Weekend

This weekend we had the Yeladim as our house guests, and for the most part we ignored them.

First, by way of explanation, they are not real people.  They are two versions of a Beanie Baby-sized Dora the Explorer dolls that are packed in a Beth Chaim Preschool tote with a notebook and a little rectangular basket and dumped on unsuspecting parents at the end of the week.

The expectation is, for those overachieving, document-every-moment-of-my-child's-life parents, will write in the notebook the adventures that the Yeladim have while visiting the student's home for the weekend and include photos.  Some parents go on for pages and pages, and gluing in near blow-by-blow photo montages.

And then there is us.  Slacker parents.  Parents who don't really think that preschoolers should be given homework.  Parents who would rather spend with our children without a couple of grubby fleece dolls horning in on the action

So the Yeladim spent Friday and Saturday on our sofa.  Thea and Micah were in the living room, playing games on the Wii on and off during the day.  This was one of those rare Saturdays with nothing on the calendar, so we stayed in, and the kids were in their pajamas most of the day.  Not exactly something I would want documented for time immemorial for all of the other parents in Micah's preschool to see.

Sunday was the usual ice skating in the morning, lunch and Chinese school in the afternoon.  The Yeladim languished on the coach and did not seem at all bothered by this.  (In some ways, they are the perfect guests.)

Steve and Micah were supposed to deal with this while Thea and I were at Rider University, but they managed to ignore the assignment.

Then during and after dinner we finally got going, photos were taken, a fast trip to FedEx Kinkos to print them and then a few fast sentences and a little glue stick action and it was done.  We briefly flirted with the idea of changing Micah's shirt between photos, but then I felt like taking a stand for the slacker parents by putting five pictures instead of a dozen.

 Sharing shrimp scampi with the Yeladim.

(And hoping they don't keep kosher. . . .)

 Admiring Micah's Tu B'Shevat green bean plants.

 Watching Super Bowl XLV with Micah and Thea

 Good Night, Yeladim.

Tucked in with Llama Llama Red Pajama and Bunny Bear

Slacker Parents Unite!

Another Snow Day

. . . .or rather an ice day, courtesy of the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District.  1 am, no news of the closing, 4:30 am no posting on the web site (a large snow slide from the roof crashed onto the back patio and the motion-sensor light went off and it woke me up).  Finally, when the alarm went off, before going downstairs to make breakfast and pack lunches, I stopped at the computer and school was canceled. 

It was also strangely quiet, trains between New York and Philadelphia were not running early in the morning, and it is strange how I've gotten accustomed to hearing the sounds of the NJ Transit and Amtrak trains.

Surprisingly, the inmates got along with each other today, only one small skirmish.  So it wasn't a bad day, especially since the ice on the driveway that Thea and I slid around on last night was gone by midday.  So we went out to Target for supplies (milk, broccoli, limeade) and minor bribes for continued good behavior - one Lego Ninjago each, and Thea used her own allowance money with the addition of 70 cents from me.

If that stupid ground hog is wrong, the kids are going to be going to school until late June, at the rate the school district is closing schools. . . .

Motherhood's Not So Shining Moment

Today I was home with Micah, who had a fever on Sunday and who probably had whatever had gotten me last Tuesday.  He was a pale shadow of his usual self yesterday, and was still in low battery mode this morning.

He spent the morning in his pajamas, being spoiled sick boy in our bed joined by his Star Wars Legos characters and Bunny Bear.  I finally got a chance to load his iXL with the Batman and Toy Stories games.  The iXL seemed like a really interesting device, and one of the accessories was a set of headphones that were the old fashioned kind (not the ear bud type, which I wouldn't want Micah to use and which probably wouldn't stay in his ear canals without the support of an auricle.)  What I should of checked out was how the games get into the device.  Not by a tiny cartridge like the Nintendo DSi, but onto the computer, through the USB port and into the iXL.  Major timewaster, though one of the fun features is photos can be loaded into it, and then Micah can both flip through them, and also draw on them as well.  It made for decent enough entertainment to keep him parked in the bed, under the covers - or he just felt lousy enough to stay put.

Mondays are usually my day to pick up Thea and Jackson to drive them to Ying Hua for after-school Chinese tutoring, so around 2:30 I got Micah dressed and organized (meaning he packed his backpack with the 'necessities' for travel: his iXL, a few Legos guys and whatever else interested him at that moment) and we set out.

The routine after meeting Jackson and Thea at Parent Pick-Up is to take them for a snack.  Today the request was for hot chocolate, so rather than go to It's A Grind for cafe hot cocoa, it was Dunkin Donuts.  Which still can be rather pricey if you're buying for three.

And since it was three versus two, Thea and Jackson got more grief from me than they usually do because they were trying to exclude Micah, and Micah wants to just be in the middle of what he perceives as their bigger kid wonderfulness he puts up with it.  Usually I enjoy taking the two out for their snack, but today it was more of a referee job whose only benefit was the nice large coffee.

As we were finishing up, a large new model, white Yukon pulls up to the curb and the passenger door opens and two kids who are smaller than my two (who are 5 and 7) get out, the older of the two has a coupon and a credit card in his hand.  No coats on, one of the two is wearing slippers without socks, both kids are a little on the chubby side.  The two got to the counter, place their order and take it back to the car.  I'm just sitting there taking it all in, somewhat stunned.

There is a woman behind the wheel of the Yukon, also on the more than just chubby end of the spectrum.

