...Not gross like the other boys...

Pete is 12 now. A fantastic age, if you ask me. Lots of great things happening. You start getting the adult's jokes for one thing. Those snide references are no longer lost on you, you get to chuckle along, or fume along if said reference is directed your way.

She and I stopped a that place that invented the chicken sammich to get a chicken biscuit the other morning. All of a sudden she starts grinning from ear to ear- real big like as Junie B. Jones says- and ducks behind me. Of course, being the Nosy Parker that I am, I look around to see what's got her attention.


And.... it's a BOY! A real live BOY!

And that boy has a big, ear splitting grin on his face and is turning a nice shade of pink....

Much ducking and smiling go on, coupled with,
"Come on, Mom! Hurry up!" and "Stop talking" and the grinning of course.

I get her outside and ask her if he's sweet... "No...Yes...shutup" is the reply. Then she says, "He's not gross like the other boys"

Oh boy, here we go.....

Crap on the table

My kids tend to pile crap up on surfaces.

'Specially Re-Pete. Here we have an odd assortment- ocarina, paper tablets, mini puppy, bits of paper, snack detritus, and my check stub at the very bottom of the pile.

Re-Pete is not picky about where she piles either... we have a small table in the bathroom, perfect for her schtuff...the hearth is perfect to line up her babies, under her Daddy's desk, even the stairs are utilized.

I wonder what type of label we could give her particular syndrome?

Heh, she'd make a great librarian the way she likes to line stuff up.

Pyg Pyle

Pete and Re-Pete are both sick, so away to the doctor we go, spiking fevers and spots on the back of our throats.
Yes, we are back in the Land of Strep.

Nothing makes Re-Pete feel better than using her sister as a pillow. I don't think Pete minds very much. Shortly after this picture was taken Re-Pete snuck that little right hand out and tickled her sister, almost getting tossed to the floor for her trouble.

Ma, I'm really going to hate it when they grow up...

Rocks

I'm finally finished! Never mind that there is only 3 weeks left of my summer vacation, I am done, done, done!

I still haven't been paid for my big project I did in June, which kinda sucks. You would think that the DOE would have it together enough to pay people in a timely manner. I guess not....
I really loved teaching the kids, though and hope I get asked back.

I especially loved teaching my teachers this past week. I was the "newbie" in the group for teaching teachers, but I think I did a passable job. We wrapped up the class with a field trip. We looked at the geology of our area, outcrops and streams, dug for some garnets, studied soil horizons. We ended up at the local gold museum, panning for gold. Which was fun...

I took both girls, even though Re-Pete had been struck love by a virus, she was a trooper and did most everything with us. We met everyone at the geology building of our local college. There a shady spot with arbors, benches, and different rock samples for everyone to look at. So I'm pointing out the fossils in the rocks, talking about the different types when Pete says "There are three types of rocks. Igneous, sentimental, and metaphoric". Gotta love my girls....

Surprises

When Re-Pete was small she hated dirt. She would protest every time you put her in the grass. It was dirty. And she didn't like water either. Bath time was not much fun, either, after her second birthday. And it took a couple of years to get her on the steps of a pool, she wanted nothing to do with the deep end. Last year she would play on the steps or cling to you as if you were her last hope.

I despaired that she would ever learn to swim....

Until yesterday.

We went swimming at a friend's house. We came prepared with sunscreen and water wings.
First, she jumped off the steps with her water wings on, but it wasn't long before she was jumping off the side of the pool sans water wings. Going completely under water and every thing. She even swam a bit under water.

Color me speechless.

What a difference a year makes, eh?

To Infinity and Beyond

Re-Pete is 6 1/2 and is starting to not be a baby any more. She is also figuring out her place in the world, and trying to understand some difficult concepts. Right now she is struggling with "infinity" and what it means. I think she thinks of it as a place in the order of numbers, she keeps asking what the last number is, and then has to question us about it. Today she wanted to know


"What comes after infinity?"
"How can there be infinity if there is nothing after it?" (Isn't that a good question?)
"What number is right before infinity?"

But the one that really cracked me up was when she asked, as if some one had been keeping secrets from her:

"How come they didn't tell us about this in Kindergarten?"

