On Vacation

I'm on vacation at the beach, so this is a rare opportunity to write - I snuck onto my husband's computer. I only have a minute.

My son turned 11 years old today. It's a good thing I have to be nice to him today. Otherwise I would be strangling him because of all his bordum complaints. Next summer it's sleep away camp. Period.

My 5 yr. old learned how to swim in the ocean yesturday. We were all very excited until I got bit by a Jelly Fish. That put a bit of a damper on the moment.

As far as the sleepover goes, it was a riot (in all meanings of the word). The boys stayed up until 3:00am wrestling, pillow fighting and playing truth or dare, and them set the alarm clock for 6:00 am. Go figure. The next day my sone slept from 4:00pm untill the next day.

The only casuality of the sleepover was Jerry, one of our pet Zebra Finches. Somehow Jerry (named after the mouse from from the cartoon Tom and Jerry) ended up with an injured wing. The bad news is that our bird was hurt, the good news is that it wasn't a kid. She must have gotten hit by a sofa cushion or pillow being flug across the room by a rouge child.

Well, that's about it for now. Gotta run. Cheers.

Random Thoughts

OMG I'm in such a fog right now. I got like 2 hours of sleep last night, and I just woke up so I can get my little one off to baseball camp. I don't know why I couldn't sleep other then I took this diuretic because I am soooo bloated with premenstral water retention. What are those things - straight caffeine? Anyway, I have never taken one of these but I had to because every time I took off my bra I would almost cry in pain and I was feeling so fat I was practically in tears. Well this should lend nicely to my irritability.

Summer has been going, well... OK. Lot's of fighting at the start but things have settled down a bit. But, I think I have figured out the key to life: keep the kids busy and keep the kids separated. The less time they spend together the less they will get on each other's nerves, especially when there is too much ideal time.

OK, here's the big news. My 'soon-to-be-11-yr. old' is having a slumber party tonight. I am petrified. I don't know why I approved this. He's got 5 or 6 friends coming over, and we're going to just shove them in the basement with lots of pizza, popcorn, X-Box and movies, and let them fend for themselves. But several of his friends are a bit wild and strange. Like the type of kid you would see dressed in a Aragorn costume at the opening of Lord of the Rings. Once one of his friends brought to a play date a half a dozen light sabers and they battled with them all afternoon. I actually think it's pretty cute, but only for a few hours. For all night and into the next morning feels a bit overwhelming.

Well, I should have much to write about come tomorrow. I hope I can find the time. Wish me luck.

Good-bye Freedom, for Now

In exactly 25 minutes the school year is over. Life as I have known it for the past 10 months will be over. As I eat my sorrowful last meal of freedom with my trusted friend, computer, I look around the room and take one final glance. Good-bye peaceful lunch. Good-bye semi-clean dining table. Good-bye quiet. Good-bye peaceful house. Good-bye calm nerves. Good-bye blog (though this I will attempt to continue to the best of my ability). Good-bye my blogger fans (all 3 of you) - don't forget me! I have enjoyed your company and will try to write whenever I am able. Farewell to you all, for now I am embarking on a new journey. For the next 3 months I will be living amongst mess, rowdy children and smelly body odor (for I will not be able to take a shower for more then 2 minutes without someone coming into the bathroom interrupting me). Oh shit. Now only 10 minutes are left. There are so many things to say. But I will vow this - I promise to try to keep my calm and my dignity. I promise to reserve time for myself. I promise to write as frequently as I can. I am putting on my shoes now. Freedom - I will see you in a few months. Farewell, for now.

Football Fever

OK, one word - WORLD CUP (that's 2 isn't it). OMG, my house has lost it's mind with soccer.

My husband has order HDTV, just for the next 2 weeks, and some device like TiVo that can record any game he misses at any time. Then he wants to rig his computer the TV so he can record the games to disk or something. Meanwhile my little 5 year old son is running around the house at 5 am, turning on ESPN and yelling 'RONDALINHO', 'WAYNE ROONEY' and 'THIERRY HENRY' as loud as he can, in an English accent no less. FYI, we are not English. He has had the theme song of their favorite soccer channel stuck in his head for the past three days and has been humming it to himself nonstop, particularly when playing his Play Station FIFA soccer game. The two of them are even chanting common English soccer phrases (yes, in the English accent again) to each other like 'what a lovely bit of skill' and 'brilliant footwork'. No one in my house has ever used the word brilliant as an adjective to describe a physical skill until now. They don't even call soccer soccer any more. Now it's football.

