Zoo Lights

The weather here has been unseasonably warm again. So this past weekend we took advantage of it and headed off to Brookfield Zoo on Saturday. Every year, they decorate the entire zoo with tons and tons of Christmas lights. Of course, it was terribly crowded, because everyone in the city and surrounding suburbs had the exact same idea as us. But a fantastic time was had by all.

On the lion at the entrance (don't all kids who live in Chicago have a pic of themsselves on this lion???)


In the belly of a kangaroo


The giant ornament


And of course they had tons of "creatures" to take pictures with


On the buffalo


Even Uncle Bobby wanted to get on the buffalo (yeah, he's an adult?)

Deck the Halls

Caitlyn is singing Christmas songs like mad these days. Yesterday she was singing Deck the Halls. It went a little something like this...

"Deck the hall with balls on journey."

I will never hear that song without thinking of the incorrect words again.

Learning to Read

Caitlyn is learning to read this year in kindergarten. And I have to say, it really is an amazing process to watch unfold! Before she started school this year, she was able to read and spell a few words. But now she is really making the connection between letters and sounds. Everytime she says a word or gets a pencil in her hand, she is trying to sound out words and spell them on her own. And it's even more amazing when we are out and about and she sees a word thst she knows and she gets all excited cause she can read it. So everywhere we go now, she is looking for words that she can read.

Here's an example...I put on a shirt yesterday that said "let it snow." And when she was standing in front of me, she yells out "IT!!!" All excited and proud of herself cause she read what was on my shirt.

In school, they are allowed to sign up to bring in a book and read it to the class. Naturally, being who she is, Cate had to be the first to sign up. SO she brought in one of her phonics, I can read, books. And sheh most certainly did stand up there and read the entire thing to the class! Now she is on the hunt every night for a book that she can take to school and read to her friends.

Painting the Town

Caitlyn is so very excited about Christmas this year. And not just the getting gifts part, she is truly excited for all of the decorations and the parties, and basically everything that encompasses Christmas. Yesterday we were driving to the store and from the back seat I hear "Oh my God!" in this squealy sounding voice. She tried telling me something and I couldn't even understand what in the world she was saying through all the giddiness in her voice. Finally I told her to slow down and tell me what she was so psyched over.

"Mommy they are even decorating the town for Christmas!"

With the largest cheesy ass grin I have ever seen in my life, she was in awe of the lights that were on the trees and lamp posts on the busy street! Now mind you, we were right outside the mall, and they always decorate those for the holidays. However, when we pulled away from the mall and into the suburb across the street, they too had decorated their trees and lamp posts. So in her mind, she now thinks that Chicago decorates the "town."

So we here in Chicago are under a winter storm warning. The funny thing is, besides the fact that it was near 60 out for the last 5 days, is that my mother said this was going to happen. And not just because she was being pessimistic or anything. When we went to bingo on Monday, she had mentioned that this is the same exact weather pattern that we had before the blizzard of 1967. Well, if you know my mom, you know that she can sometimes spew information that she really has no idea about. But it had me curious. And lo and behold, upon googling "blizzard 1967" it was, in fact, damn near 60 the few days prior to the storm. Hmmm. Either or, I am thinking that we are going to get a punch in the face with this snow. We have had some pretty mild winters here the last few years and I am thinking it's time for that wonderful woman we call Mother Nature to once again let us know exactly who is in charge.

Mother of the Year

This would be the award that I would not be getting! Besides the fact of being horribly neglectful here, I am awaiting the call from DCFS.

Caitlyn comes into our bed every morning. And really, this isn't a big deal to either of us. She isn't allowed to come in until the sun is up (or she would be in there as soon as we were). If she comes in before the sun is up, I can usually shag her back to her own room. Typically, she comes in around the time that Matt is getting up for work, so it works out nicely.

Sunday morning she comes in as usual. I hadn't gone to bed until almost 4 am, apparently some insomnia issues going on. It must have been somewhere around 6 or 7 that she came in asking to get in bed with us. Now, I don't know what I was dreaming about or how deeply I was sleeping, and at the time, I wasn't fully functional. Though, I can see it all very vividly now.

Caitlyn: Mommy can I get into bed with you?

Mom: leans out of bed (had to really stretch) and slaps child square on the cheek. Then lies back down to resume sleeping.

