Before & After

We've been waiting for this tooth to fall out for over a month. The adult tooth must be ginormous because it has created a huge space for itself by spreading Aliya's baby teeth apart. I hope she at least gets a matching Chiclet on the other side.

The Giving Tree

I volunteered to be in charge of the teacher wish lists for Adlani's school, and immediately started obsessing about the wish list bulletin board. Since I'm so good with linear and geometric designs, I inexpicably decided to use a tree...I think it was because I assumed that the school would have a leaf shape for their die-cut machine so I wouldn't have to cut out 200 leaves by hand. After I had the theme fully-developed in my head, I found out that they only have dies for sailboats, bears, and a few other unsuitable shapes. Luckily, I know people. Rachael agreed to paint the tree, and Delia and Nelson translated the instructions into Spanish and Portuguese. I wrote each of the teachers' wishes on a leaf and assembled the tree with one branch per classroom. Now all I have to obsess about is whether people will remove the leaves and fulfill the wishes.

If any of you have excess cream of tartar or hand sanitizer laying around, the wish lists are also on-line: http://blockswishlist.blogspot.com

No Surprise

Guess which restaurant Aliya picked for her birthday dinner? It begins with a "B" and ends with an "oo" and we've gone there for every birthday dinner for the last 6 years.

No Parking

The last time I had a meeting at Harvard I got a parking ticket for parking in a permit-only lot. This time I left the following note because the cop I talked to last time told me that they sometimes tow repeat offenders:

Dear Harvard Parking Enforcement Officer,

I know you're only doing your job, but I have to tell you that your visitor parking procedure is NOT user-friendly! I tried, I really tried to buy a visitor parking pass. I spoke to a Harvard police officer and he told me to call the parking office. I called the parking office and was told to go online. I went online but it asked me for a department name and number. I emailed the parking office to get a department number and was told that all of the online passes were sold out and that I had to come to the parking office. This morning I drove to the parking office but there was no place to park to go in and buy a pass. The fact that I made it to the parking office at all was no small feat considering that I have already dropped three clean, fully-clothed children at three different schools along with the required snacks, drinks, lunches, forms, and 26 birthday cupcakes with spiders on them. I am at the Bond Brothers construction trailer for a meeting. Please don't tow my car away or there will be three kids sitting on the curb wondering what happened to their mother.

- Lori

It worked! I only got a warning! :-)

I know some of you are wishing you could see what the spider cupcakes looked like, so here they are! :-)

SURPRISE!!!

It's been a slow week for the blog because I've been spending every waking, non-working moment getting ready for Aliya's surprise birthday party. She was definitely surprised. If you attended the party, you can skip to the pictures. For the rest of you and for posterity, here are the details...

The party attendees were Maren, Reece, Lindsey, Emma, Isabel, Brooke, Victoria, Arete, Erin F, Erin G, Solvai, and of course, Aliya - an even dozen (some of the siblings also attended - Aden, Max, Shane, Sydney, and Ryan, plus Adlani and Norah). Ginny and Bernie took Aliya and Victoria to the mall, and everyone else arrived at our house at 6 p.m. I had pillowcases for them to color on with fabric markers, and Bernie made a slideshow of pictures which they loved. Aliya didn't arrive until around 6:30 and it was a looooooong half hour with a lot of excitement-induced screaming. There were several false alarms which drove everyone under the blankets to hide. Aliya's arrival was heralded by even more screaming, jumping up and down, and hugging that bordered on wrestling.

It was a half-sleepover (a sleepover without the sleeping), so everyone wore their pajamas. The family room was decorated with strings of lights and bed canopies, plus blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. I ordered pizza, bought Roche Brothers drummies, and made Caesar salad, Tastefully Simple beer bread and some crackers and dips. I couldn't decide on a sangria recipe so I made 2 and we did a taste test. The recipe that won was the one from Dali, a great Spanish restaurant on the Cambridge/Somerville line. To make 1 batch, I used 1 bottle of Marques De Caceres Rioja, 1/3 cup peach brandy, 1/3 cup triple sec, 1/3 cup sugar, and 3 cups of orange juice.

