Mommathon

I went to a self-defense class tonight. It was so empowering. We got to simulate kicking the crap out of an attacker. I don't know if I would remember ANYTHING we were taught tonight in the event of a real attack, but I hope that I would. If you have not taken a class like this I highly recommend it. He taught us how to attack in a way that will throw the attacker off since most of them aren't expecting someone to fight back. He also taught us when to play along with the attacker and do what they say and when to fight like crazy. Reader's Digest version: go for the groin and poke out their eyeballs. If they want your purse, jewelry, etc.-give it to them and walk/run away.

Liam really, really, really wants me to write a note to his teacher so that she will use one of her special magnets and put it up on the doorframe. See, if you write her a note saying that someone else is going to pick your child up after school or you are going to be taking one of your child's classmates home with you after school (for, let's say, a playdate), she puts it by the door so she has it at the end of the day when they are walking out the door. Liam REALLY wants one of these notes! So, today as we are pulling into the school parking lot he asks me if I have some paper. No, I don't, I tell him, but I know where this is going. (This is not the first time he has asked about this.) He wants to me to quickly find a piece of paper and write her a note telling her that we are going to pick Carson up after school. I explain to Liam that I would have to call Carson's mom and make sure that is okay with her before I can write a note. I also explain to him that I probably wouldn't have to pick Carson up since he lives right behind us and he could probably just walk over after school. By the silence coming from the back of the car I could tell that he realized his plan was foiled, for today....

Another thing I love about Liam's school is that they don't get grades on their grade cards until they are in fourth grade. Their grade cards are various continuums with certain skill levels within a discipline on each continuum. The child's ability level on each continuum is marked. This is a good way to show progress. As the year progresses, the continuum stays the same, but the mark on the continuum should gradually move down the continuum to more advanced skills as the year goes on. If a child gets letter grades that does not tell the parent what their child can/can't do it just gives them a letter.

Colm can't get enough Curious George, Clifford or Arthur. If you go to the library and you are looking for one of those books and it's not there, that's because it is at our house. He does occassionaly let us read a different book to him. His current fave is Midsummer Knight. I think what he likes about it is that there aren't any words, so every time we "read" the story to him it is a little bit different. He can also make up his own story to go along with the pics.

I was thinking yesterday about my ramblings last week about other people's decisions about family size, housekeepers and schooling and I know I have jinxed myself. I am going to get pregnant, which will bring us up to three. The child will be born in the summer, which will mean we will probably decide to hold him/her back a year so they can have a "growth year" since everyone else is. Then, since I will have three kids and won't have time to clean the house, I will have to hire a housekeeper. I should learn to keep my mouth shut, or in this case, my fingers still.

I miss my old grocery store. :( I have had to find a new grocery store. It has taken me several weeks, but I think I have found one. It's hard though. You have to figure out where everything is, which means it takes longer to actually shop. They also may not have the same brands which can be a bit difficult for the children to deal with. (Thank goodness they carry Liam's cottage cheese or I would have a mutiny on my hands.) What I like about my new grocery store is that it seems that everyone I know or have ever known seems to shop there. In the two times I have been there I have run into several people from church, the parents of my roommate from freshman year, one of Liam's former preschool teachers and a former coworker who I haven't seen in about three years. Not only can I grocery shop, but I can be social and have a variety of different reunions all at the same time. Oh, yeah, and the food selection isn't so bad either. :)

Along the same lines...I was at the grocery store near my grandma's house, which is in a small town in Missouri, last week buying some ice cream for her birthday. Wow! Small town grocery stores suck. Seriously. Not only do they have zero selection and are on the small side...when I was walking around trying to find the ice cream, I walked past the meat section where the butcher was mopping the floor talking about how good squirrel meat is. Uh, huh. I will say, however, the lady at the checkout counter was exceptionally nice.

We went to go see this movie today. I think I liked it. It was great for the kids...there was no cussing, name calling, sex, etc. I think the worse thing that was said is that a child calls another child "weird". The thing that was kind of weird about this movie is that it is being billed as a movie for kids, which I guess it kind of is since it is about a toy store. However, there are some pretty serious parts of the movie, too. It was not as light-hearted and whimsical as I thought it was going to be. The boys seemed to like it though, however, I think some of the seriousness went over their heads. So, I am not recommending that you run out and see this movie, but if you need something to do and have an hour and a half to spare...

The next movie Liam wants to see is The Water Horse and then there is the Veggie Tales movie which comes out in January.

I rarely just pick a book off the library shelf...a book I have never heard of written by an author I have never heard of...but I did and it paid off. This was a great coming of age story. I am going to definitely try out some of this author's other books.

Two nights...three dinners...very full stomachs.

