Ohhh the laments of a seven year old boy!
There is a little girl in Liam's class that has a crush on him. They've been in the same class for the past 2 years. Klara likes to leave him little notes, usually covered in cutesy red hearts.
Now Liam has always had both girls and boys as friends. He's happy playing with dolls and Littlest Pet Shop toys and he's happy using those same toys to mount an infantry attack against his Star Wars characters. What can I say, some boy things seem to be ingrained.
7 year old girls are all about being giggly, gawking at boys and playing pretend wedding. 7 year old boys all run in horror! The idea of a girl liking them, or wanting to be their girlfriend is just too much. And don't even bother trying to explain that one day they are going to want this attention!
After a day full of unwanted adulation from Klara, Liam had had enough. He grumped about it the whole way home. When he stopped and declared "I HATE Klara" I knew that I had to say something. HATE is not an acceptable word in our house, at least not when used towards people. You can hate war, you can hate injustices but you cannot hate someone. So we stopped on a cold sidewalk, in the near dark to talk about this. He agreed that HATE may be too strong, but he really, really, really did not like Klara!
His school uses a great method of discipline to help kids work through problems between them. Anyone involved in some sort of tiff with another student has to go to the resource room and write the offended student a letter of apology. So while Klara did not hear Liam say he hated her, I figured it would help the seriousness sink in if he had to write her a letter.
Needless to say, he was horrified! In his mind writing anything to Klara may as well have been his declaration of undying love*. He huffed and puffed and sobbed his way through the letter, finally declaring "I can't believe I'm writing this for a girl!
* I did not give Klara the letter. I figured it was just better for everyone!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
It's a......
Golden Snitch!
Why? Why not!
We've been watching a lot of Cake Boss and TLC's Ultimate Cake Off. So we decided to make our own cool cake this weekend. Since all 3 of us love Harry Potter and Hilary was able to find a round cake pan we figured why not. We've done lots of fun cakes before; the Shamburger and even a Cat Litter cake, as well as wedding cakes.
Since this one turned out pretty good we are going to make a second one this week so that Liam can take it to the last meeting of his Harry Potter after-school club on Thursday.
Why? Why not!
We've been watching a lot of Cake Boss and TLC's Ultimate Cake Off. So we decided to make our own cool cake this weekend. Since all 3 of us love Harry Potter and Hilary was able to find a round cake pan we figured why not. We've done lots of fun cakes before; the Shamburger and even a Cat Litter cake, as well as wedding cakes.
Since this one turned out pretty good we are going to make a second one this week so that Liam can take it to the last meeting of his Harry Potter after-school club on Thursday.
What's going on here?
It's no one's birthday. We haven't been hired to do this. We have no social events on our calendar. So why on earth is this stuff on my counter?
You'll have to come back later to find out!
Here's what we've done so far....
the gumpaste part is done and the baking about to begin
the cake is cooling...
You'll have to come back later to find out!Here's what we've done so far....
the gumpaste part is done and the baking about to begin
the cake is cooling...
Family dynamics
My immediate family when I was growing up was pretty small. My father's family is quite large (there are 10 kids, 9 of whom have kids and most of the kids have kids.. and so one) but we didn't see them very often. In fact, he has 5 sisters that I've never met and would be hard pressed to name. My mom has 3 brothers - one 2 years younger then her and the two others that came along 20 and 22 years later. We spent every holiday with my maternal grandparents and their 2 youngest sons (who are only 8 and 10 years older then I am)
My grandfather died in 1992. Apparently my grandfather was either the glue that held the family together or everyone was scared of him and didn't want to speak their minds. I think it's probably a little bit of both.
Everyone kept up appearances for a little while after he died, but slowly the family started to drift apart. I moved to the East Coast in 1998 so distance became a factor. The first to pull away was my oldest uncle. He and my mom had never been close. Then the next brother in line decided to be a great big ole drama queen (yes there are 3 of us who are gay) and have a hissy fit over nothing one day. It's been more then 5 years since he has spoken to either my mother or me. The youngest brother just keeps trucking along, not very close to anyone, but still on speaking terms with them.
The issue now is my Grandmother. Everyone is still close to her, as long as we ensure that plans to see her don't overlap with someone else's. My mother and father have started spending Christmas alone, and my Grandmother spends her holidays with the 3 boys, their kids and her local great-grandchildren.
My Grandma will be 87 next week. She still lives by her self in the family's home. She spends every summer (and has for the past 42 years) at a trailer park "camping". She's never driven in her life. And now my mom thinks that she may be starting to show signs of dementia.
