It's weird how parents can make their adult children feel like kids. Suddenly I feel like Doogie Houser typing on his computer at the end of an episode in 1992. <Insert thoughtful look here> But really it is a strange transition to make to be on equal ground with your parents. And stranger still when that parents needs your help just like you once needed theirs. My daddy has dementia, and I really miss him. :-( The doctor says it's most likely Alzheimer's (one day I will learn how to spell that without looking it up) but I guess it's hard to know for sure? Alzheimer's is just a form of dementia which covers pretty much any type of memory loss. Doesn't matter what they want to call it, he's not really my dad anymore. And it sucks!
I've been learning a lot when I hang out with my dad. Learning not to expect as much, learning there are some question not worth asking, learning I can listen to the radio when I drive him around because he can't hear it anyway. And learning it's remarkable how alike two people can be that are 74 years apart in age. Owen is 3 and daddy is 77. (This is what happens when you wait until later in life to have children. My dad was almost 46 when I was born.) At times it's almost uncanny.
Both of them are infinitely stubborn. Dad likes to buy ham when I take him grocery shopping, but it has to be Oscar Mayer ham or else it's not ham. Owen like to listen to the blue Imagination Movers cd when he goes to bed. Don't try to give him the red one unless you want trouble.
Both of them have little things that make them happy. Owen likes to drive home from daycare on the residential streets (the quiet road) instead of the main street (busy road) and he gets excited every day when I tell him we will go that way. Dad likes to drive home from the grocery store a certain way and he gets excited every time too. Literally they both say "Yay!" when I agree to go on the road they want.
I have to speak with them both the same way. Short simple phrases like, "That's not safe for you." or when they ask for something that I know is not going to happen, "Maybe we can do that later." because I know they will both forget about it. But Owen is getting better about remembering things now while daddy is getting worse.
I have to constantly worry about them wandering off when we are in a public place.
They both trust me completely. When we are driving, half the time neither of them knows where I'm taking them, and they are both fine with that because they are with me.
They are both equally hard to understand when they try to tell stories.
Here's a recent conversation with Owen while watching a baseball game...
Owen: Are we going to see that little boy again?
Me: What little boy?
Owen: The one that is friends with Noah.
Me: Noah and the Ark?
Owen: No! Not Noah. I said Noah!
Me: I'm sorry honey, I don't understand what you're asking.
Owen: (frustrated growl) The little boy!
Me: What little boy?
Owen: The one whose daddy fell down and hit his head and had to go to Heaven!
Me: OH! (Shannon Stone fell to his death at the ballpark in July and his 6 year old son threw out the first pitch at a playoff game recently then he went to sit with Nolan Ryan which Owen can't pronounce and calls him Noah) No, we will not be seeing that little boy today.
And a recent conversation with Daddy.....
Dad: (out of nowhere) And she just went and got pregnant.
Me: Who did?
Dad: That girl.
Me: Which girl?
Dad: The girl that use to own it.
Me: Um, she used to own what?
Dad: The one that doesn't work anymore.
Me: What doesn't work anymore?
Dad: (frustrated noise as he tries to remember a word) The thing that drives on wheels.
Me: A car?
Dad: Yes!
Me: So who is this girl?
Dad: She used to own the car across the street but then she got pregnant and couldn't drive it anymore so she wants to sell it.
Me: OH! (Still feel like I'm missing something. Why wouldn't you be able to drive just because you're pregnant? Nah, it's not worth asking.)
As I continue this adventure of watching the opposite ends of life unfolding before my eyes, on one hand I think it's a blessing that the timing worked out as it did. Living with Owen and knowing how to have a conversation with a 3 year old has really helped me to communicate better with my dad.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Date With Owen
You probably read about my date with Collin awhile ago but if you missed it you can see it here, Hey! That was my first link! Look at me, I'm all tech-y. :-0
I sort of got the idea to take my boys out one at a time because I remember my Daddy taking me out on a date once when I was eight. I don't remember where we had dinner, but I remember that I wore a fancy dress and he kept calling me his 'date' and opening doors for me. It made me feel really special. I do remember after dinner that we had to stop to get gas on the way home. I knew I was being spoiled when he agreed to buy me a Pepsi out of the vending machine because that was a very rare splurge when I was little.
