Thing 2's first group email

I signed my kids up for emails.  I had heard there were some good systems for kids, so I did a quick google search and found zoobuh.  It had to be a quick search because Thing 2 was gyrating excitedly behind me the whole time firing off questions about was it done yet.  I signed them up and Thing 2 immediately started emailing everyone I know.  This is one of her first emails... I thought it was so cute I wanted to save it.  There is no preamble, this is the whole email minus her signature.


One day i saw a brain pop jr video, (Brainpop jr is an egecatinol thing for kids.) About E-MAILS. I got ubsessesd that Annie and Moby had their own acount thing. (Annie and Moby are the 2 main characters.) I wanted a thing like they had, I asked my mom "Can I have one of thoughs?" She said "I'll think about it." The next day I asked her again. She said, "Remind me lader!" I reminded her EVERYWHERE. Finally, We were taking a bath and I came down stairs and asked. AGAIN. Then she looked up on Google kids E-mailing. This girl online said "Try Zoobuh." So we did, and my hair was still wet and everything. Finally it took a long time but Mom got me started. Thats how I got my E-mailing acount

Watch out world wide web; here she comes!!!

Prayer

Tonight Thing 1 said:

"  ...  And thank thee for our wuuuunderful mother...    And thank thee for our wuuuunderful father..... whom our wuuuunderful mother decided to mate with...."

Me 2

I was going to walk the kids over to hear the concert, but I found U2 wasn't coming on until 8:30.  Bedtime.
Turns out I didn't need to, they can hear it pretty well from their room.  This way Bono can sing them to sleep...


I just read Annie's blog and on second thought maybe I shouldn't post this.  It's pretty pathetic that my claim to fame is that I can hear the concert as I'm typing. It's kinda cool, though. My kids got to bed pretty late because I was upstairs dancing around their room, where the concert comes in just a little clearer. "Oh, oh! This is a great song!!" 

OH WAIT!  I just got this from my brother.

Turns out hearing the concert in my kitchen isn't my only claim to fame... And now I'm getting it in stereo because it's coming in over the monitor too...  Apparently my wicked awesome brother and sister-in-law are at the concert!  That's only one degree of separation from fame!  Wooo hooo!  And looks like they have pretty darn good seats, too!  Look at those speaker towers... no wonder I can hear it at my house!  Well yippeee for them!!!  See, they're still totally hip.  Even though he's older than me, he was always hipper than me.  It helps that they have a daughter old enough to babysit their younger daughters, which I believe lends itself to actually having a life. And they aren't trolls living in the dark completely unaware of current events unless they're blasting into their kitchens at 80 decibels. 

Rock on, big brother. Rock on.

Current Events

We were listening to a radio program yesterday and they were talking about infidelity.  Arnold and Maria came up as did a swarm of other politicians and celebrities and people famous for stepping out on their spouses.  They also indicated there is a surprising number of people in happy marriages who are unfaithful.

Hubby assured me he has no plans to stray.

But would he tell me if he was planning on anything?


I do take some comfort in the fact that so many computer programmers are basement trolls; overweight men, and total nerds.


Though of course not all.


I take comfort where I can.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a tough holiday.  I love my mother dearly, and I remember as a kid it seemed hard to make her Mother's Day special enough.  Yet on the other hand I felt jilted that she got her birthday AND this Mother's Day thing.  Luckily she seemed very happy with a card or simple gift I'd made her, and she even choked down our attempts at breakfast in bed. Of course those were better when Dad was involved.

When I grew older, into the range of where a lot of people my age were mothers, in addition to being a celebration for my mother, it became a somewhat uncomfortable reminder of what was not happening in my life.  A reminder of what could be but wasn't happening to me.  As those years stretched out, I resolved myself that it was becoming more and more unlikely that I would ever be a mom.


