Monthly Archives: February 2008

Jack’s Friend

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Jack has had little to no interest in other children for quite a long time. But in the past week, he has suddenly decided that A, a girl he has known since he was one year old, who is in his preschool class, and whom he has mostly ignored for three and a half years, is THE person to know.

He and I were in the classroom today before school because I was co-oping. When she walked into the room, his face LIT up. And I need those capital letters, because when I say his face lit up, it was really like his whole damn body lit up.

He came running over to her and gave her a hug. Then he played with her until class started.

Fortunately, A is just about the most wonderful kid on earth. (Other than my kids, of course.) She is so sweet and laid back (at least in public—her mom may have other thoughts) and she seems to like Jack as well.

I always read that children don’t need a lot of friends. They just need one good friend. And I love that Jack is developing the ability to make a good friend.

Bizarre

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Did you even know that the Jerry Springer Show is still on the air?

This morning while I was running a load of backpacks and lunch boxes out to the car, Jack managed to turn on the TV.

So when I came back, he was watching Springer on the oft-discussed topic of “Pregnant Gals and a Mime.”

If there is a subject that needs more open and honest discussion than that, I don’t know what it is.

So Good, You Can’t Eat Write Just One

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If you’re thinking that the the blogosphere needs a new blog just like a packrat needs more junk, then you’re in luck!

I have been on a half-assed mission of late to declutter my home. I recently decided to whole-ass it and really go to work. I’m documenting my progress over at Stimeyland’s new offshoot, The Junk Pyramid.

The Junk Pyramid is like the food pyramid, only instead of eating six servings of bread every day, I’m getting rid of six servings of clutter every day.

You can get to The Junk Pyramid by clicking on that button you see in the sidebar there to the right.

That is, if you’re interested in things like watching the minutiae of someone else cleaning their house. Alex likes it. But he lives here.

Why Mommy Needs a Cocktail:

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* Because the skin on my back hurts and I don’t know why. And it has for two days.

* Because no matter how many times I dragged Jack out of bed this morning, he kept returning to his covers and the cat who was snuggled in them. And because Sam came down on me for “breaking the deal” that he and Alex made about breakfast before I got there and that I still don’t know what it is. And because Quinn is too damn happy in the morning.

* Because when we’re in the car and Quinn decides it’s time to drive regardless of red lights and oncoming traffic, he’ll kick the back of my seat and yell “Go! Go!” until I hit the accelerator.

* Because Jack’s bus left him at school today when he was in the bathroom at pick-up time. And he was a little traumatized by it. (Super-neighbor L also deserves a cocktail for stepping up to pick up Sam at the bus stop when I had to go get Jack.)

* Because possibly the worst picture of all time of me has been posted in this Flickr pool. Bet ya can spot it!

* Because I just got this fantastic t-shirt at this Mommy Needs a Cocktail party, and I always follow through on whatever t-shirts tell me to do.

Bleg is NOT a Word.

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If you were playing Scrabble with someone and they added a “B” to “LEG” to form the—and I use the term loosely—word “BLEG,” would you:

1) count it as a word?

2) mercilessly make fun of the person who put it down?

Alex tried to claim bleg as a word and got mad at me when I refused to do #1 and proceeded to do #2. And not only did he try to claim it as a word, but he tried to claim it as a Scrabble word. Which is a whole other thing.

Here’s where you come in. The only dictionary we can find is an OED—and I think we all know it’s not in there.

Whaddya think?

Is he as insane as I think he is? I need you loyal commenters and lurkers alike to come out and tell my husband he’s insane. Please?

All My Fault

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Although I tried to think of every way it could possibly be Alex’s fault that I couldn’t find the car keys this morning, I couldn’t come up with anything.

Last I remembered having them yesterday, I had been standing at Sam’s bus stop holding them. Then I came home to a play date and no one else used the car or the keys after that.

This morning, with a house full of kids (most of them mine) that I had to get to school and a coffee date at ten, I completely couldn’t find the keys. I could feel the minutes ticking away and knew that if Sam was late getting to drop off, I was going to have to unbuckle three extra kids to walk him into the office to sign him in late.

Determined not to be stupid, I checked pockets, bags, and all the other ridiculous places I tend to find keys after I lose them.

Usually it only takes three or four frantic minutes to find them, but today it took fifteen minutes and three or four frantic phone calls (three to try to blame the situation on Alex, and one to my playdate from yesterday to see if she had noticed where I put my keys down) before I found them.

In my purse.

(Although in my defense, it wasn’t a purse I had used at all this week.)

Maybe it can be Alex’s fault that we only have one set of keys.

Eclipse

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I obviously don’t have an awesome camera, but this here is my photo of tonight’s lunar eclipse.

If it makes you happier, you can just pretend it’s a fingernail clipping and you can stop reading.

At about 9:30 tonight I decided to let in the barking dog from outside and check out the eclipse. After I figured out that you can’t see the moon from my backyard, I went to the front door and looked out to see a less-blurry version of what you see above.

This being my house, Sam and Jack—who had “gone to bed” at 7:30—were still awake. I dragged them to the front door and tried to explain what was happening.

Jack, aka Mr. Space, decided that an eclipse is “silly.”

But ever since then, we’ve been periodically checking on its progress. It’s pretty cool. Jack in particular thinks it’s pretty neat.

You’ll have to excuse me, I think we’re almost at a total eclipse of the moon. I’m going back to check out the wonder of the solar system.