Museum of Science

Today was an early release day for the kids, so I played hooky for a few hours and took them to the Museum of Science.  It didn't feel like I was playing hooky considering the number of evening meetings I've gone to lately.  Anyway, we had free admission because we have a membership to another science museum, so we only had to pay for the admission to the Harry Potter exhibition, which was $66 (!!!) for the 4 of us.  Come to think of it, it didn't feel like free admission either but I guess it would have been worse without the membership.

The Harry Potter exhibition was really cool though, and the best investment was the audio tour.  The kids each had a little handheld gizmo, and each exhibit had a number that you could punch into the gizmo and hear about the exhibit.  The exhibit was fully staffed by British-accented guides so that added a nice touch.  We weren't allowed to take any photos in the exhibit, but I found pics on the internet of two of my favorite parts - Dobby the House Elf, and the Mandrakes (the squeaking really adds to their ickiness). 

The museum was not busy at all so it was very low-stress, no lines, no whining.  We spent about 3 hours total and everyone was exhausted so I think the timing was just right.  At 5 o'clock there was an announcement that the museum was closing and you've never seen 3 kids hightail it out of anywhere as fast.  I think they've seen Night at the Museum too many times.  They were sincerely afraid of being locked in, and having to ward off the dinosaur skeletons, stuffed bears, and the family of beavers.

On the way home we hit a complete white-out just after the Weston tolls - freaky!

Here are a few photos:

Whale or Mermaid

Recently, in a large city in France, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym.  It said, "This summer do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym with the following:

To Whom It May Concern,

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans).

They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia.   Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and have virtually no predators other than humans.  They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist.  If they did, they would be lining up outside the offices of psychoanalysts due to identity crisis - fish or human?   They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex?  Just look at them ... where is IT? Therefore, they don't have kids either.   Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me:   I want to be a whale.

PS – Today media promotes the idea that only skinny people are beautiful. I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and a piece of chocolate with my friends.

With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy.

Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, "Good grief! Look how smart I am!"

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Thanks Susi!
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Lily the Black Bear

Just in case I didn't have enough to distract me from the things that I don't want to do, along came Lily the Black Bear and her webcam.  You can sit and watch her breathe for hours, hoping for a glimpse of her cub which was born a couple of days ago.  The researchers are looking for volunteers to take 2-hour blocks of time and document anything exciting, like when the cub squeaks.  I like the highlight videos myself.  Here's a video of the cub's birth:



And a link to the North American Bear Center's den cam.  There are currently 1791 people watching Lily sleep.

And here's Lily's Facebook page.

Don't say I didn't warn you.  Lily and her cub, Peace, will be the cause of worldwide productivity reduction.  ;-)
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Survey SAYS...

A couple weeks ago I posted about a survey I was conducting regarding fire doors.  Thanks to everyone who spread the word and asked their friends and family to participate, I currently have 700 responses!  Many of the participants asked for more information about fire doors, so I am posting the survey results on my other blog this week.  Feel free to check it out and/or to share the link with anyone you shared the original survey link with.  Thanks!!

Fire Door Survey Results
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The Principal's Office

On Thursday I brought the kids to school late after a dentist appointment, and (eek!) the principal saw me and asked if I would come into her office.  Unfortunately I knew exactly what she wanted to talk to me about.  (The principal, Minerva Gonzalez, is pictured at right with our governor, Deval Patrick.)

Last weekend Adlani handed Ben $40 in cash, and when Ben asked him where he had gotten it Adlani said that he had taken it from Ben the day before.  Ben didn't have $40 the day before, so he thought Adlani took it from me.  When I used my *special* interrogation techniques on Adlani, he told me that he had gotten the money from his friend Dante* on the bus.  When the full story was finally revealed, it looks like Dante took the money from his mother's purse and put it in his coat pocket, and Adlani took it from Dante's coat pocket on the bus.  Ugh.

