No one is perfect

Yesterday I took Ezra to Noodles for lunch and we sat at the little counter with the twirly seats, even though the height of the twirly seats would guarantee that Ezra would be either wearing or dropping most of his Wisconsin Mac and Cheese.

The eat-in counter is near the food prep area so we watched the staff make the dishes.

"Mama, is that person a boy or a girl?" he asked me while pointing at one particular staff member. To be honest, I didn't know.

I reminded Ezra about pointing at people and that sometimes that could hurt someone's feelings. And I told him that if he wanted to ask me something about someone, that he could always whisper in my ear.

"But whispering in front of people hurts feelings too!" Good point. 

"So. Is that a boy or a girl?"

I told him I didn't know, but that I knew he was curious. I told him that, you know, how we treat people or what they're interested in doesn't matter if they're boy or a girl. That we treat people the same regardless if they're a boy or a girl or if we don't know. That God knew what he was doing when he created them and that they are free to be who they want to be in a way that makes them feel comfortable. All of that is a-okay.

"And no one is perfect!" he chimed in with. 

Exactly.

Random useless tidbits

Today I am wearing a new and quite bright skirt and rather like it. It's not pale, but it is citrus-y.

Also, these skirts? Are the best. Very well-made. Do not wrinkle (and I sit the bulk of the day). Awesome fabric weight. The length is neither too short nor too matronly. And can/will be worn year 'round. I have a black version, a cherry red one and now the quite bright color. 

Recommend.

****

I volunteered to chair a committee for a state-wide professional organization and I whipped out a take-charge email last night and everyone responded by this morning (!) and agreed upon a meeting date for next week.

This made me happy as usually it is like herding cats, but maybe my tone utilized the right combination of Mom Voice plus witty cajoling.

Or maybe the date and time just worked for people.

****

T's birthday is Saturday and he's coming back into town just in time to be whisked out for a Fancy Birthday Meats. I can't wait to order many drinks and too rich foods.

****

The weather here is weird and I do not like it. Snowy, rainy, sometimes above freezing, sometimes below freezing, sometimes sunny, mostly not. 

The hell.

****

I am going to order pizza and chicken wings for dinner. Iris loves chicken wings.

****

Speaking of Iris and her eating, she is eating well and often and a lot. She has also started turning up her nose at her reduced serving of puree. She points disdainfully at it and says, "I don't want to eat DAT." To which we respond, "Okay. But then you need to finish (x) and (y.)." And, um, she does. 

It's nuts.

****

This morning I booked a weekend away at Great Wolf Lodge for us (cue wolf howl). It feels a tick overpriced (because it is), but what the hell. Getting out of town for swimming in March will be good for us all.

And who the heck doesn't love a wave pool and a lazy river and 84 degree indoor temps? 

****

The past few months I've been buying issues of "Psychology Today." It's no scholarly journal (those things are boring anyway), but the articles are interesting. I liked this article on "supertaskers."

****

The holidays are behind us, but that doesn't stop this from being delightful.




****

What's random with you?

For your Thursday

Courtesy of Britt, who makes me snort laugh.

A day in the life

Laura and Lacey did similar posts and, really?, is there anything better than getting a glimpse of someone's day? I mean, that's why I read blogs. Not because I want to be smarter, more socially adept or to succeed professionally. It is because I am nosy about people I like (and some that I don't).

Tuesday

5:30am
Iris wakes up kind of crying while still kind of asleep. Sometimes she does this. It's not a night terror. It's not even a nightmare. It's not inconsolable hysteria. I get out of bed, pop into her room, give her a hug and tell her it's still sleepytime. She wasn't even sitting up, so she passes right back out. Now I'm awake but my alarm won't go off for another 30 minutes.

6:00am
Alarm goes off but I've fallen back asleep. Balls. Still so tired.

6:15am
Officially get out of bed and sneak into the bathroom. Our only full bath is upstairs and we have creaky wood floors, but I am a ninja. I take a shower, get my makeup on and am mostly dressed by the time Ezra wakes up. On the weeks T is out of town, I pick out my clothes for the week that way I'm not dicking around with indecision.

6:45am
Ezra comes in the bathroom with sleepy eyes and his blankie. "I want snuggles," he says. I tuck him into my bed and give him some snuggles. He watches Tinga Tinga Tales while I finish getting dressed and blow dry my hair. The rest of the morning is totally paced by Disney Junior. 

6:55am
Iris wakes up and climbs into our bed next to Ezra. Tinga Tinga Tales is over and Bunnytown is on. I tell Ezra that I'm going to get him dressed before Little Mermaid comes on.

