T-ball game. My daughter in her dress, pink leggings and green t-ball shirt is out in the field. Daddy is behind her – about half the parents are out there.
The ball comes straight to Skadi, she has it! Then that other little brat rips it out of her hand! Then my husband pries the ball out of the little brats hand and hands it back to Skadi.
Parents gasp.
Sigh.
We are a proud YMCA sports family. We appreciate their lack of competitiveness among the younger set. We have participated since Leif was Skadi’s age – that would be for going on three years now – and have taken our turns at coaching.
Every team we have participated on before has had a great coach. Caring, fair, kids adore them. When AB has coached we have for the most part had good experiences. As a coach you are volunteering your time for the sake of the kids. It isn’t just a two hour a week obligation (one hour practice and one hour game). Nope, there is organizing the snacks. Calling parents when games are cancelled (this spring there was a lot of that for these coaches). Thinking up drills. Engaging the kids and generally keeping them corralled with help from the parents (you always hope). Organizing the end of the year party. Ordering trophies.
As coaches, we have had a few parents get mad at us. There was the Indoor Soccer team that we cancelled the picture day (team agreed) and decided to do pictures on our own as the picture day was horribly inconvenient. Of course, there was one parent who missed the e-mails and showed up with her son at the appointed place and time. And she was ticked. And gave us an earful. And we took it all the while mumbling, “but we sent 3 e-mails and talked about it at the prior practice and game?!?”
Then we got chewed out this spring because one of the boys last fall was “never contacted”. Umm he was. We e-mailed the e-mail address we were given for every single update, we phoned twice and the number was disconnected. But apparently we didn’t try hard enough… we finally got a not so happy e-mail back this spring.
But we move on.
2/3’s of the t-ball season has been me. AB and Leif had soccer and other obligations pretty consistently. So AB just got to hear my whining about the coaches and kept reminding me “they are volunteers”.
Skadi is on a team with one other very demure little girl and 8 very rough and tumble boys. Leif is not so rough and tumble. He loves sports and gets in there, but he isn’t and never has been aggressive like I see many of these little boys behaving. The first two practices I thought Skadi was going to hold her own. She got into the dog piles and often came out on top. My friend commented that t-ball really meant tackle ball.
Two practices was about her limit. Then she quit getting into the mix.
And here is the cycle:
Skadi standing waiting for the ball.
Skadi runs to the ball.
Skadi doesn’t get the ball.
Skadi gets frustrated.
“Nobody EVER lets me get the ball!”
Skadi doesn’t get the ball.
Skadi gets bored and wanders off and wants to play on the playground equipment.
Skadi doesn’t want to go back out into the field.
The female coach has been a touch sympathetic towards her, “come on Skadi, let’s you and me get the ball from these boys!”
And she buys it for a few hits.
And if she is lucky she gets a ball and it sustains her for the inning.
And if not the cycle repeats.
I know my daughter is difficult. I know she is a whole bunch of drama wrapped up inside one little girl. I know she is one child in a team of 10. But come on.
The male coach ignores her and gets visibly annoyed with her when she starts screwing around. (But the boys can roll all over the ground and battle each other.)
For the later third of the season AB started showing up since soccer finished – and going into the field with Skadi – and running the bases with Skadi – in an effort to keep his thumb on her and to help her out a bit. Still Skadi never gets to play first base (the coveted position since the players all throw the balls to first base) and is consistently one of the last batters.
And I bite my tongue, because the coaches are doing their best and they are volunteering their time. I didn’t step up (this time).
Then there was last night. Skadi is in the field next to one of the bratty boys. I saw him step on her hand to release the ball. Skadi cried. I saw him pry the ball out of her hand three times. AB talked to both coaches, who shrugged their shoulders.
See we don’t tolerate bullies on our teams when we coach. They sit out. And parents are usually – or at least they act that way towards us – very supportive.
So when I saw AB pry the ball out of the brats hands and give it to Skadi. I sighed. I looked around at the parents scowling. And my friend I was standing with proclaimed, “go daddy! Stand up for your girl!”
The brat started bawling. Dad picked him up, glaring at AB.
AB came off the field saying, “I don’t think I made any friends.”
Yeah probably not. But my daughter finally got her hand on the ball and with that experience she can maybe finish out the season.
T-Ball – not Skadi’s sport. Swimming is still looking like the winner.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 09, 2011
More stories from the castle
Skadi: "Mom what colors of flowers do you like?"
Me: "Purple, white, all colors."
Skadi: "Do you like green flowers?"
Me: "Yes, I haven't seen many green flowers."
Skadi: "That's what color of flowers I have at my castle."
--------------
Skadi: "Mom, don't you wish you had a car with a bathroom inside?"
Me: "Not really."
Skadi: "Why?"
Me: "Because it would be stinky."
Skadi: "At my castle I have a car with a bathroom inside and we drive it all over the place and we don't even have to stop to go to the bathroom!"
--------------
At dinner tonight:
Leif: "Mrs. T got thrown from a horse one day a long time ago and she broke her arm and the bone came through the skin."
Me: "Eww!" (Feeling a bit nauseated at the thought.)
Skadi: "That happened to me too."
Me: "Thankfully, you have never broken a bone."
Skadi: "Yes, I did at my castle, and the bone came out, but the skin healed up just fine. See?" (Shows me her arm.)
Me: "Purple, white, all colors."
Skadi: "Do you like green flowers?"
Me: "Yes, I haven't seen many green flowers."
Skadi: "That's what color of flowers I have at my castle."
--------------
Skadi: "Mom, don't you wish you had a car with a bathroom inside?"
Me: "Not really."
Skadi: "Why?"
Me: "Because it would be stinky."
Skadi: "At my castle I have a car with a bathroom inside and we drive it all over the place and we don't even have to stop to go to the bathroom!"
--------------
At dinner tonight:
Leif: "Mrs. T got thrown from a horse one day a long time ago and she broke her arm and the bone came through the skin."
Me: "Eww!" (Feeling a bit nauseated at the thought.)
Skadi: "That happened to me too."
Me: "Thankfully, you have never broken a bone."
Skadi: "Yes, I did at my castle, and the bone came out, but the skin healed up just fine. See?" (Shows me her arm.)
Monday, April 25, 2011
All I wanted...
You know I don't ask for much... 
Really, I don't.
You would think I was a horribly insistent mom.
Abusive? Am I abusive?
Just one...
Please, pretty please?
Thank goodness this is a digital camera and not film.
Both of you, look this way...
I am serious now.
Look at me! Both of you. Smile. Hold still.
What is it going to take?
Seriously, I am not going to get a single picture of you guys with your eggs?
I am serious now.
Look at me! Both of you. Smile. Hold still.
What is it going to take?
Seriously, I am not going to get a single picture of you guys with your eggs?
Guess not.
April Goals
When I lived in Colorado I was fond of saying that “April is one of the snowiest months”. And I loved that it was true.
Normally here, April is a beautiful month as the cherry trees bloom and the sun shines without baking us. But so far? April has been a horrid month weather-wise. I am beyond sick of the wind. I lived in Casper, Wyoming until I was 13, I get rights to complain about the wind. It has been like February here. Dreary, grey and windy. Blah. I can’t even seem to wrap my head around the fact that it is April and not February yet.
I suppose the advantage to it being April with crummy weather is that we have been inside more and my spring cleaning/organization goals have yielded great results.
For the month of April my goals were to organize the hall/entry closet. Done. Check. Finished. I bought fabric bins, one for each of us, and put them in the top of the closet and sorted the laundry basket that used to hold outdoor gear into the four baskets. I bought more hangers, cleaned out the bottom of the closet and hung coats up. It looks fabulous – if a coat closet has fabulous-ness to it.
My second goal was to clean out and organize the laundry room. Given the size of the house, I have a teeny, tiny laundry room. The washer and dryer fit in and I can stand in there holding a basket. I squish over to one side and wedge myself in between the utility sink and the washer to open the dryer and pull stuff out of the washer and into the dryer. Oh yeah, the cat fits too. He likes to help with laundry. Given the lack of floor space I somehow have a ton of storage space in there. The prior owners did a good job of utilizing the wall space for racks of shelves and cupboards above the washer and dryer.
Before tackling the laundry room I looked online for ideas for organization. Martha Stewart was timely in posting a laundry room redo that made me drool. But my biggest problem with all the neat things that they showed in the inspiration gallery was that I don’t use my laundry room, except for, well laundry. Ok, so I feed the cat there.
Anyways, the laundry room has been cleaned out, cleaning and laundry supplies separated. My fabric bins cleaned out (I ditched all the cables I was saving… coax cables, gone, phone cords, gond, power cords, gone, old cell phone chargers, gone. Yes, for some reason I save all that crap. I even do at work, I have a drawer of cords in my office AND in my lab. You just never know when you are going to need a random cord. Ok, well at home at least, I got over it. I don’t need random cords at home. Like ever.
After cleaning out and organizing I discovered a fair amount of storage space. Empty shelves and half empty cupboards. I have batteries, light bulbs, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, cat food, a bin of extra odds and ends (rubber gloves, trash bags, etc) in there now. I have this need to fill the space… but I am trying to convince myself to simply embrace empty shelves for now.
The last thing on my April goal list is the quilt. I have everything I need to finish it, now I just need a good block of time to get everything laid out. It seems like lately I have had 1-2 hour blocks of time and I can’t justify laying everything out to just have to pick it all up. My coming weekend is blissfully empty and I am hoping to hit that third check mark with finishing off the quilt.
Next month… I really want something fun. A cool goal. A pretty painting goal… or something like that.
But no.
Alas, the garage really needs a thorough clean and organize. I love my husband, but cleaning and organizing is not his thing. He has started on the garage a few times this spring. But what really needs to happen is that we both get out there and clean. And then I go nuts with the organization.
And yes, this WILL take an entire month it is that bad.
Normally here, April is a beautiful month as the cherry trees bloom and the sun shines without baking us. But so far? April has been a horrid month weather-wise. I am beyond sick of the wind. I lived in Casper, Wyoming until I was 13, I get rights to complain about the wind. It has been like February here. Dreary, grey and windy. Blah. I can’t even seem to wrap my head around the fact that it is April and not February yet.
I suppose the advantage to it being April with crummy weather is that we have been inside more and my spring cleaning/organization goals have yielded great results.
For the month of April my goals were to organize the hall/entry closet. Done. Check. Finished. I bought fabric bins, one for each of us, and put them in the top of the closet and sorted the laundry basket that used to hold outdoor gear into the four baskets. I bought more hangers, cleaned out the bottom of the closet and hung coats up. It looks fabulous – if a coat closet has fabulous-ness to it.
My second goal was to clean out and organize the laundry room. Given the size of the house, I have a teeny, tiny laundry room. The washer and dryer fit in and I can stand in there holding a basket. I squish over to one side and wedge myself in between the utility sink and the washer to open the dryer and pull stuff out of the washer and into the dryer. Oh yeah, the cat fits too. He likes to help with laundry. Given the lack of floor space I somehow have a ton of storage space in there. The prior owners did a good job of utilizing the wall space for racks of shelves and cupboards above the washer and dryer.
Before tackling the laundry room I looked online for ideas for organization. Martha Stewart was timely in posting a laundry room redo that made me drool. But my biggest problem with all the neat things that they showed in the inspiration gallery was that I don’t use my laundry room, except for, well laundry. Ok, so I feed the cat there.
Anyways, the laundry room has been cleaned out, cleaning and laundry supplies separated. My fabric bins cleaned out (I ditched all the cables I was saving… coax cables, gone, phone cords, gond, power cords, gone, old cell phone chargers, gone. Yes, for some reason I save all that crap. I even do at work, I have a drawer of cords in my office AND in my lab. You just never know when you are going to need a random cord. Ok, well at home at least, I got over it. I don’t need random cords at home. Like ever.
After cleaning out and organizing I discovered a fair amount of storage space. Empty shelves and half empty cupboards. I have batteries, light bulbs, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, cat food, a bin of extra odds and ends (rubber gloves, trash bags, etc) in there now. I have this need to fill the space… but I am trying to convince myself to simply embrace empty shelves for now.
The last thing on my April goal list is the quilt. I have everything I need to finish it, now I just need a good block of time to get everything laid out. It seems like lately I have had 1-2 hour blocks of time and I can’t justify laying everything out to just have to pick it all up. My coming weekend is blissfully empty and I am hoping to hit that third check mark with finishing off the quilt.
Next month… I really want something fun. A cool goal. A pretty painting goal… or something like that.
But no.
Alas, the garage really needs a thorough clean and organize. I love my husband, but cleaning and organizing is not his thing. He has started on the garage a few times this spring. But what really needs to happen is that we both get out there and clean. And then I go nuts with the organization.
And yes, this WILL take an entire month it is that bad.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Catching Up
I have a list of blog topics from the past few weeks. I just have had no time to sit down and blog. Let's see how many I can knock out here before the kids need something...
----
Starbuck's April Fools
Way back on April Fools Day we went to Starbucks. I am not a fan of April Fool's Day at all. What with being named April, I heard one too many times growing up, "It's April's Day, April is a fool!" Honestly I have never been a fan of the month in general starting way back in kindergarten when I would bring home stacks upon stacks of papers from school that weren't mine. We were required to put the date on papers and the kids always just gave me all the ones that said April. My mom would sort them out and send the majority back to school with me.
Anyways, we don't do April Fool's Day in this house. I suck at jokes and just can never get pranks right.
We got up like any normal day and I needed coffee that morning. At the window the girl offered us some samples of breads. I saw that they had chocolate chips in them and grabbed two, one for each kid. I handed them back and not surprisingly, Skadi took a bite and declared it icky. She declares most everything icky. Not surprising.
Then Leif pipes up:
"Hey, Starbucks played an April Fool's Joke on us. This bread is icky!" he declared.
