I'm packin up and movin out...

I got a facelift...and a new home... come check it out!

(No, not that kind of facelift... yet!)

www.my2girlsandmy2cents.blogspot.com

Sisterly Love

Lainey has gotten to where she HATES to wipe herself, because that means she will have to wash her hands. Which she hates even more. I've made a deal with her... that I will wipe her one time a day, but she's on her own the rest of the day. Its working, but today I overheard that she has a partner in crime to help her work around my new little rule.

Lainey: Okay Gracie, you want to wipe me?

Gracie: Oh sure!

Lainey: Okay, wipe me really really good, get all of it.

Gracie: Otay!

Little sneak!

(Wish Gracie was that enthusiastic about her OWN restroom visits)

Karma's A...

I should have known when the beer girl gave me $5 more in change than she should have, that something was going to go wrong that night. Now, I seriously, always, tell someone when they give me too much change. (My mom brought me up to feel all kinds of guilt if I didn't :) But on this particular day, after having paid and extra $25 for admission because we were 5 minutes behind schedule, I decided on principle alone to keep my mouth shut.

I told Leigh Ann as soon as I got back to them... just wait, something's going down tonight! I won't get away with this. Sure enough, two posts below you see (sort of) what went down.

The four of us are sitting in our comfy lawn chairs, enjoying the awesome spring night, live music, lukewarm beer, and good company. Out of the blue, up stumbles the fellow you see below. Jamming to Johhny Cooper like he's watching Pantera. Yelling out every lyric, banging his head to every drum beat. Oh, and lighting up what I'm guessing were cigarettes just as fast as he could finish the previous one. If it hadn't been for our kiddos jamming directly behind him, we might not have noticed him. (Okay, we would have noticed, but he wouldn't have made us quite as nervous as he did.) On more than one, two and even three occasions, he came within inches, if not closer, of leaving the girls a permanent little round reminder on their porcelin cheeks that they got just a bit too close to his cigarette (or whatever it was?). Atleast we were able to laugh about it, but only after we got the girls to steer clear of him and dance a little closer to us. We did hope for the best that since he apparently was the biggest J.C. fan in the place, he wouldn't stick around for Miranda Lambert. Uh huh. No such luck. Like I said, karma's a...

The little nap he took was between the two acts. Actually I don't think he ever fell asleep, and if he did he is one amazing smoker to be able to continue lighting up while snoozing. Nope, he just laid there, and we waited and waited for him to leave. Never did. All we could do was laugh. Then Miranda Lambert comes on. He gets up, lights another, and keeps on jammin. Only this time, he didn't know any of the words, just gave her many, many shout outs with each new song. Still at the Pantera concert, we assumed.

All in all, it was just about the funniest thing I've seen in a very long time. I have many more pictures I snuck in of him, but out of respect for him (?!) I won't post anymore. Had he gotten one of the kids with his "light"... it would not have been such a happy ending. But he didn't... so karma didn't TOTALLY get me back, but she did make me think twice about short-selling the mathematically challenged beer girl at the next concert I attend.

Made my day

I am on cloud 9. My sweet, silly, hard-headed, rebellious THREE year old made me SO proud today. And happy. She sat.on.the.potty.

(If you are not a mommy of a toddler, you might want to save time and quit reading now. You will find this extremely boring.)

Anyway, back to the topic of making my day. Potty training has become such a power struggle, I don't even try anymore. I have decided, instead, to spend Gracie's college fund on pull-ups. More expensive than diapers, but I refuse to put her in a baby diaper these days. And she refuses to wear big-girl pants, so here we are. Packages upon packages of pricey pull-ups. And not a word coming from my mouth to try to get her to potty. I've all but given up. Take that back, I HAVE given up.

Then today, out of the blue, she decided to sit on it. Now, I did coax her just a bit and told her that Lainey was going to get a popsicle because SHE used the potty like a big girl. Gracie took the bait, and in less than 10 seconds had her pull-up at her feet and climbed right up there. (Wait a minute.... you can pull down your OWN pull-up?! Okay, where have I been?) Anyway, nothing happened, but she sat on it. And it is ridiculous how proud I was. And thanks to Lainey for offering her up some advice that she would NOT fall in. That probably helped.

