This week we are painting the inside of our condo. The living room, hallway, and kitchen, to be exact, although they all blend in together and are kind of the same big room. It took me weeks to pick out the paint colors, and when I finally decided on paint colors I didn't even bother to paint some test squares on the walls, I am that confident in those colors. Also lazy. I am so lazy. Charlie and I together are so lazy that we just spent 15 minutes talking about the merits of just keeping the kitchen the same color it is now, just so we could put a fresh coat of paint over the same color without priming it first.
In the end though, we decided to go with the new color. It's hard to be lazy when my parents are driving 6 hours to help us paint. It's also hard to imagine the four of us getting this all done in three 5 hour days.
I'm nervous about the cutting in. Charlie just looked at the kitchen ceiling and commented on what a crappy job he did cutting it in 8 years ago. Uh-oh. That was me - I did the cutting in last time and I have to do it again this time and painters tape is nothing against me and a paint brush.
This week we'll be painting brown (coconut grove 1029 Benjamin Moore) over red, white (bone white) over brown, and gold (chestertown buff) over amazon blue, heaven help us.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
It was an ALL CAPS day
It's been a long time since I last posted. Now that the boys are in school all day I have ridiculously high expectations of what I'll accomplish all day while they are gone, and I run around like a crazy woman trying to get things done. It is no fun at all and part of me wants to yank Kai out of all-day montessori preschool just so my to-do list can go back to being what it used to be:
1. Play with boys.
2. Laundry.
3. Feed boys.
Instead, my to-do list looks something like this: Doalllaundry,cleankitchenbathroom,vacume,lookforjob,raisefundsforboys'schools,returnphonecalls,makelunches,
makedinners,buygroceries,findjob,updateresumeandallsocialnetworkstofindjob,cleanroom,dust,cleancloset
pickupboysfromschoolpacktheirsnackshelpwithhomeworkchangethesheetsreadbookswithboys....you get the idea. But today my to-do list turned in to this:
1. Pick up boys from school.
2. Try not to freak out.
3. Vent on phone to sister, mom, and friend while kids play 90 minutes of wii.
Yes, yes. First there was the full-day kindergarten issue. Then there was the toilet paper issue. Now there's this.
Today was a miserable school day. I picked the little one up from school and was told by his teacher that he just wasn't himself all day and he was scratching his back end all day. ALL DAY. She told me it was ALL DAY at least 4 times. She told me they kept having him wash his hands. She said she thinks he's getting sick. She told me I should look at his bottom when I get home because maybe he has that thing that her niece had and her face made it look like it wasn't that disgusting but you know she's just being polite because whatever her niece had totally grossed her out.
You know what took me two seconds to figure out? He had a bathroom accident that morning AND HE NEEDED TO CHANGE HIS CLOTHES. It took me another two seconds to realize that he was uncomfortable, embarrassed, and scared of punishment ALL DAY because the 3 adults in the classroom had never figured it out.
I thought this stuff didn't happen in Montessori.
I am royally pissed and trying to figure out how my conversation with her is going to go tomorrow after school (straight up, I asked her for a meeting). I think it might go something like this:
THERE ARE THREE ADULTS IN THIS CLASSROOM AND FOR 5.5 HOURS NONE OF YOU REALIZED THAT MY CHILD WAS UNCOMFORTABLE, EMBARRASSED AND SMELLY AND NEEDED A CHANGE OF CLOTHES?! HE IS ONLY THREE. HE SUFFERED ALL DAY. YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME.
I am going to try not to talk in all caps BUT I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO HELP IT.
Then as I'm dealing with that fiasco I get a call from a mom from the older one's school and she says she is watching my son on the playground. Jett and her son have had two play dates together over the past 5 months and I talk to this mom on the playground sometimes. So she calls to tell me that she has Jett on the playground and imagine my surprise because Jett is supposed to be in art club.
WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION HIS TEACHER RELEASED HIM TO THIS PARENT WHO DOES NOT NORMALLY PICK HIM UP FROM SCHOOL AND WHO IS NOT ON MY "OK TO PICK-UP" LIST. THEN THE TEACHER LET THIS PARENT CALL ME TO TELL ME ABOUT IT.