*Thanksgiving, Family, Friends (Irish Gaelic)

I am SO excited that d'Bronx has opened a location closer to our house! It is so good and makes you feel like you are in a real deli. The other two locations require a day trip or a special occasion, this one is comparatively just down the street AND happens to be on the way to violin lessons! :)
I have not been to the new location yet, but the pizzas are super yummy as are the sandwiches and the apple pie. You can't go wrong.

My grandma is 90-years old today! Quite an accomplishment!

I have made room in my life for another show. If you are not watching Heroes you are missing out. Quite frankly, if you haven't been watching it, you are too late. The story line is very complex and Sean had to give me the Cliff's Notes version so I could catch up. It is so good though. Very smart writing...too bad they're on strike.

1. I don't understand why everyone seems to be holding their kids (especially boys) back a year in school if they were born anytime after April 30. I have had moms say they are holding their child back because they can't read yet. What?! You aren't supposed to be able to read before kinder. It is definitely not a prerequisite to kinder. There are kids who are turning seven in kindergarten. When I was seven I was in second grade. I also don't understand (along the same lines) the parents who put their kids in public school for kinder (because they aren't ready for kinder) and then put them in parochial school for kinder again. If they aren't ready for kinder why are you putting them in kinder at all? That said, with everything I am typing or about to type, I have never been in this situation, so I am not passing judgement. I truly don't understand. I know that some people have some legit reasons for holding their kids back, but at some point I think some people are doing it just because everyone else is. Any insight?

2. The whole three kids thing. This is another trend in parenting I don't get. Purses and jeans should be trendy, not humans. I especially don't get why it is trendy to have them all as close together as humanly possible. If you can have all three before the oldest is four, that is super trendy. I had a mom tell me once that she was having a third because the second one was going to school and she was going to be lonely. What?! Get a dog or get a job or get a hobby. Babies are not companions, they are people that will grow up. You can't keep having kids because you are lonely. Again, not passing judgement (okay, maybe a little) but I truly don't understand how the number of kids you have can be trendy. I just don't see people as objects or notches in a belt. There was a whole article in Time magazine a while back about this trend, so I know I am not making it up. Let me also say, that doesn't mean that we won't ever have another child. I certainly wouldn't have one because everyone else was doing it though.

3. One more thing...housekeepers. I don't understand why seemingly everyone has a housekeeper nowadays. I totally understand it if you work outside the home. If you work full-time, the last thing you want to do is come home and clean. There are also a million special circumstances that would warrant a housekeeper. I have had one before. Shortly after Colm was born my dear, dear, MIL paid to have someone come clean our house before Colm's baptism party which was being held at our house. With a newborn and a two-year old I just didn't have it in me to do the amount of cleaning that needed to be done for company. What I don't understand is when SAHMs have a housekeeper on a regular basis. I see it as kind of part of the job description. I also kind of think it sends a bad message to the kids. We can get it messy, but we don't have to clean it up. We can just pay someone to clean up after us. Lastly, who knows how many other people's houses they have cleaned before yours. If they are using the same mops, sponges, rags, etc. to clean your house as they did the five other people before you...YUCK!

Now that I have managed to piss off a large segment of the population, especially those with three kids, who have a housekeeper and held their kid back a year...enlighten me. Help me to understand.

Sean got a Wii for his birthday. I think Colm thinks it is his. He loves the golfing. It's too cute.

Okay, I have one more class left until I am finished with the degree I have been working on, but I MUST have this degree. Around 1999, I started looking for a children's lit degree. There was one that was available somewhere in the east or south and it was only during the summer and you had to live there during the summer. Sean was not real hip on the idea of his new wife being gone for the entire summer for two or three summers in a row. I looked into a librarian degree...I figured that would be close but it's not. You have to take all kinds of classes to be a librarian that were not relevant to what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a school librarian, but there are many different types of librarians (like a law librarian, for example) so you have to take classes so that you can be any type of librarian when you graduate. I guess that is how I got into the reading specialist program. It had to do with reading and kids, but it still wasn't exactly what I was looking for. This program, is, however. I am going to call them on Monday and see how it works and if I could do it from home or with a minimal amount of driving. I looked on their website and it isn't part of their distance learning program (not a good sign). Maybe I could even use some of the classes I took for the first master's degree and apply them to this one. That would be nice. (Oh, by the way, I haven't talked to Sean about this yet. So, honey, if you are reading this and we haven't talked about it yet, we have something to talk about.)

I read this book in three days! It was SO good. The laundry was neglected and the house was not cleaned, but I got the book read. It was one of those books that you can not put down because you have to know what it going to happen. The main character kills her mother (I didn't give anything away, it is the first sentence of the book). The story goes back and forth from the past (giving the reader background and the motive for the murder) to the present. This is the part that makes you keep reading. Is she going to get caught is she not? Will they arrest someone else? It is definitely not a happy book (obviously, she kills her mom...there are clearly some issues) but it is a good one.

