Stuology

Ada came home today, crying about not wanting to come in the house, and when Mac lifted her into the house, she collapsed in a fit of crying and “oh woe is me” and “I DON’T LIKE IT!!” James came in happily, but when I picked him up, he proceeded to slap me in the face which did wonders for my headache. I’m not sure whose brilliant idea it was to time it to have an almost two year old and a 3.5 year old at the same time.

Mac and I did get to leave the house yesterday without children, thanks to Hilary and Camilo. We went out to see Twilight, since it was the one playing in the VIP section. I had a coffee with Bailey’s Caramel Irish Cream and Godiva Chocolate Liquor. Mac had a Red Bull and Vodka, and we had chicken quesadillas as a snack to tide us over until dinner. That’s why we always get tickets to the VIP section. I left the movie with some extreme lust…over the Cullen’s house. I want not only the house, but the location of the house. I have not read the book, nor do I plan to after seeing the movie. It wasn’t a terrible movie, but I think I would have liked it a lot better 20 years ago. The only thing that made me want more–besides the house–was the preview for The Spirit^*. Graphic novel noir usually makes me happy. We ran into a few stores after the movie, went out for dinner, and then came home where I made some more hot cocoa mix and finally watched Wall-E.

And lastly, my weekly menu.

Saturday: Whatever we had in the fridge and cabinets that was edible and couldn’t be labeled as dessert.

Sunday: Mac and I ate out. The kids had Aladdin’s Cafe.

Monday: Again, leftovers. There was a lot of food made recently. Mac hasn’t been feeling well today, so I dug up stuff from the fridge.

Tuesday: Baked potato soup

Wednesday: Chili–a small pan of Cafeteria Chili for the masses, and some of M’s Best Chili Evar! for me and Mac if he feels like it.

Thursday: Spinach ravioli with a sauce yet to be determined. Perhaps a vegetable on the side.

Friday: Leftovers or a Guinness braised brisket. It depends on the quantity of leftovers from Tuesday - Friday.

M’s chili would probably would fulfill my “make one new thing a week” goal. I’ve been doing well since I’ve started posting my menus. At least one thing every week is something I have never made before.

*Beware, it will load the trailer, loud blaring sounds included.

We were given a CD of songs for James recently. It will also be great for Ada. I finally got around to ripping it so we can put them on their iPod. The songs are sung at a little slower pace than usual which is great for helping Ada and James sing along and pronounce the words.

I’m listening to them now so I can label them with their title instead of it just saying Track #. We were warned that they were slow, but gawds! The only thing that the songs are missing is William Shatner.

We had a teacher conference for Ada last Friday, and one for James the Tuesday before Ada’s. James has been doing great at drop-off until recently when he decided to revert back to crying and screaming and such. Distracting him with food has always worked in the past, but not so much now. He eventually gets over it and is fine the rest of the day, but geez. What’s the deal? James is working on exciting things such as going down the stairs, and two word phrases and understanding that when he throws the ball against the wall, it will bounce back. He shouldn’t act surprised everytime it comes back and bonks him in the head.

Ada meet all of her goals for the school year already. I believe that they are going to continue working on the same areas, but just up her goals. Most of her work is in the life skills area. She does things like folding napkins, washing dishes, cutting apples and bananas, making toast, using a screwdriver, riding a tricycle, building things out of blocks and so on. She works with an OT and a speech therapist on Tuesdays still. Her speech is getting quite a bit better. She is still behind for her age, but she is improving quickly. She does some work in the academic areas where she is ahead of her age. If she makes the same kind of progress in her speech and gross motor skills during the second half of the school year, her new goals that will be done in May for the next school year will include the academic areas. I’m excited for her to start reading, and not the “mimic and memorize” that make most parents exclaim “My child can read!” She can do that now, as can most kids her age. She will get to work on actual reading. And math! Of course, with a couple of Christmas presents that I have picked out for her, she will be working on math anyhow.

Ada has also earned the label “independent and stubborn.” There was hesitation before the word “stubborn” was used, but she is. Her most common phrase is “No thank-you! Ada do it! No, Ada do it! ADA DO IT!!!” She doesn’t want anybody to help her with anything. It makes it difficult when people don’t really want to do it for her, but just guide her on how to do something when she is having difficulties. However, she is sometimes too proactive on her approach, and she will spurt out “No! Ada do it!” if she perceives that someone is coming to try to help her with something, even though they aren’t. On the flip side, she will work and work and work on something until she gets it. She will not quit. She gets frustrated with it sometimes, but she doesn’t give in. That personality trait will be the most beneficial to her than any other. I couldn’t be more thrilled that my daughter is independent and stubborn. She is also a little too possessive with what she perceives as belonging to her at home. She has a Hello Kitty crayon and marker holder. She was playing with it this weekend on the living room floor when James walked close to her. She started yelling “No J! No J! Mine!” and then she threw herself on top of her crayons, lying on them so James couldn’t get them. He wasn’t even trying. He was just looking at her like she had gone crazy.

