"summer" school

You know what I like to do in the middle of the summer in Arizona when it's super hot and you can't even walk out without feeling like you're about to burst into flames? I like to send my kids back to school. Yes, today was their first day back to school. I do feel sorry for them because it is sooooooo hot outside right now, but I have to admit I love this year-round calendar. It doesn't allow them time to get bored either at home or at school.
We went supply shopping this past weekend, which I love. Well, I hate the crowds, but I love new supplies. I remember getting a big new box of crayons and reorganizing them all. With my kids, the big thing is choosing a new bag or backpack. That seems to be about as important as naming a child or something. That's the only part I dread.
This year, it was a breeze! Simone Legno of tokidoki fame designed a line of school supplies for Target. Brianna saw this messenger bag and went straight for it. No messing around. That's just all kinds of awesome!

What I loved even more is that she's getting a tokidoki-ish looking bag and I'm not paying the tokidoki price. This bag was $20.


feeling: OMG it is soooooo hot outside!
listening to: The Dead Weather (Treat Me Like Your Mother)

Bunch o' babies

This year, I am fortunate enough to absolutely adore my kids' teachers. I love them! Almost all of my "real-life" friends and bloggy friends have young children, so you know how it is. You want the person who will be spending a significant amount of time with your baby to be someone you like. This is most definitely the case this year. I lucked out.
So, anyway, Alec's teacher for the first half of the year just had her babies this past week. Yes, babies. She had to leave after Christmas but she's gone to school several times since and has really kept the kids posted on her progress, so they really still feel like she's there with them.
Her blog is a family one, so I was hesitant about linking to her, but I am fairly confident that none of my frequent readers are weirdos. Plus, like I said, we're all parents so we know how to respect a family page. Anyway, I just had to link to her today to share her hilarious post. See it here. (Her page has music, so turn it down if you're at work).
Congratulations, Mrs. Bunch. We love you, miss you and can't wait to meet the babies!

P.S. Alec was telling me the babies' weights last Monday. According to him they range from 37 lbs-100 lbs. : )

feeling: I can't imagine having more than one baby at a time
listening to: Incubus (Echo)

100th Day

Yesterday was Alec's 100th day of school. Well, I suppose it was Brianna's too, only her grade didn't celebrate. Anyway, we had this conversation . . .

Alec: let me read you my 100th day paper
me: OK
Alec: I wish I had 100 me.
me: 100 of you?
Alec: yes. 100 robot me's so that they could do my chores
me: (thinking) chores, huh?
Alec: I'm glad I don't have 100 red
me: red?
Alec: yeah, red
me: red what?
Alec: (scoffing) red zits, you know, like on my face
-here I have to try super hard not to laugh at him
Alec: I could eat 100 apples. I can not eat 100 candies.
me: that's really good!

So, he has a project due this week where he has to make something out of 100 somethings. It was a little easier helping Brianna with these kids of projects because we tend to think of the same sort of things. 100 flowers? Yes, please. 100 sparkly thingies? Absolutely! Alec, on the other had, wanted 100 storm troopers or 100 ninjas. He finally agreed to a snake. I made 100 little poms almost like these . . .



(those I'd made when I was coaching cheer) Anyway, I made 100 of those but in "snake color". Then we took some more yarn and are tying all those poms onto the string to make the snake. It's taking a little long because I'm having Alec do a lot of the tying. It is his homework, afterall. We're not going any faster by having him pretend to be Voldemort every five seconds. I'll share a picture once I'm done.

feeling: hungry
listening to: Korn (Kidnap the Sandy Claws)

