Maggie's distressing day

Many internationally adopted children are diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. Daniel's therapist believe he was suffering from it & there are a lot of signs that Maggie has it too. Their prior experiences can result in the level of stress that these kids can handle being extremely small. Maggie can be tipped over the edge by virtually nothing. This morning, I laid out her clothes on her bedroom floor and asked her to go & get dressed. After about 5 minutes, I hear her crying and saying "I'm cold", "I want Daddy", "Mum, help me". I went upstairs and she's sitting on the floor completely dressed and putting on her socks. She has herself convinced that she just can't do anything & starts crying immediately. After she was dressed, I said "oh Maggie, look at you, you are so cute in that outfit". Maggie said "but Mum, everyone's going to laugh at me". Oh great, something else to stress over!!!!

I tried to take a picture since she looks great in this new outfit, but all she'd do is stand hunched over frowning!!!!

In the car, Maggie said "Mum, everyone at the store is going to laugh at me"

Me: Why will they laugh at you?

Maggie: Because I am wearing a dress

Me: Maggie, most people think a little girl wearing a dress is cute

Maggie: What's cute?

Me: It's when you look nice

Maggie: I don't want to be cute

Does Maggie have post-traumatic stress disorder? Sam says Maggie has post-traumatic dress disorder. GROAN!!!!!

A room with a view?

This is the view from our kitchen window of the house next door. Let's just say that over the last year, the weather has not been kind to it.....

For anyone who doubts there is a recession

You have to be living under a rock to be unaware that there's a recession. However, for any nay sayers, the last vestiges of doubt have now been removed. An article in the Post Dispatch this morning reports that the Girl Scouts of America will be shorting us on cookies this year because of rising ingredient and transportation costs. This announcement comes hot on the heels of the one in January that the cost per box was increasing for the first time in 12 years. Here in Missouri, we are now paying $3.50 a box. Thin mints will be thinner!!!! Samosas and Tag-a-Longs will decline in number. What? Stop! I need to go and lie down.

Of course, we shouldn't really be that bothered by this. After all, apparently the focus of the program is not about selling cookies, it's about "teaching the girls how to market, develop budgets & provide good customer service". I don't really think that increasing prices and reducing product at the same time really falls under the "good customer service" description. The marketing appears to be guilting your family, friends and complete strangers into buying an average product at an inflated price because it's "for a good cause"

We've bought into this ourselves. I think between all the girl scouts that we know, we've bought at least 10 boxes of cookies. At $3.50 a box, that's $35. We have no intention of eating them either, we'll probably take out a couple and the rest will end up at work in the break room!!!! Judging by the number of boxes in the break room, we're not the only ones that do this.

So, at the end of the day, I guess it's really NOT about the cookies at all and we really don't care as much about the size or number of the cookies in the box, but helping those we know and love. After all, I have no intention in buying $35 worth of cookies at Schnucks and feeding the vultures at work.

On a big scale, there is a recession. At the community level, apparently there is still some hope.....

Balancing cost and benefit

Our kids may have been the only ones not sledding down Art Hill in Forest Park (or some similar hill in St. Louis) yesterday . Why would this be? It's mostly because Ben & Maggie just don't have suitable clothes to roll around in the snow for a significant amount of time. It is hard for me to justify buying snow boots, gloves & waterproof clothes for the kids to use for a couple of days a year. We don't have that much Winter weather and we don't ski, so what do we do? Both Ben & Maggie love being in the snow, so maybe I will start looking around for suitable clothes in places like Goodwill and see if I can get them kitted out for next year. We'll probably just have an unseasonably warm Winter with no snow, but then that wouldn't be bad either.....