"What? What is wrong with it?" I knew if Leif was declaring anything with chocolate chips icky, then there was a problem.
"It's banana with chocolate chips," he started.
"You like that?" I asked perplexed.
"But these chocolate chips are MINT!" he cried.
I tasted it. He was right. Nasty. Banana chocolate chips would have flown, but yeah, there was a reason they were giving away hunks of that bread. Ick.
------
Every once in awhile when I am running behind on a Wednesday night getting things picked up for the housecleaner, I admit it, I will pay Leif to do some extra things. Believe me, $1 to pick up Skadi's bedroom, is seriously a bargain for me. He does a decent job, Skadi doesn't end up in tears and time out for not helping, and Leif earns a dollar to put in his bank.
The other day though I went up and found Skadi's piggy bank open on the floor. Raided.
Skadi kind of doesn't care about money, so I was confused. Not like her brother who is ALL about the money.
"Skadi, what is your piggy bank doing on the floor?" I asked.
"Leif wanted some money," she told me.
"What did he want money for?" I asked her getting a bit confused.
"I wanted him to play with me and he didn't want to, so I offered him money," she said.
"LEIF!"
-----
One day Skadi was in the bath singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". I could tell that was the song only from the tune. She was getting all the words wrong.
"No Skadi," I corrected her, "HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEES, TOES."
She looks at me like I am an idiot and goes on singing her mumbo jumbo.
Then I found out the next day at school she was singing it in Japanese.
Stupid American move #2? We went out for Japanese food and the kids decided they wanted to sing to the waitress.
They sang the song in Japanese to the waitress.
"Oh neat," she said carefully in her thick accent, "the only thing I know in Japanese is how to say hi since I am Chinese."
-----
And there it is, the whining for mom! Three topics off my list.
----
Starbuck's April Fools
Way back on April Fools Day we went to Starbucks. I am not a fan of April Fool's Day at all. What with being named April, I heard one too many times growing up, "It's April's Day, April is a fool!" Honestly I have never been a fan of the month in general starting way back in kindergarten when I would bring home stacks upon stacks of papers from school that weren't mine. We were required to put the date on papers and the kids always just gave me all the ones that said April. My mom would sort them out and send the majority back to school with me.
Anyways, we don't do April Fool's Day in this house. I suck at jokes and just can never get pranks right.
We got up like any normal day and I needed coffee that morning. At the window the girl offered us some samples of breads. I saw that they had chocolate chips in them and grabbed two, one for each kid. I handed them back and not surprisingly, Skadi took a bite and declared it icky. She declares most everything icky. Not surprising.
Then Leif pipes up:
"Hey, Starbucks played an April Fool's Joke on us. This bread is icky!" he declared.
"What? What is wrong with it?" I knew if Leif was declaring anything with chocolate chips icky, then there was a problem.
"It's banana with chocolate chips," he started.
"You like that?" I asked perplexed.
"But these chocolate chips are MINT!" he cried.
I tasted it. He was right. Nasty. Banana chocolate chips would have flown, but yeah, there was a reason they were giving away hunks of that bread. Ick.
------
Every once in awhile when I am running behind on a Wednesday night getting things picked up for the housecleaner, I admit it, I will pay Leif to do some extra things. Believe me, $1 to pick up Skadi's bedroom, is seriously a bargain for me. He does a decent job, Skadi doesn't end up in tears and time out for not helping, and Leif earns a dollar to put in his bank.
The other day though I went up and found Skadi's piggy bank open on the floor. Raided.
Skadi kind of doesn't care about money, so I was confused. Not like her brother who is ALL about the money.
"Skadi, what is your piggy bank doing on the floor?" I asked.
"Leif wanted some money," she told me.
"What did he want money for?" I asked her getting a bit confused.
"I wanted him to play with me and he didn't want to, so I offered him money," she said.
"LEIF!"
-----
One day Skadi was in the bath singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". I could tell that was the song only from the tune. She was getting all the words wrong.
"No Skadi," I corrected her, "HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEES, TOES."
She looks at me like I am an idiot and goes on singing her mumbo jumbo.
Then I found out the next day at school she was singing it in Japanese.
Stupid American move #2? We went out for Japanese food and the kids decided they wanted to sing to the waitress.
They sang the song in Japanese to the waitress.
"Oh neat," she said carefully in her thick accent, "the only thing I know in Japanese is how to say hi since I am Chinese."
-----
And there it is, the whining for mom! Three topics off my list.
Skadi's Castle on a Cloud
Or somewhere... not quite sure where... last I heard it was at "the North Pole and 12 miles west".
About 6 months ago Skadi first told us about her castle. (Coincidentally this was about the same time she was requesting "Castle on a Cloud" from AB each night as her bedtime song.)
"I want to take you there sometime mommy," she told me.
Some kids have imaginary friends, Skadi has her imaginary place. Her stories of her castle haven't ceased, they continue and they sometime become quite elaborate.
"At my castle the princesses were dancing inside yesterday and the princes waited outside in the yard till they quit dancing so they could go inside and then have chicken nuggets with the princesses," she told us.
The other day we had Chinese food and Skadi declared, "I have chicken with Chinese ketchup at my castle all the time." (Chinese ketchup = sweet and sour sauce)
"At my castle I have pictures on the wall of Spring, Summer and Fall, but not Winter," she declared the other day.
AB built the kids an elevated playhouse hoping that would satisfy Skadi's need for a castle and that it could be in our backyard. Naw, it's just the tree house now, it isn't a castle, or so Skadi tells us.
"We are going to plant flowers at my castle this weekend," she explained when I asked what we should do this weekend.
We used to giggle and marvel about her imagination when the castle first came up. Now the castle is just a multiple times a day conversation pieces. I wish I could see in her brain what her castle looks like!
About 6 months ago Skadi first told us about her castle. (Coincidentally this was about the same time she was requesting "Castle on a Cloud" from AB each night as her bedtime song.)
"I want to take you there sometime mommy," she told me.
Some kids have imaginary friends, Skadi has her imaginary place. Her stories of her castle haven't ceased, they continue and they sometime become quite elaborate.
"At my castle the princesses were dancing inside yesterday and the princes waited outside in the yard till they quit dancing so they could go inside and then have chicken nuggets with the princesses," she told us.
The other day we had Chinese food and Skadi declared, "I have chicken with Chinese ketchup at my castle all the time." (Chinese ketchup = sweet and sour sauce)
"At my castle I have pictures on the wall of Spring, Summer and Fall, but not Winter," she declared the other day.
AB built the kids an elevated playhouse hoping that would satisfy Skadi's need for a castle and that it could be in our backyard. Naw, it's just the tree house now, it isn't a castle, or so Skadi tells us.
"We are going to plant flowers at my castle this weekend," she explained when I asked what we should do this weekend.
We used to giggle and marvel about her imagination when the castle first came up. Now the castle is just a multiple times a day conversation pieces. I wish I could see in her brain what her castle looks like!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Two Heads
Kids say the funniest stuff. Then they hit a certain age and things change. It isn't so much that they say the funny stuff, it's that their reasoning becomes funny.
Skadi since she learned what her forehead was called has called it her "twohead".
WHACK!
She is walking along and whacks her head on the granite edge of the countertop.
"OUCH!" She wails, "MY TWOHEAD, I hit my twohead."
And while I want to just hug her and give her loves I have to chocke back the giggles... twohead...
Skadi since she learned what her forehead was called has called it her "twohead".
WHACK!
She is walking along and whacks her head on the granite edge of the countertop.
"OUCH!" She wails, "MY TWOHEAD, I hit my twohead."
And while I want to just hug her and give her loves I have to chocke back the giggles... twohead...
It's all about what's up at work
I think I tend to get quiet on my blog when things are bothering me. Specifically, work stuff. I have gone in phases over the past 6.5 years with blogging about work. From venting about all the crazy stuff early on, to overflowing with love for what I do, to not saying anything out of a paranoid fear of "who's reading?" Still I try to give glimpses on occasion of what is going on there, what life is like as a Ph.D. mid-career chemist and as a working mom.
Work can be challenging at times and I am presently trying to negotiate a difficult path. Walking the line between management and science without fully committing to or rejecting either. Each has its own challenges.
Things were going along swimmingly as a scientist until this funding cycle when I appear to be left out standing on the porch with one of the clients. As I have stated before, when one door closes another creeps open and surprisingly one of the other clients gave us the go ahead to write a lifecycle plan, which in this funding climate was a surprise.
On the last project, things have been flying around doing wonderfully, except interactions with one person. I have been all over the map with my feelings about this. From questioning every single move I make out of fear of stepping on toes, to being ticked off, to trying to be nice, to being ticked off. Back and forth, forth and back.
It has expended so much of my energy these last few months and has been incredibly frustrating. What should be a fabulous project is causing me heartache.
I have known this person since I was a post-doc. We have worked together on a few other projects. And now our friendship has been reduced to shreds. There will be no saving this friendship when all is said and done I fear.
And it breaks my heart.
But at the same time it ticks me off to be stepped on, walked all over and disrespected. I know for a fact, in my heart, that this person would not treat a male coworker in this manner. But this is not what I have documentation for. No gender card here.
I worried that I was blowing things out of proportion and just PMS'y... it has happened before... but I brought a few close confidents into the fold who have hit the ceiling.
I have lost sleep, I have wallowed, I have been self absorbed and not terribly attentive to what else is going on, thanks to all this. And wet drops inexplicable came out of my eyes at work... not sure what happened there or how my rhino work skin was penetrated, but it happened. Thankfully I have those couple of people to pick me up and stand behind me. Thank you guys.
But there it is in obscure, vague terms. The certain end of a friendship, the potential end of a work relationship in so much as I will never ever ever work another project with this person again. Ever. I am sure the feeling is mutual there.
And I don't take that lightly.
Work can be challenging at times and I am presently trying to negotiate a difficult path. Walking the line between management and science without fully committing to or rejecting either. Each has its own challenges.
Things were going along swimmingly as a scientist until this funding cycle when I appear to be left out standing on the porch with one of the clients. As I have stated before, when one door closes another creeps open and surprisingly one of the other clients gave us the go ahead to write a lifecycle plan, which in this funding climate was a surprise.
On the last project, things have been flying around doing wonderfully, except interactions with one person. I have been all over the map with my feelings about this. From questioning every single move I make out of fear of stepping on toes, to being ticked off, to trying to be nice, to being ticked off. Back and forth, forth and back.
It has expended so much of my energy these last few months and has been incredibly frustrating. What should be a fabulous project is causing me heartache.
I have known this person since I was a post-doc. We have worked together on a few other projects. And now our friendship has been reduced to shreds. There will be no saving this friendship when all is said and done I fear.
And it breaks my heart.
But at the same time it ticks me off to be stepped on, walked all over and disrespected. I know for a fact, in my heart, that this person would not treat a male coworker in this manner. But this is not what I have documentation for. No gender card here.
I worried that I was blowing things out of proportion and just PMS'y... it has happened before... but I brought a few close confidents into the fold who have hit the ceiling.
I have lost sleep, I have wallowed, I have been self absorbed and not terribly attentive to what else is going on, thanks to all this. And wet drops inexplicable came out of my eyes at work... not sure what happened there or how my rhino work skin was penetrated, but it happened. Thankfully I have those couple of people to pick me up and stand behind me. Thank you guys.
But there it is in obscure, vague terms. The certain end of a friendship, the potential end of a work relationship in so much as I will never ever ever work another project with this person again. Ever. I am sure the feeling is mutual there.
And I don't take that lightly.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Being a woman in science
I love reading stories about women in science and the unique hurdles they had to overcome to get to where they are today. The American Chemical Society posted a link to these articles from a Fairbanks, Alaska newspaper for Women in Science month.
I am now – amazingly – in that “mid-career” category. Not a newbie by any amount. I have been around the block once or twice. I am still young enough that I went into science in college thinking equality was in. Men had grown up or moved on. I was a professional product of the 90’s. YES, the 90’s. But still my stories aren’t too far off from the women who shared in these articles who have more experience than me.
Do I think things are changing? YES. I hosted a student last year who was a chemical engineer from Yale and one of my most memorable conversations with her was after one of our big team meetings for the Navy project. We left and I can’t remember how she put it, but she was surprised. “They are all guys,” she exclaimed. And went on to tell me that all her classes were at least 50-50.
My hallway at work is estrogen lane. There are 13 offices in my hallway and all but two are occupied by women.
My team lead? A woman. My manager? A woman. I love it!
Because in my daily activities? The projects I work on daily and the people I work with?
All men.
And that is how it has been since I started here. No joke. Now I am a physical scientist with a little more engineering and physics to my chemistry life, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. Where are the women?
I liked the questions posed to these women scientists in Alaska and figured I would take it upon myself to answer them. If you are a woman in science, answer them in the comments, e-mail your answers to me and I will post them here in my blog or post the answers on your blog and provide me the link, okay?
“Were there more hurdles for you to clear in science because you were a woman?” (Ok, poorly written question, “are” they ARE women, they aren’t men now…)
I don’t believe there were more hurdles to clear education-wise because I am a woman. I believe that I had every opportunity presented to me as an undergrad and grad student in the 90’s based on the path I chose. Now I did reject one school after I had a very disheartening visit. I visited on the same day as another male potential graduate student at Colorado State and professors took him out to lunch – at the same place that the female graduate student assigned to take me out, took me. Later when I asked the department head if I would have an opportunity to teach upper division chemistry, he told me that female TA’s were not well received by the student body. I ran the other way. Once I was settled in a great program I experienced little gender disconnect. In my first year, I was teaching an upper division lab class. I should note that I went to a school with a very young faculty and with (gasp) three female faculty members.
