THE GIRL

This morning Jocelyn had picked out a pair of shorts that had a little drawstring bag attached to the front belt loop. We dithered about what to put in it, and settled on a little wooden clothespin doll I had painted last christmas. It fit about halfway in, with the head and torso sticking out.

When we arrived at school and she was getting out of the truck, I said, “Oops, don’t your little doll girl fall out! Little Pansy! Is that a good name? Shall we name her Pansy?”

“No..”

“How about Lucy?”

“Emma!*”

“No.. TOYOTA!”

THE BOY

And in Ethan news, he had made a little lego car/tank creation that he wanted to take in to school. During the school year, and always for Jocelyn, our policy is toys can go to school in the car, but there they must stay. So my instant response was that it has to stay in the car.

He moaned and groaned a bit, but it was pretty contained, not getting near any sort of tantrum territory.

He brought it in the car, and when we were halfway to school, he said, “Mommy, I would like to just take this toy in for a quick minute, just to show Austin.”

He hesitated a second, and then quickly added, “But if you say no, then that’s ok. It’s ok, if you say no, Mommy.”

I didn’t respond, but mulled it over the rest of the way to school. Earlier, I went with our go-to response for toys, but for summer camp, kids bring their hand-held gaming devices and pokemon cards and all sorts of crap. Why would a little lego car be any different?

“You can bring it in, Ethan. We’ll ask the counselor when we get in if it’s OK.”

“Thank you Mommy! You are the BEST!”

It’s pretty easy to be the best to such a sweet boy.

THE PARENTS

Every week of summer camp, on Fridays there’s a “big event.” The preschool campers have theirs posted on the board right as you walk into the school, and the older campers have theirs at the front of their wing of the school. James and I… well, we don’t usually check either of them very often.

This morning, the preschool campers had “Beach Day!” as their big Friday event. They were supposed to arrive in their swimsuits and bring any related beach articles they wanted (toys, chairs, umbrellas, etc.)

It’s been a somewhat distracting week ANYWAY, and yes, neither James nor I clued in to this fact. So after I took the kids in, I had to high-tail it BACK home, grab her suimsuit, towel, and water shoes, and head BACK to school. It’s times like this that I wish we didn’t pick a school for them that’s in the next town over. And of course (and I’m going to stick to “this week sucked” as my go-to excuse here), Jocelyn’s swimming suite, water shoes and towel were still in the plastic grocery bag, all wet, from splash day on Wednesday.

Oops.

Next week is the school’s last week of summer camp, and Ethan and Jocelyn’s last week at that school. They’ll be moving to a daycare/school that’s close to us, and that buses public school kids to their school (for Ethan). I’ve already spilled my guts about how much we love our current school, so I won’t get into it all over again, but … Wah.

Me: Ethan, I’d like you to set the table, please.
Ethan: OK, it would be my pleasure!

Now that’s more like it!

Today went swimmingly. No issues, a message from his KG teacher that he did great. We came home and played on the Wii to celebrate.

Or, Why Parents Suddenly Become UnCool When Their Kid Hits Teenagedom

This has been rattling around in my head for a week or so. Let’s see if I can get it out in some sort of concise manner.

When you’re a teenager, well probably long before that, but let’s go with this for now shall we? Jeez. quit interupting and just let me get this out already!

Ahem.

When you’re a teenager, you are very aware of what others are thinking, what they’re wearing, what they’re doing, what they’re eating, what they like, what they don’t like, what they might think of you, whether you’re cool, whether you’re not cool, etc.

So you start to really pay attention to your own behavior, clothes, habits, etc. You monitor everything you do so as not to be deemed uncool. Thus is your entry into the world of adulthood, constantly monitoring, choosing, judging both yourself and others, on whether they or you are “cool”. This goes on pretty much forever, in what we call “society.”

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I could have also titled this post, Fastest Banner Created Ever In The History Of The World.

The picture is grainy, taken by the iphone, but I still love the expression on Jocelyn’s face. Just look at my sweet, sweet girl!

New Banner!

All Banners Ever!

Well. Hi There. How’ve you been?

Me? Oh, I’ve been really shitty, thanks for asking! Brace yourself, this is a long one. I don’t blame you if you don’t read it all.

Ethan is having a tough time at summer camp. I’ve already mentioned his change in attitude and behavior. He’s been sent to the office a few times, usually near the end of the day, and we’ve done something like taken his DS away for a day and he’s shaped up.

Monday and Tuesday, James had some stuff going on, so I was on my own for both nights.

Monday, I got to the kids’ school at about 5pm, thinking about what I could do with them. It was pretty hot, so I was thinking maybe we could head to the pool, or maybe stop somewhere fun for dinner, like California Tortilla. I had just bought a couple of board games and maybe the three of us could play some. I was in a great mood, looking forward to spending some fun time with my kids, just me and them.

I walked in the school and saw Ethan sitting in the office. He saw me and gave me his grumpiest face.

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