So later, off I go to tutoring with a spring in my step. (Small victories in my world, small victories.) I come home, only to find out that she sat on it AGAIN, without being asked, and again, although nothing happened, Jeff gave her some m&m's for trying.

Fast forward to bath time, and I make a big deal about "Who wants to sit on the potty?!?!" MEEEEE! She yells...and climbs right up. No popsicle or candy this time, just a couple of high-fives from Lainey and me. She was soooo proud when Lainey noticed and gave her a high-five too. (Again, thanks Lainey!) So, although I know we are probably not near the end, I feel so very proud of her! Mostly because she has been so very against it from the start. And to backtrack, I had tried many times before to bribe her with candy, cookies, stickers... the kid could not care less about any of those things. Not sure why it clicked today, but it did. And it totally made my day!

If you've made it this far listening to my potty talk, bless you. :) I will have a different more grown-up topic next time, I promise!

A night at the races

Admission into the park, 2 adults before 5 pm: $6.00

Admission into the park, 2 adults after 5 pm: $30.00

Price for 2 budlights: $11.00

Change from a $20 for that $11 when the beer girl can't count back how much she owes you : $14

Being able to laugh when this tattoo-covered, chain-smoking stoner dude decides to take a nap where your kids are playing: Priceless

The great storm of '08

Just like everyone else in the area, we were awakened around 4 a.m. with a storm that sounded like no other. Actually, for some reason, I had woken up about 5 minutes before it started and went to get a drink. As soon as it started raining, I could hear that something was different about this storm. I started yelling for Jeff to get up (he was like, what the hell are you doing?!) and I ran upstairs to get the girls. Not sure what I thought I would do with them, but I wanted to get them away from their window. Once Jeff realized the severity of what was going on outside, he grabbed the flashlights just as the electricity went out. We waited it out, and although it seemed to last forever, it was probably just a few minutes at best. Gracie slept through it all, and woke up bright and early perkier than ever. The rest of us, though, have felt sleep-deprived all day and are pretty much running on empty right now. We did manage to get back to sleep around 5:30 a.m. and got a couple of hours in there. Now the cleanup begins...

This is what we woke up to...










Any fun plans for the weekend have been replaced with fence repair! Oh well, I can certainly supervise from the sidelines while I sip a cold one. :)

... and, this is actually nothing compared to one street over. Lots of roofs torn off, fences completely gone... we feel very lucky.

We finally heard a who!

Being swayed just a bit by the hangovers from Saturday night, we decided to venture out Sunday afternoon and take the girls to see Horton Hears a Who. Sitting in a cool, dark room drinking coke and eating popcorn is just one way to make yourself feel better when you went all out the night before. (I have details and pictures when I get them downloaded!)

I knew Lainey would do great, but I wasn't so sure about Gracie. It can be a very expensive outing if you have to take your 3-year old out of the movie and you have to miss it! But, I was so very pleasantly surprised that Gracie did GREAT! The previews ran a little long, and she got a little antsy toward the end of those, and just slightly nervous at the 5-second clip of a dinosaur, but once the movie started she sat as still as can be on my lap.

But... about halfway through, she started laying her head on my chest. I started getting hotter and hotter. I felt her head. Burning hot fever. NO!! Within minutes, she turned herself around to lay on my shoulder and fell asleep. Yep, she was definitely getter hotter and had a high fever. Didn't we just get over a virus a couple weeks ago? Yes, we did, and it looks like we probably have another. She ended up sleeping on me the rest of the show (but I still give her credit for being "good" the entire movie!) and woke up once we got to the car. That was late Sunday afternoon, and she spiked fever every 6 hours until this morning. Poor kid... no other symptoms, so I'm confident it was the same virus she just got over. As I've mentioned before, we've been to the pediatrician's office so many times in the last four years that I just diagnose them myself now! Spend that $25 copay on something fun. Anyway, two days of missed school (which I don't mind so much... I like her here with me!) and it looks like she'll be good to go tomorrow. (knock on wood... don't want to jinx the poor girl.)