Then I got married and suddenly there was a choice to make.  Because of my age, it was not completely just a natural sequence of events for us to have children.  It was a choice.  Neither one of us felt our lives would be devastated if we didn't have children.  It was pretty much assumed by everyone, including us, that we would, but we could have decided that the risks created by my being near 40 were too high, the disappointment of age-related infertility was too much for us to take.  After all most people my age had already had kids and had decided not to have any more several years before.
I looked around at people in my family and my job who were my are or older  and saw quite a number of examples of older children who were very close to their parents. My mother and father are two of my best friends.  At our family reunions, watching my cousins just younger than me interacting with their parents... and I decided this is a very valuable thing.  I decided I wanted to have children more for the potential relationships I can have with them when they're older.  I wasn't in it for the babies, I was in it for a "Make your own friends" situation down the road.

We still faced all the age related complications.  What if I couldn't get pregnant?  What if there were serious complications?  We decided to move forward and address each hurdle as it came.
However there were no real hurdles, and nine months and 27 minutes after we decided to have a baby, there she was!  The second one took a few months longer from the decision point to the birth, but not long enough for us to even start discussing any alternatives.  

So I became a mother.  It took years for that mantle to really settle on my shoulders.  I've heard of people saying (because I looked for it) that it wasn't until their kids were old enough to talk, and call them "mom" that they really felt like a mother.  For me it took several years after that.

Maybe because when I got married I was reaching the age where people stop having children, and because in order to avoid the disappointment of not having children I had resigned myself that I wouldn't, the adjustment to motherhood was a little more difficult and drawn out for me.  For the longest time I'd hear people gush, "I just can't imagine what I'd do without my kids!!"  And I'd think geez, I can sure imagine what I'd do without them...  Don't get me started!  My life without them would be like... my life before them!  Uncomplicated, straightforward, simple.  Dates with my husband, eating where and when I wanted without a thought as to "Will there be a playland, let alone something my picky eater will actually eat?"  No strollers, porta-cribs, diaper bags.  No coming home exhausted only to have the real work of getting the baby bathed, fed, and into bed before you can think about yourself.


My kids are 7 and 9, and it really struck me this last mother's day that I do feel like a mom.  I think it's been creeping up for a couple years now, but it took the celebration to make me stop and think about it.  Maybe it's because we can have movie nights again though they're often with the kids.  And I even take the kids to the movies sometimes when Hubby's out of town.  They are growing into those companions that I had looked for when we decided to have kids.

My role has moved away from having to answer their every tiny need, that constant care that a baby requires.  While they still require a lot of care, and yes, mothering, they are moving toward independence and have become their own people with their own senses of humor, and their own abilities and strengths.

It was interesting how much I missed Thing 2 when she went from half day kindergarten to full day 1st grade. Suddenly she was no longer my shopping and Costco lunch companion.  Thing 1 has always hated shopping since she was old enough to express an opinion, and has made it clear she didn't like me dragging her from store to store... but Thing 2 kind of got a kick out of it.  She was a great shopper and a wonderful little buddy.  When she went into full day school, I stopped having lunch at Costco.  It is no longer fun there by myself.  

I am a little worried about the trouble ahead with their teenage years, but I hope it will be a bump in the road on their way to being delightful people.  My evil "Make your own friends" scheme is well on its way. 


Last Mother's Day my kids went all out and made a big party for me. I believe this is mostly due to Hubby's involvement, of course. This year he's been really busy and run down, and Mother's Day was much more subdued.  Also, Hubby had already spent all our spare money and more buying me a replacement diamond for our anniversary, which happened in March.  (Since we were robbed I've been wearing smaller rings, or even $20 cocktail rings I pick up at costume jewelry stores.) So now I have A wonking big rock, I've been fussing over what setting to choose every since he gave it to me.  It's currently being cast at the jewelers and will be everything I ever wanted in a ring, but between the rock and the setting there isn't room in the budget for him to take the girls on a wild shopping spree like they did last year.  This year was very nice, don't get me wrong.  But the difference between the girls' childish excitement about it last year and their rather aloof response this year was interesting.

Maybe they're growing up a little too fast.