I believe that I had a few more hurdles in the workplace than I had in education as a women. When I signed on as a post-doc, my mentor made sure to get me a p-card immediately, so I could place the teams' orders and I worked editing their reports and pulling their presentations together. I was a glorified admin. When I was in the lab and the guys walked in they would say, “hi honey, I am home” and the like. The team I was hired into was very unfriendly to women and when I started asking around the other women nodded and one even said that the whole group was shocked when this team brought a woman post-doc on. In order to advance I had to pick myself up, meet others, prove myself to others and make a name for myself. The guys who came in the same time as me were being paraded around like princes while I was struggling to get someone to give me the time of day.
“Has public perception changed about women scientists?”
Yes, I had the student last summer who as a senior had never encountered anything less than 50% female student body. I never had anything close to 50% women in my classes at a very liberal college. But this is college, in the workplace I think there is a ways to go.
Today, I am working in project management and I recently had an incident with a coworker that was not happy with me. Some of the things he said, and the analogies he made to our managers lead me to sit and wonder if he would have said these things of a man sitting across the table from him. I am quite positive not. I think (large stereotype here) "older" men are not afraid to challenge a woman in the workplace more on her knowledge or leadership abilities. There seems to be a perception that you have to be a ball breaker to move up, act like a man, don’t bring your femininity, but these are the same things that are frowned upon when we look up to women who have made it. I work quite well with men in the same general age group as myself. My Gen-X counterparts get it. They are the ones pulling double duty with their wives in child rearing and who have heard their wives come home with tales like mine. I tend to think that they would never treat a woman in a way they wouldn’t want their wives treated. Older generations (complete generalization here) their wives didn’t work in technical fields and many never worked at all. They don't have that same thought process or female professors or mentors to draw upon that the Gen X'ers did.
“Have there been hurdles you have faced that a man would not have faced?”
Getting exposure. When I first started as a post-doc so often it was assumed I was an admin assistant. I will claim that it is all about who you know. There are men here that are afraid to know a woman. Many deals are brokered over lunch, but many men are afraid to go have lunch with a female colleague – at least outside of a group. It presents a Catch-22. I work with a woman who told me about asking a manager to have dinner with her one night. She was married, he was married. She had some technical questions she wanted to pose and suggested they grab a bite to eat. He was so taken aback that he actually mentioned to her “sexual harassment”. Would this happen with two guys? No, they would go grab a beer at the local sports bar.
Another aspect, I went through a spell there working for a manager whose wife had never worked out of the home. The realities I faced with being a working mom with a newborn were foreign to him and he pretty much chalked me up as a whiner and told me there was no reason I couldn’t pump in the bathroom. When I pointed out there were no outlets he told me to get a battery pack. While I was out on my first maternity leave I had my first proposal funded. He handed it off to a man in my group citing he, “didn’t know what I wanted to do when I came back from leave”. He also never asked.
“What would you tell a girl who is contemplating a career in science?”
To find a good mentor at every stage. And by mentor I don’t mean manager – they have their own interests at heart in what they want you to do. Find someone you can talk freely to about what you want to do with your career. I wish I would have had more mentors in my career. Bachelors and then Masters or PhD so often is the given in science, but a mentor will be able to make suggestions based off experience, what do you really need to get where you want? What is the reality of academic positions? What if you love science, but wonder if there are other opportunities than standing in the lab? I have learned in the last few years that I have a propensity for management and business development. There are times when, despite the fact that this is what I want to be doing, I wonder if I am wasting my Ph.D. as I interact with managers sporting MBAs? The closest thing I have to a mentor right now (I am getting a new one in May) has told me no way, that in his product line he values highly technical managers. But just maybe, had I had someone early on in deciding what my career was going to be like and what life I wanted, maybe someone would have pointed me another way?
I am now – amazingly – in that “mid-career” category. Not a newbie by any amount. I have been around the block once or twice. I am still young enough that I went into science in college thinking equality was in. Men had grown up or moved on. I was a professional product of the 90’s. YES, the 90’s. But still my stories aren’t too far off from the women who shared in these articles who have more experience than me.
Do I think things are changing? YES. I hosted a student last year who was a chemical engineer from Yale and one of my most memorable conversations with her was after one of our big team meetings for the Navy project. We left and I can’t remember how she put it, but she was surprised. “They are all guys,” she exclaimed. And went on to tell me that all her classes were at least 50-50.
My hallway at work is estrogen lane. There are 13 offices in my hallway and all but two are occupied by women.
My team lead? A woman. My manager? A woman. I love it!
Because in my daily activities? The projects I work on daily and the people I work with?
All men.
And that is how it has been since I started here. No joke. Now I am a physical scientist with a little more engineering and physics to my chemistry life, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. Where are the women?
I liked the questions posed to these women scientists in Alaska and figured I would take it upon myself to answer them. If you are a woman in science, answer them in the comments, e-mail your answers to me and I will post them here in my blog or post the answers on your blog and provide me the link, okay?
“Were there more hurdles for you to clear in science because you were a woman?” (Ok, poorly written question, “are” they ARE women, they aren’t men now…)
I don’t believe there were more hurdles to clear education-wise because I am a woman. I believe that I had every opportunity presented to me as an undergrad and grad student in the 90’s based on the path I chose. Now I did reject one school after I had a very disheartening visit. I visited on the same day as another male potential graduate student at Colorado State and professors took him out to lunch – at the same place that the female graduate student assigned to take me out, took me. Later when I asked the department head if I would have an opportunity to teach upper division chemistry, he told me that female TA’s were not well received by the student body. I ran the other way. Once I was settled in a great program I experienced little gender disconnect. In my first year, I was teaching an upper division lab class. I should note that I went to a school with a very young faculty and with (gasp) three female faculty members.
I believe that I had a few more hurdles in the workplace than I had in education as a women. When I signed on as a post-doc, my mentor made sure to get me a p-card immediately, so I could place the teams' orders and I worked editing their reports and pulling their presentations together. I was a glorified admin. When I was in the lab and the guys walked in they would say, “hi honey, I am home” and the like. The team I was hired into was very unfriendly to women and when I started asking around the other women nodded and one even said that the whole group was shocked when this team brought a woman post-doc on. In order to advance I had to pick myself up, meet others, prove myself to others and make a name for myself. The guys who came in the same time as me were being paraded around like princes while I was struggling to get someone to give me the time of day.
“Has public perception changed about women scientists?”
Yes, I had the student last summer who as a senior had never encountered anything less than 50% female student body. I never had anything close to 50% women in my classes at a very liberal college. But this is college, in the workplace I think there is a ways to go.
Today, I am working in project management and I recently had an incident with a coworker that was not happy with me. Some of the things he said, and the analogies he made to our managers lead me to sit and wonder if he would have said these things of a man sitting across the table from him. I am quite positive not. I think (large stereotype here) "older" men are not afraid to challenge a woman in the workplace more on her knowledge or leadership abilities. There seems to be a perception that you have to be a ball breaker to move up, act like a man, don’t bring your femininity, but these are the same things that are frowned upon when we look up to women who have made it. I work quite well with men in the same general age group as myself. My Gen-X counterparts get it. They are the ones pulling double duty with their wives in child rearing and who have heard their wives come home with tales like mine. I tend to think that they would never treat a woman in a way they wouldn’t want their wives treated. Older generations (complete generalization here) their wives didn’t work in technical fields and many never worked at all. They don't have that same thought process or female professors or mentors to draw upon that the Gen X'ers did.
“Have there been hurdles you have faced that a man would not have faced?”
Getting exposure. When I first started as a post-doc so often it was assumed I was an admin assistant. I will claim that it is all about who you know. There are men here that are afraid to know a woman. Many deals are brokered over lunch, but many men are afraid to go have lunch with a female colleague – at least outside of a group. It presents a Catch-22. I work with a woman who told me about asking a manager to have dinner with her one night. She was married, he was married. She had some technical questions she wanted to pose and suggested they grab a bite to eat. He was so taken aback that he actually mentioned to her “sexual harassment”. Would this happen with two guys? No, they would go grab a beer at the local sports bar.
Another aspect, I went through a spell there working for a manager whose wife had never worked out of the home. The realities I faced with being a working mom with a newborn were foreign to him and he pretty much chalked me up as a whiner and told me there was no reason I couldn’t pump in the bathroom. When I pointed out there were no outlets he told me to get a battery pack. While I was out on my first maternity leave I had my first proposal funded. He handed it off to a man in my group citing he, “didn’t know what I wanted to do when I came back from leave”. He also never asked.
“What would you tell a girl who is contemplating a career in science?”
To find a good mentor at every stage. And by mentor I don’t mean manager – they have their own interests at heart in what they want you to do. Find someone you can talk freely to about what you want to do with your career. I wish I would have had more mentors in my career. Bachelors and then Masters or PhD so often is the given in science, but a mentor will be able to make suggestions based off experience, what do you really need to get where you want? What is the reality of academic positions? What if you love science, but wonder if there are other opportunities than standing in the lab? I have learned in the last few years that I have a propensity for management and business development. There are times when, despite the fact that this is what I want to be doing, I wonder if I am wasting my Ph.D. as I interact with managers sporting MBAs? The closest thing I have to a mentor right now (I am getting a new one in May) has told me no way, that in his product line he values highly technical managers. But just maybe, had I had someone early on in deciding what my career was going to be like and what life I wanted, maybe someone would have pointed me another way?
Sunday, April 03, 2011
April Goals Update
When I declared way back when what my goals were for the month of April, I had blinders on. I admit it. They are really, really big blinders and when I held my head exactly straight, they worked. They worked so that I could totally ignore my daughter's bedroom.
She has serious, serious bedroom issues. Mostly in that she has too much stuff. Then she has less organizational storage and third she is a little tornado. By the time pick up night comes on Wednesday, all her stuff tends to get stuffed in big plastic bins and shoved off to the side.
Then AB vigorously and ruthlessly whipped my blinders off when I happily announced I was going to orgnize the coat closet and laundry room.
"What really needs to be done is Skadi's room," he mumbled.
"But I was going to wait until an Ikea trip so that I could organize at the same time!" I argued truthfully. I had actually been browsing the Ikea website to get ahead of the game for the yet to be planned trip to an Ikea.
He then pointed out that a ton of stuff in her room could be thrown away, pulled out and donated or whatever. She doesn't need it, he said while referring mostly to the stacks upon stacks of books.
"But she likes the board books," I argued.
"She likes EVERY book. If the board books aren't there she will happily choose some of the others here that actually tell a story," he argued.
I sighed. Apparent that an Ikea trip was not in my immediate future and that my blinders were now broken. AB knows me well, once he breaks my blinders, I can no longer tell myself there is no problem.
So this weekend AFTER I took care of the coat closet, I started in one corner of Skadi's bedroom and worked through her room systematically through it and even tackled portions of her closet. We moved the big soft rocker out of her room, that we use to rock her to sleep in (before Skadi, it was Leif's, sigh... ). Well then it just served as the time out chair. Then it housed a mountain of stuffed animals. Not that the time outs went by the wayside of course...
We did it. I pulled out a huge stack of board books. I hauled off a full garbage bag full of c.r.a.p. We now have a plastic bucket overflowing with stuffed animals, a new small toybox from Target that will double as a bench and a treasure chest of dress up clothes.
Phew! Two for one weekend. My house is well on its way to an organized bliss!
She has serious, serious bedroom issues. Mostly in that she has too much stuff. Then she has less organizational storage and third she is a little tornado. By the time pick up night comes on Wednesday, all her stuff tends to get stuffed in big plastic bins and shoved off to the side.
Then AB vigorously and ruthlessly whipped my blinders off when I happily announced I was going to orgnize the coat closet and laundry room.
"What really needs to be done is Skadi's room," he mumbled.
"But I was going to wait until an Ikea trip so that I could organize at the same time!" I argued truthfully. I had actually been browsing the Ikea website to get ahead of the game for the yet to be planned trip to an Ikea.
He then pointed out that a ton of stuff in her room could be thrown away, pulled out and donated or whatever. She doesn't need it, he said while referring mostly to the stacks upon stacks of books.
"But she likes the board books," I argued.
"She likes EVERY book. If the board books aren't there she will happily choose some of the others here that actually tell a story," he argued.
I sighed. Apparent that an Ikea trip was not in my immediate future and that my blinders were now broken. AB knows me well, once he breaks my blinders, I can no longer tell myself there is no problem.
So this weekend AFTER I took care of the coat closet, I started in one corner of Skadi's bedroom and worked through her room systematically through it and even tackled portions of her closet. We moved the big soft rocker out of her room, that we use to rock her to sleep in (before Skadi, it was Leif's, sigh... ). Well then it just served as the time out chair. Then it housed a mountain of stuffed animals. Not that the time outs went by the wayside of course...
We did it. I pulled out a huge stack of board books. I hauled off a full garbage bag full of c.r.a.p. We now have a plastic bucket overflowing with stuffed animals, a new small toybox from Target that will double as a bench and a treasure chest of dress up clothes.
Phew! Two for one weekend. My house is well on its way to an organized bliss!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Cool iPhone uses
For a long time there Skadi would only go to sleep if I put her to bed. AB would walk into her room and much to the horror of us all, she would start screaming. It broke AB’s heart, it wasn’t fair to Leif who then never got me for bedtime, and it was hard on me too being the only one who could put her to bed.
This shifted when a few years back I had to start traveling again for work. Suddenly her choices were daddy or nobody. She picked daddy and he wormed his way into the preferred bedtime person by singing her songs at bedtime. Somehow my husband’s soft soothing voice singing “The Rainbow Connection” or “Castle on a Cloud” became her Ambien. And more recently he has become her preferred “putter to bedder”.
This doesn’t bother me. I am making up for lost time with Leif and since Skadi goes to bed before Leif, AB gets to bed earlier. Works out for everyone.
Out of fear of simply swapping roles and getting into a situation where I *can’t* put her to bed, we do switch this up. Skadi is fine with this, but this was the usual result.