Caitlyn: Look of horror and shock, graps cheek, begins crying.

Mom: Realizing what I have just done to my poor girly, swoops her up and starts kissing and hugging and apologizing....profusely.

Joke of the entire day (by Matt of course)....

"Caitlyn don't _________ or Mom might slap you in the face."

(asshole)

Soccer Banquet and a Halloween Party

Caitlyn has finished the soccer season. They had a banquet on Saturday and the kids were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes. It is supposed to rain here on Halloween so I am glad that she was able to get another chance to wear the costume without having to worry about wearing a coat with it.

The coach gave all the kids trophies. And Cate is chatting nonstop about getting her very first trophy. Anyone that will listen to her gets an earful about how this is her first trophy and how excited she is.
Here she is with her trophy and Maya (her new best friend).


Here she is in her costume. Notice the smile. Her newest "thing" is that she doesn't want to show her teeth when she smiles. And when I ask her to, I get this weird looking face. Not sure what is going on with that, but hopefully she is out of it by the time school pictures roll around.


We also went to a Haunted House after the banquet. She was just dying to go to one...so we finally caved and took her. I picked one that I knew would be short, both waiting in line and walking through the house. So we chose the one at the police station. It took all of about 37 seconds of her being in there before she cried and said she wanted to leave. Luckily, the entire thing was only 2 minutes long. So I held her and kind of stayed back from the group so that everything coming out would scare them and not us. When it was over, she said it wasn't that bad, But I don't think that she will be asking to go to another one anytime soon.
Here she is outside in line for it (again with the goofy ass smile).


Other than that, not a whole lot going on in our worlds right now. Parent teacher conferences are coming up in a couple of weeks. That should be loads of fun. We got the note to sign up for them telling us that each will last about 8 minutes??? Most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life. But I will go along with the program and if my conference "just happens" to last longer than the 8 minutes, oh well.

Courtesy of my Papa

REVENGE

An old man and woman were married for many years, even though they hated each other. When they had a confrontation, screaming and yelling could be heard deep into the night.



The old man would shout, "When I die, I will dig my way up and out of the grave and come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!"



Neighbors feared him. They believed he practiced black magic, because of the many strange occurrences that took place in their neighborhood. The old man liked the fact that he was feared.



To everyone's relief, he died of a heart attack when he was 68. His wife had a closed casket at the wake. After the burial, she went straight to the local bar and began to party as if there was no tomorrow.



Her neighbors, concerned for her safety, asked, "Aren't you afraid that he may indeed be able to dig his way up and out of the grave and come back to haunt you for the rest of your life?"

The wife put down her drink and said, "Let him dig. I had him buried upside down......."

Mr. T

This has got to be the funniest thing I have seen in a loooong time.

Catching Up

Well, I met with the teacher the day after the "incident." Without rehashing everything, let's just say that she now knows to take my daughter's complaints seriously from this point on. I also think that I scared her just a little bit. A few days after I met with her, I emailed her a question and also wanted to let her know that Caitlyn would be going home with one of her friends and her mom. The email that I got in return was disgustingly nice. Over the top nice. The kind of nice that when you read it, you know the author made a conscious effort to be nice. But I am so okay with that. As long as Caitlyn is reaping the benfits of my visit, that is all that matters to me.

We dog sat for Magee a couple of weeks ago, and I am just now getting around to uploading the pics from his visit. Caitlyn loves when he comes to stay for a couple of days. Matt on the other hand....well, let's just say it makes him thankful that we have cats and not dogs.

Here's the girl with Magee doing what they both do best.


Matt's football season is almost over, so he will be home in the evenings again. Which is good? I get so used to him not being home that it is strange when he finally is home before it's dark.

Caitlyn is gearing up for winter. We had some snow showers here last week and she was convinced that there was going to be no less than 8 feet of snow. See for yourself....she is all ready to go and frolic in it.....

The Kindergarten Teacher

So I figured when Caitlyn started school that I would have a leg up on most situations because of my profession. This hasn't proven to be true so far this school year. Let me just say that I am less than pleased with the kindergarten teacher. We'll take this point by point....the last, which happened today, has completely pushed me over the edge.