After pizza, the boys headed down to the playroom with flashlights to search for hidden candy. We didn't see them again until it was time for the pinata. The girls played a few games:

>> Dance Till You Drop - dance around until the music stops, drop onto a marked spot, the person sitting on the spot that matched the goody bag I was holding won the goody bag and its contents

>> Pass The Parcel - sit in a circle, pass a wrapped package, when the music stops, the person holding it got to open one layer of giftwrap and claim the lipgloss in that layer, the final person got a chapstick set

>> Super Speedy Dress-Up - stand in a circle and pass 2 bags of clothes and accessories, when the music stops, the bag-holders reached into the bag, grabbed an item of clothing and put it on, the person with the most items on at the end was the winner. This game was hysterical or maybe it was the sangria. I took a group picture afterward for the girls to take home.

We tried to play piggly wiggly (everyone hides under the blankets and a farmer tries to guess the identity of one of the lumps when the lump yells "oink oink oink". There were some injuries due to farmers stepping on piggies and piggies squishing other piggies so we abandoned that game and went straight to the flip-flop pinata, which I beat to pieces after each of the kids had a whack. Then I started a movie (Bratz Kids Sleepover) and got the cakes ready. They were "sleepover" cakes, each with 6 girls made of Twinkies laying in bed. Pretty cute.

After the cake, everyone went back to the movie, and the girls continued working on their pillowcases. The last game was Munchie Match, where the girls chose overturned cups with candy inside, looking for a match. When someone found a match, they got to keep the candy. That was a nice quiet game to calm things down. The kids left by 9ish, and Aliya opened her presents with Nikki and Leah. She loooooved everything she got, and she went right to the computer to register her Webkinz with Leah's help.

It was a great success, although it took a lot of preparation and the house looked like a tornado had blown through. Thanks to Ginny, it was clean by around 10 a.m. I did learn from this experience - Hawaiian Punch is NOT a good drink selection for a kids' party. My rug is proof of that.

Life's a Beach

Last weekend was so beautiful - we stopped at Revere Beach to enjoy some time in the sun.

Crunch Time

You know that time of the morning when you're 5 minutes away from leaving the house, and you're struggling to get out with keys, backpacks, jackets, lunches, snacks, forms, checks, library books, clean clothes, shoes, combed hair, brushed teeth, and whatever you need for the work day? Well, Little Miss Norah recently chose Crunch Time to snack on a container of marinara sauce and ended up wearing it and requiring a complete change of clothes. Our Crunch Time is around 7:40 a.m. Don't call me then. :-)

Good Game!

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

Earlier this evening I realized that today is the deadline for me to take an online class and test on the FCPA. It seemed a little dry and boring but I thought it was just me. About halfway through, Adlani started watching it with me and about 3 minutes later I realized that he had passed out on my leg. I have never ever seen him fall asleep while watching TV. I guess it wasn't just me. The next time I have a hard time getting him to bed I'll just log into IR University!!
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The Melting Pot

I made a deal with Aliya and her reward was to go to the Melting Pot with Grandma Ginny, Grampa B, and me. When I made the reservation, the guy asked me if we were celebrating a special occasion. I said, "We're celebrating my 6-year-old sleeping in her own bed for a week. Do you have a song for that?" Our waiter didn't seem like the singing type, but the food was delicious!

Funny Stuff

Adlani: "Do you know there's a monster in the bushes?"
Me: "No, there are no monsters."
Adlani: "Yes there is - the green monster! My teachers told me about it. It's in the Sox book."
He's got me there.

Aliya: "I don't think I'm going to have kids. It looks too hard."
Me: "What part looks hard? The birth, or the everyday parenting?"
Aliya: "Well, the birth looks hard...plus when you go to the hospital you can't even enjoy the time without kids because you've got another one coming."

