Spring is almost here

Yes, the robins have taken over our front yard so Spring must be near!

I'm feeling much better -- finally. DH is in the midst of his "crazy season" with appropriations. This year they have compressed the schedule so he is only crazy for 2 weeks instead of 2 months like last year. His final deadline is on Friday March 17, so he'll be "normal" again the following day.

As an example of his schedule -- he had to be at a fundraiser last night until 7 pm so he got home at 7:30 pm. I had a civic association board meeting at 8 pm and wasn't home until 10 pm. He had a briefing first thing this morning so he had to leave the house at 7 am.

Nicholas started in the 2's classroom last Thursday so he is in his "big boy" classroom now. He is very excited! Both of them start swimming classes again this coming weekend.

We got Natalie a baseball (tee ball) glove and bat this past weekend. Also have the tee stand. Her glove and batting gloves are PINK! Have to get her a helmet, too.

We are planning on going kite flying this weekend. DH has to work one of the afternoons so if the forecast holds, we'll go kite flying Saturday afternoon and I'll take the kids somewhere (???) Sunday afternoon. I might take them to the movies to see Curious George.

Now let's just have the weather forecast hold...

Green Eggs and Ham...and bacon, and cleaning, and working

Natalie was in tears while I read Green Eggs and Ham. Why? Because her friends were sharing her Mommy.

I did get quite a welcoming -- 8 little faces shrieking "SHE'S HERE!!!!" as I walked towards the classroom door. And the kids were all great. Except for Natalie. She went into TOTAL meltdown. And when I was done reading the story, she didn't want me to leave.

*sigh* Not a fun way to return to the office.

And speaking of offices...looks like Mr. Tierney has done it again in his NY Times piece. Amanda posted about it a few days ago and I read about it on Elizabeth's site. And Bitch PhD summed it up -- we are just darn tired. And are working dads equally tired?

And, for the record, I'm happily married. I'd appreciate it a little if DH could be home earlier so I didn't have to listen to "I'm hungry" calls at 6:10 pm until 7 pm, but, like he told me tonight last night, he has to be in the office from 9 am until 6 pm. No options.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

March 2 is Dr. Seuss' birthday and I'm going to my daughter's pre-school in the morning to read Green Eggs and Ham. I'm not sure who is more excited about it -- my daughter or all her friends that she told at pre-school today!

My Little Man is getting ready to move into the 2's class in mid-March. He's been 2 since December, but he has no spot to move to -- until one of Natalie's classmates left the program because Mom is switching jobs. So a spot opened up in pre-school, which started the whole "domino effect" thing. So Nicholas doesn't have to wait until June to move like we had first thought.

DH is staying home on Friday as the kids have an in-service day. We try to swap off as much as we can, so I covered the January in-service and DH will cover this one. They should all have fun together. In the meantime, I am meeting the literacy coordinator at our local elementary school that day to get a sense of how they handle varying pre-reading/reading issues in the classroom. The decision between public and private Kindergarten is maddening, I tell you. Just what does one really get for $17K a year? Or, as someone suggested to me today, is it what you get or what you are avoiding for $17K a year?


DH is in work madness until Saint Patrick's Day. I kiddingly told him, "I'll talk to you in 2 weeks" -- but that really isn't so far from the truth. Looks like I will have exclusive parenting duty for the next two weekends.

PLEASE let there be nice weather this weekend!!! *grin*

Light posting

Yes, I know -- very light posting recently because I have been sick. As in REALLY sick. As in Fevers: The Sequel. Blech.

We did go see Clifford The Big Red Dog at the Warner Theatre this weekend. It was fun and both kids were wide eyed through most of it. I just love bringing them to live theater -- even if it is Clifford -- because it is an important "arts" element for them to learn to appreciate.

More tomorrow.

The citizen outreach meeting

Yes, I went to the citizen outreach meeting tonight. I am so very sick right now but went just the same. I have actually been sick since Thursday, but spiked a fever Friday, through the entire weekend, and now I'm down to 100 degrees.

But I went to the meeting. To learn that this process is so VERY long.

This weekend I was buried with stuff for work but I managed to take some time Saturday to not only take Natalie to dance class but for all of us to go to the MCI Center to see Disney on Ice: Princess Classics. We all had a great time! Nicholas had just enough right after the intermission, and DH took him back to the car (inside the MCI Center parking garage) where Little Man fell asleep after about two minutes. Natalie, on the other hand, was enraptured throughout. And the second half of the show was all about Cinderella. My Little Princess was SO happy!

Sunday was me stuck working as well as Monday. Except I went to the doctors on Monday. Yes, I have a fever. Who would have guessed?? (sarcasm off)

Next up -- a few of us are planning a neighborhood egg hunt. If you have any tips on organizing an egg hunt, please send them my way!

Civic Association

We had an "emergency meeting" of our civic association board tonight. (I have some sort of title -- "Director of Communications" or something like that. Of course we can't even locate our by-laws, so we are in a little bit of disrepair. *giggle*) There's a proposal to tear down a small strip mall and replace it with 75% residential housing units (rental apartments) and a new shopping center. Of course we just happened to hear about this, and it was AFTER the public hearing last November. So next Tuesday there is a "public outreach meeting" to communicate what in the world is about to be festooned onto us. And we are going to be very vocal with our District Supervisor to let her know we are none too happy about how she begged and pleaded that the civic association be re-established so citizens would know what is going on the in the District, but then she does not even communicate anything to the civic association!

More later...

The birthday party -- and first time skating

Natalie skipped dance class this morning so we would have an easier time making it to C's birthday party at the skating rink. Natalie has been talking about this birthday party for weeks. She was ready with her new Cinderella bicycle helmet, too.

I'll have to figure out a way to get the video I captured on the Treo onto the blog -- it was VERY fun. She did great -- mostly falling down, but she was LAUGHING through it all. Then she resorted to licking snow off her gloves! She was very proud of herself -- as well as she should be.

Next weekend we're going to see Disney on Ice with the princesses. I think she'll have a new-found appreciation for skating.

We are under a "heavy snow warning" until tomorrow morning. I had wanted to bring Nicholas to the train show, but I think we'll skip that and play in the snow instead. It's not like we have had a great deal of snow this winter. Actually, the last time we had snow was early December, which technically wasn't even winter!

Maybe Natalie will start skating lessons in the fall -- we'll see!

Kindergarten Information Night - Bailey's Elementary

Tonight I went to "information night" at Bailey's Elementary. Bailey's is "the magnet school" that everyone talks about in Fairfax County. So DH got home at 6:25 pm tonight so I could be out the door at 6:30 pm to attend the information session.

The school principal did a brief presentation and then said "anyone interested in full immersion Kindergarten, go over that way" into the corner. There must have been 70 people that were herded towards one of the Kindergarten classes. But they never made it clear that two of the Kindergarten classes are full immersion, and there are another SIX classes that are "plain ol'" Kindergarten classrooms. I think this confused lots of parents. It wasn't clear to me until over two hours later after Q&A with the principal!

We visited the various "labs" of the school. I am particularly interested in science education, as I think science education is getting shortened up right now thanks to Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) and other "mandatory testing" requirements. The science teacher is amazing at Bailey's! What a fortunate school to have someone like her there! But she focuses on older children. So if we were to send Natalie there, I am honestly not sure how much she would gain from the school. Plus she would have to be out of her neighborhood (which is something I absolutely hated about going to a "gifted & talented" program when I was in 4th through 6th grade) and, since we are a household with two working parents, any playdates would be relegated to the weekends. And that is just not fair to Nicholas, either.

I think we are going with our neighborhood elementary school. Our Kindergarten orientation is in April. I think we'll just have to figure out ways to augment science education into "after school" stuff.

2 AM musings

Around 2 am this morning, my daughter was at the side of my bed.

"Mommy? Are you awake?"

"Yes, sweetheart, what's the matter?" I mumbled.

"Mommy, I only want to wear dresses at Walt Disney World and not shorts. Boys can't wear dresses so I want to wear dresses."

"Okay Natalie," I replied.

"Thanks, Mommy. I love you." And she kissed my cheek.

"I love you, too, angel. Go back to bed."

"I will Mommy. I love you." And back to bed she went.

Sparklers

We went to a belated "family-oriented" New Year's Eve party last night -- it was rescheduled from New Year's Eve due to the hostess having a pretty bad cold/flu thing going on for the beginning of 2006. We took Natalie and Nicholas out for a long ride before the party so they would sleep. (Little Man is a nap refuser on the weekend.) We all had a great time.

Natalie had her first experience with sparklers. Initially she was afraid of "fire" but after 10 minutes or so of all the children (including some 2 year-olds) holding sparklers with their parents, Natalie really liked it and was holding two sparklers at a time (with Dad nearby). Nicholas was not really interested in the sparklers -- much more into Thomas the Tank Engine. (No shock there.)

Nick was starting to get a little cranky, so we left around 7:30 pm, and then headed home to watch Herbie Fully Loaded. It was a much better movie then I thought it would be! I was a little hesitant to add it to our queue in NetFlix, but I'm glad we did. Even Nick was laughing hard in parts of it. Jeff Gordon was actually quite good in his cameo, too.