Our many memberships & how we use them

After writing a post about Monkey Joe's, it prompted me to reflect on just how many memberships we have these days and how effectively we use them. The first membership we ever got was the one for the City Museum. Their membership is pretty expensive, the lowest level is $200 a year. However, for that you get 20 admissions throughout the year (normally $12 each), 4 parking passes ($5 each) and in January & September you can take up to 5 people as often as you like for free. So, on the years that we have had a membership, I tend to take the maximum number of people I can as often as I can in the free months. By the time the month is out, the kids have had enough of the City Museum for a while and we can change to something else. Our second membership was to the Science Center. The first year we got it, they had a special offer on their 20th birthday & we got our membership for $20. With this membership, we got 10 Omnimax tickets ($8 each)and 6 parking passes ($8 each), plus unlimited admission to the Lego Mindstorm and Discovery rooms. My friend & I now share a membership to the St. Louis Zoo, primarily because her children are grown now but she still wanted to support them. Essentially, we get to share the cost ($40 each) but use the majority of the passes, which include 48 passes (worth up to $240 total) and 6 parking passes ($11 each). We have a family membership at the Maplewood Pool, which is $135 a season and allows us to go every day during the Summer. You can see how the savings can add up quickly if you utilize your membership to its maximum.

Our year pretty much consists of the City Museum in January, the Delta Dental special weekends at the zoo in February, Easter Egg hunting in March, lots of trips to the Botanical gardens in April & May, Summers at the pool, back to the City Museum in September, the zoo when it's nice in October/November and lots of holidays to get us through to the end of the year. Throw in trips to the Science Center, Money Joe's, McDonalds, etc and it makes me wonder how I have time to go to work!!!!

Monkey Joe's

Sam took Ben & Maggie to Monkey Joe's yesterday. It's a great place for the kids to get rid of some energy and for parents to relax. They found a machine that sells fake moustaches and managed to persuade Daddy to buy them one.

A more legitimate snow day this time....

Ben will be so happy this morning. Once again, he was right and the parents were wrong. No school again today. Not such a big loss this time as it was a half day anyway. Today is Sam's turn to look after the kids and I think it's time to take them somewhere to get rid of some energy. They did very well yesterday, they played with the girl from next door for most of the day. Ben set up all the books in his bedroom and made a library, they played Hullabaloo (with prizes!!) and with Lego for most of the day.


We had freezing rain on & off all day yesterday and then it started a big fluffy snowfall last evening which has left us with quite a significant amount of snow/ice. I came into work at my usual time as I figured at least there would be little traffic on the roads. The downside to that is that the roads are still not clear and so there were some parts where you just had to let the car go where it wanted to. For the most part, the other drivers on the road were being as cautious as I was, but I still saw some spectacular slides in from of me. I made it into work in just a little over my usual commute time, so I was happy about that. Another downside to getting in early is that SLU has never cleared any of the snow/ice away. This morning, I had to work my way through a huge snowbank that they had made when they cleared the sidewalk. Luckily, I was prepared and had rolled up my jeans & worn boots to work. I was able to change into my shoes & dry out by the heater in my office & can now start my day.

Another snow day....

Ben's school principal sent us an email this morning at 4.23am. No school today because of the snow. My first instinct was to ask "what snow?" We had barely an inch last night and the roads in the neighbourhoods have all been cleared. Yes, that's right, you can still see the grass!!!!It snowed while we were at Ben's scout meeting last night, but we've had nothing since we got home from that. I looked on the Internet and it seems that every school in the City & County is closed today, even Maggie's day care is opening 2 hours late. I presume that they are expecting some huge storm to come through here later today as there's certainly no reason for a complete blackout based on what we got last night. Ben was very happy this morning because he said last night that there would be no school & we had insisted that it would be open. Just another example of Mum & Dad having no clue what they are talking about!!!!

Circus harmony at the City Museum

On our latest trip to the City Museum, we were lucky enough to see a performance by Circus Harmony a social circus organization that teaches circus arts to the children of St. Louis. 81% of the children come from low income families and the organization relies heavily on donations to survive. They are doing some performances at the City Museum as fundraisers and these kids are really good. They did a 2 hour performance with a short break in the middle. Both Ben & Maggie enjoyed it, although Maggie looked like she was going to fall asleep before it begun. Sam went with us on this trip and so Ben was very excited that Daddy would go down the 7 storey slide with him. Sam found out that the slide isn't really meant for people his size. Ben & Maggie love exploring the caves and diving down the tunnels.

