Shanna got a little doctor kit for Christmas and she’s having a whole lot of fun examining people. Her favorite part is giving them shots so they can stay healthy though. I told Noah that I wasn’t sure how that would go down with playgroup because they are non-vaxxers. His response: “It’s ok. Just tell them it’s a shot of penicillin for syphilis.” Cue me looking horrified but laughing. He continues, “Well that’s better… right?”
Noah’s mother has sent me some of the very best kids clothes we own. Really awesome stuff. I’ve been thrilled. This time… she sent jeggings. For those of you lucky enough to avoid this phenomenon: http://styletips101.com/fashion/how-to-wear-jeggings.html
I hope we ditch this ‘fashionable’ trend. I’m so not fashionable. 🙂 More smocked little girl dresses! (Uhm, in all reality I’ll randomly babble about this on lj but I certainly won’t complain because I am overall really surprised by how pleasantly things are going with Noah’s parents. This is me not rocking the boat!)
But really. Jeggings?
In a month it won’t be so charming and adorable that she loves to sing, “Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells Jingle ALL THE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY” on repeat for extended periods. Consider this before you teach her new songs.
This is f-locked in case someone in my family is paying attention. I doubt it, but there is a slight possibility. So we are paying for my niece to go to college. This is something that I have always said I was happy to do for my niece and nephew to help them get the fuck out of the shitty life our family has. My nephew wanted to do this intensive program on learning how to install solar panels… sure! I’ll pay for that! That would be a great career! After doing alright in the program he decided he didn’t want to do it as a career. His skin is too sensitive to be outside that much. . . . Maybe you could have thought about this a bit earlier sensitive boy? (Oh, he works at Shoreline every summer as a parking attendant because it is ‘cool’. At least he has done it for two years in a row. So much for the sensitive skin.)
Now my niece is taking classes at the local JC. Though she wants to transfer because the one she is going to has “too many Asians”. I’m not entirely sure what that means as a criticism, but ok. She gave me her login information to the webportal program the school uses so I can pay her fees. She thinks I am not able to check her grades. I’m not sure why she is stupid enough to think that, but ok. Last term she withdrew from the PE class she insisted that she wanted to take (I told her it was a bad idea) and she got a C in the Intro to Business class (she wants to be a Business major) and a D in the basic level accounting class. So her GPA is a 1.5. No one is perfect, I get that. But uhm… a free ride to college is not exactly a god given right.
Right now I’m feeling pretty fussy. If I sit her down and explain, “These D’s won’t even transfer. So I’m paying for you to *say* you are in college but this isn’t actually making any progress towards your supposed future goals.” I will be the bitch. I will be the bad person who is pressuring her. In paying for her college we are directly taking money we would be investing on Shanna and Calli’s education and using it on my niece instead. I’m not sure how willing I am to do that while my niece is much more interested in partying than in going to school. But if I cut her off I am probably cutting off my last real tie to my family. I will have proven that I am a terrible person.
I love how no matter what *I* am the bad guy.
EDIT: Noah points out that this post doesn’t convey a lot of why I am pissy. She posts constantly on facebook about partying. She will only take night classes because she is completely unwilling to get up at a reasonable hour (I mean getting up before noon, not 6 am). I would have more sympathy if I thought she was trying and just not getting it right. She skips classes to go to parties. Yeah… it’s not just that she is trying and not figuring things out.
Edited again:
I just went and looked. She hasn’t bothered to submit any financial aid paperwork whatsoever. Given that her mother hasn’t worked in the past couple of years (I’m not sure how Denise is going to increase her drug dealing enough to stay afloat once she stops getting unemployment) I bet that I shouldn’t have to pay almost anything at all for my niece’s education. But she can’t be bothered. Oh I’m getting pissier by the minute.
I got:
-two super fancy pots. Enamel coated cast iron! Whoooo!
-a super sharp large knife
-TWO cool teapots for one. I think word is getting around that I’m drinking more of it. 🙂 (One is beautiful for loose leaf tea, which is mostly what I drink.)
-the crunchy lunch set of my dreams <3
-a wide assortment of delightful bath products
-a great spatula
-super awesome socks
-a really long beautiful pearl necklace (Shanna picked it out!)
