so I had to just let her watch the game with me. Actually, for the first 30 minutes, she stayed upstairs in her room, playing. I like this arrangement because we have the baby monitor on down here, so I can hear what she's saying. She's pretty good about tipping me off when she's going to do something naughty, like "Katie climbing!" Once I heard a weird whooshing noise that sounded suspiciously like toilet water being swirled and splashed. I took the stairs two at a time, but it was just Katie making swooshing noises with her mouth. WHEW!
As I've mentioned before, Katie is a lot of fun to watch football games with, but I am not crazy about her seeing all the commercials. She's only somewhat interested in football and can usually keep playing while it's on in the background. But when commercials come on, she gets that creepy glassy-eyed stare that is the #1 reason I don't usually let her watch TV at all. It really gives me the willies. So today I encouraged her to play outside with her Moon Sand while I tried to fast-forward through the commercials, the halftime show, and the game analysis.
After about 15 minutes I went outside to check on her. I can see her through the den window but there's some junk in the way so I couldn't see exactly what she was doing. Turns out, she was doing the exact opposite of my instruction to "keep the moon sand in the sand table." Clearly I have to be there every second, reminding her. Duh, she's two, I should have known that. Moon sand was in her playhouse sink. In the water table. In a bucket. In her play frying pan. Squished into the patio. And, the piece de resistance, as I opened the screen door I caught her in the act of tipping the entire plastic bin over on its side, spilling the moon sand everywhere. Sigh.
So much for moon sand. I managed to get some of it back into its plastic bag, but most of the stuff on the ground had dirt and bits of bark in it. After spending a good 20 minutes sweeping the patio and wiping down Katie's toys, I'm feeling kind of done with moon sand for a while. Maybe I'll try making colored rice instead.
Anyway, sigh - 49ers, you had a spectacular season, sorry it had to end that way. Looking forward to next season!
Saturday, February 2, 2013
The Vegas Trip, Part 1
So it turns out that rooting for the 49ers all season backfired on me. For more than 10 years, Anthony and a bunch of his friends have gone to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. No, the Super Bowl isn't held in Vegas, it's just (apparently) a good place to watch sports. (And strippers. Ugh.) Before we were married, I was pretty much OK with him going. After we were married, I started to get a little huffy about it. The February after Katie was born (2011), I was glad that Anthony volunteered to skip it, because I would have had to put my foot down and that probably would have gotten ugly.
But he went last year, much to my dismay. As always, he came back utterly exhausted. We'd finally gotten Katie to sleep through the night at that point but we ourselves still weren't sleeping well. Let's just say going to Vegas and staying in a hotel room with 3 other guys, drinking, gambling and staying out till all hours of the night didn't help his sleeping problem at all. So this year after Christmas I asked him whether he'd be going to Vegas in 2013, and he said "nah."
And then the Niners pulled off a spectacular finish to their season, thanks to the on-field antics of Colin Kaepernick, who is a "double threat" with his arm and his ability to rush. Before we knew it, the Niners were going to the Super Bowl! As the clock ran out on the NFC Championship game, I looked at Anthony and said, "You want to go to Vegas, don't you?" Sigh. I couldn't say no - Anthony loves the Niners as much as I love the Dodgers, maybe even more. And the Niners haven't had a prayer of going to the Super Bowl for a really long time. And I knew Anthony would rather watch the game in a sports bar surrounded by his friends than on the couch with me and Katie - me asking inane questions about penalties and Katie climbing all over him during critical plays.
So we decided he'd go. He booked a ridiculously priced last-minute full-fare ticket to Vegas. I didn't even ask him how much it cost - I don't want to know. And then, two nights ago, he dropped another bombshell. His brother is flying his Cessna to Vegas and asked Anthony if he wanted to come along. OMG.
Anthony's brother is a fun guy. He's a bit of a daredevil - drives fast cars and all that. Eight or so years ago, he had a Mooney. I won't mince words here - he crashed it, simple as that. Ironically, he was on his way back from a flight training course in which they learned how to safely evacuate the aircraft in the event of a crash. Came in handy that day! He walked away unharmed, but the memory of the charred interior of the plane is still etched in my mind.