Me, to the waiter at the Melting Pot Restaurant: "If I drink too much wine -"
Aliya: "You'll vomit."
I'm sure the waiter thinks I pray to the porcelain god every Saturday morning but Aliya has NEVER seen me hung over so I don't know where that came from.

Norah, as we walk through the snack aisles of Target: "More! More! More!"
(She has a limited vocabulary, although not bad for 13 months, but I thought I should at least mention her in case it looks like we sold her to the gypsies.)

Wild Weekend

Let's see if I can think back that far...Friday night Victoria came over for a sleepover. It went much better than the last one when Vic stayed up until 2 a.m. and said she had a belly ache. I asked her what her mom does when she has a belly ache and she said that she gives her a "special cookie." I had no idea what Karen's idea of a special cookie is (although I AM familiar with "special" brownies), so I stalled until Vic fell asleep. It turned out to be a Metamucil wafer. The girls are much older and wiser now, so they were both asleep by 10ish. Vic has revived an old trend in our household, by insisting that she can't sleep without a sleep mask, and then rejecting the unadorned airline mask I dug up. I think she had something else in mind, but Aliya has once again started wearing it out in public. Yes, in the daytime, on her head like a hair accessory.

Saturday morning the girls had a soccer game. While we were there a little girl was apparently approached by a man wearing a yellow shirt and black pants, who ran off into the woods when she started making a scene. The police came but I don't think they found anyone. I told Ben it was a good thing he didn't wear yellow that day. As it was, when one of the mothers heard about the guy and realized that her daughter was playing near Ben, she reeled her in. I don't know why anyone would be crazy enough to try to do something with so many people around...I think it could have just as easily been someone who innocently tried to talk to a kid and then got scared when she freaked out. I guess we'll never know.

After bagels with the Funsecas, we went home to start preparing for breakfast (served at sundown to break the fast) for our friends and Ben's sister and brothers. There were 16 of us but we literally had enough food for 50 people. I made a few dishes, Sok made harira, Najet made a cake, and Naima stayed up until 4 a.m. the night before making tray after tray of food. I feel bad that she goes to such trouble but I haven't been able to slow her down yet. I'm grateful that everyone helps with the Moroccan dishes I haven't mastered, but it felt a little like inviting guests for Thanksgiving dinner and having them show up with the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and assorted pies, while I provided the cabbage salad. Thank you Naima!!

On Sunday, Aliya and I went to see Wicked. It was fabulous!!! Aliya seemed so grown up! We went to Bennigan's for lunch first, and then walked to the Opera House. The show is about the witches of Oz before Dorothy came along. It's really clever and funny, and the music is unbelievable. The woman who played Elpheba brought tears to my eyes when she sang. We have the soundtrack so I told Aliya before the show that she couldn't sing along. She only slipped once, during "I'm Not That Girl". She was really good and she wasn't afraid during the scary parts. I think she enjoyed the one-on-one time with me and she knew that it was a special day.

Yesterday Ben stayed home from work which was a huge gift since I have a big deadline this week. I got a lot of work done and he had a fun day with the kids. It was a cold rainy day but it felt good to have fall weather instead of the extended summer we've been having.

This morning I took Adlani to the dentist to get two fillings. I knew it wasn't going to be fun. I really had no idea of how not-fun it was going to be. They gave him nitrous oxide to try to calm him down, which didn't do much. I found out after the fact that the $100 charge for the nitrous isn't covered by insurance. How do the insurance companies expect a 3-year-old to get a filling? OK...maybe it's my fault since my bad parenting caused the cavities in the first place. It just bugs me when the insurance companies don't cover things...like nitrous oxide and birth control. Anyway, it was hell. We did our best to keep the mood light and happy and convince him to voluntarily sit still, but by the end I was literally laying on his legs and holding his arms, while the dentist and two assistants held his head and did the best they could with the fillings. They had to use the thing that holds his mouth open. He was screaming so loud that they didn't bring any more patients into the suite and they closed the doors to the waiting room. When the dentist said, "I'm just going to count to 20 and then we're done." Adlani yelled, "I think I'm done right now!!" I asked him afterward why he was crying and he said that he didn't like having his teeth bumped (drilled) because it was too loud. He never said that it hurt...I just think he was upset about being restrained. The good news is that they put some thick flouride on the other two cavities and in 3 months they're going to look at them. If they haven't progressed they're going to wait 3 more months. Eventually he'll either mature enough to have them filled or it'll be time for those teeth to fall out anyway. Hopefully he won't remember today's experience when he gets older.

