Steal This Message

My friend J.B., father and longtime Democratic operative, is sending his kids to school tomorrow with the following permission slip:

"Despite the warnings of right-wing radio hosts, and fully cognizant that my daughter risks learning a lesson in civics, I, nonetheless, grant her permission to watch a televised address by the duly-elected leader of these United States, President Barack Obama, on the controversial subject of the importance of school."

I so wish my kids were old enough that I could steal this for them.

School Daze

The Hatchling is starting preschool next week; this week she visited her class and met her teacher on Tuesday, and today there was a 1-hour "practice" session so the kids could get used to getting dropped off and the whole class routine. There were lots of nervous/excited parents and a couple of freaked out kids, but mostly it was a festival of cute. The Hatchling was very excited to get there and seemed OK when I left; I took the Sprout on a little grocery trip, and then headed back to the school to pick the Hatchling up. Got there and the classroom doors were still closed, lots of parents milling about in the halls. The doors open, and the teacher (Miss Jenny) comes out and says, "normally we'll just send them out to you, but they're pretty overwhelmed today, so if you want to come in and get them, you can." There's a surge of anxious kids out the door looking for their parental units ... No Hatchling. The Sprout and I make our way into the class, and way over in the corner farthest from the door sits the Hatchling and a little boy in earnest conversation.

"Hi, Boo!" I say. "Whatcha doing?"

"Um, I'm just talkin' about dinosaurs wif my friend, Mama."

Well, OK then. After showing me the entire classroom and reluctantly agreeing to leave the dinosaurs and the magnifying glasses and the toy trucks at school, the Hatchling was persuaded to leave the room. On our way out, I asked Miss Jenny how the Hatchling had done. Miss Jenny rolled her eyes and laughed. "Oh, she's going to be FINE. Totally made herself at home."

That's my girl.

Funny. Gross, but Funny.

So the Hatchling is, for all intents and purposes, potty trained. Which: THANK GOD, because if I'd had to keep her home from preschool for still being in diapers, we both would have lost it. But I must say, it's engendered some interesting conversations. For one thing, poop is now, like, the funniest word/concept/joke EVAR. Asked what her baby doll's name was this morning, she responded "Poo-poo!" and laughed like a maniac. Oh, the hilarity.

And then there was this gem: she'd gone #2 in the downstairs porta-potty, so after we wiped and pulled up her underwear, I went to grab the potty so I could go upstairs and empty it in the toilet. The Hatchling, however, was not having any of it. SHE would carry the poop. Only SHE could do it. So, okay, we go to the stairs and I have several heart attacks as she precariously makes her way up, but she does it, and then she goes over to the toilet, dumps the poop in, leans over, looks down, and says, "THERE! Now you can swim!"

I don't even want to KNOW the mental process, y'all. I don't even want to know.

Well, there goes my mother of the week award.

You know how, when you have a baby, there are all these WARNINGS about things? Most of which involve never leaving your child unattended? Especially when they're infants? Because they might fall? But of course when they're newborns they can't really move at all so you sort of can leave them unattended even though you shouldn't, and maybe you kind of push that luck a little too long and your 5 month old thrashes around until she sort of slides/falls out of the chair you had her propped up in? While you were (arrrgh) checking your email!?!?!!

Yeah. That might have happened to me today.

(Good thing babies have such hard heads.)

Sunday Fluff

So something about the death of director John Hughes really feels like the end of an era for us Gen X'ers. I mean, the man's movies pretty much defined "cool" for most of us, and I can still personally quote entire scenes from Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. So I started thinking about other movies that significantly contributed to my ideas of what teen life could (or should) be. I limited myself to movies that were released before I graduated from high school (1989). Here are my top ten, in no particular order:

1. Meatballs
2. Caddyshack
3. Sixteen Candles
4. The Breakfast Club
5. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
6. Vacation
7. Say Anything
8. Dirty Dancing
9. Pretty in Pink
10. Grease

What's on your list?

Tab Dump

Some interesting stuff from around the interwebs, aka LazyBlogging:

This is the kind of thing I think the internet was designed for. Beautiful.

The Carnival of Feminist Parenting.

A beginning annotated bibliography of Doubt.

