Tidbits from the day

Thursday, May 22. The last full Thursday of the school year. Smiles.

It's almost 10 pm, which is the late end of bedtime, but I'm still up. Why? Because I'm a wuss who can't go to bed without her hubby being home. We're in round 2 of the rodeo committee saga of the year - the PBR - and I'm once again a single mom for the week. That's never a good thing. Somehow having 3 people here instead of 2 is motivation enough for me to fix a real semi-well-rounded meal. But if it's just Tater and me? Anything goes.
Tater's supper: an assortment of lunchmeat, Triscuits and Cap'n Crunch
My supper: Julio's and guacamole

Guacamole is my new favorite thing on the planet. I got 3 avocados on Sunday, made the guac, and had it completely finished off by Tuesday night. I got 2 more avocados today. I just couldn't help it. Then tonight I made the huge mistake of looking up just exactly how much fat is in an avocado. Ready for this? 25-35 grams on average. Holy guacamole! I mean, I knew they were good for you but were high in fat, but geez!! So I guess I'm gonna have to take it easy on the green stuff. Which leads me to my next topic...

I have found every last one of the 8 lbs I'd lost over the past couple of months. They made their way back home. But it's entirely my fault. I have been a total pig the last month. I've had major sweet tooth moments and seem to have lost my self-control entirely. Case in point:

This week is teacher appreciation at my school (During which our principal spoils us entirely). On Monday, we had breakfast... I was good and only had a donut and 2 glasses of chocolate milk. On Tuesday, it was freshly baked cookies all day long. I'm not gonna lie - I had at least 6. (Oh, and don't forget all the guacamole I was consuming when I got home at night!). Yesterday, PTO and our secretary's husband fed us a steak dinner, complete with this incredible lemon custard bar thing that I could not resist. So I had not one, not two, but THREE! What is wrong with me? I'm some kind of sugar addict or something!!

So sadly, the tummy that was starting to slowly dwindle is back up to it's looking-4-months-pregnant status. I'll just have to hope that this ridiculously hot summer will make me lose my appetite.

Today was the 4th day in a row we've hit 100 degrees - according to my truck anyway. And it's not even June. Summer is gonna suck... or, as all my kids who have just seen Shrek the Third as a part of our medieval unit would say, it's gonna totally sucketh.

Well, maybe not totally... Have I mentioned there are only 5 days of school left?

Sweetest thing

On our way home yesterday, out of nowhere Tater started screaming "Pay! Pay!" Confused, I said, "What, baby? Play?" and started looking around for some new park that had magically appeared by Home Depot or something...
" NO! Pay! Pay God!"
I looked back at him and saw he had his little hands clasped together.
"You want to pray?"
"Yeah! Pay God! You pay too Mom."
It took some time to convince him that I could pray without putting my hands together. Evidently, driving a car is not excuse enough to not pray properly. But I finally got him to go ahead and pray without me. So here it is. His first real prayer, said all on his own with no prompting from Mama.

"Dear God. Thankum day. Aaaannndddd, um... thankum food! Aaaannndddd, um... thankum... um... goats! And thankum sheeps, and thankum deers. Aaannnnddd, thankum... umm... hmm..."
"Are you all finished sugar?"
"Yep! AAAAAA-men!


Thank you Father God, for this unbelievable gift. This miracle of Your creation. This precious little boy that amazes me daily. Thankum.

Countdown

As of the end of today, there are only 6 days of school left. And... my favorite part... the last two of those days involve the kids leaving school at 12:45. I don't even care that we teachers have to stay til 4. I can actually get my work done!
I am beyond excited about this. Especially the time-to-get-my-grades-and-last-minute-stuff-done-without-kids part. And my kids have watched a movie the last two days, so I have already gotten so much accomplished. In fact, I just threw away a to-do list. Because I had done it all!

A few more tidbits about school:

• We got our TAKS scores back unofficially. And they are better than I hoped for. I am incredibly proud of our kids. Across the board.
• There might possibly be a change in my future. My sweet friend who abandoned me in 7th grade for 6th this year will be abandoning us all to stay home doing the mommy thing next year (still so happy for you J!). That leaves a hole in 6th grade writing. I told my boss I'd love to do it. The hole I'd leave can easily be filled - the people who are/will be in my department are great, and there is another person on our team who would be a great team leader. Best part? I'd only be dept. lead, not team leader. Fewer responsibilities, less stress, and NO TAKS TEST. Ok, maybe that's the best part.
• If I do move to 6th, I'd be going out on top, as our test scores are higher than they've ever been. If I don't move, the 6th graders coming to me are coming with even better scores, so I should have an easy time with them. They are a really great group, and I'd look forward to having them
• I have every quiz and test created and copied for the rest of the year. For anybody who is familiar with our 3-year-old copiers FROM HELL, you know how wonderful this is.
• I am teaching summer school this year. I'm not too excited about that fact, but it will be a really good paycheck. It's only 19 days, 8:00 - 1:30. Way easier than boot camp. I can do it.

