afternoon snack
Does anyone else have to feed their kid practically a full meal immediately after school? An apple ain’t gonna do it here folks. A big bowl of spaghetti might just though! And no, if you’re wondering, it does not ruin his dinner. Josh is more than happy to have another meal later when we do. Seriously, I am constantly feeding him.
I measured him in March and he was 49″ high. His doc measured him two weeks ago and he was 52″ high. Ummm. That’s 4 foot 4 inches – I’m only 5′ 2″. Wha? He’s eight!
By the way, he did start school last week, and so far he loves it. You know why? Because apparently, the FOOD is great!
Okay, it’s not the only reason he likes school, (he has made friends, the girls are cute, and they let him have silent reading time) but lunch is at the top of every list he gives me about why he really likes it there. At least it’s one meal a day I don’t have to make??
If you’ll excuse me, I have to go clip some more coupons so I can afford this boy. I’m sure he’ll be hungry again any minute.
ps. If you’re on Instagram come find me! (annettek14) I’ve only just started and I love it.
new school jitters
Mine. Not his.
So yeah. We moved to a brand new city, a new state even, and that means a whole new school for Josh. He seems FINE with it. While I’m trying not to admit that I’m a bit of wreck!
I’m one of those people who spent her whole life in the same house, the same town, with the same kids, at the same schools. I loved that life. I had good friends and a happy childhood. I want the same thing for my son, and yet I can’t help wondering, what if this new place changes all of that for him?
So far, everything about this move has been awesome for all of us. We looove it here. Of course we miss our friends but we are just SO much better off now.
But what if, WHAT IF, his new school is the ONE thing that isn’t great?? That is, in fact, horrible? What if we’ve made a terrible mistake? What if he turns into a different kid here? What if he has trouble making friends or fitting it? The what-ifs are killing me. Aaack!
Did I mention I’ve had a stiff neck and shoulder for almost two weeks? Ya think that might be where I’m holding my stress??
Oh, those dang doubts. They sure do creep in when you least want them to. Like 4 am.
I had a dream last night (I NEVER talk about dreams but I had to this one time!) about Josh’s new teacher. Who we don’t even know yet! She was this faceless entity whose idea of a reward for the kids was to let them sing or dance in front the class. Not a punishment, a reward. I swear, THIS would have been my worst nightmare when I was kid! And my kid is soooo much like me! In the dream he started to hate school. Josh hate school? Aaaand then I woke up. I felt horrible!
Now okay, I know it was just a dream but what if it was really some freaky premonition? If Josh comes home from the first day of school and tells me his teacher made him sing in front of the class? Duuude. I’ll be homeschooling the rest of the year.
Have any of you moved your kids midway through school or did your parents move you when you were a kid? What was positive and what was negative? Do you have any ideas on how I can help him transition? Or should I just leave him the heck alone and he’ll get through it? ~ahem~
Believe me when I say he does not seem worried at all. (I hide my issues well.) His new principal gave us a tour of the school already. He saw his classroom, although he hasn’t met his teacher yet. He knows exactly where he has to go at morning drop off, how to go through the lunch line, where the gym is, those kinds of things. He loved it there. Honestly, I don’t really thing he’s going to have any problems, but, but…what if?
We have one more week until school starts. By then my head might just roll right off my shoulders. Ow. Where’s my heating pad?
Summer, in no particular order
I’ve been told I’ve been remiss in posting photos lately. I hadn’t noticed, but when I look back at the last few months…well, yeah! So here are my favorite photos from this Summer, so far.
Josh and George spend LOTS of time together.
George’s favorite room is the house is Josh’s bedroom. He’s usually on the bed, but this window gets top marks too. George is slowly getting used to being an indoor only kitty. (More to come on that soon!)
Josh’s favorite place is in the pool.
Uh. Not that pool! Although if he had been allowed to go diving into the big tank at the aquarium I think he might have.
This is Josh’s pool. I can say that since we often have the community pool to ourselves in the evenings. (What’s wrong with all of these people here that they don’t ever go to the swimming?!) We LOVE the pool.
We also love the neighbor’s cat Trevor. (Don’t tell George!!) Trevor meows at Josh if he tries to walk by him without petting him. Not that he ever would.
I think I mentioned we went to a nearby Zoo? I kept going back to see the lions, but really, the kangaroos were the most entertaining.
I think we like animals. Hmm. We also like a good sense of humor!
Snort.
We managed to make it to Maine a couple of times. We took the Amtrak once and this freaking adorable kid a few rows in front of us giggled and gurgled and made everyone on the train laugh. I love the train.
I also love where the train took us.
They showed off their respective toothy gaps. Gah! The cute!
Maine makes me happy.
So does Boston. When you walk the city, you never know what you’ll see.
Playing bagpipes on a unicycle? I know what you’re thinking…yes, he was wearing underwear.
So this is what I’ve been doing all Summer. What have you been up to??