7:00am
I grease Ezra up in some lotion (their skin gets so dry) and lay out his clothes. I usually pick out the kids' clothes the night before so that I can grab them and go. Neither one really expresses opinions about what they wear. He gets dressed. I flat iron my hair and run downstairs to open curtains and turn on lights.

7:10am
I tell Iris that I'm going to get her dressed in just a second. I make her bed and Ezra's, check my hair again to see if I need to nuke any additional fly-aways with the flat iron, and grab her clothes. I get her dressed on our bed and do their hair while they are sitting still for Little Mermaid.

7:25am
Little Mermaid is over. I shoo them off our bed, make it, and field an iPad certificate from Ezra. I grab the basket of dirty clothes and we all head downstairs.

7:30am
I ask Ezra what he would like for breakfast and he says, "Pancakes!" I made pancakes this weekend to have on hand this week, so I pop a few in the toaster, cut up some melon and pour his milk. He and Iris are playing on the iPad.

7:40am
The timer on the iPad goes off and I commence hassling Ezra to finish his breakfast. He snarfs the rest of it down and Iris asks for some Teddy Grahams. I check her school menu (she eats breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack at school) and see that they're having cherry crisp for afternoon snack and pack her some blueberries and sweet potato chips instead. There are a few menu items her chewing skillz aren't quite up to handling yet, and the oats of the crisp are one of them. They just seem too hard plus they scatter in her mouth/throat and make her cough.

7:45am
I throw a load of dirty clothes in the washer, put Ezra's dishes away, start the dishwasher, grab Ezra's vitamins, toss more food to Ezra at his request (he eats so! much!) in the form of a Nutrigrain bar, make sure all of our bags are by the back door and stuff everyone into coats.

8:00am
Holy crow it's cold. Everyone is in the car and I run down the driveway to snag the recycling bin since they already picked it up and tossed it conveniently in the middle of our driveway. Motherscratchers.

8:03am
We're at Ezra's school (it's two blocks away) and Ezra's teacher and I chat a bit while Ezra puts his things in his locker. His teacher is just...amazing. So kind--it just emanates from her. Anyway, we're early (usually we're skating in right as the bell rings), so he skips into the classroom with Mrs. M.

8:10am
Iris and I drive to school. Iris is not a talker in the car. She likes only music, but she calls it "mu-kit". She dislikes easy listening, slow country songs, Bruno Mars and any and all radio pauses for talking. She likes Macklemore, fast country songs, and the Frozen soundtrack.

8:40am
Iris is in her classroom and I go to Starbucks up the hill from Iris' school. Qdoba is in the same building so I chat with my favorite Qdoba guy and he gives me THIS! Holla!

8:55am
I'm at work. I chat with a co-worker, take off my boots and coat, gather up my stuff and head down to the Reference Desk. 

9:00am
I text with T a bit (he was on an overnight flight and landed at Heathrow). Chat with another co-worker for, um, awhile. It's quiet in the mornings at the Reference Desk. Help a student looking for a particular title. Then get cracking on some projects: updating a faculty bibliography, looking at new procedures for cataloging faculty archive materials, looking at an online discussion on standards for collection development. I field Reference questions while working on those things. Randomly read "Favorites" on Twitter since Caitlin reminded me of them and then I laugh like a crazy person. Chat with an attorney who uses the library a lot. He just went through a divorce so he has interesting stories.

12:55pm
Head back up to my office and put things away. Stuff myself back into my coat and boots and walk to my car to drive to the gym. It's only five or six blocks away, but it's cold as balls outside and I can make better time if I speedracer it up and park at a meter.

1:00pm
Workout. Today I did intervals on the treadmill at a super duper incline and did upper body free weights. I shower, re-do my makeup and am out in about an hour.

2:00pm
Haul buns up to Qdoba to use my free coupon and get a naked chicken taco salad. I really wanted a taco. Many tacos, in fact.

2:15pm
Back at my desk. I check my email and chat with a co-worker who just came in (we all work a 1:00pm-9:00pm shift during the week--mine is on Wednesdays). I finish the projects from earlier in the morning that I didn't get done. Stare out the window a bit. T and I text a bit more as he's landed in Paris. 

4:55pm
I stuff myself into my coat and boots again and wonder if I will ever see grass ever again. Like ever. I leave to go pick-up Iris at school.

5:05pm
I pick up Iris and she is super happy. She had a great day and was an eating machine. We walk out and Iris repeatedly reminds me that Friday is "Valentimes Day."

