Yard Work

Here's Jack "helping" Brent in the yard. The wheelbarrow wins the prize around here for best new toy.

I'm just wondering...

... if Jack is advanced for his age. Only 14 months old and he already laughs at his own farts.

Or maybe his true talent lies in his ability to poop in the bathtub on command. Granted the command goes something like "What are you doing? Are you pooping? Stop! NOOO!". But still...

Let it... Sun?

What's with this weather?

I'm sooo over winter. Here we are, still nursing our sunburns from last weekend's scorching 80 degree sunfest and we wake up this morning to SNOW. Huh? First of all, it's April. There should be no more snow. We have suffered through winter and paid our living in Oregon dues. We are all ready for the sun. We need the sun. Don't tease us with an 80 degree Saturday, then come back at us with the white stuff. Secondly, if we have to have snow I at least want to miss a day of school. So this snow on Saturday business really ticks me off.

On top of this whole snow fiasco, I discovered something quite disturbing today. I no longer get carded. I've been suspecting this for awhile now, but it used to be that I'd pull out my wallet and the cashier would go ahead and ask for my ID, even if maybe he or she hadn't planned on it. But now there I stand, wallet in hand as my alcoholic purchases get scanned right on through with the bananas and diaper wipes. It's because I have a kid now, isn't it? Like the camera adding ten pounds or something...

Speaking of age, Brent turned the big three-oh on Friday. In honor of Brent's birthday, I'd like to tell you all a bit about what makes Brent such a great guy:

• Brent loves his mom. I'll never forget the first time I heard him answer his phone, "Hi Mama!" It's really sweet. You gotta love a guy who loves his mama.
• Brent is squeaky clean. He tidies up after himself and does his fair share of housework. He makes the bed like he's preparing for a military inspection. He spends over an hour cleaning the bathroom. You've already heard about the counter tops and the garage floor. You get the idea.
• He heartily appreciates a good meal.
• Brent can whip up a website in seconds flat. He can crack even the toughest html codes. He can tell you if your text is competing with your images.
• Brent is a super-dad. He is the inventor of such creative games as "put the bag over your head and spin around" and "laundry basket airplane" to name a few.
• Brent has the most beautiful and perfect feet you will ever see on a guy. He once modeled sandals for a catalogue.

So there you have it. My salute to Brent on his 30th birthday. See how all this time stuck inside gives me a chance to extoll the virtues of the one I love? Maybe this snow is not so bad after all.

Helmet Head

Maybe you all have noticed this already, but Jack has an abnormally large head. That's fine. It just means he has a big brain. Also, I've come to the conclusion that it's better to have a big head than a small head.

It's actually gotten closer to normal as he gets older (it's finally on the chart...) but shopping for a helmet was no small task. Brent bought the infant size, which proved a bit snug, especially considering that bike riding season has just begun. So here he is in the youth size, lookin' cool on his way to school.

Correction

Remember what I was saying earlier about Jack being a genius? Well, the jury might still be out on that one. Here he is running around with a bag over his head and eating dirt. Maybe we won't have to save for Harvard after all...

Updates

• We are still sleeping through the night. All of us. All night long. In our own beds. Simply amazing.
• The leaf pile is G-O-N-E! Although at this point it's almost like losing a member of the family- it's been with us for so long...
• 45 days left of school until summer break. 'Nuff said.
• We are going to Montana this summer to stay *for free* in a lakeside cabin! (See, I blogged about it, now it has to happen).

Basic Parenting 101

As teachers we are required to take continuing education classes in order to renew our licenses. This is so that we don't reach the ripe old age of retirement without ever updating our curriculum and learning new methods of teaching. I have tons of PDUs (credits) because I participated in a technology grant and now I have a laptop, an LCD projector, a classroom set of handheld computers and these little remote control thingys that I never use. So for working in my dinky little district, I'm pretty cutting edge in terms of technology.

But even though I got my credits for participating, being in the tech grant did not "continue" my education. If anything, it made me dumber (more dumb?). There were ladies in the grant who did not use email. Why you would participate in a tech grant if email is too technologically advanced for you is beyond me.

