Maybe Jamie will let me post him playing clarinet soon too.

So, I yanked her tooth out. After many tears beforehand, I yanked it out and she didn’t even know it was out. Of course.

I had promised we would have a sleepover on the living room floor and watch Tooth Fairy, the movie. So that’s what we did. We laughed and giggled in all the right places, etc etc.

I started to fall asleep when Jamie comes over and tells me “hey mom, my tooth is getting looser”. I told him that was great and it’d probably come out next week. Next thing I know, I’m awakened by “Mom! It’s out! My tooth is out!”. He had worried it until it came out.

It’s funny he’s a lot like me when I was a kid. If I had a loose tooth, I’d play with that thing until it came out. Not Cassie, she protects and babies her loose teeth until they are hanging on by a thread. He had quite a bit of blood (on his face, on his shirt – where he had wiped his fingers) so we got him cleaned up and all set.

So, all that was left was for the tooth fairy to come… which, of course, meant that Tom and I had to come up with some evil thing to do to our children (yeah, that’s not a college fund people, that’s a therapy fund)… here’s the morning after…

So yeah, they were disappointed more than thinking she was silly. It’s still kinda funny though

Tom made these amazing burgers a few nights ago along with some baked french fries.

Jamie, who recently has started actually eating potatoes in other forms pipes up:

“Wow, these are kind of potatoey!”

Which begs the question… what did the 9-year-old THINK french fries were made of?

Oh, and Cassie has lice again. I guess we didn’t catch them all last time. ARGH! I’ve come up with an insane mommy regiment to get rid of them this time. I mean it! This is war, people!

Tom checked our kids, but didn’t see anything, but I (who am crazy and psychosomatic) spent most of the day scratching my head and SWEARING I could feel something crawling on my head. After dinner I decided to check the kids to be sure. Found a louse in each head (can I, again, say “Ewwww”)? And what might be a few nits in my girl’s hair. Ewwwww…

For those of you who have never had to deal with this… it could very well end a marriage. I’m not kidding. First, you have to wrangle two children, put this goop in their dry hair, let it sit for 10 minutes. Oh, that’s the easy part because then you get to rinse it out and spend an hour with a fine-toothed comb hunting in their heads for nits, dead (or dying) lice. This sounds easy, but the hair is about the consistency of dry hay. My kids were really good about sitting still, but I could not IMAGINE doing this on a smaller kid or one that hadn’t been threatened to within an inch of their lives (what? Did I say Ewwww?)

Oh, but in the meantime, you’ve washed every sheet, pillow, towel, stuffed animal, and comforter in sight. You even dig up the stuff you packed away from 2 months ago and wash it again (ummm… okay, maybe that’s just me). Can we say Ewwww? When that’s done, you have to do your own head. Oh, but not your HUSBAND who is freaking bald anyway (thus the photo). Your husband gets to do your head and you start to eye the knife block in the kitchen as he drags this “comb” through the straw that is now your hair.

It wasn’t fun. We had some stuff that couldn’t be washed, so it’s in a plastic bag in the garage so they’ll starve or whatever.

Tom didn’t find anything in my head, thank goodness. I didn’t want to take a chance though. The bad is that I had just colored my hair so it was already a little dried out, but adding the other chemicals, it was like steel wool hair. We did a deep condition too. Ugh. Cassie, we found a few nits, maybe 7 or so lice. Jamie, we only found one little louse. I’m sure more were in there that washed out or whatever, right? I don’t know how this works.

If I never ever ever get to do that again, it’ll be too soon.

Oh, wait. You’re supposed to do it ALL OVER AGAIN in seven days. Score. Not. My advice? Buy extra lice shampoo if this happens to you – and don’t count on your husband to find those little buggers!

And yes, I realize that nearly ever kid gets lice and it doesn’t mean my children are dirty or gross or anything, but… ewwwwww!!!

I’m going to get a massage tomorrow morning. I deserve it. *shudder*

There were BUGS in my child’s HAIR. Crawling around. Seriously.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/index.asp

http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_doubledogdare

http://www.austinsummerreading.com/index.cfm?action=srp

http://www.hebuddy.com/content/pdf/readingclub.pdf

http://www.halfpricebooks.com/feed_your_brain.html

Happy Reading, Everyone!

A couple of months ago, she called me from school saying that *I* forgot to put her library book in her backpack. Yeah, you can imagine how that went over. Lead bricks. I did, however, find it and schlep it up to the school after reminding her that it’s not MY responsibility to keep up with HER stuff.

My favorite part is the “We forgot to read the book.” – cuz, ya know, something has to be my fault right? *laughing* She did come that night an apologize. Little Brat.

Let me first say that I don’t have a teenager, so maybe you can say that I don’t understand teeangers. Fine. Whatever. But I want to know why this administration thinks they can just go reprint the damn yearbooks? What was so horrible? Do you mean to tell me that you don’t know your kid might be getting high? Oh wait, you don’t know that some of them get abortions without your knowledge? You don’t know what they are aware of the rest of the world? What? Little Perfect Mary Sue would never do that right? And you don’t want that filth in your yearbook, right? Guess what? It’s out there. And your Little Miss Perfect has probably even gotten drunk and done something stupid. Most teenagers do (except for me, of course, mom, I was one of the few perfect teenagers! Really!)

The point is that this was a pretty neat project that the student body and yearbook staff took on. They asked for secrets. The administration had to have known they were soliciting for them. They probably even thought it was neat themselves given the current popularity of PostSecret (and if you say you’ve never looked, you are LYING). It’s the perfect thing to include for so many reasons. The least of which is that high school isn’t all cheerleaders and pep rallies. There are kids with real thoughts and real things to process and yes, some deep dark secrets to share. No one was hurt in doing it.

So I want to know why the administration is now taking all the yearbooks back? Because some parents got upset? Really? Because they knew it was going on and they HAD TO HAVE KNOWN the yearbook staff was doing the piece. Just once I want to see school administrators stand up and say “No. Our students did this. You may not like it, but it was published with our knowledge. I’m sorry it offended you, but this was their project done by them and their peers and we stand behind it.”

But no. They are too busy kowtowing to those few enraged parents. I bet those same parents are trying to get books banned too. Oh, that’s another rant.

Okay, so I feel better. What a crock.

Cassie came home from the neighbor’s house on Friday with a mini pencil and a silly bandz (I hadn’t heard of them either until very recently). I was joking with her after her shower that Mrs. Neighbor was now her favorite mommy. She was giggling when I asked her who her favorite mommy was and she stopped and got really serious. I thought she was going to be mad because I was picking on her, but no. She looked me dead in the eyes and said, “No. You’re my favorite Mommy.” I asked why and she replied, her voice full of seriousness and sincerity, “Because you are MY Mommy.”

Dammit. She almost made me cry. Yes, sweetheart, I certainly am your mommy.

We’re driving along and stop in traffic in front of a stone supply place. He’s looking and rambling about it and talking about what they sell and why.

I told him that they sell stones, so you can decorate our house or whatever you’d use them for. He got really quiet back there and you could nearly hear the little gears turning his head… about a full minute later I hear.

“Mom. They sell rocks!” in the most incredulous voice I’ve ever heard.

Yes, son, they sell rocks…. and people buy them.