Off to meet the Mouse

We're off to the heat and humidity of Orlando in August, but does it matter, we'll be in Disneyworld!!! We're leaving tomorrow morning and will be back next Sunday. Until then, to borrow a page from Casey, here's a montage of our last trip. I hope we'll have just as much fun.

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A few laughs

Yesterday was mostly a long whiny day spent with a child just sick enough to be really cranky, but not sick enough to not have energy to whine all day. I did take him out though to get a haircut early since he's had a total shaggy dog look and we needed to go to the pharmacy anyway which is right nearby. There's a one way sign on that block. The one way signs here are black with white lettering, but it looked like someone had painted over the sign since we'd last been there and it was white with black lettering. Brendan is sign obsessed to begin with and immediately noticed this and told me "Mommy, did you see that white one way sign? That's an amazing phenomenon", lol. Then later at home I knocked the remote down the side of the couch and it's easier for him to squeeze between the couch and side table to get it. I asked if he would get the remote for me and he answered "Why, I'd be delighted to get the remote for you." But my favorite was when we were working on a project that Brendan has to bring in when he starts school on the 7th. Basically we had to read 3 books and then Brendan had to draw pictures from his favorite parts of the books and I was supposed to write down his descriptions of the pictures. The only thing was he wanted to write the descriptions himself but he can't really write small enough to fit the whole description under the picture. I told him the project said I should do the writing but he kept insisting he wanted to do it and he kept redrawing a picture from Green Eggs and Ham and trying to write underneath "When he was in the water and tried the green eggs and ham". Finally he threw down the paper and the crayon he was holding and says in a really frustrated voice, "I'm just so exasperated!". He did eventually let me do the descriptions though but only after he wrote the first few words himself. This kid just cracks me up sometimes.

My fiscal conservative

Brendan asked me yesterday, "Are you a spender or a saver?" I told him I save and I spend, but he told me "no, which are you?" and I told him I guessed I was a spender and he told me "That's okay because I'm a saver" and he ran off. I have no idea where this came from, probably something he heard on TV, but hey if I'm going to be a spender, it's a good thing he's a saver. Then again, who is it I'm spending that money on, lol. And fiscal better be the only kind of conservative that he is.

A spectacular week at work....not

Quick summary, I made a minor error at work. I have a boss who can't stand me since I left a management position 2.5 years ago. I never did anything to her and wouldn't have anything to do with her if I had my way, but she hates me anyway. I made a minor error at work a few weeks ago. It's the type of thing that would warrant a warning to be more careful. I got a "counselling session" 2 weeks ago and then on Thursday found out I was being demoted. I didn't lost any pay but all my duties were reassigned as I'm not "trustworthy" enough now apparently to handle the former work I was doing. Mind you, not that anyone was questioning the quality of my work or that I was able to keep up with it, it was just this one error. I found out today from another manager that she always had wanted to have me suspended without pay for a day, still does. If it happens, this can be fought through the union, but it's ridiculous and just a clear indication that she wants to harrass me until she gets rid of me. I'm already looking to get out of this office, only it's not so easy for several reasons. But then I take a look at this face



and realize, fuck it all, I have the most important thing in my life and the rest is just static. I'll deal with it, but no matter what I have what really counts and I'm trying to hard to keep it all in perspective. I just wish that there weren't people out there in the world like this who seem to exist solely to make others miserable.

One of the imponderables

Picture a moment of peaceful slumber. You're awakened by the sound of child getting out of bed and glance at the clock that reads 2:10 . You assume he's going to use the bathroom but instead he begins pushing at your door. Then stops. Then starts pushing again, finally coming in. He tells you that 6:10 is too late (the time that you told him the previous morning you'd be waking him to get him to school, a job Grandma usually has, and for which he gets up at 6:35 for her) to get up. You blearily say something like "Brendan it's the middle of the night, go back to sleep". You hear the sound of either a child peeing or water running and then going back to his room, yet you never heard said child enter the bathroom, but it's the middle of the night and you're barely awake so don't think anything of it beyond a glancing thought of "Is he peeing in the (carpeted) hallway?".

Morning beckons, you go in at 6:10 to wake said child. He's clad in his chosen night attire of underwear and socks. You rub his back, go to give him a playful tickle on the tush and feel his soaking wet underwear. And then notice the big wet spot on the bed, which is strangely on the side of the bed not far from the pillow. You say something inane like "Is your underwear wet?" and he replies "yes, and my socks too". You feel his socks that are indeed very wet. You get up and go back out into the hallway and notice one tiny damp spos, but no stain or smell coming from it. You ask said child if he peed in the bed or the hallway and the only answer you get is "yes".

Here come the imponderables, if he did all the peeing in the hallway, then how was there no stain and no smell? But if he peed in the bed, there would have been no sound of peeing/water running before he went back to the room. Or did he actually run water in the bathroom and then go back to his room and pee in the bed? But there was that small damp spot, unless he started in the hallway but held it in to finish on his bed. But then why would he pee in the hallway or bed? He hasn't had one accident in his bed since he's been in underwear, no since long before that, when he was still in pull-ups at night, so well over a year ago. He regularly gets up to pee during the night with no problem. He had time enough to wake me and tell me getting up at 6:10 was too late so enough time to make it to the toilet. And the biggest imponderable, once having peed, either in the hallway or on the bed, why the heck didn't he say something instead of going back to bed in wet undies and socks with the cold air conditioning blowing on him? He had no embarassment about being wet so that's wasn't it.

Oh and if anyone can explain to me how green perfectly unripe bananas instantly turn yellow and full of brown spots moments after entering my house, I'd love to know the answer to that one too.

Milestone moment

Brendan slept last night without Tee, his blankie. He's slept with Tee every night since before he was a year old. For about 2.5 years he slept with Tee and Dorothy the dinosaur. Then in May he added a Tyrone from the Backyardigans that I got him in Minneapolis and a little teddy bear from a Happy Meal. Then a monkey from Old Navy and recently a blue bear from the carnival. He had a regular menagerie with him. But gradually he'd been throwing some of the menagerie out of his bed, sometimes even chucking them down the stairs before bedtime. But he still was deeply in love with Tee. But last night he went to put himself to bed again, which has been going on now almost a week and that I still find weird. He took his Jessie doll with him and when I went to hand him Tee and his blue bear that had been sitting on the steps he told me he didn't want them. I brought them into his room and anyway and he yelled and threw Tee down the stairs. I knew he'd be back out for Tee before he fell asleep, but it never happened. When I got him up this morning, he clutched his beloved new Jessie doll from Toy Story (although I wonder how beloved she'll remain after Buzz and Woody arrive as I expect them to today) but never said a word about Tee. I'm not ready for my baby to give up his blankie. He's only 4!!!!!

This boy scares me sometimes

I was asking him what he wanted for dinner and he told me CC, meaning cottage cheese. I started joking with him saying things like chili cheddar, cabbage cake, carrot cucumber. Then I said cauliflower consomme. He cocked his head to the side and got the thoughtful look on his face he gets when he's thinking something out and then says to me "Consomme has two Cs in it". I asked him to spell consomme for me and he says "How do you spell Conse?" and I asked him how he thought you did and he said "C-O-N-C-E" and then said "Consomme, C-O-N-C-E-M-E". Okay, that's not how you spell it, but damn this is just freaking scary stuff. But what I'd like to know is if he can try and figure out how to spell consomme, why does he write in crayon all over the kitchen or marker on the carpet? Or why do I have to remind him every single time he's in the tub that we don't throw water out of it? This kid is a trip.