Monday, January 31, 2011

Afterbirth

Who knew that the birthdays following the actual birth day could cause such enormous stress in a mom.  In attempt to be "budget conscious" I made the cakes for both the friend party and the family party.  Oh and I also made the dinner for the family party.  I will be recovering from this effort for the next week, at least.  But it was appreciated by my family, if not by my child.  I am sure that at age 6, one can not appreciate the working mom's dilemma of creating two cakes and a dinner for 13 while balanced with work could be.  This kid who today said, "maybe if I am late I will get fired from piano lessons." 

sigh.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Birthday Overload

Today was R's 6th birthday party, the Friends edition.  I invited only a few kids, only those R asked me to invite, so the "sports" theme was a bit hindered from the start.  Made a cake, got sandwiches and chips, hired a kid to entertain the rug rats.....I guess it went okay.  Then this evening, thanks to the BF, we went to the Monster Truck Jam at the baseball stadium.  It appears my son is more white trash than I ever knew.  He LOVED monster trucks.  Especially when someone flipped over and maybe DIED.  Oh, that was the best. 

When R turned 5, we opened presents outside of the party...that was the web-recommendation.  This year the kids insisted on R opening his presents.  I was shocked that the kids who brought presents were totally dissing the kids who gave R gift cards.  "OK, you got him a card, but where's the present?  I went to Toys R Us and got him something, why couldn't you?"  It was ugly.  Last year there wasn't this derisiveness.  Is it due to school?  Should I not have moved him from school district A to school district B?  I can tell you that R was so over the moon about the cash.....I think I've created the next Donald Trump.  He is so money driven, it's almost an illness.

Tomorrow is the "family party".  My dad's birthday is a few days after my son's so the family party will actually fall on my dad's birthday--kind of cool. My dad loves R like no one else.  It's been great to see the bond develop between the two of them.  My dad will pick R up from school just to hang out with him.  It's awesome.  My dad is getting up there in years and these times with my son will stay forever in his memory, or so I hope.

Happy 6th Birthday weekend, little man.  As you sleep, I hope you are dreaming of the Bat Man Monster truck :-)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Doctor's Advice

so today was R's 6th year office visit.  This is about the only time R ever goes to the doctor, thank you Jesus, or whomever controls such things.  So, he's fat and short, but otherwise healthy---yeah.  But while waiting for the doctor to arrive, I read to R the "Rules and Consequences" brochure there for the taking.  I am apparently no longer allowed to yell at R, because it could set a bad example.  So I tell R, if I yell at you I have to put a coin in your piggy bank.  Suffice it to say, all night long the kid has been begging me to yell at him.

This strategy works.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

How to motivate a 6 y/o

R:  immediately upon waking:  "Can I open my presents?"
me:  "if you get dressed, brush teeth and hair, and put on your shoes quickly you can"
R:  in I swear 10 minutes TOPS, fully dressed and groomed:  "OK mom, I'm ready to open them."

I may have to have presents for him to open every stinking day of the school year.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Turning 6

One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was because, not only do I need to journal things for my own personal sanity and self-reflection, I also want to create a place where I can store memories of my kid.  Who says some really funny shit, by the way.  Freaking hilarious. 

Anywho, said kid is turning 6 in two days, the day after tomorrow, Wednesday. Oh.My.God.  Six.  I can't believe it been 6 years since they removed him from my abdomen like a fatty tumor (I was an inadequate pusher, according to my nurse).  I remember refusing to change his diaper in the hospital because I was scared I'd break him.  And now he has best friends, can add and subtract, read signs, write his name.  It's amazing.  I wish I could take all the credit for this amazing little person, but really I am just relieved I haven't broken him.  You know the old saying that God doesn't give you anything more than you can handle.  Well, I think the Big Guy knew exactly what he was doing when He chose my particular child.  He's never really been sick; in 6 years I've missed maybe 5 days of work due to his illnesses.  He's never had to go to ER (gosh don't let me jinx that).  His teachers have always loved him.  He is very social and makes friends easily.  He wakes up smiling (most of the time).  And he is just plain 'ol fun to be around. 

So here's to 6, little man.  Here's to new friends, new adventures, another milestone growth spurt (please slow down, please), and more fun than a mom deserves to have.

I love you.
Mama

Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Closet Monster

I went to preschool on the east coast.  As an insecure child, I sucked my thumb all the time.  A lot of kids do, right?  So anyway, my preschool teacher did not approve of said thumb-sucking and let us all know that if she caught us sucking our thumbs, she'd cut them off with her knife.  I remember her showing us the knife and it was HUGE, but then again, I was 3 so it could have been a paring knife, but still!  And when we were naughty, we got put in the closet.  The dark closet where she told us there was a monster who lived.  Yikes!

I remember vividly one day when a little kid came to school with a band-aid on his thumb.  The teach asked him, "is where I cut your thumb off doing okay?"  I stopped sucking my thumb at school pronto.

I wonder what ever happened to that lovely woman?  She was obviously in her dream job, wrangling toddlers.  NOT.

Getting started

So here's the deal.  I've been wanting to start a blog/journal for a while now, but I'm basically lazy so I haven't.  But as I sit here alone in my kitchen, with the dogs lazing around me, the kid's clothes in the washer, and a Sunday stretched out before me with nothing to do until I pick said kid up from his asshat of a father, I thought to myself, "self, let's start that darn blog."  So here were are.

A bit about me to start (and I know I will be the only one to ever read this, but humor me here, okay?), I am a 42 year old divorced mother of one amazingly wonderful and talkative kindergartner. I have a wonderful career and am very blessed to have entered into a profession that has not been too hard hit by this recession.  I earn enough money to support my child and I, which is great since ass-hat doesn't pay child support.  I am surrounded by an amazing family and support group who all live within 20 minutes of us.

All of this makes my life sound so Nirvana-esque, doesn't it? But truth be told, I am miserable.  I am such a sad sack I'm amazed I get through each day.  And I have no reason to be this way, and because of that I can't figure out how to get out of this funk that has lasted now for years.  Lots and lots of years. Therapy doesn't help, drugs don't help.  So, I'm hoping that dumping my angst into the black hole of the internet will help me figure out what's wrong and get me back on the happy track to rainbows and butterflies.  Or at least to partly cloudy skies.

that's all for now.
Lisa