I don't know Dante, but Adlani told me that he lives in the apartment complex behind Burger King.  I wasn't sure how to handle it since I couldn't exactly go over and start ringing doorbells, so I wrote a note to the bus driver, enclosed the money, and asked Aliya to give it to her.  The bus driver apparently gave it to a teacher who gave it to the principal.  The principal questioned Adlani on Wednesday, and was planning to talk to Dante about stealing from his mom on Thursday.

Two good things came out of my visit to Sra. Gonzalez' office though. 
1) She assured me that this is a common issue in the development of kindergarten boys, and that I don't have to worry about whether Adlani will ever get to 1st grade. 
2) I had Norah with me and I mentioned that her teacher was worried that she was too advanced to wait until 2012 to start kindergarten.  Sra. Gonzalez didn't make any suggestions about how to squeeze her in early, but at least she met her and interacted with her a bit.  I'm going to talk to Norah's principal soon to see what our action plan should be.

I just hope I can keep Adlani out of jail long enough to learn how to read.  Watch your wallets, people.

*Dante is not the kid's real name.
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Rescue Remedy Update

This morning, Adlani saw me spray a couple of preemptive RR shots into my mouth and he asked me, "Are you going on a date?"

#1 - How does a 5-year-old make the Binaca connection when I have never had Binaca in the house during his lifetime?

#2 - Where would I be going at 6:45 a.m., and with whom??
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Rescue Remedy

I LOVE Whole Foods' "Whole Body" department.  And because I love it so much, I have to stay away.  The last time I went in to buy an herbal remedy to ward off a cold, I left $60 poorer.  But I so enjoyed my time wandering through the aisles of little bottles full of promises to cure everything that ails me.  I bought an aromatherapy inhaler about half the size of my pinky.  It smells so great I could just stand around sniffing it all day long.  I also bought some natural bug spray for my upcoming trip, some coconut lip balm, the herbal remedy I originally went in for (it worked!), and a few other goodies.

While I was browsing around I noticed the display of Bach Rescue Remedy.  I remember buying some when I was pregnant, because I read that midwives gave it to their patients to decrease anxiety during labor.  It contains 5 flower essences: Rock Rose for terror and panic, Impatiens for irritation and impatience, Clematis for inattentiveness, Star of Bethlehem for shock, and Cherry Plum for irrational thoughts.  That sounds like EXACTLY what I need to get through our morning mayhem.

Does it work?  A lot of people swear by it.  For me, it's kind of like the Behavior Modification Device (spray bottle).  Spraying bad kids with water makes me smile, which automatically lifts my mood.  The Rescue Remedy Spray is 27% alcohol and comes in a little bottle that you spray in your mouth like Binaca.  When I take a couple of hits, it's like shooting a teeny tiny little shot of vodka.  Thinking about spraying a mist of vodka into my mouth to calm me down makes me smile, which lifts my mood.

Whatever works!

Rescue Remedy Official Site

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Happy Birthday Pam!

A bunch of the pictures from our Saturday night celebration of Pam's birthday were not fit to share in this forum, but here are a few of the clean ones. We had a blast.

Ick

I read this and all I could think of when I looked at his pictures was "ick."
First Legal Male Gigolo

Then I saw this and and I threw up a little in my mouth.
Personal Hygiene Fail

I need to stop surfing before I lose my entire lunch.
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Uh-Oh...Spaghettios

This blog is starting to remind me of the blog I do for work. On that blog I have had a disproportionate number of posts about restroom doors, and on this one I can't seem to stop writing about crappy mornings. Maybe I should change the name of my blog to "EveryDayIWannaRunAway.blogspot.com" or "WhatAmIDoingWrong.wordpress.com."

On Friday mornings, Aliya and Adlani go to Chess Club, which starts at 8:00. This morning we had a date with Auntie Monica so she could learn the morning drop-off routine since she'll be helping out with that while I'm in Costa Rica.

