One of the things we did for James for father’s day was make superman t-shirts. One for daddy (SuperDaddy!), one for Ethan (SuperBoy!) and one for Jocelyn (SuperGirl!).

Ethan didn’t want to wear his on Father’s day, but Jocelyn was more than game. A shot of SuperDAddy and SuperGirl at SuperSweetWaterTavern where the supers get their Father’s day sustenance (not to mention beer).

I also made a print of this image and framed it for James:

It was a nice father’s day, even though near the end I did have to say to James, “I realize it’s father’s day and I should be watching the kids so you can relax and all, but you may have to step in in order to keep me from strangling them.”

In other news, summer camp is in it’s first week, which means lots of fun activities for the kids at school. Ethan usually goes somewhere for a specific activity (bowling, pool, mini golf) in a school van in the morning, and then comes back in the afternoon more open playtime. He is also allowed to take his Nintendo DS to school (which wasn’t allowed during the school year by us or the school) and he usually is playing it when I pick him up.

Wednesday as I was tucking him in to bed, he said, “My neck hurts.” Now, James has been sick for the last three days so I immediately checked his forehead for any signs of fever and felt his glands. All fine.

“Is it inside your neck, like your throat? Or more on the outside, like your muscles?”

“It’s on the outside.”

Hmm. I told him he’d feel better in the morning and left it at that.

Yesterday when I picked him up at school, again, he was playing his DS. I tore him away so he could you know, say Hi or give me a hug or something, and noticed his eyes were red-rimmed and somewhat bloodshot. Suddenly I realized what his “sore neck” was from.

“How long did you play your DS today?” I asked him on the way home.
“A LONG time,” he answered.

We have a gamer-boy on our hands, who has strained neck muscles from hunching over and bloodshot eyes from peering at the screen for who knows how many hours a day.

I told him when we got home, the DS was done for the day. I also stressed the importance of taking BREAKS and that there were LOTS of OTHER things he could do at summer camp, he didn’t have to JUST play his DS all afternoon. I also talked to one of the counselors and asked her to maybe encourage him to do some other things this afternoon. We’ll see.

Gamer-boy.

So now that I have ostracized all ELEVEN of my readers (i know, a gross exageration) by NOT POSTING A THING FOR WEEKS, let me just slay you know with the WORDS WORDS WORDS!

….. WORDS!

No pictures, either, not even if you beg!

Some assorted thoughts and happenings from my mother’s visit (my dad did not come at the last minute, doh!).
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Tonight when Jocelyn pulled off her t-shirt, part of it stuck on her head. Usually, we leave it there and call it “long princess hair!” But this time, it was partially covering her face, specifically, her left eye.

“I’m a PIRATE!” she called out gaily.
“She’s a PIRATE!” Ethan called out gaily.
“Look it’s a PIRATE!” I called out gaily.

“Ahoy!” said Ethan.
“Ahoy!” said Jocelyn.
“Say, ‘Yo ho yo!’” I said.
“YO HO HO!” Jocelyn chortled, pulling her t-shirt down further over her eye.
“Say, “WALK THE PLANK, YE SCURVY LASSEY!” I said.
“WALK THE PLANK YOU FLOPPY PLASTIC!” Jocelyn said.
“Say ARRRRGHHH!” Ethan said.
“ARRRRRRRRRGH!” Jocelyn said.
“Say ’schwab the deck, ye landlubbers!” I said.
“Schwab the deck you ladyfingers!” She hollered with delight.

Then I turned into mean mommy and made them brush their teeth, despite their claims that pirates don’t brush teeth.

TONIGHT:
Blessedly, no planned activities (ie: birthday parties, free scoop of ice cream days, soccer/tball games/practices, etc.)
This means we will be home to:
change all the sheets on all the beds
- our bed has about a cup of sand in it, thanks to Ethan taking off his socks in there
- the kids’ beds haven’t been changed in over a week now
Start laundry, make sure all soccer/tball uniforms are, or will be clean for Saturday
Find soccer picture order forms that need to be handed out to parents Saturday (check under laundry)
Wash mountain of dirty dishes in sink
Make kids clean up their art table and the 1,472 million tiny scraps of paper that have fallen on the floor around said art table. (check scraps to make sure they’re not the picture order forms)

