Wow...Been a while

I was just thinking the other day how it had been FOREVER since I had posted. I didn't even realize it had been 3 YEARS! Holy moly, where did the time go?

Guess I fell off the wagon, so to speak. And where, oh where, do I begin to catch myself up?? Can you imagine how daunting a task it is to try to describe my life- much less 3 years of it - at one time??

Yeahhh....maybe that's a task for a different day.

Girlfriends and stuff

Dalton: Mommy, do you have a girlfriend?

Me: Well, I have lots of friends. Some are boys and some are girls.

Dalton: Oh, do you kiss them all???

Me: Wha?? Baby, you can have lots of friends, but that doesn't mean you kiss them.

Dalton: Well, isn't that what you're supposed to do when you have a girlfriend?

Me: Not until you're grown-up. (Thinking: over my dead body..more until you're like..ohh..40)

Dalton: Oh...well...Is Dean your girlfriend?

Me: What? Dean's not a girl.

Dalton: Oh yeah, cuz he's a boy. Is he your boyfriend?

Me: He's my husband. We're married. Why do you ask?

Dalton: I had to make sure. You have to be married to get babies.

Me: WHAAA????? You're right, but where did you hear that?

Dalton: My friends at school told me. Then we went on the playground and we beat up bad guys.

Me: Oh ok.


Yeah, ok, shoot me..I chickened out of making that into a more meaningful, educational conversation. And yes, I mildly panicked when he brought up babies, and yes I was extremely relieved when he changed the subject.

Kids...they blindside you with the weirdest stuff sometimes.

Quick Update!

Well, kindergarten seems to be going pretty well for my baby. :-) Is started out pretty rough. He got the first red mark of the semester, out of ALL the grades. lol Then a couple of yellow marks, interspersed with green marks. Then another red mark for hitting a kid in the face with his lunchbox! 2 parent-teacher conference in 3 weeks was pretty rough. lol Now that I think he gets the idea that he's supposed to BEHAVE like he does at home, we shouldn't be seeing many more reds. I'm not being idealic. I know that NO 5 year old goes the whole year without getting into some kind of trouble, but hopefully, he's not getting them for hitting other kids anymore! lol

My little one has ANOTHER ear infection, so now we have a referral to an ENT to get tubes in his ears. We've been trying to get tubes for months now, but the original ENT we were referred to wouldn't do the tubes when he had a current infection, because he gets ridiculously high fevers. We found one through his pediatrician that will do it as long as we can get his fever under control. Other than that, he's doing great! His weight has evened out quite a bit. I mean, he wasn't all that big when he was born (7lbs 12oz), but he was 12lbs, by 1 month, almost 20 lbs by 5 months...a big kid! lol He's been at his current weight (23 lbs 7 oz) for the last 6 months, and is getting leaner in terms of losing the baby fat. He still has those adorable chubby baby legs, but he doesn't look so much like a butterball now! lol

See...I told you that was quick!

Kindergarten!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. So now that I have that out of my system, I'm doing ok.

We just got through the first week of Kindergarten and are starting on the 2nd. The first day of school for Dalton went a little better than I expected, although the people crying were kind of backwards. I expected to bawl my eyes out, but really didn't, while Dalton, whom I expected to be so wrapped up in everything going on, to be just fine....had a mini-meltdown once he realized mommy and daddy were actually leaving him there.

We walked out during the crying fit and stood outside watching as his teacher calmed him down and started him on a coloring project. And, oh boy, does that kid color angry! I mean, he was still completely upset at us leaving, and with his bottom lip still quivering and tears snaking their way down his cheeks, my child grabbed a crayon and proceeded to RIP into his paper with it. He was pressing so hard, and scribbling so fast, I expected the crayon to go flying and poke another child's eye out!

Can you image that call from the teacher? "Ma'am..your son has blinded a child with his angry coloring..." Yeah. As we watched, he seemed to calm down though, and off we went to the school library for a parent meet and greet. That was pretty nice to be able to meet some of the parents of the kids in Dalton's same class. I know that with a new school, he's going to make new friends, and he's now old enough to start the...duh duh duh...dreaded sleepovers!!! Which means that starting to build relationships with those other parents now, is definitely a good start.

His first day went well, and he got a green marks (green is good, yellow is "Behavior needs to improve", and red is "Stop the presses! Attend to your child before I lock him in a closet!"

The green marks didn't last long at all. On Wednesday, my child received the first red mark of the semester out of ALL the grades, K-5th. Wow, what an accomplishment *sarcasm.* Each child has a job to do each day. Dalton gets to turn the music on and off, another kid will pass out folders, another kid will hold the doors open when everyone's going to lunch or to recess, etc. Well, Dalton didn't want to give his name badge to the girl that collects it at the end of the day. When Mrs. L (his teacher) asked him to hand it over, he told her, "No it's mine. It has my name on it." When she explained that he needed to leave it at school and he could wear it again tomorrow, he had a meltdown and a temper tantrum. When she knelt beside him and told him that if his behavior continued, he would have to have a timeout during recess the next day. You want to know what my child, my angel, did? He looked at her, and said, "Too bad!"