Finished reading books.
Skadi: “Mommy, I need a song.”
Me: “Ok, ‘twinkle twinkle…”
Skadi: “No mommy, I need a song from daddy.”
My dad used to always ask my sister and I, “what did you do with the money? The money I gave you for singing lessons?”
Yes, my singing isn’t a pretty thing.
Usually I get up and go drag AB out of Leif’s room to sing her a song and thus finalize the deal.
I figured out something new though the other night that may just give AB a run for his money in the singing department.
YouTube on my iPhone.
Not only does she get to hear “The Rainbow Connection” but she gets to see Kermit sitting on a log singing it!
NM scores one!
I fear though that we are on a slippery slope.
Skadi: “Mommy, play the crocodile song!”
Skadi: “Now mommy, play the pink dancing girls song!”
Skadi: “Wouldn’t it be funny if the crocodile came and ate the girls like he did the frogs?”
Me: “You should be sleeping.” (Stifling laughter.)
Skadi: “I am going to have daddy sing ‘Mahna Mahna’ to me tomorrow night.”
And she drifts off the sleep.
(Another cool use for my iPhone – videocamera! I plan to have my phone there to record this.)
This shifted when a few years back I had to start traveling again for work. Suddenly her choices were daddy or nobody. She picked daddy and he wormed his way into the preferred bedtime person by singing her songs at bedtime. Somehow my husband’s soft soothing voice singing “The Rainbow Connection” or “Castle on a Cloud” became her Ambien. And more recently he has become her preferred “putter to bedder”.
This doesn’t bother me. I am making up for lost time with Leif and since Skadi goes to bed before Leif, AB gets to bed earlier. Works out for everyone.
Out of fear of simply swapping roles and getting into a situation where I *can’t* put her to bed, we do switch this up. Skadi is fine with this, but this was the usual result.
Finished reading books.
Skadi: “Mommy, I need a song.”
Me: “Ok, ‘twinkle twinkle…”
Skadi: “No mommy, I need a song from daddy.”
My dad used to always ask my sister and I, “what did you do with the money? The money I gave you for singing lessons?”
Yes, my singing isn’t a pretty thing.
Usually I get up and go drag AB out of Leif’s room to sing her a song and thus finalize the deal.
I figured out something new though the other night that may just give AB a run for his money in the singing department.
YouTube on my iPhone.
Not only does she get to hear “The Rainbow Connection” but she gets to see Kermit sitting on a log singing it!
NM scores one!
I fear though that we are on a slippery slope.
Skadi: “Mommy, play the crocodile song!”
Skadi: “Now mommy, play the pink dancing girls song!”
Skadi: “Wouldn’t it be funny if the crocodile came and ate the girls like he did the frogs?”
Me: “You should be sleeping.” (Stifling laughter.)
Skadi: “I am going to have daddy sing ‘Mahna Mahna’ to me tomorrow night.”
And she drifts off the sleep.
(Another cool use for my iPhone – videocamera! I plan to have my phone there to record this.)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
March Goals Wrap-Up
My goals for the month of March included cleaning out our closet and with that, organizing the closet and donating a bunch of stuff. I always have better intentions than actual follow through when it comes to clothes. I wish I could stick to that rule that "if I haven't worn it in 6 months to get rid of it".
I don't know what happens but I start flipping through hangers and one or two things actually fall into the pile. This time around I pulled out jeans I will never wear again for a variety of reasons - mostly style issues - and dumped them in the stack. Then I sacraficed one or two shirts and called it good. I did hit the closet hard with organization though. My closet rocks now.
The quilt was number two. And while I never actually did any sewing, thanks to a very, very busy month of March and my sewing machine being held hostage by a little red-haired girl requesting pretty dresse, I did make some decisions about the path forward on my quilt. I need to put the border on it and then haul it down to the Quiltworks store with the backing material I bought on sale at JoAnn's and the batting I bought also on sale. Then I will part, momentarily with the quilt, permanently with $200 and come back to retrieve a beautifully quilted quilt for our bed.
We have done surprisingly well at clearing out our freezer as I discovered today when I went to the freezer to scrounge for a protein for dinner. I moved a few things, but only a few, to reach to the bottom of the freezer to retrieve a flank steak. Much of what is left is pot pies and spaghetti sauce and a few random chili containers. Note to self, when freezing chili, be specific. I need to indicate if I or AB made it (we have very different chili styles) and particularly if AB made it I need to know the cuts of meat, whether there are beans and the color (because once frozen, green and red are remarkably similar in appearance).
Next weekend starts the month of April. My quilt tops the goals for April. Though also on the list is my laundry room and my coat closet. Low hanging fruit really - in hopes that it will push me to devote the time to the quilt.
Our laundry room appears to have been an afterthought in the house. Our washer and dryer barely fit. And as the theme for the house extends to the laundry room, there are shelves and cabinets all over. Untapped storage space. I need to clean out and label the fabric storage boxes I do have on the shelves and just organize the rest of the area.
Then my first floor coat closet is a few hours job at most. I need hangers. Must buy hangers. And I need four storage boxes to split up the gazillions of gloves and hats and ski goggles and snow boots and scarves and earbands out of the one big laundry basket they are currently occupying.
I have the spring cleaning bug, this shouldn't be an issue to do these two things here very soon.
I don't know what happens but I start flipping through hangers and one or two things actually fall into the pile. This time around I pulled out jeans I will never wear again for a variety of reasons - mostly style issues - and dumped them in the stack. Then I sacraficed one or two shirts and called it good. I did hit the closet hard with organization though. My closet rocks now.
The quilt was number two. And while I never actually did any sewing, thanks to a very, very busy month of March and my sewing machine being held hostage by a little red-haired girl requesting pretty dresse, I did make some decisions about the path forward on my quilt. I need to put the border on it and then haul it down to the Quiltworks store with the backing material I bought on sale at JoAnn's and the batting I bought also on sale. Then I will part, momentarily with the quilt, permanently with $200 and come back to retrieve a beautifully quilted quilt for our bed.
We have done surprisingly well at clearing out our freezer as I discovered today when I went to the freezer to scrounge for a protein for dinner. I moved a few things, but only a few, to reach to the bottom of the freezer to retrieve a flank steak. Much of what is left is pot pies and spaghetti sauce and a few random chili containers. Note to self, when freezing chili, be specific. I need to indicate if I or AB made it (we have very different chili styles) and particularly if AB made it I need to know the cuts of meat, whether there are beans and the color (because once frozen, green and red are remarkably similar in appearance).
Next weekend starts the month of April. My quilt tops the goals for April. Though also on the list is my laundry room and my coat closet. Low hanging fruit really - in hopes that it will push me to devote the time to the quilt.
Our laundry room appears to have been an afterthought in the house. Our washer and dryer barely fit. And as the theme for the house extends to the laundry room, there are shelves and cabinets all over. Untapped storage space. I need to clean out and label the fabric storage boxes I do have on the shelves and just organize the rest of the area.
Then my first floor coat closet is a few hours job at most. I need hangers. Must buy hangers. And I need four storage boxes to split up the gazillions of gloves and hats and ski goggles and snow boots and scarves and earbands out of the one big laundry basket they are currently occupying.
I have the spring cleaning bug, this shouldn't be an issue to do these two things here very soon.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Four Year Old Celebration
Skadi opted to have her 4th birthday party at "Coach Brett's". The only hairy thing here is that "Coach Brett" had to be there. Otherwise she wanted a swimming party.
So I picked up the phone and called "Coach Brett's".
Me: "Yes, I want to schedule my daughter's birthday party, but here is the catch, Coach Brett has to be there... yes, I understand his schedule is busy... yes, we will come whenever he is available... yes, just tell him that it is for Skadi and that we are EXTREMELY flexible... yes, call me back after you talk to him..."
Success. Coach Brett would be there as long as I could plan the party for this time on this date.
I agreed and sent in our deposit.
So I picked up the phone and called "Coach Brett's".
Me: "Yes, I want to schedule my daughter's birthday party, but here is the catch, Coach Brett has to be there... yes, I understand his schedule is busy... yes, we will come whenever he is available... yes, just tell him that it is for Skadi and that we are EXTREMELY flexible... yes, call me back after you talk to him..."
Success. Coach Brett would be there as long as I could plan the party for this time on this date.
I agreed and sent in our deposit.
4 Year Well Child
I can't believe my baby is four! What has happened to the time?
So I will try and type between my sobs here...
Skadi had a good 4 year well child exam. She enjoyed telling long stories to her doctor and answering all her questions.
Dr: "Skadi do you know what opposites are?"
Skadi: "No."
Dr: "Ok, if I say 'tall' then the opposite of that is 'short', right?"
Skadi: "Yes, or really tall."
Dr: "Ok, let's see, what is the opposite of hot?"
Skadi: "Really hot."
Dr: "Well no, would it be cold?"
Skadi: "It could be but if it isn't hot than it might just be warm, you just never know about these things."
Dr: "She has a very advanced vocabulary.
The four shots were murder. The doctor actually gave us the option of putting them off until she was five, but since we had already talked about it and had the gummy worms ready in the car, I pulled the trigger.
Skadi cried, "I don't want shots! NO mommy!"
Me: "But they are good for you honey and keep you from getting very sick. And you didn't even cry when you got your flu shot, you will do great!"
Skadi: "I will only do shots if they give me band-aids."
Me: "If the nurse comes in without band-aids I will send her out to go get some."
Of course the nurse came in with band-aids.
Skadi didn't hold her end of the bargain up. She struggled.
And not only does she have a large vocabulary and reasoning skills for her age, but the nurse said she is freaky strong.
She screamed bloody murder.
Me: "Skadi, the band-aids are on."
Skadi: (suddenly stops screaming bloody murder) "I want to see them."
And that was that.
The nurse gave her four stickers and a lollipop and life was excellent again.
The details:
Height - 40 squirmy inches - 55th percentile
Weight - 36 lbs - 50th percentile.
So I will try and type between my sobs here...
Skadi had a good 4 year well child exam. She enjoyed telling long stories to her doctor and answering all her questions.
Dr: "Skadi do you know what opposites are?"
Skadi: "No."
Dr: "Ok, if I say 'tall' then the opposite of that is 'short', right?"
Skadi: "Yes, or really tall."
Dr: "Ok, let's see, what is the opposite of hot?"
Skadi: "Really hot."
Dr: "Well no, would it be cold?"
Skadi: "It could be but if it isn't hot than it might just be warm, you just never know about these things."
Dr: "She has a very advanced vocabulary.
The four shots were murder. The doctor actually gave us the option of putting them off until she was five, but since we had already talked about it and had the gummy worms ready in the car, I pulled the trigger.
Skadi cried, "I don't want shots! NO mommy!"
Me: "But they are good for you honey and keep you from getting very sick. And you didn't even cry when you got your flu shot, you will do great!"
Skadi: "I will only do shots if they give me band-aids."
Me: "If the nurse comes in without band-aids I will send her out to go get some."
Of course the nurse came in with band-aids.
Skadi didn't hold her end of the bargain up. She struggled.
And not only does she have a large vocabulary and reasoning skills for her age, but the nurse said she is freaky strong.
She screamed bloody murder.
Me: "Skadi, the band-aids are on."
Skadi: (suddenly stops screaming bloody murder) "I want to see them."
And that was that.
The nurse gave her four stickers and a lollipop and life was excellent again.
The details:
Height - 40 squirmy inches - 55th percentile
Weight - 36 lbs - 50th percentile.
Friday, March 18, 2011
"Let me give you a hint"
One of my favorite stories about one of my cousins was the Christmas they told her what they bought her dad for Christmas.
She gave him a hint:
"It goes tick tock tick tock."
Every year after they started telling her wacky stuff, like that her sister was getting a dishwasher for Christmas because she spilled the beans.
Skadi is showing signs of being the same way.
Leif is a vault. He loves keeping secrets.
I can do it, but it is very difficult. I am an open book really. I tell my husband everything. I tell my coworkers things I later wish I hadn't. Not only can I not keep a secret, but I tend to tell more than is really necessary.
Anyways, enough about me.
The other day when I picked Skadi up at school they were playing "hide the play tiger" and "hot and cold".
Skadi hid the tiger.
About 5 seconds went by and she lead the 6 or so kids over and said, "let me give you a hint," she paused. Then she pointed at the tiger and said, "IT'S RIGHT THERE!"
And she jumped up and down and squealed.
Aunt Tara came over this evening, picked her up and said, "who has a birthday in a few days?"
Skadi replies, "Ok, I will give you a hint, it's ME!"
Yep, Skadi is showing every single sign of following in my direction with not being able to keep a secret very well.
Apparently it is genetic.
She gave him a hint:
"It goes tick tock tick tock."
Every year after they started telling her wacky stuff, like that her sister was getting a dishwasher for Christmas because she spilled the beans.
Skadi is showing signs of being the same way.
Leif is a vault. He loves keeping secrets.
I can do it, but it is very difficult. I am an open book really. I tell my husband everything. I tell my coworkers things I later wish I hadn't. Not only can I not keep a secret, but I tend to tell more than is really necessary.
Anyways, enough about me.
The other day when I picked Skadi up at school they were playing "hide the play tiger" and "hot and cold".
Skadi hid the tiger.
About 5 seconds went by and she lead the 6 or so kids over and said, "let me give you a hint," she paused. Then she pointed at the tiger and said, "IT'S RIGHT THERE!"
And she jumped up and down and squealed.
Aunt Tara came over this evening, picked her up and said, "who has a birthday in a few days?"
Skadi replies, "Ok, I will give you a hint, it's ME!"
Yep, Skadi is showing every single sign of following in my direction with not being able to keep a secret very well.
Apparently it is genetic.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
How to catch a leprechaun!
