1. A friend gives Connor a birthday gift at the bus stop on Monday afternoon. He was sick on Sunday and couldn't make it to the party. Two big, strapping boys. Pushing and shoving each other a moment earlier. As he hands it to Connor, what do I hear:
"Oh, my, Danny! You shouldn't have!!
What? Suddenly he's turned into Scarlett O'Hara? I expected him to whip out a fan and swoon.
2. Working on the new obsession: a Lego set. We have firm rules around these. Actually, one firm rule: FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF. You know, Connor gets so frustrated so easily. This new fixation is a good way to help him through that. No crying, no whining---if you do, it gets taken away. If you get stuck, go back three moves and rebuild and try to figure out what you did wrong. Only then can you come ask for help. So, he's adapting to that. And it's crystal clear that he'll get no help at all if he acts like a baby. I hear him in the family room. There are sighs. There are low moans--even a few grunts. But no baby sounds. These are grown up frustration vents and I'm fine with that. A few moments later, he appears. Half of a Star Wars imperial walker leg in his hand. What does he say?
"Mother! I think I have detected a flaw."
Wow. Now that's what I call a calm presentation of an issue.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Birthday Fun At School
Today I had the pleasure of spending lunchtime with Connor at his school in order to share birthday cupcakes with his classmates. I needed a nap immediately following. The cafeteria is possibly one of the LOUDEST places I have ever been in my life. But, it did solve some mysteries for me about how lunch with first graders actually works. My observations:
1. He sits with his class--at the non-peanut boys end of the table.
2. Its a constant rotating schedule. As one class leaves one table, another is filing in to fill it. This is very different than my elementary school where lunch was in two or three blocks of time for everyone.
3. He goes BACK to class for awhile before heading out to Recess. That's just stupid. They are so wound up after the freedom of that 30 minute lunch zoo, I don't know how they learn ANYTHING in that next 25 minutes.
4. The cafeteria team told me that they estimate that about 60-75% of the food brought by the kids or purchased for lunch is actually just thrown away. Frightening. But looking around, I believe that to be true.
5. My friend Karina was there to have lunch with her daughter Megan at the other end of the table. She told me that every single day (she goes alot) is major DRAMA with the girls having to do with "Today you are not my friend." "Today I will sit with X and Y and not with you." etc. None of that went on at the boys end of the table. They just pile into the seats and then see who can do the grossest thing with their food.
6. The girls have better manners than the boys. WAY. As Connor handed out the cupcakes, almost every single girl thanked him, thanked me, and asked what they were and complimented them. Not one boy said thank you. They just shoved them straight down their gullets. I don't care. I'd rather not get a thank you and know that they are nice to each other vs. all those girls saying thank you and then treating each other like crap. Ugh.
But, the treats were a major hit. We made Pebbles Cupcake treats and iced them with real buttercream icing in Connor's choice of blue. (Bob said that it looked like Avatar poop.) And Connor was so proud to hand them out and to walk me around the cafeteria to all his friends and staff and pat my belly and tell everyone "She's not fat. She's "pregnit". Too cute. And despite his hyperactivity, it seemed to me that all of the adults really like him. This is no surprise---he's always engaged above his age group!
1. He sits with his class--at the non-peanut boys end of the table.
2. Its a constant rotating schedule. As one class leaves one table, another is filing in to fill it. This is very different than my elementary school where lunch was in two or three blocks of time for everyone.
3. He goes BACK to class for awhile before heading out to Recess. That's just stupid. They are so wound up after the freedom of that 30 minute lunch zoo, I don't know how they learn ANYTHING in that next 25 minutes.
4. The cafeteria team told me that they estimate that about 60-75% of the food brought by the kids or purchased for lunch is actually just thrown away. Frightening. But looking around, I believe that to be true.
