Oh Crap, that sucks.

It's all fun and games until somebody loses their pants.

It was the last Saturday before schools started, and I had the great idea to not only buy the 12-pound box of plums, but also to feed some to my family for lunch. And then take them to the church pool party in the evening.

Poor Pink, her little system couldn't quite take it, and she...ummm....didn't quite make it to the potty. Out of the pool and into the bathroom, but not quite onto the commode.  Being an experienced mother, unafraid of body fluids (and really with no other options, standing dripping in the bathroom of the community pool, with everyone we attend church with swimming outside), I diligently stepped into another stall to rinse out the swimsuit bottom in the privy. To give it a good rinse with some swirling action, I flushed. Who would have guessed that our community pool has jet-force suction on the toilet flush? Certainly not me until I watched that swimsuit disappear with a whoosh.

I had to leave her there confused and half-naked while I retrieved her swim cover and then tried to explain that she could not, in fact, get back into the pool, and that she had to stand up very straight while we cleaned up the party.

Now she keeps asking where her butterfly swimsuit is...and I resist the urge to tell her that it flew away.

Back to School, take three!

Rounding out our week of first days of school, yesterday was Pink's first day of preschool. She was totally excited about the whole idea of preschool - although it might have been more about the new outfit and the princess backpack than the actually learning.

Once we got to school, and Pink wrapped her head around the idea that I was going to leave her, she was a little nervous - or maybe it was that her teacher asked her to find her nametag, and while Pink can name every disney princess and tell part of their life story, she cannot identify all her letters. Epic parenting fail.

Fortunately, she was able to catch up with 2 other little girls whose older siblings were all in a class with Blue at this age.  And really, red playdoh cures most ills, doesn't it?  Wait, not when it comes home on their shoes...

At final report, she had a great day.  Circle time was fun, playing dress up with her friends was awesome, and the snack of goldfish crackers and water was just perfect. Maybe if the teachers are willing to come in their Cinderella dresses, she might even learn her letters.

Back to School, take two!

After a successful send-off for Blue on Monday, and an uneventful first school bus ride home on Tuesday, it was my turn. Lots of syllabus reading and lab orientation, but a good start to the fall semester.  I've got my new backpack and lab-approved closed toed shoes, so I guess I'm good to go.  Now, all I have to do is wake up this old brain!

Blue goes to school!

Today is the first of three first days of school that our family will experience this week. First Blue, then Green, and finally Pink.  Not sure why Red isn't in school - guess someone has to earn the money!

We didn't get off to a very quick start, since they both collapsed on the floor after I woke them up for breakfast:

Nevertheless, after a little prodding, we managed to get everyone around the breakfast table.  As happened last year, Red's bacon omelets won out over my spell-your-name pancakes.  Protein is a good choice for a first day breakfast anyway, right?

Here's my baby boy, all ready for the big leagues.  I can't believe how quickly his little-boyhood is passing us by:

All things considered, it was a successful day:  no one cried, no one got lost, and the report at the end of the day is that kindergarten is "great".  

Prima Ballerina

Have you ever had the torture pleasure of attending a small person dance recital, and noticed that one little dancer who can't find her spot on the stage?  The one who looks ready to burst into tears (or worse)?  I am proud to announce that this year, that was our Pink.

Of course, what can you really expect from a ballerina so excited to perform that this is her on the drive to the theater:

 In her eyes - and certainly in her Daddy's - she is a prima ballerina


In the true spirit of family togetherness, Blue attended his sister's recital - and in the true spirit of little boy-ness, asked every 3.2 seconds if it was over yet.

Honestly, this was a lot of fun for her mom.  Seeing Pink so excited to do something that was all hers, and not just another thing she gets dragged to or included in because of her older brother, was priceless.  Her little ballerina friends were adorable, and since I had the pleasure of helping out in the dressing room before the recital started, I got to spend some quality time playing ring around the rosies with them.

Her studio closed its doors after the recital - I guess the economy has been hard on everyone.  We have the summer to figure out what to do next, but I'm not sure it will be ballet again - especially after Daddy took her to see Kung-Fu Panda (and may have told her that Kung-Fu was just like dancing, but with hitting).  We might be looking for karate lessons instead.

Like drinking from a firehose

A few years ago, I started talking about what my next career would be.  My first, as biochemist, didn't mesh so well with my second, as mom, so I started looking around for the third.

This past spring, after much deliberation, and the incredible luck of finding a like-minded friend, I decided to take the first steps toward a career in nursing.  I dusted off some very old college transcripts, re-learned the academic hoops necessary to pass the clep test in biology, and then enrolled in anatomy and physiology 1 during the accelerated 1/2 summer semester.

Why I thought this would be a good idea escapes me at the moment, but I enrolled, paid my tuition, and showed up for my first day of classes in a very long time. Despite the technological advances since the last time I was in a college classroom (really, the powerpoint slides are online?  why would I show up to class?), I still found it incredibly helpful to make notecards (see pyramid above) - lots of them - and memorize like crazy.

Compressing an entire semester of anatomy into just over a month was overwhelming and frustrating - a little like academic water-boarding -  but was also probably a good way to start. Kind of that "if you can live through this, everything else will seem like a breeze" way of thinking. My family has been ignored, my household chores have been neglected, and my dining room was turned into study central. The result - I passed, and I got an A.  One down, many many more to go.  

Sleepover?

We read a library book this week about sleepovers, and Pink and Blue thought that a sleepover sounded like a marvelous idea.  Of course, with no family nearby, and most preschool parents not so keen on the idea of their children sleeping away from them (yeah, okay, it's us), they were kind of out of luck.

Never easily deterred, Pink and Blue found a way around these problems.  Blue designed and manufactured an invitation for his sister (okay, it was a piece of paper with the word "bed" written on it), and invited her to a sleepover in his room.  Since her toddler bed is pretty light, we moved it in after bath time, and put them both to bed.  There was some giggling and getting up, but they managed to fall asleep and are happily snoozing away.

I'm just grateful they didn't decide that we all had to participate and started lobbying for the tent in the backyard - especially since it's still a delightful 93 degrees at midnight.