O. M. G.!!!!!!!! MY child did that????? My calm, laid back, well-behaved child did THAT?? Holy crap. So, his daddy and I had a serious discussion with him, brought him to school early the next day and met with Mrs. L, told her how we handled it at home, and had Dalton apologize. She wrote us a note thanking us for being so involved with his behavioral issues. Apparently, parents nowadays would have left it alone. He still had to sit out at recess, which I approve of. Every action has consequences after all. Well, he behaved himself after that and got another green mark.

Well, on Friday, he managed to get himself a yellow mark. Not horrible or anything, but he was acting silly in class, so we had to talk to him again. We'll see how today goes! lol

And in OTHER news, I know that CLC schools are in the top ten in the country, and I'm THRILLED to have Dalton in the system there, but man, they start all this homework crap and project crap EARLY!

He came home with his first 2 project assignments on his first day of school! No big deal, but sheesh, I just got done buying school supplies, and now I have to turn around and buy project supplies...good lord.

AND he has his first fundraiser too! Anyone want to buy some over-priced cookie-dough??? lol He gets prizes for selling certain amounts, so I want to make sure he gets at least ONE!

This sums it up

Dear Diary,

Just moved to Texas ! Now this is a state that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! It is beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th:Really heating up. Got to 90 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshipper.

June 30th: Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing the lawn. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th: The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least, it's kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th: Fell asleep by the community pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body). Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th: I missed Lomita (my cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car at noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag, then popped like a water balloon. The car now smells like Kibbles and Shits. I learned my lesson though.. No more pets in this heat. Good ol' Mr. Sun strikes again.

July 25th: The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!! And it's hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th: Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now, $225,000 house and I can't even go inside. Lomita is the lucky one. Why did I ever come here?

Aug. 4th: It's 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85. I hate this stupid state.

Aug. 8th: If another wise ass cracks, 'Hot enough for you today?' I'm going to strangle him. Damn heat. By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

Aug. 9th: Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts, and when I sat on the seats in the car, I thought my ass was on fire. My skin melted to the seat. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and butt . . . Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried butt, and baked cat.

Aug 10th: The weather report might as well be a damn recording. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do shit for 2 damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this damn state? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700 worth of cactus will just dry up and blow over. Even the cactus can't live in this damn heat.

Aug. 14th: Welcome to HELL! Temperature got to 115 today. Cactus are dead. Forgot to crack the window and blew the damn windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me??? "Hot enough for you today?"

Aug 15th: My sister had to spend $1,500 to bail me out of jail. Freaking Texas .What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here??

Will write later to let you know how the trial goes.

My devil child

He is driving me INSANE!

Insane, I tell ya!

I have no idea how to keep up with this child. He is almost 15 months old, but he might as well be 3, or 5, or even 13. His rate of learning is just...incredible. I can't believe what this kid is catching onto!

He's still the king of temper tantrums. I only thought he had perfected it at 6 months...you know, kicking and screaming all over the floor. How much worse could it get?

Well, he showed me. Now, he's into hitting and throwing things. Let me tell you, that kid has an ARM! If he doesn't play baseball when he's older, then his talent is wasted.

Now, he's into doing things that I didn't think possible for his age:

• Opening and closing the dishwasher, including moving the locking handle. AND he can use the turning switch to turn the damn thing on. Maybe I should just start teaching him how to load the damn thing.

• Opening doors. Yes, I said opening doors. As in reaching up, turning the door knob, and opening the door. Yes, he's only 14 months old.....I know....My reaction too.

• Using cell phones. Admittedly, he really doesn't know HOW to use it. But the kid has figured out how to UNLOCK my phone! Ughh. That was my failsafe to keep him from calling China! He could still get into my ICE contacts with it locked (just ask my mom and stepdad. they've received LOTS of calls from him), but now with him unlocking my phone, he has access to my full address book. And text messages. Sooooo...if you get some random call one day...it's not me! He's also figured out how to access the web on my phone. I'm scared to see my cell phone bill! lol

• And for the grand finale.........you know those Safety First locking mechanisms that you put on doors and stove handles to keep kids from..oh, you know...turning the stove on?? Well, he can take them off. Yeah. I'm so glad that my knobs are on the top of my stove (on the back) instead of on the front, but the lady that watches the kids in the morning found out his talent first hand. He even BROKE one off her stove. It's PLASTIC for god's sake!!!

What, oh what, am I going to do with him!?

PLEASE HELP!

PLEASE HELP!

My aunt is in the process of trying to adopt her grandson who was born a crack baby and at only 2 weeks old, he was in the hospital with a fractured skull and was recently diagnosed with a brain bleed. They are having trouble with the expenses of caring for him and need help! They could use formula, baby clothes, accessories such as swings and playmats, etc..If you can help, please ask me for details!

Hunter is SO small to be going through all of this. He is the cutest little baby, and is having so many problems already. He also has one of the worst cases of colick his doctors have ever seen, so he cries pretty much all day and all night.

You can also read about Hunter on my aunt's blog here. They could use any help you are able to give! Please let me know!