More on Jacob Robida

Thank goodness he has been stopped.

Jacob Robida

Wow -- the whole Jacob Robida thing is way too freaky.

1. His mother is the sister of someone I went to middle school/high school with. (I saw her when visiting my parents a couple of years ago -- I had brought my daughter to the local park and "S" was there with a little girl 2 months older than my daughter -- except it was her GRANDCHILD.)
2. DH went to middle school with a "J" Robida (back in the early 70s), who "got into trouble" because he had a Nazi flag on the end of his pencil. DH thinks that "J" is the dad.

This whole thing is frightening. Doesn't help that the parents are clueless idiots.

All Thomas or cars, all the time

Nicholas is big into Thomas the Tank Engine right now. He sleeps with one train in his right hand and one in his left hand. When he wakes up, he wants to know where Thomas is. If it is not Thomas, he wants to know where his cars are. (He has roughly ten of the small 64 scale cars.) It's all Thomas or cars, all the time.

He's in the toddler classroom and has not moved up into the 2's room yet because there is no spot to go to yet. (The plague of a December birthday.) But today, one of the children in the 2's classroom was out, so Nick could go "visit". He spent the morning all the way through lunch there. He got to serve himself his lunch. He played with all sorts of new toys. He set out his own cups and plates. At nap time, he went back to his classroom for a rest. He told his teacher all about the things he did -- playing with fire trucks, and puzzles, and books, etc. He was all excited!

My little guy is such a big boy now!

Decluttering, continued

On weekends we declutter. We have been trying to do a little bit at a time. It's to the point now where Natalie knows that it's "clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere" time on Sunday afternoons and she gets a trash bag to start wading through stuff.

Elizabeth posted about the "excesses" of it all at Half Changed World today. We are living proof of it, especially post-Christmas. With Nicholas' birthday just 12 days before, the toy explosion turned into a true mountain. We have finally unburied ourselves from the toys in the living room and in Natalie's bedroom, so now we only have one bedroom and the dreaded playroom to tackle.

All this decluttering forced me to make some changes in birthday-gift buying -- out of sympathy for friends that are also parents of young children.

Natalie has been invited to a skating party for C's birthday in a couple of weeks. I just LOVE the idea of a skating party -- physical activity is always a great balance to cake and juice. But I was facing the "what do we get for a gift?" dilemma.

Then I decluttered this weekend.

The gift will be books. Two books. Not four. And no, not one. But two.

And I get to put my "we really like these books" list to good use at the same time.

Drop-off madness

Nicholas, my little guy (AKA Mommy's sugarplum), wailed for 20 solid minutes on the ride in today. He kept repeating "No see (insert name of someone in his classroom)" over and over again. When I dropped him off, he was glued to my leg. Much like he has been glued to me at home for the past three days -- no, daddy is not an option -- "Walk away, Daddy" is the order from Mr. Nicholas. He was crying so much that Mommy Guilt set in and I was tearing up.

Thankfully "this too shall pass" and he was fine within a minute of my leaving. But wow -- talk about an emotional start to a Monday.

I'm on several "moms' lists" including a great "working moms" list for the DC area -- DC Working Moms. It seems like everyone that has a 2 year-old is riding this "mommy-centric" wave or has ridden it recently. Oh, just to get to June when he'll be 2.5 years.

Dentist update

Natalie went to the dentist on Wednesday. She had her teeth cleaned, another fluoride treatment (like she had 6 months ago), and she also had x-rays done. (!!!) The dentist looked at her teeth and Natalie was proud to say that she had stopped sucking her thumb during the day -- the only time she sucks her thumb now is at naptime and at night to go to sleep. The dentist gave her a big High Five! The dentist told me that there was no problem with her sucking her thumb now, especially since she had stopped during the day, and that her teeth alignment looked perfect. (YEAH!)

The next day, one of the teachers told me about this cute exchange at naptime. Natalie was lying down on her cot sucking her thumb and then jumped back -- "no" she said. The teacher asked her what was wrong. She said, "The dentist said I can't suck my thumb." So the teacher suggested that she snuggle her blanket way up high so she wouldn't suck her thumb. Natalie tried that and said, "But now I have two hands! Normally I have one hand to twist my hair and the other hand to suck my thumb." So the teacher suggested that Natalie twist her hair as she always does and the teacher would rub her thumb until she fell asleep. So Natalie tried that for a few minutes but that wasn't working either. She started to get a little upset, but the teacher said, "Natalie, I'm sure your dentist would say that you could suck your thumb now because you really tried not to suck it today." So Natalie sucked her thumb and was asleep in 2 minutes.

Update on Mom

Mom went to see the new doctor today -- a neurologist who specializes in dementia/Alzheimer's patients. She's been pretty uneasy about seeing the new doctor, but once she got there, she really liked him. He's trying a new "recipe" of meds with her, small changes/tinkering at a time. When I talked with her today she seemed MUCH more relaxed about things, and I think she is sleeping better, too. I think my dad is also sleeping better. There is NOTHING better than one night of good sleep -- other than several nights in a row of good sleep.

Proof that email advocacy works

Check out today's Washington Post story about the "Home Serenity and Tranquility Act" introduced in the Virginia General Assembly. One of the folks at the Virginia Youth Soccer Association heard about the bill on Thursday and, according to the Post story, over 1,000 emails have already flooded in to the bill's sponsor's office.

And where is the bill now? According to the story:

The bill was assigned to the House Courts of Justice Committee, whose chairman, also a Fairfax delegate, said he plans to kill it first thing Monday.

Nice eadvocacy work, folks!!!

Added to the NetFlix queue: The Smartest Guys in the Room

I just added "the Enron movie" to our NetFlix queue.

No, I did not get to see the movie when it made its way to theaters -- the last time I saw a movie in a theater where the movie did not have animation was in 2001. So I have been waiting for this to come out on DVD. I read a review of it over at The Moderate Voice and it looks great. I loved the Frontline piece that aired before everything collapsed at Enron, so I'm anxious to see Jeff Skilling again. *evil grin*

More on Great Wolf Lodge

Great Wolf Lodge has this deal where you borrow a waterproof digital camera for the length of your stay and they sell you a CD with all your photos in a slide show for $25. Sure beats risking your own digital camera in a water park!

Here is a sampling of some of the photos:

• Natalie on the raft in the wave pool -- if she could have, she would have spent the entire weekend in the wave pool

• Natalie on the raft leaning way back to get her hair wet

• Another picture of her on the raft

• Dad with Nicholas in the wave pool

• Nicholas smooching Mom

• Natalie swimming in the toddler pool -- this is with life vest on; she swam for a good 15 yards!
  

• Natalie sliding down the toddler water slide
  

• Brother and sister enjoying lollipops

Jack Bauer

Yes, we are back to normalcy -- Jack Bauer has returned.

Ran across The World According to Jack Bauer in my travels -- VERY funny stuff!!!

Oh -- and for those with little ones -- Great Wolf Lodge is wonderful! Just be sure to do your own grocery run as the food is -- well, it's not great.

Delurking week

I learned from Half Changed World that this week is Delurking Week (created by Paper Napkin). So please say hi and let me know if you share disdain for how some toy companies wrap their toys in what seems like miles of twist-tie wraps. (Or just say hi.)

Field trip day

Today was field trip day -- we went to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs and see their mammal exhibit. We had a GREAT time! We took the Metro from Virginia to the Smithsonian stop. All of the children were very well behaved with their listening ears on. We arrived a little early so the teachers gave out snacks to the children before we went in to the museum. Then when the museum opened, we went through security ("bag check") and first saw the elephant in the rotunda, then spent time touring the dinosaurs. We made our way over to the mammals after that.

With all the transportation time and the need to be back for lunch, we still managed to hit the highlights. And it was great to be with Natalie as I could add emphasis in areas that I think are important. For example, there was someone working in the Fossil Lab and I could mention what that person was doing and why it was detailed work and such.

The parenting dance

I'm on a couple of parenting lists that recently have had lots of discussion about two "working outside the home" parents managing home life with one or more children. I have to say all the posts have been great to read because I have been fretting a bit about how in the world we are going to manage in the fall when Natalie starts Kindergarten.

Currently I handle both drop-off and pick-up, which does make a little bit of sense since my office is a block away and DH's office is the absolute other way in DC. It doesn't make it easy, though. It's still an additional 40 minutes of "on-the-job duty" of fastening car seats, controlling arms so that a toy doesn't go airborne, keeping peace in the car while we drive, getting children out of the car and keeping them safe until we get into the lobby, get them in classrooms and coats hung up, talk to teachers about the night, etc. Then add a similar 40 minutes at pick-up time. Times 5 days a week. Yes, that's an additional 6 2/3 hours -- or almost an additional WORK DAY -- each week.

DH gets it easy.

Dance class...redux

Dance classes have started again and today is our first class for the winter and spring session. This time the class is for the four and five year-olds. Natalie is THRILLED to be in something for the five year-olds. She keeps asking when her birthday is (August) so she can be five.