This is EXACTLY what I think about the Harry Potter movies.

Speaking of which, these are the best damn interviews with the Harry Potter cast EVER. So lovely.

This makes me so angry I could cry.

An online gallery for the British Library? Yes, please.

John Hughes' teenage pen-pal recalls his correspondence.

Tired.

Well, hello. Ahem. Anybody still out there? Soooo ... it's been awhile. I guess I needed a break or something. Actually, that would be "or something" because it's not so much that I needed a break from blogging (I mentally narrate my day in blog posts; it's sad) as it is ... other stuff. Part of it was the realization that many of my posts were causing concern among certain friends and family members as to my mental and emotional stability. I mean, I don't want to make people think I'm about to go over the edge, here! And part of it was the realization that lately I've been feeling a lot like I'm about to go over the edge, here.

My stock answer when people ask me what it's like, having two kids, is "It's kicking my ass!" This is said - and meant - semi-jocularly, but the fact of the matter is that it's also objectively true about 75% of the time. I constantly feel frazzled, stretched too thin, unfocused, inadequate, lacking direction, dysfunctional, and frustrated. In short, I am a BUSHEL BASKET OF FUN these days. Whoo. During one of my recent meltdowns, I explained to Mr. Squab that I don't feel like I'm living up to my own (dwindling) standards in any aspect of my life right now: I'm not being the kind of mother I want to be, I'm not being a good partner to Mr. Squab, I'm completely overwhelmed even by minimal housework, I'm not making any progress in my professional life, and god knows I'm not taking great care of myself. My inner honors student is appalled at my inability to Get. Anything. Done. And while cognitively I'm aware that this, too, shall pass, I've been spending too much time lately feeling hopeless and dissatisfied. Which, let's face it, is not the most fun way to be in the world. Also it is booooorrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggg to talk about.

Mr. Squab, who I should say right now is basically a saint, pointed out that almost all of my funk can be traced back to one overarching cause: the lack of sleep. The Sprout, like her sister before her, wakes up every two hours all night long. Every night. Sometimes even more often than that. During the day, she takes wee naps in the morning and then a longer nap - as long as three hours, sometimes - in the afternoon, while the Hatchling sleeps. Which means that for the last five months I have not slept for longer than maybe three hours at one go ... uh, at all. When the Hatchling was this same age, I was also profoundly sleep-deprived, but at least I could sleep whenever she did all through the day if I was really out of it. No such luck with two! And as any veteran parent can attest, after a few months of completely inadequate rest, you start to get a little psycho, and the worst of it is that you're too tired to remember that fatigue is the source of your misery. I casually mentioned the Sprout's poor sleeping habits at my weekly playgroup recently, and everyone immediately offered sympathy, remarking on how rough it is, how much you lose your mind, how everything goes all to hell when you're so, so, so, so tired. It was like a revelation: Oh, yeah! That IS why I feel so shitty! Because I NEVER GET ANY SLEEP. It's not that I'm an inadequate person! I'm just an inadequately rested person!

This realization does not, of course, help me get any more sleep - that will have to wait for sleep training in a month - but it does make me feel a little bit better about being such a mess. Because, really, I'm doing fine: I have lovely children and a wonderful partner and a good support system and a roof over my head and enough to eat etc., etc. I'm just bloody tired, is all.

Preschoolers: adding surreality to every waking moment.

This morning, the Hatchling was playing with a friend in the friend's backyard, which is dominated by a very large maple tree. "Oh, wookit," said the Hatchling, gazing fondly up the enormous tree trunk. "Monsters."

"Wow, there are monsters in that tree?" I reply. "Cool. How many monsters are there?"

"Dey up inda TREE, mama. Wookit. Dere's some bones, and dere's some bodies, and dere's some healthy snacks!"

Status updates I have considered putting on Facebook today

Elise has really had it.

Elise swears to god, if she hits one more red light she is going to hurt someone.

Elise is reaching the end of her tether.

Elise would sell her ovaries for a kid who sleeps and/or does not scream at pitches just below what only a dog can hear.

Elise is about to pull a Nora.

Elise would just like to be able to DRIVE somewhere ONCE without needing EARPLUGS to block the SCREAMING.

