Sara Skates

Tub snow

What's a boy to do when Moms only bought one pair of snowpants which have been left at school and there's beautiful snow to play with?

First, said boy gets bunded up to go outside anyway - in regular pants.  That lasts about 3.5 minutes.  Then, Tobes came inside and suggested that we put snow in the tub upstairs.

What a great idea!

Hannah joined in a few minutes later, and as near as I can gather (from conversation emanating from the bathroom), they were building snow-pokemon characters.

Short and sweet

I had big plans for a newsy and picture-full post tonight - but no way.

Terry had shoulder surgery today for a long-standing injury that finally got too painful to live with.  There was more rotator cuff damage than thought from the MRI, but aside from that, everything went as expected - her bicep connection got moved, the acromion process got smoothed off, some shredded tendons got de-shredded, and the aforementioned rotator cuff got repaired.  No, I don't know what most of that means, but Terry does, and apparently it's good news.  She'll be able to lift her arm above her shoulder as she heals - it has been years since that has happened!

But the very best outcome is that the anesthesiologist and surgeon put their heads together and she got a prescription for zofran - a disolvable anti-nausea med. which means that for the first time ever, she is tolerating heavy-duty pain killers.  (And both a surgeon and an anesthesiologist with excellent patient-talk skills - jackpot!)  She had geared up for mega-doses of ibuprofin and a "tens" unit to deal with the pain (the tens unit somehow disrupts the pain messages going to the brain - seeing as it needs direct skin contact and she has wound-dressing for three days, it wouldn't have worked until the bandages come off).  But this plan is SO much better.  Anti-nausea meds every 12 hours, vicodan every 4 hours or so, she has started eating again, and while she's not active, she is rather chipper.  She's doing a good job of holding down our comfy recliner chair, and one of the cats is supremely pleased at this - Sweetie Pie has taken up residence on Terry's lap.

I'm working short days from home this week and being Top-Mama for the kids - yes, I worry about work not getting done (I start teaching a course on Monday - hmm, I really should get that syllabus under control), but you know - it'll happen.

I do have excellent techni-color knees these days from a series of toe-pick falls on ice.  For two weeks in a row on Sunday, I have caught both toe-picks in quick succession, and whacked both knees (in quick succession...).  Admittedly, much less dramatic than shoulders and pain meds - but even Terry was impressed with the colors this morning.

If you give Toby a mousie -

Toby checked out a book from his school's library - on taking care of pet mice and rats.  He is enthralled with the whole idea - and is lobbying hard for a new pet (yeah, not so much).  His current tactics involve maybe for his birthday - which is not until March, and he's worried that he'll forget.  So tonight, I'm at the computer poking around for some music, he's at the dining room table with a brownie, and he yells out "Mom, how do you spell 'you'??".   I answer, and go find him a few minutes later.  With this note to show:

Toby ples remdynd mom that you wat a mac for yoour brthta.

(Translation though it's probably not necessary:  "Toby, please remind mom that you want a mouse for your birthday.")

One of my most favorite things about being a mom is watching your kids grow into productive language - spoken, written, whatever.  It's really cool.

Girls, self-image, and media

Anyone touched by issues of girls, body image, self-esteem, etc. should watch this film, produced by the "Dove self esteem fund" (yes, related to Dove Soap).  It's short, and quite powerful about the distorted image of femininity in the media.

Cute stuff

Hannah was breezing through the kitchen this morning while I was making my tea.  I said: "Hey there, cute stuff."  She quipped "Hey there, Big Stuff!" and giggled and ran out.

alrightey then ;)

Toby cuteness abounds too.  He has a new hat and mittens:
Shh, I know the mittens are too small.  I'll redo the tops of them and make them a little longer.  I may do that to the hat too.  This too is out of handspun yarn - it was a fabulous little bag of about 2 ounces each of three colors from Tom at Phantom Farm (who has no website, alas).

And his literacy focus is darned cute:

He planted a flower and named it.  Meet Lilly.

And he very carefully decorated his night light (it has a cool write on/wipe off feature...)

Hannah likes her new hat - no mittens yet although they're on the list of things to do:

She was rather grumbly when I took this picture, but she was way more thrilled with the hat this morning with the dusting of snow on the ground.