I know she will have two friends from pre-school in her dance class, and maybe even three friends. As I type, she is "practicing like Angelina (Ballerina)" by spinning around the floor and trying to do leaps. It is very cute!

I wish parents could stay outside the door to "watch". I'll just have to hear all the great details when her class is done. Thankfully she has the same teacher as her last class -- that way she will be more comfortable in the class.

Stroller wars

The stroller wars have started.

On Tuesday, Nicholas (the oldest child in his toddler room) found two new doll strollers that were brought into his classroom. He spent all day pushing the stroller around! His friend G spent her day pushing the other stroller around. They had such a great time!

Yesterday, Natalie went with me to pick up Nicholas -- and she got to see the new strollers in the classroom. Now SHE wanted to push the stroller around. She tells me, "Mommy, you know the pink stroller that is up in the attic?" (The attic, where we circulate out toys so we don't look like a toy store annex.) "Mommy, I'd like to play with that when we get home."

My mistake was saying "yes". Because I only have one "pink stroller in the attic".

So I brought down the pink stroller from the attic. Natalie ended up watching the clock to see just how long her "turn" would be with the stroller. Nicholas, in the meantime, is nearly hysterical. HE wants the stroller.

So I go down into the playroom and bring up the pink plastic stroller.

Now we have the pink stroller and the pink plastic stroller. The war shifts into who has what baby. Natalie has her Bitty Baby in the pink stroller. Nicholas has the Not Identifiable Baby in the pink plastic stroller. He wants Bitty Baby.

Natalie knows that Bitty Baby has to be taken care of "extra special".

Nicholas tugs at Natalie's dress.

Natalie screams.

I'm ready to move BOTH strollers back to the attic. Instead, I get Red Shopping Cart from the playroom. And two more babies.

This bought me 10 more minutes -- until bathtime. While DH handles baths, all strollers, carts, and babies were put away in the playroom. Except Bitty Baby, who went back to the cradle in Natalie's bedroom.

We'll see what happens from the Stroller Front tonight when we get home.

Happy 2006!

Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year have not hit on all cylinders on the "healthy" part -- I've been down with a cold all weekend. (And no, it is NOT the flu!)

We were supposed to go to a friend's house for a family-friendly New Year's Eve party, but she had to cancel on Friday because -- you guessed it -- she's down with a whopper of a cold, sore throat, laryngitis, etc. Both of her daughters made it through okay -- it's the moms that are left flat on their backs.

Anyway, we put together a small "just for us" party for home, with lots of munchies and such. I had a fever and just felt yucky. So we welcomed in the New Year (Natalie was asleep by 10 pm and Nicholas was asleep by 11:15 pm -- I followed closely behind at 12:30 am) and got some rest, too.

On Monday, we took down the Christmas decorations (on the 9th day of Christmas -- so much for the 12 Days of Christmas, but out tree was really starting to drop needles) and put everything away. We did some laundry and organized some toys. And we had lots of fun playing with the kids and trying to let me get some rest.

I'm feeling a lot better today than I did on Saturday, but not at 100% yet. I'm not even at 75% yet. But I'm hoping I am better tomorrow -- especially so I can go to work. I have so little paid time off that I need to save every day I can for the inevitable coughs/colds of the children and for the litany of school days off for the County. Yes, my baby girl is going to start Kindergarten this year! *sniff sniff* Have to start planning on hoarding paid time off.

Anyway, happy and healthy New Year's wishes to you!

A Belated Merry Christmas

Belated Merry Christmas to all! (Light blogging due to family being in town.)

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! Mom and Dad arrived on Thursday and all went well at the airport. DH picked up the kids and we all went out to dinner at a fun family restaurant in Springfield VA called Paradiso. They have a kids room where all the children eat dinner at picnic tables and watch a movie while the adults eat in the family room outside, with a big window between the two rooms. A nice way to catch up with adults and for the children to have fun, too.

On Friday, DH went to work while the rest of us went to the Tysons mall. We had lunch and then headed home for gift wrapping. We picked up some pizza for dinner and watched The Polar Express for family movie night.

On Saturday, my parents stayed home to wrap presents while the rest of us made our mad dash run to Wegmans for groceries and to pick up our holiday ham. Then I took my parents out with the kids for lunch at Chicken Out before heading to Lady Bird Johnson Park to see water-skiing Santa. We caught a very very short glimpse of Santa -- better to see him on the web site! Well, the excitement must have caught up with Nicholas, because he fell asleep on the way home and slept...and slept...and slept...right through to our planned departure time for church at 3 pm. So we stretched it until 3:30 pm. Then 4:00 pm. Then 4:30 pm. Then we decided to skip it altogether. Saturday night was dinner at Silverado early (5:20 pm) and then putting out presents under the tree.

Sunday morning was an EARLY awakening by my daughter with the announcement that Santa had brought things in addition to the presents we had put under the tree for each other -- and she asked permission to go downstairs to look. (We have a split level house so she can see from the stairs but not REALLY see from so far away.) She found a rocking horse, a Cinderella doll set, an Alice in Wonderland dress, a box of Princess wigs, and a turtle suitcase. Her brother found a Plasmacar, a GeoTrax airport, a GeoTrax fire and rescue station, GeoTrax rescue equipment, and a turtle suitcase just like his sister's. We spent the morning opening up presents, and then DH cooked up an awesome breakfast -- Baked French Toast with strawberry and blueberry sauce. YUM! We were so full from breakfast that Christmas lunch got shifted to Christmas dinner. As my Mom said later, it was a very "old fashioned" Christmas -- lots of fun watching the kids and no stress.

Monday we were silly enough to go back out shopping at Tysons. Picked up a few things on sale, but were not so silly to be at the Nordstrom men's sale at 7 am -- a 10 am arrival was fine with us. We picked up lunch at zpizza -- it was a different spot to try, but I wasn't "wowed" by it. I tried to finish up laundry -- I had somehow managed doing 13 loads of laundry on Christmas day, mostly for all the new clothes the children now had. Both children were pretty tired so they napped in the afternoon. We went to dinner again at Paradiso -- my parents are Italian food fans so it is an easy choice -- and called it a night early.

On Tuesday, DH went into work and we got the luggage loaded into the car and headed first to Pentagon City mall ("The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City"). My dad was looking for a store that used to be there called The Impostors Faux Jewelry -- but it wasn't there any longer. (I hardly ever go to that mall any more because the stores I shop at are not there, so I had no idea.) We picked up a few things on sale and then readied to do our airport drop-off. Of course there flight was very delayed -- as in 2 hours later arriving from Nassau, Bahamas. The airline did not tell them much, either -- even changed their gate on them and made no announcement. But they made it home finally, and received a phone call at home from US Airways "apologizing for the inconvenience". How nice. While they were at the airport, DH and I were organizing closets for donations to charity. Not sure how many bags of clothes we ended up with -- maybe 7?

Yesterday was back-to-work day for me and DH's day off. He did the bags of clothing drop off and ran some other errands. With Congress being out for the entire month of January, here's hoping he has a reduced hours schedule then, too -- sure helps to get errands done and makes up a little for the very long hours he puts in when Congress is in town.

All in all, a fun Christmas. I think about some friends and family that are not here this Christmas and I hug my children a little tighter. I'm glad that my parents got to spend some good time with the children, too.

Arrival Day

Like everyone else during the holiday season, I have been busy readying for today. Today is Arrival Day. My parents' arrival, that is.

Yes, Mom -- the one that has not been on a plane since 1993 -- Mom agreed to fly down here from Massachusetts. As I explained to her, the flight is not that long -- she has been to longer Masses at church. But with Mom's condition -- who knows how today will go.

I phoned my parents on Monday at lunchtime, and my mother was ready to draw and quarter my father because -- according to her -- he had told her that they would be visiting us for Christmas but he had not told her that they would be staying overnight. I talked to her for about 20 minutes to try to calm her down, but she was ready to jump all over him. I feel so bad for my Dad -- mine is just a 20 minute phone conversation, and not having to be "on" 24 hours a day with no downtime.

Although I am diametrically opposed to just about every stance of her politics, I always felt such admiration for Nancy Reagan for what she did for her husband. That is just very tough stuff.

So we'll see what happens over the next six days. The LAST thing I want to have happen is something "weird" that sticks in my children's mamories. But I also want to give my father some sort of "downtime" from all this. Maybe I can share the load a little with him for a short time.

An angel has left this Earth

A dear friend left this world this week. It has hit me (and many others) quite hard.

Sheila was a very spiritual person, and frequently turned to St. Therese ("The Little Flower") for support. I have been seeking solace in St. Therese these past few days and learned more information about St. Therese. St. Therese was canonized as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1925. He then declared that St. Therese would be co-patroness of the Missions (along with St. Francis Xavier) on December 14, 1927.

I like to think that St. Therese called on Sheila on December 14.

Post-birthday synopsis -- the evils of toy packaging

Well, the Birthday Day is done. We had a party in the Toddler Room complete with cupcakes from Heidelberg (YUM!) and Elmo plates and napkins. And fire chief hats as party hats.

