Halloween at School

There was a parade at school today. As if on cue, Elizabeth had a complete melt down about her Katy Perry costume 10 minutes before the parade and refused to wear the wig. I was completely unsympathetic.  At home, she decided to be a cheer leader instead using a costume I got from Twins by the Bay.  Which is where I also got Miranda's witch costume.  The Jelly Fish is Ms. Sears, Miranda's teacher and Parker's from last year.  Heading out in a few minutes for the real thing. In the rain. Good times.

Dog Park

Miranda likes to take our neighbors dog, Osa, to the dog park.  The dog likes it too.

Hair!

Kids waiting for dentist appointments

School Photos

School pictures sure have changed...

TPS: chords

"Mommy, do you know that chords are cool because you can make scary music with them?"

Then he played some minor chords.

Good reminders.

I spend each Tuesday morning in the classroom with Miranda.  Her teacher, who was Parker's last year, requested help one hour Monday and Tuesday mornings. She never asked for this last year.  I was happy to volunteer since all of the other volunteer opportunities for her class were snapped up while I was busy signing up for stuff in the others classes.

I usually just help the kids with writing or reading or I help the teacher with laminating or other admin type stuff. I'm happy to do it and Miranda likes me there.  I like seeing the other kids skill levels too because I still, despite the fact that I understand that Miranda and Elizabeth are typical and right on target for their age/grade, think that they are wayyy behind.  Seeing the other kids reminds me they are not and it's Parker that was "odd", not them.

It also reminds me that the kids are told what to do and rushed through so many things each day. They have to stand in line, pick a book, put their bag away, sit on the carpet, listen to the instructions, follow the instructions, stand in another line, cut here, glue there, fold this way, not that way, etc, etc.  It feels like their whole day they are just moved from one task to the next and they get very little time to soak it all in or really enjoy it.

Then they get home, and I rush them from one activity to another. Wait here, dress there, follow me, do this, go here, meet me there, etc, etc, etc.  I usually don't feel guilty about the activities, because the kids request them and usually handle them all ok, but today I did.

Luckily Parker's soccer practice was canceled due to rain soaked fields so all he had was swim team. I told him after swim, he had the rest of the day to do whatever he wanted as long as he practiced the piano in there somewhere. He was dumbfounded, but quickly decided to play wii until dinner.   The girls also only had ballet and then just played at home and goofed off. Miranda had some new drawing books from the school library and Elizabeth wanted her hair in ringlets tomorrow so I put it up in rags.

It's still hard for me to sit around, but it was good today to remind myself that I'm doing this stay at home mom thing mostly for them so I should actually do things that benefit them in other ways from time to time.

Early politics

Miranda says this to me at bedtime...


"Mom, you know Caroline at school?  Well, her mom is really smart and she says that if Governor Romney becomes President then he will take away Netflix. Seriously. Mom. And she says that he will make us all starve."

Three Parties Today

Today was a party kinda of day.

We took off about 9 with my kids and Julien, our neighbor, for party number 1.  It was a girl in Miranda's class. It was the first party she was invited to that Elizabeth was not. Elizabeth took it very well.

Then Parker and Elizabeth and I went to Target to get a present for party number 3.

Back at home, Parker had a make up Piano lesson. The neighbors other kids came over before it ended because the mom was picking up Miranda and Julien.

They all hung out for a bit after the lesson.

The kids then had lunch, jumped on the trampoline, played wii and goofed off until 2 when we took off for party number 2.   Monika's twins celebrating with gymnastics class in Orinda.  Parker and I just hung out there while it was happening.

Then off to party number three. I dropped the girls with the neighbor, then went to pick up three other boys.  Brady, boy number one, had a bad day and was napping, so he would miss the party. I got Jack and Alex and we were off.  Dropped them and headed home to the girls who were happily playing with neighbor.

Girls and I went to boat sushi which is getting expensive with little girls who can eat three plates of unagi, tuna, and octopus. Yuck.

Back at home they got ready for bed and watched yet another My Little Pony. Parker arrived shortly afterward very happy with a bag of plastic crap and candy.

It's 8 and all are in bed and quiet. So far.

Michael is in Boston (at the Parker House enjoying rolls) so I'm going to try to do nothing in the morning, then lunch with some friends. There is an outside after school event in the evening that we are going to.  Although it's suppose to rain, so we'll see...

New Lawn

We got a new lawn yesterday.  The gardeners started working on it last week, taking up the dying lawn, prepping the dirt and then rolling on the sod.  We can't go on it for a couple weeks, but I think I might tell the kids they can never go on it. 

Two sick kids

Miranda came home today with a bad cough.

Parker came home with a high fever.

Parker has to stay home tomorrow, but we'll see what happens with Miranda and  Elizabeth.

Amy's latest cake

For those of you, like us, that missed the gymnastics party this weekend, here is the cake Amy made for Julia.

Bolinas

Susan and Ebba have a friend named Sage.  She has twins and although I have never been close with her, we have seen each other at a large number of twin related functions and she is quite nice.  She is also married to a partner at the company that Michael almost worked for before he took his current job. Sage and her husband are quite rich.  They recently bought and renovated a vacation home in Bolinas which is in Marin County on the coast.  She's invited me there several times, but it never worked out and I was never really comfortable going for a variety of reasons.

