I continually wait for things to slow down, but I feel like I'm always prepping for an event or holiday. From school starting to the marathon, now it's parent-teacher conferences and Halloween. Today I ordered a Christmas gift because I have a panicked feeling about getting my shopping done. Keep on keeping on.
Parent-teacher conferences...a week this teacher dreads (it's long), a week this parent anxiously awaited. I bump into Mrs. Conlin regularly and I usually ask, How was his day? The mom-in-me is dying to know, the teacher-in-me feels like a pest. Finally, his conference - 20 minutes dedicated to talking about Finley the kindergartner. HE'S DOING AWESOME! I have the luxury of knowing the state/district tests he was recently given and what the results really mean, I want to brag, but I won't (thanks Melissa for listening), just know I am super-duper happy/excited/proud of what Finley can do.
Academics were second on my list, I really wanted to know about his behavior. It sounds like Finley is making friends, is helpful towards others, listens at group time, is willing to try new experiences, and overall a nice boy. HAPPY ME. He's NICE. He LISTENS. He's doing what I want him to do! So what if he needs to work on picking up after himself ?! Yeah, we've already talked about it.
But even awesome kids lose their shit sometimes. This sometime was in our driveway after getting off the bus.
Bookfair books + popcorn = messy storytime on the couch.
Quiet time quickly became nap time.
Finley's into card games, which means Hadley's into card games. On Friday I attempted to reply to a few work emails only to hear...no one will play with me. Guilt-trip when it's only the two of us at home.
At 6-years and 3-years, my kids still follow me around the house. They have a sixth-sense for when the bathroom door closes, Mom? Mom! Mom? Where are you? every.time. For 8ish of my 12 miles, these two sat in the workout room and played.
Hadley no longer randomly moves her dollhouse people around. The dolls talk to each other, she walks them up/down the stairs, they sit on the furniture/lay in the beds, etc.
I stopped for a minute as the mom was saying, Come on kids! Come upstairs, it's time to eat. I overheard her calling the mom Heather, so I asked about the names of the others. She introduced me to the mom Heather, the dad Uncle Ryan, the baby Baby, and the big sister Heidi...
...and then Heather & Uncle Ryan kissed! I asked her to be sure - Yup, the mom and dad kiss. Weirdo, rumors start this way.
There were games, a haunted house, and bingo.
Like most kids, Finley & Hadley flip-flopped costume ideas for a few weeks. Finley committed to a ninja, he loves his store-bought costume a lot. I don't get the "ninja" thing, but it seems all six-year old boys do. There were a bunch of ninjas and he couldn't have been happier.
Hadley went from wanting to be a "girl-ninja" (she seriously copies everything Finley does), to Anna, and settled on Elsa. Grandma found perfect Elsa-fabric, offered to make Hadley's costume, and far exceeded our expectations. There will be a zillion Elsa's this year, but none will have a dress this perfect.
I hate dressing up, I think adult costumes are dumb. But watching Hadley in her costume, oh my it's great. You can tell she feels beautiful.
During the fittings she would look at herself in the mirror and smile. She also posed for all of my picture requests. Notice the absent ninja, he was too busy running around with his friends.
When the costume is on, Hadley becomes Elsa. She sings, she spins, she watches her flowing dress, she freezes us all.
Grandma outdid herself, the hours creating this dress were worth this giant smile.
Finley's class will be celebrating Halloween with a grade-level celebration on October 31st with crafts, games, and treats. A note came home with a list of needed items - candy corn, frosting, sprinkles, napkins, etc. We were assigned one dozen undecorated Halloween-shaped cut-out cookies. Oh man, I wanted the can of frosting ;)
I immediately searched pinterest for easy sugar cookie cut-out recipes. Kneading, chilling, they all seemed like a lot of work. I decided to order 12 undecorated cookies from the grocery store. But that felt like cheating. So I took the middle-road and bought a tub of sugar cookie dough and a set of Halloween cookie cutters. Kinda cheating, kinda home-made.
Since it'll be kids eating the cookies, I decided a kid could help.
Bats, webs, witches cauldrons, and pumpkins went into the oven...
...and unrecognizable shapes came out. Bummer.
We settled on the pumpkins and bats because they seemed to hold the shape best. And I use the word "best" lightly. Now my fingers are crossed Finley doesn't crush them between drop-off and walking into his classroom.
Even though I feel like I have no time to sit and do this, it felt good to sit and do this. (I'm not weirdly posing, my arm was up on the back of the couch).
And today, the kids followed me around the house wearing jammies until 3:00, that felt good too.
As crazy as I feel every single day, apparently I've forgotten how stressed I was leading up to the marathon. This week I decided I will try getting into the Boston Marathon 2016. I'll cross my fingers qualifying by 4:03 will be enough, it was for 2015. I will not start worrying about this yet, I'll just keep on keeping on...until next September when it's time to submit my registration.
No comments:
Post a Comment