SATURDAY:
7am - Everyone rises and parents struggle to bathe dress themselves and get 2 children dressed as well. (OK, maybe just 1 parent struggles while the other dresses themself.)
8am - Ethan’s Tball pictures. (Face should be jam free.) (perhaps with just 1 parent)
9am - Ethan’s Tball game. (Other parent arrives with other child)
11ish - Tball game over.
11:15 Amy freaks out that she hasn’t found picture order forms yet.
12:30 - Amy choir rehearsal
1:30 - Jocelyn soccer game (send james your sympathies for dealing with this on his own) (hopefully picture order forms have been found by now)
3:30 - Amy choir rehearsal over
4:30 - Amy & kids Ikea trip (w/ or w/out James depending on how frazzled he is from dealing with the soccer game on his own) to obtain goody bag items for upcoming Ethan birthday party (note to james: if you don’t come, your wife may come home with unplanned purchases) (like a RUG, we really could use a RUG in the basement!)

SUNDAY:
8:30am - Amy rises, struggles to bathe and dress herself
8:45 - Amy gets breakfast for the kids (who will be up by then) before heading out, still bleary eyed, for the third week in her PAID SINGING GIG!! (I know! I rock, baby!) (I singing in a church choir for sunday mass)(lightning hasn’t struck once!)
9:30 rehearsal
10:30 - mass
11:30 - mass over, amy heads home
12:15 amy arrives home and crumples in a heap on the floor.
1:30 amy picks self up and gets ready for choir concert, and leaves for concert venue
2:00 amy rehearsal at concert venue
3:30 james gathers various quiet activities (coloring books, paper dolls) and heads to concert with kids
4:30 choir concert in which amy has several solos
5:30 concert over, after vague milling around and socializing, amy and family head home.
6pm - amy and james collapse in a heap on the floor while the children play at the art table and scatter roughly 2,258 million tiny scraps of paper on the floor.
7pm - amy freaks out that her parents will be arriving in exactly 1 week and hasn’t managed to clean the entire house from top to bottom and will have no time in the coming week or weekend in which to do so! Whew!

So! Busy weekend for us! How about you?

First of all, I”m glad to hear that I am not the only one with a holy terror of the parental visit. Thanks gals for all your comments (is it weird that it is only GIRLS that commented? I THINK NOT!)

So yesterday, the note on the kindergarten board that informs parents what their kids did that day, held huge news. The kindergarteners had compiled and were taking home - their Kindergarten Phone book, with the names and phone numbers of everyone in their class.

Ethan was, to say the least, excited. He also held a little scrap of paper which he said was Austin’s phone number. As to why this number wasn’t in the phone book, he couldn’t say.

While I was picking up kids, James had arrived home and was starting dinner when Ethan received his first phone call. James was somewhat disconcerted, not knowing that kindergarteners everywhere were doubtless phoning up their buddies all over the prince william county area. He made sure a parent was near, took a message and then promptly called me.

“You’ll never guess who just called.”
“Someone for Ethan?”
“YES!”

Tee hee. I should have placed money on it.

“You got your first phone call, Ethan! Sean called you!”
“What did daddy tell him?”
“He told him you’d call him back when you got home.”
“ALL RIGHT! I’M GOING TO CALL HIM BACK!”

When we got home, Sean received his return phone call, Austin was also called and not being home, a message left for him. Then Lucy was called, and they discussed plans for meeting at the park in the near future. Other things that were discussed: Ethan’s upcoming birthday party and Austin’s upcoming birthday party.

After each phone call, Ethan usually beamed with pride and declared, “MY VERY FIRST PHONE CALL!!” (even if it was, at that point, his 3rd or even 4th.)

Jocelyn was not to be outdone, and wanted to make some phone calls of her own, so I let her call Grandma and Grandpa. They weren’t home, so she left a message for them. Ethan got a return phone call from Austin while he was in the bathtub (which was a fantastic way to get him out of the tub, which is always a chore). Grandma called Jocelyn back in about 10 minutes, and Jocelyn said “Hi Grandma! BYE!” and then passed the phone to me.

Yes, indeed, I’m surprised that the phone lines were able to manage all the extra usage as many 6 year olds (AND THEIR SIBLINGS!) tied up lines everywhere to call their friends they had just seen hours earlier.

This morning before getting dressed, he wanted to call Jenni. I managed to forestall that one, by saying she might be at school already.

Boy oh boy. OH boy.

