Another Saturday

Another Saturday with too many activities crammed in – shopping, yard work, library, etc.  But it still makes a nice change from the monotony of the week.  I spent too much money at Staples this morning buying print cartridges and CD-Rs.  We plan on storing our photos (from a digital camera) and videos on them.  Since we didn’t get a DVD burner, we’ll have to go the computer to view them, but that’s not the end of the world.  I think it won’t be long that we will regret not getting that DVD burner with the computer, but I suppose we can always install one later.  I still do print off the better photos to put in regular albums, but since I have a hard time deleting all of the multitudes of images I put on the camera, burning them on to CDs will be a lot easier and cheaper than printing them all.

We went to the mall for the second time in a week to look for work clothes for Jeryl.  The girls were not well-behaved, which was no surprise, so I don’t know we always keep taking them places.  Sophie runs through the racks of clothes, and doesn’t stay in my sight; just begging to be snatched away by an evil stranger.  Kate goes crazy if she has to stay in the stroller, is uncomfortably heavy to carry, and doesn’t want to be carried anyway.  She really wants to crawl all over the dirty floor of JC Penney.  Once she is walking more consistently, I’m getting out the kiddie leash!  I bought it for Sophie, but she was already too independent and strong-willed at that point, and so we never could use it.  But I hope if I start Kate on it from the get-go, she will accept it.  Jeryl is not that keen on the idea, however, so I may have to forgo its use when he is around.  I know a lot of people think they are horrible, but let someone just come and try to say something to me about it!  If I were a toddler I would rather be on a cute little Elmo harness and leash, moving my little legs, than stuck in a stroller.  So really it’s a kindness to the child!

Post-birthday letdown

The girls are both napping now, thank goodness. Sophie handled the birthday celebration last night just fine. She didn't care that she didn't get to blow out candles, and although she "helped" unwrap Kate's presents, she wasn't too greedy about it.

But this morning all of the gloves were off. Sophie insisted that all of the toys (particularly the Fisher Price Animal Sounds Zoo) were hers, and wouldn't let Kate get anywhere near. Kate didn't quite realize how unjust this is, but she did see that there were new interesting toys, and she wanted a piece of the action. So I spent some time holding Sophie in another room as she sobs, "But they're mine toys [sic]!" Does Kate take advantage of this time I've given her to play uninterrupted? Of course not. She gets lonely after 30 seconds and comes to find us.

So now I'm just trying to keep the peace by letting Sophie play as much as she wants with Kate's toys as long as she isn't too mean about it. Just call me Neville Chamberlain.

Kate's First Birthday

My baby is one year old today!  She looks like such a big girl with her head of thick hair and ten teeth.  Sometimes I believe she thinks she is two years old.  She has gotten into climbing lately.  She’s more ambitious than Sophie was at this age, probably because she is itching to do whatever Sophie does.  I’m making spaghetti (or rotini) for her tonight.  We’ll have an orange coconut cake – a new recipe.  Her paternal grandparents are coming over, but that’s it.  No big party.  Hopefully Sophie can handle someone else getting all the presents and attention.

Signature Required

I heard an interesting tidbit on the Richmond news this morning.  Chesterfield County Schools wants to administer a new drug/alcohol use survey to its students.  Permission slips have been sent home.  Parents who sign and return them will be entered in a lottery for $500.  

So now we have to bribe parents to do the simplest things.  Why, oh why, can’t parents be responsible?  If your child brings something home that requires your attention, read it and send it back in.  Schools shouldn’t have to waste time and money on such rewards.  From personal experience I know how awfully hard it is to get some parents to send stuff like that back to school.  Even getting report cards signed and returned is like pulling teeth.  The time I use to waste trying to phone parents (some without phones) and find out if they saw the report card.  Those same parents are the ones at the end of the year who say, “You can’t fail Johnny!  You never told me he was doing badly!”  

Requiring signatures shouldn’t be necessary anyway.  Parents should know when report cards come out, and expect their child to bring one home.  If it gets “lost” on the way, then it’s the parent’s responsibility to contact the school.

I'm watching you

Sometimes when I observe Sophie about to do something naughty to Kate, I warn her with a “I’m watching you.”  

This afternoon Sophie was playing with blocks, trying to build some sort of large edifice.  She couldn’t really enjoy herself, because she was so paranoid about Kate wrecking it.  Kate really wasn’t bothering her too much, but I got sick of the whining and so I removed Kate from the room with a few blocks of her own to play with.  Kate sat in the kitchen doorway with four blocks and worked hard on stacking them for about five minutes (pretty long, eh?).  But then she began to move back towards Sophie in the family room.  Sophie shrieked out, “I’m watching you!”  