-two beautiful bracelets
-a great handcuff necklace
-gorgeous Edwardian underthings
-comfy jammies
Noah got:
-this awesome book from Santa
-a bunch more books (xkcd vol 1, Watership Down, Strega Nona, The Reluctant Dragon, uhm something I can’t recall from his parents)
-an interesting old fashioned microscope
-Star Wars stuff! cookie cutters, pancake molds, a spatula (Darth Vader), and a fun cupcake set where you can have the little guys battle
-kitchen towels and a good apron
-a knife sharpener
-a rotary cheese grater
-a variety of neat card games for playing with kids
-sushi tie
Calli got specific to her:
-clothes 🙂
-a plush Minnie ornament
Shanna got (much to be shared when Calli gets bigger):
-a wooden activity cube
-a shape/animal stacking game
-a plush Mickey ornament
-bath foam letters/numbers
-magnetic letters and numbers for the fridge
-a pouch for carrying around dolls/stuffed animals
-a set of play silks
-art supplies (window crayons, watercolor paints, a little notebook, and a cool pencil)
-3 more anamalz
-a Minnie purse
-a couple of nail polishes
-a marble sorter/tower
-pirate water bottle
-clothes + jammies
-set of tablecloth and napkins for her little kitchen
-a medical toy set
-practice chop sticks
-lego silverware
-this big, neat ladybug tent!
an awful lot of that came from out of town relatives or were stocking stuffers. we are very very privileged to experience such an overwhemingly wonderful Christmas. 🙂
So! What did y’all get? 😀
Shanna is still sleeping. I am tapping my toes in the living room. Hrm. Maybe a movie?
Happy Christmas!!
I have decided that January is the month of no sugar. We have gotten to the point where sugar is not an occasional treat but instead it is a major dietary staple. That’s all kinds of bad. I am no longer pregnant and there is no need to be trying like mad to up my caloric intake. 😛
So. After a month of getting sugar out of our collective systems we will make more of a decision as to how to figure out a better balance with it. But yeah. I think we need a detox. And I’m the one who buys groceries and does most of the cooking. 😛 (Not breakfasts, to be fair. Noah does almost all breakfasts cause he rocks mightily.)
On one hand I am thrilled that my husband is so wonderful and kind and funny and smart and sexy that I stay up late talking with him and it leads to awesome sex. But man am I tired the next day. 🙂
+Had sex last night!
-Missed last week. 🙁
+Maybe we will have sex again this week so we can keep our average up!
-Four month sleep regression (two wake ups in the hour after going to bed)
+Having a heater in our bedroom helps Calli sleep more deeply (still got 8+ hours of consecutive sleep after adding the heater)
-2.5 year olds are… kind of a pain in the ass
+2.5 year olds can be incredibly helpful and thoughtful and considerate
-No cookie making to date
+Cookie making with Paula tomorrow!
-Today is a vaccination day. 🙁
+Today is a Mother’s Helper day!
+Four days till Christmas!
+Only three more work days for Noah this week!
+The ants seem to have been assassinated en masse. Diatomaceous earth is *awesome*.
+Really good posts from rbus lately.
+Enjoying eating tasty leftovers.
+No need to leave my house for any shopping till after Christmas. Yay home delivered groceries.
+My little house is snug and warm since insulating the roof (and turning on the heater of course)
+Jenny got her super romantic propsal
+I get to go to Scotland!
+Laura will help with baby wrangling while traveling!
-Noah won’t be able to go to Scotland
+My midwife finally got around to submitting insurance paperwork
+/-I have developed a sixth sense about when I will be puked on but I’m not always fast enough to get out of the way. The impending sense of doom is really awful.
Overall things are net good. 🙂
Not working. Go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0nPX4aw1BY
“Shanna, if you continue to whine, beg, cry, and demand sugar then you won’t be able to have any for the rest of the week. I’m very serious. Do you understand me?”
“Yup. Unfortunately I do.”
“Mommy, your friend D—- gave us the Woogie Norple story. That was very nice of him. He’s a good friend.”
🙂
I need to tell Shanna no when she asks to watch birth videos. Every so often I kind of freak out and sob because I feel so much grief over the fact that I will never have a son. Every birth video I see where they have a son I sob and feel so envious I can barely see straight. In no way shape or form do I wish either of my girls away. I’m actually enjoying having a girl a little bit more this time because I feel less self-imposed-inhibition about enjoying the more ‘girly’ clothes.
But I have dreamed of my son for so long. It hurts so much that I will never get to see what that person would be like.
Today I have my cranky pants shoved so far up my @#%$%@ that I’m not sure they can ever be pulled off. I’m not even sure what is going on with me. There isn’t an obvious trigger for this much fuss. So I’m sitting here drinking a cup of tea hoping that I can chill the freak out. I’m not actually being all that nasty but I feel nasty and mean. Ugh. Is today over yet?
This was done about 6 months ago but he just got it online. 🙂
Periodically I get very upset with myself for not getting more done during the day. Then I stop and think about how very very little I did when Shanna was tiny. I’m doing great! 🙂 Today I ran around doing chores before Calli woke up. It was surprising that she slept till 9:30 (given that she went to bed at 6pm) so I did way more than anticipated. Whoo. I need to get my house back in shape though because the mom group is having our little Christmas party here on Saturday. Yay! I’m feeling somewhat strange about the fact that I’m not seeing my pre-kid friends much at all anymore because I made the vast majority of the effort and I’ve moved to focusing on people who return the effort. It’s… kind of an interesting feeling. But! I’m really glad I’ve had these ladies pop up to fill the void in my life. I’m really not lonely anymore.