yvett the bad snack mom

Both the kids have to take their own snacks to school every day. They don't have a snack schedule where they take turns having one kid take enough for the whole class.
Here's the set-up . . . . Alec is in school for 2 hours and 45 minutes. That's all. Not all day. There's also a list of acceptable snacks that they can take. You know, healthy snacks and such. I send the same kind of snack for both kids. Brianna happens to have her snack time at the same time that she has reading group, so it's always something small. I send fruit and/or cereal bars, trail mix, cheese & cracker packages, gummy fruit, mini rice cakes, you get the picture, right?
So I was shocked to see that the kids in Alec's class were taking lunch bags full for snack. They're taking meals for snack. I feel like a total jerk sending my child with a little fruit bar while other kids are having sandwiches, carrot sticks, fruit and a juice box for a "snack". WTF? They only have about 10-15 minutes for snack. Alec could never eat that much in that time. Plus he's already had breakfast and mid morning snack at home. As soon as he gets home he has lunch. Am I a horrible mom for thinking he'll be fine without a meal for less than three hours? (Here's the part where you tell me that I'm not horrible). They have little cubbies where they place their snack in. Poor Alec places his little snack while other kids put their whole bag. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Now I don't know what to do, again. Do I ask about it? Should I just send lunch too even though I know he won't eat it all? Do I just leave it alone? Do I make an issue of it (I mean, other than blogging about it?) If that's how it's going to be, I'm going to show up at Alec's snack time with a plate of warm fideo and a quesadilla or some chicken soup and homemade bread. I'll out-snack them all. -insert evil laugh here-

feeling: it's soooooo hot
listening to: Cracker (Low)

post-partum five years too late

The kids just finished the first two weeks of school and they LOOOOOOVE it. Me, not so much. I'm going through Alec withdrawal. It wasn't so bad when Brianna started school because I had preemie Alec at home. Now it's just me and Badger. The silence is driving me crazy.
I know I'll get used to it. I mean, he's only gone for three hours a day. I have a list of things I want to do (organize pictures, make scrapbooks, finish the garage, paint our bedroom and downstairs bathroom, make the loft into a cool office, etc.). It's just so quiet with no one yelling "mama" every few minutes. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Can you imagine the wreck I'll be when they go off to college?!?!?!?!?!?

feeling: Badger isn't great company when he just naps
listening to: MGMT (Time to Pretend)

back to school

Let me tell you about how I almost strangled Brianna at the store last week. Here's the set up . . . . . all of last school year she was complaining about not having a messenger bag. She had chosen a really cute backpack but wouldn't wear it like a backpack. All year the morning conversation included something like this . . . .

me: put on your backpack
Brianna: it's too heavy
Brianna: if only I had a messenger bag -sigh-
Brianna: I hate backpacks, my back is going to hurt if i wear it
Brianna: if I had a messenger bag, I'd wear it every day

You get the picture. This went on and on and on. We'd looked for messenger bags during the school year too, but the kind she wanted are seasonal. She'd have to wait.
So when we were looking for school supplies, there was about a million messenger bags there and we let her pick out whichever one she wanted. She looked around for a while and finally chose a backpack with Marie from the Disney cuties series. I feel like I saw blurry at that moment and imagine me swaying. All the nagging I'd heard about a messenger bag and she was picking a backpack. I felt my blood rising and knew I'd turned red. If I were the hulk, I'd have transformed at that moment. I went on to say something like "YOU ARE PICKING A MESSENGER BAG RIGHT NOW!", through clenched teeth. It's funny to me now but I really was mad then. Rodrigo was sort of like "let her chose whatever she likes" but I wouldn't hear it. We were standing there for about a half hour while she tried on about a million bags. Seriously. Serenity now. I told her to pick whatever she wanted, but I wanted NO whining about her choice.
She chose a messenger bag. It passed the test yesterday because all her friends also have new messenger bags. Now that they're in fourth grade, they're too big for backpacks. Oy vey.



After school, we were walking to the car when Brianna came upon a friend who is now a 6th grader. He said, "Hi Bree. It's a pleasure to see you". I'm not kidding. They chatted for a little while in a way that I never talked at that age. They might as well have been speaking in a British accent saying something like "Fancy seeing you here". In any case, my daughter and her little friends are growing up fast. -gulp-

Alec's day was a little different. He started his first day of kindergarten. He has a Spiderman backpack because, according to Brianna, there's nothing wrong with little kids having those things. His teacher is super nice and super patient. He was excited about making new friends. I think he might've been a little nervous too but as it turns out, about half of his t-ball team is in the same class. Some other kids are kids we know from the neighborhood. When they walked into class, they had to find their names and draw a picture of the people that live in their home. He drew me and Rodrigo holding hands because "we're always holding hands". That's not necessarily true but that's what he told his teacher, the classroom and all the parents that were still there. Nice. I guess it beats him saying that we fight or something. The year is starting off with a quick review of colors, so the whole classroom will have to dress in a certain colors each day for the next two weeks. Today will be red day.