With all of the excitement this weekend I completely forgot about washing the bedding from Adlani's school rest bag. Luckily, his teachers don't read this blog because I confess...I put the sheet, blanket, pillow, and rest bag into the dryer with a couple of Febreeze-infused Bounce sheets and fluffed them up for a while, before lint-rolling the cat hair off the outside of the bag and packing it up to go back to school. There goes my reputation.

Youtube Faves

This video of a mom singing to the William Tell Overture is so great!
What Moms Say

While drunk driving is no joke, this DUI clip is one of my all-time favorites:
DUI Arrest

And even though I NEVER swear in front of MY kids, this is a great one too:
Peyton Manning

Cocktail Weenie

This morning Norah was walking around very proud of herself with a mouthful of something. I gave her the open-your-mouth command which is one of her party tricks (and is also very useful), and there was a complete cocktail weenie in there. How depressing that my kid could find a cocktail weenie on the floor of my house and eat it, without it's presence making even a blip on my radar. What else is on my floor?! It's been at least a couple of days since we've even had cocktail weenies!

I used to be a very clean and organized person...a place for everything and everything in its place. Now I've become much more Fred Sanford than Martha Stewart. How and when did that happen?! That's a rhetorical question because I know the exact date - October 23rd, 2001. I clearly remember hosting a girls' weekend in 2000, and hearing Sherry say, "If your house is this clean after you have kids I'm going to kill you." Well, I'm alive and well. My house is a disaster area and I can't find a thing. Nothing! Ask me to borrow something and see how long it takes me to find it. I will probably go out and buy another one just so I can lend it to you.
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Sometimes I stumble across something and there's that flash of excited recognition like meeting an old friend you haven't seen in years..."My Mickey Mouse corkscrew!!! It's been too long!!!" And then in a flash...just like that old friend...it disappears into the crowd until the next surprise meeting. I hope Mickey resurfaces again soon. I could use a glass of wine. Or two.

Oopsie Daisy

I came out of my office at 7 o'clock tonight, got in my car and proceeded to back out of a parking space. After backing out I realized that the wall of the building was too close so I pulled back into the space to back out at a steeper angle. As I backed out again I heard that sickening crunch of metal on metal...I somehow hit the car next to me. I'm still not sure how it happened. The parked car was a Dodge Magnum - just like mine. Our office has a fleet of Magnums, so I called my boss (Harris) to see if we could brainstorm and figure out whose car would have been left there at night. We eventually figured out that the car belongs to Reyn - one of the vice presidents of IR. Harris was laughing and said, "It'll cost you a lot of money but we'll keep it quiet." I said, "What do you want me to do now?" He said, "Leave the scene immediately!" and cracked up. So I did.

It's not as bad as it sounds...I have known Reyn for 20 years and he is Harris' brother and was my boss until he climbed the corporate ladder and became a VP. He's currently in Scotland so he's going to come home to a little surprise. Oops. Oh well...dents happen. I feel bad that he'll have to deal with it but it really was an accident. I wasn't eating, drinking, talking on the phone, text messaging, buckling my seatbelt, adjusting the radio, or slapping at someone in the backseat. I haven't had an accident in 14 years. Hopefully this one will fill my quota for the next 14 years and Reyn will be gentle with me.

Update: I just received an email response from Reyn (we have international Blackberry service) and he said, "No worries...it's only a car...we'll get it fixed." He's the best!

Update 2: The estimate for Reyn's car was $1500. Eek!