This morning, one of the teachers on our team showed us the movie she and her daughter made with pictures of our kids throughout the year. I kinda started to tear up. As crazy as some of these kids have made me, I am really going to miss them. If I do move down to 6th grade, I only hope I can joke and play with those sweet babies the way I can with these goofy 7th graders. They really are a breed of their own, these middle schoolers. And I'm so glad God decided to stick me with them.

Tater Logic

Sometimes I really want to know what's going on in this child's brain. For example:
Q: What time is it?
A: Eighty dollars.

Last Saturday, he went to hang out with Grandma and D-pop. I made the mistake of telling him 5 hours before it was actually time to go and had to say "Not yet" about 300 times. But when I first told him he was going over to their house, he clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "Go D-pop's house! Go buy some money!" Um... ok?

Another example of his astounding ability with numbers...
Scenario: He's "measuring" my head with his own little measuring tape
Q: How big is Mommy's head?
A: Two.

And then there's tonight at bedtime. He wasn't really ready to go to sleep. He did the "Hey! Hey Mom!" shout from the crib a couple of times. When I finally caved and went in, he did some cute mumbling and stuttering, finally managing to get out a "My need sumpin,'" but he couldn't come up with what. I gleaned "juice," "raisins" and "potty" out of the garble and had to make a concerted effort to keep myself from laughing. He was definitely grasping at straws.

Gosh that kid's funny.

Comment on self-image

I was just going through some old pictures looking for something, and I came across some high school pictures and got lost in them. Especially proms and graduation... and something struck me. I was pretty. I mean, I came across jr. prom pics, and I hardly recognize me. In that dress, at that moment, I was gorgeous.

I wish I had known that then.

After I put them away. I wandered into the bathroom and stared at my image, frizzy rainy-day hair, smudgy mascara, and TAKS-bags under the eyes. And I wonder... in ten years, will I look back at the few pictures I have of myself now and think the same thing? And does it/will it matter? What I look like is not nearly as important to me now as it was back then. That's pretty obvious. :) But back then I was so absorbed with it, and I didn't see what was there...

Not really sure where I'm going with that, but I do know this. When I look in the mirror, I see ME. I know who I am, and I know what's important.
And I like me, frizz and all.

Two Year Stats

I know these are a little overdue, but for memories sake, here are Tater's measurements at his two-year appointment:
Height - 35 3/4 inches (80%)
Weight - 27 lbs (35%)
Head - 19 1/2 (71%)

So he's a tall skinny kid with a big ol' head. This I knew. I am glad to see he's closer to the "average" range with his weight. I always worry he's too skinny, that he doesn't eat enough... At his 18 month appt, he had just gotten over a stomach bug and hadn't eaten much for 4 days. He measured in the 9th percentile for weight - I felt like a horrible mother.

But now he's great. He is on track with everything he should be - has more than enough vocabulary for his age ("Does he say at least 20 words?" Um yeah, every five minutes!) and is even normal in his new sleep strike issues.

I can't believe my baby boy is 2. A toddler. A "biboy" as he says.

Owie Drama

Evidently, Tater hurt his knee at school today. He had a pinhead-sized scab on his little knee, but it must cause him great pain, because he fussed about it the whole way home from Nana's.

He carried on this toddler diatribe:
"Owie on MY knee, Mama! Owie right there"
"My fall down. Hurts, Mom"

"Look, my show you, Mom. Hurt MY knee"

"Problem MY knee - my show you (what) happened"

"Owie right... Ooo, another one owie MY leg. Kiss it Mama - my kiss it. Mmmmwah"
"Kiss other one owie. Mmmmwah"
"Need hair band (band-aid) MY knee Mom."

And it just went on and on... who knew a two-year old could come up with so many ways to tell me he'd hurt himself? He certainly can be the little drama queen... or king, or whatever.

Well, we certainly had to get that taken care of as soon as we got home. We got a hair band, I mean, band-aid and made it all better. So now he's running around showing us his hair band and demanding kisses every ten minutes.

Oh my.