This site has photos of ancient “lost” cities. I got lost in them for a long time last night. I especially love seeing pictures of Chichen Itza, having been there many years ago.

God, I wish I wasn’t too lazy to make these creepy and cool Halloween cupcakes.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of Breanna’s favorite things to do is to rush over if you’re pretending to cry (or doing it for real) so she can rub your arm and say “don’t cry! Okay! Don’t cry!” Even today, she did it to me and I wasn’t crying at all. My glasses are busted and they are a bit wobbly so they make me especially nauseous when they move while I’m trying to work on my computer. I was sort of hunched over, moaning and whining (yes, my plans for the week include going to get them fixed or replaced, whichever is cheaper and more likely) and Breanna thought I was crying so she reassured me.

She took it to an extreme the other day though. She saw that I was sweeping my kitchen so – as she frequently does – she went and grabbed my Swiffer. She pushed it all around the apartment, then went to town with it in my living room (there’s just no explaining to a toddler that Swiffers don’t work on carpets). At one point she accidentally banged it into the couch and she immediately dropped to the floor, hugged it close, and said, “Okay, don’t cry!” over and over again, like she was terrified she had hurt her delicate little Swiffer.

She is a loon. But we do share a love of Swiffer products.

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I never wrote about Hayley’s birthday party last weekend. It was nice and calm. We had a home full of people, we were pretty well packed. Everyone was able to make it, including my parents, and everyone seemed to have a good time. We did up cheese and pate and cracker platters, vegetables with dips, fruits with chocolate sauce, chips and whatnot, and of course I made lasagna and a birthday cake. This year’s request by Hayley was a re-run, she wanted another ladybug cake. Okay then!

You can see the full set of party photos here, though there aren’t a ton since I was too busy to take photos. She got a nice mix of toys and clothes and it was all good.

*******

This weekend consisted of her friend’s birthday party on Saturday and then Thanksgiving dinner last night. Today was A LOT OF FUN since both girls were ridiculously tired. Neither could settle down and sleep until almost 10 last night, then Hayley inexplicably woke up from 1 am until 5 am. They were both cranky and fussy, Hayley has a dry cough and Breanna is teething with her two-year molars, so in general it was just a frickin’ great day here. At least they were both exhausted enough to fall asleep relatively easily tonight so hooray for that.

Hayley refuses to admit she’s tired even when she is, and she even manages to pull off looking awake in the picture she requested tonight. How does she do that?

And then tomorrow school’s back in (holiday today since today is technically Thanksgiving), and we’ll be back to our normal routine. Whatever “normal” means.

*******

Today, for the first time in years I made myself a big old omelet. I’ve documented my hatred of coming up for things for lunch if there are no leftovers to be had but today I just had the urge once I saw some vegetables and ham in our fridge. I sauteed some mushrooms, chopped tomato, cubed ham, onion, and garlic, then cooked up an omelet with melted cheese and folded the other things inside.

It was frickin’ insanely good. Good enough that I just might make myself another one tomorrow, dammit.

*******

I am full into prime time TV again now that everything is back on (except Lost, dammit). I am loving all my usual dramas (Criminal Minds first and foremost and still the show I would choose if I could only watch one, CSI, CSI Miami, and CSI NY). I’m slowly getting back into Grey’s Anatomy although it’s lost a little something or other. Even Desperate Housewives has sucked me back in. Reality TV is quiet with only Dancing With the Stars holding me in, but that’s mostly because I’m interested in watching Jennie Garth (from my once beloved 90210) and Cameron Matheson (who plays a character on my one soap opera, All My Children). I also started watching two new shows – Big Shots which is okay but not awesome, and Dirty Sexy Money which is so good I nearly burst an artery watching it. I tried Gossip Girl and loved it, but it airs at 7 pm here which is just stupid and not do-able for me so maybe I’ll catch it in the summer instead.

What are you watching this season? Let’s discuss!

Things you can do with a single sheet of paper. My favorite is one of the “simpler” ones, the third one up from the bottom on the right hand side.

This is absolutely amazing – photos of a dolphin giving birth. Unless you’re incredibly squeamish, there’s nothing to be afraid of, the pictures are just incredible and beautiful.

Happy turkey eating day to my fellow Canadians. I suppose there are many important reasons to celebrate on Thanksgiving, but honestly it’s all about the turkey and the pumpkin pie for me. I can’t wait to chow down.

I’ll try to post something more substantial at some point in time if the turkey hasn’t rendered me completely comatose.

You know, today when I was getting ready to leave to go to the school – I was asked to come in right at the start of the day – I made sure to pack my camera, double-checked that my card was in the camera and not in my card reader, tossed an extra pair of charged batteries in my purse, and headed off, ready to take pictures of Hayley in her Kindergarten class.

I totally forgot to take a single picture. I never even thought of it until I was walking up to the front door after coming home.

The bad part is that I don’t have any pictures to look at, to share with Hayley, to remember. The good part is that it just means that I was too busy having a freakin’ blast to think of my camera. (This is why I need a camera attached to my head which takes photos every two minutes.)