Clean Sweep

For some reason, watching The Biggest Loser doesn't entice me to put down the Twinkie and get off the couch, but the TLC show "Clean Sweep" makes me want to call Dumpsters-R-Us and splurge on my very own 40-cubic-yard dumpster to fill to the brim with all of the stuff that I spend my life picking up off the floor and moving somewhere else in my house. The STUFF is driving me INSANE!!! Truthfully, I probably don't have a big enough mess to get on the show...I think some of those people probably have some sort of hoarding disorder, but we still have a LOT of stuff.

If you're an avid reader of this blog you'll know that Adlani came home from school sick yesterday, and I didn't want to risk more accidents at school today, so I kept him home. Since I had a dentist appointment, a lunch date, and also had to go to my office, Ben took the day off from work and stayed home too. Last night Ben said, "Just leave me a list." After 1 nanosecond of consideration I said, "THE GARAGE!" So I came home from the dentist and found the entire driveway filled with everything from our garage (just like the show!!). It was an impressive amount of stuff. Ben spent all day, without sustenance (it's still Ramadan), sorting through the mountain range of miscellaneous possessions.

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Here are just a few examples of what's in our garage along with the tools, ride-on toys, Christmas decorations, recycle bins, lawn furniture, snow tires, and 16 bins of kids' clothes that they haven't grown into yet:

~ A porch swing that I bought on eBay which was supposed to go on our porch but never got put together. We have since demolished the porch to build our family room and have no place to hang the porch swing.

~ 15 yards of denim that I was going to use to recover the turd-brown couch and chair at camp, but which the mice have chewed to use for bedding. The couch and chair still look like turds. Big ones.

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~ An old trunk that I bought at an auction in 1992 with plans to refurbish. I guess I'll do it when I retire. Does anyone else see a pattern here?

~ Size 16 basketball shoes, a safe with no key, and books on obsolete software that our friend asked to store in our garage about 6 years ago. He has since moved again and remarried. I don't think he'll miss it...although I am curious about whether there's anything in the safe.

~ For those of you that remember Aliya's 4th birthday party when I decorated the garage (the last time it was clean), some of the decorations were still hanging from the rafters. Her 6th birthday is later this month.

~ The cassette versions of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Learn French In Your Car. I don't speak French, I'm probably not even marginally effective, and I no longer have a cassette player.

The garage looks great now! 10 points to Ben!!! Next up...the basement!

You Might Think It's Funny, But It's Really Wet & Runny...

The nurse from Adlani's school called me this morning to tell me that he had a diarrhea accident. Ick. She said if it happened again I'd have to come pick him up, and after lunch I got another call. When I got to school the teacher said, "I hope you're not going anywhere because he's wearing 'floods' "...apparently that's the local term for "high waters". He had exhausted his clothing supply so he was wearing size 2T pants and undies from the lost and found. He looked hilarious.

As we were walking down the hall to leave he said, "When I was outside my teacher wouldn't let me go potty so I went to play and suddenly I heard poop coming out of me...I wouldn't want to eat it for dinner." Where does he get these ideas? Boys are ODD!!!

The great thing is that he is now officially old enough for me to work at home while he's here. He played in his room for a little while and then took a nap. I didn't miss a beat...and due to my new brain - my beloved Blackberry - I didn't miss a phone call or email either. When I'm juggling kids, Ben, architects, my coworkers, and everyone else who wants a piece of me, this song plays over and over in my head: http://pages.prodigy.net/area512/circus1.mid

The good news of the day is that the termite guy came for our annual inspection and we don't have termites, the winged creatures Zoe dug out of the flower bed were citronella ants (when you squeeze them they smell like citronella), and the yellow jacket nest in the wall of the house isn't very big and they'll die over the winter. $75 is a small price to pay for another bug-free year.

An unrelated but cute quote...on the way to school this morning Aliya said, "When Norah grows up I think she wants to be a bull-rider." Me: "Why?" Aliya: "Because she's always flailing her arms around."