For reasons that I can’t even really understand, I have been suffering from incredible writer’s block. Luckily it hasn’t gotten in the way of work. When your job requires you to write numerous things daily, a complete mental blackout is a very bad thing. However, I did find it pretty much impossible to write here for some reason. Who knows why.

I’m tired of the same old entry sitting up top here though, so I’m going to just force myself to write anyway, some sort of stream of consciousness effort. Let’s see what the past week held that I haven’t told you about.

I had a personal record last week. I got a headache on Monday and I swear it did not go away until Saturday. It wasn’t just one headache after another it was the SAME damn headache all week long. Tylenol didn’t help, all that did was dial it down a notch so I could function and then it came straight back to full force after four hours. I was starting to make jokes about brain tumors while thinking “hahaha… hmmm, maybe?” in the back of my mind, but George suggested it was weather-related. Considering it also rained all damn week and was a weird combination of humid yet damp and cold it’s entirely possible.

I do know that on Saturday George got me some Advil and two of those plus a break in the weather finally kicked my headache to the curb. Sunday was the first morning where I woke up without any pain and that was a total relief. Which is why I was so pissed off that I later smashed the side of my head into a hard, wooden chair while bending to pick something up off the floor. That was awesome. Luckily the pain went away with two more Advil.

Any more painkillers and I’ll need to check into Betty Ford.

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Hayley’s class has been studying the rainforest (hence their field trip to the Biodome) and they all had to do a research project on one animal that lives there. Hayley picked the iguana and she had to write up about two pages’ worth of information on iguanas (she ended up with three, detailing things like what they eat, who their enemies are, and so on) and then she had to make her own iguana and its habitat. Yeah, it was a lot of work for a SIX YEAR OLD in GRADE ONE, but she had fun at least.

She originally made an iguana out of clay – and she actually did most of it herself, I just kind of guided her and showed her how to make spikes down the back – but the more it dried the more it fell apart. I ended up having to glue three of the four limbs back on, as well as the head and the tail. I was worried it would completely fall apart in class, so I suggested that she make one out of cardboard too. She used a printout as a stencil, traced it onto construction paper, glued it to cardboard, and decorated it.

She also used a shoe box as the habitat and glued green construction paper, sticks, and some leaves that we bought at the dollar store to make a rainforest for her iguanas. All I really had to do was cover the outside of the box for her (since it was a neon pink Barbie shoe box!) and she took care of the rest herself. She’s really crafty and artsy. I think it came out really well!

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They should be getting their glasses sometime this week. Hayley can’t wait, she asks about them all the time. Breanna doesn’t think of it often unless someone mentions them, but Hayley is tired of squinting at the board in class. I can’t wait to see the difference it makes for both of them.

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On Friday Hayley had two milestones. One of her friends takes gymnastics and they were having a special party on Friday evening. She invited Hayley to come with her and they got to play on trampolines, do obstacle courses, and all kinds of gymnastics activities. It was the first time we had ever just had Hayley dropped off somewhere like that without one of us being there. Her friend’s parents went out for dinner and picked them up about three hours later and they had both had such a good time.

In related news, Hayley would like to sign up for gymnastics in the Fall. I totally saw that coming.

The other milestone was that Hayley had also been invited to sleep over. She’s spent the night at her grandparents’ house before, usually when George’s sister is in town, but this was the first sleepover at a friend’s house. We had told her that if she changed her mind she could come home at any time, even if it was 3 am, but she did great. They didn’t even go to sleep until 11:30 so she just slept straight through until sometime after 6 the next morning.

She was EXHAUSTED on Saturday. She actually fell asleep in the afternoon, something she normally never does unless she’s sick.

Since Hayley had been out, Breanna and I did a movie night on Friday. She loves Sleeping Beauty but had never seen the actual movie, so we got her that, popped some popcorn, and she stayed up later than usual. Then on Saturday, since Hayley was asleep and it was the first time there had been any sun in days, Breanna and I went out for a walk for awhile. She actually spent most of the hour and a half making “soup” with a puddle of rain water in a rock, stirring in all sorts of bits of nature. I think I need to get her a water table for the summer. Or even a big tupperware container.

It was a pretty decent weekend overall. And I’m just really happy to be starting this weekend off without any headaches!

The other day the kids were both driving me crazy. They’re going through a phase where they can barely be in the same room together for longer than three minutes without some sort of epic fight breaking out. And I swear to you, they can – and will – fight over anything. ANYTHING. They’ll fight over who gets the one lone yellow bowl and who has to have a blue on (I’m about to throw the damn yellow bowl out). They’ll argue over who gets to lock the door when someone leaves. It never ends.

It got to a point where I was seriously debating walking to the nearest mental facility and insisting that they lock me inside a nice soft room until both kids reach adulthood but I’d probably change my mind after the first couple of days (maybe a whole week?) so something less drastic was in order.

It turns out that a dumb Beagle on your leash, Jason Mraz on your iPod, and woods spread out around you can do a whole lot of good for the soul. Remember what I said about how we need a yard? What we really need is a place with a yard that backs onto a really huge wooded area. I felt so much better once I was away from street noise and people and was just surrounded by trees and plants and dirt paths. I would do so well in a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere. With a good high speed Internet connection, naturally.

But seriously, this kind of landscape does wonders for the spirit.

In other non-stabby news (with a nod to Angella for the term “stabby” which is so accurate, isn’t it?), Hayley decided that she really wanted to cook something. She’s been getting her own sandwiches from time to time but she wanted to make something more substantial. I wish I could remember who it was that mentioned it on their blog (if you remember, please tell me!) that the danger with kids cooking is that they could burn themselves on a hot stove, but so what? That’s how they learn. That stuck in my head for awhile.

I’m obviously not about to let my six-year-old handle a pot full of boiling water and she’s not ready for unsupervised cooking, but just some basic stove use? Well, why the hell not.

Thus, the other day when she came home from school, instead of giving her a yogurt or something simple for a snack, Hayley made herself some scrambled eggs. She was super excited when I said that yes, she would be making them on the stove and no, I was not going to do any of it. I narrated to her, telling her what she needed to do and I mimed things for her (like cracking the eggs into a bowl and how to whisk the milk in) but she did every single thing herself.

And she did indeed burn herself a tiny little bit on the edge of the pan, and the world didn’t end. She basically reacted like me, except that she said, “Oh, OUCH!” whereas I would have used a slightly stronger expletive than “ouch”, but she was fine and she kept cooking.

The only time I finally stepped in was when it was time to dish the eggs out into two bowls so that she could share some with Breanna. For one thing, I wanted to make sure Breanna got more than one bite in her bowl, and for another, the frying pan is a bit heavy and I didn’t want Hayley to lose her grip and drop the eggs all over the floor – not because it would be a huge mess, but because it would have triggered one of those “really tired post-school kid meltdowns” of epic proportions.

She was so very proud of herself and is already looking forward to doing it again. Maybe I’ll let her make us breakfast this weekend. It IS going to be Mother’s Day after all!

Breanna won’t be ready for real stove cooking for awhile but she has helped me pour and stir things before when they’re not directly on the burners, and the same day that Hayley made the eggs, Breanna made her own tuna sandwich, first helping me mix the tuna with the mayonnaise and then making the actual sandwich herself. The only thing I had to do was cut it (square, please, never ever triangles!).

Do your kids cook?