Just in case you were wondering how long Ben's altruism was going to last, he were leaving the City Museum yesterday and he said "this was not a good visit. We didn't get to play much, I didn't get my clown nose and I didn't get a soda". No Ben, you watched a great circus show instead of playing, you got cotton candy instead of a clown nose & you'd already had soda at lunchtime.... Ben is back to normal!!!!!

Do as I say.....

The boys at school are all into street talk at the moment. Everything is "I hate that", "bro", "aint", etc....
We are trying very hard to get Ben to stop saying "I hate it", but it's something that I say all the time and Maggie says it a lot too. Ben had a sleepover with the girl next door last night and when they were eating breakfast this morning she said she hated something. Ben turned around and said "we don't use the 'H' word in this house" in a very holier-than-thou voice....

Sometimes, it's all worth it.....

We had big plans today. We were going to get hair cuts, go to the store & then go to see Inkheart at the movies (I wanted to see it more than the kids). It took us way longer to get hair cuts than I was imagining. We go to Custom Cuts & I wanted to wait for Lauren to cut Ben & Maggie's hair. Unfortunately, she had just started with someone when we got there. I managed to get Ben to agree to get his hair cut by about 2 inches (it's still long though). Maggie had hers cut sufficiently so that she can't eat it any more. They both look much better. After that, we started making our way over to the store that is close to Jan & Julie's house. Ben wanted to go & see them as we haven't seen them since the New Year. When we left their house, Ben asked me if we were still going to the movies & I told him that I didn't think we'd have time to go any longer because we had just been to see Jan & Julie. Then he said "well, movies don't really matter, it's people that matter and Jan & Julie really matter. It was much better to go and see them".
Did this really come out of my 7 year old's mouth? I guess I don't give him enough credit sometimes. I thought he'd have a fit because we could not go to the movie & he comes out with something like this? Maybe he's not that egocentric after all. Maybe we are doing a better job than I think we are!!!!

and,....Action!!!!

These are the things I miss first thing in the morning. I don't know where Ben learned this song, but it's hilarious. He's turned into actor & director. It's just another way to throw his weight around.
Ben also uploaded this onto his own blog today...

early morning thought processes

Ben's bedroom door is closed-"oh, I guess he's still mad with me about last night"
Felling guilty, I open the door and go over to kiss him-"oh, he's sleeping on the other side of the bed tonight"
Seeing a large dark shape where Ben usually sleeps-"what on earth has he dragged into bed with him this time?"
Feeling the shape-"oh, this is Ben, what is that over there?"
Feeling the thing that I originally thought was Ben's head-"Oh, that is Maggie!!!"
I guess Maggie got up in the middle of the night & went into bed with Ben. One of them must have shut the door to 'hide' the fact that she was in there. I have no idea when she did that & it is most unusual. A combination of the dark & early morning thought processes can be a strange and amusing thing.....

How quickly things can go wrong.....

It never ceases to amaze me how you can be having a good day and then it all falls apart. Ben & I had a good afternoon. I picked him up from school and we came home and did homework. When Sam got home, we were all going to CiCi's with Ben's friends to celebrate him winning the Blue & Gold place mat competition. Ben then found out that his two friends were riding together and meeting us there. He decided to go all mardy and said he didn't want to go because he'd wanted to pick them up. We ignored that, but then he rolled around on the chair complaining and refusing to put on his shoes and so I told Sam to just go on ahead and take Maggie with him and I sent Ben to his room. Is that too hard a lesson to learn? Maybe, but Ben's behaviour is getting way out of hand and he's really going to have to start making more of an effort if he wants us to do everything for him. Why does parenting have to be so hard? Maybe what I mean is, why can't kids just comply.....

Exciting package arrives!!!!

Why is it that everything in our household always seems to be different to everyone else? Most other families are excited when Christmas or Birthday packages arrive. Our excitement of the day was that Ben's Nutropin turned up!!!! Ben could not wait to open it. Then, he was so excited by the contents. We received 3 boxes of Nutropin cartridges, but no pen to inject them with!!! So, here is Mummy on the phone to Curiscript to get them organized to send us everything we need so that we can actually use it.