1. Caitlyn learned to write her name in all capitals. Now I know, I shoudl have taught her to write it using lower case letters. However, capital letters are easier for children to write. Incorporate Caitlyn's weakness in fine motor skills and it is no surprise why she learned capitals letters first. The teacher wants their names in all lower case. Fine, agreed. When my child writes her name at the top of the paper in all capitals, what purpose does it serve for the teacher to circle it and write her name in lower case letters OVER what Caitlyn has already written? Here's my thinking, since you're rewriting it anyway, just write the damn thing yourself. Secondly, how can she see the way it's supposed to be written when you have written over what she has already written and now it looks like a bunch of chicken scratch??? But this I can get over...we are working on it at home.

2. There is an assignment that is completed a few times a week. The children are to cut out squares with pictures on it and paste them in sequential order. Fantastic activity. Unless you're Caitlyn. She cuts fine. However, the pictures that are on the edge of the page, she doesn't cut that edge out. The piece of paper is still in a square, just has a little bit of the edge of the paper left attached to it. She hasn't cut the heads off the people in the pictures, she hasn't torn the paper, it's nicely cut...all but that damn edge. Teacher's note on every friggin one of them...."poor cutting skills." Actually my child has saved herself some time and been very resourceful if you ask me. Not to mention, the goal of the activity was sequencing, NOT cutting. Were the pictures in the correct order? Yes! then let's move on please. But okay, I will work on that issue as well.

The next 2 points are warranting an email to the teacher, cause I don't see how I can work on them at home without the proper information from the woman.

3. There is a behavior system in place in the classroom. Fan freaking tastic. All classrooms for the most part have them. There is an incentive chart in Caitlyn's folder and she gets a smiley face, sad face, or in between face each day depending on how her day was. Now we got this beautifully written note about carrying this plan over at home and helping the children to get smiley faces, etc. Caitlyn got an in between face yesterday. When I asked her what it was for, she had no clue why she didn't get a smiley face. She did know that she didn't have a good day, but couldn't tell me why. Now I ask you this, how in the hell am I supposed to discourage whatever behavior warrented the in between face when I don't know why she got it??? Yeah that part about the communication between home and schools regarding behavior wasn't in that beautifully written letter.

4. This is the one that has me the most pissed off. Caitlyn woke up this morning and told me that she had a headache. I figured it would go away a short time later and she would be fine. I left work early today, cause I am feeling liek shit courtesy of Matt and Cate passing their germs to me, so I went to pick the girl up from school. She came out and right away told me that she still had her headache. I asked her if she told her teacher. "Yes." I asked what the teacher said. "Oh now your head hurts?" Which I thought was an odd response, so I asked Caitlyn if she had told her teacher that something else was bothering her. She said she told the teacher that her stomach hurt her, to which her teacher replied she shoudl try going to the bathroom. Fine, would have probably been my response as well. But when she mentioned that her head was hurting shortly after she said her stomach was hurting, your response is snarky like my kid is lying???? And here's the kicker, she came home and threw up and had a temp of 102!!!! So needless to say, my child expressed her issues and wasn't taken anywhere near as serious as she should have been.

I am fuming about this last one. Why in the hell would the teacher, at the very least, send Caitlyn to the nurse??? What in the hell do they send kids to the nurse for if not an upset stomach and a headache? I guess if Cate puked all over her damn room, she may have thought twice about being so quick to assume that my child was lying to her.

So needless to say, an email has been sent, and if no response is given within 24 hours, the woman is going to have an irate parent on her hands.

Ahhhh the joys of being "that" parent that usually irks the hell out of me during the school year.

PTA

Caitlyn was very worried when I picked her up at school today. It seems that the teacher has mentioned to the children that not all the moms have joined PTA....and they need to. So Caitlyn desperately wanted to know when I was going to sign the form and send it back. (Joining PTA doesn't mean being involved in any of the activities. Basically, give them your $5.00 and shut the hell up while they do their jobs.) So I told Cate that of course I would fill out the form and send it in.

She is sitting at the table right now, finishing her lunch that she didn't eat in school and she says to me....

"Mom, are you really really going to join the PTA? Cause it's a lot of work and you are going to get really tired."

(leads me to believe that the teacher let them know just how much work the PTA moms do)

I assured her that I was going to join.....again.

"But mom, it takes a lot of time. Will you still be my mommy even if you join the PTA?"