Out of the mouths of Petes

My darling husband is a district manager for a famous chain of restaurant's around here. Some of the waitresses have reached a certain (expiration) point where they number of tattoos they have starts to exceed the number of teeth..One of the guys there refers to them as TNT- "Toothless and Tattooed".

Keep that in mind...

Last night at dinner I was telling the girls that I had a tooth that I would either need a root canal for or get it pulled. Since it's in the very back of my mouth and will cost me about $900 for the root canal, I'm leaning towards just getting the damn thing pulled. That's more than I paid for my first car. (Damn, that makes me old....)

So Pete the Eleven says, "Great, then you'll be a Toothless Wonder!"

Great.

Talk about a lifestyle shift!

All you married folk (and some of you Heathens) know the joy of undressing your Beloved and being undressed in return. Do it right, and the Time Stops. The first time is magical, but even after many years, the same sense of excitement and urgency exists. The joys of First and Second Base! Even now, it's fun to drag it out, to play....

So imagine my husband's horror when Pete the Eleven turns her back to him and says, "Daddy, will you unhook my bra?"

Ursulean OB

Re-Pete and I were reading Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten the other night. I love to listen to her read, she is doing do beautifully! She is adding inflections and comments now. At the end of the book there is a "yearbook" page of all the students in the book, and Coco the Cockatoo. And then we had the following conversation:

RP: I didn't know cockatoos were white.

H: Yep, and I saw one on TV that had no feathers. It was grey and very ugly and had really big eyes.

RP: Maybe she was pregnant

H: No, only animals with fur get pregnant. Birds lay eggs. ( At this point I'm waiting for her to ask me how the baby gets in the egg and the egg gets in the bird)

RP: Like bears, right?

H: (Whew, dodged that one!) Yes, like bears.

RP: How do the babies come out:

H; Same as humans...

RP: Oh yeah, you can cut them out or the can come out the you know... (pointing)

H: Yes, the vagina.

RP: But there are no bear doctors, how do they cut them out?

H: (good question!) If the bear is in the zoo, the people can help, if not, the bears have to do it themselves.

RP: How do they know how?

H: Bears are born knowing how. (And I'm gearing up to tell her about instinct, when I notice that little Re-Pete has fallen right to sleep)

This is pretty typical for us.

Radar On!

There goes my Mother of the Year Award again! Re-Pete had a fever night before last so we stayed home, and since Pete had been sneezing something like 25 times an hour, I decided to keep her home too. Hubba talked me into going to the doctor. For a cold, I thought? What a waste of a co-pay and the doc's time. But to make him happy I took them both. But really thought I was wasting time and money.
Turns out, Pete has Strep and Re-Pete has the virus that causes Croup (at her age she is unlikely to get croup, it's more likely she would get laryngitis, as evidenced by her hoarseness). Damn. I'm glad there's at least one of us with our parent radar on this week. Thanks, honey.

Elevenness

Pete the Amazing is growing into her elevenness. She's not really a baby anymore, wants to be treated differently. Boss people around, set her own rules. She's really smart and knows how to get things done. She also has quite a mouth on her lately. She told me I was lazy the other day. What is it about mothers and daughters that makes them butt heads so much? Or makes us such buttheads? I know it's just a growing process and I need to step back and let it happen, but Man! it's hard. I'm sure I could be nicer to her and she could be nicer to me. I can only hope it's easier with her than it was with her brother...I know, yeah, right.
Well, at least she's not interested in dressing like a whore in super tight pants and tiny shirts. Not that I would allow that, but at least I am not having to fight that fight right now.

Re-Pete plays....something...

Re-Pete, my youngest, is in kindergarten now. Last year, after her very first day of pre-K, she came home with a new habit. Behold:



She just loves lining things up. Notice the books on the shelf- lined up to her liking.First, on top of the Santa picture, we have her little Pet Shop puppy. Followed by bells, interjected with silly putty in situ, and a few other odd things.

Behind her art work, you'll see a great book, Postcards from Mars, a picture of Moi and Re-Pete with the rest of the family hidden. That was our second trip to Disney.

Then there is a picture of Pete, on a boogie board. For her birthday that year, we had an island party theme. We took a blue tarp and rigged it up to look like a Wave. Then we took pictures of all the kids "surfing". We've got some pretty funny shots of the kids....