I don't care that this is a nice, trustworthy parent who had all the best intentions in her offer to watch Jett. That is not the point. The point is in all caps BECAUSE IT IS THE POINT.
No one I have talked to seems as upset about this as I am, although my mom, my sister, and my friend all put in very good efforts. I am so mad about this breach of trust and safety that I can't sleep.
Still, I really like Jett's teacher so instead of confronting her face to face I sent her an email. I tried to make the tone friendly but direct. I'm not very good at direct but I'm very good at friendly so I made sure to send it while I was still angry so my writing didn't dissolve into phrases like, "I'm sure you meant well, but....." and "It's not that big of a deal..........".
Because no matter what anyone says it is a huge deal and meaning well doesn't matter and I am the mom and I get to decide.
Welcome back, Blog.
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1. Play with boys.
2. Laundry.
3. Feed boys.
Instead, my to-do list looks something like this: Doalllaundry,cleankitchenbathroom,vacume,lookforjob,raisefundsforboys'schools,returnphonecalls,makelunches,
makedinners,buygroceries,findjob,updateresumeandallsocialnetworkstofindjob,cleanroom,dust,cleancloset
pickupboysfromschoolpacktheirsnackshelpwithhomeworkchangethesheetsreadbookswithboys....you get the idea. But today my to-do list turned in to this:
1. Pick up boys from school.
2. Try not to freak out.
3. Vent on phone to sister, mom, and friend while kids play 90 minutes of wii.
Yes, yes. First there was the full-day kindergarten issue. Then there was the toilet paper issue. Now there's this.
Today was a miserable school day. I picked the little one up from school and was told by his teacher that he just wasn't himself all day and he was scratching his back end all day. ALL DAY. She told me it was ALL DAY at least 4 times. She told me they kept having him wash his hands. She said she thinks he's getting sick. She told me I should look at his bottom when I get home because maybe he has that thing that her niece had and her face made it look like it wasn't that disgusting but you know she's just being polite because whatever her niece had totally grossed her out.
You know what took me two seconds to figure out? He had a bathroom accident that morning AND HE NEEDED TO CHANGE HIS CLOTHES. It took me another two seconds to realize that he was uncomfortable, embarrassed, and scared of punishment ALL DAY because the 3 adults in the classroom had never figured it out.
I thought this stuff didn't happen in Montessori.
I am royally pissed and trying to figure out how my conversation with her is going to go tomorrow after school (straight up, I asked her for a meeting). I think it might go something like this:
THERE ARE THREE ADULTS IN THIS CLASSROOM AND FOR 5.5 HOURS NONE OF YOU REALIZED THAT MY CHILD WAS UNCOMFORTABLE, EMBARRASSED AND SMELLY AND NEEDED A CHANGE OF CLOTHES?! HE IS ONLY THREE. HE SUFFERED ALL DAY. YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME.
I am going to try not to talk in all caps BUT I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO HELP IT.
Then as I'm dealing with that fiasco I get a call from a mom from the older one's school and she says she is watching my son on the playground. Jett and her son have had two play dates together over the past 5 months and I talk to this mom on the playground sometimes. So she calls to tell me that she has Jett on the playground and imagine my surprise because Jett is supposed to be in art club.
WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION HIS TEACHER RELEASED HIM TO THIS PARENT WHO DOES NOT NORMALLY PICK HIM UP FROM SCHOOL AND WHO IS NOT ON MY "OK TO PICK-UP" LIST. THEN THE TEACHER LET THIS PARENT CALL ME TO TELL ME ABOUT IT.
I don't care that this is a nice, trustworthy parent who had all the best intentions in her offer to watch Jett. That is not the point. The point is in all caps BECAUSE IT IS THE POINT.
No one I have talked to seems as upset about this as I am, although my mom, my sister, and my friend all put in very good efforts. I am so mad about this breach of trust and safety that I can't sleep.
Still, I really like Jett's teacher so instead of confronting her face to face I sent her an email. I tried to make the tone friendly but direct. I'm not very good at direct but I'm very good at friendly so I made sure to send it while I was still angry so my writing didn't dissolve into phrases like, "I'm sure you meant well, but....." and "It's not that big of a deal..........".
Because no matter what anyone says it is a huge deal and meaning well doesn't matter and I am the mom and I get to decide.
Welcome back, Blog.
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