However, my dad is a private pilot and I've flown with him umpteen times. I know that flying a small plane really isn't that dangerous - it just seems like it because there's a lot of media coverage when something goes wrong. But the difference between flying with my dad and flying with Anthony' brother is...well, my dad's been flying for over 50 years. He's meticulous about safety and flight planning. He pays close attention to weather, makes sure not to exceed baggage weight limits, and spends what seems like an inordinate amount of time on his pre-flight check. My dad won't fly into certain airports if the runway isn't long enough. (I can't remember why, but this is important when landing a twin-engine plane.) Once when we were flying to Mammoth Mountain to ski, I noticed a thin trail of oil leaking from one engine. My dad turned the plane right around and we went back home. It turned out to be something minor that wouldn't have affected our flight, but he just doesn't take chances.
Anthony's brother, on the other hand...well, I've never flown with him so I don't know if he's meticulous. But nothing else about his personality screams "safety first." And then there's that crash! Officially it was ruled to be not his fault, but Mooneys have a reputation for being "too much plane" for their owners. They're often bought by inexperienced pilots because they're flashy and very fast. Too fast, for some. So I'm glad that today Anthony is flying in a Cessna. My dad has owned several over the years, and they've been very reliable.
Anyway - I just got a text, they landed safely! YAY! Come to think of it, Anthony is a brilliant tactician. I'm so relieved that he's OK that I don't even care about the strip clubs awaiting him! Smart man! LOL.
GO 49ERS!!!
But he went last year, much to my dismay. As always, he came back utterly exhausted. We'd finally gotten Katie to sleep through the night at that point but we ourselves still weren't sleeping well. Let's just say going to Vegas and staying in a hotel room with 3 other guys, drinking, gambling and staying out till all hours of the night didn't help his sleeping problem at all. So this year after Christmas I asked him whether he'd be going to Vegas in 2013, and he said "nah."
And then the Niners pulled off a spectacular finish to their season, thanks to the on-field antics of Colin Kaepernick, who is a "double threat" with his arm and his ability to rush. Before we knew it, the Niners were going to the Super Bowl! As the clock ran out on the NFC Championship game, I looked at Anthony and said, "You want to go to Vegas, don't you?" Sigh. I couldn't say no - Anthony loves the Niners as much as I love the Dodgers, maybe even more. And the Niners haven't had a prayer of going to the Super Bowl for a really long time. And I knew Anthony would rather watch the game in a sports bar surrounded by his friends than on the couch with me and Katie - me asking inane questions about penalties and Katie climbing all over him during critical plays.
So we decided he'd go. He booked a ridiculously priced last-minute full-fare ticket to Vegas. I didn't even ask him how much it cost - I don't want to know. And then, two nights ago, he dropped another bombshell. His brother is flying his Cessna to Vegas and asked Anthony if he wanted to come along. OMG.
Anthony's brother is a fun guy. He's a bit of a daredevil - drives fast cars and all that. Eight or so years ago, he had a Mooney. I won't mince words here - he crashed it, simple as that. Ironically, he was on his way back from a flight training course in which they learned how to safely evacuate the aircraft in the event of a crash. Came in handy that day! He walked away unharmed, but the memory of the charred interior of the plane is still etched in my mind.
However, my dad is a private pilot and I've flown with him umpteen times. I know that flying a small plane really isn't that dangerous - it just seems like it because there's a lot of media coverage when something goes wrong. But the difference between flying with my dad and flying with Anthony' brother is...well, my dad's been flying for over 50 years. He's meticulous about safety and flight planning. He pays close attention to weather, makes sure not to exceed baggage weight limits, and spends what seems like an inordinate amount of time on his pre-flight check. My dad won't fly into certain airports if the runway isn't long enough. (I can't remember why, but this is important when landing a twin-engine plane.) Once when we were flying to Mammoth Mountain to ski, I noticed a thin trail of oil leaking from one engine. My dad turned the plane right around and we went back home. It turned out to be something minor that wouldn't have affected our flight, but he just doesn't take chances.
