Off We Go

Tomorrow we're on the 7 a.m. flight to DCA (Washington National to old timers, Reagan National Airport to newbies). We're staying at the Sheraton Four Points downtown. I'm excited because it means that we can walk to the National Mall from the hotel.

We'll be staying downtown for two nights and then we'll drive up to Baltimore to take X-man to the Children's Museum and then to his cousins on Friday night, where we'll stay until Monday morning.

We usually go to their house every Memorial Day, but decided that rather than rushing back so X-man could attend 75 minutes of school to get his report card... we'd just leave the day after school got out instead.

So, Lily is off at Doggies on the Farm. Fetch is caring for all four cats, and Super Shanna is in charge of the gardens if it doesn't rain on Thursday. :-)

Me? I'm hoping to take X-man to the Natural History Museum, The National Museum of American History and Arlington National Cemetery (he is the kid who likes to picnic in graveyards).

We're also taking him to his first fondue restaurant in Arlington on Thursday night.

When we get back, X-man starts his twice a week swim lessons with a new instructor at the YMCA. We've also scheduled a couple play dates with some friends from school and I have to finish calling folks to do estimates on some of the jobs I have around the house. I already have a fix it man and a plumber coming to look at my list. It would be nice if all the stuff I can't do myself was all done by July. But we'll see. I know I'll have Picasso and Sons back in January to do some touch ups in the basement and take care of some nail pops upstairs in the hallway and master bedroom.

I'll also need to call Dr. K and ask him to schedule an ultra sound on my ankle. Wearing the brace and taking a lot of anti-inflammatories isn't doing much but making my stomach upset and wanting to me to eat more to try to make it less yucky feeling. Funny how that's always been my drive. Maybe if I eat more, my stomach will feel better rather than -- don't eat anything. Oh well.

Today, X-man went with me to pick up the books from the book drops and take them to the library. They were full, so it was a big job, but as always, he helped me out. Then when we got to the library, he took his special library bag with his big boy library card looped to it on a D-Ring and went to the Easy Reader section. Some brilliant person had finally divided the easy readers up by levels. Not that the various publishers have done us the favor of making a level 1 meet the same criteria across the publishing field, but it X-man knew he fell between the K and the level 2s somewhere. He pulled out all the books he wanted to read himself (because that's required this year as a first grader in the reading program), then he pulled out picture books he wanted to read to me and then he got some graphic novels (one Spiderman and one Pokemon) that he wants me to read to him.

When it was time to check out I knew I had two books on hold for me. He said, "Mom, there are kids on this side. You go to the other side." So I did. And he waited for two bigger boys to check out and then he dutifully pulled every book out one by one and talked to the staff member about his last day of kindergarten, how he could read most of the books by himself, but that he might need Mom to help put them back in the bag. And how he was excited because he was finally big enough to take care of himself at the library.

And it was nice, to sit at the library and have nothing to do. No books to search for my class. No jealous X-man wondering why I spent so much time bringing my classroom books than him books (to be fair I checked out 70 books per unit for my 19 students... and he got 15 books a week just for one kid).

But it was nice to see that independence. Sometimes, I wonder where it went. Because when he was 3 if I even tried to do something for him, he got angry. But the last year has been a lot of whining about how he can't do things. So, today, was a nice change of pace.

It's Coming Together!

MacTroll and I headed out to Country Arbours on Saturday after dropping of X-man with my dad for their canoeing weekend in Starved Rock. (Well, actually they were canoeing at Rock Cut in Rockford, but it was an in-between place to do the exchange.)

We bought a birch tree that is going to be planted in our front yard on June 6. My dreams of having blueberries in that garden died when the bunnies decided to eat them all winter for three years in a row. :-)

We also replaced the Corlus bush and the dead hydrangea bush. And all the stuff is off the deck for the guys to come smash it up and fix it while we're in D.C. this week. Super Shanna is keeping an eye on the house for us, so she can turn the air conditioning off and on while they take it off and get rid of it and then pour the new concrete.

At least that's what's supposed to happen.

If it doesn't, we'll be contacting our lawyer. And, even though I have loved a lot of people who have become lawyers in my life, I hate having to deal with them in any actual real official capacity.

We'll be leaving the door to the basement propped open so that the cats can go down there to cool down. And I think I'll move Sally Ride down to the basement bedroom, so she's chill too. She is still maintaining her private suite. And I think she likes it that way. KTDID might have a friend interested in adopting her. If not, she'll go to CATSNAP sometime next week.

I also turned the basement closet under the stairs into X-man's dress up closet. I hung some 3M hooks on the walls to hang up all of his cool dress up hats. And there's a giant Rubbermaid box down there with all of his dress up outfits.

The beds are stripped. MacTroll and I had "clean sheet night" last night (which if you have animals, you understand). And X-man's are about to go into the washer.

My goal for this summer, and I know some of you who are super readers will laugh at this, is to read a book a week that is not a book I'm reading for my child. It's also to read the books I have on my bookshelves that I have never read before so that I can decide if we'll move with them, or if I should donate them to the library for them to sell.