On Saturday I had my first try at a date with Owen. He's not quite the smooth gentleman that Collin is yet, but he has his own style... Like Spazmatron 2008 style! (He's a Spaz and he was born in '08. Get it?) We had been planning this for a few days otherwise I wouldn't have taken him out because after a quick trip to the doctor on Saturday morning we learned that he has strep and a double era infection. Poor kid! The Doctor said he has been sick for awhile, but I swear you wouldn't know it except that he hasn't been eating and sleeping so well. He still runs and plays and screams and all those normal kid things. He had slept late that morning because he was up a good part of the night before so he didn't have a nap. So what do I do? I take the hyper, sick, sleep-deprived child to Applebees of course!
Owen was so excited about going to "Apple-peas" and had been talking about it for days. He had never been there before but we drive by it all the time and he likes to point out the big red apple. We looked at the menu online ahead of time and he couldn't stop talking about having macaroni and chocolate milk.
When we got there he immediately needed to go potty. This is his way of telling me that he is bored. He had JUST gone 15 minutes ago when we left the house. But he was insistent, so off we went before we even ordered the chocolate milk. We got back to the table and ordered our food and he was having a good time looking at the dessert menu and coloring his kid's menu. As soon as the food got to the table he had to go AGAIN! Seriously? That bored? I tried to distract him but then he started in with the really loud fussing that everyone around us could hear. "I really need to go potty, Mommy! I need to! Really bad!" Ok, ok. I'm way more familiar with that Applebees restroom than I ever wanted to be. Back to the table. One bite of macaroni, one look at the fries and he was done. Yup. done. Then he got busy crawling under the table and trying to sit on the window ledge and trying to open and close the blinds and emptying the sugar packets from the little box. He hit his head on the table twice while trying to look for a dropped crayon. Twice! Both times resulting in wailing cries and people staring. It was basically a disaster. But hey, my chicken fried steak was yummy. :-)
Before dinner we had stopped at a store to buy Owen a new toy. He picked an innocent looking stuffed bear that sings "Jesus Loves Me" in a creepy child's voice on a bad recording. Whatever. He loves it and that's all that matters. He was worried when I told him to leave the singing bear in the car for dinner because he thought the bear would be sad all alone. That bear would have probably been sadder sitting at our table for dinner.
But really what can you expect? He's three. He did have a fun time hanging with mom and I liked being with him too. Maybe next time we should plan something just a bit less public. Maybe Chuck E. Cheese's or something where he wouldn't stick out so much with the Spazing. :-)
I did manage to get him to sit still for one picture. It's not the greatest, but it's not like he was going to pose for a retake.
I sort of got the idea to take my boys out one at a time because I remember my Daddy taking me out on a date once when I was eight. I don't remember where we had dinner, but I remember that I wore a fancy dress and he kept calling me his 'date' and opening doors for me. It made me feel really special. I do remember after dinner that we had to stop to get gas on the way home. I knew I was being spoiled when he agreed to buy me a Pepsi out of the vending machine because that was a very rare splurge when I was little.
On Saturday I had my first try at a date with Owen. He's not quite the smooth gentleman that Collin is yet, but he has his own style... Like Spazmatron 2008 style! (He's a Spaz and he was born in '08. Get it?) We had been planning this for a few days otherwise I wouldn't have taken him out because after a quick trip to the doctor on Saturday morning we learned that he has strep and a double era infection. Poor kid! The Doctor said he has been sick for awhile, but I swear you wouldn't know it except that he hasn't been eating and sleeping so well. He still runs and plays and screams and all those normal kid things. He had slept late that morning because he was up a good part of the night before so he didn't have a nap. So what do I do? I take the hyper, sick, sleep-deprived child to Applebees of course!
Owen was so excited about going to "Apple-peas" and had been talking about it for days. He had never been there before but we drive by it all the time and he likes to point out the big red apple. We looked at the menu online ahead of time and he couldn't stop talking about having macaroni and chocolate milk.
When we got there he immediately needed to go potty. This is his way of telling me that he is bored. He had JUST gone 15 minutes ago when we left the house. But he was insistent, so off we went before we even ordered the chocolate milk. We got back to the table and ordered our food and he was having a good time looking at the dessert menu and coloring his kid's menu. As soon as the food got to the table he had to go AGAIN! Seriously? That bored? I tried to distract him but then he started in with the really loud fussing that everyone around us could hear. "I really need to go potty, Mommy! I need to! Really bad!" Ok, ok. I'm way more familiar with that Applebees restroom than I ever wanted to be. Back to the table. One bite of macaroni, one look at the fries and he was done. Yup. done. Then he got busy crawling under the table and trying to sit on the window ledge and trying to open and close the blinds and emptying the sugar packets from the little box. He hit his head on the table twice while trying to look for a dropped crayon. Twice! Both times resulting in wailing cries and people staring. It was basically a disaster. But hey, my chicken fried steak was yummy. :-)
Before dinner we had stopped at a store to buy Owen a new toy. He picked an innocent looking stuffed bear that sings "Jesus Loves Me" in a creepy child's voice on a bad recording. Whatever. He loves it and that's all that matters. He was worried when I told him to leave the singing bear in the car for dinner because he thought the bear would be sad all alone. That bear would have probably been sadder sitting at our table for dinner.
