Smoke and Mirrors

Stuff is a great word. Please don't pin that on me... I miss some great George Carlin takes on humanity. I love information and all the technology that brings it to everyone, BUT, back to earlier concepts please. Raise children, crops, and not taxes.

Now I really am pissed. I tried a couple times to type up some thoughts (on my MAC) into my old, aged blog, and I think the lack of compatibility did not work in my favor... I should not try to post from here. I'm not MAC smart enough. Suffice it to say/type that I had some pissy thoughts on humanity, tried to convey them via my blog and MAC did not support. damn you steve jobs and your great set of working well stuff. If this post works then I don't know. OK then.

So what

Wow.

My daughter is talking to squirrels right now.  It's pretty amazing.

Weekend fun

Yesterday Lexie attended a birthday tea party.  Each birthday party guest was instructed to bring a doll or stuffed animal to attend the mini-tea party.  Lexie had a great time.  After we got home (Lexie walked while I drove beside her, reminded me a little of Rocky in training) Sam came over to visit.  We were going to play Wii, but the controllers were out of batteries.  I happened to spot the beading kit my neighbor Joanie gave me.  The girls had some fun putting together some earrings and bracelets.  I now am sporting a pair of really cute earrings that my very own seven year old daughter made for me.  As a result, we may go back to the mall today to get her ears re-pierced.  Maybe this time she will take better care of them, and I will keep closer watch on them.

Lexie quote of the day...

"I am not a minion!"

Talking to caregivers

Decent weekend.  Highlight was watching classic B movie "Pod People" via MST3K.  Lex tried to keep up with the sarcastic commentary for a while even. 

Lex met a new friend Saturday night.  One house down from John's lives an 8 year old girl named Brianna.  When Brianna went to walk the family dog (Gizmo), her and Lexie met up and hit it off.  The next day Lex was impatient to go out and play with her again.  John, Lex and I went to the mini-field up the block and practiced some softball.  On the way back to the house, Brianna came out to let Gizmo relieve himself.  None of us noticed that she was in her pajamas.  This fact might have led us to realize that she wasn't out and ready to play, but we missed it.  The four of us headed back to the play area and they played more ball.  Eventually Brianna's mom came out of the house calling her.  Ooops.  She got in a bit of trouble for going out to play without notifying her mom.  She wrote Lex a really sweet note apologizing for not being able to come back out and play. 

Drama world:  It seems as though Alexis and Emma (friend from "Y") have been looking for some adventure.  About a week ago, Lexie asked me to write down what the clock looked like when it was midnight.  I thought this a semi-strange request, so I filed the thought for later.  She copied my 12:00AM. onto her own piece of paper and went back to playing.  Next she is drawing maps from Y camp to Emma's house.  Then Sunday night she puts an envelope on the kitchen table and tells me not to open it until the morning.  I forget about the envelope, and in the morning Lex put's it in the garbage and tells me she did it wrong and she's going to re-do it.  Last night, she puts another envelope next to my purse on the hall table, and tells me, again, not to open it until morning.  At that point, something maternally instinctual kicked in.  I opened the trash and pulled out Sunday night's envelope.  "I am gon Mom. PS I wont come home."  After slight heart failure, I grabbed the other envelope and went into her room.  After asking her what this was all about, and opening the second envelope in front of her, much drama ensued.  Tears shed, hugs given, she swears it is a game her and Emma were playing, I talked on the phone with Emma's mom.   Phew, not liking that one bit.  Emma's mom and I agreed to mention it to the teachers at the Y for backup support.  Eeeeks.

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true...

Lex is having a blast with this new season of Girl Scout Daisies.  This troop is bigger than the last, and she is in at the upper end of the ages.  She feels more confident this time around.  She had her first meeting last Monday, and didn't want it to end.  Of course....she enjoyed the activities, but would rather have just played the whole time.  Grammy spruced up her vest and added the new patches from last year. I'm just as excited as her.

Last weekend we had a great time.  Started off Friday night with John teaching Lex how to play farkle, with real dice and a dice cup.  Next, an attempt at Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with Lex falling asleep at some point (we still haven't tried to watch it again....yet).  Next morning, breakfast in bed a'la McD's, while watching MIBII.  John drove Lexie up to Washington house, I followed in about 45 minutes. We spent a wonderful day traveling to, from, at at Maryhill Stonehenge.  At dinner in Lyle.