It was just an ordinary working at home sick as a dog with a sore throat…

When I finished up work at around 4pm and started going through my long neglected Google reader and it was about the time when I *should* have gotten up and gone and picked up my kids, when I got caught up on Arjewtino, a fellow DC blogger, who was running a contest for whoever is the 100,000th visitor to his blog.

Suddenly, I wasn’t going ANYWHERE. I could smell VICTORY!

So I kept my ass on that couch and clicked. AND CLICKED. AND clicked!

What would my efforts yield if I won? Why several items featuring Sir Arjewtino himself, the first being a baseball card from his time at the Dodgers fantasy camp, and the second being a picture of his buttocks. No… not just any picture of his buttocks… An AUTOGRAPHED ass picture. NOW WE’RE TALKIN’!

THERE WAS NO GIVING UP NOW! Because you know, I HAD to have those buttocks! There is a deep dark corner in my closet, which I keep locked, because all the porn, guns, and crack is in there, and yes, that corner is just BEGGING for a framed butt picture!

So yes… I did win. I sat and watched the stats climb up to the 99,999 number, and then swiftly loaded up the site. That’s right people, if you want to WIN, you’ve got to PAY ATTENTION AND DO WHAT IT TAKES.

And so, I give those that did not win these parting words.

SUCK IT, LOSERS!

I asked Arjewtino to please shoot the non-fuzzy side.

When I told James I had won a MAJOR AWARD! he asked if it will say “FRA-JEEEE-LAY!” on the side when it arrives.

Just go see it yourself. Safe for work, will only take 40 seconds. CLICK!

So I posted the “see you on the other side!” posts (on both old and new), and the “you made it!” post (only on the new) and then tweaked all the name servers and database tables I needed to and then had to wait until today before I myself saw my own new website. DNS takes forever for me, I guess!

But finally I can get to my own space! Yay! I’m still working out a few kinks, but that’s just me, everything should be working fine.

Over the weekend, I saw that The Sound of Music was going to be showed a few times, and I promptly told our Tivo to record it, because The Sound of Music is one of my favorite movies EVER.

On Sunday afternoon, I settled in to watch it, though it’s a long one, and so it became a somewhat sporadic watching. Jocelyn fiddled around on the couch for most of the time, watching it with me and loved when they sang. Ethan was playing in the next room, but everything there was a song, he would come running in to watch for it. the puppet show was also a hit. “Edelwiess” is a song I have sung to the kids at bedtime since they were babies, so of course they ate that up as well.

So all in all, they liked the movie and watched a lot more of it than I would have thought. We stopped it Sunday and then yesterday I tried to finish it up. I thought that after the festival at the end they would be totally done with it, but boy did I underestimated them. I started to explain that there was a war, and the nazi’s wanted Captain Von Trap to join them in the war, but he didn’t want to because they were bad people, and so he was going to have to get away from them.

It’s as if I flipped a switch, and Ethan was completely and totally MEZMERIZED. First, he was all, “Yeah! I want to see the WAR!!” and I had to tell him that they don’t show any war, or shooting, or blowing up or anything. Just the dad trying to get away from the soldiers.

So then the festival ended, and the family won the first prize and the spotlight went to the empty archway, waiting for the family to appear and let me tell you, my kids were on the EDGE of their seat.

Ethan: I KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING!
me: what?
Ethan: They’re TRICKING THEM! They’re ESCAPING!

Then of course, the breathless search through the abbey, the family hiding behind the crypts (i think those were crypts) and the eery silence broken only by the loud crashing as the soldiers shakes each iron gate to check if it’s locked. These kids were wide eyed and staring and had to be reassured repeatedly that no, they don’t find them. And then Ralf came up the steps and just as all the soldiers were leaving, hid until the family came out of hiding, and then JUMPED out! The captain opened the gate and ran out and Ralf drew his gun, and Ethan nearly lost it. He was pretty nervous and uneasy through all this already but when the gun came out, Ethan jumped up off the couch and ran behind it. He didn’t hide, but he stood behind it and watched from back there. I couldn’t quite tell HOW frightened he is, so more reassuring that there is no shooting in this movie helped, and then the whole family watched with bated breath as the Captain edged closer and closer until he took the gun away from Ralf.

All seemed well until the Captain made his last comment, “You’ll never be one of them.” which Ralf took offense at.. and immediately shouted for the other soldiers.

The family sped away in the caretaker’s car and we watched as the soldiers tried and tried to start their own cars but to no avail. They laughed and laughed when the nuns confessed their “sins” of taking the parts out of their cars, and then insisted that we go back and watch it again and again.

