Books Books Books

So, between being a full time mom and having a part time job I realized there isn't much time for anything else, which is mostly my blog. The plus side of having a part time job at a library is that I have unlimited access to books. Lots of books. The best part about that is I no longer have a compulsion to finish reading a book if I don't like. Since I didn't pay for it, I just return it and get another one. For a while the library had a link to tell you how much money you had saved by using their services, and mine came to somewhere around $8000. That seems high, right? Not when you consider that I can check out movies for free, books for my children for free (have you priced children's books lately? They must be printing them on gold.), books on cd, and then my books. It really adds up.

Boy crazy

It all started when the baby went to preschool last year in the two year old class. There were six kids in her class, four boys and two girls. She and the other girl bonded and began a battle with the boys who were said to be "big meanies." After that, the baby no longer liked boys, violently sometimes. I spent the remainder of the school year wondering if she will have a note in her backpack when I picked her stating she had attacked one of her classmates (always a boy).

This year in the weeks leading up to three year old preschool, I stressed the importance of being nice to everyone in her class. She told me she would be nice to the girls so I tried a different tactic. I asked her to not hit anyone to which responded, "I won't hit anybody Mommy, just boys." My last plea was the morning of school. I dropped her off and hoped for the best.

I was thrilled when I picked her up and the first thing she said to me was "I didn't hit any of my friends today!" I let out a sigh of relief and though "one day down." She did inform me that the big boy had pushed her down and she hurt her knee. Sure enough, her knee was scraped and she was lightly limping on it. I asked her if he had pushed her or if it had been an accident. She said she didn't know. I began formulating my speech for the trip to school the next morning explaining that she should not take revenge on this boy and if he hurt her on purpose she should ask him to stop and not hurt back.

I gave her my speech in the car and she just said "Okay Mommy" and got out of the car. It was the best I could do. When I picked her up she was very quiet. I kept asking her questions and she merely grunted or gave me a short answer. Finally asked her what happened. She was silent a moment and then dropped her head and said "I played with a boy." Not what I expected her to say at all. I asked her who and she just said the big boy. I asked her why and she said he was nice to her. I told her it was okay to play with kids who were nice to her, even if they were boys.

After two weeks of preschool this Big Boy is her new best friend. The thing I find humorous is the boys father is someone I graduated with twenty years ago. At least she didn't beat the boy up because I suspect now that it was an accident that he pushed her down.

To finish it all off I asked her if she was a boy or a girl. For nearly the entire year of preschool last year she would say a boy, even though she knew she was a girl. I asked her yesterday if she was a boy or a girl and she just smiled and replied "I'm a princess" and skipped off down the hall.

Monkey farts

I was invited to a party tonight. No, not one of those "mingle with your friends and have fun" kind of parties. One of the "come over to my house and by something from this lady" kind of parties. I generally avoid these types of parties at any cost, but I was needing a little time away from the house so I decided to go. I'm kind of glad I did. Although I was intending on having some grown-up time, I took my oldest with me. I really want her to learn to sit quietly when she needs to. She did very well and actually won some prizes. She came home with a lip butter that smells of strawberries and a hand lotion that smells of Monkey Farts. What do Monkey Farts smell like? Well, in this case it seems to be coconut and banana. I'm going to have fun at work tomorrow telling people I smell like monkey farts.

A year gone

More than a year. I haven't been keeping up with this as I should. Hard to keep up with something if you think no one reads it.

My oldest started kindergarten this year. She has been attending for over a month and still loves going. She excitedly tells me about her day every time I pick her up. I hope she never stops being this excited about school.

The youngest started preschool yesterday. On the way we had a long discussion about not hitting anyone (a problem from last year) to which she replied she would only hit the boys. I reminded her gently that she shouldn't hit anyone. She said okay, and only boys. I bit more firmly that she shouldn't hit ANYONE. She said okay but just kind of looked at me, the look that says "whatever". When I picked her up, the first thing she said to me in the car was "Mommy, I didn't hurt any of my friends." I'm so proud.

Sigh

In the last two weeks, my 4 year old has decided that she is going to get married. I only learned of this when she asked me to buy her a new wedding dress because her old one was dirty. First I was thinking, where did you get an old wedding dress, then I asked her who she was marrying. She told me Prince Elmo. I asked her where they would live and she told me the castle at Disney World. I didn't even know she knew there was a castle at Disney World. Meanwhile, I look over at her dad to see if he was listening to the exchange and he had a look of horror on his face. I guess he didn't expect to hear her talk about marriage this soon.

The 2 year old is becomming more and more energetic. A few times I have even peeked under her bed to see if she has some energy drinks hidden in there. Hopefully, preschool will help curb her energy a bit. Only a week to go before I get two glorious hours a day, three days a week, all to myself.

Today I have been wishing that I had a little tape recorder with all the things I seem to have to repeat myself on at hand to save my voice. Handy things like "Stop hitting your sister," "Get that out of your mouth", "Don't throw that in the house," and "Stop eating things you find in the yard." That last one is for the dogs, not the kids.

My pet tongue

I've got more than two children living at home. I also have two dogs. One is a rat terrier mix we picked up at the pound five years ago named Beryl. She was already a year old and had most of her personality when we got her. She is very sweet, but was intensely mistreated before we got her. She wants to please us so bad, but even after five years with us she doesn't let her guard completely down. She develops all kinds of fun little obsessions that we have to work getting her to break. Her most current is sitting at the base of a tree and watching for our yard's resident squirrel. That alone seems like normal dog behavior, but she will sit there for hours doing it.

Since we had one dog, a month later we though she needed a playmate so we picked up another dog. He is a "miniature" dachshund. That miniature is in quotes because he grew quite a bit larger than a miniature is supposed to be. He isn't fat, he has a nice body shape, just much longer than he should be. We bought him from a "breeder" for $35. That isn't a typo, just $35. The people just never bothered to get their dog fixed, so we ended up with a puppy. Little did we know we were actually buying a tongue with a dog attached to it. We have chosen to call the dog portion Turbo and the tongue portion Lickey. We have yet to figure out which portion of the pair controls the whole, but I will say EVERYTHING in our house has a fine layer of dog spit on it. That would be from the Lickey portion. Either way, both portions are extremely attached to me. We are talking separation anxiety attachment. On top of that, Beryl ended up just tolerating Turbo, so he really is not her playmate as we intended, and I now have a dog that sits right next to me constantly and another dog that sits on the floor and stares at me and the other dog. Sometimes I can get her to join us, but mostly she just stares.

I almost understand Beryl's world. We got her and she loved us from the start. She played with us and followed us around, then we got Turbo. She was a little standoffish after that. Less than a month after we got Turbo, I found out I was pregnant with my oldest. Within a period of 3 years I got two dogs and two children. No wonder I feel like I'm going crazy sometimes. Maybe I should be out there with Beryl at the tree.

Scarlett O'Hara

Since I posted about my four year old being Scarlett O'Hara, I am learning every day that I live with more than one. The four year old has fantastic little fits. The only thing missing is her arm thrown up to her head as she collapses to the floor saying "I just can't do it." Even better, her little sister is training to be her understudy. Preschool starts in September. I don't know who is more excited, me or the girls.