I signed Lexie up for Softball in the Spring.  She really wants to do it.

My little Runaway..

For Christmas Lexie got tons of stuff she loves, including an art set and a new DSI.

She is doing so fabulous in school!  She loves math and is learning to read so well, it's wonderful.

Lex caught a 24 hour stomach virus over New Years, but still managed to enjoy herself to the hilt, including having snowball fights with Jason and John, and a big old wrestling match.

She is excited about signing up for little league this spring.

And....She got mad at me Sunday for not paying enough attention to her, so she ran away from home.  Her and her friend, Sam, packed a few things in backpacks, she gabbed her purse, and they headed up the street for a friends house she's only been to once.  Sam's mom found out about the plan in minutes and was over at my house.  We walked out of the court and around the corner.  There the two were, marching back home.  Lex walked past me without making eye contact.  It was all I could do not to burst out laughing.  I said, "I guess I know where you're headed."  She went into the house, dropped her backpack in her bed room and climbed into my bed.  We had a nice talk about how scary and dangerous that was.  She was in tears, already beat tired from playing all day.  She fell asleep immediately.  She is still feeling super bad about it.

Mini updates

Favorite quote for October on Halloween, post trick or treating:  Lexie-  "By my calculations, we should have enough candy to last all week."

We had the best trick or treat ever! I didn't take very good pics, just used my phone.

My birthday weekend was Super Great!  Saturday we all went to Spaghetti Factory, then John, Lex and I watched The Dark Knight.  Sunday we went to the zoo after breakfast and a trip to the Dollar Tree.

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Iechyd da!

First 1st grade parent teacher conference.

Heads up/note to self/advice to other parents...  If you want a decent amount of time with your parent teacher conference, schedule it early in the day.  They work like doctors offices, I know the rules.  The first few meetings run over, and exponentially later, the later meetings are rushed.  Uck.  Still, it was a good experience for two reasons.  The first was that Teacher assures that Lex is doing wonderful.  Second, because Tall Handsome Dad drove a decent distance to be a part of it.  Lex really appreciated it, so did I.  I was mucho embarassed that I instructed John to call when he got there, realized 10 minutes into it that my phone was turned all the way down, then when I explained to Teacher, she was so rushed, she told me not to go get him, it would be over before I could, we could all meet later.  I didn't explain to her how far he drove to be there, but I did tell her a few times how I wasn't fond of how rushed it all felt.

Greatest Day Ever!

Ok, so I wake up with a cold.  So what!  We made plans, sort of, last night to find a stretch of dirt to play marbles on....Lex want's to learn. 

Post 7:30  I wake up and head out to facebook, and what not.  8:30  Lex is on me like white on rice to get a move on....  Some time later, John is eating breakfast at Denny's and texting us this very fact  (oooh, I forgot to mention Lex and McBreakfasted about an hour earlier...)  John shows up, we go to Freddy's (Griff gets to go too!) and get three wiffle balls for Lex and a crazy ball for Griff.  Super Dad takes us to Brookwood Elementary where we spend a splendiforous amount of time playing baseball, or sort of.  Then John goes to get beverages while Lex and I play marbles on the home plate dirt.  Mmmmm!  Frozen coffee beverage!  Lex gets orange frozen drink!  Super Dad drives home and the three  (or four or more if you count the animals) watch the first Harry Potter movie for the first time!  Lex is still putting spells on everything!  I am still in awe of what a day can be!  LOVE life!

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Iechyd da!

Dinner for three

John brought dinner over tonight, and the three of us ate, not at the table, because there is no "table" in this house.  But we ate together.  It was very nice, very nice. We laughed about our creepy, but funny, psycho rat toy. and just chilled. It was a wonderful feeling for me, and obviously for Lex.  He is her Dad now, I know it because she keeps saying so without anyone asking her to.  Dad put her to bed, it was so right and sweet, I had to leave the room to not cry. Thank goodness my mom called to inquire about recent reports of swine flu at Lexie's school.  eeechhh.  So tired of flu.

Iechyd da!

Lex can read!