Finally, the family is walking over the mountains to switzerland, and we emphasized that they got away, they escaped, yay! and Ethan and Jocelyn were just tickled to DEATH.

After James had put them to bed, he came downstairs and I commented, “I really did not think they would be interested in the end, but boy was I wrong!”

Boy was I!

Just in case I mislead you with the previous post, I took the day off entirely and me and the kids had a nice day. It’s nice when you don’t have to try to work at the same time. I got some housework done, we played on the Wii, we baked cookies, movies were watched.. fun was had by all. I wasn’t REALLY misleading you - it was a classic mistake! But I didn’t mind, and staying home wasn’t the “chore” I made it out to be. I wouldn’t have let Ethan stay home, otherwise. I was playing it up bloggy style because hey, that makes for a more interesting post! Anyway, we had fun!

Which really came home to me tonight at dinner, when out of the blue, Jocelyn said, “Mommy, I had fun with you yesterday.”

Doesn’t sound like much, but when you’ve been interupted for the 27th time while trying to communicate with your spouse and can’t get it out because of all the

“Mommy! MOMMY!!”
“what??”
“I want some more!”
“I’m done with my dinner now!”
“My bowl is in the sink now!”
“I’m leaving the room now!”

and that’s just the dinner related interuptions, we haven’t even touched the surface on school related, toy related, tv related, clothes related, fart related, butt related, doughnut related, wiener related and of course fart and butt related some more, because there’s a lot of fart and butt talk in our house lately.

So when she interupted me AGAIN:

“So I was trying to call him back when–”
“Mommy. MOMMY!”
“YES?!!”
“I had fun with you yesterday.”

It makes me realize that all the interuptions are a plea for attention, it makes me remember how these precious little souls just want to connect with me, and have me look at them, right into their eyes, have me smile at them and talk to them, and it makes me overjoyed that I blew off work and didn’t bother trying to work from home to spend a special hooky day with my kids, just cutting out paper dolls, baking cookies, watching movies, playing video games, reading books and being there.

So I stopped trying to finish my conversation with james (let’s face it, finishing that was like hoping an icecube won’t melt in hell what with all the poop-fart-butt interuptions) and asked her what her favorite part of yesterday was. It was baking cookies. Ethan’s was playing on the Wii and cleaning up.

Now to not make another classic mommy mistake — forgetting all this and getting all irritated all the time from all the interuptions and not recognizing the not so subtle pleas for attention.

-amy

I went into the kids room yesterday to get them up and ready for school. Ethan was awake and fiddling around in his bed and Jocelyn was still fast asleep. Her nose was stuffed up with dried boogers and her face was flushed and hot. In short, she didn’t look good.

I sat down next to her and she barely fluttered her eyes. I felt her head = hot.

“Good morning sweetie, how’re you doing?”

“Not good.”

“Tired?”

“Yes.”

– Notice right here, I start off with leading queries. Never, under ANY circumstance, ask if a child under 18 is tired, when it’s time to get them up and ready for school.

“You don’t look so good, are you feeling sick?”

– GAH! HAVE I LEARNED NOTHING IN ALL MY YEARS OF MOTHERING?

“Yes. I feel SICK.”

I make her sit up and try in vain to peer into her throat. I probe her neck and feel palpable engorged pea-sized glands.

I go and talk to James. I tell her that she is flushed with fever and looks like death. She’d better stay home.

I go back to the room and inform her that in my professional mother opinion, she should stay home from school today. And since Ethan is on spring break (no school, daycare only) and informed us yesterday upon arriving home that he was “totally bored,” I thought I’d let him stay home too.

30 minutes later, they are both running around like maniacs, Jocelyn looks totally normal (nothing that 10 minutes AWAKE and a good face washing didn’t cure) and I am banging my head against the wall.

I took her to the doctor anyway, but she confirmed that it was viral and nothing to worry about.

You would think I was a ROOKIE! NEVER diagnose a child when they just wake up and are known grumpy wakers! NEVER lead the child down the “you look sick, are you sick?” line of questioning! AT LEAST wait 20 minutes to see if they’re still pissing and moaning and to see if the fever sticks, and most importantly.. never… NEVER mention the “stay at home” phrase until you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that they need to stay at home, because once that one is out, THERE’S NO TAKING IT BACK.

Rookie mistake. I am ashamed.