Stupidity

Stupidity is staying up to 11:30pm when you have to get up at 5:30am.  Does that stop me from doing it?  . . . Obviously not.  It's been several weeks now.  Hopefully at some point I'll smarten up.

"No Dentist!"

I left two notes on bathroom mirrors, so that I’d remember that Will couldn’t eat or drink anything this morning.  A friend had recommended an oral surgeon to me.  One who has a lot of patients with special needs and does general anesthesia in his office.  Saving over a thousand dollars should have felt better!

I talked to Will about going to the dentist and getting his teeth pulled.  “No dentist!”  He insisted.  Then he added a “no school” because he didn’t want to go there either.   

I felt reassured by the other patient in the waiting room – a teenager with special needs.  His mom said that they’d been coming there for years.   I told Will he’d wear a mask and go to sleep.  He practiced his snoring in the waiting room.  I was nervous for him.  He wasn’t thrilled to be there.  But it was over quickly.  I think he pinched everyone in the room when he woke up.  (I trimmed his fingernails when we got home.)  Sadly, I’d forgotten to warn him about his face feeling funny and hurting and he was not calm enough to listen to me after it was over. 

It was very sad.  He sobbed for 15 minutes in the car on the way home.  Then he pinched me.  As I stared at the blood on my arm, I felt slightly less sad for him.  But his day was ruined.  I kept him home because I didn’t think his teachers would appreciate non-stop pinching when presenting Will with a demand.

When we got home he said, “cut.” I thought he asked me for a cup.  I turned to the sink and filled up a glass.  He didn’t.  He picked up scissors and put them by his lips.  Even though I didn’t think he’d cut himself, I was afraid to leave him alone after that.

Will’s mouth minus five teeth had better equal no braces!  Because if it doesn’t -- I need arm guards . . . and possibly a blood transfusion!

Downsizing

I’m so busy, I’m basically going non-stop this week.  (Warning:  complaining will now commence.)  Keep in mind that I now have to get up at 5:30 to drive Bri to seminary (a religious education class) every morning.  She loves it but I can’t wait until she can drive herself.

Monday:  Wake Bri up at 5:30am because she overslept.  Drive her to Ashland wait.  Drive three kids to high school and drop them off.  Return home at 7:30.  Get Will on the bus at 7:50.  Workout, go to grocery story, Lizzy stays home because of a “stomach ache,” Pick up Bri from swimming, take her to piano, take Will to MyGym class, pick up Bri from piano.  After school hours absent from home:  5-7:30. 

Tuesday:  Up at 5:30 back home at 7:30.  Marcy makes me workout, library, get Will of the bus, pick up Jake from school take him to EmPower, get home 2 hours after I left, go back to Jake’s school for Back to School night.  After school hours absent from home: 3:15-8:00 minus a half an hour.

Wednesday:  Leave at 5:40 to drop Bri off.  Drop Jake off at school at 6:30 for river rafting.  I have to wake up Will and take him with me because my husband is in North Carolina.  Teach classes at Y, finish at 12:15.  Skip parent group meeting from 1-2:30 at Will’s school because I need to sit down.  Will’s therapy is from 3:15-5:15.  Pick up Bri from swim practice at 5:15.  Will’s piano lesson.  Pick up Jake at 7:00 from school and drive him and Bri to a roller skating party.  A friend took Lizzy to her 7:00 activity.

Thursday is my light day.  Marcy made me workout with her then I came home and wasted time online.  Will has therapy.  I have to pick up Bri from swimming and I’m looking forward to a back to school night at the high school tonight.  Then if I have time I’ll go walking with Linda.

Marcy told me to downsize but I’m conflicted . . . I mean which kid should I list and should I go with Craig’s List or Freecycle?

I’m definitely keeping Jake because when I got home from dropping off Bri on Monday and Tuesday he had given Will a shower, gotten him dressed, fed him breakfast and packed his lunch!

Piano

Will had his first piano lesson yesterday.  He loved it.  He was adorable!  He learned to play the ABC song.  I think he’ll really like this and he’ll be so happy to play songs that he likes on the piano.  He loves music and anything that helps organize his brain can only help him. 

Rawlings vs. Meyers

Anyone who reads children’s and young adult fiction and wastes time on the internet googling things like Stephanie Meyers (and sadly, I must admit that I occasionally fall into that category because oh, the amount of things on the internet that I can waste my time reading about boggles the mind) runs into arguments over who is the better writer.  In the Rawling’s camp there are such luminaries as Stephen King while legions of Team Edward girls defend Meyer with emoticons and misspellings.

I think the whole thing is silly.  While there is some overlap, the audience the authors are writing for is different.  I like them both.  Do I think their books have staying power?  I don’t know.  Maybe both of them will be like the Nancy Drew series or oh, oh, oh the Bobbsey Twins.  Their future barren, doomed to be read only by nerds like me who read absolutely anything I could get their hands on.  I enjoy all their books but they both have strengths and weaknesses.