Ranking right up there with Santa, is...
Larry the Leprechaun!
Leif's teachers have this tradition that has captivated my son something fierce for the last few years. The kids all get to build a trap to catch a leprechaun. And not just any leprechaun. LARRY the leprechaun. Leif has been talking for months about his plans for his trap.
And now the day is just around the corner. Leif's plans to catch Larry are nearly all we hear about.
"You should see my trap," Leif carries on, "and Parker and I are connecting are traps together to make one massive trap and we are putting it on Mrs. S's desk because last year the leprechaun tipped over her chair!! And he left his shoe behind on the window ledge!"
Seriously the fact that her chair was tipped over was HUGE.
See Larry breaks into the classroom during one of the outside times and wreaks havoc tipping over chairs and disturbing things. Every year Larry leaves some small memento behind that the kids find in the room. Evidence that Larry WAS there!
And just maybe, one of the traps will catch him! Though none actually have caught him in the three years that Leif has been in the room.
"And you get to keep all his gold!" Leif tells us, "but I heard one time that if two people catch it they get to share the gold." Apparently he and Parker have decided they will deal with having half the gold by teaming up and putting their traps conjoined in the most obvious place to catch a leprechaun - his teacher's desk. "Because doesn't every leprechaun want to dance on the teacher's desk?"
This is the first year I am fearing massive disappointment because Leif knows he will not be there in the class next year. It's his last chance to catch Larry. And he is SO determined. SO SO SO determined.
"Mom, what if they don't try to catch Larry at [public school]?" he asked me today.
"Well they probably don't, you might need to ask C how they celebrate St. Patrick's Day," I told him.
I told him we could set a trap at home, but so far no leprechauns have made an appearance at our house, no havoc has been wreaked. (I might have to rectify this...)
----
Yay me! This is post # 1400!
Larry the Leprechaun!
Leif's teachers have this tradition that has captivated my son something fierce for the last few years. The kids all get to build a trap to catch a leprechaun. And not just any leprechaun. LARRY the leprechaun. Leif has been talking for months about his plans for his trap.
And now the day is just around the corner. Leif's plans to catch Larry are nearly all we hear about.
"You should see my trap," Leif carries on, "and Parker and I are connecting are traps together to make one massive trap and we are putting it on Mrs. S's desk because last year the leprechaun tipped over her chair!! And he left his shoe behind on the window ledge!"
Seriously the fact that her chair was tipped over was HUGE.
See Larry breaks into the classroom during one of the outside times and wreaks havoc tipping over chairs and disturbing things. Every year Larry leaves some small memento behind that the kids find in the room. Evidence that Larry WAS there!
And just maybe, one of the traps will catch him! Though none actually have caught him in the three years that Leif has been in the room.
"And you get to keep all his gold!" Leif tells us, "but I heard one time that if two people catch it they get to share the gold." Apparently he and Parker have decided they will deal with having half the gold by teaming up and putting their traps conjoined in the most obvious place to catch a leprechaun - his teacher's desk. "Because doesn't every leprechaun want to dance on the teacher's desk?"
This is the first year I am fearing massive disappointment because Leif knows he will not be there in the class next year. It's his last chance to catch Larry. And he is SO determined. SO SO SO determined.
"Mom, what if they don't try to catch Larry at [public school]?" he asked me today.
"Well they probably don't, you might need to ask C how they celebrate St. Patrick's Day," I told him.
I told him we could set a trap at home, but so far no leprechauns have made an appearance at our house, no havoc has been wreaked. (I might have to rectify this...)
----
Yay me! This is post # 1400!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Nothing sweeter...
Me: "Ok, I will go get you a piece of cheese if you say your prayers."
(Skadi insists on eating a piece of cheese before bed every night. I don't know why.)
Skadi: "Dear God. Are you there God? I said, are you there? Oh ok. Please help me to sleep and be good and don't let the shiny sharks get me. Amen."
(Skadi insists on eating a piece of cheese before bed every night. I don't know why.)
Skadi: "Dear God. Are you there God? I said, are you there? Oh ok. Please help me to sleep and be good and don't let the shiny sharks get me. Amen."
If only my whole house could look this nice...
I just have to say that I still – a few weeks after finishing it off – walk into my half bath just to look and obtain a sense of calm. I still love it! And it is kicking some serious motivation into me to make the rest of my house pretty.
Insert my husband’s eye roll.
This weekend I cleaned my closet out. I split it up – my side on Saturday and AB’s side on Sunday. As always happens with this type of organization project, I envision that it is going to take days, maybe even weeks! I look at the daunting mess and worry about getting lost in there and no one finding me.
I was wrong. It took me an hour on each day and this includes hanging hooks, piling up trash, piling up Goodwill stacks and actually bringing stuff into the closet to store. AB gets up before the crack of dawn and he tends to go back and forth from the dresser to the bathroom and closet. I emptied about 1/3 of his dresser out into his shelves. I KNOW my husband well and so I KNOW that these shelves will become messy quickly. He made mention of possibly putting cupboard fronts on the faces of the shelves, but I don’t think that will work easily and I think his time will be better spent just folding and not stuffing stuff on the shelves. Or *my* time will be better spent finding a few low tray like baskets to hold the small loose things. We will see.
In the meantime I have belts, bags and scarves all separated and on their own hooks.
I had to walk in the closet a few times today just to look around and admire.
Our house was a parade home once upon a time. So little details were paid attention to. We have loads of shelves in our closet. I love that. My bank of shelves doesn’t hold clothes. It holds shoes. And I took a little ribbing about the sheer number of shoes on my shelves. Oh well. I can deal.
The last thing I need though is a step ladder to just put in and keep in the closet. A very tall person built our house. Many of these fabulous shelves are up high and I need to be able to utilize them without going to get a ladder. If I can do that then my closet becomes so much more effective at its job.
----------
The other part of my goals that I am working this month is tackling my quilt.
I packed it up and went to the local Quiltworks store that I heard had a long arm machine and could likely quilt my quilt in a very short time. And yes, they can do it, and yes, it will look fancy and fabulous when finished. For only $240.
Sigh.
AB heaved a big sigh and said, “what?”
Then I ignored him and pulled out the three fabrics I found – two for a double border and one for a dress for Skadi.
Quilt – zero progress.
Dress? And matching dolly dress? Done! Skadi had found a pattern for a dress in my stacks of my mom’s sewing stuff. I am sure she bought it intending to make the dress for Skadi at some point (or for Celeste before this). (See I DO get this affliction from someone.) So when I saw the cute fishy fabric I knew I had to have it.
Skadi was a bit disappointed that little mice didn’t come out to help us sew and that flinging the fabric into the air didn’t magically create a gown. But she was very interested in watching me sew and “helping”.
Once the dress was nearly done I needed to sew the shoulder straps on. Skadi squealed, “wait!” And she ran up to her room and found her little baggie of cute buttons from my mom and pulled out two smiley faced orange buttons and handed them to me. Instead of sewing the straps on and putting a zipper in the back, I sewed up the back and put buttons on.
I know my mom was looking down smiling.
Anyways… back to my issue. I have a decision to make. Try and tackle quilting a king sized quilt myself. Pay the local shop's price. Finding a less expensive place online. Or deciding that it is just worth it to try and quilt it myself. Or – and as a quilter, I can’t believe I am thinking this – tie it?
Insert my husband’s eye roll.
This weekend I cleaned my closet out. I split it up – my side on Saturday and AB’s side on Sunday. As always happens with this type of organization project, I envision that it is going to take days, maybe even weeks! I look at the daunting mess and worry about getting lost in there and no one finding me.
I was wrong. It took me an hour on each day and this includes hanging hooks, piling up trash, piling up Goodwill stacks and actually bringing stuff into the closet to store. AB gets up before the crack of dawn and he tends to go back and forth from the dresser to the bathroom and closet. I emptied about 1/3 of his dresser out into his shelves. I KNOW my husband well and so I KNOW that these shelves will become messy quickly. He made mention of possibly putting cupboard fronts on the faces of the shelves, but I don’t think that will work easily and I think his time will be better spent just folding and not stuffing stuff on the shelves. Or *my* time will be better spent finding a few low tray like baskets to hold the small loose things. We will see.
In the meantime I have belts, bags and scarves all separated and on their own hooks.
I had to walk in the closet a few times today just to look around and admire.
Our house was a parade home once upon a time. So little details were paid attention to. We have loads of shelves in our closet. I love that. My bank of shelves doesn’t hold clothes. It holds shoes. And I took a little ribbing about the sheer number of shoes on my shelves. Oh well. I can deal.
The last thing I need though is a step ladder to just put in and keep in the closet. A very tall person built our house. Many of these fabulous shelves are up high and I need to be able to utilize them without going to get a ladder. If I can do that then my closet becomes so much more effective at its job.
----------
The other part of my goals that I am working this month is tackling my quilt.
I packed it up and went to the local Quiltworks store that I heard had a long arm machine and could likely quilt my quilt in a very short time. And yes, they can do it, and yes, it will look fancy and fabulous when finished. For only $240.
Sigh.
AB heaved a big sigh and said, “what?”
Then I ignored him and pulled out the three fabrics I found – two for a double border and one for a dress for Skadi.
Quilt – zero progress.
Dress? And matching dolly dress? Done! Skadi had found a pattern for a dress in my stacks of my mom’s sewing stuff. I am sure she bought it intending to make the dress for Skadi at some point (or for Celeste before this). (See I DO get this affliction from someone.) So when I saw the cute fishy fabric I knew I had to have it.
Skadi was a bit disappointed that little mice didn’t come out to help us sew and that flinging the fabric into the air didn’t magically create a gown. But she was very interested in watching me sew and “helping”.
Once the dress was nearly done I needed to sew the shoulder straps on. Skadi squealed, “wait!” And she ran up to her room and found her little baggie of cute buttons from my mom and pulled out two smiley faced orange buttons and handed them to me. Instead of sewing the straps on and putting a zipper in the back, I sewed up the back and put buttons on.
I know my mom was looking down smiling.
Anyways… back to my issue. I have a decision to make. Try and tackle quilting a king sized quilt myself. Pay the local shop's price. Finding a less expensive place online. Or deciding that it is just worth it to try and quilt it myself. Or – and as a quilter, I can’t believe I am thinking this – tie it?
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Arranged marriages?
When I was about Leif’s age I was playing in my backyard with two of the neighbor girls, Dani and Jennifer, and the neighbor boy, Brandon. Brandon declared a rule:
“Whoever says me first, gets to marry me.”
I have never been terribly quick with my tongue and suffice to say I came in last. I stormed in crying and went to my dad explaining the situation. His reply was, “well why would you want to marry Brandon, he’s just a goofy kid from down the street?”
Brandon moved away or didn’t come around much after that, not sure which. I don’t remember what happened to him he just quit coming around shortly after that.
And I survived.
Leif seems to have a bit of a crush.
He is bound and determined that he is going to marry Niranjana, our good friends’ daughter. Trouble is that Niranjana has other plans.
“I am going to marry Ken,” she announces routinely.
At 6 years old I never thought I would see my son aiming to “break up” other kids!
“What does it mean to ‘break them up’?” I asked. He couldn’t possibly understand dating and boyfriend and girlfriend, could he?
“It means I don’t want them to get married, I want to break them up so they don’t get married,” he replied.
I have listed off all the reasons in the world why we just don’t need to worry about this right now.
… “but Niranjana’s mom says she can’t get married until she goes to college and I think that is a good idea too”…
… “there are so many other people out there, you will meet other people, other girls you might want to marry”…
… “it is a long time till you need to worry about who you will marry”…
(Leif replied the other day that this past year has gone by faster than the others he remembers, so he is going to need to worry about it sooner than we all thought… he has no idea how right he is.)
Nothing helps.
I went and picked Leif up the other day and the kids were all in the same room. Niranjana and Ken were coloring and Niranjana was leading the conversation.
“See Ken is from China and I am from India and so that makes us a perfect match!” (Chuckled to myself at this line of reasoning.)
Leif asked me the other day if he colored his hair black if I thought Niranjana might want to marry him.
Maybe I was getting a bit tired of this obsession. I broke loose and started on the long conversation about why would you want to marry a person who doesn’t want to marry you? Everyone deserves to marry someone who thinks that they are their perfect match regardless of hair color or anything else. Then I added – because I know that what a mom thinks bears heavily on her son’s mind (ha ha ha) – “Leif, I love your strawberry blonde hair and if you ever color it black it would make me so sad.”
He gave up the obsession for a day.
Finally yesterday a line of reasoning that might make sense to Leif entered. And it came from Niranjana.
“Niranjana says that we CAN’T marry each other because we are cousins!” he announced.
I could try and clarify… then I thought wiser of this and decided I would just take this for now.
“Whoever says me first, gets to marry me.”
I have never been terribly quick with my tongue and suffice to say I came in last. I stormed in crying and went to my dad explaining the situation. His reply was, “well why would you want to marry Brandon, he’s just a goofy kid from down the street?”
Brandon moved away or didn’t come around much after that, not sure which. I don’t remember what happened to him he just quit coming around shortly after that.
And I survived.
Leif seems to have a bit of a crush.
He is bound and determined that he is going to marry Niranjana, our good friends’ daughter. Trouble is that Niranjana has other plans.
“I am going to marry Ken,” she announces routinely.
At 6 years old I never thought I would see my son aiming to “break up” other kids!
“What does it mean to ‘break them up’?” I asked. He couldn’t possibly understand dating and boyfriend and girlfriend, could he?
“It means I don’t want them to get married, I want to break them up so they don’t get married,” he replied.
I have listed off all the reasons in the world why we just don’t need to worry about this right now.