This morning the puppy got us up in a crazed state. She needed dog time. So, we took her over to the dog park. She's transitioned from wrestle play to wanting to fetch tennis balls the entire time we're there. This is an interesting situation because Riley NEVER liked balls. He hated all things spherical. He did love fetching sticks out of lakes though. Part of me wants to take her over to the Colbert Lake and see how she does in the water. I'll need to be armed with a bunch of treats though, so she doesn't go far. Also unlike Riley, she is entirely food motivated.

Tomorrow is X-man's last hour and 15 minutes of kindergarten. I'm meeting Quigs for breakfast at Panera after we drop him off. Then, we're taking my car in for an oil change. Exciting stuff.

My hope is to take X-man to Sholem that afternoon as a family to celebrate summer. I even stopped by Target last night to arm my whiter than white husband and child with 50+ sunblock.

Then on Wednesday, we get up early and head to our first summer vacation in D.C./Baltimore-area.

Snakes, why did it have to be snakes!

Tonight, MacTroll let Lily out in the yard. And then he said, "Holy shit! There's a snake."

I went outside to get Lily and when I saw it... it wasn't a cute garter snake.

No, it was a Prairie King Snake.

It was over three feet long with a tiny head. And I think it ate two of the three baby bunnies in the back of our yard.

MacTroll picked it up with a rake and put it on the other side of the fence... It's not like he can't get back in (I wanted him to take it somewhere a few miles away. But now every time I go in the backyard to mow or send X-man out in the sandbox or let Lily out to pee, I'm going to wonder... Is that damn snake out there?

Blahhhh!

Doh!

My alarm went off at 6 a.m., and it doesn't need to do that -- for a very long time.

Of course, it woke all the four-legged creatures up. So, here I am. But they've now been all fed and watered and let out, so I'm going back to bed.

Or maybe I should go swim some laps?

Hold it Together, Loosey

There are two days left to the school year at MMO. Yesterday, my first big segment of children said goodbye to me. I held it together, but I really almost cried when the Moms came up to me to say goodbye. I note my children's progress through photographs. It marks the moment they switch from an whole hand grip on paintbrushes and markers to using the three finger pencil hold. I put in their first attempts at tracing their names, when they ask to learn how to write them. I put in photos of them jumping, running, playing with their friends and other developmental milestones.

The first page of the binders is a handprint that I made last September that says, "This is the hand that you held when I was two."

And apparently, when the Moms got back to their cars and opened up the binder and saw the first page they started to cry. They're babies have most certainly become big kids over the last 9 months. It's a big deal that they trusted me to care and educate their children. It meant a lot to me. And I'll treasure them all.

But I know the worst day will be tomorrow. Out of all of the days that I teach, Friday has always been my favorite. I only have six students. They're all the "older" kids and for whatever reason their chemistry is insanely cohesive. They play as a group. They never fight. They're eager to learn. And they're all just -- very kind to each other all the time.

It'll also be the official end of the school year.

And then I go back to only being Mom. But I really loved my school year of being Ms. Loosey to my own class.

Wowza

Today was a full day and very productive. The yard is mowed. I now have all the salsa garden planted. I just need to weed and plant the seeds for the melons that I'm trying and for the sweet corn.

I actually broke a metal hand-held weeding tool on something I was trying to dig up in the front yard. This weekend while X-man is with my Dad, we're going to go by Country Arbours and buy three trees. I want to replace the baby boy gingkos in the side yard that have only grown 1 foot in 5 years with taller trees. I'm also going to put a birch tree in the whale-shaped garden in front.

I also need to pick up two bushes. I was hoping for a dwarf lilac or something similar. I need to take out the Corlus bush that the Japanese Beatles killed last year and the spot I put the Hydrangea in the backyard was much too hot. So they're both up for replacing.

I also need to get some temporary fencing to go around the garden boxes to keep Lily out of them and enough to fill in the two large holes she's dug in the backyard in her youth, so I can fill them with grass seed and keep them protected from her going back to dig some more.

I also need to call Freak's friend about getting an estimate on painting my fence and front porch. And give someone a shout about power washing my house.

Even though I'm in an ankle brace for my crappy tendons, I still managed to take over 21,000 steps today and burn almost 6900 Nike Fuel.

My usual number (even with a fitness class) is around 4500 and 15,000 steps. So, I was on my feet a lot today. I can tell, because now that I'm off of my foot, it hurts. I swear I just took some Aleve an hour ago. It's not like I went to step class or anything!

Making My Job Easier -- Sort Of

We learned this week that two of our long-time friends are moving away. This is both heartbreaking and comforting to me. It's heartbreaking, because I'll miss not having them around. And comforting, because it helps X-man understand that more people move than just us... the fact that he has to say goodbye to two other families kind of reinforces the fact that it's part of life. 

And when he asks if we'll go visit them -- the answer is always -- YES!!