As tradition dictates, we had Aliya’s birthday dinner at Bugaboo Creek.  As an extra surprise, I was in Providence on Friday for work and I saw signs for an upcoming performance of Wicked, which Aliya and I saw two years ago.  We loved the show and we’ve been wanting to see it again.  I checked with the box office to see if the show was sold out, and there were great seats available so I bought 2 tickets for Aliya’s birthday.  I’m really excited about going, so it’s a gift for me too!

Aliya wrote a thank-you note on her white board – so cute!

“Dear mom + dad but mostle mom i hope you get a chance to read this iven thow it is have way in my dirty room this was the best birthday ever and all never forget it and the presint was iven beter, i cant belive i am going to wiked with mom again.  You gise are the best parentes a girl cold want, and mom thankyou so much for the sleeepover it was realy fun and dad thanks for trieng to crush my party that was cute, you guies are the best of the best.

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Well, they can’t say I didn’t warn them.  All of the teachers at school think Aliya is just *wonderful* and I made it perfectly clear that Adlani did not inherit the “Teacher’s Pet” gene.  A) He’s a boy, B) He’s 10 months younger than Aliya was when she was in kindergarten, and C) He’s Adlani. 

I honestly have no idea how to deal with this.  I think Adlani figured out that by adopting the “class clown” persona, he could get positive attention from the other kids by being silly.  The problem is that he’s disrupting the class, he does little or none of his work during school, and I’m sure he’s driving the teachers insane.  I asked our pediatrician why he acts this way with a group but is a completely different kid one-on-one, and he said, “because he doesn’t have an audience when it’s just the two of you.” 

I’m at a loss.  I just hope he gets his act together soon so he doesn’t end up repeating kindergarten.  I thought he was off the payroll. 
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Sometimes when I’m joking around with the kids they take me seriously, like the time Aliya asked me what the sign with the P and a circle with a line on it meant and I said, “No peeing.”  Those fibs always seem to resurface, long after I’ve forgotten about them.  I guess I should be more careful.

Today Adlani said, “Let’s go to the American Girl Doll Store!  That place is so much fun!”  WTF?  Since when does Adlani like American Girl dolls?  And when did he ever GO to the AG store?  He reminded me that his friend Ailadis had her birthday party there.  I was so confused!  I knew that Adlani had gone to her party but I was positive that it wasn’t at the AG store. 

I finally figured out that when we got the invitation to the party and Adlani asked me where it was going to be, I told him it would be at the AG store just to freak him out.  So for the last month he’s been thinking that he had a hell of a time at the AG store, when her party was actually at a place called “Backyard Adventures.”  I hope he didn’t tell any of his friends how much he likes going to the AG store!
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It took about 3 hours but the countertops are in and they look great!  The only problem now is that we need all new appliances and to repaint the kitchen and family room.  It’s amazing how bad everything else looks when you get something new.  Oh well.

And just because you had to look at another photo of my kitchen, here’s a completely unrelated but funny video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih6W19KTlZo&hl=en&fs=1&]

One more day and my ten years of wishing for new countertops will be over!!  For the time being, we have no kitchen whatsoever, which really stinks!  It adds a whole new level of difficulty to getting the kids out of the house in the morning.

Ben and Orialis (our handy-guy) took the old countertops out on Sunday, and that went pretty smoothly other than the fact that there was nothing in the walls behind the backsplash.  There was a lot of patching to be done after the pry-bar went right through the sheetrock multiple times, but it wasn’t really a surprise considering the workmanship of the previous owner.  Hopefully there won’t be any unforeseen issues tomorrow and by dinner-time the countertops will be installed.  Orialis is coming over tomorrow night for a plumbing adventure…I’ll be at my Adobe Flash class but I’ll be under the sink in spirit. 

I can’t wait to have countertops without cruddy grout lines!  Maybe I’ll make a pie to celebrate…roll the crust right out on the counter.  YIPPEE!!!
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