… “but Niranjana’s mom says she can’t get married until she goes to college and I think that is a good idea too”…
… “there are so many other people out there, you will meet other people, other girls you might want to marry”…
… “it is a long time till you need to worry about who you will marry”…
(Leif replied the other day that this past year has gone by faster than the others he remembers, so he is going to need to worry about it sooner than we all thought… he has no idea how right he is.)
Nothing helps.
I went and picked Leif up the other day and the kids were all in the same room. Niranjana and Ken were coloring and Niranjana was leading the conversation.
“See Ken is from China and I am from India and so that makes us a perfect match!” (Chuckled to myself at this line of reasoning.)
Leif asked me the other day if he colored his hair black if I thought Niranjana might want to marry him.
Maybe I was getting a bit tired of this obsession. I broke loose and started on the long conversation about why would you want to marry a person who doesn’t want to marry you? Everyone deserves to marry someone who thinks that they are their perfect match regardless of hair color or anything else. Then I added – because I know that what a mom thinks bears heavily on her son’s mind (ha ha ha) – “Leif, I love your strawberry blonde hair and if you ever color it black it would make me so sad.”
He gave up the obsession for a day.
Finally yesterday a line of reasoning that might make sense to Leif entered. And it came from Niranjana.
“Niranjana says that we CAN’T marry each other because we are cousins!” he announced.
I could try and clarify… then I thought wiser of this and decided I would just take this for now.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Things I will never understand...
Why my son will eat his boogers, but refuses to taste an olive, or a bean, or allow his food to touch, or drink a carbonated beverage.
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Why my daughter shrieks in pain when anyone looks at her and falls on the floor faint with utter pain when someone brushes by her or the cat looks at her. But she will clip a clothespin on her own earlobe and then say simply, "oh mommy, that hurt!" (Giggle, giggle, giggle!)
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How everything in the world that Skadi ever does is an "ansident", but cannot accept that anything done to her might also be. "Mommy, I ansidentally hit my brother on the head with my doll while he was watching TV!"
--------
Why my daughter shrieks in pain when anyone looks at her and falls on the floor faint with utter pain when someone brushes by her or the cat looks at her. But she will clip a clothespin on her own earlobe and then say simply, "oh mommy, that hurt!" (Giggle, giggle, giggle!)
--------
How everything in the world that Skadi ever does is an "ansident", but cannot accept that anything done to her might also be. "Mommy, I ansidentally hit my brother on the head with my doll while he was watching TV!"
Sunday, March 06, 2011
My new project
Because I have NOTHING better to occupy my time. (Said VERY sarcastically.)
I don't have many expectations of extensive posting. Just something I want to work at. I would like to say that everytime I sit down to post here that I would post there as well.
Check it out:
Four Generations in the Kitchen
The introduction post is here - explaining why I am doing this crazy posting of recipes that I may or may not ever make!
I don't have many expectations of extensive posting. Just something I want to work at. I would like to say that everytime I sit down to post here that I would post there as well.
Check it out:
Four Generations in the Kitchen
The introduction post is here - explaining why I am doing this crazy posting of recipes that I may or may not ever make!
Boys = Fighting and Farting
When AB and I talked (well before we had kids) about how we would raise a boy we agreed (or at least I insisted) that my sons wouldn't have guns or shooting implements or have anything to do with fighting.
Then reality hit. For some reason "fighting" seems to be built into boys' psyche. We channeled Leif towards sword play and lightsabers, but even I have been loosening up on the toys that shoot things.
Like nearly all parents I know out there, we read to the kids regularly. When I am not sure whichever child I am reading to is paying attention, or to test their wakefulness at bedtime storytime I start changing the story. Inserting other names into the stories.
"Young Yolanda Skadi is yelling on a yellow yak."
"Now there are two Leif's on your head!"
Skadi is less receptive to this and usually tells me to "read it right mommy or don't read it at all".
Leif laughs.
Transformers are NOT my favorite toys in the world. Far from it. And when Leif starts asking for Transformer stories I try to keep my eyes from floating to the top of my head.
I have a new solution... there isn't much that ranks up there with stories about fighting... but farting gets dang close.
About a month or so ago, I started substituting some words here and adding in an occasional sentence about how stinky Earth is becoming due to all this flatulance.
And now I have to admit, those Transformer stories can be danged funny!
The only downside is that giggling little boys are usually not as prone to falling asleep during storytime.
Just my way of combating violence with "hilarious" bodily functions.
Then reality hit. For some reason "fighting" seems to be built into boys' psyche. We channeled Leif towards sword play and lightsabers, but even I have been loosening up on the toys that shoot things.
Like nearly all parents I know out there, we read to the kids regularly. When I am not sure whichever child I am reading to is paying attention, or to test their wakefulness at bedtime storytime I start changing the story. Inserting other names into the stories.
"Young Yolanda Skadi is yelling on a yellow yak."
"Now there are two Leif's on your head!"
Skadi is less receptive to this and usually tells me to "read it right mommy or don't read it at all".
Leif laughs.
Transformers are NOT my favorite toys in the world. Far from it. And when Leif starts asking for Transformer stories I try to keep my eyes from floating to the top of my head.
I have a new solution... there isn't much that ranks up there with stories about fighting... but farting gets dang close.
About a month or so ago, I started substituting some words here and adding in an occasional sentence about how stinky Earth is becoming due to all this flatulance.
And now I have to admit, those Transformer stories can be danged funny!
The only downside is that giggling little boys are usually not as prone to falling asleep during storytime.
Just my way of combating violence with "hilarious" bodily functions.
A brand new half bath
The last touch to the bathroom was finished this past week - crown moulding! I loved the way the hotel room we stayed at in Palm Springs used dark crown moulding at the intersection of the walls and the ceiling. So I stole the idea for my bathroom makeover.
The crown moulding at Home Depot - you know the stuff labelled crown moulding was wide. Too wide, in my opinion for my little half bath. So I found some trim I liked instead and painted it.
Then I bought some new accessories - towel and soap pump shown here and finished the room off. I love the mirror in this room - it came with the house.
The crown moulding at Home Depot - you know the stuff labelled crown moulding was wide. Too wide, in my opinion for my little half bath. So I found some trim I liked instead and painted it.
Then I bought some new accessories - towel and soap pump shown here and finished the room off. I love the mirror in this room - it came with the house.
This is an awful crooked picture below, but it shows the toilet paper/flower pot thingy that I bought (that AB laughs at). You can also see the green color that has to go at some point.
Yay! I am really happy with how the half bath came out. February goal was a success!
I can't say much for March yet... I bought a few hooks for the closet to hang my belts and shawls/scarves. We will claim 10% complete on the status of the closet. By the end of the day if I am lucky I might be able to see the floor. I can't claim any status on the quilt - not even a trip to the fabric store to buy the supplies. Though we are slowly working our way through the freezer... last night we had both sturgeon and salmon from the freezer - and it was delicious.
Tonight we are having paella... of which nothing came from the freezer. Oh well.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Words that strike fear into my heart...
Me: "What is Skadi doing?"
AB: "She's downstairs watching the Academy awards."
AB: "She's downstairs watching the Academy awards."
Saturday, February 26, 2011
My gamer
Leif is very much a little gamer. He comes by it honestly really. Both AB and I enjoy board games and computer games. I vaguely remember a long distant past where I would sit for hours in front of the computer playing Diablo and Civilization. It is a vague memory that doesn't include little voices around me. As a kid I was much more intrigued by an afternoon in front of the Colecovision or my Commodore Vic 20 than going outside.
Leif inherited this unfortunate quality. I should probably apologize now to all his future girlfriends because he inherited this from both sides.
Today one of Leif's female friends - who isn't a gamer - came over for a play date. It didn't start out well when she went to play with Skadi's dollhouse and Leif had a despondent and somewhat desperate look on his face. We let this rest a little to see how long the doll thing would last.
It went on a little long for Leif (Skadi was thrilled) and so we released him to his DS for a bit.
After a little while I picked up the Wii Tangled game that she brought with. Leif siezed the opportunity to get the Wii remote in his hand by agreeing readily to being Flynn Rider.
"I have a sword!" he exclaimed.
Pretty soon they were playing away. But I loved the conversations during.
Leif: "I am going to get that guy!"
C: "No, you are supposed to ask him if he has the radish drink instead."
Leif: "Oh."
Few minutes pass...
Leif: "I am going to slice that bad guy in half!"
C: "That's not a bad guy, you have to see if he has a jewel."
Leif: "Oh."
Few minutes pass...
Leif: "Hi-YA! Let me go tackle that one and fight him C!"
C: "C, no Leif we just have to see if he has the answer."
Leif: "Oh."
I was impressed that despite there being no bashing or whacking or sword slicing that he hung in there. I was worried we would see tears, but no. And he didn't even make any requests for teaching C how to play "Lightsaber Duel".
I was impressed that he was just happy enough to be able to play Wii that he willingly and enthusiastically (mostly) played a "girls" game (dubbed so a little bit later because there "isn't enough attacking").
Leif inherited this unfortunate quality. I should probably apologize now to all his future girlfriends because he inherited this from both sides.
Today one of Leif's female friends - who isn't a gamer - came over for a play date. It didn't start out well when she went to play with Skadi's dollhouse and Leif had a despondent and somewhat desperate look on his face. We let this rest a little to see how long the doll thing would last.
It went on a little long for Leif (Skadi was thrilled) and so we released him to his DS for a bit.
After a little while I picked up the Wii Tangled game that she brought with. Leif siezed the opportunity to get the Wii remote in his hand by agreeing readily to being Flynn Rider.
"I have a sword!" he exclaimed.
Pretty soon they were playing away. But I loved the conversations during.
Leif: "I am going to get that guy!"
C: "No, you are supposed to ask him if he has the radish drink instead."
Leif: "Oh."
Few minutes pass...
Leif: "I am going to slice that bad guy in half!"
C: "That's not a bad guy, you have to see if he has a jewel."
Leif: "Oh."
Few minutes pass...
Leif: "Hi-YA! Let me go tackle that one and fight him C!"
C: "C, no Leif we just have to see if he has the answer."
Leif: "Oh."
I was impressed that despite there being no bashing or whacking or sword slicing that he hung in there. I was worried we would see tears, but no. And he didn't even make any requests for teaching C how to play "Lightsaber Duel".
I was impressed that he was just happy enough to be able to play Wii that he willingly and enthusiastically (mostly) played a "girls" game (dubbed so a little bit later because there "isn't enough attacking").
Thursday, February 24, 2011
It's good my kids make me laugh...
Me putting Skadi to bed:
Skadi: "Mom, I need a song."
Me: "Never smile at a croco-"
Skadi: "No mom, I need a song-"
Me: "Twinkle twinkle little-"
Skadi: "No MOM! I need a song from daddy, go get him please."
---------
Me: "Skadi, why does the wind blow?"
Skadi: "Because it is rude that way."
----------
Me: "Where does snow come from?"
Skadi: "From the clouds."
Leif: "No Skadi it comes from little drops of water in the sky that dry out and turn to snow."
-----------
Skadi: "Mommy, can we give me to Niranjana since she doesn't have a sister?"
Me: "Well if you were Niranjana's sister that means you wouldn't be my little girl anymore, you would be Auntie Melissa's little girl."
Skadi: "That's ok, I like Auntie Melissa."
Me: (Sob.)
------------
Me: "Skadi why is the sky blue?"
Skadi: "Because it is supposed to be."
Me: "Leif, why is the grass green?"
Leif: "Because that means it is healthy."
Me: "Well why is it brown now?"
Leif: "Because it hasn't rained in a long time."
Me: "Does that mean it isn't healthy."
Leif: (Sighing) "Mom, it means it is dormant."
-----------
Leif: "Mom, I want to read 'The Lion, The Witch and the Warthog'."
Me: "I think you mean 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'."
Leif: "No, I mean warthog, why would it be wardrobe?"
-----------
Leif: "I have to have my snow gear today!"
Me: "Well it didn't really snow much, there's barely any out there."
Leif: "Well Ms. M said that if we brought our snow gear we could have a snowball fight!"
Me: "But there isn't enough snow for a snowball fight?"
Leif: "Well then why would she say we could have a snowball fight?"
------------
Me: "Skadi where were you before you were in my tummy?"
Skadi: "North America."
Me: "What were you doing?"
Skadi: "Just playing dolls and stuff."
Leif: "Mom, babies come from EITHER places or tummies."
Me: "No, all babies come from tummies."
Leif: "No mom, you are wrong, some come from places."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Leif: "Well we came from your tummy, but Niranjana came from India and that is a place."
Me: (Still haven't continued this conversation.)
-----------
Me: "Skadi how are clouds made?"
Skadi: "By God."
------------
Me: "Skadi how do bushes grow?"
Skadi: "Up."
Leif: "From the ground Skadi, say from the ground, they grow from the ground, it is a trick question."
------------
Me: "Skadi why is the grass green?"
Skadi: "Because it is supposed to be."
Me: "Leif, why do the trees have leaves?"
Leif: "Because the tree sucks up water and water makes the leaves and the leaves catch more water and make more leaves and more leaves."
Me: "Sounds like you have a pretty firm grasp of science."
Leif: "Yeah, but I want to be a computer engineer spy who works for the CIA mom, I don't want to work with you anymore."
Skadi: "Mom, I need a song."
Me: "Never smile at a croco-"
Skadi: "No mom, I need a song-"
Me: "Twinkle twinkle little-"
Skadi: "No MOM! I need a song from daddy, go get him please."
---------
Me: "Skadi, why does the wind blow?"
Skadi: "Because it is rude that way."
----------
Me: "Where does snow come from?"
Skadi: "From the clouds."
Leif: "No Skadi it comes from little drops of water in the sky that dry out and turn to snow."
-----------
Skadi: "Mommy, can we give me to Niranjana since she doesn't have a sister?"
Me: "Well if you were Niranjana's sister that means you wouldn't be my little girl anymore, you would be Auntie Melissa's little girl."
