Liam got his packet of school pictures today. He handed it to me and said, “Mom, look, they cloned me.”
No, I do not feel this way, but I heard these words uttered yesterday from another mom. Let me vent for a second. The other moms at Colm’s KM class drive me NUTS! All they do the entire time we are there is talk about how smart their kids are. Seriously! Yesterday, I got up and moved myself down the hallway so I wouldn’t have to listen to them go on and on. Now, I know that everyone thinks their first child is a genius, but these are moms who have at least two to three kids and have at least one in elementary school. They were going on and on about how their child could read when he/she was four and how kindergarten was such a waste. Have they ever sat in a kinder classroom? I have. I go and help in Liam’s class every Tuesday and there is a lot going on that 99.9999999% of kinders would benefit from. Should they tell the teacher their child can read? You bet. Parents should always talk to the teacher if they think there is something the teacher should know about their child. But, to say kindergarten is a waste…I think not. Kindergarten is so many other things than JUST reading or learning how to read. They are learning how to navigate their way through a larger social network, sharing, listening, following directions, completing work, working together, becoming more independent, solving problems and the list goes on and on.
Liam has a great kindergarten teacher. They sing all the time about everything. How can you not be happy in a classroom where you sing all the time? They sing about the weather, the calendar, colors, letters, numbers, patterns and on and on. She even had the kids sing two songs and voicemailed all the parents so we could hear them singing. It was great! I think the singing part I like the best is that after the pledge each day they sing You’re a Grand Old Flag, This Land is Your Land or some other patriotic song that reminds me of music class when I was in elementary school.
To say kindergarten is a waste is completely false. As with any grade, talk to the teacher if you feel like your kid’s needs aren’t being met. Most good teachers can come up with some sort of creative solution and chances are your little genius is right up there with all the other little geniuses in the class and nothing special will have to be done at all.
Hold on, I’m not done yet. There is one mom there in particular that drives me SUPER nuts! She is a former teacher like me and seems to think she is God’s gift to the education world. When she isn’t talking about how smart her kids are she is talking about what a great teacher she is, even though she hasn’t taught in a number of years. She is also not short on giving out advice to anyone who will listen on how to teach your child to read. It is NON-STOP, people, she is driving me NUTS! If there was another class we could go to at a different time, I would go. Seriously. It is that bad. It takes everything I have to keep my mouth shut.
Okay, I am done venting now.
Colm LOVES Wendy’s. After school today, we swung by Wendy’s for lunch and he told me I was the best mommy in the whoooooooooooooooooooole (complete with arms stretching out wide) world.
Sidenote: Yes, he is wearing clothes. We had to take off his shirt because of the chocolate Frosty though.
My foot is feeling so much better! Thank GOD for antibiotics!
I am so mad! I asked that stupid doctor if I needed antibiotics and he completely blew me off. I also asked him if I needed some pain meds because it was really hurting…again, blew me off. Well, I had the school nurse at Liam’s school look at it today since I was already there (and because it really hurt) and she told me that I had (insert some fancy medical word here that starts with a C and means infected-I can’t remember what the word was) and that I needed some antibiotics and that the reason it hurts so bad (besides the fact that I had a blade go into my foot yesterday) is because it is infected. So my MIL is going to pick them up for me so I don’t have to hobble all the way into the pharmacy to get them (no it doesn’t have a drive through) with Colm in tow. God bless her!
I have never had stitches before, but now I have. Three. This afternoon Colm and I were working in the garden. I had the pruning sheers out, dropped them on my foot and well, they went in. Yep.
Colm was my little hero. He asked me if I needed a Band-Aid, he got my purse out of my car for me and brought me the phone. He also kept checking outside to see if my mother-in-law had arrived yet. The cutest part was when I was sitting on the kitchen floor with my foot in the air and Colm sat down next to me and did the same.
My MIL came and took Colm and went and picked Liam up from school. Sean came and took me to the ER and then took Liam to violin. I sat in the waiting room at the ER for over three hours while all of this was going on (and that was just how long I was in the waiting room).
My mom came and got me from the ER after the whole adventure was over and took me out to get a bite to eat.
Now my foot just really hurts and I have three stitches.
Coach
Blue Dragons!
Halftime
The most important part…the postgame snacks!
The parks and rec department sponsored this event today and it F.U.N. Not only did the boys get to climb on, in and around every sort of truck, car, rescue vehicle you can think of, they also got popcorn and a drink while they were there and a great goody bag which included a Hot Wheels car, coupons to various kid-friendly restaurants and some Skittles. They had a limo, a satelite American Red Cross rescue truck, an armored car, a street sweeper, a race car, a police car, a firetruck and the list goes on.
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Colm and I had to run some stuff down to my dad’s office today. So we did that and we stayed for a while and chatted with my step-mom. It was a little past lunchtime at that point and both Colm and I were getting pretty hungry. There is a restaurant down near the office that I have not been to since I was probably in high school or college during my vegetarian days. Back then it was a tiny hole in the wall where you just might bump elbows with the person sitting at the next table it was so cramped. I wasn’t sure what Colm would eat, but we were in the neighborhood and I was hungry, so we went. You can tell that they don’t have a lot of children pass through their doors. The hostess looked at me as if I might be lost when we walked in and the waitress wasn’t quite sure what to do with us. You could tell Colm’s presence was throwing them off a bit. I asked to see a menu before we sat down to make sure there was something Colm would eat and to my delight there were a couple of things he could choose from. I am so glad we went. I had the tastiest lunch and now I know we can go back with the kids….whether they want us to or not.
Tonight we had a dipper sampling at dinner. We all had fresh green beans, fish and rolls. Normally the green beans would have sent the boys over the edge. Colm would have thrown them on the floor or on my plate and Liam would have pitched a fit. Not tonight. I didn’t say much of anything about the food on their plates because I had them all wrapped up in the variety of dips I had set on the table to try with their dinner. The dips were: ranch (which my kids don’t eat), italian dressing (which my kids don’t eat), melted butter, ketchup, strawberry salad dressing (which they love) and honey. They were so busy seeing which dips tasted good with which foods that Colm totally forgot he hates green beans and Liam ate all of his fish after dipping it in honey, butter and ketchup. Liam even tried a green bean without putting up ANY sort of fight. He EVEN (and this is the amazing part, folks) spit out the first bite because he didn’t like it, but tried it again with a different dip. He still didn’t like it, but he TRIED and no one cried. Not even me. 🙂