Saturday, October 20, 2012

Conversations

As usual, we were running late in the morning, trying to do the mad scramble of clothes-brush teeth-breakfast-and-maybe-if-we-are-lucky-a-slight-hairbrushing-and-barrette (that part hardly ever happens) before loading into the bike trailer by 7:30 to get to school.  7:30 hardly ever happens either, but that is the goal. Anyway, we were running late and Sody was stalling, trying to convince me she was sick and wanting to stay home for the day.  (Btw, what's up with that? I thought I had at least a few more years before she would be trying to pull that one...)

SODY: But I just want to stay hooooooome. I want you stay with meeeeee.

ME: I can't stay home, I have to go to work. They are expecting me there and I will get in trouble if I don't go.

SODY: You will go to jail?

ME: Uhh, I hope not...

Jail looms large with this one.  Any time you mention a policeman or being bad in general, she usually brings up going to jail. No idea why.  I am assuming she picked it up on the school playground, because in general if she ain't with us that is where she is - school.  8ish to 5 ish, 5 days a week.  It's a lot of time. My good friend Melissa once told me - back before Sody started school and I was nervous about her being there full time - "Preschool is great! They teach your kid all the stuff you forget to teach them!" And she has been so right about that. So far - it's almost been a year now that Sody has been there - it has been a great experience.  Love the teachers, love the songs they teach, love the Spanish Sody is picking up, love all the little friends she has there. She clearly loves her school and I am so grateful for that. There is no way I would be able to drop her off in the morning and head to work without worrying if we all didn't love the situation.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall at her school to see what she is like there all day without us.  I get an idea, of course, from her teachers.  They use words like "happy girl" and "wild." I think she might wear them out a little with insane repetition and question asking (join the club), but in general I think she is good there and well-liked. And I see how happy and hyper she is when we pick her up at the end of the day, and usually she doesn't want to leave.  Just how it should be.

Lately we have been working hard at having family dinners at the actual dining room table at an actual decent dinner-ish hour (this isn't as easy as it sounds, people).  Amongst our dinnertime conversations we ask Sody the best and worst parts of her day. Here were her answers from yesterday:

Best part of her day - doing art projects with Teacher Ana
Worst part of her day - not doing art projects with Teacher Ana

Awesome.






Monday, October 1, 2012

Still Here, I Swear

Hey. Remember us? I have given out this blog address to a couple of friends at work lately and it made me realize how ridiculously long it's been since I updated this here thingamajig.  Whoops.  No good reason for the disappearance, just your basic not-enough-hours-in-the-day problem that is the plague of my entire life and that which will probably follow me to my grave. Sigh. The scourge of the working mother. (which, by the way, doesn't the term "working mother" just sound so...so...power suit wearing, briefcase carrying Diane Keaton in "Baby Boom"? So grown up lady with a real career? That's what I always think of when I hear that term. I don't think of me in my ratty t-shirts with the sleeves cut off, rolling into work on my bike whose seat is held together with duct tape. Yet here we are.) And I also have to mention that my computer is so insanely old and nearly dead that half the time when I turn it on it doesn't work.  So I would rather not spend my precious little free time at night yelling obscenities at my computer trying to post on here. Besides, if I wanted to yell at something that drives me nuts because it's not doing what I want it to, I could yell at Joe. (JUST KIDDING JOE! I LOVE YOU!) But I am here now, so let's catch you up, shall we?

Our big summer trip was to New Jersey. Duh. We had a blast with all the family members and this time around we even got to go hang out at Mom Mom and Pop Pop's new beach house. Fun was had, sun was soaked up, junk food was eaten.  We covered all our NJ bases.

                                Pop Pop and his ladeez (Sody and her Cousin Ryan)

   A whole hell of a lot of Finlaws.  Not sure why Sody looks so distressed here, but it cracks me up.

                  Stone cold chillin' in the lake at Bayberry Cove (where the beach house is)



Bayberry Cove had a little Halloween-in-August party complete with trick or treating. We had to improvise a costume with what we had around the house, so Sody was a kitty: inside out gray t-shirt, mom's makeup to make whiskers on face, colored cardboard ears taped to a headband. Ryan's costume was "Miss Bayberry" with a sash made out of duct tape.  DIY, y'all.


Back to Brandywine Zoo, the scene of The Fall of 2009.  (I fell down some stairs here with 6 month old Sody in a baby carrier, my knee got skinned to bits and Sody hit her head.  Motherly panic and Sody's first emergency room trip ensued - not to mention many many dollars for a doctor to tell us absolutely nothing because she was perfectly fine). I am happy to report no one fell this time!



Joe's sister Courtney is getting married next year and Sody is going to be a flower girl. We went to a dress shop to look at gowns and Sody FLIPPED out at the mirror set up.  She had never seen anything like this, where you can see your reflection at so many angles at once. It ruled. She spent soooooo long watching herself, singing, laughing, acting like she was playing with a bunch of friends. Her best quote: "There are so many Sodys!!"



                                                                    BUBBLES!!!!!



                                                          Isota: Washers Champion.



           This is one of my favorite pictures ever. I have no idea why she is examining this donut.



                                                               Shiny Happy Siblings


See ya next time East Coast! Missing you already...