Skadi: "That's ok, I like Auntie Melissa."
Me: (Sob.)
------------
Me: "Skadi why is the sky blue?"
Skadi: "Because it is supposed to be."
Me: "Leif, why is the grass green?"
Leif: "Because that means it is healthy."
Me: "Well why is it brown now?"
Leif: "Because it hasn't rained in a long time."
Me: "Does that mean it isn't healthy."
Leif: (Sighing) "Mom, it means it is dormant."
-----------
Leif: "Mom, I want to read 'The Lion, The Witch and the Warthog'."
Me: "I think you mean 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'."
Leif: "No, I mean warthog, why would it be wardrobe?"
-----------
Leif: "I have to have my snow gear today!"
Me: "Well it didn't really snow much, there's barely any out there."
Leif: "Well Ms. M said that if we brought our snow gear we could have a snowball fight!"
Me: "But there isn't enough snow for a snowball fight?"
Leif: "Well then why would she say we could have a snowball fight?"
------------
Me: "Skadi where were you before you were in my tummy?"
Skadi: "North America."
Me: "What were you doing?"
Skadi: "Just playing dolls and stuff."
Leif: "Mom, babies come from EITHER places or tummies."
Me: "No, all babies come from tummies."
Leif: "No mom, you are wrong, some come from places."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Leif: "Well we came from your tummy, but Niranjana came from India and that is a place."
Me: (Still haven't continued this conversation.)
-----------
Me: "Skadi how are clouds made?"
Skadi: "By God."
------------
Me: "Skadi how do bushes grow?"
Skadi: "Up."
Leif: "From the ground Skadi, say from the ground, they grow from the ground, it is a trick question."
------------
Me: "Skadi why is the grass green?"
Skadi: "Because it is supposed to be."
Me: "Leif, why do the trees have leaves?"
Leif: "Because the tree sucks up water and water makes the leaves and the leaves catch more water and make more leaves and more leaves."
Me: "Sounds like you have a pretty firm grasp of science."
Leif: "Yeah, but I want to be a computer engineer spy who works for the CIA mom, I don't want to work with you anymore."
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Signs my daughter has been in trouble at preschool...
This morning.
Me: Skadi get your shoes on.
Me: Skadi get your shoes on.
Me: Skadi, I said get your shoes on, we have to get to school.
Skadi: Well Ms. A told me that I lost the privilege of wearing shoes to school.
---------
At dinner.
AB: Skadi eat your dinner.
AB: Skadi eat your dinner.
AB: Skadi, I said you need to eat your dinner.
Skadi: Well Ms. A told me that I lost the privilege of eating dinner.
Me: Skadi get your shoes on.
Me: Skadi get your shoes on.
Me: Skadi, I said get your shoes on, we have to get to school.
Skadi: Well Ms. A told me that I lost the privilege of wearing shoes to school.
---------
At dinner.
AB: Skadi eat your dinner.
AB: Skadi eat your dinner.
AB: Skadi, I said you need to eat your dinner.
Skadi: Well Ms. A told me that I lost the privilege of eating dinner.
Goals Update
I spent this past weekend working on my February goal. I am actually really, really pleased with myself. It is not 100% complete. But I have a very good chance of it being completed on time and within budget by the end of the month.
I, with the help of a good friend, painted my little half bathroom on Saturday and finished it up on Sunday. It took about an hour to tape it all and get it prepped. She came over and manned the roller while I crawled around the floor painting around the toilet and sink and chatted away. Normally AB does a lot of the painting with me, but it was nice to have a friend to help.
My little tiny bathroom went from blah white to elegant and spicy! (If I may say so myself.) I am really, really happy with the bathroom. I had to run to Michael’s on a secret errand this weekend and ended up buying a few decorative elements for the bathroom. I haven’t been happy with this little cabinet I have in the bathroom that sits on the floor that I use to hold the TP. So I got a tallish metal cylindrical vase thing and stacked the TP in there. Ok, so AB thought this was about the most ridiculous thing ever… But I like it. It looks stylish. I think.
AB loves the bathroom and commented that it looks like it belongs in some other house… not our house! It really did change the feel of the bathroom.
The one thing I have left is to paint the crown moulding and have AB install it. He is pleased about this revelation of mine that I suddenly “need” crown moulding in the bathroom because it lends credence to his long standing claim that he “needs” an air compressor and nail gun.
When we were in Palm Springs last week I loved the look of the black crown moudling in the hotel room. I opted for “espresso” to match other elements in the bathroom and the furniture we have in the front lower level of the house.
Once the crown moudling is in and I have bought a few hand towels that match the bathroom better than the ones I presently have… and a new valence… and a soap dispenser… then I will be done!
Which brings us to the topic of March.
March is going to be multi-faceted.
I want to finish the quilt I started (yes, the one I swore would only take me 3 weeks to do the top, and then the dog killed the sewing machine…). I want to finish that for spring so that I can pull my duvet off the bed and have smooth lines of a pretty quilt. My biggest issue is trying to figure out how to “quilt” a king sized quilt. It may be that hand quilting – which I HAVE done before (a long time ago) – may be my best option. Yikes. Not sure a month is long enough for that.
My closet has recently fallen to absolute disaster levels. Not only does it need cleaned out, but I need some more hooks for accessories and I need a good purge of the clothes I no longer wear.
The last one that AB has challenged us to? Eat our freezer to the bottom. This isn’t entirely possible. Because I am NOT eating the four or five chicken pot pies I have saved in there. And I think we probably have 15 containers of spaghetti sauce. I have seriously like 3 weeks of food if we only ate chicken pot pies and spaghetti sauce. I have a tortierre from a friend that I am saving for a special occasion to savor in there too. All the other stuff? The meat and such that we have purchased and not cooked? Bring it on.
The other tasks on my list for 2011 are (in no particular order):
Patio for the backyard (we may opt to take the backyard remodel that we want in steps and just start with getting a nice concrete pad out there).
Hardwood flooring for the office and formal dining room.
Paint the foyer/dining room/office.
Master bedroom… just take my word for it, it needs a serious overhaul.
I, with the help of a good friend, painted my little half bathroom on Saturday and finished it up on Sunday. It took about an hour to tape it all and get it prepped. She came over and manned the roller while I crawled around the floor painting around the toilet and sink and chatted away. Normally AB does a lot of the painting with me, but it was nice to have a friend to help.
My little tiny bathroom went from blah white to elegant and spicy! (If I may say so myself.) I am really, really happy with the bathroom. I had to run to Michael’s on a secret errand this weekend and ended up buying a few decorative elements for the bathroom. I haven’t been happy with this little cabinet I have in the bathroom that sits on the floor that I use to hold the TP. So I got a tallish metal cylindrical vase thing and stacked the TP in there. Ok, so AB thought this was about the most ridiculous thing ever… But I like it. It looks stylish. I think.
AB loves the bathroom and commented that it looks like it belongs in some other house… not our house! It really did change the feel of the bathroom.
The one thing I have left is to paint the crown moulding and have AB install it. He is pleased about this revelation of mine that I suddenly “need” crown moulding in the bathroom because it lends credence to his long standing claim that he “needs” an air compressor and nail gun.
When we were in Palm Springs last week I loved the look of the black crown moudling in the hotel room. I opted for “espresso” to match other elements in the bathroom and the furniture we have in the front lower level of the house.
Once the crown moudling is in and I have bought a few hand towels that match the bathroom better than the ones I presently have… and a new valence… and a soap dispenser… then I will be done!
Which brings us to the topic of March.
March is going to be multi-faceted.
I want to finish the quilt I started (yes, the one I swore would only take me 3 weeks to do the top, and then the dog killed the sewing machine…). I want to finish that for spring so that I can pull my duvet off the bed and have smooth lines of a pretty quilt. My biggest issue is trying to figure out how to “quilt” a king sized quilt. It may be that hand quilting – which I HAVE done before (a long time ago) – may be my best option. Yikes. Not sure a month is long enough for that.
My closet has recently fallen to absolute disaster levels. Not only does it need cleaned out, but I need some more hooks for accessories and I need a good purge of the clothes I no longer wear.
The last one that AB has challenged us to? Eat our freezer to the bottom. This isn’t entirely possible. Because I am NOT eating the four or five chicken pot pies I have saved in there. And I think we probably have 15 containers of spaghetti sauce. I have seriously like 3 weeks of food if we only ate chicken pot pies and spaghetti sauce. I have a tortierre from a friend that I am saving for a special occasion to savor in there too. All the other stuff? The meat and such that we have purchased and not cooked? Bring it on.
The other tasks on my list for 2011 are (in no particular order):
Patio for the backyard (we may opt to take the backyard remodel that we want in steps and just start with getting a nice concrete pad out there).
Hardwood flooring for the office and formal dining room.
Paint the foyer/dining room/office.
Master bedroom… just take my word for it, it needs a serious overhaul.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Switching away from pink
When you know someone who is suffering cancer it seems like there just isn't enough money out there for research. As a scientist, albeit a non-medical, non-bio scientist, I get the proposal and funding process and fully understand that there is limited funds out there for really great ideas.
Breast cancer, at one point, was the cancer that people didn't talk about. A woman's problem. And not always terribly survivable. Thanks in large part, or maybe huge part, to the Susan G. Komen foundation this has changed. Breast cancer has turned into, in the last decade or so, a cancer with a much higher survival rate. Thankfully.
As someone who has lost a family member to cancer, I have seen in the cancer communities online, frustration with breast cancer research. "All the money goes to breast cancer", is the common lament. As someone who lost a family member to a rare cancer, it would be easy to fall into this. Nobody researched rare cancers. There is no payoff. A cancer that 4000 people get a year is terribly unfortunate. But who is going to research and make a medication to treat 4000 people a year. It doesn't make financial sense. (And I am a capitalist at heart.) I found this frustrating, financial sense be damned, you are talking about my mom.
Once my mom exhausted the routine treatments for her type of cancer (pretty quickly) she moved onto clinical trials where none of her options were targeted treatments for her cancer. It was frustrating to her. To all of us. Her participation in a clinical trial was akin to playing the lotto with the major benefit being to check off a researchers list - nope it doesn't work for this rare cancer. The researcher didn't hit the lotto and neither did my mom.
In the last few years I quit opting for pink. I bought the obligatory pink pin at work for $5, but my money hasn't gone to breast cancer research or to buy pink blankets with ribbons on them, or appliances with little ribbons on them. Instead my giving to the American Cancer Society went up as well as to the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. A small foundation that is devoted to this rare and fatal cancer.
I never stuff my change or money into the jars in the check out lines at the grocery store. But I stood there today reading what the cause of the day was, surprised to find out it wasn't breast cancer. Nope, pancreatic cancer. A cancer thought to be highly related to my mom's rare cancer, cholangiocarcinoma. I immediately opened my wallet and stuffed some bills in the cup that held pennies and a few dimes and nickels.
As a scientist I do understand that the research performed on breast cancer may very well lead to discoveries that help different cancers. That there are markers that are similar and may respond. I believe that the researchers are doing their best to save a lot of women. And they are saving a lot of women, thank God. (I have a high school friend who is battling breast cancer right now and I am very happy for the research that will hopefully give her a new lease on life.)
But my point? Let's not forget about all the others. A once small foundation has turned pink on its head and enabled many women to live strong.
Let's change the way people think about green now.
Breast cancer, at one point, was the cancer that people didn't talk about. A woman's problem. And not always terribly survivable. Thanks in large part, or maybe huge part, to the Susan G. Komen foundation this has changed. Breast cancer has turned into, in the last decade or so, a cancer with a much higher survival rate. Thankfully.
As someone who has lost a family member to cancer, I have seen in the cancer communities online, frustration with breast cancer research. "All the money goes to breast cancer", is the common lament. As someone who lost a family member to a rare cancer, it would be easy to fall into this. Nobody researched rare cancers. There is no payoff. A cancer that 4000 people get a year is terribly unfortunate. But who is going to research and make a medication to treat 4000 people a year. It doesn't make financial sense. (And I am a capitalist at heart.) I found this frustrating, financial sense be damned, you are talking about my mom.
Once my mom exhausted the routine treatments for her type of cancer (pretty quickly) she moved onto clinical trials where none of her options were targeted treatments for her cancer. It was frustrating to her. To all of us. Her participation in a clinical trial was akin to playing the lotto with the major benefit being to check off a researchers list - nope it doesn't work for this rare cancer. The researcher didn't hit the lotto and neither did my mom.
In the last few years I quit opting for pink. I bought the obligatory pink pin at work for $5, but my money hasn't gone to breast cancer research or to buy pink blankets with ribbons on them, or appliances with little ribbons on them. Instead my giving to the American Cancer Society went up as well as to the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. A small foundation that is devoted to this rare and fatal cancer.
I never stuff my change or money into the jars in the check out lines at the grocery store. But I stood there today reading what the cause of the day was, surprised to find out it wasn't breast cancer. Nope, pancreatic cancer. A cancer thought to be highly related to my mom's rare cancer, cholangiocarcinoma. I immediately opened my wallet and stuffed some bills in the cup that held pennies and a few dimes and nickels.
As a scientist I do understand that the research performed on breast cancer may very well lead to discoveries that help different cancers. That there are markers that are similar and may respond. I believe that the researchers are doing their best to save a lot of women. And they are saving a lot of women, thank God. (I have a high school friend who is battling breast cancer right now and I am very happy for the research that will hopefully give her a new lease on life.)
But my point? Let's not forget about all the others. A once small foundation has turned pink on its head and enabled many women to live strong.
Let's change the way people think about green now.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Making Decisions
I have always been a tad bit indecisive. This is part of my versatility thing that I have been working on the past few years. Analyze the situation (quickly) and make a decision when one needs to be made. I am getting much better at this in my professional life.
Personal life? Not so much.
