Big Man on Campus

I offered the spell-your-name with pancakes breakfast this morning, and was rejected...apparently, Dad's omelets are better than my pancakes. I offered to walk him to class, and was rejected...but eventually he had to let me when he realized it was a rule that the parents walk the kids to class on the first day. I offered a goodbye hug, and was rejected...he was already too busy learning the ropes.

At least he let me take a first day of school picture!

Pink can't help but be part of the action. She spent all morning asking if she could go to preschool too. I told her to wait until next year, and then took her grocery shopping (hooray, one kid at the grocery store!) and to story time. I think she enjoyed the one-on-one time with mom, but she clearly missed her big brother.
The first day went well, Blue came out of school smiling and happy, with a backpack full of preschool homework (which roughly translates to mother/son craft projects with a theme), and an assignment to get a bigger backpack (the one he had didn't fit a full-sized folder appropriately). We did some of the homework today, and we have more for tomorrow. We did manage to score a 50% off backpack at Target this afternoon, and it has lots of extra space for a hot glue gun - just in case we need it for all those craft projects...maybe father does know best.

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

Why am I removing a hot glue gun from Blue's backpack? Because tomorrow is the first day of school and his father thinks he's funny. Yes, the enviable "first day of Pre-K".

To Blue, it's a big deal - preschool every day, more responsibilities, new shoes...

Apparently to his parents, not so much. When putting Blue to bed today, I thought we should check on his wardrobe choices for tomorrow. Good thing I did, or he would be making his Pre-K debut in hand-me-down seersucker shorts (which he loves, but probably aren't the nicest thing in his closet). After starting the laundry, it occurred to me to assemble his backpack, which doesn't really need to have much in it - other than a change of clothes, which, as I mentioned, are currently being laundered. Red, ever the helpful one, decides to help pack the backpack - by inserting a hot glue gun.

Me: "What are you doing?"
Red: "This will be the first time a preschool teacher looks in a backpack and says, 'what the $#%^@?"
Me, laughing uncontrollably: "Please don't help anymore"

It's 11:30pm. Our day starts in about 6 hours. Am I sleeping? Nope, blogging. Someone help us all.

Dadurday and Momday

The day between Friday and Sunday is known as "Dadurday" around here. It's the day that dad stays home all day and plays with the kids - that's what they tell us, at least. We had a good Dadurday this week, filled with the usual dad-kid activities.

Yesterday, Red and I were comparing schedules for the week, and realized that he would be leaving Monday morning at 6am, and not be returning until 10pm. Additionally, I was planning to have 5 extra kids in the house, some for several hours. We decided that Monday should be renamed "Momday". And any good renaming should have a theme song:

MOMday MOMday, so good to me,
MOMday MOMday, it was all I hoped it would be
Oh MOMday morning, MOMday morning couldn't guarantee
That MOMday evening you would still be here with me.

MOMday MOMday, can't trust that day,
MOMday MOMday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh MOMday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be
Oh MOMday MOMday, how could you leave and not take me.

Every other day, every other day,
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever MOMday comes, but whenever MOMday comes
You can find me cryin' all of the time

Honestly, now that it's over, MOMday wasn't really that bad. Lots of kids, lots of fun, very few problems...except for the completely trashed kitchen that I will now go remedy.

What's for dinner?

Overheard on the drive to soccer this morning:

Red (looking at a sign for a new restaurant): "Best Thai" - hm, that's a little presumptuous, don't you think?

Green: How do you know? Maybe "Best" is their last name.

Red: Yeah, sure - the famous Best family of Thailand. Maybe later we could try out "Shapiro Thai".

Green: Or "Rogers Vietnamese" - you never know.

Mostly, I just feel sorry for our children. How are they ever going to be useful adults if this is the kind of conversations they hear every day?

Happy Lefthanders Day!