But really what can you expect? He's three. He did have a fun time hanging with mom and I liked being with him too. Maybe next time we should plan something just a bit less public. Maybe Chuck E. Cheese's or something where he wouldn't stick out so much with the Spazing. :-)
I did manage to get him to sit still for one picture. It's not the greatest, but it's not like he was going to pose for a retake.
Monday, October 10, 2011
October Baseball
I written before about my nerdy obsessions, here is my current one. For the second year in a row my Texas Rangers have made it to the playoffs. As I write this, we are 2 games to 0 against the Tigers in the American League Championship Series and 2 wins away from our second trip to the World Series!
Some people have told me that, as a nerd, I'm not allowed to like sports at all. But I disagree! For the record Baseball is the only sport I follow which makes me one of about 8 people that live in Texas who don't love the Dallas Cowboys more than life itself. (Luckily for me I'm married to one of the other ones in that extreme minority.) Anyway, if you are REALLY into a sport then you are memorizing stats and comparing players and teams and forming fantasy teams... Hello? Can you say Nerdy? In my opinion it takes more work to keep up with that kind of stuff than it does to memorize lines from Star Wars. That movie is 35 years old and the lines aren't changing. Well, okay, some of them changed and we all know that was just wrong. I should have picked a different example but you know what I mean. Baseball stats are changing all the time and it's much harder to keep up.
My love of the game is more emotionally based. I don't memorize things on purpose. I get attached to the players. For example, my current celebrity crush is C.J. Wilson. Alright, I just heard 3 of the 4 people that read this blog say, "Who?" He's the current lead starting pitcher and he's got sideburns that could complete with the 10th Doctor. ;) I get sad when a player I like is traded (I still miss Salty) and I feel bad for them when they mess up and I miss them in the lineup when they have an injury. There are also some players I don't care for and I get angry at the manager for allowing them in the game. I get happy when they win and sad when they lose. And I often refer to myself as part of the team. (See first paragraph.)
As we are now into the playoffs and every game is so important, my life has made some adjustments. When there is a day game I listen to the radio instead of podcasts at work. I send out mass text messages to my fellow fans as we all ride this wave together. I base the days that I will take Collin to Karate class on if there is a game that night or not. (He doesn't want to go most of the time so he's not upset about this.) Tonight the game ran long. Four and a half hours and 12 innings kind of long! I think I was holding my breath for the last 3 innings at least and I KNOW this my blood pressure has to be higher this month than it was in September. As a result my sweet boys got to stay up late which they loved. Owen was in the living room with me and we were waving our rally towels and yelling for our team. When Nelly hit that beautiful walk-off Grand Slam I'm sure the neighbors could hear us screaming! I felt bad about the kids getting to bed late. It was only 20 minutes but I like to keep us on a schedule since they have to wake up so early. I hope they will be okay for tomorrow. But this will all be over, win or lose, by the end of the month and we can get back on track.
The magic of your team playing October baseball is a wonderful thing. Like experiencing a new season of Doctor Who, or anxiously waiting for a Harry Potter book or movie. I am loving every minute of it and all too soon it will be gone and I'll be left with an empty feeling and wondering what's on tv.
As a tribute to those of you that visit hoping to hear cute kid stories, I have one. I hope this is not TMI for anyone, but I think it's incredibly funny. You need to know ahead of time that Owen saw my birth control pills once and commented that he wanted some of my "candy" so I had to make up a story to keep him from wanting them.... Now Owen has only been potty-trained for 5 months or so and he's done exceptionally well, but he still gets scared to go by himself and wants me in there. I'm willing to do this most of the time since he did all the work and trained himself, I figure I owe him. It seems as least once every few days as he is conducting his business he comments that I am a girl and therefore I don't have a pee-pee like he does. I confirm his statement. Then he continues with "And if I eat some of your medicine then I will turn into a girl and my pee-pee will go away." Again, I confirm this is also true and then I start to wonder what his pre-school teacher must think goes on in our house.
