Rock the Party!!!!

CRAP! I did it again. I swore I would be better about updating my blog, if for no other reason than to have a place to chronicle all the wild and crazy things my babies (not so much babies any more) do and say. And, do they ever say and do some wild and crazy things. Recently, we "rocked this party out," because isn't that what you do when someone at school gives you a balloon?

Poetry

I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since I posted anything here. That's 2 years of memories I could have recorded. A friend at work inspired me to get back to it. So, here goes. Alyssa is 8 and in 2nd grade; Stella is 4 and in pre-k. We finished with the brain-washing parochial school (wow...scary stuff) and have been at a Montessori school for the past 2 school years. Now instead of hearing, "Mommy, did you know god created all the trees?" I hear, "Mommy! Let me tell you all about the Big Bang!" Music to my ears. I could go on and on about my love for their school and the Montessori method, and I'm sure I will in future posts. Right now, however, I'd lke to share a couple of Alyssa's poems.

The Cat and Rat

By Alyssa Petcoff, April 2011

The rat and cat sat on a flat mat.

The cat was fat and ate the trap.

And the bat went splat

When it hatched in a hat.

Popcorn is Popping

By Alyssa Petcoff, May 2011

Popcorn is yummy, popcorn is sweet

Popcorn is delicious, as I eat.

I hear popcorn popping, I'm ready to eat.

Do not disturb the popcorn

When it is popping with me.

And again, popcorn is yummy

Popcorn is sweet, popcorn is delicious as I eat and eat.

I like popcorn any way it is treated

So if you have the time to see some, get some for me.

The popcorn is popping still, popping and almost ready to eat

I hear the beep and and it is ready to eat.

That's all the time I have for today

Come back another time, I'll show you the way.

So if you have a question about popcorn, please call me

But I don't know my number so call my mommy.

I'm Back! (Maybe)

Dear Blog,
I've been neglectful. I'm going to try and be nicer and more attentive to you.

Yours truly,
Bad Blogger

SO. Earlier this week, not one, but TWO of my teenagers caught me Facebooking (has it been added to Webster's as a verb yet?). Hayli was shocked. "YOU are on Facebook??" she said. "Why, yes, I am. Are you?" "Uh, no," she said. I knew right away what the "Uh" meant she wouldn't be caught dead Facebooking. May as well give her a cell phone without texting capabilities and send her to band camp. Later in the week, Anthony had a very similar reaction. In one way, they're proud of me...the cranky old bitch is doing something they didn't think I could even figure out. On the other hand, I'm Facebooking. You know, it's like MySpace for "older" people. I can only imagine what they say to their friends...

Stretches and Poses

Joyce, the family's yogi-in-training, might say that child's pose involves a relaxing stretch that follows the downward-facing-dog. Both feel great. I'm gonna go out on a limb, though, and say that this is the quintessential child's pose:

Gardening

Yes, those are Elmo underwear. Fancy boots, huh?

Graduation

Pre-school is officially over. Alyssa's graduation ceremony on Friday night gave me yet another opportunity to prove that I should NEVER, EVER be in charge of capturing these precious moments on film, digital or otherwise. I had the camera perfectly positioned and ready to shoot as she made her grand entrance (with flair, I might add). Perfect photo-op. And then, I pressed the wrong button and turned the camera off. Great job, Mom!

After receiving their "diplomas", each class sang a song, then each kid went to the microphone to answer 2 simple questions: 1) what did you like most about pre-school? and 2) what do you want to be when you grow up? Popular answers to question No. 1 included coloring, playing outside, making friends, etc. Not surprisingly, Alyssa most enjoyed coloring. Question No. 2 elicited aspirations of becoming astronauts, policemen, firefighters, doctors. Alyssa? She wants to be a bunny.

WHAAAT?

I work with a woman whose daughter (now 20'ish) declared at a school function when she was about 5 or 6 years old that she wanted to be a brain surgeon when she grew up. She was ridiculed and pooh-poohed by teachers and fellow students and their parents. Guess what? Some 15 or so years later, said daughter has been accepted into the MD/PhD program in neurosurgery at the University of Illinois. See, this is the kind of stuff that was going through my mind as I awaited Alyssa's turn at the mike. Now all I see are carrots.

The other night, I was picking up around the house and decided it was time to do something with her pre-school homework folder. It had been sitting on the table in the foyer for over a week because there was no homework left to be done and I wasn't ready to part with it. I cleaned it out and then stared at it, wondering if I should save it. After all, it was her first homework folder. What if she gets to be 30 years old and wants to see what her first homework folder looked like? If I throw it away, will I be discarding all of her pre-school memories? In the end, I threw it out. It was empty, after all, because I'd already removed the important papers throughout the year. At any rate, I may be completely inept at camera operation, utterly failing to digitize my first-born's first scholastic milestone. Danny, the master of machinery, did capture this auspicious occasion on video...the summation of Alyssa's formative school years...

Our little bunny.