On the loose

Well, it's been a hectic couple of weeks and I've fallen off the blog wagon. Watch out I'm jumping back on! What prompted this renewed energy in blogging? Grant lost his first tooth!

It's been a moment months (or maybe I should say years) in the making. Both boys got cut their teeth early. Grant getting his first teeth at 3 1/2 months old seemed so momentous. Maybe because he's my first child, maybe because it happened in the first days for the "hanging chad recount" controversy or maybe because it was one of the milestones that I missed. Yep, I was on business trip the day my baby cut his first two teeth and had to hear about it over a crappy cell phone connection in a steak house in Vegas.

Back to the more recent past, several of Grant's teeth have been wiggling since at least July. In the past two weeks things have gotten much more interesting. When checking to see how much his teeth wiggled one night we noticed that his new bottom front incisors were already poking through the gums behind his baby teeth. Yep, my kid has shark teeth. I'm pretty sure that his top front teeth are on the move too as the baby tooth has been pushed down lower than its neighbor. His smile is definitely getting reminiscent of a jack-o-lantern and wouldn't you know it today was picture day at school. Oh well, at least his school picture will be pure Grant.

Off to await the arrival of the tooth fairy!

Wild Animals

I'm on my own with the boys this weekend. Don't worry I'm returning the favor for Glayde in October! I knew that we wouldn't survive the weekend if we didn't get out of the house today. Last night I talked with Grant about what things he might like to do today. He told me that he wanted to go to the "big zoo... you know the Oakland Zoo". A couple of weeks ago Glayde and I took the boys to an animal refuge and Glayde made the mistake of telling Grant that it was like the zoo. So Grant was rather disappointed when there were no elephants at the wildlife rescue. It's hard to explain that wild elephants aren't exactly roaming our foothills in need of shelter like the badgers, raccoons, bobcats and more.

This morning we headed out to the zoo with our lunches packed and everything. We got there right as the zoo opened which was fabulous on so many levels. There was hardly anyone there. The boys could run around a bit without too much worry of being mowed down by other families. The big bonus was getting to see the animals come out of their night enclosures. We actually saw the tigers coming out of their enclosures and then checking out their territory to see what was new. That's totally cool since we often can't even spot the tigers in their exhibit. And once again we got to see the giraffes come out of their barn. It's so funny to watch them parade out and duck their long necks so they can fit under the gateway. Later we even saw a bit of giraffe love when one of the males came over and started smooching on one the little females. Grant announced happily "Look, Mom! They love each other!" Yep, giraffe kisses are grand even when the recipient starts making a B line for the feeding trough instead of hanging out with her would be suitor.

Even though Heath was in major escape mode, I managed well with two boys on my own. We often do these big outings but usually with another family or at least Glayde along to manage our herd. I have to say that we went to the zoo because Grant really wanted to and I thought it would help my sanity for the weekend and I ended up quite enjoying myself.

**overlay by Lyndsay Riches**

Over qualified

I think we all feel over qualified for some of the tasks we perform whether its for our job or help we offer to others. Today I got my first chance to volunteer in Grant's classroom. I showed up just as workshop time was starting so I manned the puzzle table and helped the kids with reconstructing Cookie Monster and Little Red Riding Hood. No I didn't feel over qualified for this task. I felt like a mom helping kids. Some of the help was with actually putting the puzzles together and some was with reminding the kids to rotate puzzles once in a while and try out a different puzzle from time to time. I really enjoyed my peak into Grant's world as his recounting of his school time is not always easy for me to decipher.

Before I left the class, I asked Mrs. S if she had anything else that she needed done anything I could take home and do for her. After making sure that I really didn't mind spending my time on her projects, she brought out a card that the kids will be working on soon. The front of the card had a cut out of a school house on it. Would I mind tracing the cut out and making enough for both the morning and the afternoon class? Mrs. S was happy to supply me with brightly colored paper. She even offered to send home scissors with me. Hmm... had she heard that I have an affinity for computers? I doubt it.

Back at home after a cleaning blitz on the kitchen, I sat down and really looked at the school cut out. It bothered me. You see none of the lines were parallel or square to each other. The roof lines were surely at different angles. I couldn't stand it. I couldn't just trace this cut out and proceed to whack 40 of them out of the bright paper that Mrs. S had sent home with me. No, I sat down with pencil, ruler and card stock (No not the mythical card stock from school!) and drafted a new template. Yes, I mean drafted. I measured and sketched and precisely drew in my new and improved school house. You see I have a degree in mechanical engineering. I haven't drafted with a T square since I was in high school but I have a real need to draw things precisely. When any other parent helping out their child's teacher would have just traced original and cleaned it up a bit, I had to reinvent the school house. My roof lines are exactly at 45 degrees. My door is exactly an inch wide. I figured out how to nest two cut outs on the same page so that I'd use less paper. Heck, I even did some quality control and rejected a couple of cut outs as not quite up to kindergarten standards.