Some people have told me that, as a nerd, I'm not allowed to like sports at all. But I disagree! For the record Baseball is the only sport I follow which makes me one of about 8 people that live in Texas who don't love the Dallas Cowboys more than life itself. (Luckily for me I'm married to one of the other ones in that extreme minority.) Anyway, if you are REALLY into a sport then you are memorizing stats and comparing players and teams and forming fantasy teams... Hello? Can you say Nerdy? In my opinion it takes more work to keep up with that kind of stuff than it does to memorize lines from Star Wars. That movie is 35 years old and the lines aren't changing. Well, okay, some of them changed and we all know that was just wrong. I should have picked a different example but you know what I mean. Baseball stats are changing all the time and it's much harder to keep up.
My love of the game is more emotionally based. I don't memorize things on purpose. I get attached to the players. For example, my current celebrity crush is C.J. Wilson. Alright, I just heard 3 of the 4 people that read this blog say, "Who?" He's the current lead starting pitcher and he's got sideburns that could complete with the 10th Doctor. ;) I get sad when a player I like is traded (I still miss Salty) and I feel bad for them when they mess up and I miss them in the lineup when they have an injury. There are also some players I don't care for and I get angry at the manager for allowing them in the game. I get happy when they win and sad when they lose. And I often refer to myself as part of the team. (See first paragraph.)
As we are now into the playoffs and every game is so important, my life has made some adjustments. When there is a day game I listen to the radio instead of podcasts at work. I send out mass text messages to my fellow fans as we all ride this wave together. I base the days that I will take Collin to Karate class on if there is a game that night or not. (He doesn't want to go most of the time so he's not upset about this.) Tonight the game ran long. Four and a half hours and 12 innings kind of long! I think I was holding my breath for the last 3 innings at least and I KNOW this my blood pressure has to be higher this month than it was in September. As a result my sweet boys got to stay up late which they loved. Owen was in the living room with me and we were waving our rally towels and yelling for our team. When Nelly hit that beautiful walk-off Grand Slam I'm sure the neighbors could hear us screaming! I felt bad about the kids getting to bed late. It was only 20 minutes but I like to keep us on a schedule since they have to wake up so early. I hope they will be okay for tomorrow. But this will all be over, win or lose, by the end of the month and we can get back on track.
The magic of your team playing October baseball is a wonderful thing. Like experiencing a new season of Doctor Who, or anxiously waiting for a Harry Potter book or movie. I am loving every minute of it and all too soon it will be gone and I'll be left with an empty feeling and wondering what's on tv.
As a tribute to those of you that visit hoping to hear cute kid stories, I have one. I hope this is not TMI for anyone, but I think it's incredibly funny. You need to know ahead of time that Owen saw my birth control pills once and commented that he wanted some of my "candy" so I had to make up a story to keep him from wanting them.... Now Owen has only been potty-trained for 5 months or so and he's done exceptionally well, but he still gets scared to go by himself and wants me in there. I'm willing to do this most of the time since he did all the work and trained himself, I figure I owe him. It seems as least once every few days as he is conducting his business he comments that I am a girl and therefore I don't have a pee-pee like he does. I confirm his statement. Then he continues with "And if I eat some of your medicine then I will turn into a girl and my pee-pee will go away." Again, I confirm this is also true and then I start to wonder what his pre-school teacher must think goes on in our house.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Star Trek (2009) in 24 Quotes
"You're Captain now, Mr. Kirk."
"Auto-Pilot function has been destroyed."
"Okay, Jim it is."
"My name is James Tiberius Kirk."
"Live long and prosper."
"You can whistle really loud."
"All I've got left are my bones."
"Who was that pointy-eared bastard?"
"Lighting storm in space."
"Hi Christopher, I'm Nero."
"Mother!"
"I am now a member of an endangered species."
"An alternate reality."
"I have been and always shall be, your friend."
"Are you out of you Vulcan mind?"
"Can I have a towel?"
"I sure hope you know what you're doing, Captain."
"Kirk and Spock are on their own now."
"I got your gun."
"That was pretty good!"
"I'm giving it all she's got, Captain!"
"... a friendship that will define you both..."
"I am relieved."
"Take us out."
"Auto-Pilot function has been destroyed."
"Okay, Jim it is."
"My name is James Tiberius Kirk."
