When Dinosaurs Attack

Paul and Douglas

Unfortunately, Paul was sick most of this week and now I am coming down with the same thing. I am still at the point where I am pretty tired all the time, so I was not terribly happy Paul decided to wake up before it was light this morning. Of course, it wasn't his fault, since "Douglas was running around and around the room and yelling RAWR and woke me up!".

I'd forgotten how weather in the ArkLaTex is this time of year, especially compared to the relatively calm weather in the DC area. We had a normal (for this time of year) storm pass through the area, complete with ominous tornado watches, warnings, and mentions of "tornado signatures on the radar". Paul overheard and decided that "Douglas was too scared to sleep", so it was difficult to get him to go to sleep until after the storm passed over us. I can't say I really blame him, since the threat of a tornado warning while you sleep is pretty scary.

I don't really remember worrying too much about tornadoes until I was older and had to deal with tornado warnings in school. During tornado warnings, we would all grab the heaviest book in our desk, and quickly leave the room, in single file. We would crouch down in the hall, and lean against the wall, while holding our book over our head. And then we would wait for the all clear.

We had several tornado warnings the year I was in first grade, and I remember saving my money for a Lisa Frank trapper keeper (the purple one with the pink neon heart), so I would have something more substantial to put over my head than my Janet and Mark take home reader. I also remember having more than a few nightmares about tornadoes at night that spring, because we had to color these large cardboard eggs as big as we were for a downtown Easter display. In my nightmares, I would wake up, look outside the window beside my bed and see something like an F3 tornado. I would then have a panic attack, because my cardboard easter egg was downtown and I was not strong enough to drag my mattress to the bathtub. I don't remember when I outgrew that phase, but I still occasionally have that nightmare when the weather is bad during tornado season.

The Mid February Delurk

Paul and chopsticks

I haven't been up to too much lately. Between getting a cold and working on classwork, it's pretty quiet so long as Paul is down for a nap. I'm trying to finish up my university 100 class before I head off to Louisiana next week. I just have to finish watching the videos (complete with early 90s guy who can't seem to decide if he's into glam metal or grunge) and the last couple of chapters of written work.

I don't celebrate Valentine's day, but I've been craving fried rice all week long, so we went to Pei Wei after Clayton got back from work. I actually enjoy going out to eat with Paul now. We're mostly past the point where he "needs" to crawl under the table, randomly season his food, or refuse to be entertained. He snacked on an orange while we were waiting for our food, and decided to try chopsticks while he was waiting for his food to cool. He still has to cheat, but at least it seems that he's figured out that the chopsticks aren't broken.

Yesterday, we went to the open house at the preschool we've been eying for him. I kept hearing that preschool signups here are nuts, so I was going to leave obscenely early so I could get one of the first spots in line. I was about halfway there, when they announced our county's schools were on a two hour delay. I went back home, catnapped, and then went back out a couple hours later. Fortunately for me, the icy weather kept several people at home, so I ended up first in line. Paul really enjoyed the open house, especially the huge laundry buckets of Lego and the preschooler sized "house" area. His teachers seemed very nice, although Paul wasn't sure if "a man can be a teacher". He was a little disappointed that we couldn't go to school today.

January Wrap Up

Leia in her mother's hat. This was one of those unexpectedly perfect shots, because she fell over 3 seconds after I took the picture.

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's almost February already. Between going back to college, entertaining kids, birthday parties, baby showers, placement tests... I don't really feel like I've had a chance to really sit still this month. Here are some random things I learned this month.

• When you need to entertain kids on MLK day and it's 15F outside, Chuck E Cheese is so not the place to do it. Our pizza came out long before we had a table. By the time we finally had a table, we waited another 15 minutes for them to remake the pizza, as the other had started congealing.

• Paul is old enough to be perturbed by drivers who think the laws of physics don't apply to them when it's snowing, because they have an SUV. "Mama... don't they know my head is breakable?!" was his reaction to seeing yet another SUV skid onto the sidewalk.

• On new babies - After holding a relatively new baby at Misty's shower, I discovered that 10lb babies get heavy after awhile. New babies also make their new big brothers guard their toys a little more jealously.

• Listening to 3 year olds trying to decide if the part of town by the NRA museum and I66 was part of "my Fairfax school" or Oakton was amusing.

• The English placement test was much easier than I expected. Most of the sentences on the test looked like they were written someone fluent in LOL Cat. I only missed two points, so I can take honors classes.

• I actually met another female Computer Science major. Most women I know who are in IT seem to be more on the management side, rather than the development side.

• Icebreaker games are interesting. I apparently look like someone who graduated high school within the last three years, as well as someone who likes history. Most people seemed surprised at the true statement.

• I actually like my speech class. Technically, it's more of a communications class, so we only give one speech.

• Everyone and their mother (ok, just Leia and Tamara) has a birthday in January. I think I won't get a breather on birthday parties until April.

• I did not fall after a 5 year absence from ice skating. However, I was wobbly and not very graceful. I blame the skates, which were a size and a half too big. Damn you early birds who wear size 8.5 and left me with a size 10.

I survived Birthmas: Round 3

Paul working his mad scientist look, on Christmas Eve

Birthmas actually was much easier this year. Paul had a little surprise birthday cake at my grandparents' house, and everyone wished him a happy birthday on his birthday. Everyone also managed to resist the urge to buy him birthday presents, and large quantities of Christmas presents, which was a little surprising. Paul had a pretty good haul from celebrating Christmas at both of his grandparents' houses, and I think too many more presents would have been overwhelming.

Paul ended up with a backpack containing a tent, sleeping bag, and other "survival" tools and soccer stuff from Santa. He had also been asking for the stuffed Shrek baby girl. He was a bit confused when he found it in his stocking on Christmas morning. Apparently, he was asking Santa for it because Leia (one of our friends' 10 month old daughters) "told" him she wanted it.

He also ended up with a VSmile, a few games, a backpack, Backyardigans things, playdoh, a construction kit, some books, and of course, clothes. I think we were pretty close to the ideal number of presents, because he's been playing with everything he received. It's also less overwhelming for me, since I'm the one who has to figure out how to haul his loot back to Virginia.

Overall, it was a pretty good Christmas. Hope everyone else had a great holiday too.

Yay for Good Parent Hacks

I've always been a picky eater, and bread is one of the things I'm very picky about. It can't be toasted (unless it's cinnamon toast), because I hate dry bread. Paul isn't quite as picky, but he still won't touch the end pieces on a loaf of bread.

I saw the sandwich hack the other day, and decided to try it out at lunch today. Paul decided it was a "really good tasty sammich" and never noticed there was something slightly different. Now I can stop feeling bad about those pieces languishing in the bag :).