Last night, Aliya asked me to make her Spaghettios for lunch today. I don't like making any more lunches than I absolutely have to, because each one requires 5-10 minutes that I just don't have, especially on Chess Club day. BUT...I agreed because that's the kind of mommy I am. The deal was that Aliya would pack the rest of the lunch and I would make the Spaghettios.

I had most of the lunch items out on the counter last night and ready to be packed this morning. I got everyone up early and there were no arguments about what anyone was going to wear. Aliya finished getting dressed first so I told her to go downstairs, pack her lunch and snack, and start eating breakfast.

When I got downstairs 15 minutes later, I found Aliya sitting at the table with no food, no lunch or snack packed - reading a book. I remember getting in trouble for reading too much when I was in 2nd grade and I've been hoping that she'd catch the reading bug, but NOT this morning.

So I calmly told her that I wouldn't have time to pack her lunch and that she'd have to eat the school lunch, which, by the way, she has eaten 99% of the days since she started kindergarten.

That's when the tsunami began. She cried, she screamed, she tried to block my path (yeah, right), she pushed me (not a good idea), she hit things, she kicked things, she yelled at the other kids. She even said that she would eat Norah's leftover Spaghettios from yesterday which were sitting in the thermos overnight.  The storm lasted for the entire time that I was making lunches and snacks and everyone else was eating breakfast - Aliya didn't eat anything.

When I told her that she had lost the privilege of going to Petco tonight to buy the fish for her new tank, Adlani immediately piped up, "Can I have her fish??" I laughed and that didn't go over well. I know that if Ben was home he would have given in to avoid listening to the screeching, but I don't respond well to someone screaming, "MAKE ME SPAGHETTIOS! NOW!" in my face.

When it was time to get in the car, Aliya refused to leave the house. I buckled the other kids and had to go back inside, pull Aliya out by the arm, then go back and lock the door. Like I have time for that crap!  What am I doing wrong??  I plan ahead, give clear directions, delegate responsibility, stand firm on my decisions, punish swiftly, bribe with abandon...I give up!!

And poor Norah went to school with Witch Hair again but this time it wasn't her fault.  I felt a little bad about that but I got over it.
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Mixed Emotions

I usually try to avoid off-color posts or disguise them so that the Little Pitchers don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but this joke cracked me up. I've changed the punchline slightly in a lame attempt at confusing the underage.

A husband and wife were sitting watching a TV program about psychology which explained the phenomenon of “mixed emotions." The husband turned to his wife and said, “Honey, that’s a bunch of crap. I bet you can’t tell me anything that will make me happy and sad at the same time.”

She said: “Out of all your friends, you are the most well-endowed.“


aaaHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! aaaHAHAHAHA!!!
(That was Lana's laugh.)

Thanks Julie!

Princess Hair, or Witch Hair?

What's it gonna be??

Yesterday was a rough morning.  Nothing unusual, just another case of three kids not doing what they were supposed to be doing until we were so late that we missed drop-off time at preschool, and because of that, we missed the bus.  Not a surprise.

I walked into Norah's school, already knowing that we would miss the bus and I'd have to drive Aliya and Adlani to their school and then WAIT until it was time for the kids to go inside.  I hate waiting!!!

When I saw Norah's teacher I said, "Her hair is a barometer of my mood.  When she has Princess Hair, things are going well and I even had time to make her look presentable.  When she has Witch Hair, things aren't going so well."

Not a shock, yesterday she had Witch Hair.  I'm sure the teacher was thinking that her little 3-month-old princess would NEVER be going to school with Witch Hair.  I used to think that way, but I've let quite a few things slide.  In fact, I can't remember the last time Norah went to school with Princess Hair.

The unexpected benefit is that Norah has an overwhelming desire for all things Princess, so I can now threaten her with Witch Hair and actually get some results. 