The morning homework has been so GREAT, I can't even think of many more adjectives to describe it.  She is learning to read, wait! She is reading, it's wonderfu!.  After school and daycare, she is so resistant to "doing more" school work.  So...  I get up at 5:43 am (every frickin morning), pull the covers off the bed so she won't snuggle back up, throw the covers and blankets onto the rocking chair in the corner of the room., and on to next step.  I place her backpack on the bed with my pick of clothes for the day.  No saying if she'll go along with my choice or not.  Then I get two dollar bills for lunch money and a Chocolate Brownie Cliff Bar and put them on her backpack.  I pick her homework out of her backpack and arrange it on the bed.  I get her favorite homework pen, place it on her homework and go outside to play on the computer and wait until she wakes up.  I go back in in 15 minutes, and she's discovered there's no blankets and is squirming around.  I kiss her forehead, and she says, "I have to go to the bathroom."   I get my own self dressed and ready, and when I'm done, she's awake.  Giggly morning girl.  There is no order to the rest of the morning.  She does her math with her favorite pen.  I come in and check her work and sign off on it.  We banter about everything.  She feeds her two fish.  She puts her clothes on....slowly while watching morning show on Discovery Kids, and I come in and check on her every 5-10 minutes.  She practices for her Friday spelling test, I sit on the bed with her and we read her reading assignment, well, she reads it anyway.  We go through the words she's learning on flash cards, and then she just giggles, giggles, giggles!  By now she's mostly dressed, put the two dollars in her pocket (gets upset with me when I pick an outfit without pockets!), put her snack in her backpack, put her jacket, socks, and shoes on. Then she washes her face and takes her vitamins after much protest.  Brushes her own hair.  It's Euphoric!

Spider Girl

Lexie has decided that she is half human and half jumping spider.  Where she got the idea, I'm not really sure.  This morning, after we finished her four homework questions, she was sitting with me and telling me that there was a "fellow" jumping spider in the library yesterday.  She related their conversation, then thought about it and said, "Actually, I couldn't talk with him, because I'm half human."


Saturday, Lex and I went bowling with John, Shannon and Bill.  She's starting to enjoy it pretty much.

First Grade

I'm upset with myself for not keeping up with this sprite blog.  I have a new resolution to do better at it.  Lex started first grade last Tuesday. She loves it, but she comes home so tired from the extra hours. 

 

Almost exactly at the same time, both Lex and John thought up the idea of a webcast for Lex.  Unfortunately, they picked me as the camera girl, so while I've got some great stuff, it's not edited, and I've been lazy enough to not upload it anywhere.  I'll get on that too. 

 

Lex's latest antic is to try to get Munkee, our one year old adoptee cat, into the shower.   She actually having some success.  Oh, I remember the days when I tried to get my cats into the bath/shower with me at a younger age.  It seems so much more difficult to supervise as a parent!  I remember the excitement of the project at a young age, but I'm pretty sure I was more clandestine at it than Lex is. I believe I wanted to keep it a secret from my Mom, but she actually wants my help...  and I'm not sure why, but I try. Munkee is her cat as much as mine, but she has some power over him that I'm baffled by.  He'll let her take him into the shower without so much as scrathing her, let alone tearing her to pieces.  He just comes back out and licks himself dry.  Rather stoic cat.

 

There is so much else that's been going on, I'll have to work on putting it all into this diary/blog.
--
Iechyd da!

more pics

Mini Update

Lex got her first bee sting last week. Middle finger left hand. When asked if it hurt, she said it did a little at first. I'm such a baby. I remember mine hurting like crazy.

Lex "graduates" from kindergarten next week. She's pretty excited.

Her latest "thing" is the Nintendo DS [our Wii is broken :( ]. She has six different games already. They range from taking care of pets, adventure games, and her latest is a fashion plate game. She loves it.

Life is a highway, eh?

Rules of life as discovered on the highway:  In the fast lane doing 60, I'm supposed to be in the right lane, eventually, for my exit, but I feel it's moving too slow.  I figure that by the time I get up past the Pepsi truck up about 30 cars, I'll still be enough back from the tunnel to change lanes.  Goal setting.  I approach the truck minutes later, move into the center lane, then into the right lane just in front of the truck.  As my head revolves back around from checking my mirrors to change lanes...nine cars up, another Pepsi truck.  As I'm laughing at myself, I spot one log truck heading East bound, another log truck West bound.  Figure out that riddle.