5:45pm
We get to Ezra's school (evening traffic is a beast-o-matic) to pick him up. His school offers before and after school care which is just awesome. After they buzz us in (the front doors to the school are locked and the after school care door is locked as well) he's ecstatic to see us and he runs right to his locker. This...isn't always the case. Sometimes it's quite the opposite which, you know, always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside when he catches sight of me and shouts, "NOOOOOO!" 

I feel his snowpants and gloves to see if they're soggy and they are. I stuff them in his backpack to dry at home.

6:00pm
We're home and the kids run right to the playroom together. I think since they're no longer at the same school, they really, really miss one another. They play while I drag all of our stuff (my bag, my workout bag, Ezra's backpack, Ezra's wet gloves and snowpants that I'll throw in the dryer, Iris' lunchbox) inside. I toss it all to the side and order dinner. With T out of town we're alternating nights of home cooked whatnot--last night was beef stroganoff--with take out. Tonight is Jimmy John's.

6:15pm
I hustle buns to throw the morning's clothes in the dryer and empty the dishwasher before Jimmy John's arrives. They arrive freaky fast and we sit down. I didn't order a sandwich for Iris since it's a little tricky with the thick bread. Instead I give her some cheese cubes, grapes and little rolls of deli ham and turkey. A deconstructed sandwich, if you will.

We all sit down and go through the art work and worksheets that I collected from their bins and folders. Ezra reminds me that it's jammie day + a stuffed animal for tomorrow's 100th Day of School. I put a post-it note on the door to remind me to bring the lemonade and two pounds of provolone I bought for the Teacher Appreciation lunch.

6:45pm
We're done eating and I put the dishes away, including Iris' lunchbox containers. I quick throw in her milk and purees for Wednesday. She's down to only 60g of puree for breakfast (which is really just yogurt and honey), lunch and snack. The rest of what she eats is table food. This coming Monday, we're eliminating her yogurt so she'll only be eating table food; two weeks later her lunch; two weeks later her snack; two weeks after that her dinner puree. So we're hoping by the end of March she'll be done with smooth foods. Cross your fingers?

I grab the dry laundry from the basement and we all head upstairs for bath.

7:00pm
Ezra asks to go first, so I hustle him through teeth, shower, lotion and jams before putting him on our bed to watch some Sofia the First. Iris is next. I fold the laundry while they watch a bit of tv, and I pick out their clothes for the next day and set them on their dressers.

7:40pm
I tuck Iris in her bed and read her a board book. I then proceed to bash my shin on her bed (darn low to the ground toddler bed...damn) She passes out fast.

7:55pm
Doc McStuffins is over and Ezra and I read a chapter from a new Hardy Boys book we got at the library on Saturday.

8:05pm
Ezra is in bed and I promise to check on him after I wash my face. I change into my jams and do my face potions and grab my Unisom. I pack my gym bag for the next day.

8:15pm
I check on Ezra and he is dunzo and passed out, so I head downstairs to make sure everything is picked up. I turn out the lights and close the curtains. I also make Ezra's lunch for Wednesday since it's a cold lunch day for him. I lay out our coats for the morning and put our bags by the back door. I also pour myself a not small bowl of Golden Grahams and head upstairs for the night.

8:30pm
Can't decide if I want to watch a movie or read or dink around on Twitter. People are mostly talking about the Olympics which I am...not into. I try to read my new book, The Rosie Project, which is really, really good but I'm just kind of cooked. I watch a bit of tv and pass out around 10:00pm.

It was a good day.

Valentining

I am not crafty but I do love looking at crafts (just not at craft shows).

I thought Ezra and Iris might like decorating their own Valentines this year so I bought supplies at Target--puffy heart stickers, foam hearts, Sharpie markers for writing, glitter glue (glitter glue makes Ezra lose his fool mind)-- plus some little packets of Goldfish crackers to attach to them. 

Later that day I saw these printables online and changed gears. Iris' room is doing a dinosaur unit and Ezra loves them, too. Perfect-o! (I ended up returning the previous supplies to Target.)

I sent the digital file to FedEx Kinko's and had it printed out in color on glossy card stock so that the cards would have some heft and wouldn't be too wimpy. I also had them cut the cards in quarters, leaving me with only some cutting to do. I'm...I'm not a great cutter.

I then decided to randomly order some tiny dinos from Amazon because why the hell not. Amazon Prime really just opens up a world of speedy consumerism that I'm rather fond of. A former co-worker used to say of eBay, "If it's not on eBay, then you don't really need it." I think this applies to Amazon Prime as well.