Back to my considerably less cute work at hand - institutional data!

Yom Kippur - Toby Style

The kids have the day off of school today because it is Yom Kippur. Last night, Toby asked me about what the holiday was. I knew generally that it was the day of "atonement", and that some folks fasted, but that's all I knew (I had no idea how one atoned oneself, etc.). So off to google I went, where in very short order I had the answer. I said something like it was a big holiday, and partly what you did was apologize for bad decisions you had made in the last year, and I thought it was kind of a nice tradition - because rather than just feeling "guilty" about stuff, you started the new year from a fresh start etc. Toby wasn't terribly impressed with the atonement idea - telling folks he's sorry isn't at the top of his list of things to do. (He gets shy and embarrassed about it...).

But apparently the discussion made an impression on him. 

He woke up this morning saying: "Mama, we don't have to celebrate that holiday today do we?????". Then - he quipped "I think I have to tell Ms. Koontz that I'm sorry. Because sometimes at the end of the day I leak and I don't tell her, so she doesn't know that I have to go potty."  (Ms. Koontz is his aide at school, she helps him with transitions and going to the bathroom etc..)

I had to stifle some laughing...it's still cracking me up. 

If anyone is fasting - I wish you an easy fast. Drink lots of tea and water I say - that helped me get through the pre-knee surgery fast. 

And for the record, Hannah really likes the idea of Yom Kippur, and would like to celebrate it as a family.

The boy has a point.

Toby had PT yesterday after school, and they were working on standing up from and sitting down on a bench, using his canes to help.  Part of the process is supposed to involve Toby putting one hand back behind him to feel where the bench is before he plops his bum on it.  The therapist reminds him to do that part (it's hard for him) saying "put your hand back Toby, you need to know where the bench is."  he quips:

"I know where the bench is.  I know where I am.  I don't need to do that."

While the therapist manages to stifle a giggle and admonish that "It's practice, Toby, practice", Terry does giggle.

And the boy has a point methinks.

The boy wants pink -

and pink he shall have.  In his bedroom.  And seeing as I was a peabrain and let him see the vast range of pink choices at Home Depot, it's screaming Pepto-Bismol (only brighter, if that's possible) pink.  Not any of the nicer raspberries or watermelons or fushias even.

However, since I know that -- given the vagueries of 6 year old preferences -- chances are his taste  will change next year month week tomorrow too late he already did, we decided first to paint only one wall of his room pink - it'll be way easier to re-paint one wall than the whole room. The other walls will be a deep shade of blue-lavendar, and the trim will be green.

As soon as the paint was mixed of course, he decided he wanted a Tinkerbell room, thanks to the marketing powers of Behr, Home Depot and Disney:

Click for the larger to-be-fully-appreciated effect.

SOOOO - we decided to remove the sliding closet doors, and have his mattress jut out from there - and we'd start by painting the closet pink.  And maybe still do one room wall pink.  Since we were NOT exchanging the color scheme at this point in the game.  Despite lengthy and extended Toby protests.

Thank goodness because holy crap is it PINK.  We are *just* doing the closet pink.  All the other walls are the blue/purple, and the window trim will be the green, and we'll call it a colorful day.  He is lobbying for the Tinkerbelle rug and pillows and all that, but that's small potatoes compared to the PINK.

It really is Pepto-Bismol pink.  See here - the darker pink in the box advertizing the children's version.  It is screaming nauseating pink.

Which Toby adores.  Which I find kind of cute.  In a holy-crap kind of way.

Partly, I was subjected to carnation pink rooms for my ENTIRE growing up years - seeing as we moved every few years, and my room was redone in baby pink every time - it was no small potatoes.  In high school we moved again - and a big to-do was made about me picking out my room paint and fabric color - I was going for violet - which was not on the approval list by my mother, so yup, you guessed it, I ended up with pink.  Walls and pink flowery sheets that she sewed with great effort, after I had spent hours picking out fabric I liked.  (She then bought what she liked.)  I hated it.  So to willingly paint any part of my house pink at this point - that's mama love, pure and simple.