Continuing down the line, you'll see a teddy bear hand painted by Pete when she was a wee tot. She used all the colors- together. Then is a very sweet picture of Pete as a toddler. I went to visit my friend Niqui and Pete found that ratty old hat and fell in love.

Finally, we have the picture of all the small children at the Marine's graduation. The littlest kids were Star Struck.

Re-Pete regularly Lines Things Up. It's her Thing. Food, clothes, shoes. I wonder if it is some sort of compulsion. There are enough screwballs in my family to start our own funny farm, so I wouldn't be surprised.

I said it before- she'll either end up my smartest or my dumbest.

But wait- what is that dark mark there in the picture?To the right of her hand... Any guesses?

Oseh Shalom

Pete had her Honor Chorus Concert tonight, and of course, she sang beautifully. I video-d this one, 'cuz I wanted to share with you.
Behold! My shining star singing with the angels (she's the one to the left of the redhead).

Oseh shalom bimromav

LIKE GOD MAKE PEACE FAR-AWAY HEAVEN,

Hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu

PRAY HE MAKE PEACE FOR US HERE

V'al kol Yisrael

AND FOR ALL JEWISH PEOPLE

V'imru, v'imru amen.

COME-ON SAY, COME-ON SAY AMEN.

Ya'aseh shalom, ya'aseh shalom

PRAY HE MAKE PEACE, PRAY HE MAKE PEACE.

Shalom aleinu v'al kol Yisrael.

PEACE FOR US HERE AND ALL JEWISH PEOPLE.

time management skillz

Pete, the wizened 11 year old, is the child who wants to do it all. She does 6 different activities at school and karate at night. Plus she has/wants to keep a A average. This is not especially hard so much as it it time consuming. I say if she wants to do it and can maintain her sanity on most days I'm just fine with her being very, very active. Less chance of her getting into drugs. But, the downside is having to learn a few hard lessons about keeping up with her papers and time.

She must be learning some skillz, tho.

Tonight, after chorus and karate, we got home and she got started on her math homework, all the while telling me about her day. Suddenly she jumps up and sez, "I gotta go Number 2!" and goes to our water closet.
And then she comes right back, picks up her math book and sez, "Hey, I can do this while I'm sitting there."

Heh, those time management discussions are starting to work....

Cherish

So RePete, my 5 almost 6 year old comes to me with my iPod and says, "Put the music on" and then proceeds to color her Scooby Doo coloring book, earbuds tucked snugly in her ears.. Sugarland is playing, she's enjoying her art and someone elses. Music, it tames the savage beast, or so I've heard.

These are the days I want to cherish...

Conversations with Re-Pete

I spent most of my Sonny Money today. That's money ($100) that we teachers get from Sonny Perdue to help offset some of the money we spend throughout the school year. I really like it because it gives us a chance to buy stuff at a decent price. I bought some balloons that science supplies charge us waaay too much for at the local MegaMart for a third of the price. I generally use 75-100 balloons a year, so it adds up.My county doesn't easily reinburse us for incidental purchases for stuff like lab supplies. (Because I got this money I will not say anything negative about Sonny today.) I also got a DVD player. I show 5 or 6 clips a year, so for 30 bucks I don't have to walk to the other side of the campus to get a player. I had all my money planned out, down to almost the full amount. But they charged me tax! I asked why and was told "This stuff is not considered school supplies". But that's a matter of perspective isn't it?



I went to Home Depot to get some plain white board, which they cut down for me to use as small dry erase boards for my classes.

Did you know that the Home Depot has monthly Kid Classes? They have projects the kids complete. This time she got to make a flag holder- with a burlap like fabric and an Olympics sticker. And they gave her a small orange apron with her name, and a kid Craft pin with a ittly bitty picture of the flag holder she'd made. That was sooooo cute! We had a great time making it. Can't wait to go back next month! Surely I can think of some thing to buy every month at Home Depot....



As we got home and were unloading our purchases, I farted. Not a bad one, just a fart. As you do. So I did what any good mother would do- I blamed Re-Pete. Out loud. Here's what she had to say:

....And Keep in Mind, she is the Queen of Obvious....