Elise is DONE. DONE, I tell you.

Elise would like to know just who she pissed off, so she can tell them she's sorry already!

Elise is getting her ass handed to her on a plate by two girls who can't read or use a toilet.

Elise wishes she was handling things better. Or at all.

Love this.

via Shakesville.

Sweet Tap-Dancing Jesus, this is awesome

Someday, when my children are teenagers and start wondering aloud why I'm so weird all the time, I will show them this video. Because, frankly, once you've seen a musical version of Star Wars starring Donnie and Marie with cameos by Redd Foxx as Obi-Wan, Kris Kristofferson as Han Solo, Paul Lynde(!) as Grand Moff Tarkin, the actual Chewie, C-3PO and R2-D2, and a chorus line of Storm-Troopers and their Fem-Bot counter parts, you understand a helluva lot more about growing up in the late 70s. Srsly. So grab a Fanta, plop down in your beanbag chair, and enjoy ten minutes of jaw-dropping vintage weirdness. Because when *I* was a kid, *this* was prime-time television. (thanks to cwethern for the link!)

Christ, how did it get to be Friday already?

The house is a mess, they're doing road work so the water is turned off all day, the kids are extra cranky, it's like a sauna outside, and all I really wanna do is take a long nap in my air-conditioned bedroom.

Oh, plus I wanna move to France. Via Kevin Drum:

Matt Yglesias translates some questions from Le Bac, France's college admission test/high school leaving exam. These are from the philosophy test:

— Does objectivity in history presuppose the impartiality of the historian?

— Does language betray thought?

— Explicate an excerpt from Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation

— Are there questions that are un-answerable by science?

I mean, I know I'm an elitist liberal pinko commie treehugger, and I know comparisons are odious and all, but honestly: can you IMAGINE such questions on any kind of high school test in the US? 'Cause I sure can't.

Apparently my life is currently incompatible with blogging

It's not like things haven't been happening. The Sprout turned 3 months old, the Hatchling is coming up with new catchphrases and other awesomeness all the time, Mr. Squab and I celebrated our 7th anniversary, I finished rereading the entire Harry Potter series - I mean, the days are filled. Just not so much with the blogging. However, I know I need to post a 3 month letter for the Sprout, and we also have some lovely videos in the hopper, so, um ... stay tuned!! Look! Cute pictures!

Daily Inventory

So far today, the Hatchling has:

1. Pushed one of her friends at playgroup;

2. Thrown sand in the face of another friend;

3. Pitched fits about various trivial things;

4. Peed through her pull-up and all over Mr. Squab's recliner (the fourth such incident in two days).

I think the age of three is trying to kill me, y'all.

Recap of our trip to the grocery store with the baby, aka the first time the Hatchling has been out of the cart the whole time

Me: OK, now, remember, the Sprout has to ride in the cart so you get to walk and help Mama with the groceries. You have to stay with Mama, OK? NO running away, right?

Hatchling: OK, Mama. I helpa get gwocewies.

Me: Right. You help.

Sprout: A-bah.

Me: OK, let's see what we need for fruit ... do you want some bananas? (She's only been asking for them 10 times a day since we ran out.)

Hatchling: Ummmm ... no fanks. Oh, WOOK! Tomayoes!

Me: (grabbing bananas, distracted) Uh-huh, that's right - ok, put it back, Boo. Put it back on the pile.

The Hatchling puts the tomato back on the top of the heap, and it rolls down and falls on the floor.

Hatchling: Uh-oh.

Me: That's ok ... (surreptitiously places it back on the pile) ... Now don't touch anything, OK? Just look. No touch.

Hatchling: Wookit, Mama! Apple! (She holds out a pomegranate.)

Me: No, that's a ... never mind. Put it back. No touching, right? Just LOOK.

Sprout: MAH!

Hatchling: OK, Mama. I get-a bwoccoli. I be riiiiight back.

Me: Honey, don't - you really want broccoli, huh? Well, I guess that's a good thing to want. OK. Look, don't touch all of the - just bring me that one. THAT ONE. (The Hatchling walks towards me with a clump of dripping wet broccoli.) Good, good job. Here, I'll take it.