More City Museum pictures

On my roll to make the most of our City Museum membership, I took Ben & Maggie there yesterday. We were there for our usual 5 hour stint, it seems to be the magical number for us no matter where we go. This time, I took a few pictures of the caves. They never come out all that well because the flash loses the eeriness and the colours in there and without the flash everything is blurry. I ended up using the flash photos. This is one of the dinosaur heads embedded into the rock in the caves Maggie standing in front of a rock creature. I bought them both flashlights this time and they had great fun exploring the tunnels and slidesBen & Maggie & little friend

We don't spend a lot of time on the ground floor, but there is a large tank full of fish and these turtles

Taking a break in the cafe, which serves pretty decent food....

In the middle of the train exhibit

Another walkway, not as high this time....

A practice run at empty nesting.....

Since Sam was sick yesterday afternoon, I decided I was going to take Ben & Maggie to work with me. As we were walking out the door Ben said "I'm going to see if Julie wants to play. If they let me in the house, I'm not coming back, so you can leave with out me" I'm thinking "WHAT? He always wants to go to work with me". Well, he never did come back so Maggie & I went to work together. When we got home, the only thing we saw of Ben was when he came to ask me if he could have a sleepover. Since I do so much with the kids, it's really a shock when they are not around all the time. Ben goes off and does things with his friends more & more and Mummy is feeling left out. However, on the positive side, it's an ideal opportunity to spend some time with Maggie on her own and she really does need some individual attention. It's pretty quiet without Ben around!!!!

A missed opportunity

It was Parent's Night Out at the YMCA last night & we had arranged to go out to dinner with Caroline & Ben. We have had this planned for almost 2 months & I was finally going to get a chance to see their new house. Unfortunately, Sam caught the virus that's going around the schools and has been sleeping on & off for 36 hours. We had to cancel the YMCA, luckily we could move the booking to next month (Valentine's Day!!). I was going to take the kids to a movie instead, but there was nothing showing that we were interested in. Maggie & I just watched Harry Potter again. Luckily, Sam has made a miraculous recovery today. Maybe next month....

Making the most of our membership

In order to utilize our membership as much as possible, I took Ben & a couple of his friends to the City Museum today as they were off school again. We have only been twice since I took it out last Sunday & we have already saved half of the cost. I like to take the kids as much as possible during the free months and then spread out the visits that use up our passes. We spent the first part of the visit on the ground floor, which is actually unusual for us. Today Ben was much more adventurous than last weekend. He climbed up some of the scarier wire structures that are suspended over large drops. I can hardly stand to watch him. Ben also went down the 7 storey slide 5 times, that means climbing up 35 storeys in total-it's amazing what 7 year old legs can do. The boys wanted me to go in this Medieval looking torture drum and help them turn it around, it gave me instant vertigo, which lasted for about half an hour

Why I love wildlife.....

One of the wonderful things about this Country is the wildlife you can see from time to time that has learned to coexist with us. Today, we were driving close to Ben's school when a kestrel flew out from the hedge and proceeded to fly in front of the car the whole way down the road. I was probably going close to 30 mph, so it was flying really fast. It was swooping up and down close to the ground, presumably looking for food. When we got near the corner, it flew back into the hedge. It was brilliant to see.

Since we have had temperatures in the single digits for a couple of days, the ponds are all frozen. Today, I took a picture of the Canada Geese sitting in the middle of the ice. I don't know how they can stand it.

Why Obama will be a good President

Ben: Obama won!!!!
Me: Yes, he did. Do you think he will be a good President?
Ben: Yes he will
Me: Why?
Ben: Well, he can jump rope.
I guess that's the answer to wars, famine and general goodness throughout. Should be a great 4 years.....

Say hello to Sue

We were really lucky to be able to attend a special opening of the Science Center's latest exhibit last night. It starts tomorrow and runs through April 12th. They have Sue on display, the most complete T. Rex skeleton found to date. Sue is usually housed at the Field Museum in Chicago. After seeing all the movies and reproductions, is it really any different seeing the skeleton? Absolutely....

