Monthly Archives for June 2011

School’s Out for Summer! (boohooooo?)

Yesterday was Aliya and Adlani’s last day of school and I had some last-day business to take care of so I ended up picking them up at noon dismissal.  I remember the last day of school from waaaaaaaay back in the 70’s…taking home all the crap that had accumulated, washing the desks, and getting ready to do nothing for 2+ months.  And when I say “do nothing,” I mean DO NOTHING.  Although I did go to camp a few times for a week, we didn’t have the summer schedules that most families have now.  We mostly just hung around the house playing with rocks and sticks.  Still, the last day of school was exhilarating!

So it was completely unexpected to be standing in the school lobby, and have lines of sobbing kids passing by.  I guess it’s a good sign that they love their teachers, but it’s SUMMER VACATION, for crying out loud!  Time to have fun!  Sleep late!  Camp out!  Swim!  Make S’Mores!  Not to mention the fact that these kids can communicate with each other and even with their teachers so much easier than we could.  When I was a kid we had a party line…for those who haven’t experienced a party line, we shared our phone line with a neighbor.  We could tell who the call was for based on the ring.  Sometimes when we picked up the phone to call out, they were already using it.  We lived out in the boonies so we couldn’t walk or ride our bikes to our friends’ houses, and we didn’t have a computer.  There was no Facebook or email.  Maybe I should have been the one sobbing back then.

So the year-end frenzy is over…the teachers’ gifts have been delivered, everything that needed to be picked up from school or returned to school is checked off the list, and summer has begun.  And I will tell you after Day 1, somebody is getting medicated – either me or them.

—————————————————————————————–

Aliya had Señora MacKay for a summer program 2 years ago, and she was hoping and praying to have her as her teacher. She lucked out and had her for 3rd grade, and she absolutely loves her. She’s like a little clone. When Aliya was talking about who she hoped to have for 4th grade, she said, “It doesn’t really matter who I have, because I can make any teacher love me.”  Now that’s confidence.

Here’s a photo of Adlani with the blanket I made for his teacher’s baby, Ravi.  Adlani has been checking with me every day to see if it was ready.  When the blanket was about 2 inches wide, he asked if he could take it to school.  His rationale was that Ravi wouldn’t be that big when he came out, so a 2-inch wide blanket would be just fine.

And here’s Adlani’s note to his teacher.  In case you don’t speak First Grade, it says “Hi Señora Jeyadame.  I am going to miss you.  And I want you to have a nice time with Ravi.  Gracias para todo.  Te quiero.  Adlani”

In case you missed it on Facebook, here’s Adlani’s video message to his teacher, along with his reading demonstration.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoob5kjPP38?rel=0&w=560&h=349]

Bye Bye BLOCKS! :-(

Everyone keeps telling me that time flies and kids grow up too fast, but I think this might be the first moment I’ve felt like they might be right.  I’m always so focused on the 8 jillion things that I’m supposed to be doing, and time sneaks up on me.  After 4 years at Blocks Preschool (2 for Adlani, 2 for Norah), we’re all done.  While Norah and I are both excited that she’s headed for kindergarten, and I’m looking forward to some time off from my part-time PTO job, we’re sad to be leaving the school.  It’s the BEST, and we have loved everything about it, especially the fabulous teachers.

Luckily, Norah’s teacher is going to be tutoring her in Spanish so it’s just “Hasta luego!”

My Unexpected Life

When I was a little kid, I didn’t plan on growing up to be a door hardware consultant.  I didn’t know I’d have thousands of *fans* around the world.  I thought I was going to be a back-up singer for a country band, so I guess my fans would have been closer to home.  I didn’t know that I’d marry a Moroccan guy…my boyfriends were all down-home Vermonters.  I didn’t know that I’d move to the big city, especially since my mother’s fear of driving in cities (and over mountains) rubbed off on me.  I got over it.  I didn’t know that I’d have 3 kids, and I knew for sure that I wouldn’t have to yell the same thing 50 times before anyone did anything.  Yelling didn’t work for my mother, so I knew I would have my own inventive ways of getting things done.  I got over that too.  I didn’t know that I would give up on trying to keep my house neat and orderly, and let the yard go to hell.  As a single adult I was organized beyond belief, and always spending my free time making homemade gifts.  I didn’t expect that someday I’d be sending email gift cards for birthdays and holidays, because I lost the card I originally bought for the occasion and the gift STILL isn’t finished.  I guess I’ve learned to expect the unexpected.