At any rate.  The wall paint and closet paint happened this weekend.  The trim not yet.  The subsequent Tinkerbell touches will undoubtedly take months.  We have a "fairy bower" that Hannah had up in her room for years - that'll do. 

And it's really not about Tinkerbell for Tobes - he hasn't seen Peter Pan and only vaguely knows the concept of her as a fairy.  Which helps in the accessorizing department for sure - anything Tinkerbell-ish will work.

Successes

Day three - there were multiple requests for potty breaks *while* stationed at the computer, and many valiant attempts to do more than pee in the potty - and NO, count 'em, zero oopses today.  Which has happened before, but the novel new development is Toby's verbalization of needing to go.  It's all good folks - Toby's on his way.  The dramatic difference seen today was (a) initiation on his own part rather than relying on us to see the signs, (b) doing so for both peeing and pooping, (c) trying, just trying.  He did great. 

He was a little worried at bedtime because he didn't actually poop in the potty, but there was much jubilation over his attempts -- because as MamaCate affirmed tonight via the cell support system, it's the effort that one wants.  Who cares if they mess up if they're trying folks.  I was freaking slightly over the fact that he now seemed scared to poop at all - and the last thing we want is a stuck system. 

But hey - there was no crying at lost priviledges - yeah.

Nuff potty talk.  I successfully worked from home today - not as efficiently as at work, and there was a notably high quotient of Toby Media Time, but I did get done what I needed to get done.  Hannah was suitably entertained by the two friends who spent the day here - I didn't see much of her.  I do have some things yet to figure out on the tablet PC in tablet mode - like how the heck does one do CNTL-ALT-DEL with the pen and no keyboard.  I'm sure one of the buttons does it, but I couldn't tell you which one.  Some things are definitely easier in keyboard mode (logging into email for one), but some things are pretty cool in tablet mode.  I did make a pretty funny "typo" when I didn't check the handwriting-to-typed conversion thing - I was telling a friend of mine about something that some folks "loved" (a brand of skate, I think), and the tablet thought I wrote "oil".  Allrighty then, let's all oil those skates...

Hannah's growing up.  She's starting to branch out and think of having things like SALAD at dinner.  Tonight I had a strawberry spinach salad at Uno's, and after dinner Hannah thought maybe she'd order that next time.  She had to clarify that it wasn't cooked spinach, but she may well do it.  I never thought I'd see the day.  Someone tell her to stop growing, will you??

Non-obsession over 6-year-old bodily functions to resume shortly.  Phew. 

The new camera arrived.  I need a card for it - the internal memory holds exactly 4 photos.  I do have three cute ones of the three new kitties all staring at some kitty news out the back of the newly screened back door.  Up til last night, it had a wonderful dog-sized access porthole.  Used by kitties when available - since we prefer indoor kitties it really meant we never used the screen door (but instead the full glass door).  Very funny - we weren't sure they were entranced at the access to fresh air, or annoyed at the lack of access to the outside.  The 4th photo is of Toby's proud product of a stint with the Easy Bake Oven today.  Let it be known that I'm sometimes tolerant of such parental torture.

Photos, therefore, to resume shortly too.

Damn, kids are cute

Toby has a chenille pet worm/caterpillar thing.  It's name is Fred - Toby got it at one of the museums in Chicago, and he has been playing with it ever since.  The latest is that last night, Toby had me go down to the basement playroom, and bring up a nest he had made for Fred - an elaborate shoe box with a soft blanket mattress, a little blanket for covering, and a few adornments - treasures carefully laid in there that he thought Fred would like.  With a special spot where Fred would sleep.  So we got Fred to sleep, put the lid on the box, and then tonight - Toby tricked me.

He claimed he had lost Fred.  And that he took Fred to school (which I knew he had done yesterday, but not today), and that he put her back in the box but now she was lost.  He repeated this a few times, we go back and forth - I clarify whether or not he had taken Fred to school that day, and I'm generally perplexed about where Fred could be.  He then fessed up that he had just put in a sock-puppet sock into the box. 

Light dawns on Mama's marble head...the sock is a little poofy.  Fred has been stuffed inside. 

When I finally figured it out- Toby is BESIDE himself with glee:  "I tricked you mama!".

Then when Terry got home I sent her upstairs to be tricked too...