The rhino and the unicorn

There are times when you see the unicorn - that moment, skill, action, smile, word - that you didn't think existed or had seen so long ago it was forgotten.  When we see the unicorn, we approach slowly so as not to startle it.  We keep our head down, we move quietly.  We hold out our hand and let the unicorn come to us.

Or - sometimes - we charge at the unicorn like a rhinoceros. 

Jacob (my perpetual "who will play with me? kid") was downstairs with his ("can I please play by myself?") sister when a fight broke out.  Apparently, Allison had agreed to play with Jacob.  And not just play with him - play videogames with him.  Enter the unicorn.

Jacob was unhappy with Allison's game request (Skylanders).  Enter the rhino.

Allison happily trotted out of this situation (to the grave upset of her brother), driven forward by hopes of greener fields upstairs with her Monster High Dolls.  The path to freedom was blocked by Mom, who managed to broker a brief truce between the rhino and the unicorn.  The unicorn offered three other games to play.  The rhino was undeterred.  The rhino offered three other games to play.  The unicorn was uninterested.

After much roaring and foot stomping from the rhino (literally), the unicorn was set free to feast on greener pastures.

Ultimately, brokered peace deals are only one quick head turn away from disaster when you have two beasts with sharp horns.

And then there was ice

Annoyed today

So this is a post where I vent about things.  Because today was a crappy day.  It started because I was being e-mailed something on hotmail that was time-sensitive.  I set aside the time I needed to do it - and then - no hotmail.  Could not access the thing I needed.  Could not e-mail the person who was sending it to me because - guess what! - their contact info was in hotmail.  Bah.

Then it started to rain and a sinus headache hit while at work - with nothing to take.  Bah.

I had to go back and forth with the Online program AGAIN about this course development.  Sure - I'll develop a 4 credit class for you in the same semester I'm teaching 4 other classes - all because you didn't manage your people resources very well.  Oh, and I've love to START OVER because the company you contracted with wants me to use their textbook rather than the textbook you approved before.  Lovely.

Then I went to park at the kids' school and the people were parking with like... 6-8 feet between cars.  Just enough that another car WOULDN'T fit there, but far enough that the line was already several cars past the school fence.  I get bugged by inefficient parking in front of the school.

So - I should now think of some good things that happened today.... like.... the kids woke up without complaining.  Jacob practiced his piano.  And Allison spontaneously apologized for something that she said when she was mad.

April

Is happens that every day you don't blog makes it harder to write the next day.  This somewhat reminds me of my dissertation.  Anyway, here's us for the last few weeks:

I had spring break!  Wow, got caught up.  Took a day off.  Hired a cleaning lady.  Good times.

We took a trip to Chicago with friends.  We ate A LOT.  The kids spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa downtown while Brian and I had a nice dinner and then out to drinks with our friends.  Sunday morning, we went out for dim sum.  Jacob tried chicken feet.  He's more adventurous than his mom.

I had a birthday!  Woo hoo!  Got older!  Brian got tickets to Book of Mormon for this coming weekend. SUPER EXCITED!

The kids had a spring break.  Their favorite thing (I asked the singular) was "seeing Kellen and Chloe, eating ice cream cake, going to the zoo, going to the roller rink, and getting free donuts."  In other words - they had lots of fun with Grandma; Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Derek, Aunt Nancy and Kellen and Chloe.  We heard Aunt Nancy might have even waded into the waters of nail trimming.  God Bless Her.

The kids came home Saturday and went back to school today.  Tonight we had a fight with Jacob about his writing homework.  So, we know we're back to normal.

Waiting for Guffman

We put Jacob's name in for lottery at two charter schools for next year.  He was wait-listed at both - 5th slot for Montessori and 2nd for the Environmental Academy.  I realize there is a decent chance that he'll be accepted at one - those aren't bad spots (I heard of one person who was 136th for the Classical school - yikes, but another who was 8th at Montessori and didn't get in last year).  But I don't like to wait and don't like the idea that we won't know until August even.

I know it's not the worst thing ever to stay at our home school, too.  For his part, we didn't even tell Jacob we applied for him to transfer schools.  I don't know if that's a good thing or not.  We weren't sure he would get in either school and therefore didn't want him bothering to think about it if it wasn't going to happen.  We can cross that bridge if we need to - and hopefully we need to.

When we spend one and a half hours on a hated, district-mandated writing assignment and aren't given the option to challenge him in the areas that he is interested in (math and science) - I'm a frustrated parent.  Add the perpetual annoyance of opening Allison's assignment notebook each day.... too bad Brian and I agree we wouldn't be good homeschoolers.

Indoor Soccer - YMCA Style

Jacob is currently playing in two indoor soccer leagues.  The first one is at an actual indoor soccer field with several teams of kids who play nothing but soccer all year long.  On the other hand, Jacob's team does nothing but show up on Monday nights, play the game, and go home.  All things considered, they aren't too bad - maybe 50/50. 

The second soccer league (pictured) is at the YMCA, where recreation is key.  The funny part about playing at the Y is that a giant curtain forms one "wall" and a row of parents in chairs form the other wall.  Balls hit both with a similar thud/drop/stop in place.  Also the goal is small and scoring is more a matter of luck than skill.  In this league, too, they are about 50/50.  BTW - you can always find Jacob on any soccer field because of his day-glo socks.

A few things I miss

There are a few things I miss about my pre-parenthood life.

1) going to the bathroom without being interrupted
2) taking a shower without being interrupted
3) eating food in a non-kitchen room
4) taking a guilt-free nap
5) taking a nap
6) watching non-kid TV shows before 9pm
7) so much less cleaning....