There are impressions that you just don't get from reproductions. The most amazing thing for me was the fact that she had suffered a lot of broken bones in her lifetime. It looked like something had charged into her side at one point and broken 3 of her ribs. The whole skeleton is huge and really amazing to look at. For a bit of perspective, this is Maggie standing by the head. The accompanying exhibit is very interesting and told me a lot that I did not know before. There is plenty for the kids to do. Last night, there were 2 separate places where the kids could dig for bones and they could make dinosaur masks and all kinds of other art projects.

Who would have known?

After almost 6 months of growth hormone injections, Ben finally allowed me to try injecting into a different site. He decided on Sunday night that I should try his leg, so I said OK. I put the ice on it for ages and he was very hesitant about it. Finally, he backed out and said he didn't want to do it. The next night he said he wanted to try again and so we had another go. This time, I did the injection into his leg and he was absolutely fine. It turns out that it hurts less in his leg. Who would have known? Now he wants to do his leg all the time and I am moving the injection site around as much as I can. He is so proud that he’s moved injection sites!! We do everything possible to minimize discomfort, so I allow the solution to warm up to room temperature and we put ice on his skin for 5 to 10 minutes before doing the shot. It is quite a ritual. We are getting the new formulation tomorrow and from what I understand, it stings more than the one he has now. I am really hoping that he does not notice the change and that things keep going well.

Trip to the City Museum

When we had Ben on his own, we had membership to the City Museum for a couple of years. Now that Maggie is a little older, I thought it was time that we invested in another one, so we went there yesterday. Ben has been there a couple of times with Summer camp, but it's been a long while since he's done a 5 hour marathon like we did yesterday. He has changed a lot since I last took him there (probably the time he split his head open, right before we got Daniel & Maggie). It is amazing how a couple of years and a little unfamiliarity can impact a child. Ben used to be completely fearless with everything and that's saying something, because some of the stuff (outside particularly) is pretty scary. Yesterday, he spent a lot of time showing Maggie where everything was and where to go, but he was very hesitant about a lot of it at the beginning. He would not go through some of the tunnels because he didn't know where they led and he did not want to run around in the caves without me being with him. Even though he is very much a leader (read bossy into that if you like), he needs to have someone else with him, even if it is just Maggie. He is very unsure of things on his own and wants someone to go with him most of the time. On the other hand, Maggie jumped right into the middle of everything and followed Ben everywhere. She wasn't scared of anything and the only thing that concerned her was the fact that they were playing an organ in the caves and it was really loud. We had to leave & come back when it was quiet. She loved the turtles in the pool and spent ages watching them and talking to them. They ran around like crazy and two of my favourite photos are a little blurred because they were moving around so fast. I'm glad I decided to go back there as I know the kids will have a great time there in the coming year. It's a good place to develop strength and co-ordination, have an opportunity to do some crafts in the art room and get rid of some energy. Ben fell asleep in the car on the way home.....

This has been Ben's week.....

Not only did his placemat win the invitation competition this week, but he was picked to help the magician out at the City Museum. Ben is fascinated with magicians and always wants to be picked by them to help with their tricks. He was beside himself that he got picked yesterday.

When your hands just don't work......

Most children drop things every now & again, but recently Maggie has taken this to new heights, so much so that I started keeping a tally during the holidays. Every time we have been out to eat recently, she has dropped her drink. She has spilled water on my computer, her record is 3 times in one day, she dropped a Sprite on the floor at the ice skating rink and broke the Styrofoam cup: you name it, she's dropped it!!!!! Last night, we took her out to eat with us after we dropped Ben off at the YMCA. We went to Culpepper's to get chicken wings, she dropped her drink on the floor under the table-the lid came off & there was ice everywhere. We went to Kaldi's to get coffee, she spilled her hot chocolate all over herself and me (luckily, the lid did not come off). Her tally is now standing at 11 since the school break and she has yet to go somewhere that her drink remains intact. We noticed last night that she is only using one hand to pick things up now and her hands aren't really big enough to do that yet, so maybe that is the problem. I also noticed yesterday that she is picking things up with her left hand and that she was cutting with her left hand, so maybe she is going to be left handed. I am ashamed to admit that I haven't ever noticed if she draws (scribbles) with her left or right hand, I will have to look out for that today. At Maggie's age, Ben used to do everything left handed but then over the first couple of school years, he progressively used his right more and more. When he was in kindergarten, he'd start at the left with his left hand and then switch to his right when he got to the middle of the page. It made sense to me, but then I used to start at the right side of the paper and work backwards-perfectly logical for the left handed amongst us!!!! And, this is why my sister used to call me "Enaj".......