5. My friend Karina was there to have lunch with her daughter Megan at the other end of the table. She told me that every single day (she goes alot) is major DRAMA with the girls having to do with "Today you are not my friend." "Today I will sit with X and Y and not with you." etc. None of that went on at the boys end of the table. They just pile into the seats and then see who can do the grossest thing with their food.
6. The girls have better manners than the boys. WAY. As Connor handed out the cupcakes, almost every single girl thanked him, thanked me, and asked what they were and complimented them. Not one boy said thank you. They just shoved them straight down their gullets. I don't care. I'd rather not get a thank you and know that they are nice to each other vs. all those girls saying thank you and then treating each other like crap. Ugh.
But, the treats were a major hit. We made Pebbles Cupcake treats and iced them with real buttercream icing in Connor's choice of blue. (Bob said that it looked like Avatar poop.) And Connor was so proud to hand them out and to walk me around the cafeteria to all his friends and staff and pat my belly and tell everyone "She's not fat. She's "pregnit". Too cute. And despite his hyperactivity, it seemed to me that all of the adults really like him. This is no surprise---he's always engaged above his age group!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Seventh
Whew. What a day.
I hate meterologists. All of them. I think we should take all of the money that we spend on college programs for them, for all their Doppler and NexRad crap, for all the TV channels, for all the jobs, computers, and sattelites and use it to pay for a public health insurance option for migrant workers. Seriously. What a waste of time and resources. They are wrong so much more often then they are right. Nationalize meteorology--one government agency to do it all. I'm all about socializing THAT.
Today, wild thunderstorms with tornadoes and hail were predicted for right in the middle of Connor's outdoor birthday party. But, at 10am when we said we'd make the "game time decision" to go or not go, the forecasts were all looking invalid and as if the really awful stuff would come later. So, rather than cancel, we decided to hedge our bets and move it up an hour and half.
What happened? It was a beautiful day. All day. We didn't even need to move it up. But it was fine that we did because it actually made the evening a bit more relaxing. The boys played miniature golf and hit the batting cages. After the party, a bunch of them were able to stay and use their tokens for a small bucket of balls and we hit the driving range together. They all seemed to really enjoy it and it was nice to meet a few of Connor's friends from school that I did not know.
Happy Birthday, Handsome!
Parity
Today, Connor becomes a seven-year old. Its shocking, really. Just shocking. He's still our baby in so many ways---but soon that will change, too. I tell him all the time, though, that he'll always be my FIRST baby.
I went through his baby memory box the other day because I am trying to organize my hospital bag and thought that I might want to bring his baby brother home from the hospital in Connor's baby kimono set. But, after I opened it and looked at all the things in that box, I decided to leave it. Those are Connor's special things and I want them to stay that way.
It struck me that this new baby's arrival will be documented here in Tatertown, but that Connor's was not. On the other hand, Connor has a beautiful baby book and memory box that I'll be hard pressed to live up to for his brother!
Here's our first family picture right after he was born. And his footprints and birth announcement:
When we finally got things moving along, it went quickly. There was an ARMY of people in the OR--I was shocked by how many nurses and staff were there. And I was tremendously impressed with the very very organized and well-coordinated way that things happened. My anesthesiologist was charming and my spinal block / epidural application was great--even though we had to move it up one vertebrae because the first one was funky. I didn't want nor need any kind of tranquilizer and I was able to be totally aware of what was going on and talk to Bob and my doctor the whole time. It was just as I would have wanted it to be--not dramatic, calm, and very deliberate. They took him out (after having to make my incision a bit bigger because the doctor could not fit him through the original!), we got a quick few pictures and then off he went with Daddy for his first bath while the doctor closed me back up.
I got to see him again when I was in the recovery room and Bob wheeled him in in the plastic bassinet thing. I was shaking from the anesthesia like a crazy woman at the top of Mount Everest in winter and couldn't hold him until later when I was in my room. I don't remember too much after that--I was sleepy and Bob was sleepy and they took Connor to the nursery for a few hours so that we could get some rest.