Hatchling: NO! I PUTTA INDA CART!!

Me: Honey, we have to put a bag on it first.

Hatchling: INDA CART!!!!!!

Me: Yes, we'll PUT it in the cart, but FIRST we have to put a bag on it. See? It's all wet.

Hatchling: All wet!

Me: Thank you. OK, now we need to go down this way for some cereal ...

Hatchling: I WUV ceweal!

Me: I know you -

Hatchling: Oh, WOOK! BAWOONS!

Me: Boo, stay here! We'll look at the balloons later! Honey ... (grabs cereal, parks cart and Sprout in corner) Come on, Boo. You have to stay with me, remember? (Hatchling darts through flag display, I knock it over trying to reach her) Ack! (grabs Hatchling with one hand, picks up flags with the other) Now come on. We'll look at the balloons when we're all done. Let's find the milk, OK?

Hatchling: What's dat?

Me: That's crackers.

Hatchling: Get some?

Me: Uh, yeah, I guess we do need some crackers.

Hatchling: What's dat?

Me: That's gouda. It's a kind of cheese.

Hatchling: I WUV-A CHEESE! Get some?

Me: No, you don't like that kind. Come on, here's the milk. (grabs milk, tries to head back to registers)

Hatchling: What's dat?

Me: Those are lightbulbs, honey. Come on, it's time to go pay for our stuff.

Hatchling: What's dat? What's dat WIGHT DERE, Mama?

Me: (increasingly beleagured) I don't ... those are cookies, honey.

Hatchling: COOOOOKIES. (She says this exactly like Cookie Monster) Getta some coooooookies, Mama? Get some wight DERE? I WUV-A coooooookies.

Sprout: Ga gooo. Ggggoo.

Me: Fine. (grabs cookies, dumps in cart) Now let's GO. Come on! (enticingly) Let's go look at the balloons!!

Hatchling: (brightly) OK! (runs off in the direction of the balloons)

Bag Boy: Wow, she's a real cutie. How old?

Me: (smiling, fatally turning attention away from the Hatchling) She's three, and the little one is two months. (notices Hatchling completely entangled in various balloon strings) Honey ... argh ... (leaves cart and Sprout at register) come here, let's get you untangled ...

Hatchling: I stuck, Mama.

Me: No kidding. OK, now let's go get our groc-

Hatchling: I NEEDA BAWOON!! MY BAWOON, MAMA!! (Grabs four graduation themed balloons tightly in fist.)

Me: Christ. Look, how about we get this one? Just ONE, ok? And put the rest back.

Hatchling: (brightly) OK! (Marches back to cart with her rainbow happy birthday balloon in hand.)

Grocery Clerk: (smirking) One balloon, then?

Me: (sheepishly) Yeah. Thanks.

Hatchling: OK, Mama! Time to go to car. Say bye-bye!

Sprout: geh-GA.
**********************

Final Score: Hatchling = Eleventy Billion, Me = Zero. Once the Sprout can play I am truly doomed.

Happiness is ...

1.) Taking the kids on a nice walk to a fun family event in the beautiful morning weather.

2.) Getting to see a great movie, on opening weekend, in 3D, with your favorite date.

3.) Having friends who are big enough suckers to agree to watch both your 3 year old and your 2 month old while you attend said movie. And who are awesome enough to cope with an infant freak out and live to tell the tale. (It is soooooooo nice having friends with kids the same age as yours.)

4.) Enjoying an impromptu pizza on the patio in the backyard of said friends' house, watching the kids run around wearing each other out while you enjoy a beer.

THAT is a good Saturday.

I write letters

Dear Teacher at the School Where Our Weekly Toddler Class Is Held,

If you see a harried-looking mother trying unsuccessfully to calm an infant who is screaming like her eyes are being stabbed out with red-hot pokers, it is perhaps not the ideal time to strike up a conversation with said mother about how cute the baby's outfit is and you assume it's a girl and what a lovely name! etc., because I DO NOT HAVE THE BRAIN SPACE to engage in social niceties while my baby girl is having a complete and total conniption fit. You absolute moron.