I like the World Cup too, but I have to admit, I can't wait for this to be over. Bloody hell.

Thief

My 10 year old son has been stealing. The other day he was acting skittish all morning, and then ran out of the house to walk to school solo, even before his little brother had even brushed his teeth. That was a first. He was in such a rush to get out of the house he forgot his lunch box. Suffice to say, I now had a good excuse to go up to his classroom and investigate what was going on.

When I got there I noticed he was seated at morning meeting, cross legged on the floor, with a piece of wide ruled composition paper in his lap. He saw me looking at him and he slowly peeled back the paper to reveal his stolen booty: a paperback copy of The DiVinci Code. Yes, he had taken a book. No money from my purse, no prescription pain killers from my medicine cabinet, no glue to sniff. Just a book.

For some reason my son is obsessed with wanting to read The DiVinci Code. I don't really understand it. Maybe it's because of all the hype (this started way before the movie, so it's the book hype, not the film hype). Maybe it's because it's been forbidden; something completely off limits is a bit of a rarity in my house - I am a strong believer in moderation if developmentally appropriate and safe. For whatever the reason, he has been wanting to read it for a long time, and since I have not read it my self (I can't even read the headlines these days!) I cannot approve it.

I asked his teacher if she had read it and if so, if it's appropriate. I was thinking, if it was an innocent 'who-done-it' it would have been green lit, but when she mentioned there was an orgy scene, it was quickly nixed.

What got me most was that he was sneaking it! I subsequently found out that he had read the first few chapters the night before, and had hidden it under his pillow. And this whole school incident just cracked me up. The conclusion of all this was I simply told him that the book was too grown up, and that maybe in a couple of years he could read it. I told him I was sorry, jimmied the book out of his hands, and quickly sequestered it amongst the other books on my bedroom bookshelf.

I guess I should consider my self luckily that he's sneaking a book. I find it adorable and amusing that he thinks he's being so defiant and cagey about wanting to read. It's pretty cute. I just hope I can keep him this innocent throughout his teen years. I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up.

How Do You Like Me Now?!

My little son, the 5 yr. old, has turned a corner. I used to be worried he had AD/HD because he had some 'behavior issues' like being wild, having fits of rage that lasted 45 minutes, having night terrors, just to name a few. All these behavioral symptoms made me feel very uneasy, to put it mildly. Well, I am happy to report that I have now deemed him 'normal' (for the moment at least). Yes, he is on the edge of normal, but he is normal.

He has had a history of being difficult in school: not listening, getting into trouble for being disruptive, not sitting still, all the typical ridiculous expectations for an active little boy. In pre-school I got a lot of grief, not only from his teacher, but also from the other parents in the class; they would talk behind my back that my kid should be on medication, come down hard on me and him, the works. The beginning of Kindergarten was rough too because he was in a new school (thank God) and had a new, and very green teacher who did not know how to handle kids like him. His saving grace was/is that he is very smart and academically above grade level.

Well, during the winter, I finally convinced his current teacher to implement a behavior modification program with him (a.k.a. an incentive program like a star chart where he gets stickers and little rewards for good behavior). It worked like a charm. He took to it like a mouse to cheese! Now he is one of the better behaved kids in the class. His school is now singing his praises. And, now I know his behavior is a choice. It's not something out of his control, which was my big fear. If he wants to listen and behave, he can, and he can do it well.

So, now you know what I feel like doing? I feel like going up to all those previous teachers, and mothers and nay-sayers, and get right in their face and yell, HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!!!!!! You caddy bitches who thought you knew what to do with MY kid. You assholes who think you know better! While my kid is going to be president of the fucking United States your kid is going to be sitting there picking his nose and pumping gas at the local Citgo station! While my kid is discovering the cure for cancer your kid is going to be selling used cars! While my kid is going to get a full scholarship to Harvard AND Yale, your kid is going to be failing community college! What do you have to say for yourselves now?!

I just wish I could really say that to their faces, but I guess my son wouldn't have much of a chance attending Harvard if his mom was sitting in a jail cell for harassment. That's what I love about journals - you can express your craziest fantasies, get them out of your system, and go on with your life. It's almost as good as the real thing.