But this weekend, Ebba and Susan were going and invited me. Sage and her husband were not there.  Susan took the girls up on Friday and Parker and I joined them on Saturday. It's a lovely house with six bedrooms (3 sets of bunk beds), two full kitchens, three or more bathrooms, and a lovely yard with hot tub.  Plus it's a short stroll to the beach.

The kids had a great time, but 9 kids together does get very loud very quickly.  We played at the beach, around the house, in the hot tub, and shared a taco dinner.  Susan, Ebba and I enjoyed a quiet evening in the hot tub looking at the stars which were bright and plentiful. This morning, Ebba made pancakes and bacon, Susan provided sugary cereal and everyone got back in the hot tub again.

It was all delightful.

Tuesday

I was just looking over what this week is looking like and here is my Tuesday:

 8:30 to 9:30 Volunteer in Miranda's class helping the kids in reading/writing groups
9:30 to 11:30 Shopping, cleaning, and laundry
11:30 to 12:45 Volunteer to help with Lunch duty distributing hot lunch to kids
12:45 to 1:45  Volunteer in Library in Miranda and Elizabeth's class
1:45 pick up kids
2-3  Help with Homework
3:15 Drop Parker at Swim Team
3:30 Drop Girls at Ballet and watch for a bit
3:45 to 4:15 Watch Swim Team
4:30 Pick up Girls at Ballet
4:30 to 6 Make and give Dinner
6 Drive Parker to Soccer
6:30 Prep house for meeting
7:00 Host Twin Support Group
9:00 Collapse

I should apply for a grant or something.

Reading to Dogs

Miranda likes reading. Miranda likes dogs. I signed Miranda up for the Paws to Read program at the library where she reads to dogs.  It's unfortunate that the handlers of the incredible calm, patient, lovely dogs are these slightly creepy older men.

Strange Coincidences!

While at my volunteer gig at the Spay Neuter Cat Clinic today a volunteer walked up to me and said, You look just like my daughter!  Let me show you a picture.  He then got out his phone and showed me a woman who looked like me.  I laughed and said, You look like my Dad!  And he did.

Then he says, the daughter is named Rebecca, which is what I was going to be named.  Then he says his name is Martin. My maiden name.

Then we went back to prepping cats for surgery.

Neighbors

We love our neighbors and their kids love out house. They were here for hours yesterday and then I gave all six of them left over pizza for dinner. The three year old was beyond happy.

We got a wii.

Putting it in the playroom was very smart.

Babysitting coop

It helps having three floors.

Pumpkins

We got our pumpkins early this year. From the Wildwood Dad's Club pumpkin patch. 

Miranda's new behavior

Miranda has been doing a strange thing lately.  She is doing it right now which is why I am thinking about it.  It happens in different ways, but today it was like this:

I picked her up from Sewing class and all was well.  She was in a good mood and told me about the fun things she did that day.  She had a cookie and a hershey kiss that her sewing teacher gave her.

We went to get Parker at swim team practice and she and Elizabeth played in the playground while he finished. She was in a good mood and when it was time to go, she happily went to the car.

We got home. At the door we discussed what each kid had to do. She had to finish her birthday thank you cards. She had three left to do. (Elizabeth finished hers a while ago.)  She was in a good mood still.

Then she started to lose it. She didn't know where her stuff was. I reminded her it was in her card case that Ebba gave her. She had no idea where that was. I told her to look in her room. She went upstairs where she screamed and cried for about 10 minutes yelling things like "I have no idea where this case is!".

Then she walked downstairs with it.  She was still crying.  She immediately started crying more and whining that she didn't know what to do (despite the fact that she had done 17 already.)  I reminded her about how I wrote out all the presents by the kids' name and I wrote out how to write "thank you for the..."  She still claimed she had no idea what was going on and was screaming at this point. So I told her to go to her room until she was ready to be calm. She went upstairs screaming, "I want to throw this book at you! I hate you so much!  I'm so angry right now! You are the worst mom ever!"

Then about 20 minutes later, she came down stairs and said in a very cheerful voice, "I'm ready to finish the cards now."  I said fine and she happily did the card for Amber. No issues or problems at all.

Then we had dinner.  At dinner, Michael said he would take kids bike riding after dinner.  Then something pissed her off and she started being really rude and mean to Michael. Miranda spit (raspberry) at Michael. Several times. Despite warnings to stop.  She returned to her cards and Michael went over to tell her that she would not be going with the other kids because of her behavior.  She listened to him carefully and then when he was done, she started screaming again. I again asked her to go to her room until she was ready to be calm.  She went upstairs where the insults started again. She said "She hated everyone in the family! She didn't want to live here anymore!  Everything was unfair. Etc, etc, etc."  She watched the kids go off with Michael and banged on the window.

Then about 20 minutes later, she came downstairs and said she was ready to finish the cards.  (She also asked if she could watch TV afterwards, which I said No to.)

She is now happily writing another card as if nothing had happened.

Very similar situations have happened many times lately and it concerns me greatly.

Palindromes

Parker (and I) learned about number palindromes yesterday.

Like 11, 383, 6006.

He learned that if you add the opposite of the number to the original number (for certain numbers) you'll get a palindrome.  So if you take 23 and add 32, you get 55, which is a palindrome.  But for other numbers you have to keep adding to get to the palindrome. Like 98.  You have to add the opposite 6 times before getting to 81718.  He figured out how much each one took with all the numbers 1-100.

He really liked it.  As you could have guessed.

Morning Practice

Miranda's note

I love Noe. She is the love cat. For my life! And zeke.

(She never met Noe by the way.)