Warmest regards,

The Squab

I have no idea where she gets it

The Hatchling has been especially dramatic lately, because, well, she's three and all, and everything is a big deal, for better or worse. A lot of the dramatics are real, by which I mean that she's really feeling INCREDIBLY HAPPY or INCREDIBLY ANGRY or INCREDIBLY SAD about something, but she's also started to do faux emotions as a kind of game or to get attention. Mostly, her father and I find this annoying and/or tiring, but sometimes it gives me the giggles.

This afternoon, for example, after we'd had a semi-exhausting trip to Target ("Want to get down, Mama? Get outta cart? Get DOWN, Mama? DOWN??? Want treat? I NEEDA treat! I NEEDAWANTA TREAT!!!!!!! etc.) she had finished lunch and it was getting close to naptime.

"Are you ready for naps, Boo?" her father asked.

"Nooooooooo, no, no, no, no." the Hatchling explained.

"Ok, well, pretty soon it's time to go upstairs for naps."

The Hatchling starts spiraling around the living room, faux crying/whimpering. Because she's so tired. And sad. And forlorn. And also tired and sad. Mr. Squab decided to cut his losses and play along.

"Awwwwww, are you so sad? Ready to go night-night?"

The Hatchling looks even more pitiful. "Okay, Daddy."

"Then go give Mama hugs and kisses."

The Hatchling approaches me with a faraway look on her face, embraces me, kisses me, and backs away slowly, sorrowfully. "Good-bye, Mama," she intones, waving her hand as if it takes the last bit of strength she has, finally turning to drift up the staircase. It was like fucking Camille in the final throes of galluping consumption. Christ.

We can only hope that she channels this ability to lucrative ends at some future point. God knows it hasn't worked for me yet.

Random Tidbits for the weekend

1. The Sprout has decided to try on being a fussy baby for the last two days. The mellow thing is SO last week. Apparently. This is not contributing to a positive mental state in her mama, who is finding herself really, really, really looking forward to being a mother of two girls about three years from now.*

2. It is (finally) a GORGEOUS spring day outside, and what's more, I actually got out to enjoy it a little. Went to the plant store and got several nice perennials to put in the front yard, and a truckload of mulch. Was kicked out of the house to go on said errand by Mr. Squab on the theory that a little kid-free time amid flowers and sunshine would perk me up. And he was right, as he so often is.

3. I CANNOT BELIEVE that Adam Lambert didn't win American Idol. WTF, America? Was it the eyeliner that put you off? Or the fact that he has more talent in his manicured pinky than you have in your whole vanilla bourgeois body? Feh.

4. I will soooooo be watching Glee this fall. Cheesy? Hell, yes, but I was a big-time choir kid in high school and it's worth the cheese just for the trip down memory lane.

5. My 20th high school reunion is coming up this summer. How did THAT happen so fast? I keep getting requests to send my address to the organizers so they can send me the invitation. Which I guess I'll do, since I don't want to be anti-social, but y'all: there is NO WAY IN HELL I'm going to my 20th reunion. You don't have to go to high school reunions if you're still having the occasional anxiety dream about high school, right? That's my stand and I'm sticking to it.

6. I have officially decided that I would like to travel back in time to when your average upper-middle class family had a baby nurse to help take care of the kids until they go off to school. Possibly boarding school. Depends on when you ask me. Just thought you'd want to know that it's official.*

* It has been brought to my attention that I've tended, of late, to post updates that indicate a fairly stressed/depressed state of mind. Which, you're damn right I'm stressed! But not at a worrisome level, in part because I have a blog to vent on. So not to fret.

What you can get out and what you can't

Based on my personal experience in the last two days ...

Things you can get out of the sofa fabric:
- Big black streaks of marker (thank you Crayola washable markers)
- Spit up
- Dorito "cheese"

Things that you CANNOT get out of a three-year-old's hair after an outdoor playgroup:
- Dirt
- Tree seeds (those ones that look like rolled oats)
- Tiny pieces of mown grass
- Various seed pods

Seriously. I washed her hair for about 1/2 after we got home, and she still has miscellaneous yard detritus all over. Maybe next time I should scotchgard her ahead of time. It worked with the sofa.