Being so far away, I have only seen my Grandmother for 1 day a year for the past 7 years. We do however talk on the phone every week, but I don't know if a 20 minute phone call is enough time to get a read on someone's mental state. It's nothing as obvious as she doesn't recognize my mother, but little things like forgetting dates or repeating stories. Now if that were all that was required for a dementia diagnosis I would have been labeled with it years ago!
As the grandchild, even though I'm almost 40, I feel that I don't have enough "standing" in the family to step in and do something. My mom seems too emotionally close to the situation. She seems angry at my grandmother when little things happen as opposed to seeing it as a possible disease. Which surprised me at first. My mom has volunteered at a nursing home for the past 20 years. She has worked with people in all stages of dementia and Alzheimer's. But I guess when it's your own family your react a lot differently.
Being the grandchild also removes me somewhat from the situation. I love my grandmother dearly, but I can see things a lot clearer. I'm thinking about things like power of attorney, living wills, finding out what my grandmother wants while she can still be in control. But I don't know what to do. I can try and talk to my mother, but she's just going to get shirty about the whole thing and won't want to take charge and is too wishy-washy to be in charge of much. I could call my youngest uncle, the only one that I still speak to on occasion.... but what do I say? Or.... do I just call my grandmother?
Now I'm not going to call her and say "Hey Grandma, Mom things your getting a bit dottie, have you picked out any nursing homes or do you have a DNR order?" Cause really? That's just wrong. I would try to get some conversation starters in there to give me a segue to the conversation. Maybe telling her that Hilary and I just went to a lawyer and got our living wills done, by the way grandma, do you have one?
Or I could just put on my big girl panties and just ask her who in the family has power of attorney for her.
Have you had to deal with this type of thing? Any insight you can share would be greatly appreciated! Being an only child I already know that all of this is going to fall to me as my parents get older. Hilary's family is much more civilized about these things. They all know who has power of attorney for whom, what everyone's wishes are and where the wills are kept.
Phew... that was a lot. Thanks for letting me get it all out. Sometimes putting it on paper (or pixels on a screen) can really help point out the problems, even if it doesn't offer a magical solution.
My grandfather died in 1992. Apparently my grandfather was either the glue that held the family together or everyone was scared of him and didn't want to speak their minds. I think it's probably a little bit of both.
Everyone kept up appearances for a little while after he died, but slowly the family started to drift apart. I moved to the East Coast in 1998 so distance became a factor. The first to pull away was my oldest uncle. He and my mom had never been close. Then the next brother in line decided to be a great big ole drama queen (yes there are 3 of us who are gay) and have a hissy fit over nothing one day. It's been more then 5 years since he has spoken to either my mother or me. The youngest brother just keeps trucking along, not very close to anyone, but still on speaking terms with them.
The issue now is my Grandmother. Everyone is still close to her, as long as we ensure that plans to see her don't overlap with someone else's. My mother and father have started spending Christmas alone, and my Grandmother spends her holidays with the 3 boys, their kids and her local great-grandchildren.
My Grandma will be 87 next week. She still lives by her self in the family's home. She spends every summer (and has for the past 42 years) at a trailer park "camping". She's never driven in her life. And now my mom thinks that she may be starting to show signs of dementia.
Being so far away, I have only seen my Grandmother for 1 day a year for the past 7 years. We do however talk on the phone every week, but I don't know if a 20 minute phone call is enough time to get a read on someone's mental state. It's nothing as obvious as she doesn't recognize my mother, but little things like forgetting dates or repeating stories. Now if that were all that was required for a dementia diagnosis I would have been labeled with it years ago!
As the grandchild, even though I'm almost 40, I feel that I don't have enough "standing" in the family to step in and do something. My mom seems too emotionally close to the situation. She seems angry at my grandmother when little things happen as opposed to seeing it as a possible disease. Which surprised me at first. My mom has volunteered at a nursing home for the past 20 years. She has worked with people in all stages of dementia and Alzheimer's. But I guess when it's your own family your react a lot differently.
Being the grandchild also removes me somewhat from the situation. I love my grandmother dearly, but I can see things a lot clearer. I'm thinking about things like power of attorney, living wills, finding out what my grandmother wants while she can still be in control. But I don't know what to do. I can try and talk to my mother, but she's just going to get shirty about the whole thing and won't want to take charge and is too wishy-washy to be in charge of much. I could call my youngest uncle, the only one that I still speak to on occasion.... but what do I say? Or.... do I just call my grandmother?