And, the winner is......

Sam is in charge of the Blue & Gold banquet for the boy scouts this year. We got the boys to make pictures at the last den meeting that we would copy & laminate for place mats for the family members that attend. We decided that we would choose one of them and use it as the invitation for the event and we'd award the winner with a trip to CiCi's for him & two friends. Well, as with many "simple" things, it turned into a monster in many ways. Some of the boys had not had much time or inclination at the den meeting in which to do a decent job of their drawings, so we gave them the chance of getting another drawing to us by the next committee meeting. I had been trying to get Ben to do another place mat and he resisted right up until last weekend when we were talking about the State flag. He decided that he wanted me to print one out that he could colour and then he pasted it onto the corner of his place mat. That was as far as he got because he started his usual "what's the point, I never win anything" whine. He does have a point, he may not have our genetics but he does have our uncanny ability to never win a raffle, competition, etc. However, I pointed out to him that he'll never win if he does not try and that the whole point of doing it was not necessarily to win anything, but it was to no avail. We were down to the wire last night as the committee meeting was at our house at 6.30. Finally, with less than an hour to go, Ben started working on the Spring aspect of the place mat and added the blue & gold and boy scouts writing about 15 minutes before the doorbell rang. Each committee member got to vote on all the place mats anonymously and I had to tally up the votes. Then I hit a dilemma as Ben's mat got the highest points. I had to go and get an impartial judge to tally up the scores for me. I told Ben last night that he should remember that it's always worth trying as you never know when you are going to succeed, maybe he'll be a little more enthusiastic and get things done earlier next time.....

Homework is getting much better

We now have a regular date with Ben's teacher on Tuesday & Thursday nights after school. Ben works very well with his teacher & I am learning how to help Ben understand his homework without doing too much for him. Last night he had to count in quarters and so I got out some money that he could look at. He does much better when he can see what he is counting rather than trying to imagine it in his mind. After being so belligerent, he did really well last night. There is hope after all.

It's turning into a long week

It's only Wednesday and we are all dragging. What started off as a welcome return to the grind has quickly lost its lustre. Ben & I went to Time for Dinner last night and made 16 items (although Ben spent most of his time helping other people rather than me). We were late to bed last night and both Sam & I were yawning this morning. I am sure the kids will be impossible to drag out of bed as they were both still awake when I went to bed. Ben's teacher said that all the kids are really tired and one of them even fell asleep on his desk in the middle of the day. It's amazing how quickly you can get out of a routine & how long it takes you to get back into it.

Belligerence personified

It's wrapped up and parcelled in a squirt that lives with us!!!! I'll give you a clue, it begins with B and ends with n.....
I've tried coaxing, reverse psychology, bribing, quiet talking, encouragement, participation, and resorted to yelling at times. You name it, I have tried it with homework. Ben's mission in life is to get me to do his homework for him & I refuse to do it. If he holds out for long enough, I do more than I intend to. Ben's M.O. with homework is to open the book, harrumph a few times and then start complaining that it's too hard and he can't do it.
We have been staying after school and doing extra math with Ben's teacher a couple of times a week and we went in Ben's school room to wait for Mr R today. We started on his math page and Ben had a melt down about the numbers: he can't do it, what's he supposed to do? You tell me, etc.... Mr R walks in and aliens invade Ben's body. He smiles shyly, his voice gets very soft and he sits there and does everything he is told to do, and actively participates.
I don't know whether to cry Hallelujah or to drop him off in the middle of the highway. Why can't kids be nice to their parents like they can be to everyone else? I have heard it said that they feel comfortable enough with their parents to let their guard down and we should feel good about it.
On the way out to the car, I asked Ben why he couldn't work that well with me and why he's so different with Mr R. His answer? "I just want you to do it for me"