Filed Under life, photos Tagged adventures, photos, summer, the boy, the cat
Pottermore, more Potter, more reading
I haven’t joined Google+, I reluctantly signed up for Spotify, but for Pottermore, I’m willing to get up at a horrendously early hour and refresh my browser indefinitely? Yep. I know, I know! We are Potterheads, and we’re proud of it. 
I managed to get accounts for both Josh and myself, and we’ll just see if the site is worth the trouble. What I do know is that JK Rowling obviously has a brilliant marketing strategist. ~ahem~
With or without Pottermore, things are still All Harry Potter All The Time around here. We’ve read all the books and seen all the movies, and now Josh is re-reading them. He’s planning to be Harry for Halloween, again. We discuss storylines, and theories, and how we would have written things differently if we were in charge. He looks for details he missed in the first read and we talk about in what ways the books differ from the movies, for good and bad. I love what this series has done for Josh’s willingness to read, ability to read, and his constant need to read more, more, more. He was always a good reader before, but this year, he became a became a real, pick-up-a-book-on-his-own-and-read-for-hours-at-a-time READER. The one thing he really wanted in his new bedroom – a comfy reading nook. ~love it~
I am constantly on the lookout for other books to fuel his reading bug. He particularly likes scifi but enjoys mysteries too. Series books are a must – he’ll read stand-alones but much prefers stories that go on and on. These are a few series and authors he’s read recently that we highly recommend:
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (We’re definitly going to check out his other 2 series, the Heroes of Olympus, and the Kane Chronicles.)
The 39 Clues by various authors (Fabulous for those who like both mysteries and history. Josh can’t wait for book 12!)
How to Train Your Dragon (Yes this was a not so great movie, but a fabulous series, especially for readers new to sci-fantasy)
Guardians of Ga’hoole by Kathryn Lasky (We only read the first four and Josh grew out of them before we realized there were many more.)
Swindle by Gordon Korman (He is a seriously prolific author and has some other series we’re going to check out.)
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (Again, a mediocre movie but really fabulous books.)
The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris D’Lacey (We just finished the first book The Fire Within, and Josh is chomping at the bit to go back to the library for the next couple.)
Some series that we’ve heard great things about and plan to start soon:
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Do any of you have recommendations for similar books?
We’ve already been through all of the Narnia books, The Wrinkle in Time books, everything Roald Dahl ever wrote, almost everything Beverly Cleary ever wrote, and as many boy classics like How to Eat Fried Worms and Frecklejuice that I could find. Sheesh. I’m running out of ideas, someone give me some!
ps. While I’m waiting, I’ll be looking into how to officially change my name to my Pottermore nickname – hollyfirebolt. I’m sure you can get used to calling me that, right?
pss. Did any of you also get into Pottermore? Or am I the only crazy one here??
psss. Honest to god I made him do a math sheet this morning because I started to wonder if I’m letting him read too much. I am crazy.
sniffle snort ugh it’s Halloween so I must be sick
The plague has descended on us. Josh is the only one to have escaped it. So far.
This is the 3rd year in a row that I was signed up to run/walk in our local Santa Fund run. And the 3rd year in a row that I was too sick to go.
I did manage to leave the house long enough to take the boy trick or treating.
Take that Voldemort!
This is his 3rd year in a row that he had some kind of caped costume. Of course, he’s never sick on Halloween. Maybe I need a cape.
ps. If you’re looking for serious cuteness, I suggest you go here.
when the boy is away, the cat will…
…sleep on his bathrobe.
Every. day.
Why the guilty look George? Or is it that you want to claw my eyes out for interrupting your nap?
***********************
A few days ago Josh wore a funny shirt to school that said “I’m allergic to homework” – typical sort of thing for a 2nd grader. Except, then he rationalized to the teacher that it was actually true. And I quote “I’m allergic to pollen, and pollen is on trees, and paper comes from trees and homework is on paper, so I really am allergic to homework!” Oy vey.
fall ball
So once again, I am doing a lot of this:
(I’m really not very good at taking pics with my iphone!)
while I do a lot of this:
(My son is not actually in this picture. Whoops! I don’t know why it’s only one I took. I’ll try to remember the real camera and get one of him next week!)
Yes, Josh is playing Fall Baseball. Yippee.
Really though? It’s better than soccer. There’s no whining in baseball, and there was always lots of whining in soccer. Something about all that freaking running.
The best thing about fall ball is there are no practices, only one game a week, every Saturday. It’s meant to be just for fun for those kids who really like baseball and don’t want lose all of their skills between seasons. I use the term skills pretty loosely here. Oh yeah.
The teams are of mixed ages, and Josh is the youngest on his. He doesn’t seem to mind the age and size differences, and he isn’t the worst player, so it’s going better than I anticipated. He also hasn’t been hit by a wild pitch yet, unlike a number of his teammates!
Anyway, this was supposed to be about me. On Saturday I was sitting in the stands starting a new crochet project, when a friend and fellow crocheter came over to sit with me. Her son was on the other team, and from the bleachers on the opposite side she had spied someone with fingers flashing. She knew that person had to be knitting or crocheting. And then she saw my hair.