Leif will start public school... first grade, this fall. I am taking a big gulp and registering him for this new phase of his life on March 1 with a good friend who is also in the same position. Declining that private school option that we have been with for the last 6 years with Leif and jumping over to the scary unknown. The place where kids are eaten alive.
Ok, kidding. I have friends whose kids are surviving with minimal scars.
I survived public school.
But I also had my mom home there waiting with homemade cookies and orange juice at the end of the day.
This has been killing me for the last year or so as I stare down this new aspect of Leif's life. Public school. A bus. A class with actual desks in rows. A teacher to student ratio of more than one to six.
Today I met with one of my managers. I truly am lucky to be in such a great group with two women who have children and have been through this all before.
I am also extremely lucky to be in a position where I can make decisions about my career and schedule. Not many women can choose whether they work 40 hours a day, flex their time and work from home, or opt for a less than full time schedule.
I trust my managers and appreciate their input. So when my manager had a quick answer for me this morning on what I should do this fall with my son going into first grade, as one mom who has been there and done that with a very successful career, I truly appreciated it.
Last year I carried seven projects where six of them were my own with my name as PI or Co-PI. This year it dropped to four. Three of those finish (or wind down substantially) on September 30th. I am in a position where (if my proposals pending out there don't come through) I will be looking for work. This hasn't happened in years.
"Do it now," she said. "It won't hurt your promotability, do it when you actually have a decrease in work. Try not to go below 80% time."
And I left her office elated. My answer! And it felt right.
Starting late this summer I am dropping from full full time. To just mostly full time. Or almost full time.
And with any luck I will have more time in the evenings to hang with my kids, get dinner made and just be happy.
And to be there with homemade cookies and orange juice. (Maybe.)
Personal life? Not so much.
Leif will start public school... first grade, this fall. I am taking a big gulp and registering him for this new phase of his life on March 1 with a good friend who is also in the same position. Declining that private school option that we have been with for the last 6 years with Leif and jumping over to the scary unknown. The place where kids are eaten alive.
Ok, kidding. I have friends whose kids are surviving with minimal scars.
I survived public school.
But I also had my mom home there waiting with homemade cookies and orange juice at the end of the day.
This has been killing me for the last year or so as I stare down this new aspect of Leif's life. Public school. A bus. A class with actual desks in rows. A teacher to student ratio of more than one to six.
Today I met with one of my managers. I truly am lucky to be in such a great group with two women who have children and have been through this all before.
I am also extremely lucky to be in a position where I can make decisions about my career and schedule. Not many women can choose whether they work 40 hours a day, flex their time and work from home, or opt for a less than full time schedule.
I trust my managers and appreciate their input. So when my manager had a quick answer for me this morning on what I should do this fall with my son going into first grade, as one mom who has been there and done that with a very successful career, I truly appreciated it.
Last year I carried seven projects where six of them were my own with my name as PI or Co-PI. This year it dropped to four. Three of those finish (or wind down substantially) on September 30th. I am in a position where (if my proposals pending out there don't come through) I will be looking for work. This hasn't happened in years.
"Do it now," she said. "It won't hurt your promotability, do it when you actually have a decrease in work. Try not to go below 80% time."
And I left her office elated. My answer! And it felt right.
Starting late this summer I am dropping from full full time. To just mostly full time. Or almost full time.
And with any luck I will have more time in the evenings to hang with my kids, get dinner made and just be happy.
And to be there with homemade cookies and orange juice. (Maybe.)
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Keeping it simple... and clean...
One of the really, really neat things about raising kids is seeing their evolution. Lots of people love babies. Ok, yes, I love babies. But I really, really love the toddler to young child time. I love when they start interacting. Trying to communicate, developing their own styles of communication, saying funny things. I don’t care for the Terrible Twos and Threes and I have had a lot of that the past two years, but we can just use a partition coefficient here and pretend that doesn’t exist for now. I keep saying it, and I will say it again. It just keeps getting better.
Since Leif was little he always showed a bit of OCD. In fact, I think I have a topic reserved in this blog for Leif’s OCD. The past few months this has spread into a new and interesting area. His bedroom.
If you saw Leif’s bedroom you would assume he is a poor abused child with no toys. While the reality is that the kid has a closet that rivals our Master closet and a toy room. But that’s not all of it… His closet? Skadi spends the vast majority of the time in the closet rifling through stuff, generally destroying the area. And I have about 6 Rubbermaid containers stacked in there as well. I will take storage space wherever I can get it.
Nope, Leif likes things simple. All he really needs are a bookshelf for his books, a place to put his clothes, a place to store his electronics (i.e., charge the DS, keep his headphones handy, etc.), and a few shelves to show off his trophies and his Harry Potter collections and to keep his new locked box. (I bought him a $10 cash box with a key at Target… best thing since sliced bread according to Leif.)
Compare to Skadi’s room that is just unmanageable. Seriously. That child can destroy her room faster than you can blink your eye. Tornado Skadi. And she has toys and loves her toys and wants them all out in her room at all the same times. This is a scary tale for another day. Leif's closet? Well she endured his wrath the other night when she pulled out a box of trucks and didn't put them back.
Back to Leif.
We have “pick up night” every Wednesday evening. The kids’ rooms get picked up along with common areas throughout the house to enable the housecleaner to be able to actually clean.
Leif is a master bedroom cleaner. When he says it is done, you can bet he is not joking. It’s done, it’s perfect and it took him less than 3 minutes. (I have started paying him to help Skadi with her room.) On top of that, Leif has started cleaning his room ahead of time so that he doesn’t have to do it on Wednesday. Because according to him he just has “too much stuff to do on Wednesday with spelling test on Thursday and all”.
Last Tuesday night I finished reading him a book and tossed it on the floor next to the bed. Wow did I unleash the wrath.
Leif: “MOM! I just picked up my room, I don’t want to have to pick it up again tomorrow, would you please put that book back where it belongs?!”
(I could have sworn I have heard this line many times before... only not starting with "mom".)
Leif loves having friends over, but he gets pretty massive anxiety after they leave and his room is a mess. In fact, I have decided that from now on we need to incorporate pick up time into play dates. I did this when I was a kid. I remember storming out of one friend’s house and marching home because we (once again) got into a fight about something. I got home and Jennifer’s mother had called my mom and told her I didn’t help clean up. Dang it. I had to march back up there (tail between legs) to go help her pick up.
Yes, picking up is going to be part of the new play date routine.
I see Leif’s future… a sparsely furnished, stylish (thanks to his interior decorator sister) minimalist loft. Hopefully he can find a woman who will put up with his neat freakiness…
Having Leif jump on me about not putting his book away made me smile.
My mom was somewhere looking down with a big grin on her face.
Since Leif was little he always showed a bit of OCD. In fact, I think I have a topic reserved in this blog for Leif’s OCD. The past few months this has spread into a new and interesting area. His bedroom.
If you saw Leif’s bedroom you would assume he is a poor abused child with no toys. While the reality is that the kid has a closet that rivals our Master closet and a toy room. But that’s not all of it… His closet? Skadi spends the vast majority of the time in the closet rifling through stuff, generally destroying the area. And I have about 6 Rubbermaid containers stacked in there as well. I will take storage space wherever I can get it.
Nope, Leif likes things simple. All he really needs are a bookshelf for his books, a place to put his clothes, a place to store his electronics (i.e., charge the DS, keep his headphones handy, etc.), and a few shelves to show off his trophies and his Harry Potter collections and to keep his new locked box. (I bought him a $10 cash box with a key at Target… best thing since sliced bread according to Leif.)
Compare to Skadi’s room that is just unmanageable. Seriously. That child can destroy her room faster than you can blink your eye. Tornado Skadi. And she has toys and loves her toys and wants them all out in her room at all the same times. This is a scary tale for another day. Leif's closet? Well she endured his wrath the other night when she pulled out a box of trucks and didn't put them back.
Back to Leif.
We have “pick up night” every Wednesday evening. The kids’ rooms get picked up along with common areas throughout the house to enable the housecleaner to be able to actually clean.
Leif is a master bedroom cleaner. When he says it is done, you can bet he is not joking. It’s done, it’s perfect and it took him less than 3 minutes. (I have started paying him to help Skadi with her room.) On top of that, Leif has started cleaning his room ahead of time so that he doesn’t have to do it on Wednesday. Because according to him he just has “too much stuff to do on Wednesday with spelling test on Thursday and all”.
Last Tuesday night I finished reading him a book and tossed it on the floor next to the bed. Wow did I unleash the wrath.
Leif: “MOM! I just picked up my room, I don’t want to have to pick it up again tomorrow, would you please put that book back where it belongs?!”
(I could have sworn I have heard this line many times before... only not starting with "mom".)
Leif loves having friends over, but he gets pretty massive anxiety after they leave and his room is a mess. In fact, I have decided that from now on we need to incorporate pick up time into play dates. I did this when I was a kid. I remember storming out of one friend’s house and marching home because we (once again) got into a fight about something. I got home and Jennifer’s mother had called my mom and told her I didn’t help clean up. Dang it. I had to march back up there (tail between legs) to go help her pick up.
Yes, picking up is going to be part of the new play date routine.
I see Leif’s future… a sparsely furnished, stylish (thanks to his interior decorator sister) minimalist loft. Hopefully he can find a woman who will put up with his neat freakiness…
Having Leif jump on me about not putting his book away made me smile.
My mom was somewhere looking down with a big grin on her face.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Hola February
I have really been looking forward to my February goals. I needed a change up from organizing and picking through stuff and trashing stuff and sending stuff to Goodwill... I need a pretty project.
So here it is my tiny half bath on the bottom floor of our house. It is most commonly used by my kids. Next would be guests. Last would be AB and I. I want something pretty and elegant, a bit edgey and fun.
I never used to have a hard time picking paint colors, but I have seriously been all over the map with this room. Partly because I want a unified theme for the entire first floor. Specifically the office, foyer, dining room and half bath. I have lots of two toned woods, grey carpets that will hopefully see the curb this year in favor of hardwood and clayish, terra cotta-ish colored tile.
And this green foyer. The green foyer is going bye bye. I can't coordinate anything with it. It's killing me.
February is a short month, so I can tackle the half bath and get a start on my redecorate the front first level of the house.
I started with some brown/deep purple/plum colors. I want something a bit dramatic and am not overly concerned with making the space appear small. It is a half bathroom after all, it is never going to appear spacious.
The main color I was targeting was the one next to the mirror. (Don't you love the wooden mirror? I do.)
I went a tone or two softer to test because so many people said, "you can't go that dark in that room".
And well... maybe they were right. But I also couldn't do the mauve.
Back to square one.
One evening of after Christmas shopping I came across these iris paintings on a great clearance. And I love irises. Reminds me of living in Boulder and the iris field on Broadway as well as my wedding flower.
See in addition to the dark color and the mauve, I had also picked out an "acorn spice" color. When we put it on the wall we said, "ewww, breastfed baby poop". (The mustard on the right by the window. Yes, I will be replacing the valence.)
Then I put the picture up.
And suddenly the breastfed baby poop color wasn't so bad. The gold on the frame really popped!
But I wanted to play with the color a bit more, I am not a fan of yellows that much... I was attracted to the color because of the name... acorn spice.
I went and bought a few more colors. Four more to be precise. And this is the collection so far.
See the color at the top on the right? Loving that for the bathroom. Just enough orange and gold to bring out the gold on the frame. On photo #2 it is the color to the left of the picture.
So here it is my tiny half bath on the bottom floor of our house. It is most commonly used by my kids. Next would be guests. Last would be AB and I. I want something pretty and elegant, a bit edgey and fun.
I never used to have a hard time picking paint colors, but I have seriously been all over the map with this room. Partly because I want a unified theme for the entire first floor. Specifically the office, foyer, dining room and half bath. I have lots of two toned woods, grey carpets that will hopefully see the curb this year in favor of hardwood and clayish, terra cotta-ish colored tile.
And this green foyer. The green foyer is going bye bye. I can't coordinate anything with it. It's killing me.
February is a short month, so I can tackle the half bath and get a start on my redecorate the front first level of the house.
I started with some brown/deep purple/plum colors. I want something a bit dramatic and am not overly concerned with making the space appear small. It is a half bathroom after all, it is never going to appear spacious.
The main color I was targeting was the one next to the mirror. (Don't you love the wooden mirror? I do.)
I went a tone or two softer to test because so many people said, "you can't go that dark in that room".
And well... maybe they were right. But I also couldn't do the mauve.
Back to square one.
One evening of after Christmas shopping I came across these iris paintings on a great clearance. And I love irises. Reminds me of living in Boulder and the iris field on Broadway as well as my wedding flower.
See in addition to the dark color and the mauve, I had also picked out an "acorn spice" color. When we put it on the wall we said, "ewww, breastfed baby poop". (The mustard on the right by the window. Yes, I will be replacing the valence.)
Then I put the picture up.
And suddenly the breastfed baby poop color wasn't so bad. The gold on the frame really popped!
But I wanted to play with the color a bit more, I am not a fan of yellows that much... I was attracted to the color because of the name... acorn spice.
I went and bought a few more colors. Four more to be precise. And this is the collection so far.
See the color at the top on the right? Loving that for the bathroom. Just enough orange and gold to bring out the gold on the frame. On photo #2 it is the color to the left of the picture.
See the brick color on the bottom? Loving that for my foyer. AB has issued a "we'll see about that" decree. (He still loves the green.)
So President's Day - a forced day off since the kids' school is closed - I hope to paint the bathroom. Then we will need new rugs, a new valence and I would like some decorative element to go on the little cabinet I have in there that holds the TP and all that stuff.
I had kind of hoped to piggy back on another goal this month. But it is seeming short enough as is. My March goal I am hoping to devote to backing my quilt and quilting it for spring use in the bedroom.
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