"Live long and prosper."
"You can whistle really loud."
"All I've got left are my bones."
"Who was that pointy-eared bastard?"
"Lighting storm in space."
"Hi Christopher, I'm Nero."
"Mother!"
"I am now a member of an endangered species."
"An alternate reality."
"I have been and always shall be, your friend."
"Are you out of you Vulcan mind?"
"Can I have a towel?"
"I sure hope you know what you're doing, Captain."
"Kirk and Spock are on their own now."
"I got your gun."
"That was pretty good!"
"I'm giving it all she's got, Captain!"
"... a friendship that will define you both..."
"I am relieved."
"Take us out."
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Random Thoughts From This Week
Zippers must be extremely dirty. As in the zipper on your jeans that you are wearing right now. Think about it. You pretty much have to touch it between going to the bathroom and washing your hands. And I bet when you undress at night you don't go wash right after you take off your pants and touching said contaminated zipper. That's just nasty when you think about it.
I heard this on The Nerdist podcast, but it's powerful..... Everyone says they want to build a time machine so that they can go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby before he could rise to power. But if you really did then you wouldn't be remembered as the guy/girl that killed Hitler. No, you would just be the jerk that killed a baby.
Since I have been spending 2 days a week helping a co-worker with college math and it's actually FUN for me, I probably really should go back to school. But for what? I like my current job and can't imagine what I would rather be doing. Plus who likes change anyway?
I've come to the conclusion that I have an addiction to caffeine, but I'm completely fine with that as long as it doesn't include stupid calories like Dr Pepper which makes me feel guilty. Although on the other hand I should really just get more sleep.
I act like a child at bed time and refuse to go to bed until I'm past the point of being exhausted.
I've lost some weight this year and that's awesome and all, but how can a person think it's a compliment to tell me that I need to go shopping because my clothes are all too big and it's not flattering? Rude much? Not all of us have the ability to buy a new outfit every time we feel like it.
Kindergarten is stressful. More than I know.
Facebook is not a place where you can be yourself. It's a scary place filled with family members you can't offend and games that try to suck you in. I've heard Google + is fun.....
Nerds are generally very very nice people.
God has a way of putting the right people in my path just when I need to run into them.
I really like quiet time.
I heard this on The Nerdist podcast, but it's powerful..... Everyone says they want to build a time machine so that they can go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby before he could rise to power. But if you really did then you wouldn't be remembered as the guy/girl that killed Hitler. No, you would just be the jerk that killed a baby.
Since I have been spending 2 days a week helping a co-worker with college math and it's actually FUN for me, I probably really should go back to school. But for what? I like my current job and can't imagine what I would rather be doing. Plus who likes change anyway?
I've come to the conclusion that I have an addiction to caffeine, but I'm completely fine with that as long as it doesn't include stupid calories like Dr Pepper which makes me feel guilty. Although on the other hand I should really just get more sleep.
I act like a child at bed time and refuse to go to bed until I'm past the point of being exhausted.
I've lost some weight this year and that's awesome and all, but how can a person think it's a compliment to tell me that I need to go shopping because my clothes are all too big and it's not flattering? Rude much? Not all of us have the ability to buy a new outfit every time we feel like it.
Kindergarten is stressful. More than I know.
Facebook is not a place where you can be yourself. It's a scary place filled with family members you can't offend and games that try to suck you in. I've heard Google + is fun.....
Nerds are generally very very nice people.
God has a way of putting the right people in my path just when I need to run into them.
I really like quiet time.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
We've Got the Blues
You know how you can remember Kindergarten, but you don't really remember it? I remember my first day because I was switched to a new class at the last minute and it took awhile to find the right place for me to go. I remember not wanting my mom to leave me there. I remember there were only 12 kids in my class (private school) and only 2 of us were girls. I remember one day we had pink cupcakes for the other girl's birthday and then she threw up in the class and it was pink and that was when I made the connection that what goes in must come out. I remember the first sentence I had to read out loud by myself: "Dad, can Al ride the bus?" I remember being bored a lot of the time. I remember being so terribly shy to the point that I would intentionally not finish my work so that I would be made to stay inside by myself while the other kids went to recess; that was when I could breathe. I remember wanting to take a backpack to school except there was no reason to, but I took one anyway filled up with toys.