Easter Egg Hunt

I just read Cheeseboy's blog about Easter Egg Hunts and having spent the past hour with my kids at an egg hunt I am inclined to agree.
This was just a little local egg hunt, the kids from maybe ten families.  I'm guessing there were close to 20 kids, give or take a few.

We were invited to bring over a dozen filled eggs per child earlier in the day.  I dropped off 28, just to be fair.


As the egg gatherers gathered it was recognized that some distinction needed to be made between the toddlers and the sixth graders.  Where do you draw that line?  Finally the dad in charge announced; "All those seven and under start when I say go.  Eight and up, run to the corner and back when I say go, then you can start looking."  
Okay, at seven years old Thing 2 is one of the older of the little kids.  She might actually score some eggs this year. 

"GO!"


The older children sprint off to the corner, Thing 1 trailing half heartedly in back.  The little kids toddle off to look for the obvious eggs they can see right in front of them.  At this point Thing 2 comes over to me and asks, "When are you leaving?"  When am I leaving?
"Honey, go gather some eggs!"  I say urgently, waving stupidly toward the front yards where I can see eggs peeking out of the bushes.
"But how long are you staying?" She asks.  I'm watching the little kids pick up all the obvious eggs.
"We're all staying until it's over," I tell her.  "Go over there, no one's over there and get some eggs!"
She glares at me, she doesn't want to go over there.  But she does.  I watch her wander aimlessly.  I turned to talk to another parent.  Thing 2 wanders back.  I peek into her basket to find not a single egg.  Other kids wander past with several layers of eggs in their baskets.  Thing 2 wanders off toward the herd.


In the end, she had five eggs.  Thing 1 had about eight.  Neither seemed terribly upset.  Several older children dropped a few more eggs in Thing 2's basket as they walked by.  She hugged them happily, either not recognizing it as a pity gesture, or not caring.
The trading ensued, and both girls were happy with their eventual haul.  

In general I do not enjoy the neighborhood egg hunts.  It makes me too tense to see the other kids dashing from place to place gathering eggs while my kids float around, occasionally finding something... though in the end I'm happy there's that much less candy coming into the house.  I expect there will be plenty tomorrow to make up for whatever lack they had today.

Blue Ribbon

For the past three years Thing 1 has entered a Lego creation in the local library Lego Creation Contest.  Each year including last year she got a blue ribbon that says "AWESOME" on it, and each year she thinks she's won some special blue ribbon prize.  I have told her that every kid who submits an entry gets the same ribbon, but she has assured me I'm wrong.  Blue ribbon means winner, and she's THE WINNER!  I've decided to smile and nod.
Always before there were maybe four or five entries, displayed under a plexiglass dome on the end of one of the bookcases.

This year there were entries all along a ten foot bookcase.  There were some pretty impressive entries, especially the Lego Taj Mahal, which Hubby told me was a kit.  I don't remember any others specifically, but some were interesting enough.

So finally after it was all over someone called me from the library to tell me that Thing 1 could come and pick up her creation.  I was told there was a 'little something' for her.  I thought cool, another blue ribbon.  Thing 1 will be pleased.
I suspected it was the same thing as always, but they've never said that to me before when they called for me to come get the Legos, so because they had said that, I suggested she go with me to pick up her creation.  Instead of just bringing out her Legos, the lady at the desk said we should follow her  into the staff room.  There was a box of the several Lego creations that hadn't been picked up yet.  Another staff member was back there too.  With some ceremony, the two library ladies explained to Thing 1 that each year the staff members vote on which Lego creation showed the most creativity, and best use of the Legos.  Their favorite gets a special "Best In Show" blue ribbon.  Thing 1 got it this year.
Thing 1 was terribly excited, to say the least.  She carefully huddled over her ribbon and her creation to keep the rain off of them on the way to the car.  She carried them both as she didn't want me to bend the ribbon, or knock the legos.

I apologize for the fuzzy phone pictures, but my camera stopped working.

I was extremely proud.  I am sure her talent with Legos is just evidence of her start at greatness.