I seriously enjoyed my morning in Kindergarten. It was so much fun to watch what Hayley does every morning after she gets dropped off. They have a set routine of where to put things, what order their routine is, how they get their morning started, and I loved seeing it. I joined in on their circle time and sang songs with them (the teacher started to giggle when she saw that I was singing along because it showed that Hayley sings them repeatedly at home), introduced myself, and then got to read them a Thanksgiving story. I was shocked at how easy it was to hold the attention of 19 young kids as I read about how three turkey plotted to escape the farm before Thanksgiving dinner. We even got to join the other Kindergarten class for a little culture lesson, where a student who is Sikh and his mother explained in easy terms about their beliefs and showed how he gets his hair done every morning (apparently a lot of kids kept mistaking him for a girl with his long hair up in a bun with the piece of cloth over it, so that inspired the mini lesson) and it was great.

Eventually we set about doing what I was originally invited in for, and I helped the teacher with the smoothies. They were delicious and since most of the kids opted for the strawberry-banana mix, the teacher and I ended up splitting almost an entire blender full of raspberry-banana smoothies. That’s more milk than I’ve had in years. I’m totally making some at home as soon as we get more bananas and raspberries. Yum!

They had their drinks during snack time and then they started working on their Thanksgiving turkey craft until recess. I helped some of the kids out and my god they are so cute. For one moment of insanity I wondered why I had never considered being an early childhood educator. Then I remembered I would probably end up crying in the bathroom, and the moment passed.

Hayley’s turkey that she brought home

Hayley was really sad when I had to leave at recess to come home but she said that she was okay once she started playing with some of the kids outside. I could see her through the fence as I left the school (though she didn’t notice me) and I could see her playing with a few girls so I knew she was okay.

I definitely want to go back again. I love the teacher* and the kids are great.

*I knew I could get along just fine with her when she joked that she would put some vodka in our smoothies. Someone who can joke about that without worrying about whether that would offend someone is my kind of person.

As a mother, it’s common for me to talk about the milestones of my kids – when they first sat up, rolled over, walked, said “Mommy”, or made me breakfast in bed (still waiting on that last one). Every parent exchanges milestones with other parents regardless of whether they’re doing it because they’re proud parents, concerned their child is behind, or just because they’re annoying braggarts.

I have milestones too though. They’re not quite the same thing, they’re not quite as monumental. I’ve been walking for over three decades, and although it’s hard to get a word in edgewise with Hayley’s nonstop chatter, I have been talking for a very long time too. And it’s not like we have a book to write down, “holy crap, I just made my very first Photoshop brush / wrote my first piece of fanfiction smut / remembered everything I wanted to buy at the store without a list!”

Still, as a mom, here are some of my recent milestones.

1. I have sent a child off to school for the first time without breaking down into a blubbering mess.
2. I had my first meeting with the principal.
3. I filled out my very first Scholastic books order form as a parent*
4. I have sent off my first cheques to pay for hot lunches here an there
5. I have had my first (and second, and third) call-in to the school to say my daughter would not be in that day.
6. I have put my first not-done-at-home arts and craft treasure (an egg carton caterpillar) on my shelf and pasted first artwork on Hayley’s door.
7. I have done my first stint as the drop-off and pick-up mom at school (though I don’t look as stylish as some moms who do the same thing, but then again, I don’t have paparazzi following me either).
8. I have done homework at the kitchen table with her.
9. I have attended my first school function when I went to participate in the run.
10. I have successfully listened to my daughter talking about playing ball with / playing tag with / drawing pictures of and for a little boy in her class WITHOUT cracking into a stupid and goofy smile.

And then tomorrow I get to add another one because tomorrow morning I will be doing my first round as a classroom mom. The class has been learning about all kinds of fruits and different ways that you can consume them, and tomorrow they’re doing a smoothie day. Each student is responsible for bringing in a small carton of milk and a specific fruit (we were asked for raspberries), and they will be experimenting, trying small cups of different flavors of smoothies. The teacher saw me this morning and flagged me down to ask if I could come in for it, and I said sure. I’ve been requested to come on in first thing in the morning, so tomorrow I have to do things a little differently. I usually drink a coffee while I co-erce Hayley into eating and getting dressed, and I throw on whatever is (hopefully) clean. Tomorrow I’ll have to actually eat something too (yay for breakfast bars), put on something reasonably nice, and I’ll have to wrestle my contact lenses into my eyeballs.

I’m really looking forward to it. Once upon a time I was curious about homeschooling, and as time went on I realized that as awesome as it is, it really isn’t for me at all. Still, I promised myself that I would do what I could to be involved in Hayley’s (and eventually Breanna’s) school experience. Someday they’re going to be in high school and at that point they won’t want their OHMYGODMOM in the class or even in the building, so I have to do it now while I still can. I think it’s going to be fun, and I’ll get to see all these kids that Hayley talks about every day.