What I don't remember about Kindergarten was how much coloring goes on! No wonder I had to buy 5 boxes of crayons for Collin's school supply list. That's all they do! He has brought home a stack of papers that he has colored. At this rate I will need to replace all those crayons by Christmas. The problem is that Collin has never been that big on coloring. He will draw pictures using that wonderful imagination of his, but he will hardly ever sit down with a coloring book and fill in the pictures. His pictures always include words too. They don't do much writing in Kindergarten. Not yet anyway.
There is a color chart on the wall and each child has a clothes pin, or something similar, with their name on it clipped on the chart. Everyone starts each day on green, but if you have bad behavior then your pin is moved to different colors and there is some type of consequence for each one. The first step down is a warning, then a time out, then the child is not allowed to play at recess, and eventually they are sent to the office is the offense is bad enough. For the first time on Tuesday, Collin had his pin moved down a color... to blue.
When I picked him up he was playing outside and when he saw me he turned around and ran in the other direction. He finally came back around to me and told me that he had to go on blue but he did not want to talk about it. He had a little snack that another child had shared with him and wanted to eat it on the way home. I told him he could but only if he told me what happened. He reluctantly agreed. He said at first he was talking when he wasn't supposed to and then later he was supposed to be (you guessed it!) coloring, but he was singing instead. I had to try hard not to laugh at that one! I asked if he was finished coloring when he started singing, he said no. He said he just didn't want to color anymore and that was why he was singing. Who can blame him for being sick of coloring? Although that does not excuse the singing. He was really upset about the blue mark. He told me he thought he would stay on green forever. I tried to explain that green is not a guarantee and he would have to work for it every day. I also explained that I will always love him no matter what color he comes home with. He wanted to know specifically if I would still love him if he had to go to the office. I assured him I would, but I wouldn't be very happy if that happened.
This morning when I woke him up I asked him, like I always do, if he had nice dreams. He is so creative and I love hearing his stories. I don't know if he really dreams up the stuff he tells me about or if he's just making it up, but I'm leaning towards the latter. So he tells me he had a bad dream. In his dream Owen wrote the letter A and the letter X and I was very proud of him. But then Collin also wrote an A and an X but I was not proud of him. That just almost broke my heart. I took this opportunity (as a nerd) to use my favorite line from the newest Star Trek movie spoken by Spock's mom: "No matter what you choose to be, you will always have a proud mother."
He was resolved today to do better and stay on green and he achieved his goal! I think this lesson really sunk in, for now anyway. No telling what the future will hold!
What I don't remember about Kindergarten was how much coloring goes on! No wonder I had to buy 5 boxes of crayons for Collin's school supply list. That's all they do! He has brought home a stack of papers that he has colored. At this rate I will need to replace all those crayons by Christmas. The problem is that Collin has never been that big on coloring. He will draw pictures using that wonderful imagination of his, but he will hardly ever sit down with a coloring book and fill in the pictures. His pictures always include words too. They don't do much writing in Kindergarten. Not yet anyway.
There is a color chart on the wall and each child has a clothes pin, or something similar, with their name on it clipped on the chart. Everyone starts each day on green, but if you have bad behavior then your pin is moved to different colors and there is some type of consequence for each one. The first step down is a warning, then a time out, then the child is not allowed to play at recess, and eventually they are sent to the office is the offense is bad enough. For the first time on Tuesday, Collin had his pin moved down a color... to blue.
When I picked him up he was playing outside and when he saw me he turned around and ran in the other direction. He finally came back around to me and told me that he had to go on blue but he did not want to talk about it. He had a little snack that another child had shared with him and wanted to eat it on the way home. I told him he could but only if he told me what happened. He reluctantly agreed. He said at first he was talking when he wasn't supposed to and then later he was supposed to be (you guessed it!) coloring, but he was singing instead. I had to try hard not to laugh at that one! I asked if he was finished coloring when he started singing, he said no. He said he just didn't want to color anymore and that was why he was singing. Who can blame him for being sick of coloring? Although that does not excuse the singing. He was really upset about the blue mark. He told me he thought he would stay on green forever. I tried to explain that green is not a guarantee and he would have to work for it every day. I also explained that I will always love him no matter what color he comes home with. He wanted to know specifically if I would still love him if he had to go to the office. I assured him I would, but I wouldn't be very happy if that happened.
This morning when I woke him up I asked him, like I always do, if he had nice dreams. He is so creative and I love hearing his stories. I don't know if he really dreams up the stuff he tells me about or if he's just making it up, but I'm leaning towards the latter. So he tells me he had a bad dream. In his dream Owen wrote the letter A and the letter X and I was very proud of him. But then Collin also wrote an A and an X but I was not proud of him. That just almost broke my heart. I took this opportunity (as a nerd) to use my favorite line from the newest Star Trek movie spoken by Spock's mom: "No matter what you choose to be, you will always have a proud mother."