Saturday morning, I didn’t expect to bite into a bagel and end up with half of a molar missing (it hasn’t turned up yet).  I spent the weekend chewing and talking funny to avoid repeatedly cutting my tongue on the leftover tooth, which left me with a sore jaw and an open wound on my tongue.  The dentist worked me into her schedule for a consultation today.  It was completely unexpected when she looked in my mouth and told her assistant to prep for a crown.  Right now???  Yep.  Wait!  I’m not mentally prepared!!  Today was my 7th crown (thanks to my pen-chewing habit that lasted through early adulthood), so at least I knew what to expect at the dentist.  For me, the worst part isn’t the Novocaine or the drilling…it’s the purple goo that they use to make the cast of my teeth, so the permanent crown fits.  I had to use my old hypnobirthing techniques to keep myself from throwing up in my mouth and drowning in my own vomit.  Here I am during that process:

I had 2 hours in the dentist’s chair to think about other unexpected events of recent weeks.  There was the woman who anonymously commented in the online version of the local newspaper than I’m a white elitist and that I only care about myself.  That was pretty unexpected…since this woman doesn’t know me at all, has never spoken to me, and I’m the farthest thing from a white elitist.  Maybe she had me confused with someone who doesn’t have a brown husband and kids in bilingual school.

Then there was the morning when we were having a thunderstorm, and Aliya was on the front porch spraying sunscreen on herself (why?  who the hell knows?).  Annie, our obese MINI Australian Shepherd, who closely resembles a small hairy piglet and freaks out during thunderstorms, seized the moment to run out the front door and go after a black lab that was walking by with his owner, who I would estimate to be around 70 years old (the owner, not the lab).  Annie started jumping on the lab, and his owner started screaming (GET AWAY FROM MY DOG!!!) and beating Annie with her umbrella.  Meanwhile, Aliya and Adlani were in the street screaming, while Norah screamed at the window.  Did I mention it was pouring rain and the dogs were kicking up mud all over the 70YO woman?  So I did what I had to do – I ran out into the street.  In my underwear.  I grabbed Annie’s collar, and said, “She doesn’t bite.  She won’t hurt you.”  The woman was really mad (“HER TEETH JUST MISSED MY LEG!!”), really muddy, and I was in my underwear, so it was a very short conversation.  To top it off, the woman is a town meeting member in my precinct and I knew she’d eventually figure out that Underwear-Woman was me.  I sent her an email apologizing and she accepted, even though she maintained that my 30-pound obese hairy piglet is a vicious wanna-be killer.  Sorry, no photo of me in the street in my underwear.

There have been lots of other unexpected events lately, but the one that really sticks out in my mind happened a few weeks ago.  It has taken me this long to get over it.  Ben was at soccer practice with Aliya and I was at the park teaching Adlani how to ride a bike while Norah tried not to get run over.  Ben showed up at the park with Aliya and one of her team-mates, and we decided to go out to dinner.  We had two cars, and when I arrived at the restaurant parking lot, I saw both girls peering into Ben’s ear.  When I looked in, I saw something brown and hairy, and really disgusting.  While attempting to remove it with tweezers, it kept migrating back into his ear.  I feared the worst – something alive.  I could almost gag just thinking about it now.  Maybe I’m not ready to recount the story yet…I need more time to  heal.  KIDDING!  I finally got a good grip on it, said a little prayer that no ENT specialists would drive by and see me in a parking lot with super-pointy tweezers in my husband’s ear, with an audience looking on.  I’m sure Aliya’s poor team-mate was wishing she’d caught a ride home with one of the normal dads.  So anyway, I finally pulled the thing out, and it was a GIANT, dark brown, hairy piece of ear wax.  If you’re brave, click here because yes of course I took a picture.  This one’s for you, Larry!

Here’s one more unexpected turn of events.  Thanks to a knitting/crocheting class with Nurse Mary and the organizers of the spring fundraiser at school, I have reawakened my crafty side.  I haven’t crocheted since I was pregnant for Norah…I was working on a blanket for her when we went to Morocco, and I ended up giving it to someone there who had just had a baby.  I never got around to making another one for Norah.  Well, our class got me hooked on crocheting again, and I used up the first skein of yarn the first weekend.  I went back for another skein, and bought 2 more skeins to use for another project.  When I got it home, the kids insisted that I use the new yarn to make a baby blanket for Adlani’s first-grade teacher who is home on bedrest.  Seven skeins and 2 more trips to the yarn store later, the blanket is done and ready to bring in on the last day of school.  The woman who never sits down except in front of a computer has watched the entire Season 4 of Private Practice while crocheting a blanket big enough for the kid to take to kindergarten in his nap bag.  I don’t know how it got so big…maybe I was concentrating a little too much on Taye Diggs.