Then we came home and had Nicholas' favorite food (pizza) and chocolate cake with ice cream. Then we got to the presents. Natalie seemed to really want to help open everything. First up was Natalie's gift to her brother -- a John Deere set with tractor, pick-up truck, and farm animals. Of course every bloomin' thing is wired in place. Grrrrr. No points for John Deere.

Next up is the LeapFrog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set. Thankfully no wires, and batteries ("for demonstration purposes only") are included. One point for LeapFrog.

Next up is the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnets. Thankfully no wires, and batteries ("for demonstration purposes only") are included. Another point for LeapFrog.

Finally, the Geotrax "deluxe starter set" - purchased direct from Fisher-Price. I actually lost count of how many wires I untwisted after counting to 30. And it cannot be for "display purposes" because they do not sell these in stores!!! Many many grrrrrrrrrs and no points for Fisher-Price. (Although the train itself is very cool once you get it all untwist-tied!)

So, on the lovely note, I looked on Technorati to see if anyone had been blogging about this packaging lunacy -- and yes, Blogging Baby has a great post about this article in the Olympia, Washington Olympian about the hazards of toy packaging. VERY funny stuff!

Happy Birthday, Sugarplum!

Happy 2nd birthday, my little man!

I cannot believe two years have flown by so quickly! It seems just yesterday that I was waddling around the MCI Center at The Wiggles concert trying to find your sister who decided to go "exploring". At the time, I had no idea how my heart could get any bigger to love another child more than I loved Natalie. But it happened. And you stole my heart the first moment I saw you.




And I love you and Natalie more and more each day.

Thank you for being in my life, Nicholas. Thank you for coming in to my life and throwing my entire world upside down. This journey with you has been so incredible!

I love you, sugarplum!

Back from Baltimore

We just got back from Baltimore!

Friday I stayed home with the kids for a "snow day" and packed for our short trip to Baltimore. We went to celebrate Nicholas' birthday -- my little man will be 2 years old on Tuesday (*sniff sniff*) so we celebrated his birthday just like we did for Natalie. We went to the National Aquarium and to Port Discovery. We stayed at the Renaissance Harborplace -- very nice, but self-parking at $21 a day? What is up with that??? Well, I did get the room for a deal on Priceline -- so I won't moan too much.

Anyway, we had a blast. The new addition to the aquarium is VERY nice. Inner Harbor is a great deal of fun during the holidays -- very festive with the lights and decorations, people caroling along the waterfront. Lots of fun.

The pavilions at Inner Harbor could teach their retail sales help a little bit on the "May I help you?" front. DH went into one of the stores and he was nearly accosted by one of the clerks -- "What can I help you find today?" before he even made it completely inside the store. He said, "Nothing" and walked out. I HATE when I get followed around like that. Send me straight to buying online!

Pictures from The Nutcracker

Two pictures from our visit to see The Nutcracker:

What a little sleep will do - quick post

DH arrived back on Friday so I was in bed and asleep at 6:15 PM. *AHHHHHH*

Saturday Natalie and I went to the Nutcracker and had a great time. This year's production had lots of new choreographic twists to it -- VERY well done!

Sunday we went to get the kids' pictures taken -- it was a great photo shoot but My Princess was a little cranky and let everyone know about it.

I'll fill in more later...

What Kind of Freaky Mother are You?

Who knew?


You're a punk rock mommy! DIY is probably your
motto, because you're a punk mama at heart.
Your kids are getting your independent spirit
and guts, and learning to solve problems
themselves. You love it when they show their
independence, even when it's breaking your
heart.


What kind of a freaky mother are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Today is Friday...

Today is Friday, Today is Friday, Friday is fresh fish...

Ooops -- slipped into the Eric Carle book for a moment. Must be the lack of sleep.

Yes, today is the last day of solo parenting. United Airlines, no mess ups with flights from San Jose this afternoon, thank you very much.

Our parents' group at preschool did a fundraiser to raise money for bonuses for the teachers -- we sold wreaths this week and it turned into a pretty nice fundraiser ($800 profit). I put the wreath in my car Wednesday night and opted to store it outside instead of in the house so that it would be in better shape to hang on our back door. Well, I was up until midnight on Wednesday night (actually more like 1 am Thursday) doing laundry and was up at 5 am Thursday cooking. (Yes, I was making a casserole for dinner at 5 AM Thursday.)

As we were leaving at 8:20 am Thursday morning, my daughter says, "Why is the wreath over there in the carport, Mom, and not hanging on the door?"

I nearly lost it. But I am happy to say I bit my tongue.

But REALLY!

Little Man seems to be doing much better. He's been on the Albuterol since Monday night and he was supposed to be on it for 3 to 5 days. I think I am going to stop that medication today as the wheezing is gone. He'll still be on the Omnicef for another week for his ear infections, but he really sounds so much better.

Of course my daughter now has sniffles, sneezes, and coughs. Perfect timing for Daddy's arrival and for the possible first snow in DC sometime this weekend.

Dad and mom see the attorney this afternoon. I think my dad managed to do the living will part but not my mom -- dad said she broke down in tears just reading the paperwork, and said that my brother and I would know what to do. Sheesh.

My advice to all -- do everyone a favor and complete a Living Will WAY before you are eligible for a AARP card.

Double ear infection

My Little Man is not feeling well.

I left work early yesterday to take Nicholas (and that means Natalie had to go, too) to the pediatrician. Nicholas has a cold with some chest congestion and wheezing and I wanted to be sure he was okay. (Natalie has a history of febrile seizures and those tend to run in families.)

We saw the nurse practitioner and Nicholas has two ugly looking ears. He's on Omnicef once a day for the ear infection and liquid Albuterol three times a day for the wheezing. I stopped by to visit him at lunchtime today to give him his 2nd dose of Albuterol for the day.

I have dinner cooking in the crockpot --we're having spaghetti tonight, by request for Natalie. My laundry should be washing as I post because I have the "delay wash" all setup. Still have to take clothes out of the dryer as I did not get a chance to do that last night, but I'll manage that tonight when waiting for the water to boil for pasta.

My hat goes off to single moms everywhere. Trying to do this with one child isn't too bad, how anyone does this with two children for the long haul is beyond me. And for those single moms with more than two children -- let's just say I am in awe of you!

Speaking of crockpots -- check out Slate's article on great slowcookers!

I survived Day 1!

Yes, I made it in to work on time and with children and gear, too!

I called the pediatrician office first thing this morning -- Nicholas still has a cough and I want him checked out today. So we have an afternoon appointment.

I spoke with Mom and Dad today -- Mom is excited about coming down to see the kids but is not too keen on the airplane ride part of it. I told her that the flight is short -- she's been to longer Masses at church. I think that made her giggle. :-)

I'll update about Nicholas when I know more. Tonight is make our own pizza night for dinner so it might be a late update.

Daddy goes to California

DH is enroute to California for the week. This is a rare occurrence for him to have to travel (and for so long), so it is a little bit of an adjustment for the family. Here's a copy of the email that I just sent him (so he can read it on his Blackberry):

After dropping you off at the airport, with both kids asleep in the car, I went straight from there to Harris Teeter to get groceries for the week. (Yes, I had a list and a menu "in my head" for each night.) By about the Beltway interchange, Nicholas had woken up and seemed confused why I was driving instead of "daddy". But I told him all was okay and he went back to sleep.

As we got close to Harris Teeter, I asked Natalie (who was asleep) if she was ready to help me at the grocery store -- and that we were going to get strawberries, and some ice cream, and some cookies, and dinner -- maybe we could make pizza this week, etc. Just tried to keep it "light". She and Nicholas were all excited, and she said that she was going to have "good listening ears" and help in the store.

So we got the racecar shopping cart (WOOHOO!) and did our grocery run. One of the workers brought two balloons for the kids -- they were thrilled! Then we had to stop at the "dinosaur" (dragon). Well, there was an "Out of Order" sign on it. Natalie was okay with it, but Nicholas was hysterical. :-(

We made it out to the car as he was sobbing -- and it started to rain. Got both kids and balloons in the car, loaded the car up, and headed for home.

Got the kids in the house with balloons -- Nicholas is better now. Got the groceries in the house. Saw the condition of the fridge -- YUCK -- and fixed that while they watched "Old MacDonald" downstairs. Got the groceries put away and got dinner on the table. Nicholas sees "Daddy's car" and wants to know where Daddy is. "Daddy, where are you?"

After dinner -- started putting lights on the Christmas tree. Three sets of lights are blown, so got most of the lights on and started doing bead garland together. We'll finish that after I get more lights tomorrow. Nicholas asks, "Where's Daddy?" I've been saying that Daddy is on an airplane to California. Now I add "Daddy had to go to work in California, so he won't be home tonight." So Nicholas said, "Daddy at work on airplane."

Now we move to bath. Nicholas still asking about "Daddy -- bathtime". I tell Nicholas, "Daddy is not here." Nicholas says, "Daddy at work on airplane." Got them all set, made the offer for everyone to pick the bed they want to sleep in. Natalie wants to sleep in Nicholas' bed. Nicholas wants to sleep in Mommy's bed. So that's what we did.