He was resolved today to do better and stay on green and he achieved his goal! I think this lesson really sunk in, for now anyway. No telling what the future will hold!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Kindergarten!
Today was Collin's first day of Kindergarten! It feels like we have been building up to this day since before he was born. We moved to Watauga when I was about 6 months pregnant with Collin and part of the reason we chose this location was to be inside of Birdville ISD which has always had a pretty good reputation. We have driven by the elementary school so many times and talked about when he would finally get to walk through those doors. Today was a big day.
When Collin woke up he wasn't quite as excited about school as he was last night when he went to sleep. He wouldn't admit to being nervous and never said he was scared or that he didn't want to go, but honestly, how can you not be nervous? Timothy and I both had the day off work so that we would be able to drop off and pick him up. We had planned to go out to breakfast before school, but Collin said that he would rather just have cereal at home if that was alright. Owen was really sad about this because that child is in love with Whataburger breakfast for some reason. Collin said he didn't mind if we took Owen there to eat after we dropped him off, but he would still rather eat at home today.
Since we had planned to go out we were actually really early getting ready so we had plenty of time for pictures. At first he didn't want to show his face, but it's a nice shot of his backpack. (Which I got on SALE from the Disney store and even had his name embroidered on it.)
Then he agreed to turn around.
And of course Owen had to be included too. This is a big day for him too. He is used to his Bubba being right down the hall at daycare all day so this will be a bit of a change for him as well.
Waiting in from of the school. All out of smiles at the moment.
Sitting at his desk with his name tag on.
He did a great job and wasn't upset at all. He was a little shy sitting at a table with other kids he didn't know, but he does have a friend in his class from daycare. They are so sweet together and run up and hug every day, just so happy to see each other. And they call each other 'Bud', it doesn't get much more manly than that even if you do hug all the time. :-)
As for me, I was a bit worried that I would lose it and cry all the way home with Timothy dragging me to the car, but it was really okay. We walked him into class at 8:00 and put his things away and did pictures and hugs and we were still outside before the tardy bell rang at 8:10. I think that's pretty good for the first day. I'm still terrified that he will get lost in that big school, or something will go wrong with the daycare bus dropping him off or picking him up, but now we are past the first day and it should be all down hill from here. Right?
After Timothy and Owen and I finally got our Whataburger, I took Owen to play with sweet Sadie for a little bit. It was a rather impromptu play date (Is it still a play date if my main motivation is to spend time with my friend?) but I was so happy to be able to go today. Sally and I met on the first day of school twenty years ago. (You know, when we were like one, because I'm not that old!) I don't get to see her as often as I would like, but I'm very grateful to have her in my life.
Owen fell asleep on the way home, still trying to talk the whole way bless his heart. After taking him home and resting a little bit I ran to Wal-Mart because suddenly I had decided that any decent mother would have freshly baked cookies for her little boy on his first day of school. Also, I had an idea for a gift for him. I bought this material called organdy (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried) which is thin and sheer like organza but made from cotton instead of silk. (Totally just ripped that off Wikipedia because I am NOT that crafty.) Anyway, I got a gray color with glitter sparkles in the material so Collin could have an Invisibility Cloak like Harry Potter. He told me the other day that he wanted one. It's amazing how 2 yards of unaltered material can make a boy so happy! He loved it!
**Side note - The little old lady at the cloth counter asked what I was making with the material and I told her fully expecting to get a glassy eyed stare and that look that you get when you admit to being a nerd. She completely surprised me by being a fellow Harry Potter fan and thought the cloak was an awesome idea. She had to be 80 years old. She excitedly told me that she owned all the movies released so far and can't wait to go back and see the new one in the theater again because she wants to see it in 3D this time! I told her I'm not that fond of 3D movies and I'm too old for them. She told me that it's important to act like a kid for as long as you possibly can and she still tries to do that every day. I sincerely hope I can be that cool when I grow up.**
Collin gave me little tidbits from his day which is as much as you can expect from someone his age. He had fun in Gym, didn't have enough time to eat all his lunch, and he was good in class and his clothespin got to stay in the green section. He was a little mad at us for picking him up because he wanted to ride on the daycare bus with his friend, but there will be plenty of time for that. In the car on the way home he asked me if he could eat the rest of his apple sauce when we got home. Um, you mean the applesauce in the little plastic cup with the foil lid you peel off? The one that is not resealable? Yup, all over the brand new lunch bag! Ew!