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Here it is...the dreaded Witch Hair:

Online Shopping

And on a lighter note...I saw a post today about weird internet stores and I just had to post the links here in case someday I need to buy some handerpants (underwear-gloves), ice cube trays that make shot glasses which you can then fill with the beverage of your choice, or bacon-flavored breath mints.  Maybe I should expand my blog and add a shopping section.

Remember how it was when we were teenagers, and in order to buy something you had to find a store that carried it and then GO there?  And if you wanted to learn the words to a song you had to wait for it to come on the radio, press record on your cassette player and then play it again and again while you wrote the words down one line at a time?  And when you wanted to talk to your friend you had to use the telephone (We had a party line so we had to wait until the neighbors were done talking!)?  And you had to talk in the closet because that's as far as the cord would reach?  And you could call the boy you were secretly in love with and hang up without him knowing it was you?  Yeah...those were the days.

Anyway, here are those links:

Fred and Friends

Archie McPhee

Great Big Stuff
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A Sign?

I've mentioned before that I believe in *signs*, spirits, after death communications, whatever words you want to use to describe the connection with people who have died. It's not like I'm a ghost-hunter or I gather the kids around for Friday night seances (Hey! Maybe I'll dig out my Ouija board for Aliya's next sleepover!), but I do believe in some sort of "life after death."

This morning on the way to school Aliya was asking a lot of questions about ghosts. She had seen a TV show about kids who tried to investigate hauntings, etc. I told her that the day Bernie died, I was laying on the bed in the hotel room, feeling numb with shock and grief, not really asleep but not fully awake either, and I felt him squeeze my knee and heard him say, "Love ya, kid." It was SO real. Seriously.

So this morning when I was talking about it in the car, I started to cry a little. Then the most freaky thing happened. I turned the next corner, and in the sky right in front of us, beginning in the middle of the windshield and extending straight down was a piece of a rainbow. A rainbow? In the winter? When it hadn't rained or snowed?  Really?

I don't know about you but I don't see rainbows very often. They are one of the magical things that you can't just buy or conjure up at will. To see one in that context really made me wonder (again) if Bernie was sending his love.

Hello From Heaven
After Death Communication Research Foundation

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School Reorganization

I attended the meeting tonight regarding the school reorganization plan.  For people reading this from out of town, a major reorganization of our school district has been proposed and we're in the middle of the "public comment" period.

I don't feel that I can openly vent on the Facebook page, but I can be a little more candid here.  As I sat at the meeting tonight I felt like nobody had really listened to anything the superintendent said.  People kept wanting answers to their questions, and details like which kid would be going to which school, how much money would be spent/saved, etc.  Personally, if the reorganization team had presented a detailed plan with the lines already drawn, I would assume that it was a done deal and that it was too late for feedback.  This week is the period where we get to COMMENT, and then the reorg team makes any necessary changes and issues a final proposal to be voted on by the school committee.  Seems simple enough.

The reorganization team is made up of a group of educators in our school system, many of whom are parents of kids in our schools.  They know about education and they care about kids.  I know most of them, either personally or by reputation.  I trust them.  What do I know?  I sell locks.

Parents keep talking about how the changes will negatively affect their kids.  I strongly believe that if we are positive about it, the kids will be too.  Aliya and Adlani aren't at all concerned.  To be fair, the kids who are being relocated to their neighborhood school will have a tougher adjustment than our school which will be moving as a complete unit, but I still think kids adapt to change much easier than we do, and factor our response into theirs.  If we're fine, they'll be fine too.

There are obvious advantages to the proposal, if people would put their emotions and fear of change aside and listen.  The principal of Dunning and the high school principal both gave great insight into why the proposal of K-2/3-5 pairings will benefit education.  But people seemed hung up on "I don't want to leave my school," or "I don't want my kid to go to a school with low MCAS scores."  That argument doesn't really make sense to me.  If the MCAS scores are low at a particular school (let's put aside the reasons why for now), but every school is being changed and the kids are being shuffled around, how do last year's MCAS scores matter?  If the scores are low because the teachers are bad, that's one thing, but that's not the reason.