Nicholas STILL asks, "Where's Daddy?" I hugged him and said, "Daddy is not coming home tonight. He's on a plane to California for work. He loves you and will see you on Friday." With that he rolled over, scooted his back towards me, and fell asleep.

Love,
Boo

So far so good. I have everything ready for work tomorrow. Let's see how close I am to my "real schedule" without Dad around.

And can I just say I am loving the look of my refrigerator tonight? It was FUN to get it so clean and so QUICKLY, too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week has been pure madness.

Every spare moment has been focused on Mom. Dad met with the attorney on Tuesday so that he can get health care proxies, power of attorney orders, and a trust setup for their house. That afternoon, Mom went to see the PA at her doctor's practice -- the visiting nurse took her blood pressure on Monday and it was 190/90. Her blood pressure was fine on Tuesday -- Mom thought that there was some sort of "plot" to move her into a nursing home. She sees her new neaurologist on January 12 and does not see her primary care physician (a cardiologist) until December 12. My parents will be spending Christmas with us and this is only week 2 on Aricept for her.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at home. At one point we had planned to go to Richmond to go to the children's museum and the science museum, but I'm glad we did not go as both children were not feeling all that well yesterday. Nicholas has a constant runny nose and Natalie had a low-grade fever yesterday.

We took the final gates down yesterday (!!!) after the electricians came to do all the work on lights on Wednesday. We now have timers on all new exterior lights, a motion sensing floodlight in the backyard, and new lights in the children's bedrooms and the kitchen. Yesterday and the security system folks came and moved our security box, too -- a very productive week!

Today we did The Big Clothing Sort and donated 7 bags of things to the Salvation Army. Tonight we went to see the drive-thru Christmas Lights out in Upper Marlboro, MD -- VERY nice and we plan to go back with my parents when they come to visit.

Oh -- the Christmas cards also arrived. I'll share the picture early:

The week from Hades

Figures that four days of heaven would be followed by four days from -- well, you know.

I have been putting major house into the charity event that I am the reluctant co-chair of -- plus my co-chair announced last week that she is leaving and moving back home to the mid-west. Plus there is just so much work involved with this charity drive thing and, no matter how many people you have that ARE really pulling their weight, there is an awful lot to do.

Today (Thursday) is the first day that I could literally take a breath. And it did not help matters that our neighborhood's civic association had a meeting on Tuesday night. Plus it appears that I am on the verge of battling mastitis and my mom is not doing all that great.

More on all this tomorrow...or maybe Saturday. I made an appointment for myself to get highlights on Saturday -- 2 hours away for ME TIME and away from everyone. Well, except my stylist, whom I love. I can hardly WAIT for Saturday!!!

Four days of heaven

It is Sunday night, and DH is trying to get Nicholas to go to sleep...oh yeah, good bloomin' luck on that.

I had four days with my children. It was HEAVENLY!

Thursday we went to the Air & Space Museum. Such a cool thing being so close to the Smithsonian. Anyway, we went by my office and took the Metro from there, and headed over to Air & Space. Natalie's requirement was going to the planetarium to "be in the dark and see the pictures of the planets on the ceiling". Well, I heard about the new IMAX movie "Magnificent Desolation". It's a 3-D movie of walking on the moon. So I asked her if she wanted to see the movie or go to the planetarium. She wanted the planetarium. Well, we arrived around 11:20 am and I knew the IMAX show was at 12:25 pm, so we had lunch first, then went to see a couple of exhibits (How Things Fly and Air Transportation) and then headed over to the IMAX theater. Perfect timing! Went straight in and got our 3-D glasses. Nicholas wasn't sure about the glasses part but Natalie was totally into it. It was a GREAT movie and we all had so much fun! The fastest 40 minutes I've ever seen with them!

After the movie, we went to the planetarium and caught that show. It was okay, but not nearly as good as IMAX. Nicholas started to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" towards the end of the show.

We went through more exhibits and called it a day at 2:30 pm. Neither of them had napped yet and then both of them fell asleep on the walk back to the Metro (thank goodness I brought the double stroller!) and we made it back to my car at my office. When I was buckling Natalie into her car seat, she asked me why we didn't get to ride the train back from the museum. *giggle*

On Friday, DH was home for the day so it was the beginning of the Attack the Leaves in the Yard weekend. We bagged 13 bags of leaves on Friday. By the end of today (Sunday), 29 bags were filled with leaves and set curbside. We have easily another 20 bags to go in the backyard alone, and we have another tree to "drop" its leaves.

Saturday and today were typical weekend days, but somehow we just managed to get so much accomplished this weekend. The programmable thermostat is now installed. The chimney sweep came and did his inspection. The fireplace accessories are by the fireplace. Lots of clutter has been dealt with. All the new exterior and interior lights are not only ordered but actually here -- all I need to do is mark what is going where so the electrician has an easier time of it. Our leaf blower actually works. :-) My beef stew is cooking for the charity event on Wednesday.

It's frightening, but somehow we just got tons done this weekend. Maybe I need more long weekends like this!

Oh -- news about my mom. Friday morning was her first REALLY good morning. She went to sleep at 8:30 pm and got up at 6:30 am. She felt so good, she went shopping with Dad to get greens/decorations for the house. That made me feel so good!!!

Charitable giving

Well, my "big week" is almost here. Our "Concern for Community" week starts on Monday. So here's a link to one of the organizations that receives assistance through the United Co-op Appeal -- NRECA International Foundation.

Pre-school has an in-service day tomorrow and DH is up to his eyeballs in Congressional stuff, so I' m taking the day off to be with the kids. (WOOHOO!) So we are planning on going to the Smithsonian tomorrow. Should be lots of fun!

I did some reading on Aricept -- full effects of the drug do not occur until 6 to 8 weeks after starting on the medication. So I called and told my dad that. When I spoke to my mom this afternoon, she was in tears with me on the phone because she is so frustrated calling my dad my brother's name. She feels it is very insulting and she is so disappointed in herself. *sigh* -- this is so VERY hard.

Dad bought a George Foreman grill and a crockpot. I sent him his first recipe today. I am thinking about putting together a ring binder of large print recipes for him for Christmas. I think they might really appreciate that as a gift. So if you have any great recipes that have only a few ingredients, please share them!

Now I am on the search for a flu shot. Both kids got flu shots yesterday morning, but our work-based flu shot clinic was cancelled due to shortage of vaccine supply. So I guess I might be in line for a flu shot this weekend. We'll see...

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad! 57 years ago (but who's counting?) was your wedding day at Sacred Heart Church. I hope you have many more years together.

On a good note, DH's mom was released from the hospital today (yes, both moms were in the same hospital at the same time!) and she'll be going to a rehab place for a little while before she can go back home.

My mom was visited by a nurse today and my dad could take a short break from care-giving. The nurse will return next week to check on my mom.

We made a appointment with the attorney for November 22. I'm going to email my dad with questions he should ask and papers he should bring with him.

Mom sounded a bit better this afternoon. I didn't call tonight as it would have been too late.

Congratulations to Governor-elect Kaine!!!

You MUST check out this post on divas...

Mindy has this Diva thing NAILED!!! Oh, to be mom to a 4 year-old diva...

Oh, what a week...

Sorry I have been away. It's just been a little crazed in my life.

It all started Friday morning. As I was heading out the door, my sister-in-law called -- my mother was being taken to the hospital by ambulance because she was weak, dizzy, and had numbness in her hands and fingers. And wait -- there's more.

The day before, she "saw" a woman in her bedroom -- the woman told her that my father was not eating. Something happened and my mother walked to my brother's house -- somehow managed to get there -- and was sitting out on his porch at 9 a.m.

Evidently my mother decided to stop taking her "memory pill" (for dementia) a month ago. Thursday night, my sister-in-law urged my mother to take the pill again.

So -- back to Friday. My sister-in-law spent the day at the hospital. I was spending time making long distance phone calls trying to reach my mother's doctor. He's out and will be out through the 18th. So I pieced together what I could and faxed my mother's doctor with the details. In the meantime, my mother is having all sorts of tests -- all come back negative. But my mother is still exhausted and feels like she has been run over by a truck. Maybe there is a medication reaction with the memory pill? The hospital staff says no. Mom tries to stand up and she is very woozy.

They keep her there overnight to get her rehydrated. She is discharged Saturday morning. Yet she is still woozy.

So my father is running ragged trying to care for her. They had talked with a nutritionist before discharge so they both knew how much she needed to eat. So Dad is off to the grocery store to get food but he is afraid to leave Mom alone. Neighbors sit with her while he is gone. She eats very well on Saturday.

Sunday morning she is still very sleepy and now has ringing in her ears.

Dad is going to stop the memory pill again. He wants to go to the neighborhood pharmacy to ask about side effects. I convince him to call the doctor-on-call at the medical place my Mom's doctor is at. He gets a call back -- the memory pill is the cause and don't take anymore of them.

So why didn't the hospital say that?