We picked up Animal Crossing for the Wii yesterday before picking up the kids. Ada and I played last night for a little bit. We haven’t even paid our house off yet. We may play a little tonight. She loves just waking around and talking to the other animals and collecting and counting cherries. She also named the town, so we live in “Go Kitty.” She is having an equal amount of fun in Viva Pinata. Her favorite activities for me to do there are to have the pinatas eat fruit and to water and fertilize plants. She doesn’t have the motor skills yet to work the controls in either game, so I do that while she hints at what to do. However, she can take the controls in Lego Batman and collect coins. My favorite moment in that games is when she gets near an edge and exclaims “Don’t go there. That’s where I fall down!” I may work with her though in Animal Crossing. I think with some practice, she’ll be able to walk around town and collect stuff.

Mac says to me this evening, “Look at James.”

I glance at him and find him standing there naked holding his diaper. Fantastic.

Ada went to her first school-invited birthday party. It even had a bouncy castle! They served cupcakes, and when they were brought out, Ada started jumping up and down and squealing “Cupcakes! Cupcakes! Look! Cupcakes!” She was the only one to do the Cupcake Dance of Glee. That’s my girl!

My throat isn’t hurting today for the first time since I was hit with the group P^* streptococcal bacteria. Yippee for that!

James had to be brought home today because of a fever. The verdict after a run to the doctor is ear infection. He will have to stay home tomorrow.

I have been loving the weather lately–cool, rainy and cloudy. It is a welcome sudden change from the heat. The air conditioner has been turned off and windows opened. I had to go on a emergency run for fall clothes when I woke up last week and had to dig for clothes from last year to fit the kids. I wasn’t ready for the extended cool weather this early, and I had wanted to go clothes shopping on Labor Day, but I was in bed with the plague. Everything outside is still green, but I’m starting to see small peeks of yellow. I’m ready for autumn. Of course, knowing Kansas, we will have another heat spell before it is all over.

The cool weather also brought about a change in food. I’m holding off on making chili though. The first cooking of chili has to be in perfectly cool weather–today almost qualifying! We have had soup though, for my throat, and a shepherd’s pie. I’m really in the mood to bake something. I’m thinking cinnamon rolls. I have some good cinnamon from Penzey’s waiting in the wings for that.

I really do love the change in seasons, even winter–kind of. When I don’t have to really be out in it. Which I will since Ada has to be at school unless it is canceled. And we don’t have busing.

*The P stands for the “plague strain.”

I immediately imagined panel one being James of The Future.

Ada and I woke up this morning before Mac and James, so we got dressed and went to the farmer’s market. I came back with some bell peppers, tomatoes, peaches, salsa, and of course, bagels for Saturday morning breakfast. We came home, and Mac and James were still in bed. Mac got up when he heard us, but James didn’t wake up until after 11:00!

Ada and I went to her orientation for school on Friday. She starts Raintree on Tuesday. I really like it there, so I hope she enjoys being there.

Mac recovered the kitchen chairs which succumbed to the effects of children. They look much better. He also picked up some vinyl to make covers to make them easier to clean. You wouldn’t think that the the legs would be hard to take off and put back on, but the back legs proved to be difficult to get on so that the chair wasn’t wobbly.

I haven’t decided what I want to do today. I need to keep knocking off my chore list, but I’ve been very diligent about doing a chore a day that I feel like today would be a good day to rest. We can figure out something to do with the kids here soon that involves being outside and running off energy. I also need to make a meal list for the week. I only know what I’m making tonight.

I came home from South Dakota to a broken washing machine, a broken toilet, and one –almost two– broken bathroom sinks. If the shower breaks, our bathroom becomes pointless. We have three, so it isn’t a show stopper. The kids are okay sharing their bathroom with us. As long as we don’t play with their ducks.

The washing machine is a little more inconvenient. I’ve heard there are places you can take your laundry and pay a per-use fee to use machines to wash your clothes. I have lunch plans tomorrow that I may have to cancel on account of lack of pants if we don’t get to a laundromat tonight. Mac volunteered to go to one. The only concern I have is doing my delicate load at a laundromat. Repairs won’t happen until Friday for the washing machine, so I’m going to have to trust that the machines won’t eat my clothes, or pay more money and send all my delicate load pants and shirts to the dry cleaners.

I haven’t picked up my camera since the photo of the shoes, so I have nothing to share. James has taken to throwing fits as of late. His fits aren’t terrible, but he does like to throw himself backwards or sits down and leans over forwards to hit his head on the floor. Every now and again, he tries to hit, but he does not get good responses from me for doing that, so the last few days, he starts to hit me, and then decides to hit himself in the head. That, I’m fine with. It won’t get him anywhere, but he is welcome to keep hitting himself in the head. He just can’t hit other people in the head.

On the good James front: Yesterday, he sat on the training toilet that we bought for Ada, but she refused to use. He didn’t use it, but he wanted to sit on it.

I had a dream last night that James could sing the entire theme song to Star Wars.

Here are his 18-month stats. His weight went down a little from the appointment he had at the beginning of July for daycare, but he also stands on the big person scale now, and he is fully clothed. Or he really did lose weight. He has been sick twice since that appointment.

Height: 35-inches, above the 95th-percentile. Even though they marked it down at 2ft 11in, I think that he was just a bit under that mark, so maybe 34.75-ish might be better. Either way, still above the 95th.

Weight: 28lbs 4 oz. , right around the 80th-percentile.