feeling: old. my babies are in school
listening to: The Bravery (Believe)

that mom

Yesterday was back to school after what seemed to be the longest three weeks of my life. Every day the kids would be wanting me to keep them entertained with something. In these past weeks we decorated for Halloween, made some crafts, practiced writing (with Alec), began t-ball practices and games, began cheer practices and games, went to cheer camp, went to the zoo, went to the library, went to the park, took lots of pictures, had the kids help with dinner, had them set the table, polish the banister, just anything, ANYTHING that would keep them occupied for a while.
Yesterday morning, Brianna left for school and everything felt calm for a while. I was on the phone with my mom criticizing moms who I consider irresponsible ( this mom to be exact. She still leaves her kid outside by herself and now the little girl has been running out to the middle of the street). Anyway, I was going on and on about how some people don't care about their kids, blah, blah. We hung up and I grabbed my planner to see what we had pending this week: cheer practice, t-ball practice, due date for library dvd's, Alec's pictures are ready, field trip to pumpkin patch, Fool's Hollow/Japanese Ghost stories celebration, Rodrigo's company open house, Brianna's game, Alec's game, cheer leader trophy order form due, Brianna's book report, Alec's parent/teacher conference . . . .wait. What?!?!? Alec's parent/teacher conference which was scheduled two hours before I was reading this. CRAP! I completely forgot about it. I was super embarrassed having to reschedule. The teacher thought it was pretty funny but I feel like that mom. Oh God, can you imagine? Alec's first ever parent/teacher conference and I forgot. I might as well just throw him out to play on the street now.

feeling: like the worst parent ever
listening to: The Church (Under The Milky Way)

my baby in school

Back when I started this blog Alec looked like this . . .




In fact, this picture was taken one day after I made my first post. Aww . . my baby! Today was his first day of school. He was so excited and I was a wreck. I got home and thought, "ok, now what?" It was so quiet and I had no idea what to do with myself. There was no one to feed, no one saying "mama, mama, mama", no one here except for me. He only goes for three hours two days a week, so I think I'm going to be doing quite a share of volunteering. Between his and Brianna's classroom, I should be pretty busy.
Here he is today in his new classroom looking through the dress-up clothes.





feeling: super duper old
listening to: U2 (Staring at The Sun)

back to school

Brianna went back to school today. She's now a 3rd grader and I am officially uncool. Last year we lived walking distance from her school. This year, she'll be riding the bus. I supposed technically, it's still walking distance, but come on, I live in Arizona. It would mean we'd practically get heat stroke by the time we get to school.
Anyway, I decided that I would take her today. I'd walk her to class and all that good stuff. We get there and there is not a single parking space anywhere near the school. Cars were parked for BLOCKS! I felt like parking at our old rental house and just walking from there. I was driving around thinking surely somebody must be leaving soon but people were busy video taping their kids getting out of the car. Uh-huh, PEOPLE WERE TAPING THEIR KIDS GETTING OUT OF THE CAR. And these weren't little kindergarten age kids like this is their first day of school ever. No, these were kids right about Brianna's age who were at this same school last year. I thought I was seeing wrong or maybe there was just one set of parents like this then I saw about five more video cameras. These parents were just smiling and filming their kids walking. Walking. Those poor kids looked so embarrassed.
Ok, so maybe I'm a bad mom. I only take pictures on the first day. I didn't film Brianna's first steps ever as a third grader. Next year I'm going to out-do all these people and have a freakin' press conference at the school. Paparazzi and helicopters flying over.
Tomorrow is the first day for the pre-k class Alec is in. There I can understand video cameras. I'll be the mom that'll only let go of her kid to take pictures in between sobs. I'll let you all know how that goes.

feeling: bored with my hair
listening to: Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (Face Down)