Anthony's brother, on the other hand...well, I've never flown with him so I don't know if he's meticulous. But nothing else about his personality screams "safety first." And then there's that crash! Officially it was ruled to be not his fault, but Mooneys have a reputation for being "too much plane" for their owners. They're often bought by inexperienced pilots because they're flashy and very fast. Too fast, for some. So I'm glad that today Anthony is flying in a Cessna. My dad has owned several over the years, and they've been very reliable.
Anyway - I just got a text, they landed safely! YAY! Come to think of it, Anthony is a brilliant tactician. I'm so relieved that he's OK that I don't even care about the strip clubs awaiting him! Smart man! LOL.
GO 49ERS!!!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Moon sand!
Yesterday I made "Cloud Dough" or "Moon Sand" for Katie, and it was a resounding success. She prefers to call it "Moon Sand," probably because she can pronounce both "moon" and "sand" and because she knows what those two words mean. She knows what "cloud" means but I'm not sure about "dough." Anyway - she loved it.
It wasn't nearly as messy as I'd feared it would be. One of the two ingredients is oil, so I thought it might stain our flagstone patio. But it didn't - I swept the spillage into the garden and that was that. I was surprised how little did spill, actually. Must have been my repeated requests to keep the sand inside the sand table!
The recipe called for 8 parts flour and 1 part baby oil, but I read online that baby oil is actually toxic. It can be fatal if aspirated, although I don't really think that's a possibility with Moon Sand. But it can also make you sick if ingested, and that totally is a possibility with, well, everything a 2 year old plays with. So I went with canola oil instead. It doesn't smell nice like baby oil, but otherwise it's quite similar. The finished product feels smooth like fine sand but sticks together if you squeeze it. Katie had a blast doing just that. I also had bought her some neat little sand molds from the awesome school supply store I just found. I almost went crazy in there but managed to limit myself to the sand molds and some wooden beads for stringing. :)
Anyway, here's Katie, enjoying her Moon Sand! I put it in an old plastic storage container for which we've lost the lid. Apparently we stole it from my mother-in-law, as it has a label with her name and address on it. Whoopsie! And don't you love the stylish duct-tape-and-cardboard-box pedestal on which it sits? Seriously, I must secretly be a redneck.
It wasn't nearly as messy as I'd feared it would be. One of the two ingredients is oil, so I thought it might stain our flagstone patio. But it didn't - I swept the spillage into the garden and that was that. I was surprised how little did spill, actually. Must have been my repeated requests to keep the sand inside the sand table!
The recipe called for 8 parts flour and 1 part baby oil, but I read online that baby oil is actually toxic. It can be fatal if aspirated, although I don't really think that's a possibility with Moon Sand. But it can also make you sick if ingested, and that totally is a possibility with, well, everything a 2 year old plays with. So I went with canola oil instead. It doesn't smell nice like baby oil, but otherwise it's quite similar. The finished product feels smooth like fine sand but sticks together if you squeeze it. Katie had a blast doing just that. I also had bought her some neat little sand molds from the awesome school supply store I just found. I almost went crazy in there but managed to limit myself to the sand molds and some wooden beads for stringing. :)
Anyway, here's Katie, enjoying her Moon Sand! I put it in an old plastic storage container for which we've lost the lid. Apparently we stole it from my mother-in-law, as it has a label with her name and address on it. Whoopsie! And don't you love the stylish duct-tape-and-cardboard-box pedestal on which it sits? Seriously, I must secretly be a redneck.
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| Whee! |
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| She'd lost interest after a while, until I tried to clean up the moon sand. Then suddenly it was fascinating again! |
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Oh, for an uninterrupted nap...
I am not ready for Katie to wake up from her nap yet. She fell asleep around 1:00 and instead of flopping on the couch, exhausted, I decided to spring into action.
First, I fixed one of Katie's favorite bath toys - a wind-up fish whose tail flips back and forth so he really swims. He recently stopped flipping, and Katie was pretty disappointed. I cracked that bad boy open, squirted in some WD-40 (my favorite fix-all!) and he's good as, well, used. He's not 100% better, but at least he flips a little now. I'm sure it'll be good enough for Katie.
