Oscar the Grouch

Or possibly grumpy from either the 7 Dwarfs or the Carebears is me tonight. I made a pissy comment about allergies on my playgroup list and got a bunch of flack over it. I've felt less and less like I belong in this group recently and I think this was the final straw. I don't regret what I said, I just regret that it was the tipping point and will likely cause me to leave the group. It is a great local resource, full of what I used to think were like minded moms. There are still plenty of people that I like and get along with, I just don't feel like my practices are in line with the group ideals any longer. It is for "natural families" and I don't do any of that stuff anymore. Lizzie didn't nurse past 6 months, I gave up on cloth diapers, I don't buy organic, I'm not veggie (and have no interest in being), I don't homeschool, I vax to some degree, C is circed etc, etc, etc. I've always been kind of the odd mad out. Another mom and I are about the soggiest of the bunch, but since she WOH and has 4 kids she is crazy busy and we never get to hang out. We have a playgroup tomorrow but it is going to be too hot so I doubt I will go. The group has a website and I might monitor that once in awhile to see what is happening.

Now, I'm left finding people to hang out with again. I've searched yahoo groups and came up with squat. I tried goggling as well and came up with meetup.com which charges $2 a month or moms and more that charges like $45 a year. I don't really want to pay to go to a playgroup but I need friends. I'm hoping that once C starts school, I'll meet some other parents and then it won't matter. If not, I might just have to suck it up and pay for one of the other groups.

Apparently, I'm a bad person. What - the hell - ever. I don't need that crap.

Anyway, next post should be less gripy and more fun because it will have pictures of my cool new centers that are set up and ready to use! I'm going to do a "math" center as well, if I can figure out where to put it. I'm going to put sorting bears, unifix cubes and file folder games in it. It will be fun :)

The one where Carrie whines

Some of you know that I broke my big toe about a year ago. The front bone and the joint were crushed and as a result, I can't bend the big toe on my right foot all the way. Even a year later, it still hurts on and off. The last 3 days, I've spent a lot of time standing and walking and cleaning and now my toe is just throbbing.

Besides that, I was cleaning and combining paint bottles that I got at the school sale (I got probably 20 bottles but paint but a bunch were only half full so I combined colors that were the same) on Saturday and when I opened one of the bottles, I cut the webbing between my thumb and first finger. It looks like a paper cut, only deeper and pulls back apart everytime I open my hand (which is like every 5 seconds since I'm right handed). I've been taping my thumb down at night and it helps but I can't do that during the day or I would be useless.

I'm going to go get taped, take some Tylenol and go to bed.

Home improvement

I recently heard about a local private school that was going out of business. Today, they had a HUGE sale to get rid of most of there stuff. I told my mom I wanted to go, but didn't expect to come home with much, because I expected everything to be too high priced. Boy was I wrong! I bought all kinds of stuff and could have bought a lot more if I could have figured out a place to put it. I got an easel, some blocks, a huge box of tempra paint, a big box of paper, a paper rack, two rolls fof easel paper, 2 whole bags of small things (headsets, extension cords, etc), a large pop up play house, a sand table and a large water table, several packages of markers, a jar of sorting bears, 4 preschool sized chairs, some tumbling mats, a big wire rack, a nice book shelf and several other things for less than $50. I got so much I couldn't fit it all in my van. I had to drive home and drop a bunch off and go back and pick the rest up! Other than large furniture (tables and one desk) I didn't see anything priced over $5 and most of it was $1 or $2. They had chalk boards and white boards and desks and tons of other things that I just couldn't figure out where to put so I didn't get.

Since I got all of that stuff, I've decided to move stuff around in my house and set things up better. I've always wanted to set my house up with stations like a preschool but never had all the stuff before. Now I do. I've begun an art center where I put the easel and paper and paints. I'm going to get a small table and put out crayons, stencils, stamps, etc. I'm also moving all my books around to create a library (previously all the books were crammed on the shelves with our books and they were hard to get to, with chairs. With the new wooden blocks I bought, I'm going to create a block center where I'm going to put all the wooden blocks, as well as all the Legos and other misc blocks we have. I'm also planning to clean off the train table (which we've had forever and no one plays with) and I'm going to layout a track (no on plays with it because they have to set the track themselves) and nail it down. That way, they can play and have bridges and things but not have to be setting stuff up all the time.

I'm going to make us a schedule and do "preschool at home" with Lizzie. dh keeps telling me that if I don't want to go back to work, I don't have to. The choice there is to get my stuff together and teach her myself at home or go back to work when she is 3 so she can go to preschool. It isn't like I'm not qualified to teach her. I mean, her age group is where I started out. Plus, I already have a pre-,ade list of topics with the week to study them (they made up a curriculum at PoP and I took a copy when I left) and I have over half a year of lesson plans. Should be easy enough to modify things to her interests. We'll still see what happens with going back to work, but at least now I have the beginning of a set up that should be easy enough to maintain.

The problem is going to be fitting this all in and actually leaving the house most days. Dh is going to be working late nights so our plan is to get up, take C to school, come home, feed Liz, go do something for a couple of hours (Rugrats, Library, etc) come home, eat lunch, take a nap and then pick C up from school by 2. I guess, he'll have some homework stuff and we could do stuff then or we could start 2 days a weeks and then move to 3 later on. Right now, I think I'm just going to have stuff for her to do and work on actual preschool later.

Conversations with Lizzie

Lizzie: I POOPED! GIVE ME PIECE OF CHEESE!
Evan: I'm not even going to touch that set of statements
Me: welcome to my life

Evan: Alright, I have to go to work
Lizzie: You go drive bus?
E: yeah, I'm gonna drive the bus
L: I go wits you. Hold on a min-et
E: well you'll have to talk to mommy about riding the the bus
L: Mommy no drive da bus. daddy drive da bus. I go wits you now
E: I have to go
L Wait for me, daddy wait for me I go drive da bus

We were at Santa's Lodge in IN and our card keys were deactivated for some odd reason. My mom was grouchy about it and went to the desk to complain. While we were standing up there Lizzie proclaims "This is a bunch of shit" *dies*

Who says that

C will occasionly "adopt" a tv character to come and live with us for awhile. The most recent one has been some cartoon cats (I called them Thundercats but he says that isn't right). When he was telling me about them, I was asking him questions like if they were litter trained (no, they use the potty), where they were going to sleep (in my bed, of course) and what kinds of things they eat. His response to that was "food, like rational humans" Tehe Then when dh was quizzing him about it, he told us all about they were taking him on a rocket ride tomorrow and they brought their own tooth brushes, so they won't have to borrow. They did forget their pillows so they are sharing with C.

He just peeked over the rail of his bed and asked us to turn down the TV so that he could get his beauty sleep. If he doesn't get that, he can't go on the rocket ride tomorrow.

Family resemblence much?

First this is a layout I did with Lizzie's and my Dad's baby pictures.



Any guesses who this is?



Now one you all know.



Pay no attention to the road rash. I don't even remember what he did, just that he asked me to take a picture of it.

Back

We are back from Santa Claus and I will have more on that once I get it done. We were only gone for 3 dyas but we did a lot of stuff and I have a lot of reviewy things to say :)