Anyway, I figure I could attach the tiny dinos in some way to the Valentine.

The next day, after I dropped Iris off at school, I picked up the printed Valentines and used Kinko's slicer to finish the cutting. I also used their three hole punch to put little holes in the top corner of each card, figuring I would tie or harness the plastic dino to it that way. That day at lunch, I ran to the Hob Lob to buy some baker's twine; wishing I'd just ordered it from Amazon instead.

On Saturday night, T poured me some wine and I gathered the supplies: baggie of dinosaurs, both class lists, Sharpie, Valentine cards, baker's twine.

I considered having Ezra write his name and his classmates' names, but the name area on the card is small-ish. Plus, you know, Ezra is in school all day. He occasionally has worksheets on the weekend to do for Monday. I decided to just do it for him. Why the hell not. Now I'm not one to bust in and do a project for him because I'm a perfectionist--I'd just rather have him play than be hassled to write his name 23 times. 

Anyway, T was on dinosaur duty. I'd get the twine ready, say "Dino!" and he'd pass me one. We did Iris' class on Saturday night and Ezra's Sunday night.

I like how they turned out and the kids are pretty excited to pass them out.

To the left

So pretty much no area in my house is sacred and just for me. The cabinets, the drawers, the bathroom, my closet, my face--everything is touched. 




The only place small paws and T aren't allowed to touch is my nightstand. 

See, I type that sentence and it seems so bleak. 2300 square feet and I get two drawers. Dang.

At any rate, it looks like this:

• A stack of books I have great plans on finishing: Hyperbole and a Half, Me Before You, The Spymistress, Sisterland and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
• A lovely dish from Sara where I put my nightly Unisom before I take it. I put it here because otherwise I toss it back and 20 minutes later dementia strikes and for the life of me I can't remember if I took it. This happens every. single. night. Until Sara gave me this. 
• A photo of the small fries
• Town & Country magazine because I love it so much. Usually the very cerebral US Weekly is there too but I already read this week's and passed it along to a co-worker.

I keep my hand lotion and perfumes and pairs glasses and Kindle in the top drawer. And cards from the kids and notes from T that I want to remember and other keepsakes in the second drawer. 

Overall theme: no touching from anyone else. So there.

Love/hate Tuesday

Love: Daycare germs might have kicked our can from the time Ezra was three months old until probably about age three, but son of a gun I feel like we're finally reaping the rewards of a throttled-and-recovered immune system. Aside from an afternoon long fever in December, he's yet to be hit by kindergarten germs.

Hate: Iris flirted with a stomachache on Sunday afternoon and I thought for sure we'd be the recipients of Diarrheamaggedon as a 24 hour version is going around her room, but lo! all is well. She woke up Monday feeling normal! 

Love: I have been mad productive at work and home lately. Just, like, smokin' through my piles of stuff.

Hate: Oh my lord I'm so, so tired at the end of the day and in the morning. And now that I think about it, I haven't been eating much meat and I have a history of anemia. Hrmm. Perhaps I shall pop a vitamin. This probably means I need to go to Target at lunch. See what I did there?

Love: January is over. It was kind of a long, grueling month.

Hate: I have a feeling February is going to whizz on by. But now I typed "whizz" which makes me think of the word "jizz" which is just about the most awful word out there. My apologies.

Love: I was able to make online a tax preparation appointment with our favorite tax lady lickety-split. I love the interwebs. I don't really hate the phone and rather love to chat, but if I can do personal correspondence at work with no one the wiser? Ole.

Hate: Next week all of the events are taking place and, holy crow, I'm going to have make sure I have my shit and my to-do lists together. Donations for a child Ezra's class is sponsoring in Ethiopia. The 100 Day of school. Show and tell. Teacher Appreciation Lunch. Ezra's Valentine's Day party. Iris' Valentine's Day party. My mom's birthday. T is in France all week. I work on Saturday. I might decide to do take-out a lot for dinner.

Love: T better buh-lieve I'm asking for something fabulous for Valentine's Day given his destination.

Hate: Don't get waxed and then go to Spinning. Take my word for it.

Love: Last night Ezra and I went to his school's roller skating party. His first one back in December was crazy fun, even if he initially overestimated his rollering skillz. But last night? He nailed it. He could wheel around the entire rink without falling down. He found his friends Adrian and Ty and skated with them. He yipped with excitement when "Roar" came on and moved his arms and danced while pushing along on his skates. Man, I love him.

Hate: When he asked me to sit down so he could go around by himself. Oh, my heart shattered a tidgy bit but I sat down because that's what I'm supposed to do.