So it's a darn good thing that I'm learning so much about parenting from some of my students' parents. My education has definitely been continued in the past few days. I'm really learning what NOT to do with a middle schooler. Allow me to demonstrate my new found knowledge:

• Don't assume that your child's progress report did not make it to you because the school forgot to mail it. Especially if we've sent you progress reports faithfully for the last three years. Especially if your child has 2 Fs. Especially if your child is a liar.
• Sending a note with your child requesting his missing assignments when there are two days left in the quarter is a bad, bad idea. If this note even makes it to me, I don't have time to dig up extra copies of all the assignments that I already gave to your child once. Period.
• Scheduling a three week long vacation to Hawaii in the middle of the school year sends a message to your kids that school is not important. It's going to be hard for your kid to afford his own Hawaiian vacations when he's flipping burgers at Mickey D's.
• If your child has been failing for the past three years, suddenly taking an interest in his academics during the last quarter of the 8th grade year is too little, too late.

Now it is true that I haven't lived the other side of this yet, and maybe Jack will grow up to be a little lying juvenile delinquent (or worse yet, a tie-wearing Republican ala Alex P. Keaton)... but sheesh. Some of these parents are worse than the kids. Almost. It's a good thing that they pay me the big bucks to deal with all of this.

Spring Cleaning Cont.

It is often mentioned that Jack resembles me. I agree, I think he looks just like his Uncle Nick did at that age (minus the ginormous cheeks- yes, they were waaay bigger than Jack's). While Jack may take after me physically, he is definitely more like Brent when it comes to obsessively cleaning the garage.

Brent has a touch of the old OCD. When I met him, he had all of the items in his kitchen at a diagonal. This included cans, boxes, and silverware. I was afraid to touch anything. He has a frequent compulsion to wipe down the counters in the kitchen and to sweep imaginary particles from the garage floor. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Having a husband with OCD is pretty darn handy. I just wish I cared more about the cleanliness of the garage floor.

So Brent taught Jack to sweep the garage and now that's all he wants to do. This is a problem since we are frequently in the garage (what with the car being parked in there and all) and every time Jack sees the "ba ba" (broom) he expects you to hang out in the garage with him for at least 30 minutes while he sweeps.

Speaking of new words... In addition to "ba ba", Jack now says "ca ca" for coffee. Why does a 13 month old know the word for coffee? If you know Brent, you know why. He is truly his father's son.

Spring Cleaning

No time for blogging. I'm too busy cleaning yogurt off the kitchen ceiling.

TGIF

My mom exclaimed "TGIF!" every single Friday of my life that I can remember. Now that I am an adult and parent, it amazes me that she could work so hard as a nurse during the day and still come home to be super-mom at night. If you didn't get a chance to know her, you missed out.

Today would be her 57th birthday. I often catch myself thinking about the grandma that she would have been...

Here's why I'm so glad it's Friday:

• Jack has a playdate with his friend Will on Saturday morning and I have a friend date with Will's mom.
• Brent is bringing home pizza for dinner tonight.
• My BFF Al is coming over on Saturday night for wine and Phase 10 (do you play?).
• Tomorrow is my day to sleep in.

There was some serious drama at work yesterday with someone being a you-know-what to someone else in front of a bunch of people. It was really, really inappropriate and uncomfortable and almost ruined my day (I tend to empathize too much). But, something funny happened to counteract that bad experience (kind of).

I was at an IEP meeting with teachers and a parent and the SpEd teacher said to the parent, "I gave your son the Woodcock-Johnson last week..." It's a reading test, but still. You don't have to say it like that. I was almost snorting chai tea out of my nose (how unprofessional I am!).

Why We're Moving to Norway

We've been reading Tom Sawyer in my 8th grade classes for the past few weeks. Here's one of the more memorable moments from the unit.

Me talking to my class: "Open up your books, we're on page 105."

Student, genuinely amazed: "Hey, that's exactly where my bookmark was!"

Ladies and gentlemen, the future leaders of our country....

Talented and Gifted

When we were at the mall the other day I was pushing Jack in his stroller and every single person we passed was smiling at him. I thought it was because he is so darn cute, but apparently he has picked up a new habit (har har).

But here's why we're now convinced he's a genius (we had our suspicions before): He can pick his nose on command. You just say those magic words and he crams his fingers right up there. We are so proud.