Here’s a photo of the first meeting of our stitch-n-bitch club at Iron Horse Fiber Art in Natick.  It’s a beautiful store and all of the ladies who work there (especially the owner, Debbie) are so nice.  Just a heads-up to all family members…you will be receiving a crocheted gift for Christmas this year.  Don’t get your hopes up for anything fancy…at the moment I only do rectangles.  I hope you enjoy yours.

Happy Father’s Day!

Our family tradition is to spend Father’s Day in Ogunquit…this year Aliya asked if we could stay overnight, so here we are at the Anchorage by the Sea.  The weather is gorgeous.  We had a short thunderstorm just before dinner last night, and then we saw two gorgeous rainbows.  Norah kept insisting that they were from Grampa B.  Dinner at La Pizzeria was great – I highly recommend it if you’re looking for good pizza in Ogunquit.  I set the alarm for 4:45 this morning so I could photograph the sunrise from the balcony of our hotel, and it was well worth it.  We’re headed to the beach today.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!!

Red-Eyed Tree Frog, Take II

What I’m about to say is going to further tarnish my mom-putation.  Oh well, I’m not winning any mother-of-the-year awards anyway.  In fact, Adlani recently screamed at me, “YOU’RE NO MOM!  YOU’RE A MONSTER!!”  For some reason I take pleasure in being called a monster.

So…it’s that time of year again, when along with the rest of the year-end frenzy, the kids prepare for the big research fair.  I’m not a fan.  There, I said it.  I don’t mind the actual fair itself, which is when parents spend an hour talking to the kids about their projects.  It’s the preparation that gets to me.

Call me crazy, but I think a first-grade project should be whatever a first-grader is capable of.  If he fashions a lump of clay into what he thinks looks like a frog, done.  Maybe there’s a benefit to having the first-grader sit for hours with Mom and Dad, making a diorama of a Siberian Spotted Salamander’s habitat, but when it comes to our family, those moments together always seem to lead to some sort of family strife.

This year, Adlani’s project was a red-eyed tree frog, and he was dead-set on making a tree frog out of clay for his project.  I don’t know why he couldn’t have picked a snake, which I’m pretty sure I could have made out of clay fairly easily (or out of a stocking like one of our friends).  He could also have chosen to stick some photos of the frog on a piece of posterboard, draw a picture, or hell, even go to Petco and BUY a red-eyed tree frog.  But nooooooo…he had to make one out of clay.

We’ve had a lot going on the last couple of weeks, so even though Adlani was reminding me daily about the frog, I hadn’t had a chance to go buy the clay, paint, etc. until Sunday.  On Monday (Memorial Day), we spent at least 3 hours making the most beautiful clay frog you’ve ever seen.  You’ll have to take my word for it.  The project was due Tuesday, so I drove the kids to school, carried the frog carefully to his classroom, and put it waaaaay back in the corner behind the other projects.  I almost took a picture of it before we left the house, but we were running late and I literally said, out loud, “I’ll just take a picture of it at the research fair.”

Tuesday afternoon, Adlani got off the bus with this:

That’s it.  After my head exploded, Adlani told me that he had accidentally dropped the frog while they were practicing doing their presentations for the parents, and Señora Jeyadame said, “It’s ok, just make another one by Thursday morning.”

Huh?  It’s Tuesday after school, I’m a single mother because Ben’s still receiving visitors who have come to his sister’s house to pay their respects.  Adlani and Aliya have soccer practice, and I have hired a babysitter so I can finally go back to Zumba after 5 long weeks of town meeting.  Wednesday afternoon I’m supposed to go to my office (which didn’t happen because of the tornado), and then Night #2 of my Zumba reentry.  There is no 3-hour time period in my schedule to make another frog.

Needless to say, Frog #2 did not take us 3 hours.  We had the replacement shaped within about 20 minutes, let it dry, and slapped on some paint.  Here’s Frog #2, and don’t ask me what Adlani is so friggin happy about at 7:30 in the morning.  That just doesn’t seem right.

Thankfully, Aliya’s projects have gotten a lot easier, because she does just about everything herself.  She tried to convince me on Monday that she had to make a clay model of the Iditarod, but I didn’t fall for it.  If she really needed one, she would have been bugging me multiple times daily to help her with it.

Good luck to anyone else who’s in the year-end frenzy right now!