She eats well on Sunday. Plan is to call Monday morning and get into see the nurse practitioner or the physician's assistant as soon as possible.

Monday morning, she is still pretty woozy. She has a 2:15 PM appointment with Minnie, the P.A. that she really likes. She went with both Dad and my sister-in-law. Minnie says, "You look really tired" and Mom says she is. Minnie puts her on Aricept. My sister-in-law is trying to get a visiting nurse or a home health aide in to check Mom's blood pressure and to help her get bathed and such. I found an attorney who happens to be a friend of my sister-in-law's to help my Dad through the health care proxy issues he faces.

I tell you, it is hard to be so far away and also help out in some form.

Some venting

You know....it's true when people say that only you can allow yourself to be used. But it seems that there are more and more people attempting to do the "using".

An example -- I have been "volunteered" to be a co-chair of a charity event. (It's one of those "you can't say no" things.) I have been REALLY hauling on this thing as it is now less than 2 weeks away. Everyone else on the committee -- and I mean EVERYONE else on the committee of 11 people -- seem to have more pressing things to get done. I, on the other hand, have been putting in 30+ hours a week on this stuff and other things have been back-sliding. Well, guess what? I took today to primarily work on this charity event thing and tomorrow I am officially off-duty. I am spending the day working on Real Stuff and I am delegating so that everyone else handles it.

I'm tired of being the bailer.

Happy Halloween

Wow, things have been incredibly busy the last week! All thanks to Halloween!

Our neighborhood civic association has been -- well, "dormant" is the best word to use, I suppose -- over the past several years. A group of neighbors has helped revive it and, on September 29, we had a General Meeting and officers were elected, etc. (No, not me -- I have way too much to do and there was no way I could commit to something like that.)

Well, I volunteered for a few things -- which included the development of flyers, brochures, etc. That included a flyer announcing our neighborhood's Halloween costume parade on Saturday October 29. A team of volunteers (numbering about 4 or 5, I think -- again, not me!) leafletted our neighborhood of about 900 single-family homes last week. I was a little concerned about the weather, but it was absolutely beautiful on Saturday afternoon -- and we had roughly 40 children show up in costume for our parade! It was great fun! My daughter -- um, Princess Belle -- walked the whole parade route not only in heels but also without a wrap over her yellow ball gown! My son, on the other hand, pretty much stayed in his Mommy's arms for the entire route -- 34 pounds of Mickey Mouse can do a number on Mommy's back!

So today we'll do a visit (in costume, of course) to my office and then head home for trick-or-treating.

First I have to get through some stuff at work. I'm the co-chair for our organization's annual charity drive and we have "the presentation" to do today before senior management. That's at 1 p.m. so once that is done, then I can focus on Halloween.

Why did I pick Halloween as the day to do a presentation before senior management? Oh yeah, it was the only day that fit most everyone's schedule. *sigh*

Happy Halloween!

Blogmaster

See Erick's post on his blog for news.

Hurricane Wilma's second landfall

Hurricane Wilma just made landfall this morning and it must really stink to be a on-air meteorologist. Wilma came ashore as a strong Category 2 and of course the media is complaining about how no one knew that it would be "so bad".

All I want to say is *hrumph*.

WFOR has some pretty decent live coverage.

Hurricane Wilma

One of the weather boards that I frequent is the Eastern Weather Board. What's great about the board is that there is a mix of professional meteorologists and amateur "hobbyists", and folks post very detailed analyses of weather models and such. If someone is "into" the weather, it's a great place to just read and learn.

What has been interesting for me is to watch the "tone" of the board over this hurricane season. I have been part of the board for a couple of years, so I'm accustomed to seeing the "bring on the heavy snowstorm" frenzy and the "bring on the hurricanes" chants. What HAS been different this year -- due to the catastrophic damage of Katrina -- is the more measured response when some continue the "bring on the Cat(egory) 5" ardor. It's great to see posts that remind everyone that a Cat 5 in a shipping lane is all find and dandy, but a Cat 5 making landfall ANYWHERE (including the Yucatan) is not such a good thing.

I wish the media would learn a little from the Eastern Weather Board.

Oh, and one more thing...go check out Cecily's post and wish her a Happy Anniversary. Just don't use the C word. :-)

Regression

I got up a little early this morning because I didn't have a lot of room in bed -- yes, DS made his way into our bed last night. And imagine my surprise when I took a step across my bedroom floor and spotted my daughter spread out across our bedroom (hardwood) floor in her Dora sleeping bag.

I replied to Sharon's comment that DD tried to bite someone at preschool yesterday. We are now over 6 weeks since DD has been in her new pre-K classroom, and the two-year-old-like behavior is still going on. I have already spoken with our pediatrician about this, and have read what seems like every parenting book out there on the subjectss of whining, hitting, biting, and fancifulness. DD's teacher absolutely shares our concern and has been trying a positive approach (rewarding when using words, when playing nicely with friends, etc). But the misbehavior continues. And now we seem to have regressed to sleeping in the sleeping bag in Mom and Dad's room.

I'm frankly not sure what the next step should be. *sigh*

Way too much rain

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for Taunton, near my hometown in Massachusetts. The Whittendon Pond Dam is on the verge of failing, and emergency management officials have evacuated 2,000 people as of last night. News reports state that the 100 year old dam was inspected two year ago and declared in fair condition.

As for here in our "new" home state, the roofers are almost done -- just the carport remaining. And yes, DS did wake up in the middle of the night again, so we do not have a trend for sleeping for 7 hours at a stretch. And I have a community association meeting tonight. *yawn*

Roofs

The roofers have started their work. *wump wump wump*

They have been a little delayed thanks to the rain in the area *wump wump wump* but managed to get about a third of the roof replaced on Friday *wump wump* and another third done yesterday. *wump wump wump* DS ended up with NO NAP due to the noise. *wump wump wump* So he had a late dinner *wump wump wump* and went to bed (with DH's help) in his big boy bed at 9 PM.

He slept until 4:20 AM.

This is the first time in 22 months that he has slept so long without needing "Mommy". Mommy got to SLEEP. What a GREAT concept.

And of course Mommy was so shocked by it all that I got up and posted it here. DH is getting DS back to sleep now.

Call me stumped

Yes, just call me stumped. Pass the Clueless Parent Award this way, please.

For the life of me I cannot figure out what is going on with my daughter. I thought we nipped the transitions issues, and now she is right back to her 2 year-old status, this time for teasing her best friend at preschool. My daughter is just plum MEAN right now. And she is hyper-sensitive about EVERYTHING.

I think I have read through at least a half-dozen parenting books, and I tell you, I think there is a book out there that gives the proverbial "there there" pat on the shoulder to every form of parent. But there are no SOLUTIONS.

The director from preschool offered to meet to talk some more. I told her I didn't know what to talk about because it is so darn frustrating. I don't know what to do at this point. I am seriously considering holding her back from Kindergarten next year, because this sort of stuff is NOT acceptable. (I sound like that Super Nanny lady!)

And on the toddler front, my son is still hitting children. At least he stopped biting, but now he is hitting. And getting him down to go to sleep takes HOURS. DH has been in with him for over 90 minutes now just to get him to go to sleep in his toddler bed.

Madness, I say -- absolute madness.

We now have a shed

Yes, the shed people/installers came today. The ground had dried up enough and our handy-dandy little "flags" held up in spite of A River Runs Through It going on in our backyard.

I had my minivan cleaned today -- as in detailed. Wow, does it look BEAUTIFUL! I took the double stroller out and the two car seats out, and the man worked his miracles! He started on it at 11 am and he finished at 4:15 PM! It really looks beautiful. I was anticipating having to buy new floor mats, which are pretty pricey in a minivan. But it really looks like a new car!

DH stayed home with the kids today as I don't get Columbus Day off as a holiday. The commute in today was SO LOVELY -- 15 minutes from my driveway to the elevator in my parking garage. If that is not an incentive to establish flextime, I don't know what is.

That's about it here -- heading to bed to catch up on some sleep...

Bring on the RAIN!!!!

Thanks to the remnant of Tropical Storm Tammy, the metro Washington DC area is forecast to get a whole lot of rain tomorrow and into the holiday weekend.

Thank goodness! Our new arborvitae need the rain -- they were just replanted by Merrifield Garden Center last Saturday. (In late June, we had Merrifield do a series of plantings and four of the trees were pretty brown at the beginning of September, despite a very regular watering schedule. Merrifield replaced the lot of the arborvitae at no charge.)

Of course our roof is scheduled to be replaced this weekend, too. Well, that isn't happening on schedule, that's for sure. DH just called the roofer to figure out what to do about the many pounds of roofing materials sitting on top of our house right now -- especially with 4+ inches of rain forecast for the area.

Homework

This has been a hectic week. All kinds of goings on at work, plus our community association meeting took lots of time last week, and that was AFTER our annual fall sale at my children's child development center.