Eating out with kids

It’s so rainy and gloomy today, and has been for about five days now.  I’m ready for a little sun.  It would be nice to take the girls to the park more before winter really sets in.  But with this weather the only place I could think of to go was Wal-Mart.  What excitement.  Lately Sophie has gotten into shouting “hi” at random people in stores.  If they don’t respond she’ll keep it up until they do.  Fortunately most people seem to think it is funny.  Yesterday we were eating in a little Mexican restaurant and she started to shout it at a couple sitting nearby.  We put a stop to that quickly.  Overall our little restaurant excursion went well.  It was the first time we had eaten out in months with the girls.  It doesn’t make for a relaxing meal.  We ordered them both chicken soft tacos, since they will eat that at home.  But I guess if it’s not just like mommy makes it, it’s not good enough, because Sophie wouldn’t eat hardly any.  Fortunately there was the big basket of chips to keep her busy.  Kate ate some and threw some on the floor.  Compared to the time over a year ago, when Jeryl and I had to take turns with Sophie in the parking lot of a restaurant, this was a success, although not one we will try to repeat often!

Hercule Poirot

I just finished a collection of Hercule Poirot short stories by Agatha Christie.  Of course, I had read them all before, but it had been a while for many of them, so I couldn’t always remember the ending.  It’s almost as good as reading them for the first time.  I am a huge Agatha Christie fan, and have been ever since my mother introduced me to her when I was about twelve or thirteen.  I was bored, looking for something to read, and she suggested I try The Murder at the Vicarage.  It was a good start.  How sad I was years later when I realized that I had read all of her works.  Even now I still sometimes hope in the back of my mind to find one that I missed.  Since she was so prolific, however, I can enjoy rereading some of her books if I wait long enough.  Often being prolific isn’t a good thing for the quality of an author’s work, but most of hers really are pretty good.  Not serious lit of course, but hey, everyone needs a break once in a while with a light read.  One of her best books is not a mystery, but her autobiography.  What a fascinating life she led.

Birthday Party

This morning we had four little friends over for a children’s party for S.  This is the first one I’ve done.  It went well – the kids seemed to have fun, the house wasn’t wrecked, and no one cried.  What more can I ask for?  It was raining so we had to stay inside, but I managed to keep them busy for an hour and a half.  Next week is K.’s turn, but we’re just having the family party.  I’m not into big bashes for one year olds; they can’t handle it.  In fact, K. was so grouchy last night we had to put her to bed before cake and presents.  This morning I had her grandma come over and watch her so she wouldn’t get in the way.

Three years old

Today is S.’s third birthday.  My baby is growing up!  Sniff, sniff.  No, really, I think kids get more interesting and easier the older they get.  So I’m excited to see how she continues to learn and grow.  She was so excited, but handled the waiting for suppertime festivities better than I thought she would.  She helped me decorate the cake (yes, I made it from scratch).  I was trying to decorate it nicely, but kept messing up, so I decided I might as well let her have a crack at it.  She took a handful of sprinkles and dropped them all on one spot.  Her paternal grandparents came over for dinner.  We adults ate on china – S. didn’t seem to care that she just had a regular plate.  She got a lot of presents, more than I had intended, mainly due to her grandparents.  My mother sent three!  That’s the advantage of being the oldest grandchild.  I wonder if she’ll try to keep that up for all of her grandkids; in a few weeks she’ll have seven, and I am sure there will be many more in the years to come.  I was pleased that S. spent time with each present before going to the next.  I hate to see kids just tear through everything greedily.

No Twins Here

My daughters are two years and one week apart.  To me it seems apparent that they are quite different in age at this stage of their development.  However, today in Kroger’s, I was twice asked if they are twins!  One of the ladies was quite young, so I assume her eyesight is still good.  I can see people making the mistake when they are older, like six and eight, but now?  I think it’s a bit odd.  Perhaps it’s their new haircuts.  K. does have a lot of hair and teeth for an almost one year old, and it does make her look a little older.

After that I hauled them over to Wal-Mart (because I feel compelled to get the best price on everything, I end up going regularly to Food Lion, Kroger’s, and Wal-Mart).  As usual, S. took off her sandals while riding in the cart.  As usual, she ignored my request to put them back on.  When I was putting her back into her car seat, I told her that maybe I would just leave her sandals in the cart (one of those parent threats you know you won’t carry out, but just use to try to scare the kid even though you know it won’t work – one of those techniques I picked up from my own parents).  Well, I was punished, because I actually did forget to get them out of the cart, and did not realize that oversight until we were home.  At that point, I did not want to face the hassle of driving back, finding that a Good Samaritan had taken them into the store, dragging both girls out of car seats, going inside in the rain to Customer “Service”, etc.  So the sandals are gone for good, and I hardly care.  It’s the end of the season anyway.  They were too beat up to hand down to K.  I just feel foolish about threatening to leave them, and then actually doing that absent-mindedly.