Our little Pink is a southpaw, a leftie, a witch (seriously? who could have believed that?) - at least, so far. I hear this can change up until she is about 5 or 6 years old.

She seems to have been sinistral (what a horrible name) from birth, always turning her head to left when she slept, and sucking her left thumb. As she has grown, she uses her left hand to color, use a fork, and punch her brother. She may be a true leftie - using her left hand also to hold a tennis racket and swing a golf club.

We are delving into the world of the left handed, searching for child-safe, left-handed scissors, and realizing that most things, including spiral bound notebooks and wristwatches are made for the right-handed.

Until a few days ago, I didn't realize there was a Left-Handed Holiday; yet, here it is, August 13th. Funny with the whole sinister/13 reference. We celebrated today by coloring left handed and punching our brother.

Happy Lefthanders Day to all those out there trying to use a mouse the opposite way, or just to those that love them.

Live from NY, it's BlogHer '10

I'm in NYC for the weekend attending BlogHer'10, and am loving it. In addition to the blogging conference, which doesn't make for very good pictures, Vermilion and I have been taking advantage of the city that never sleeps. I love being in a place where you can really start your evening out after all the conference sessions end at 7pm, and not feel strange about it.

Oh yeah, I ♥ NY

My mothership It wouldn't be NYC without some celebrity sightings...blogging celebrities, that is - like Pioneer Woman. One of my favorite painters - we stayed until the museum closed, when the security guards started muttering about the "free friday filth". Ha!
When Red and I lived here, we always saw the view of the skyline from the top of the world trade center because 1) it was the tallest building and 2) (and probably, most importantly, because we're cheap) we got a discount because Red worked in the building. Last night, I saw the view from the top of Rockefeller Center. Still impressive. As we headed back to the hotel around 11:30pm, we saw two enormous lines of people on the street. Figuring they had to be gathered for something fabulous, we took a closer look. To our amazement, we had managed to run into The Halal Guys, serving fabulous food from a truck for $6. Topped off with a cupcake from The Magnolia Bakery, the perfect midnight dinner.

List of Accomplishments (well, only if I finish them)

I'm leaving for the BlogHer Conference in a couple of days, and inspired by my friend Lolli (who I hope to spend some time with while there), I'm posting my to-do list. I'm hoping the accountability of writing this out will help me finish.

Things I need to finish:

1. Clean out my car - heaven forbid something happen to me and someone else has to deal will all those cracker crumbs.

2. Laundry - it's not enough to decide what to wear; it actually has to be clean, too.

3. Re-evaluate the shoe situation - I can't possibly need this many pairs of shoes for 3 days.

4. Toenails - enough said.

5. Find and pack chargers - why does every electronic device require a different charger? Can't we all just get along here?

6. Clear off my desk space - this stuff is completely out of control and buried in here somewhere are all the bills - who wants to come home to this?

7. Think about what to do in my time off - it's New York City, and I want to make the most of every minute!

8. Stop worrying about leaving so much - before the kids were born, I traveled for work all the time, so I know what to expect when I leave Red on his own (a weird number of Taco Bell meals and him staying up way too late, as well as strange organizational frenzies that might leave my closet bare), but I've never left Red and the kids alone for more than about 3 or 4 hours. Crazy, huh? Never, not a girls' weekend, not a long shopping trip, nothing. I am sure they can handle it, but 4 days with no mom - anything could happen here.


Things I have already managed to do:

1. Fill the house with kid-friendly, low-cooking foods - so what if they live on cereal bars and fruit snacks for a few days...and I included Oreos, not because the kids like them, but because Red loves them, and experience shows that a happy parent leads to happy children (at least, that's how it works with me).

2. Restore some order to the kids' rooms - and do enough laundry that they should at least have something to wear every day until I get back.

3. Resist the urge to make an hour-by-hour comprehensive list of activities for those 4 days - they really will be okay without an exacting timetable of soccer practice/swimming lesson/meal schedules, right? RIGHT????