I did manage to get some mums planted this weekend as well as some winter pansies in the windowbox. We have been having a running battle with a local trash contractor -- DH reported them to Fairfax County's consumer affairs department thanks to their handy dandy online form. We're now at 27 days without picking up yard debris -- and yet another supervisor "absolutely promised" it would be picked up tomorrow. We'll see -- just don't hold your breath!

We went to "curriculum night" at preschool tonight. The teachers did a great job describing how they are teaching children in the pre-K program. They also answered all of the parents' questions. VERY well done.

The shed installers rescheduled from today until Saturday. The roofers rescheduled from Thursday to Monday (Columbus Day). Sure glad I'm not a general contractor!

That is a quick summary -- I'll fill in more tomorrow!

More on the Yale women

Over at Slate, Jack Shafer compares the New York Times "Yale women" story to a 1980 story on the "career vs. motherhood" issue. The most intriguing part was his anecdotal follow-up to one of the women mentioned in the 1980 article:

One criticism of Story's article is that college students are poor predictors of what sorts of adults become. To test this idea I conducted some purely anecdotal research of my own: I Googled the lead character of the 1980 New York Times story, Mary Anne Citrino. Within minutes, I reached her at her New York City office at the Blackstone Group, an investment and advisory group, where she is a senior managing director.

Citrino laughed at this week's Times story when she read it, recalling her role in the similarly squishy Times story from a generation ago. She says the Times reporter misrepresented what she said, attributing to her sentiments that were "the exact opposite of what I meant."

"I never wanted to be a full-time mother," says Citrino. She says she was considered the most gung-ho career woman among her classmates, never stopped working after finishing school, has three children, and put in 20 years at Morgan Stanley before joining Blackstone a year ago.

"I never even considered giving up my career," Citrino says.

But that's just one anecdote, mind you.

Also...as shown over at Mediabistro, evidently at least one of the students interviewed in the article has a problem about how she was quoted/characterized. There are even more details over at Alas.

MIA

Sorry I haven't been around -- H's visit over the weekend ate all available free time so I couldn't post.

Here's a plug for a great pumpkin patch/fall festival in the DC area over at Cox Farms. We went yesterday and we had the BEST time! Loads of fun!

Yale women, continued...the survey methodology

Came across this over at Gelf Magazine and I just had to share -- everything you wanted to know about (cough cough) "survey methodology" as practiced by some at the New York Times. Quoting from David Goldenberg:

One likely reason that Louise Story came to the conclusion in her front page New York Times article Tuesday that many Ivy League women would rather be stay-at-home moms than part of the workforce: A skewed sample. She arrives at a conclusion about “women at the nation’s most elite colleges” based on spot interviews with students from a few Ivy League schools and then a survey with students at one school: her own. Last school year, Story sent out a 37-question survey to a group of freshman and senior women at Yale University, her (and my) alma mater. While it is indeed possible that 60% of those who replied said “they planned to cut back on work or stop working entirely” when they had kids, as Story writes, it's doubtful that those who replied are representative of all Ivy League women.

So I take back what I said about Yale -- David gets it.

Transitions, continued...

My daughter moved over to the pre-K room right after Labor Day. She has been in the same daycare center (yes, it is a high quality one -- I'm sure some of the Yale women as described by Amber at Prettier Than Napoleon would bash me nonetheless) since she was 6 months old. She has ALWAYS had an easy transition. This one, though, is not going so well.

There is a girl in her pre-K class that she has known since she started at the daycare. (I'll call her B.) B is a little rough around the egdes. An example: my daughter and B were outside on Monday afternoon coloring with markers. Natalie was coloring on her paper, and she went to get up to leave with me, and B "snatched" the paper away from Natalie. Natalie -- at her super-sensitive best -- started bawling. To make a long story short, we managed to get out of there and over to the classroom to pick up my son, and we were all having fun together, and all was great. We made it out to the atrium of the building and my son was fascinated by a sculture in the atrium -- and who walks out to leave? B and her mom. B goes over to Natalie and says, "You'll never see that paper again!" and rips it up in front of her. Natalie bawls again. *sigh*

Well, this has been going on since the transition. Admittedly Natalie is hardly the "golden child" and she can whine with the best of the them. And she can be absolutely supersensitive to boot. Plus we are having all sorts of sleep issues right now -- this from my great napper. So I'm working with the teacher on this. Plus the curriculum director. Plus the center director. It's just REALLY hard.

And a totally unrelated note -- Hurricane Rita is currently a catageory 5 hurricane and has the third lowest pressure of any north Atlantic hurricane. Goodness, I hope ths thing weakens (at least a little) before landfall. And kudos to Max Mayfield for his great testimony before the Senate yesterday.

Required reading...NYT article on Women at Ivy League colleges planning for stay-at-home-mom-hood

I saw this article in this morning's New York Times and it became "the topic" of discussion on several moms lists that I'm on. It's all over the blogs, too. I especially like Ann Bartow's post about the article on Sivacracy.net. I would add to Ann's point that these women will be 30 year-old stay-at-home moms with $145,000 investments in law school that apparently will not have to be paid at all through students loans. So they plan to saddle their husbands with that debt? And this is all assuming that these women can "easily" have children be it through bearing their own child or through adoption. And, once they have their "insta-children recipe" fulfilled, they will have an easy path back to the workforce -- and a part-time one at that -- down the road.

Wow. Makes me glad that I did not go to an Ivy League college. At least I have some sense of the real world.

See RebelDad's post about the same article, too -- a great perspective from a dad.

Lengthen the school day?

Found a link to this report over at Half Changed World -- how to improve public schools, pubished by the Center for American Progress and the Institute for America's Future. I agree with the first recommendation on increasing the length of the school day, and also the school year. I haven't read the rest of the report yet (only skimmed it so far), but at first glance it seems like a great idea on both counts.

Have more to fill in on transitions but that will have to wait until tomorrow...bath time beckons.

The Birthday Party Circuit

Wow, the things they don't tell you in parenting books. They do NOT tell you about birthday parties. And how they come in waves. And sometimes, even in circuits.

This is a VERY hectic time right now. First off -- my daughter's godmother (H) is coming to visit next weekend. H lives in Ireland (after shedding that loser for a husband that she used to have) and has not seen us in just shy of 2 years. She has not even met my son yet. She arrives on Friday. Which means we have to find our guest bedroom as it is overtaken by toys and clothing that we need to sort through for our daycare center's fall sale. Which of course has to be done by next weekend, too.

But this weekend was The Birthday Circuit.

Yes, two children in the 4's class had their birthday parties this weekend. One had it at the National Zoo on Sunday morning. The other had it at a local rec center Sunday afternoon. Then we have our standing swim classes on Saturday mornings. And then of course is getting the laundry done.

I have gotten diddly done in the guest bedroom all weekend.

My saving grace is that this is "only" H, after all. We grew up together. We've seen each other in high school band uniforms. Can't get much worse than that!

Comments on Hewlett and Luce article

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce's article in the Harvard Business Review (March 2005) elicited several Letters to the Editor now printed in the July/August issue of HBR. (The original Hewlett and Luce article made its way across several blogs, including Fast Company Now, Superfluous Sentiments, and Ripple of Hope.) It was nice to finally see some comments that did not focus solely on part-time work as the End All and Be All Solution.

Wendy Ward, Senior Business Development Manager for British Telecommunications in London, pointed out that most women have a higher load of household jobs to handle while also working their way up a career ladder. She wrote, "How many women have a husband prepared to iron their shirts, pick up their cleaning, manage the nanny, prepare the family dinners, and arrange social functions?" She also noted that age is a significant factor for women -- once you get "off" the ramp and you try to get back "on", women (and men) are less attractive as a potential employee.

Anne Mathias, Senior Vice President and Director of Research at Stanford Washington Research Group in Washington DC, pondered: "Why is it that no one ever asks the following question of women who have left the full-time corporate workforce: 'At the time you decided to leave, did your spouse make more money (or at least have a higher earning potential) than you?'"

Warren Farrell, author of Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It, commented that the issue is not that "corporations have adapted to men's needs. That misses the point. Men with children adapt to the corporation so that they can earn enough money to allow their offspring to have a better life than they've had."

Hewlett and Luce respond by stating, "The letters to the editor point to the unequal nature of the domestic burden. In a survey we conducted at the Center for Work-Life Policy in 2002, we examined the domestic division of labor and discovered a 'tilt' factor: Thirty-year-old professional men performed significantly more household chores than did 40-year-olds. This fact is directly linked to relative earning power. By age 40, many wives have experienced an off-ramp and taken a financial hit, and the widening earnings disparity between husbands and wives shifts the domestic division of labor in the wrong direction. Thus, if we want to do something about the unequal burden, we need to create new options on the work front as well as new collaborations on the home front."

Politics...Massachusetts style

Yes, the race for mayor of my hometown continues to get even hotter.

As you might recall from my earlier post, the teams are starting to line up for candidates. All this will mean is that they will split all the "opponents" every which way, and the incumbent will walk away with the prize in the preliminary election (October 4).