So much for the new highway construction

It took me an hour to get to work this morning instead of my usual 15-20 minutes. I didn't even notice that the roads were solid ice until I was getting on H40 and the truck in front of me slid all over the place and hit the wall, that's the second accident I have seen at the on-ramp since it's been reopened, less than a month ago!!!! As soon as I got on the highway, the traffic was at a standstill & I sat in the same place for 20 minutes, so I drank my coffee and read my ebook. There was a tractor trailer completely blocking the intersection onto H170, so everyone had to get off at Brentwood and go around it. Why do some people insist on driving past everyone and then trying to pull in once they see they can't go anywhere? There were even 4 cars that drove up onto the H170 ramp and you could clearly see there was no way to get around any of it. I guess the spectacular-looking ramps way up in the air aren't that great when the air is freezing!!!! Luckily, when I got on FFP, the roads were just wet, but my car slid when I turned into the side street by our building and slid down to the barrier going into the parking lot. I almost fell on the ice walking in. Apart from that, getting to work was easy this morning.....

First day back at school....

We made it through the first day back. I still feel like I had a break, which is good. We had no word from Maggie's teacher on what kind of day she had, but she was pretty subdued when Sam picked her up. Ben had a pretty good day and in a great mood when I picked him up. His teacher is already planning on us doing extra math with him after school this week. We went on a mission to find a book to put Ben's State quarters in and finally found one in the 4th place we visited. Ben stormed through his homework with no problem and then settled down to sort out the quarters. Then he decided to go next door to play with Julie and left us sorting. Talk about ADD......

When you know you are at work way too early

We never use an alarm clock at home. The advantage is that you never sleep in as you are used to waking up yourself. The disadvantage is that when you are out of the routine, you wake up on & off all night. I must have subconsciously worried about waking up this morning as I was wide awake at 2 am and finally got up at 3 am as I knew resistance was futile. It gave me a chance to check my email etc and have a leisurely start to my day. Everything is definitely back to normal, the traffic on Forest Park Parkway was fairly busy for 5 am. I am resigned to travel being pretty bad for the whole of 2009 while they fix H40. However, when I got to work this morning, the parking deck was still closed!!!! I must be here too early.....

We're ready......

The Christmas stuff is put away, the closet under the stairs is organized again, the kids have been in the bath, the lunches are made, the coffee maker is primed for the morning. We are ready for a new semester......

We did very little on our last day of freedom. I got all our usual house stuff out and put all the Christmas ornaments away

Ben helped by hibernating in the boxes and eating strawberries

Lucia came over for most of the day and Zachary & Julie were over for a while, so Ben & Maggie had an extended play date. The highlight of the day was Ben wanted to go to Burger King & get the free Wii toy.

After they got home, they even played outside for a short while & I did a little in the garden, but it was really cold and damp. Sam did rake leaves for a while, he was probably the most useful one of us for the day.....

Maggie is definitely ready for school, she has managed to be really annoying all day. I said you know that she's being annoying when 3 other families members in 3 totally different parts of the house all yell "MAGGIE" at the same time. She needs a dose of Ms Linda to get her back with the program....