So, we are all washing our hands and praying no one else gets it... and counting down the days till this loooong sickness season is over. I hope this is the last one I have to report.

Oh, and the movie was just too cute. Lainey loved it... never once took her eyes off the screen. And I thought it was great too... of course, when its been almost a year since you've seen a movie, anything you watch is oscar-worthy! :) (and the two i did see before that were Bee Movie and Ratatouille... I see a pattern here.)

In a nutshell

At the risk of getting myself all worked up again over Gracie's school situation, I'll try to keep this short and to the point... if you were wondering what in the heck happened with all that.

Basically, we agreed to send Gracie to Lainey's school (mostly consisting of 4 & 5 year olds) under the assumption that she would be in Lainey's class. Considering she had been 3 for only a day, we felt that having Lainey there with her would provide some comfort and security. Also, we know and trust Lainey's team of teachers. They have helped her come so, so far. We know they can help Gracie oversome some of her shyness (and fear of boys!... which may not be such a bad thing!). Well, apparently if you don't ask, demand, and shout it from the rooftops, you have no say in what class your child goes into.

Now, I've never been one to question authority. And I try to be the parent who goes with the flow and agree with both teachers and principals on just about everything. But on this, I couldn't keep quiet. I knew, and still know, that being with Lainey would be the best transition for Gracie this year. The poor kid has already been to 3 different schools this year for various reasons. Its no wonder she's so stressed out! And so am I! Anyway, I heard through the grapevine that she wasn't necessarily placed in the class she was placed because it was the best fit for her. Teacher favoritism, the assumption that Gracie was going to be an easy-going kid to manage, and other school politics were thrown in the mix. Thats where things got sticky for me. This is MY child whose got the most to gain, or lose, and a lot of it depends on the classroom environment she's in. Do not play games with her, or me, and certainly please don't make decisions where her best interest is not the number one priority. I would never have placed her in a class that #1 is team taught where the kids switch classrooms every 3 weeks and #2 where the classes are combined for the majority of the day, making for a classroom of about 20 toddlers. An extremely shy kid who has trouble adjusting to new situations? Yeah, lets throw her in there. Makes absolutely no sense.

In my attempt at "making a change", I spoke with both the teacher and the principal. I told them my concerns, complaints, and requests. Fell on deaf ears. She's still in that class, and unless I *escalate*, which I've considered, she will be in there until the end of the year. I'm keeping a close eye on her, and so far, she does seem okay. She walks in happy, comes home happy, and seems to be adjusting the best she can. That is what I will be basing my next move on. I have already spoken with the principal about next year, finding out what I need to do if I want her to have Lainey's teacher (which I do.) I learned a hard lesson this time about not asking questions soon enough.

There are many more details involved in all this, but I think I've written enough to even bore myself! I've learned a lot through this entire process, both about myself and the school system that we trust our kids in. (Trusted... past tense). I'm sure there will be many more road bumps in the coming years, so this was good practice and warm-up for me for what may lie ahead.

What I've Learned This Week

*We send our kids to school, trusting that administrators and teachers will have the kids' best interest at heart. Not always so. Sometimes, politics override best interests.

*The best-made plans can be history in a matter of minutes if questions aren't asked and demands not made. Think it through, and ask, ask, ask.

*You can mess with me all you want. Heck, I'm the biggest pushover when it comes to myself. I'm so non-confrontational its not even funny. But don't mess with my girls. All bets will be off.

*I'm a lot tougher than I ever thought, and can stand up for what I believe in now more than ever. Mommyhood has brought that out in me.

*Its okay to question authority. They are not always right. They will never see it, or admit it, but thats okay. I know it.

*Bad-mouth an administrator to her favorite teacher, and it just might come back to bite you. At least I hope it does.

*When I go back to teaching, I will be 1000 times a better teacher than I was before I had kids. Now I see it from both sides. The parents do in fact know their kids better than teachers, and I will listen.

*I lose lots and lots of sleep over things that are out of my hands. I worry too much. I think too much. And tylenol pm helps both.

Thanks for allowing me a therapy session. Details will follow, once the dust settles.

Off to the medicine cabinet I go...