At least 6 people said they didn't want their kids to go to Woodrow Wilson because it's in a "bad part of town," and some even suggested sending the Two-Way program there.  (I couldn't help feeling like they were suggesting it as some sort of punishment.  Someone said on the Facebook page that the program was "elitist" because you have to enter in kindergarten.  Duh...you can't enter at a higher grade because you'd have to be fluent in Spanish.  If you are and there's space available, you're welcome!)  One woman said she would move out of the 'Ham if her kid got assigned to Woodrow.  True, it's not in a good part of town.  But I kept wondering if anyone was going to defend the school because I know how I'd feel if people were saying that they didn't want their kids to go to our school.  The last comment of the night was my favorite Zumba instructor Ali (her son went to our preschool last year).  As soon as I saw her standing there I knew she was going to be the one to defend Woodrow Wilson because I remember when her son was assigned there for kindergarten.

Ali was extremely emotional, so of course I immediately started crying.  (Ted didn't help when he told me to pull it together.)  She was very hurt that everyone was slamming the school her son attends, and she wanted to share the story of his success there.  Like all of the schools in the 'Ham, Woodrow has amazing teachers, and because of them, her son is thriving.  I was so proud of Ali for standing up and speaking out, even though I'm sure she knew she would have a hard time.  I don't think I would have been able to do the same.  She was very brave.

There's one more meeting for public comment on Thursday night, and no doubt some of the same people will show up with the same gripes.  Personally, I'm a big fan of working together toward a positive outcome rather than fighting against each other but we'll have to wait and see how it goes.  There may be some nice real estate opening up on the south side of route 9.   
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Please Help!

I really need your help with some research I'm conducting.  I'm compiling some data about what the general public knows about fire doors that I can use in an educational program for code officials.  I need to get responses from as many people as possible, so I'm hoping that you'll not only click on the link below to take the survey, but that you will also copy the link into an email and ask your friends and family to take it too.  It only takes about 5 minutes and it would really help me out.

Thanks!

http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/4F92BDFA58D15D34/
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Interesting Perspective

The best part is at the end.  I'm afraid of Bloody Mary and Bigfoot too.  And turkeys.


The decade according to 9-year-olds from allison louie-garcia on Vimeo.

Failed Resolution #2

Sleep More

I'm positive that Resolution #2 would help me with Resolution #1, but it's not as easy as just going to bed.

a) When I put the kids to bed I often fall asleep with one of them for a half hour or so, and then I am wide awake until 2 a.m.  Even if I don't get this little catnap I'm still wide awake until 2 a.m.  I have some residual childhood night-time issues that could be contributing.  Solution - Therapy and a new bedtime routine?
 
b) The lure of getting something done beats the lure of my pillow.  If I try to go to bed early I just lay there thinking about everything I didn't do today.  The end of the list just keeps getting further away so I'm not sure what to do about it.  Solution - An assistant and a double-dose of Tylenol PM?
 
c) When I do finally hit the sheets I don't get good sleep.  Kids crawl in with me at all hours and once they're there they are constantly kicking me or waking me with their Spanish sleep-talking.  You would think I could just send them back to their bed but I rarely wake up enough to make a conscious decision.  Even though my sleep is interrupted, I don't wake up enough to fix the problem.  Solution - A lock and earplugs?

By the way, I did NOT yell this morning.  The getting up early wasn't as successful as I'd hoped because the staying up late made the getting up early almost impossible, but I decided to try to "manage my expectations."  My boss, and my previous bosses (my boss' brother and father) have been telling me for 15 years to manage my expectations when I get upset about an employee who isn't doing what I think he or she should be doing.  Honestly, it has been really annoying to hear that over and over, but I've had enough Kool-Aid at this point so that's part of my survival plan.  If I don't expect much, I'm not disappointed.  Very sad, in my opinion, but realistic.