After that, the rest of our lives together began. But I do remember one thing--our first family hug that night. And just like in Lilo and Stitch, during the hug, my silly, crazy husband said "Ohana means family". And it does.
I went through his baby memory box the other day because I am trying to organize my hospital bag and thought that I might want to bring his baby brother home from the hospital in Connor's baby kimono set. But, after I opened it and looked at all the things in that box, I decided to leave it. Those are Connor's special things and I want them to stay that way.
It struck me that this new baby's arrival will be documented here in Tatertown, but that Connor's was not. On the other hand, Connor has a beautiful baby book and memory box that I'll be hard pressed to live up to for his brother!
Here's our first family picture right after he was born. And his footprints and birth announcement:
It was a long day. We got to the hospital around 10am for a scheduled 12:30 pm c-section. But...as fate would have it we had to wait until around 4:30 to go into the OR. First, my doctor had another patient in hard labor at 11 am--so we had to wait until that one gave birth. Thankfully, she moved it along and we cleared that hurdle around 1pm. Then, just as we were about to head in to the OR, an ambulance radioed that they were bringing in a pregnant automobile accident victim. So, they needed to hold my OR space in case of an emergency with that woman. We stayed in pretty good spirits in a tiny little room with me hooked up to a fetal monitor. I was glad that I was not either one of those other moms---neither in a car crash nor in labor.
When we finally got things moving along, it went quickly. There was an ARMY of people in the OR--I was shocked by how many nurses and staff were there. And I was tremendously impressed with the very very organized and well-coordinated way that things happened. My anesthesiologist was charming and my spinal block / epidural application was great--even though we had to move it up one vertebrae because the first one was funky. I didn't want nor need any kind of tranquilizer and I was able to be totally aware of what was going on and talk to Bob and my doctor the whole time. It was just as I would have wanted it to be--not dramatic, calm, and very deliberate. They took him out (after having to make my incision a bit bigger because the doctor could not fit him through the original!), we got a quick few pictures and then off he went with Daddy for his first bath while the doctor closed me back up.
I got to see him again when I was in the recovery room and Bob wheeled him in in the plastic bassinet thing. I was shaking from the anesthesia like a crazy woman at the top of Mount Everest in winter and couldn't hold him until later when I was in my room. I don't remember too much after that--I was sleepy and Bob was sleepy and they took Connor to the nursery for a few hours so that we could get some rest.
After that, the rest of our lives together began. But I do remember one thing--our first family hug that night. And just like in Lilo and Stitch, during the hug, my silly, crazy husband said "Ohana means family". And it does.
Friday, April 23, 2010
That Was Then, This Is Now
My friend Lisa came to town for a Spring Break visit and we had a great day at the park. She sent a bunch of photos from their visit and the one of Mason and Connor playing in the creek remined me that somewhere in the Tate Archives I had a picture of them in the same left>right position. They were 5 months old. 7 years later, look how they've changed!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Nesting-New Paint
Last week we had pretty much all of the common areas in the house repainted. Major nesting underway! They did a great job and the colors are unusual and awesome. As we get each room reloaded, I'll post a picture of how they look.
Here's the kitchen. Dark orangey-brown called Chestnut Stallion on all the walls except the one back, accent wall. That one is called Spring Moss and its an awesome drenched green. We also reorganized and moved things off center a bit rather than have the table and sideboard all be at perfect right angles. We went with three shelves instead of four of them in a grid as we had them before. Its really opened up the eat in kitchen area. But now the light has to go and we have to find someting flush or semi-flush mounted.
Here's the kitchen. Dark orangey-brown called Chestnut Stallion on all the walls except the one back, accent wall. That one is called Spring Moss and its an awesome drenched green. We also reorganized and moved things off center a bit rather than have the table and sideboard all be at perfect right angles. We went with three shelves instead of four of them in a grid as we had them before. Its really opened up the eat in kitchen area. But now the light has to go and we have to find someting flush or semi-flush mounted.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)