If I had some magical blog-glue I could probably cobble all of this together into a cohesive post, but I don't. Oh well! I came home from my travels and waited for the inevitable I-spent-hours-on-an-airborne-metal-tube-filled-with-other-people's-germs illness to settle in, but then spent a couple of days patting myself on the back for remembering to take my Vitamin C, because I had FINALLY escaped that particular fate. Only, now there's some weird bug going through Monkey's school that Monkey clearly has and I spent a day going, "Do I have it? Am I just making myself sick psychosomatically?...
Every week I look forward to the weekend with ever-increasing fervor as the days march on. Because the week is so chaotic! And I'm so tired! And I cannot wait to sleep in and lie around the house and do nothing! AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! You would think that after all these years of having even MORE stuff to do on the weekends, it would eventually occur to me that it's a fallacy. Weekends are a change of scene, sure, but half the time I don't get to sleep in, and even when I do, there's still kids to shuffle around and projects around the house and all sorts of other things that Need Doing....
1) Chickadee is still doing well on her new, dye-free medication. Today was the first blood test and the tech was so good, she didn't even feel the needle. (Okay, technically that's two things. Deal with it.) 2) Today I sent out a panicked I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN HANDLE THIS AUCTION SINGLEHANDEDLY email to the head of our PTA (translation: Please help!) and the next four businesses I approached for donations all happily ponied up. I keep reminding myself that it's for the children. GIMME ALL YOUR GIFT CERTIFICATES, IMMA GO SELL THEM FOR PENCILS. 3) Monkey had a great day at school today and...
We don't see Chickadee very much, lately. Between band and other activities---not to mention her strong desire to get as far away from her embarrassing parents as possible---I feel like I'm lucky to get five minutes with her in a day. The bad news is that I kind of miss her, and I despair of her room ever actually getting cleaned up. The good news is that it's a lot harder to get into an argument when we barely see each other, plus she seems happier to be around us for these short bursts, too. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that I'm usually either feeding her or doing her...
(The title of this post is a complete lie. There is no profit in poisoning your child which I can figure out, though if there were, I would be ALL OVER THAT, pronto.) I've been thinking I may need a completely separate space to discuss Chickadee's mystery skin condition---I'll call it As The Rash Spreads, natch---because it occurs to me that normal people may not actually find my (*counting on my fingers*) four years of endless blather about biopsies and medications and sun sensitivity and whatnot all that fascinating. I KNOW, RIGHT? I mean, what's NOT entertaining about a cranky child with...
1) Monkey has a nasty sinus infection. I figured out that Monkey has a nasty sinus infection. On the way to the doctor this morning, Monkey piped up from the back seat: "Hey, I don't feel good." Then we did a little high-five, because YES! Other people, when they have sinus infections, they always realize they don't feel good! This is progress in our (sensorily-disordered) world. Yay!! 2) I was super productive today. I had a nap. 3) I've been granted a reprieve from the plague of teen attitude until at least tomorrow. I am grateful that my wonderful daughter loves marching band so much, and...
There is a list of things I carry around in my head, and I may not refer to it or think of it all that often, but it is labeled, "Things I Will Never Do As A Parent Because It Bugged The Everlovin' CRAP Out Of Me When My Parents Did It." (Sorry, Mom and Dad.) I don't think this is unusual. Most parents I know have a similar list. Its biggest hallmark, of course, is that half of the items on the list are things we've already done, because HELLO, a lot of the stuff we hated as kids we perpetuate as parents because it's actually the stuff that makes sense, no matter how irritating it is to be...
One of the things we were asked, upon enrolling Monkey at Hippie School, was if we would be willing to come in do little presentations to the group on our work. I assume this is a standard question, but because Otto and I are super fantastic (and, okay, FINE, because he's a photographer and I'm a writer and the school starts production of their newspaper first thing), we were slated for the first two guest spots. Otto went in last week, and when Monkey and Mario tumbled into the house that afternoon, I asked them how they enjoyed his talk. Both boys immediately fell to making chimp noises...
So after one glorious week of "SCHOOL IS AWESOME!" and "THIS IS THE GREATEST SCHOOL EVER!" I had finally begun to unclench, a little. Turns out that the honeymoon ended this week, though. On Monday, Monkey came home a little less excited than the previous week, and suddenly he was listing various transgressions he felt had been committed against him, and noting that "some of these kids really seem to have some problems," which, you know, Pot, is terribly interesting about Kettle and all, but.... And then yesterday I got a phone call. As soon as I realized it was school, I'm pretty sure every...