They actually won a game!!

Yesterday Caitlyn's team won their first game!!!! There is a new kid on the team. He hasn't been to practice all summer (not that we have had that many, see previous post) because he has been out of the country. He is from the Ukraine. Well, the rules state that regardless of attendance at practice, kids are to play 2 full quarters at each game. Our coach complained about it all damn summer, that the kid shouldn't be allowed to play since our kids have worked so hard at practices, etc. Well, onto the field walks this little man who speaks hardly and english, and manages to score 3 goals for us. I am pretty sure that the coach is now thankful for that rule that he hated so much all summer.

The girl still has this cold, it's been over a week now. But it is progressing, went from a barky cough, to a wet cough, and now a runny nose with a cough. So we should be nearing the end stages of it very soon. At least I hope that we are.

Mommy and Daddy sitting in a tree....

Ah the joys of being around our peers. Imgaine this....

I pick up the girl from mom's and we are in front of the house. I am gathering up bags and crap before opening the doors. I hear Cate singing in the back seat....

Mommy and Daddy sitting in a tree.
K-I-S-S-T-U-V.

I think I may have even peed a little in my pants with that one.

First day of school....and some other things

I have tried to make this post on about 4 different occasions. However, blogger decided that I shouldn't be allowed to post and my computer kept crashing on me. So here it is now...let's hope it works.

Caitlyn started school last week, only half days though. Today is her first full day (9am-2pm) and her first day of eating lunch at school. I am a little concerned about the whole lunch thing only because her fine motor skills are nothing to brag about. So I have tried to make everything in the lunch box as easily accessible as possible. We'll see how that went when I pick her up from Mom's this afternoon.

Here she is on her way to orientation with me last week...

It seems that it is all about the clothes even when you are only 5 years old. She wants to look perfect every single day. In which case, I told her that if that is her wish, then she needs to not be so damn crabby in the morning. Yeah right!

Soccer is going along nicely. I, however, am about to lose my patience with the coach. he is a wonderful man, really. He's great with the kids and has a load of fun with them. However, these poor kids are getting their asses handed to them at games. And I don't so much mind that they are losing, neither does Cate. Matter of fact, I don't think that she even realizes that they aren't winning. She is really just pleased to be wearing a uniform of any sort and be part of a team. But my rant comes in when they haven't practiced in over 3 weeks. Every week the coach calls and cancels practice on us. Some days he doesn't even call. We go there and we wait, no coach, no practice. It's really starting to irritate me to say the least. If the trend continues through this week, there will be a phone call made to the park district.

Regardless of winning, losing, not having practice, my girl looks way cute in her soccer uniform.
Here she is with her new friend Maya....


And here she is doing her thing and running after the ball. Which let me tell you, is a rarity. She really does prefer to play with her hair while she is out on the field. Another favorite past time is walking on the lines that are drawn on the field. So we have decided that soccer may not be her forte. We will be trying out dance, and that starts in December. I think we will have better luck there as there is no physical contact so she doesn't have to worry about being knocked into by some other kid....

Her head in the trees

How cool is this picture??? I was outside playing with the girl the other day and we decided that she should stand in the tree to take a picture. I hadn't even noticed the sunset behind her until I uploaded the pictures to my computer.

(it also shows very well just how long this child's legs really are)

Don't thank me

Me: Cate will you grab a soda for mommy?

Cate: Sure mama.

Me (upon her bringing it to me): Thank you my lovey.

Cate: Don't thank me, thank technology.

Moral of the story....apparently too much TV.

The Porch is finally done

All safe and secure now. I no longer have to worry about the thing collapsing around me when I walk up or down the stairs. It actually turned out to be a pretty painless process. I kept the windows closed the entire time so as to escape the massive amounts of dust that was created from the project. And the workers that were here doing it get a big high five from me. They worked non stop and through the horrible heat that we had.

Here are some before pics



Here is the after pic


(ignore the girl in her jammies on the stairs...it was morning and we were on my way to mom's and sometimes she doesn't want to get dressed before going there)

The men who did the cement work were even kind enough to let us get Cate's handprints in there. She is beside herself with glee knowing that they will be there forever ;)


Now I just have some serious landscaping issues on my hands to say the least. I am the proud owner of that large pile of rocks and dirt. I have not the slightest clue what I will be doing with that space. But something certainly needs to be done with it soon.