Now I'm not going to call her and say "Hey Grandma, Mom things your getting a bit dottie, have you picked out any nursing homes or do you have a DNR order?" Cause really? That's just wrong. I would try to get some conversation starters in there to give me a segue to the conversation. Maybe telling her that Hilary and I just went to a lawyer and got our living wills done, by the way grandma, do you have one?
Or I could just put on my big girl panties and just ask her who in the family has power of attorney for her.
Have you had to deal with this type of thing? Any insight you can share would be greatly appreciated! Being an only child I already know that all of this is going to fall to me as my parents get older. Hilary's family is much more civilized about these things. They all know who has power of attorney for whom, what everyone's wishes are and where the wills are kept.
Phew... that was a lot. Thanks for letting me get it all out. Sometimes putting it on paper (or pixels on a screen) can really help point out the problems, even if it doesn't offer a magical solution.
Friday, November 13, 2009
To work from home or not.....
that is the question.
My boss offered yesterday that if I wanted to start working from home full time that I could. I would get an office space set up and installed, complete with a work phone. Right now when I work from home, I just use my laptop with a wireless connection and sit at the dining room table. Not exactly ergonomically healthy.
So the pros and cons list is running through my head. Here is what I have so far:
So folks... Weigh in and give me your thoughts! I have a poll up on the side that you can vote on.
My boss offered yesterday that if I wanted to start working from home full time that I could. I would get an office space set up and installed, complete with a work phone. Right now when I work from home, I just use my laptop with a wireless connection and sit at the dining room table. Not exactly ergonomically healthy.
So the pros and cons list is running through my head. Here is what I have so far:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| No commute | No daily exercise from walking |
| Can walk Liam to school every day | |
| Don't have to talk to people at the office | No one to talk to |
| Can wear track pants | |
| Don't have to make a lunch ahead of time | Easy access to food |
| Can putter around the house will reports run | Need to stay motivated and actually do "work" |
| System is slower from home | |
| Increased cost for heating the house during the day | |
| Can listen to loud music while I work |
So folks... Weigh in and give me your thoughts! I have a poll up on the side that you can vote on.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Modern Day Math - Part 2
So apparently I was too cocky in my last math post. I was feeling good about math, I could help Liam along with his homework. I was ready to grow and learn with him.
Then his new math package came home. Once a month his math teacher (yes in Grade 1 he has different teachers for different subjects - Math, Art, Gym, French - what I wouldn't have given to have been able to get away from my evil Grade 1 teacher for even just 1 subject a week!)
anyhoo....
Once a month his math teacher sends home a package of math sheets and activities to work on for homework. You can pick and choose which ones you work on depending on what the kids are interested in. The part that is throwing me for a loop is this line of the instructions.
In my defense I learned math in French. I started Kindergarten at a French school and continued with it until Grade 10. When I switched to an English high school I was so lost with language issues that Math was just too much to try and figure out on top of it all. And of course kids today use some new-fangled math system that includes words like exchanges and place values. Even if I translate those words into French I'm still lost.
The good thing is that the teacher seems to realize that not everyone is going to understand what they are talking about. The package goes on to say:
Wish me luck!
Then his new math package came home. Once a month his math teacher (yes in Grade 1 he has different teachers for different subjects - Math, Art, Gym, French - what I wouldn't have given to have been able to get away from my evil Grade 1 teacher for even just 1 subject a week!)
anyhoo....
Once a month his math teacher sends home a package of math sheets and activities to work on for homework. You can pick and choose which ones you work on depending on what the kids are interested in. The part that is throwing me for a loop is this line of the instructions.
This package is focused on 2-digit Addition and Subtraction without exchanges and place value.WTF does that mean?
In my defense I learned math in French. I started Kindergarten at a French school and continued with it until Grade 10. When I switched to an English high school I was so lost with language issues that Math was just too much to try and figure out on top of it all. And of course kids today use some new-fangled math system that includes words like exchanges and place values. Even if I translate those words into French I'm still lost.
The good thing is that the teacher seems to realize that not everyone is going to understand what they are talking about. The package goes on to say:
When we are working with manipulatives and dealing with numbers that have exchanges, we have to trade up our ones to get an additional ten. Clear as mud? Try using pencils as the tens and erasers as the ones and walk yourself through the explanation again. Or you could always ask your child to help you figure it out.Great.... my kid is supposed to know what this means, but I can't figure it out.
Wish me luck!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