Then, I quietly and stealthily hid both of Katie's Santa Claus dolls until next December. It's not that I don't want her to play with them, but I think they'll lose significance if they're just out all year long. I remember that I used to LOVE opening up our boxes of Christmas decorations every year, and seeing some favorite old holiday friends. The funny thing about these Santa dolls is that my mom gave Katie two identical ones - but we only officially "gave" her one. One lived upstairs in her room, and the other one downstairs in the den. She never saw them together, so I'm not sure if she realized that there are two! She might just think Santa is everywhere at once. LOL!
Then I decided to get a head start on dinner. I'm making a casserole for the first time in decades. I'm pretty sure I made one once before, but I really can't remember. What usually turns me off from casserole recipes is that they nearly always call for cans of condensed soup. I'm not a food snob (my love of Kraft Mac n Cheese is proof) but condensed soup just seems so salty and full of chemicals. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Then I found a recipe for homemade cream-of-anything soup! And it's not even hard to make. It just takes a little uninterrupted time, which is why I decided to do it during nap time.
Unfortunately, Katie woke up screaming while I was chopping the onion. Luckily I hadn't put it in the pan yet. I turned off all the burners and went upstairs to calm her down. She went back into her crib without a struggle. Next I was elbow-deep in onions and mushrooms, and about to start making a roux, when she woke up again. She's been up intermittently ever since, making little snuffling noises and whimpers, but not full-on crying, so I'm trying to let her settle herself back down.
But I didn't get to finish making the casserole and I probably won't be able to during this nap. Too much going on! I refrigerated the cream of mushroom soup and the chicken I'd cooked in the crockpot. Hopefully it won't be too hard to heat them up later and throw them together with some frozen veg and some cooked shell pasta. Sigh. I'm on tenterhooks, waiting to see how this dish will turn out!
The other thing I want to try to do is make some "Cloud Dough" for Katie to play with. I've been waiting for a reasonably mild, non-rainy day to try this, so Katie can play with it outdoors. That stuff is NOT coming inside! It's 8 parts flour and 1 part mineral oil, and it's supposed to have similar properties to Moon Sand. It feels soft to the touch but you can mold it into shapes like damp sand. They had some in the sensory bin at school last week and Katie was totally engrossed in playing with it. Sounds super fun and super messy. Let's hope she won't protest too loudly when it's time to put it away.
Oh, and I almost forgot! I had a super scary moment today, and that reminds me - I need to make a trip to Home Depot when Katie wakes up. Maybe Cloud Dough will have to wait until tomorrow. Katie was playing in the backyard before lunch, and I was unloading the dishwasher. I can see her out of the kitchen window, but there's also more space on the side of the house where I can't see her. I got that "Spidey sense" that I hadn't heard her voice for a minute or two, so I went outside to see what trouble she'd gotten into. THE GATE WAS OPEN! She was gone! I don't think I've ever run so fast in my entire life. She was right out front, trotting along the sidewalk with the most triumphant smile I'd ever seen. Thank God! True to my parenting books, I didn't scream at her (aside from the "KATHERINE ELIZABETH!" I let out when I saw the gate open.) I simply knelt down beside her, took her hand and said, "Katie, I'm so glad you're OK, but it isn't safe for you to be outside by yourself. Let's go inside and have lunch." She screamed when I picked her up, of course, but only for a few seconds. I wonder if maybe she understood what had just happened?
Anyway, off to Home Depot for a new lock for our gate! SHEEEEEEEEESH!
First, I fixed one of Katie's favorite bath toys - a wind-up fish whose tail flips back and forth so he really swims. He recently stopped flipping, and Katie was pretty disappointed. I cracked that bad boy open, squirted in some WD-40 (my favorite fix-all!) and he's good as, well, used. He's not 100% better, but at least he flips a little now. I'm sure it'll be good enough for Katie.
Then, I quietly and stealthily hid both of Katie's Santa Claus dolls until next December. It's not that I don't want her to play with them, but I think they'll lose significance if they're just out all year long. I remember that I used to LOVE opening up our boxes of Christmas decorations every year, and seeing some favorite old holiday friends. The funny thing about these Santa dolls is that my mom gave Katie two identical ones - but we only officially "gave" her one. One lived upstairs in her room, and the other one downstairs in the den. She never saw them together, so I'm not sure if she realized that there are two! She might just think Santa is everywhere at once. LOL!
