Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Cousins!

We took a road trip to Disney this weekend and met up with my sister and niece. Chaos ensued!





Friday, October 18, 2013

Mama Bear

Eli's teacher told him yesterday, "You're lucky you're not my kid." I'm gonna go kick some ass today.
Update: Eli got in trouble for kicking a kid during a game of Mercy. We were on board with him being punished, until it started to sound like she was going for suspension and bristled when we said that we wanted to be involved if/when the punishment was decided. Which led to the "lucky" comment.. We met with the principal, who later brought the teacher in. This has been an ongoing thing, where she complains about Eli's behavior as though it's disastrous, then makes these saccharin coated insults, like telling Eli she COULD suspend him but decided not to because she's so nice. So she denied saying the things C HEARD HER SAY, and said she saw nothing wrong with calling Eli a bully, but we were able to voice our concerns and the principal didn't completely dismiss us. We've agreed that all future communication will be done via email, away from Eli, with the principal cc'ed. She grudgingly agreed to lay off the bully talk and threatening to suspend our kid. I am very tempted to put him in a local private school (on site chef! Monthly field trips! Small classes!) but he says that he loves this teacher. I'd hate to pull him if he is in fact having a good experience (though I wonder). I, on the other hand, sort of wanted to punch her in the face. A lot.

Friday, October 11, 2013

So tiny?

I went to schmooze Eli's teacher today, since we've been having some "communication issues." at one point she asked what I did. The conversation went like this:
Me: I run a mental health program at the prison.
Teacher: So are you like, a masters or a PhD?
Me: Well, sort of. I have a PsyD. It's like a PhD with a clinical focus.
Teacher: In what?
Me (feeling a bit grilled after a similar line of questions about my teaching): Clinical psychology
Teacher: So, what are you at the prison?
Me: I'm a psychologist.
Teacher: Like, with a doctorate? Huh. You'd never know it!
Me: *crickets*
Teacher: I mean, so tiny with such a big brain!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Elastic pants or meth

I've decided that these are my two options. I was trucking along on the baby weight and had gotten to within 15 pounds of my goal (side note, I lost NO weight after Avery was born. Not even her 7 pounds. WTF?) Then I decided to buy a freaking house and gained five back. Still, I was pretty zen about it, figuring I'd drop more when I stopped nursing and started running more. And yet, nope. In fact, I've gained two pounds and developed an insane cookie craving. I am seriously two weeks away from joking WW. Or a drug ring.

Has anyone had this experience? After Avery, my body is all screwed up. I've developed allergies, my skin is wacko, and I can't eat bread anymore. And not that it was easy to lose the weight before, but now it almost seems like a counter effort (diet = weight gain).

So if you see me in a back alley, offer me a cookie and some stretchy pants, for the sake of the children.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Little people

I've been trying to spend some one-on-one time with each of the kids and it has been SO MUCH FUN. Eli took me out for frozen yogurt (pumpkin, OMG). I hardly ever get a chance to hang out just with him. He's such a sweet, quirky kid. Today Syd and I went to lunch and then watched a movie while the boys were out. I let her eat popcorn and Popsicles for dinner and we were in pajamas by 6:30. Avery took a very rare nap on my chest, which I paid for dearly with a not-sleeping night, but it was oh so worth it.

I feel very busy lately, and in good working mom style have felt crappy about leaving the kids (with their awesome and capable dad). It's been awesome to spend a couple hours with each of them. And tomorrow I'm taking all three to the zoo in hopes that C will unpack while I'm gone!