Latest news is that Scott Lang, the last of the candidates to toss a hat into the ring, was endorsed by the city's firefighters union. Yes, the classic saga of who supports the police and the fire fighters continues for yet another year/cycle/decade. And the charges go back and forth:

Responding to constant criticism from challenger Scott W. Lang on the city's crime problems, Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. has accused Mr. Lang of running for mayor to ensure that the city's police and fire unions receive their pay raises.

"Mr. Lang, the police union and the fire union are working together to put out wrong and distorted information in the hopes that the public will not understand their true motive -- which is not public safety but unjustifiable compensation for police and fire fighters," wrote Mayor Kalisz in a prepared release. Mayor Kalisz was asked whether laptops in police cruisers are working as they should.

"What is more outrageous is that an attorney in Mr. Lang's private law office represents the New Bedford firefighters in their contract negotiations with the city and now that same union has endorsed Mr. Lang," Mayor Kalisz wrote.

After a while, voters get sick of this crap and just decide to stay home because it doesn't matter who gets elected. Tsk tsk tsk, dear mayoral candidates.

Transitions and behavior

We have survived the first week of transition into pre-K. And it was just that -- survival.

This has been a bit of a hectic week to begin with because it started off with us on vacation for the Labor Day holiday. Then the pre-K teacher (Miss J) was on vacation for two days, so the first "real" day for my daughter to be with her teacher was on Thursday. Work was a bit hectic this week due to a project I was working on, and on Thursday I arrived to pick up the kids with maybe 1 minute to spare.

The director was waiting for me as she had to talk to me about something that happened.

Evidently, my daughter, the very imaginative one, is very fanciful with everyone. She had told the director (who is mom to one of my daughter's pre-K classmates) that something occurred in the classroom, with lots of "ums" thrown in, and that a certain person did something to her (keeping names out of this for this blog), and then when the director asked if it really was that person, my daughter changed the name to another person. So, the director told me about it, because "you never know" if it is really true or if it is the whole imagination thing going on.

I talked to my daughter about it several time on Thursday night -- no pressure, just a few minutes here and a few minutes there, over a few hours, and I tried to get a sense of what she had told the director AND what had happened during the day.

It was a whole new set of people doing a whole new set of things.

So -- I spoke with Miss J Friday morning at drop-off and asked her to talk to the director and then give me a call sometime during the day when she had a few minutes. Miss J called me in the afternoon -- she told me the set of events that happened both yesterday AND today. Yes, a whole new set of people. She also said that the entire CLASS is doing this sort of thing right now -- and it is like the entire CLASS has regressed to the stuff of 2 year olds; i.e. hitting, kicking, etc. Miss J and I had a good conversation about all this (20 minutes or so) and we're going to borrow some books from the library (that we have read before, actually) on feelings and playing with others, etc.

The "lying" part is actually less a problem for me right now because I think that 4 year-olds don't quite get it yet. (And the experts at ParentCenter seem to agree!) The behavior stuff, though, concerns me. We have been working with my son on not kicking, not hitting, etc. -- all the stuff burgeoning 2 year-olds do. So I guess we'll read the books together as a family as they both can benefit.

Ass Miss J said to me yesterday -- if the children won't behave, she can't teach them anything in the classroom. And if parents do not keep up the consistency at home, they won't behave during the day.

School picture day

Tomorrow is school picture day. Yes, the annual event even takes place for infants! Lucky me, I get to somehow get both children up, dressed, fed, faces washed, and in good enough condition to arrive at school WITHOUT a yogurt stain across their new fall outfit -- and do this all by myself. Why? Because DH has a hearing that he must attend early so he has to leave the house at 6:45 am. Lucky me!!!

On a lighter note, my daughter is doing GREAT in her 4's class. She seems so grown up all of a sudden. *sniff sniff* Just wait until next year when she starts Kindergarten -- I'll be a puddle on the floor.

First day of pre-K school

Yes, my daughter's first day in the "4s" is today. The classroom curriculum has more of a pre-K focus. She is SO excited to finally be in the "speckled frogs" room. She picked out a new backpack on Saturday (Cinderella, of course) and happily put that in her cubby this morning.

Over the weekend, plans rapidly switched around. It all started on Friday. There was an in-service day at daycare and DH was to have "children duty" -- but then the House convened for the supplemental funding for FEMA. His boss actually flew in from California -- no one would have predicted that -- so both children were with me at work Friday morning, and then DH picked them up at my office at noon time.

So our plans for the weekend were dramatically altered at the last minute.

I did some online hotel hunting and found a deal at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. So we stayed there Sunday night and came back home yesterday. We all had a great time!

We have been doing our best to follow what's going on with the post-Katrina recovery while not letting the children see things on the news and such. Dave Farber has been posting lots of updates through his Interesting People list.

One great post was by Stephen Poe -- I really liked his two point summary of You Can't Fund Everything and Our Risks are Increasing. My only commentary to his excellent "policy analysis critique" is this -- what concerns me is the lack of planning on how to deal with the disaster that everyone knew would happen since the infrastructure was not in place for anything beyond a Category 4 hurricane.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

I have been a "weather junkie" for years. It's just part of being in my family. During hurricane season, I remember sitting in the living room with my mother, my brother, and my grandmother (when I was about 6 years old) listening to the radio to get the latest "lat/lon pair" from the National Weather Service. I learned my Atlantic Coast geography thanks to Hurricane Gerda, Hurricane Belle, Hurricane David, and a few tropical storms thrown into the mix. Hurricane Gloria taught me some appreciation for what the NWS went through in terms of "hype" about a storm. By the time Gloria reached us, she was a tropical storm, and I saw lots of news coverage about "the weather folks always say it is going to be bad, but it never is". But my mother was a child when the Great '38 hurricane hit New England. She witnessed what happened after Hurricane Carol and Hurricane Hazel hit in rapid succession. Then Hurricane Diane hit the following year. My mother and my father and my grandparents taught my brother and I how we had to respect hurricanes -- in spite of what others might say about "hype".

Then came Hurricane Bob.

Hurricane Bob hit the year that my husband and I got married. We were true newlyweds -- 4 months into our marriage -- and we were doing all our hurricane preparations -- storing water, gathering canned goods, buying candles, etc. Bob hit as a Category 2 storm and we watched as satellite dishes blew up the street. A tree fell down in our backyard and took the electric meter right off our house. We made it through fine, and yes, it was a pain not having power for a week, but we did not have flooding, we still had a house to live in, and we muddled through okay. But many friends were not as lucky. Friends that lived near the bay did have flooding. They did lose the roof of their house and had to gather their belongings quickly to move out of their house for a long while. Bob showed me how all this stuff is "real".

We moved to the DC area in 1994, and Hurricane Bertha paid a visit in 1996. I got to see the DC area's version of "they just hyped the storm" complaining. But I did not get forget what I learned in Bob. When Hurricane Isabel hit the DC area in 2003 as a tropical storm, I saw friends once again suffer major losses thanks to a "just a tropical storm". But people still talked about "all the hype".

Now we see what Hurricane Katrina has destroyed.

I hear about the devastation at work, and it just breaks my heart. Then I come home and, after the kids are in bed, I watch the news coverage and have to kiss my kids another time. My heart goes out to all the families.

I just hope that people -- not only residents, but also elected officials and emergency management personnel and the like -- will learn a little from this and have a healthy respect for the weather. Sure, it costs a lot of money to do mandatory evacuations 48 hours out from a storm. But you can save some lives in the process, too.

I think one of the posters on the Eastern US Weather forum said it best -- this was posted the morning of landfall (Aug 29 2005, 09:14 AM):

I am very sad this morning... deeply moved by the disaster unfolding before our eyes. I have been in two cat 1 hurricanes in my life.... and it take a lot to scare ME with weather...

I cannot imagine what a cat 4 is like... the wobble to the west here which has placed New Orleans right in the western Eye wall is just so unbelievably bad.... the words fail me.

2004 .... 4 canes in 44 days in FL.... now this 3rd massive cane in the gulf....

From this day forward these persons and families.... even those not directly in the path of Katrina... and those families who have relatives in other parts of the country watching this disaster unfold... KNOW that today is one of those life-changing days that we love and also fear. Imagine leaving your home on another seemingly senseless evacuation.... just like the last time... kidding with friends and neighbors and family members that this time again nothing is going to happen but secretly having that fear that it just might... then as we watch the media coverage knowing that this time it's different. This time the place that you call home is in serious trouble... this time the luck isn't going to hold .

And as you come home you find your home smashed wedding albums and family pictures scattered about ... the kitchen destroyed... and your entire life strewn about as if you and your family were insignificant nothing. When you are in a category 3 4 or 5 hurricane EVERY days in your life will be post-Katrina.... post 8/29/05... everyday gets viewed as before and after... everything that happened to these persons and these families lives... from 1776 to now get put into one compartment or mindset... and everything that happens from August 30, 2005 until... well until whenever... is viewed as AFTER Katrina.

Yet the greatest power of humanity is that we know deep down the lives are not insignificant and we make our stand against the forces of nature as we rebuild sometimes a rather seemingly senseless act of the defiance but always in a very human matter.

In general Humans are at the best when things are at their worst... and no place is that more true than in United States of America.