J.K. Rawlings is responsible for many children discovering a love of reading.  She is responsible for children actually reading.  The first “real” book Jake ever read was a Harry Potter.  Nothing less motivating worked.  And a nephew who hated reading learned to read because of that series.  Parents around the world, including me, praise the name of J. K. Rawlings.  But . . . reading her books aloud is painful.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love her books.  I’ve read them all.  She tells a great story, has a vivid imagination and is wildly creative.  But her editor should be put in a corner and never be allowed to edit another book!  I had the brilliant migraine inducing idea of reading the first book out loud to Brianne.  I am a speed reader, my dad is a speed reader, and sadly, Jake is a speed reader.  It’s genetic.  I hate reading out loud because it takes so long I get bored.  So, while I was reading Harry Potter out loud to Bri I had plenty of time to read ahead.  And unfortunately, I also had time to think about what I was reading.  I noticed Rawlings reused words frequently.  Snippily, I’d think in my head “she’s used that word three times in two pages.  She should have used ­­­­­­­­­____ this instead."  (And no, I can't write as well as she can. Yes, she is better than me.  That’s why she has a lot of money and I am considering moving in with Bri when I’m old.)  I don’t love her word play.  I tried to stop reading the book to Bri, but she was enthralled.  When I finally finished I decided to read Bri one of my favorite books from elementary school.  A book so beautifully written that the words made me ache despite the fact I was far too young to fully understand it.  Bri refused to listen past page 3.  I was dismayed; perhaps I should not have pointed out the language to an eight year old.  Well, regardless, Tuck Everlasting remained unread by her for five years.

I read Twilight a couple of years after it came out.  The benefit of doing so was not having to wait to read the next in the series.  Reading it reminded me of adolescence, boys, the anxiety of relationships and dating.  And as I read it I remembered those feelings.  I had forgotten them.  Stephanie Meyers nailed it.  And that’s why girls and women like her and explains why men are baffled.  She has taken an every girl, or at least someone who feels like an every girl and she is pursued and desired.  And while if I had to pick a team it would be Team Jacob, I like that Edward sparkles and has a cool power.  Then Meyers makes sure it works out for everyone in the end.  And I like that!

One doesn’t have to be a better writer than the other.  What criteria do you judge them by anyway?  Both mothers are wildly successful and have encouraged more people to read and buy books.  Find a better reason to compare them than that.

Yes, I am a brat

I took Bri to Macy’s today for their One Day Sale.  We couldn’t find anything for her to buy.  (But I bought a floor steamer.  I think I’ll teach Will to use it.)  Bri had a difficult time and scratched herself on shelving but all was not lost as she found her phone that has been missing for TWO MONTHS in her purse.  She had a replacement four year old phone that a family she baby sits for gave her but the battery only lasted an hour or so on it and it didn’t have a keyboard for texting so she pretty much ignored it.  

Bri is very obsessed with Kingdom Hearts (it’s a video game) she watches it on UTube, she bought a Playstation 2 specifically so she could play it, she found the piano music for it and plays it all the time.  And most painfully she likes to talk about it.

She started talking about it at the mall.  She talked about it for 20 minutes.  I won’t listen to Jake talk about any game for 10 minutes and this was agonizing.  She talked about Kingdom Hearts as we walked to the car.  She talked about it while I was driving home.  She was still talking about it as we drove up the hill to our house.  I saw a kiddy pool by the street.  Here when people want to get rid of something they put it by the side of the road and whoever wants it can take it.  You can get some pretty cool stuff that way.  Well, I wanted that pool for bubbles for the Fall Festival at Will’s school.  I stopped the car.  “Go get the pool.”  I told Bri.  She didn’t want to.

She finally agreed.  “. . . Ok, but I won’t get back in the car if you don’t listen to me talk about Kingdom Hearts.”  She grabbed the pool and started running up the hill with the pool on top of her head like a giant hat.  Thinking that I really didn’t want to listen to anything more about Kingdom Hearts anyway and that she was adorable I started keeping pace with her.  Everything was fine until she decided to run and jump on the back of the van.  Panicked that she would get hurt I slammed on the brakes.  Unfortunately, she didn’t expect that and ran into the back of the van.  I thought that was quite amusing and decided to tease her.  I drove forward a little, waited until she got close then drove forward again.  Suffice it to say that she walked the rest of the way up the hill and I felt really bad when I parked and looked down on the passenger side to see her shoes.  Honestly, I am really surprised that I didn’t have to go back for the pool!

I told my husband and he was not happy with me. 

Change

It’s harder to gear up this school year.  Last Tuesday, after all my kids were on a bus I started to freak out; I called Marcy, “I’m antsy.”  I told her.  “I don’t know what wrong.”

“It’s the first time you’ve been alone in months.”  She said.  “You’ll be fine.”

At Will’s back to school night.  I talked to his special ed. teacher about his math curriculum and told her I’d send in a spelling list for him to work on.  Although Will can decode at a higher level, his comprehension and fluency place him at a D reading level.  But since he’s my boy he has splinter skills.  He is a better speller than Jake.  In my inexpert opinion he probably spells at a fourth grade level.  

I scrolled though a few of the close to three thousand notes he’s written to find misspelled words – there aren’t many.  It wasn’t as much work to type them as it sounds since probably a thousand of the notes only consist of the word “thy.”  Why?  I don’t know.  Maybe he likes how it sounds.  I could start using it.  No, too much work.

I noticed a few things.  First – contractions he’s got “they’ve” down but doesn’t know them all.  He gets confused with homonyms such as to, too and two; or bee and be; knew and new. His punctuation isn’t perfect.  He loves typing …… And he misspelled: noise, organize, immediately, proudly, extra and energy among other words.