A day in the life of super mom

Yesterday was a busy busy day.  I spent the morning watching a friend's daughters.  Now typically when the kids play together there is a nice "honeymoon" period where they get along famously, and then after about 90 minutes they start acting like brothers and sisters - trying to kill each other (or at least seriously wound each other).  This was not the case yesterday.  My 5-year-old was off at school, and my 3-year-old and the two little ladies got along great, for a few hours!  I was able to finish my reading of research proposals so I could submit my final assignment for one of my grad classes.  The day was off to a great start.  We ate lunch, had a little down time, and ventured off to collect my oldest from school.  The youngest (who I will refer to as "G" from here on out) had a melt down in the school yard when we told him that it was too cold to stay and play on the playground - threw himself on the ground and had a fit.  We got in the car, and drove home so Daddy could get changed for a trip to the store for dress pants. 

It gets dark here pretty early, but the sky still had a little light to it.  We crossed the bridge, and I suddenly realized that I didn't see my headlights reflecting off the back of the car in front of us.  Now anyone who knows the trials and tribulations of our Chevy Trailblazer is aware that we have some electrical idiosyncracies.  It likes to lock itself with the keys and children inside.  It likes to turn off random lights, like the driver's side headlight or a brake-light.  Sometimes the passenger door loses electrical power so you can't roll the window down (or back up) and it won't unlock.  Anywhoo, so we pull over and realize that I can't see my headlights because they are both out!!  AHHH!  We opened the hood and I fiddled with the driver's side wires and the headlight came back on.  The passenger side light is blocked on the back by the air filter cover, and I had no screwdriver with me to move this.  Out of frustration I hit the headlight with my fist, and it came back on - seriously when does that ever work???  And we were off again, with headlights operational.

We got into Burlington, found some pants and shoes for Daddy at Ross - which I've never been in before, but happily discovered is sort of like TJ Maxx.  Found a dress for me to wear as well, which was hard since my "helpful" husband kept pulling out the most hideous options and suggesting I would look good in them.  Tried to find some shoes, but I have an issue with heals as I have a tendency to walk like a drag queen, and the higher the heel, the worse the strut becomes.  Left the store with clothes for the holiday party tonight.  On to the mall so the boys could deliver their wish lists to Santa.  My 5-year-old (who I will refer to as "P" from here on out) took just a moment to warm up to Santa and then was happy to let him know what he desired.  G just looked shell-shocked.  His eyes were huge and he kept looking at P and then nodding, but wouldn't say anything.  Picture time, and P was happy to smile because he was feeling good that Santa was going to deliver what he wanted.  But G looked like a zombie.  He just stared off into outer space.  I don't think he was even blinking!  He wasn't upset and crying, he really just looked a little creepy.  Santa pulled out a candy cane to entice him to smile, even unwrapped it and put it in G's mouth, but still no smile (or blinking).  Sweet pictures.  I was dying I was laughing so hard.

Headed home.  I changed into my new dress while Daddy tried on his dress clothes - because you know they always look horrible in the store dressing room as compared to your own bedroom.  P remarked that I looked beautiful - he's always good for an ego boost.  He then went on to let me know that at school that day two girls were kissing him!  They weren't even sneaky about it, like waiting until recess.  Nope, they were kissing on his face right in the classroom!  And so it begins.  I told him it's because he's so sweet and has those nice puffy kissers.  I'm just hoping he stays sweet and doesn't try to fashion himself as a little ladies man like his Daddy was.  :)

Major Design Flaw

When the weather permits, and the boys aren't dragging their feet, we walk my 5-year-old to school.  It's not quite a 1/2 mile each way so it would seem like an easy task.  Typically before we even get out of sight of the house, my 3-year-old is asking me to carry him.  When I refer to him as my husband's "mini-me", I'm not joking.  I'm pretty sure if I had the ability to carry my spouse home from the playground, he would ask for it as well.  I can't decide if it's a touch of laziness or if he just wants me to hold him [my 3-year-old, not my husband].  Somehow, though we always manage to make it to the school on time.  My kindergartner won't let me kiss him anymore, as he has to look cool in front of the other kids, so I have to sneak in my sweet lovin' before we get to the school grounds.  He runs off to play before the whistle blows to line up.  Now you would think that at this point we could leave, since my doddler typically takes a solid century to walk home.  But no, my 3-year-old will not leave the school fence until every single kid is inside.  We will watch his brother go in and you would think this was all he was waiting for.  Nope.  He's like the playground police.  Wants to make sure every straggling kid makes it in the door before we head out.