I have managed to survive the first week back at work. It was complete hell waking up in the morning, but I lived. We are all getting back into the swing of things now.

Scary Stories

The baseball game was tons of fun! Caitlyn thoroughly enjoyed every little bit of it. The fact that the Sox managed 8 runs in one inning, a couple homeruns, and lots of cheering, made her having to sit in a little chair so much easier.

The first soccer game that was supposed to happen on Saturday has been cancelled. Seems the park district hasn't drawn the lines on the field as of yesterday. I can understand why they haven't though. It's not like they didn't know about this all summer or anything.

Now on to the scary stories bit. It seems that Caitlyn has enjoyed a few episodes of telling scary stories with Kelly. The problem is, she is only 5 and Kelly is 10. So Caitlyn's stories are nowhere near as frightening as Kelly's. So Kelly plays it off as though she is scared. Caitlyn....she isn't playing, the child is scred shitless when she gets into bed these days. No matter what I do I can not convince her that there are no zombies waiting for her, no monsters, nothing in the closet, and that I am one room away from her if she needs me. For the last week, going to bed has been hell. It's either too dark, or too quiet, or she heard a noise, or she can't stop thinking about the things that are scaring her.

I really am hoping that eventually this will just go away. If it doesn't, then she is going to be one sleepy girl when she does go back to school. Cause now it is taking her at least an hour to fall asleep.

One more day

of sleeping in :( Caitlyn is going to feel the ramifications of my going back to work as well. She has gotten into the habit of sleeping in later than I do. I woke her up at 9am on Thursday because we had to be somewhere at 10. I heard bellowing from the bedroom within 10 minutes that she wanted to sleep longer as it was "too early to be awake" according to her. (side note....man I love how my child loves to sleep in)

On Tuesday, she will have to be up and out of the house with me by 7:30ish. Can't wait to see the demon that surfaces in place of my child when that shit happens.

We are going to the Sox game tomorrow, it's Cate's first official baseball game. I'm sure that she will have a ball even though she fights with Daddy all the time about who the better team is....the White Sox or the Cubs. Hopefully she won't start that up at the game. If she does, look for us on the next season of Cops.

Her first soccer game is on Saturday. Can't wait for that. Nothing like a pac of toddlers running back and forth after a ball and every now and again accidentally kicking it into the goal. Though I must say that there are some really athletic kids on her team. It's amazing to me how you can see athleticism in some children even at this young of an age. It also brings to my attention just how not athletic Caitlyn really is :P No biggie though, she loves playing it and loves even more that she is on a team of any sort.

I am also freaking out about kindergarten already. I'm not so worried about her being there all day, I am sure she will adjust fine to that. What I am worried about is her ability to do certain things while she is there. Things like open up her fruit snack or her applesauce, or get the straw into the juice box, or even something as simple as opening up her pencil box. These are all things that I could have worked on this summer had I even thought about them. Unfortunately they never even crossed my mind. So needless to say, we have been working on them for the last couple of weeks. And even though she is getting better at some of them, they are still pretty tough for her to do. When we go for the orientation, I am going to have a chat with the teacher and hopefully she will be able to calm some of my fears.

Back to work

Only 7 more days left to my summer vacation :( Was wonderful though. The girl and I spent loads of time together and mainly just relaxed. Nothing too stressful which was wonderful. Of course I didn't get nearly all of the things completed that I had wanted to. But oh well....there's always next summer right :P

Caitlyn is loving soccer! She looks oh so cute in her shin guards and cleats. (of course being the fashionista that she is, the outfit is the most important part of being on a soccer team.) Her first game is the 16th I belive. We don't have the schedule yet so I am not exactly sure about that. Though I am sure when I do know, she will have a huge fan base at her games.

Matt has begun football practice again. So I am a widow once more. But that's ok...some days I think I prefer being in the house with just Caitlyn. There's not a lot of dinner cooking that goes on either which is always a bonus.

Other than that, not too much going on in our lives. The porch is nearly finished. I was awoken today to the sound of a jackhammer tearing up the walkway. And the concrete people are the final phase in the project. So hopefull that will be completed by the beginning of mest week sometime :)