Mommathon

All the kinders and first graders at Liam's school are going to have a visit from Happy Bear in the next week or so.  Happy Bear is a program that teaches children about unwanted touches from pushing to sexual abuse.  The school has a program for parents to learn about it.  I thought it might be important to go and see what exactly they were going to be telling them and how.  We got to see the entire presentation just as it will be shown to the kids and it is very well done.  They just talk about different situations that they may come across in school or at home that are either unwanted to wanted touches, ie a hug from mom, someone pushing you line, your sister tickling you when you're trying to eat, etc.  They go through all these scenarios and then the last one is a babysitter who does not have good intentions.  Ugh.  It pains me that my child might need these skills.  Again, it is very well done and is in good taste, but I hate that it even has to be discussed.  Now, to the title of the post...there are probably about 90 kinders at Liam's school and only eight parents showed up to the info night for kinder parents.  I can't believe that!  They are going to talk to your kid about getting their private parts touched and what to do about it and only eight people thought it might be a good idea to come check it out! Now, I understand that people are busy or they've already seen the presentation because they have older kids or whatever, but eight people is RIDICULOUS!  

Poor Colm. He was so brave today. They fit him for his spacer today which means they fit the brackets on his teeth and took the impression. One of his teeth is an odd shape so they had a hard time finding a bracket that would fit. They had to try several times. He was so brave. He got to watch Dora while they tortured him, so that helped a little. The impression went as well as you can expect. If you have ever had one, you know what I mean. I hated braces-HATED them...the whole process was awful and I was twelve or so, not three. The next time we go back they will actually cement the "appliance" into his mouth. Fun times.

The boys got this art center for Christmas from Grandma and Grandad and I FINALLY got it put together last week. It has a chalk board on one side, a white board on the other and then a roll of paper that comes down that you can paint/color on. They also got paints and dry erase markers to go with it. (Thank you Aunt Kim!) Colm LOVES to paint, so this was the perfect gift for him. He has already created several masterpieces (and a really big mess.) But hey, it's in the basement, so who cares.

I have discovered the Stride Rite Outlet store. (I think I heard angels singing as I was walking out I was so happy with myself.) They have this super cool electronic foot measuring thing and of course we have a 11 1/2 XW (Colm) and 2W (Liam) so Stride Rite is the place for shoes, especially for Mr. I Have Bricks at the End of my Ankles Colm. I got Liam's shoes, normally $42 for $28 and Colm's shoes, normally $28 for $25 AND they have BOGO. You can't go wrong. We will be going back when it is time to buy shoes for school.

Colm does not want to turn four. He wants to be three forever. He asked me today if after he is done with all of his birthdays, could he be three again. I told him he could because really, what's the point of arguing about it. Liam was listening and said, "You can't do that. You'd have to build a special machine or something." Which then upset Colm which is why I didn't want to argue the point in the first place!!! Liam is not good at "just letting it go" as I like to call it.

This is a book for upper elementary age kids, but sometimes I like to read books aimed at that audience. Jerry Spinelli is a great author, but his books are a little dark. Eggs is about a boy whose mother has just died, he is living with his grandmother while his dad is working in another state. He is clearly struggling when he meets a girl named Primrose...and that is where the story begins.

Liam has decided that he is absolutely terrified of every insect except ladybugs and rolypolys-and he isn't real sure about the rolypolys. He wouldn't take a bath last night because he thought there was a bug in the bath. He wouldn't go in his room the other night because he felt I had left the back door open for too long while trying to get the dog to come inside and some bugs from outside might have somehow made it up to his room even though the door was shut. There was a dead gnat on the kitchen table the other night and all I heard was this ear-piercing shriek...I thought something was really wrong. I don't think we'll bother signing him up for Boy Scouts. :)