Getting ready for the last day of freedom

I think we are all ready for the holidays to be over. We've pretty much been in relaxed mode for 2 weeks now. The last two weeks have been broken up with a couple of days of work/camp/day care & I think we all needed it. We have all been sleeping in later & later as time has gone by & it will be a shock to us to get back into the routine tomorrow morning-I do NOT envy Sam having to drag the kids out of bed, especially Maggie!!!! We started thinking about back to school yesterday as Ben & I started to look through his scouts book to see what we need to get done before their next den meeting. Ben has not done anything related to school since he went on Winter break & I had big aspirations for doing all kinds of things with him, it's a good job I don't home school!!!! Maggie has been doing very well with her speech and communication recently, I think she does benefit from being at home with us and interacting more than she typically does at day care. The level of bickering and fighting has increased with them spending more time together and I moved Maggie's car seat to the back yesterday because she constantly pesters Ben and leans out of her seatbelt to whack him. His arms are long enough that he can get to her without the leaning. The final straw was when Maggie said "ha, ha, you can't get me" and then started crying when Ben got her!!! The other day Sam reminded me of a time many years ago when we were following Molly & Tim's car out to cut our Christmas tree and you could see Molly flailing her arm around at the girls in the back seat, my Mum spent her life doing that to Marie & I when we were driving!!!! Why do kids start in on each other as soon as they get in the car???!!!! Well, it's almost 9 am & I hear the sound of Ben getting dressed. They will be up 2 hours earlier tomorrow!!! Let's see what this final day of freedom brings.....

My darling children

We had Lucia for the day yesterday as Amy had to work. She turned up before Ben & Maggie were even out of bed. We really do need to get back into the school routine where we are up and moving at a decent hour!!!!

We decided we'd take the kids ice skating at lunchtime. Ben is getting pretty good at it, although he still falls down all the time. It was the first time Sam had ever been skating and he got the hang of it pretty quickly when he wasn't having to hold Maggie by the hand. Lucia lasted for a short while, but she soon gave up.

When we got home, Maggie & I took the ornaments & lights off the tree and put the tree outside. Then, we went up to Tilles Park for a while as it was a pretty decent day.

When we were getting ready to leave (because we were getting kicked out of the park as it was closing), Maggie showed her disgust by sticking out her tongue and Ben had his usual scowl because "it wasn't fair that we have to leave, we haven't done anything all day"

We really do need to get back into the school routine where we are getting more work done & I am not trying to entertain the kids every day. It's obviously a waste of my time......

At least Maggie did smile at some pointMaybe one of my resolutions should have been to give up trying.

We took Lucia home & they played at her house for a while. Then we came home & made dinner-we have bourbon steak from Time for Dinner, it's my favourite thing from there. We finished the evening by watch Harry Potter (of course). I'm not sure what else Ben wants to cram into his day, but I can't do any more!!!!

New Year's Day

My Mother always told me that my Grandmother said you should never wash on New Year's Day. I can't remember if that's because she believed that what you do on this day is what you will be doing for the rest of the year or that she believed in another superstition. I'm not that superstitious, but for some reason this one always sticks in my mind and I still don't wash on New Year's Day, even though there's a pile of clothes lying on the laundry room floor. I decided to look up the superstition surrounding this and found that you are not supposed to wash on New Year's Day because it will wash someone out of your life. You're also not supposed to do many other things like throw anything out or give anything away and you're supposed to do a little bit of work, but not a lot.

I also read an article on why 90% of resolutions are broken by February & I realized that I've probably broken at least 50% of mine already!!! Without even thinking too much, I know my fingers are still a mess, we ate junk food all day yesterday, I sat around while the kids played and I went through Starbuck's on the way home!!! Oh well, there's always next year.....

We celebrated New Year's Day by breaking a record. I took Ben & Maggie to Monkey Joe's (an indoor playground with lots of inflatable toys) and we stayed there for 7 hours. Usually our record for being anywhere is about 5 hours. They give you a wristband when you go in there so that they can make sure that kids are leaving with the right parents and we were #20 (we got there 45 minutes after they opened). When we left, they were at over 100 families for the day!!! So, we ate "lunch" and "dinner" there and then we came home, watched a movie and went to bed. The kids were completely wiped out by the time we got home.

Blackpool illuminations

We are always buying light bulbs for our house. We just replace one & another goes out. Sam buys them by the case from Lowe's. I was lying in bed this morning staring at the ceiling and decided to start counting just how many light fixtures there were in our new house. No wonder we're always replacing bulbs, we have 125 outlets in the ceilings alone!!!!