So what is my point?  Well, yes I'm a little long-winded about our routine on school days because it occupies a lot of my time and energy 2-3 days a week.  What I've noticed on these school days, is that a little bit of poor planning went into the design of the exit strategy for this elementary school.  Clearly I've shown that I have plenty of time to analyze the situation while I wait for my youngest to be ready to leave.  Alright, the school parking lot is a little ridiculous.  It is set up well, in that you pull into the lot, drive down a lane on the right, turn left into the parking area, and when you're ready to leave you continue out the other side of the parking area and continue on out of the school grounds (so you sort of make a circle).  This should work well for traffic flow.  It gets backed up a little at the entrance as children are crossing the street, so there is an understandable wait while this happens.  The real issue is that the lane you enter the school grounds on, also doubles as the exit lane for buses.  It's plenty wide for this to be accomplished.  Buses are given priority where the lanes comes back together, but some parent's decide that their time is too valuable to sit in the line waiting to get out, so they hop in line with the buses in the hopes of gaining priority as well.  This is a huge pet-peeve of mine.  The area is clearly labeled showing the appropriate traffic flow, but those who choose to ignore the signs (because the universe revolves around them), throw a wrench into things, slowing down the natural process.  It kind of makes me want to grind my teeth, and this is when I'm not even waiting in my car.  Apparently this bothers other parents too, as they are so stressed in dealing with this at the end of the school day, that they can't even wait until they get home to light up their cigarette.  Classy.  I think I'd rather pull my hair out and have a permanent eye twitch than subject my children to the effects of my nasty habit - but that's just me.

In addition to major issues with traffic patterns, there is a small issue (I feel) with the sidewalk.  I love love love that the sidewalk is wide enough for approximately 6 kids to walk side-by-side.  This works out great when everyone is getting out of school and there is a rush of people all trying to get off the property.  When we arrived at our first day of school, one piece of advice provided by a school official was to encourage kids to walk along the fence which would keep them as far as possible from the area where parents are driving out of the parking lot.  Of course!  This makes perfect sense.  Should be easy enough, especially since there's so much room.  Now does anybody else see why this might prove a little bit difficult with curious kids?  Do we really need a yellow stripe indicating where the edge of the sidewalk is?  Somehow we manage to stay off the street when we walk around the neighborhood, and none of our sidewalks have this stripe.  Is it to indicate not to park there?  A sign might help with that, or perhaps a little common sense.  Now maybe some children/parents really need that stripe there to act as a warning, but I can't believe that my preschooler is the only one who thinks it makes a great balance beam.

I love my kindergartner's school.  Love his teacher.  Especially love that he really likes going and learning new things.  But sort of wish that parents would set a better example at least while they're on the school grounds, and that maybe the stripe be scraped off the sidewalk - though I'm sure he would still like to walk on that part just to test fate.

The Dirty Dietitian

Where oh where has my motivation gone?  I find myself wrapping up my fall semester of classes and have pretty much lost all my momentum.  I'm still loving that I'm getting this degree and the material is certainly still very interesting.  I think I'm just ready to be done with these classes so I can move on to the next ones.  Big projects are coming due and a final exam next week will wrap things up.  I am amazed to find that I still have more space left in my brain for new information.  And I'm loving sharing everything I learn, though I have to remember that most people don't want to know all raw information I've put together. 

I decided, after my rant on shake diets, that rather than continue to be frustrated with the poor diet choices that others make I would instead start a little help page on Facebook.  I can post little tips each day and answer questions that people may have.  This way I can pass the information I gather along to those who want to know more about healthier eating/lifestyle.  There are a lot of people out there who want to make the best choices, but are not unhealthy enough to warrant an insurance-covered visit to a dietitian.  I've named my page "The Dirty Dietitian".  I wasn't feeling particularly clever, and figured this sort of summed up my take on nutrition education - delivery raw, crude, or "dirty" details.  Though as I think more about it now, it sort of sounds like some guy's fantasy.  Like after the Naughty Librarian would be the Dirty Dietitian?  Ah, whatever.  If I can manage to help even one person, then I'm content.