Then I decided to get a head start on dinner. I'm making a casserole for the first time in decades. I'm pretty sure I made one once before, but I really can't remember. What usually turns me off from casserole recipes is that they nearly always call for cans of condensed soup. I'm not a food snob (my love of Kraft Mac n Cheese is proof) but condensed soup just seems so salty and full of chemicals. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Then I found a recipe for homemade cream-of-anything soup! And it's not even hard to make. It just takes a little uninterrupted time, which is why I decided to do it during nap time.
Unfortunately, Katie woke up screaming while I was chopping the onion. Luckily I hadn't put it in the pan yet. I turned off all the burners and went upstairs to calm her down. She went back into her crib without a struggle. Next I was elbow-deep in onions and mushrooms, and about to start making a roux, when she woke up again. She's been up intermittently ever since, making little snuffling noises and whimpers, but not full-on crying, so I'm trying to let her settle herself back down.
But I didn't get to finish making the casserole and I probably won't be able to during this nap. Too much going on! I refrigerated the cream of mushroom soup and the chicken I'd cooked in the crockpot. Hopefully it won't be too hard to heat them up later and throw them together with some frozen veg and some cooked shell pasta. Sigh. I'm on tenterhooks, waiting to see how this dish will turn out!
The other thing I want to try to do is make some "Cloud Dough" for Katie to play with. I've been waiting for a reasonably mild, non-rainy day to try this, so Katie can play with it outdoors. That stuff is NOT coming inside! It's 8 parts flour and 1 part mineral oil, and it's supposed to have similar properties to Moon Sand. It feels soft to the touch but you can mold it into shapes like damp sand. They had some in the sensory bin at school last week and Katie was totally engrossed in playing with it. Sounds super fun and super messy. Let's hope she won't protest too loudly when it's time to put it away.
Oh, and I almost forgot! I had a super scary moment today, and that reminds me - I need to make a trip to Home Depot when Katie wakes up. Maybe Cloud Dough will have to wait until tomorrow. Katie was playing in the backyard before lunch, and I was unloading the dishwasher. I can see her out of the kitchen window, but there's also more space on the side of the house where I can't see her. I got that "Spidey sense" that I hadn't heard her voice for a minute or two, so I went outside to see what trouble she'd gotten into. THE GATE WAS OPEN! She was gone! I don't think I've ever run so fast in my entire life. She was right out front, trotting along the sidewalk with the most triumphant smile I'd ever seen. Thank God! True to my parenting books, I didn't scream at her (aside from the "KATHERINE ELIZABETH!" I let out when I saw the gate open.) I simply knelt down beside her, took her hand and said, "Katie, I'm so glad you're OK, but it isn't safe for you to be outside by yourself. Let's go inside and have lunch." She screamed when I picked her up, of course, but only for a few seconds. I wonder if maybe she understood what had just happened?
Anyway, off to Home Depot for a new lock for our gate! SHEEEEEEEEESH!
Monday, January 28, 2013
School days
Hi Folks! Not much to report, but here's some random stuff that happened at school today:
I got a tiny one-up on a semi-Perfect Mom. She was supervising the sensory table, which today was filled with red-dyed rice and some sand sifters. Katie was enjoying herself and wanted to take one of the sifters (full of rice) and balance it on the edge of the sensory bin, spilling lots of rice on the ground. The mom in charge said, "Katie, please keep this toy inside the table," just like we're supposed to say. But Katie doesn't always respond to this "positive discipline" approach - it's as if she's saying, "But what I'm doing is so much more interesting!" She kept at it, so I intervened. I echoed the "keep the the toy inside the table" but I followed up by handing her one of the plastic spoons that was lying around, and saying "Look, you can scoop some rice into the sifter like this!" (This is known as redirection.) Problem solved. So hah, other mom, I'm not totally useless after all! I guess it wasn't so much a one-up but a demonstration that I am, after all, a competent parent. :D
I also got into some weird conversations with Weird Dad. I've been puzzling about this guy for a while now. He is the only dad in our class, except for some dads who come once in a while when the mom is sick or something. (Which, by the way, is cool - it's great having dads at our school.) He's really nice and super friendly - he always has a smile on his face and he just adores his son Cadence. But he is utterly useless as a supervising parent, because he'd rather talk to people than watch the kids. You can tell that he loves the kids, but he's just so much more interested in chatting than supervising. Usually he can be found floating around, talking to people or following his son, even when he's supposed to be supervising something. Several times I've heard Teacher Donna have to remind him to watch his station. Supervising is kind of a big deal with two-year-olds. You can't just wander off!