Tomorrow the school houses go back to class along with my very own template. Maybe Mrs. S will like the template enough to hang on to it until next year so some over qualified "maternal" engineer won't fall into the same trap I did.

Sniff Test?!?

We have two kitty children in our house. You may remember them from our moth adventures. Well, these two never cease to amaze and amuse us. Over the weekend I caught Mathilda giving my sneakers the sniff test. Not sure if they'd pass any humans sniff test, but they seemed just delightful to her. So wondeful that she stuffed her face right on in for a better whiff. She even convinced Leon to try it out too.

More proof that cats may be utterly lovable but they're still very wacky too.

Poop happens

As any mom of a child in the 3 and under set can tell you poop is just a fact of life. You end up spending a lot of your time cleaning it up too. Tonight during bath time, Heath got that look of deep concentration on his face that means poop is on the way. Since we're on the cusp of potty training, whenever I this particular look I ask "Are you going to poop?" I'm hoping to help Heath develop some self awareness about what is going on with his body. I usually get a resounding NO! No matter what is really going on in his diaper.

So tonight with Heath in the tub and that gleam in his eye, I calmly ask the question and merely get a puzzled expression back from Heath. Hmm... Let's assess the damage here. I have Heath stand up and sure enough there was a mess that should never happen in the tub. Amazingly enough I'm very calm in the face of this latest toddler mess. I'm thankful that Grant hadn't gotten in the tub yet that would have lent an edge of hysteria to the event. And once again I found out exactly how wonderful and useful bleach wipes can be. We really need to remember to buy some stock in Clorox!

You may be wondering why I didn't get too bent out of shape over this poop incident. Well evidently Heath is my child with poop issues. A couple of months before I took the blogging challenge, Heath was into poop painting. Yep, he'd get bored during nap time and decide why nap when you can redecorate your room with your own waste products! Poop in the tub is nothing compared to poop painting.

Kindergarten HURRAY!!!!

Yesterday was Grant's first day of kindergarten and let me just say that it was fantastic for all of us! Some how we all managed to be up, dressed, fed and ready to go really early. School starts at 8:30 for the kindergarteners, but we were so efficient at getting ready that we had to sit around and twiddle our thumbs for a while. Glayde decided to go into work late so he could witness this historic event in our family history, so we all piled in the Mountaineer and drove over to school. There a little bit of confusion ensued. I wasn't quite sure where to park and though the "drive through" drop off loop has parking for parents I didn't feel like braving it. Even the veteran parents didn't seem to want to park there so I was really leary of it. We parked on one of the neighboring cul-de-sacs and walked over to the school and then wondered where and how to approach the kindergarten play area. We ended up covering most of the distance back to the car to go through the correct gate. This might all get better since the school is still having some minor work to the fence being done, but it was definitely an educational start to the morning.

Then Grant and the rest of the eager new students got to climb and play for a few minutes. Soon his teacher was calling his class to line up, so they could say good bye and enter the halls of academia. She reminded children and parents alike that the day would go fine, everyone had lots of things to do this morning and "don't be late for pick-up"! Grant had a minor backpack issue. Evidently he thought it was too heavy with all the school supplies stuffed into it. I blame it on the REAM of cardstock I had to hunt down and then pay big bucks for. I am not really complaining about the cost of kindergarten because... hey it's free! But I am curious to see what all the cardstock was for.

Grant's class is dismissed just before noon and I even braved the drive through pick up lane. It really turned into more of a double parking lane as most of the parents were so early for pick up on the first day that we all turned off our engines while waiting for the kids. I admit I enjoyed my morning with just one little monster in the house but I was anxious to hear how Grant's morning went plus I haven't developed a sense of how long to allow for the drive to school.

By Grant's own recounting, he had a great day. All the events he's mentioned including coloring and cutting out a Clifford the Big Red Dog picture and having snack couldn't have taken more than an hour and a half on the generous side. So I'm still trying to figure out what all else they did and how he still only knows the name of one other child in the class (and Grant went to preschool with this boy)! Oh well... Grant's enjoying it and excited to keep going to class so that he can learn lots of things and "go to college one day". Really folks, we're not brain washing the boy about college this early in his academic career but when Steve from Blue's Clues went off to college it made a real impact on the boy. We'll take help anywhere we can find it.