I really am that obvious.
———————-
So who can guess what my new project is just by looking at the pattern? Hint: it’s part of Josh’s Halloween costume:
(That’s gold and burgundy, not cream and purple. Dang user error iphone.)
Filed Under crafting, humor, the boy Tagged Add new tag, baseball, crochet, the boy
questions
If you have a good answer to any or all of these, please tell me in as much detail as possible! 
- How many times can you get your family to eat the same leftovers? Or do they never eat them?
- Do you get enough vegetables into your husband kids and if yes how? If not do you feel guilty about it?
- If you work at home how do you keep motivated midday when no one would ever know if you took a nap on the couch/watched tv/ate bon bons?
- How do you keep your kid’s toys from burying you alive?
- Ditto the mail and the laundry?
- Do you let your children watch tv in the morning before school?
- Do you do anything special with your kids during your spouse’s business trips? Special meals, change up the schedule, anything? Go into survival mode and hope for the best?
- Do you pack a lunch for your kids everyday or do they eat school lunch?
- How do you retrain a cat to indoor only after being outdoors in the daytime for years?
- How do you retrain one to poo in his litter box instead of on the floor next to the box, even when the box is brand new? (The cat, not the kid…)
- Does your cat/dog/hamster sleep in your child’s bed?
- Are you slowly or quickly going insane?
Bonus points if you can guess MY answers to those questions.
most days
My days are virtually the same, hour-by-hour, sitting at my desk, searching for photos, making lunches, begging telling Josh to play outside, cleaning up cat puke, and avoiding anything resembling housework. Thankfully, most days are punctuated with little bits of humor, like watching Wipeout. I know, I know, it’s all kinds of wrong, but I can’t help it. And, yes, I let Josh watch it too…
Anyway, I wanted to show you a few things I typically see around here on any given day.
Look closely at the top of the photo. Yes, there is an extra cat in the picture. George is often found sleeping with toys piled on top of him.
I know I’m not the only mother in the world whose kid has extra sensory perception regarding the phone. Right? As soon as it rings, or even if I silently start to dial – he’s in the room. Talking to me. Or giving me hand gestures. Anything to get my attention. Or to listen in. Every single time! This photo? If I had saved them all I would have hundreds just like it:
Have you ever been to Passive Aggressive Notes? Well, I could have had a whole website of “I’m On The Phone Notes” if I had just planned ahead.
Lately we’ve been on a kill the clutter kick and we’ve decided to have a yard sale. A whole lot of crap is now piled in the garage:
And that’s not even all of it. Every day I put a little more in the pile, now named the Monster that Ate the Garage. We need to have that yard sale soon!
And last, but not least, is an older photo I found, taken by my husband that perfectly illustrates most of my days:
A cat that thinks he’s a person sitting on a Garfield book with Legos and crap all over the place. If a corner of a computer and a coffee cup were in the photo it would be perfect.
Filed Under family, humor, life, the boy, the cat Tagged life, photos, the boy, the cat
censored!
We had a fabulous day at the beach with my sisters and their families yesterday. The weather was absolutely perfect, 85 and sunny, and the water was warmer than its normal freeze your toes off temp. Perfect shark weather, but no, we didn’t see any.
I gotta tell you, I had better pictures than this one, (all taken with my new-to-me iphone!) but my boy won’t let me post them. ~sigh~ This blog has been going through some growing pangs lately, because he doesn’t really want me to write about him or post pictures of him anymore. He only approved this one photo because his back was to the camera.
I’m being censored.
If we are doing anything fun or if I innocently take a photo I am often asked “you’re not gonna blog about this are you mom?” Huh. I guess not!
He and I have been here before…you may have noticed there have been several posts about him lately that didn’t really show him. A birthday post without a birthday boy, a science post without a clear face, a post about his treehouse with only one blurry image. As you can see, I’ve had to get creative with my photography. It helps that I’m not particularly good at taking pictures so blurry faces are a natural.
I knew this would come eventually. I just didn’t think it would be so soon! I kind of thought I had until he was 10 or 12 before he stopped letting me write about him. In fact, if he knew I wrote this recently he wouldn’t be very happy about it. I published it because I know someday he’ll appreciate it.
I’ve always self-censored anyway, not wanting to get overly personal on something that can’t ever really be deleted, but I’ve always felt pretty free to post about his childhood. Like I own it or something! Well, he is his own person, and has the right to keep his life off the internet if that’s what he wants. I still might write about him, but only if he approves it. Future photos will be faceless, like they were back when I first started and blogged anonymously. Or there won’t be any photos of him at all. I just don’t know yet.
What happens to a mommy blogger (ugh, it’s what I’ve become but I still hate that word) who can’t blog about her kid?? I really don’t have the answer right now! It’s why I don’t post as often as I used to, and I don’t foresee it getting any better.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t depressing. It’s just different. I have to make a change. Write about my own life, or don’t write at all?
Filed Under blogging, family, life, the boy Tagged blogging about blogging, meta, the boy