"I know I didn't fawt. "Cuz I can feel it when it comes out- ptt-ptt-ptt. Sometimes I squeeze my cheeks together (Yes, she really said cheeks. I think I need therapy now) and feel it."

Me- "Are you sure? Some times they slip out?" I say this because I really just want to know what she's gonna say next...

"Yes, I know. Sometimes I squeeze so hard it comes out of my ba-gina"

At this point I just speechless and trying not to laugh.

Did I mention we're getting new neighbors? Yes, we are. And one of them, a male, happened to be outside, mere feet away for the whole of this conversation. He was smiling and not making eye contact. I can just imagine what he was thinking.

I know I say I want her to grow up and be independent, but that also means these kinds of conversations will end. That's not a fair trade off to me.

Y'all have a good weekend.

I need a flag to fly

Pete and Re-Pete were given those paper crowns from a certain fast food restaurant. But with a twist. They had been painted a silver-grey. On Pete's was written Crafty Chemist and Re-Pete sported Swell Scientist. They, of course, came up with their own names. Pete is the Queen of Everything and Re-Pete is Obvious Queen. Not Queen of the Obvious, or even The Obvious Queen. Just straight Obvious Queen. Heh. I love those girls.

Happy Friday to everyone. It's my last weekend of freedom until June, give or take a few holidays.

To Gardisil or not to Gardisil

Pete is 10. It won't be long till the pediatrician asks us if we want her to have it- Gardisil. If you've been living in a cave and don't know what it is- it's a vaccine to prevent a girl from being infected by HPV, a virus that causes a large percentage of cervical cancer. Should we get Pete's opinion? Should we wait for more data? Will it make her more likey to have unsafe sex?
It will seriously reduce her risk of a few types of cancer, but we're hearing about problems. I read a review over at Web MD.

So by the end of this year, Merck, the company that makes the vaccine should be reporting their findings. I have asked every doctor I can their opinion about the vaccine. One of the arguments against it is that girls might get a false impression of safety- which I'm pretty sure I can dispel. It's about her health. Not her ability to have sex more often or unprotected (oh, man, that one's gonna give me nightmares)
I know the risks are very small that she might have a reaction to the vaccine. (The most common one is pain at the injection site. Heh. My husband will have to take her for that shot... ) But what are her chances of getting HPV? If she's anything like me, sheesh, we'll need body guards soon.
So, all you parents out there- what say you? And BTW, I've been told that boys can get the vaccine too so's they don't pass it on to their conquests, er, I mean wives.

Makes a Certain Kind of Sense

You just never know what will come out of my children's mouth. This time it was Pete. The conversation went something like this:

Pete: Do Chickens eat worms?
Mom: I'm not sure. They do on TV but that that doesn't make it real. I know they eat grains.
Re-Pete: Birds (pronounced bo-wuds) eat worms.
Pete- Some birds eat dead things. Like vultures. If you lay really still they'll come peck at you.

...... Bou blink .....

Mom: I'm pretty sure you have to have that dead-smell for them to peck at you.
Pete: Or if your hugging a dead person outside and get that smell on you and then you lay down really still.

...... crickets chirping in the silence....

Mom: Maybe so.


Reminds me of a shirt my sister used to have:

If you can Dazzle 'Em with Your Brilliance,

Baffle 'Em with Your Bullshit.

Potty talk

As is typical with most 5 year olds, you never quite know what's will come out of Re-Petes mouth. Case in point:
We were at Wendy's last night eating dinner. Re-Pete decided she needed to go potty "really bad" (scrunched up face and everything). So we hot foot in to the nearest stall. She begins to "push the poopie out". Loudly. With groans. And squeezed shut eyes. With a running diatribe:

"It's stuck Mommy!"
"I'll punch it out" and proceeds to punch herself in the leg and tummy.
"Oh, it's coming!"
"I think it's stuck on some Cobwebs"
"Here it comes! Can you hear it too?"
"It stinks"
"Oooo, look at it"

This is pretty normal bathroom talk for her, except maybe the cobwebs. We walk out of the stall, wash our hands, when another woman walks up to the sink, smiles, and tells me "This was the best bathroom break she's had in a long time"

Ahhh, life with children.