So we learned today that if you open the apple sauce and don't finish it, it's still okay to throw it away. I can't wait to see what other new things he will learn this week.
When Collin woke up he wasn't quite as excited about school as he was last night when he went to sleep. He wouldn't admit to being nervous and never said he was scared or that he didn't want to go, but honestly, how can you not be nervous? Timothy and I both had the day off work so that we would be able to drop off and pick him up. We had planned to go out to breakfast before school, but Collin said that he would rather just have cereal at home if that was alright. Owen was really sad about this because that child is in love with Whataburger breakfast for some reason. Collin said he didn't mind if we took Owen there to eat after we dropped him off, but he would still rather eat at home today.
Since we had planned to go out we were actually really early getting ready so we had plenty of time for pictures. At first he didn't want to show his face, but it's a nice shot of his backpack. (Which I got on SALE from the Disney store and even had his name embroidered on it.)
Then he agreed to turn around.
And of course Owen had to be included too. This is a big day for him too. He is used to his Bubba being right down the hall at daycare all day so this will be a bit of a change for him as well.
Waiting in from of the school. All out of smiles at the moment.
Sitting at his desk with his name tag on.
He did a great job and wasn't upset at all. He was a little shy sitting at a table with other kids he didn't know, but he does have a friend in his class from daycare. They are so sweet together and run up and hug every day, just so happy to see each other. And they call each other 'Bud', it doesn't get much more manly than that even if you do hug all the time. :-)
As for me, I was a bit worried that I would lose it and cry all the way home with Timothy dragging me to the car, but it was really okay. We walked him into class at 8:00 and put his things away and did pictures and hugs and we were still outside before the tardy bell rang at 8:10. I think that's pretty good for the first day. I'm still terrified that he will get lost in that big school, or something will go wrong with the daycare bus dropping him off or picking him up, but now we are past the first day and it should be all down hill from here. Right?
After Timothy and Owen and I finally got our Whataburger, I took Owen to play with sweet Sadie for a little bit. It was a rather impromptu play date (Is it still a play date if my main motivation is to spend time with my friend?) but I was so happy to be able to go today. Sally and I met on the first day of school twenty years ago. (You know, when we were like one, because I'm not that old!) I don't get to see her as often as I would like, but I'm very grateful to have her in my life.
Owen fell asleep on the way home, still trying to talk the whole way bless his heart. After taking him home and resting a little bit I ran to Wal-Mart because suddenly I had decided that any decent mother would have freshly baked cookies for her little boy on his first day of school. Also, I had an idea for a gift for him. I bought this material called organdy (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried) which is thin and sheer like organza but made from cotton instead of silk. (Totally just ripped that off Wikipedia because I am NOT that crafty.) Anyway, I got a gray color with glitter sparkles in the material so Collin could have an Invisibility Cloak like Harry Potter. He told me the other day that he wanted one. It's amazing how 2 yards of unaltered material can make a boy so happy! He loved it!
**Side note - The little old lady at the cloth counter asked what I was making with the material and I told her fully expecting to get a glassy eyed stare and that look that you get when you admit to being a nerd. She completely surprised me by being a fellow Harry Potter fan and thought the cloak was an awesome idea. She had to be 80 years old. She excitedly told me that she owned all the movies released so far and can't wait to go back and see the new one in the theater again because she wants to see it in 3D this time! I told her I'm not that fond of 3D movies and I'm too old for them. She told me that it's important to act like a kid for as long as you possibly can and she still tries to do that every day. I sincerely hope I can be that cool when I grow up.**
Collin gave me little tidbits from his day which is as much as you can expect from someone his age. He had fun in Gym, didn't have enough time to eat all his lunch, and he was good in class and his clothespin got to stay in the green section. He was a little mad at us for picking him up because he wanted to ride on the daycare bus with his friend, but there will be plenty of time for that. In the car on the way home he asked me if he could eat the rest of his apple sauce when we got home. Um, you mean the applesauce in the little plastic cup with the foil lid you peel off? The one that is not resealable? Yup, all over the brand new lunch bag! Ew!
So we learned today that if you open the apple sauce and don't finish it, it's still okay to throw it away. I can't wait to see what other new things he will learn this week.
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