I’m awesome and I didn’t put Thunderbird on my new machine when I got it. Uhm, that’s where my addresses are. If you want a Christmas card (complete with pictures of my cute kids) leave me a (screened) comment with your snail mail address. 🙂
Hey Arbus–want a picture for your fridge so you can confuse your family? 🙂
Today my mom group (which is becoming just a group of friends who hang out together a lot) spent over an hour talking about sex and I got to give several little mini-lessons on different kinds of sexual practices. It made me so happy. 😀
It’s really fascinating to watch how different the girls are. Shanna really needed to be physically on me, but then she would flirt with anyone and everyone who came at all near. She was always full of smiles and loved attention. Calli however is really calm with just about anyone but she doesn’t flirt. She saves her smiles for people she knows pretty well. And last night during dinner Shanna started laughing and that kicked off Calli laughing and then both of the grown ups started laughing and we kept going in rounds for quite a few minutes. It was so wonderful and fun.
Calli is starting to exert some signs of independence and spirit. She is trying hard to sit and she’s scooting all over the place if she’s put down. I tend to wake up in the morning and she has moved 6-9 inches over and 4-7ish inches upwards in the bed. I have to be pretty careful about pillows and such on her side of the bed. She can do nearly a full ‘girl’ push up which is cool to watch. She certainly pushes all the way up from her waist. She is so very serious about doing it though. That’s what is interesting to me about it. She looks like she is studying for a test or taking a class and doing her ‘exercises’. She rarely gets frustrated. It’s surprising to me how calmly she takes it when she’s trying to do something and fails. Shanna wasn’t like that. Shanna would get worked up and pissed off if she didn’t get something on the first try.
Calli tolerates being uhm left to herself for rather long stretches. She seems to have an extensive ability to self entertain. I’m kind of wondering if this is what an introvert looks like. 🙂 Shanna continues to need unholy quantities of attention. Boy howdy is she my little extrovert. 🙂
Things in general are good. Shanna is so very intense some days. If she is happy then everything in the whole universe is wonderful. If she’s unhappy then the whole world must suffer. It’s… challenging. Luckily she doesn’t have bad days very often. She’s been injuring herself more and more as she gets braver about trying stuff. Dear god is she a klutz. I swear it is like watching a mini square faced blond me. 🙂 Sleep is becoming more of an issue for her. She really needs a nap and she often resists taking one. It leads to her having a very hard time with her feelings. I think that is a lot of what characterizes her experiences lately. She has So Many Big Feelings. When I’m being good and patient we get through just about anything well. If I’m already frustrated then it’s hard. I feel bad when I fail her through my own inadequacy. She really is a wonderful child. I’m continually amazed by how compassionate and loving she is. I kind of expect children to be as self centered all the time as she is on her very worst days. It’s rare for her to have a really bad day and I can pretty much always point at hungry/upset/tired/overstimulated specific things that have set her off. I’m really so glad.
Calli gets upset when she needs a diaper change and when she’s overtired and when she is having gas issues. Even the car crying is going away unless one of the above issues is present. When she wants to be picked up she kind of mildly fusses a bit but it really sounds like her saying, “Mom…. hey mom…. come get me now…” It’s not crying. It’s slightly/barely whiny talking. If I ignore her for a while because I have to work (usually when I’m in the middle of a sensitive part of cooking) she puts herself to sleep. I feel much more extraneous to her happiness. This is both good and bad.
I love that Calli looks more like me and Shanna looks a lot like Noah because it seems like the personality matches switched. The narcissism of having children and seeing what they have in common with us is awesome. 😀
Yesterday I had my worst outing ever as a parent. I tried to take both girls to Dickens Fair. Not a big deal, I take them all kinds of places by myself. It was a total nightmare. Something there bothered Calli. She screamed almost nonstop from when we entered the building. The few times I managed to get her to calm down were followed by crying fits from Shanna. She rode the carousel and the guy who runs it helped her off her animal and she lost it. She started crying hysterically that she didn’t want him to touch her. I can’t tell for sure but I suspect that he was slightly rough when he picked her up. She was really freaking out though so I didn’t question it too much I just comforted her. She was then not ok with walking and wanted to be carried. You see how this is going?
It was awful. We were there for maybe an hour and I spend most of that time ravenously eating or trying to get one (or both) kid(s) to stop crying. So I left pretty quickly. Just not worth it this year.