He always looks at me and smiles at me like he's dying to be friends with me because he's friends with everyone and why on earth haven't I talked to him? What I mean is, it's not because he thinks we have anything in common or wants to talk to me about anything in particular, but because he's a huge extravert who needs to be talking to someone at every second of every day. The first conversation today went something like this:
Me: (trying to start up a friendly conversation) Isn't it cute how the kids are becoming more friendly with each other? Katie knows Cadence by name because we've seen him a few times at the park.
Weird Dad: Oh yeah, you know, it's funny, we have a lot of people chasing him around the park because he just won't share that toy, it's so weird, I ask him to share but he says no until he's done playing with it, and then half an hour later he's ready to just let it go and let the other kids play.
Me: (puzzled, because we've never had any such interaction with Cadence - there was no toy around and he was just playing like any other kid) Oh, uh…yeah.
W.D.: I don't know why, he just won't share until he's bored with something, and then he will.
Me: Well, that sounds perfectly normal to me!
W.D.: Yeah, i don't know.
<thank goodness something interrupted us at this point>
It's conversations like these that make me wonder if I missed a huge chunk of the conversation, or if I'm visiting another planet? I'm definitely missing something!
The second conversation went like this. It was during clean-up and I was in charge of spraying and wiping down the tables, and W.D. was in charge of mopping the floor.
Me: Ah, just like at home, huh? (Meaning, the constant mopping and wiping)
W.D.: Oh sure, it's so great to be here, the kids love it.
Me: (changing gears) Oh, well, yes, we love it here too!
W.D.: It's so nice that the kids are so close in age and they're going through the same things, which means the parents are going through the same things too.
Me: Yes, it's really wonderful. We love Little Hands.
So you see, he really is nice…I just don't know who he's talking to in his mind. He's definitely not talking to me, at least not in the way I define talking to someone. He's more talking "at" me, if you know what I mean. Weeeird.
Let's see, what else happened? Katie had a marvelous time with paints, her clothes will attest to that. She was covered in pink, red and white paint (Valentine's day colors) from bellybutton to thigh - precisely the height of the crafts table. But hey, at least there wasn't much in her hair this time. Her hands are bright red from the dyed red rice. Interestingly, Teacher Donna had us each make some more dyed rice during Parent Discussion, with the dual purpose of teaching us how to make it, and making more for the next class. One of the moms wondered if it is colorfast once it dries, and I said I doubted it. Judging from Katie's hands, it looks like I was right!
Oh, and the class admin called me out for not turning in a form. I'm both annoyed and ashamed about this. The form in question is a doctor's note excusing me from taking a TB test because I'm pregnant. I told her I'd give her the form after my first prenatal visit a couple of months ago, but my doctor refused to write me a note! However, it's totally obvious that I'm pregnant, so I figured that my growing belly would be enough proof for the school. Evidently it's not, and the admin is really ticked off at me. But I don't know what else to tell her...I'm pregnant, so I'm not going to do the test, but I can't get a doctor's note. I volunteered to give her a copy of my ultrasound pictures, or of the email that Kaiser sent me saying my pregnancy test was positive...ugh. Super annoyed.
But mostly it was a good day at school. It is so cute how much Katie loves it! She totally knows her classmates by name now, and we have a great time during the drive there, talking about who we're going to see. Then on the way home we talk about which kids we saw. And of course she has to tell Dada all about school at dinner. Love, love, love this age! (Well, most of the time, hahaha!)
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