Once we finally get our table cleared and out the door, the Yukon is still there.  The two children make another trip in and by the time everyone in my car is buckled in and we're pulling out, the lady who is working the counter at D-n-D comes out to the car.

OK, I'm no better than she is, I just bought some of the same high fat, high sugar snacks for children.  But at least I parked my car, got out with them, sat down with them, talked to them instead of sitting for more than ten to fifteen minutes in a no parking/no standing area barking orders at two little ones who looked to small to even know what a credit card or a coupon are.

I wanted to smack her over the head with her designer knock-off bag.

Gripes

I purchased the book, 'Home in the Morning' by Mary Glickman for my Kindle and it is the first book I think I may delete from the device.  It was a good story, or at least it held my attention.  Right up until the storyline moved to 1965 and the main characters were in Washington, DC and one of them got out of the hospital AND TOOK THE SUBWAY HOME. 

I lived in the Washington, DC area from 1960 to 1974, and I remember the construction of the Metro system which started around 1969.  I also remember riding the Red Line with my grandfather and brother in 1976 when we had come back to visit for the Bicentennial.

At the end of the book I went to read the end notes to see if the author would make any explanation for this glaring error.  Nothing.  Not that I would be totally forgiving, but at least if she said she was exercising a bit of artistic license, I could dial down the annoyance.

This ranks right up there with Kevin Costner running on the towpath along the C&O canal in Georgetown and then zipping into the Georgetown Metro stop and then hopping on a train that is clearly part of the Baltimore subway system in 1987's No Way Out.   I don't remember much from the plot, but those little moments of movie magic live on.

Amazon owes me for recommending 'Home in the Morning' to me.

Out Damn Virus

Written January 11, 2011

I've been down with a cold since around Christmas, and I'm just about the limit of my patience for the tiny little gnome I am imagining lives in my sinuses who is ladling gunk down the back of my throat.  I thought I was done with NyQuil and Advil LiquiGels last week, but  tonight I caved in and opened one of those allegedly child-proof blister packets.  Thea's down with a cough, but no other real symptoms so she's just taking PediaCare Cough Syrup or Mucinex, and Micah's beginning to fake a bit of a dry cough because he thinks he's been left out.

If this is the immune system at age 50, it sucks.  I have drowned myself in several gallons of orange juice or Simply Limeade.  I have been taking my vitamins.  I have been washing my hands or using hand sanitizer gel to the point where the backs of my hands verge on reptilian.  All that is left to do is just wallow in misery and self-pity.

I finally unearthed the humidifier this afternoon because the master bedroom is drier than dry (and now we know why, the casing for the humidifier unit on the furnace is EMPTY.  Thank you to the seller who I specifically remember asking what's that thing on the furnace and being told it was the humidifier and that the second thermostat-like thing on the wall was for the humidifier.  A second thank you very sparsely to the home inspector who could have noted it on his inspection even though it was not really part of the structural and safety issues.  If I didn't have reason to hate the sellers for there completely questionable taste in decor and their total inability to notice dust (on the mini-blinds, which could likely have been measured in millimeters and above the door jambs of every room in the house), I really wish a blistering case of herpes on them now.

Micah's 5th birthday is less than two months away, and we've finally got a place to hold the party.  He expressed a desire to have everyone over to our house for a birthday party play date, but that is just not going to happen.  He attends two preschools, each with about a dozen children in the class, plus a few extras including a friend for Thea and it starts to more like an invasion than event.

So Thea and I in the midst of Saturday's snow and with only vague directions set out to check on Pump It Up in Hamilton.  We've been to three birthday parties at BounceU and one at Build-A-Bear  in the past couple of months, which were all great, but since it's the same group of children another venue seemed to be a good idea.  It is typical of those children's party venues, squirreled away at the back of an office/industrial park, but the interior was much more interesting and colorful than the red and purple of BounceU.

The moms who recommended Pump It Up said that the staff was high energy and really focused on getting the guests into the various activities.  The guy who gave us the five minute tour lived up to that, I was beginning to wonder how much Red Bull or Five Hour Energy must one consume to be that peppy, and walk backwards while talking and showing us around.  (Simple answer:  I don't want to know.)

So we've locked in March 5, 1:30 to 3:25 as the date.  Now I've got to pray that fewer than 24 cherubs RSVP that they will be coming.

One more item checked off the to-do list . . .

Saturday Chez Snow

 You never know what you'll wake up to at our house.

 The costume bin has come home from the storage facility.

Striking a fierce pose!

 Libby and Thea at the Girl Scout Cookie Sale

at Princeton MarketFair

 Thin Mints Anyone?

Above and Below:

The reason I need to either learn how to drink or up my anti-depressant dosage.

And as Thea and I came out of Tiger Noodles where we went for lunch after the Cookie Sale, it was snowing again.  Oh joy, oh rapture.

Snow Day, Part 3

You know it is truly a snow day when Princeton University, which usually holds itself above forces of nature, declares that non-essential personnel are allowed to stay home.

This is a good thing because the non-essential Princeton employee in our household was crucial to getting our driveway cleared.  It took a solid four hours of work, part of it with both of us shoveling, to dig out.  And we were lucky enough to have our two-doors down neighbor and his snow blower do the sidewalk.

Then the phone just rang moments ago, and the news is that the idiot school district that could not make a decision about closing until this morning has already declared a 90 minute late start for Friday.

And thanks to all of this, the Advil is doing double duty, for swollen glands and a sore lower back.

52 days until spring, if I live that long.