So this morning I didn't expect the kids to know that teeth are brushed with toothpaste, that socks go on feet before shoes, or that breakfast comes before playing with kittens.  I prodded them as needed to keep them moving forward, but I didn't necessarily expect them to move forward so I didn't get mad when they didn't.  When they gave me trouble, I walked away.  When Norah threw a fit while I brushed her hair, she went to school with beginner-dreadlocks.  When Adlani still couldn't find his boot, he had to wear Aliya's back-up pair again.  Too girlie for ya?  Oh well, manage your expectations.  I set the timer and gave them their instructions, and when it started beeping I walked out with my keys, then honked the horn in the driveway.

I nagged, honked, and sent my kids to school with opposite-gender footwear and dreads.  But I didn't yell.

This is my anthem:



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Failed Resolution #1

Stop Yelling

When I was a kid, I always vowed that I would never yell like my mother did.  My mother could yell.  And she would sometimes lose it completely and say the things that many of us have thought at some point in the heat of the moment, like, "I only had kids so they could do the housework!"  I did learn one thing from Mom's yelling, which is never to say those things out loud because your kids will remember them forever.

So I have no idea how I got from a vow of always speaking in calm and encouraging tones, to an exact clone of my mother, yelling in the driveway at 8 a.m., and considering pulling out a clump of my own hair to strangle someone with.  This morning was a perfect example...first day back after Christmas vacation, a new year, a new beginning, Yeah, right.

~ Alarm rings, kids whine, I pry them out of bed and send them toward their clothes.  Level 0 on the Anger-Meter.  Not bad!
~ Tell each kid 52 times to put on a particular article of clothing.  Level 1.
~ Adlani throws a fit because he doesn't want to wear the sweater that he is already wearing.  Smacks towel rack in bathroom, which makes a very satisfying bang (I'll have to remember that for my next outburst).  Level 2.
~ Finally make it downstairs for breakfast and Aliya is laying in front of the fireplace with the dog instead of fixing her snack or eating breakfast.  Level 3.
~ Breakfast and all that it entails.  Level 4.
~ Playing with kittens instead of eating.  Level 5.
~ Playing with kittens instead of putting on coats.  Level 6.
~ Adlani missing one (brand new) boot, AND insists on sitting right in the only path from kitchen to front door.  Level 7.
~ Brush Norah's hair after no conditioner was used by last night's bath overseer.  Level 8.
~ Still no coats.  Already 5 minutes late.  I have a chiropractor appointment at 9:30 and a meeting at 10.  Missing the bus is not an option.  Level 9.
~ Herd everyone to the driveway with backpacks, freshly-washed nap blankets, complete cold-weather gear (each piece labeled), snacks, assorted forms...open car door...one booster seat is missing.

Level 10 - RED ALERT - Level 10 - BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP 

To make matters worse, some of my tactics are no longer working.  Before vacation I had a similar morning situation and when we were finally on our way I started in on the uber-emotional "WHY CAN'T YOU GUYS JUST DO ONE LITTLE THING I ASK YOU TO DO?!?!" complete with faux sniffling (call me a faker but I have to get my point across somehow), and Norah piped up from the back seat, "Sometimes Daddy calls you a crybaby."  Nice.

Just a day or two later I used the Deep Breath & 10-Count technique during breakfast (in hopes that they would think, "We'd better stop or she's going to lose it.") and Norah innocently asked, "What?  Your breath smells really really bad?"

In 2010, I'm all about making necessary changes, and our morning routine is in obvious need of an overhaul.  Tomorrow morning we will be trying Change #1 - get up 1/2 hour earlier, along with Lana's suggestion of setting the timer to indicate when to put on coats, rather than saying it 142 times.  If that doesn't work I'm asking my doctor for meds.
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Happy New Year 2010!