*I seriously loved Scholastic as a kid, right up through high school. I don’t think I ever missed out on ordering at least one book. I am so excited to be able to do it with my own kids now, and I can’t wait for all her new books to come in – we got quite a load of them!
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Did you know it’s The Great Mofo Delurk day today? That means that even if you usually lurk here, quietly reading from your feed reader or your blogroll or whatever and you enjoy reading but rarely (if ever) comment, now is the time to say a little hello to me so that I know you’re out there and I’m not just screaming into the ether. And if you’re a regular commenting demon, then a) thanks! and b) leave one anyway.

Gracias!

In high school I was fine in math for grade seven and eight. In grade nine I started having trouble but I had a great teacher who helped me though it. In grade ten I failed spectacularly despite asking my inept teacher (who was good at math but sucked at teaching) for help constantly, and I passed grade eleven and graduated only because I took what we all referred to as “BoBo Math”.

I hate that Barbie that apparently spoke aloud saying, “Math is hard” because it fits a gender stereotype that needs to be eradicated, but the truth? I was that Barbie because to me Math was hard.

Still, that was algebra and high end math. When it comes to basic math, I’m fine, albeit a bit slow and often reliant on a calculator. So here is a bit of math I can handle, and I think that you can too.

Study it carefully. There may be a pop quiz tomorrow.

On Friday I had an interesting opportunity to see Hayley in a school environment. The schools always have a Terry Fox Run annually, and the teacher had sent home a note saying that if any parents wanted to come out and run, walk, or just stand on the side to cheer, that they would love to have us. It was a nice day after a night of rain, so I took Breanna and went up.

The race started after morning recess so they were still all outside when I was arriving. I stood for a second at the fence and I was able to see Hayley playing with a soccer ball with a few of the girls and a woman who is the yard monitor. Hayley never saw me and I didn’t want her to because it was fun to see her interacting with people without any awareness of my presence. I didn’t linger too long though, because I didn’t want anyone to wonder why some woman was peering through the fence at a bunch of school kids – I’d hate to have missed the run because I was taken to the police station to be questioned about my Peeping Tom tendencies!

When I had signed myself in, I chatted with some other moms that I recognized from the after-school pick-up, and then we were all ushered out into the school yard. It was awhile before Hayley came out; they called out the grades in order from the oldest down to the Kindergarten level so that the younger you are, the less time you had to run (or walk). Still, Breanna and I cheered on all the kids and the principal who was right in the thick of things. I saw one of our neighbor’s kids and several other kids were wooed by Breanna, calling out to me with exclamations of, “she’s so cute!” as they ran past.

Finally, it was time for Hayley to get ready to come out. I was waiting by the Kindergarten door when they came out to the hallway and she spotted me through the windows. I couldn’t hear her of course, but I saw her mouth the words, “that’s my MOM!” to all the other kids, and then she was waving excitedly at Breanna too. The teacher waved for me to come in so I joined them and was impressed by how easily she organized 20 kids into two neat, orderly lines. Then we were off!

It was almost like being with a teenager. Hayley held my hand for all of, oh, 30 seconds, and then she was off. Have you ever noticed Hayley’s gazelle-like legs? That kid can run. Trying to keep up with Breanna on my hip was insane so I stopped trying. It wasn’t like she could get lost or anything. Eventually I came around the full circuit and put Breanna back in her stroller which made it a bit easier. Still, although Hayley would periodically stop to walk long enough for me to catch up or would come running back to meet me, most of the time I watched her racing ahead with her friends. I was the mom who was ditched by her daughter for her way cooler friends.

And you know what? I loved it. For all the heartache I went through the first couple of weeks, putting on my brave, happy face and I sent her off to enter the school while she cried her way across the school yard, I can not tell you how good it felt to see her smiling and laughing and having fun with her school friends. Two or three weeks ago, she would have been clinging to me the whole time. This time, she was happy I was there but she didn’t need me to help her along.

When it was over, I went back in with the class because I had to pass by the office to sign out, and it was time for the Kindergarten and grade one kids to head to the cafeteria for lunch. Hayley said, “I don’t want you to go yet” and I told her I had to go home to give Breanna a nap and that I would be back soon to pick her up. I was worried she would get sniffly and teary-eyed, but she just hugged me and then hugged Breanna and that was it. All the kids have to sit with their lunch bags on their laps in front of their cubbies and when they’re all sitting and ready then the teacher leads them down to the cafeteria. I spoke with her teacher for a few moments about possibilities of volunteering for some future activities (something I am dying to do!) and when I was ready to leave, Hayley wasn’t even looking my way, she was talking to the boy and girl next to her, all animated and bright-eyed about something. I didn’t bother to say goodbye again, not wanting to interrupt her, so we left.

I was so proud. I was proud of how she ran for the majority of 20 minutes, walking only when she truly had to, proud of how she was so involved with her friends, and proud of how far she’s come in such a short time.

Tomorrow is picture day. Having met two of her good friends (one is a boy! A boy that she drew pictures for last week! Ack!), I already have two faces to put to the names. I can’t wait to get the class picture so I can have faces for every name she comes home with.