Also, I have read two of this authors other books. She is such a good writer, but she always writes about some fairly serious topics. I would highly recommend The Lovely Bones and Lucky, also.

The boys had a real babysitter last night. We have always had the grandparents watch the kids, but we decided the kids were old enough and we felt comfortable leaving them with a teenager. I must also say that said teenager is also a relative and the daughter of Colm's godfather. She did a great job and the boys had a great time. We will definitely have her back again. The only downside is that we have to pay this babysitter. Grandparents are willing to do it for free...teenagers are not.

New season started tonight. This is just about the only show I make time to watch besides the 10 o'clock news, so I am glad it is back.

Another book that took me forever to read...This book was recommended to me by a friend. It is a collection of autobiographical short stories where the writers relate some aspect to their life to one of Judy Blume's many novels, including: Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret, Superfuge, Deenie, Forever...etc. I have another book on hold from the library. It is about Sassy magazine. If you never read this magazine as a high school/college student you missed out. If was Seventeen magazine only a zillion times better. So good, in fact, that my mom wouldn't let me read it. I think there might have been a lot of moms like mine because the zine didn't last more than maybe six or seven years...but it was a good run.

Sean's parents gave us a very nice (and big) bottle of beer about two years ago. They got it while traveling somewhere and Sean and I decided we would save it for something special. So, we have sold our house, settled into this one and everyone is finally healthy again. (Knock on wood.) So we decided to break it open tonight. We shouldn't have waited. This beer has been sitting around for so long, we had put so much pressure on this beer to be really good, that we were a bit disappointed. It was okay, but it was REALLY bubbly and was a bit like beer mixed with a wine cooler...not necessarily a good combo.

Sean's parents gave us a very nice (and big) bottle of beer about two years ago. They got it while traveling somewhere and Sean and I decided we would save it for something special. So, we have sold our house, settled into this one and everyone is finally healthy again. (Knock on wood.) So we decided to break it open tonight. We shouldn't have waited. This beer has been sitting around for so long, we had put so much pressure on this beer to be really good, that we were a bit disappointed. It was okay, but it was REALLY bubbly and was a bit like beer mixed with a wine cooler...not necessarily a good combo.

Liam has discovered Pokemon. Need I say more? I just hope and pray that this is not his next phase. I can handle Star Wars. I even made it through his long and drawn out (and rather intense) love of Thomas and Friends, but I don't know if I can handle Pokemon. Really. He got two Pokemon books at the book fair this week and the whole Pokemon thing just seems mind numbing. Ugh.

Liam has discovered Pokemon. Need I say more? I just hope and pray that this is not his next phase. I can handle Star Wars. I even made it through his long and drawn out (and rather intense) love of Thomas and Friends, but I don't know if I can handle Pokemon. Really. He got two Pokemon books at the book fair this week and the whole Pokemon thing just seems mind numbing. Ugh.

We have birthdays aplenty around here this weekend. It is Shannon's birthday (Sean's sister), Sean's birthday, Sean's grandma's birthday and Liam has a friend's birthday party to go to, also. On top of all of that, my sister-in-law (also on Sean's side of the family) had her baby shower today. The shower was great and a lot of people were able to make it. We had a yummy lunch and Holley got a lot of essentials for little Finnegan.

We have birthdays aplenty around here this weekend. It is Shannon's birthday (Sean's sister), Sean's birthday, Sean's grandma's birthday and Liam has a friend's birthday party to go to, also. On top of all of that, my sister-in-law (also on Sean's side of the family) had her baby shower today. The shower was great and a lot of people were able to make it. We had a yummy lunch and Holley got a lot of essentials for little Finnegan.

Liam asked us today if he could have a personal watercraft when he gets a little bit older.

Where did this come from? He was reading his Spanish/English dictionary in the car and I guess that was one of the words. I think our response was to say sure. There is no point in having the conversation at this point. We'll just say yes and hope he forgets, which he won't, but , again, there is no point in arguing about it right now either.

Another interesting thing he asked me recently while I was driving and he was reading in the back was if he could do marital arts. My first reaction was to see what in the world he was reading and to try and figure out what marital arts were. It turned out he wanted to do tae kwon do...martial arts....much better.

Liam's Class Pic




Dividing up the loot

We went to the park today and there was another boy there that was in between Liam and Colm's age. These three boys had a heyday. The height of their fun was when they discovered someone's skateboard that had been left behind and decided, in all of their wisdom, to ride it down the slide while sitting on it-two at a time. It sounds kind of dangerous, I know, but really it was fairly tame other than that they went down the slide a little bit faster. It was so much fun to watch though. They were just having SO much fun. There is nothing better than watching kids play when they are having fun. There is nothing like it.